Yay, Matthijs has fixed our car! The Kia is again as 'quiet' as before. For only 13 euro's, a chocolate cake and some work hours. I'm sure he will relate the whole story on his blog some time soon. It involved cola (to remove rust) welding a pipe (3 euros and a chocolate cake), some gun gum glue and a gasket.

I'm working on a new little project at the moment involving glass cutting (takes some practice), glass paint, lead and wire. I'm making a glass hanger for in front of the window. With the extra sun hours we'll be getting soon that should give a very cheery effect in the room.

I already have 19 projects on Cut Out + Keep, versions as well as how-to's. My cheese cookies even made it to number 13 of the 20 most popular items list for a day. That is measured by how many people list it as a favorite within one week. Being part of that community makes me itch for more projects.

Last Saturday we celebrated my mom's 50th birthday here. I made two cakes:

The left one is a simple chocolate cake with molten white chocolate topping, letters made of cocoa and chocolate decorations. The right one is a coffee cake with walnuts. It took the whole morning to make them (including cooling) and I was quite proud of them. They were very yummy too.

This Friday we have Stoffenspektakel here in Enschede after which Matthijs will go to his cousin's birthday in Den Haag. On Saturday we have some tyding up to do for the stock of EE in Made. Sunday is blissfully empty and on Monday we'll go to an Easter Balfolk in Utrecht. That morning we might go to Utrecht early, rent a bike at the station and check out some neighborhoods there as the first where-do-we-(not-)want-to-live orientation.

Saturday we went to a balfolk workshop where we learned the waltz in 5, 8 and 11 times and some variations on those, scottish variations and a variation on the mazurka. The workshop was in French but fortunately there was a translator present. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long at the ball itself because of a nineties party of Cora and Kelly. So we went there at about 21:30, after dressing the part (photo by Woran).

It was really cool to see all those people in nineties clothes. So weird! The place itself was a student bar. Every surface of the place was sticky and the music was so loud that it hurt my ears. However, I did some skimpy dancing and had a good few hours. Matthijs however isn't much of a disco dancer, so at 24:00 we left again. The balfolk would still be going on so we went back there. Unfortunately we just missed the band Parasol, but we were in time for Lirio. Did some more nice dances, helped to tidy up and then gave Frank and Moes (from the Gonnagles) a ride to their sleeping place on the other side of Utrecht.

We were finally on our way 'home' to my father's place in Ermelo at around 02:45.

Thanks go to the students who stopped in front of us when we had stopped on the 'vluchtstrook' because of a sudden very low roaring sound from our car. They quickly diagnosed it as a hole in the exhaust which would not be a hazard but would not get the car through the APK. Thanks for putting us at ease at 03:15 in the morning! We won't even report that you took a 'hectometerpaal' (sign). It is so good to know that there are still people out there willing to help total strangers. I don't know what we would've done if they hadn't stopped. (Matthijs would probably have looked under the car and would've come to the same conclusion..)

So, yeah, after the tinkling noise in the back end of the exhaust (and the repairs for about 125 euro's) we now have a rupture in the end of the middle part of the exhaust where it used to be attached to the end part. My dad advised us to find someone who can weld on a new piece of pipe to cover the rusty part because the rest of the exhaust still looks ok.

We had a lovely brunch on Sunday morning at my dad's place (with soup, salad, buns, apple pie) and then went to Matthijs' mom in Harderwijk to swap the empty juice crates for full ones. At 15:30 we were on our way back to Enschede in our little Kia that sounded like a sports car.... It nearly gave me a headache.

Now a new work week. I'll be going to Amsterdam on Thursday to have a face to face meeting about what the h*ck they actually want. E-mail communication apparently doesn't work good enough to convey ideas. (Not having a friggin' clue about anything but your own work doesn't help either...). Saturday is my mom's birthday which we'll celebrate by eating (gourmet) here at my place (instead of going out for dinner, which I don't like at all). I'll have to do grocery shopping for that, since my mom and her girlfriend are in a hotel nearby, and I want to make a nice cake. Sunday is still free of any plans.

I don't do much with communities. I'm not on hyves, livejournal or facebook. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing something when all my friends talk about what someone-or-other has posted on their facebook, which I don't get to read. On the other hand I really don't feel the need to be found (by all your grade school friends! Yay...) on such a site or comply to their rules of 'web design'. I'm happy with my own blog which is one of the first hits on Google if you Google me.

However, some weeks ago (or was it days?) I found a community that I do like. Cut Out + Keep, a community of crafters. A place to post your crafting projects and howto's and when you followed a howto of someone else you can link your version to theirs. It has all kinds of projects from beauty (make-up, hairdo, nail art) to baking, crocheting and sewing. You can send messages to others, 'befriend' people, leave comments on projects, add projects to your favorites list, make lists of projects you'd like to do etc.

The whole interface seems a bit wonky from time to time, not showing profile-edits immediately or my avatar. However, I still like the idea enough to put up with that (and it probably is a hobby project since you don't have to pay for it).

I already posted two versions of my own: Plattie the Platypus and wool dread falls. When I think about it I can find lots of other projects in my house that deserve to be photographed and put up there. Like the cat tree we made, our toilet door, the cd rack in the kitchen, the pimped sahara tent etc.

It's not about your life, your cat, whatever but about sharing creativity with each other. I like that.

Another weekend without plans has come and gone. Delightful. Spent the Saturday shopping and sorting my beads into the new box I got for them. Geez, I have a lot of beads for someone who doesn't really do anything with them. (They're just so shiny!)

On Thursday I had rolled some felt dreads from purple and pink wool and Saturday I put them onto a hair clip. Instant dreads. I also adjusted the shoulder straps of my vest so the whole thing would fit better but didn't finish it before watching t.v. in the evening. Matthijs worked on his coat a good part of the day and the Sunday too. So there's progress at last!

On Sunday we had a nice breakfast with fresh orange juice, buns and boiled eggs and after that went into the sewing room again. Matthijs worked on his coat and I finished my vest. It's cute! After that I painted butterflies onto a sweater. One of the butterflies is hiding a BisonTix stain, the whole reason for the 'pimping'. I also made a very cute platypus cuddly toy, from the pattern you find here. Just because I can.

In the evening I combined a recipe for 'kruidnoten' with some old left over 'amandelspijs' into 'gevulde speculaas'. It was very yummy and there's still some left.
I just love crafting!

• Going to Jozeph (musical) on Friday
• sewing a new balfolk skirt on Saturday
• baking pie for the Noabers folk night
• dancing at the balfolk
• more sewing; finally a start on the mock-up for Matthijs' winter coat and a vest (gilet) for me
• listening to the new CD of the Gonnagles
• 5 minute chocolate cake (look for the comment from Alice on the 11th of April 2009, she has the right measurements)
• pancakes, my favourite food
• watching t.v., Criminal Minds and Law and Order
• sleep, zzzz.