Graduation Day

Like many families right now we also had a graduation in our family last week …. Whopper graduated from his puppy course!

One week after arriving in The Netherlands we started the course and he has been working so hard to get to grips with the things he had to learn.

Sometimes things became a little too much for him and in his enthusiasm and to the delight of the other dog owners on the course he became the only one of all the dogs we encountered during the 10-lesson course to jump into the water next to the training ground one evening!

I had to call him from a distance when he was off the leash, he immediately responded, raced towards me and in his enthusiasm couldn’t stop in time anymore and ran past me straight into the ditch next to the training ground!

But never mind, at the end of the course he did receive his certificate.

And as a graduate he was suitably rewarded!

Now he moves on to the advanced course!

Have a nice week!

Phyllis

A crafty weekend

Nice busy weekend… I finished the little bag we started during the Featherweight Day at Bep’s, I showed it before on Facebook but not here yet. This weekend I decided to make a second one, it is such a cute project. Of course, after practising on the first one, the second one turned out a bit better.

One thing the second one does not have is the sweet Featherweight button Bep gave us with this project.

I also finished the cross stitch part of my first cross stitch project, a pincushion from Atelier Soed Idee. A “thank you” to Irma from my bee, who helped me get started on this project, I had not cross stitched since I was a teenager, a looooong time ago, so forgot about the ins and outs of this craft. I did change two things in the pattern: I did not leave a loose thread hanging from the spool and I did not stitch the little boot next to my initials. I stitched a little star pattern instead, if you look closely you’ll see I took the star pattern from the centre of the pair of scissors and stitched it in reverse.

Most of the above was done on Sunday, on Saturday I visited the Summer Market at The Stitch Cottage in The Hague.

The weather gods were benevolent, even though we once again woke up to the sound of heavy rain, after that it turned out to be a dry day, even the sun came out in the afternoon.

The market stalls outside …. yesss…. in the sunshine!

Bobbin by Els Feteris, always lovely!

Nice and busy inside.

That was my weekend, well, some of it.
Hope you had a nice weekend too,

Phyllis

A disappointing evening ...

We were ready for it…. an evening of football, the first game of our national soccer team in the European Championships.

Appropriate food was called for! We usually do not fry food at home, so yesterday we dug out our frying pan from the garage, cleaned it (big job after about 2 years in the garage!) and bought new fat to put in it.

And earlier today we went to our favourite butcher to buy some of their famous croquettes and ‘bitterballen’ .

So we got everything ready, the pan in place, the croquettes and bitterballen defrosted, the telly on. We heard the national anthems being played and saw the players walk on the field.

So I plugged in the frying pan at the moment of kick-off….. it short circuited switching of all the electricity in our house and the telly turned black!

Electricity was frantically restored and I was off to the Chinese for a take away! One positive point: I was never back so quickly with our food, I was the only customer there!

It was a disappointing evening in more ways than one…. this is the mood after the game .....

Hopefully things will work out better next Wednesday, both for our national soccer team and a new frying pan!

Phyllis

Whopper settling in ..

After a number of posts about quilting I thought I’d let you know how our Whopper is doing after his arrival in The Netherlands April 10.

Well, he is doing just fine. The first few weeks were a little hectic, we all had to get used to each other, but things have settled down now and we seem to have found a daily routine that suits us all.

Whopper loves his bench, he sleeps in it at night and loves to sleep away a large part of the morning there as well.

Now and then he is naughty, he is not allowed on our couch, but when you leave the room and return sometimes you see this…

He loves his toys, is not a great ball player, but loves to chew on  bones.

And loves ‘ducks’ and ‘chickens’…. dissecting them, that is!

And he passed his ‘inburgeringsexamen’(civic integration exam) , look!

Ready for the game on Saturday!

Phyllis

Featherweight Day

Of course it was a great day. After much buzz on various blogs finally it was Featherweight Day at Atelier Bep in Hall. Organised by Bep and Jeannet a lot of Featherweight lovers arrived at Bep’s for a day of Featherweight fun.
An impression:

When Hubertine and I arrived we were welcomed by a rather wet crowd…

There was a small project Bep had prepared for us

Ladies with Featherweights everywhere, in the kitchen:

in the living room:

Mr De Bruijn told how us how to take care of our Featherweights

Lunch: very tasty homemade lentil soup

The Duchess at work

Jeannet gave a show & tell of her wonderful quilts

As did some other quilters. Josephine’s colourful quilts:

Hubertine’s warm colours:

Janny is working on a great ‘huisjes’quilt:

The best seat in the house!

We were in Featherweight heaven!

I really have to thank a lot of people for this great day:

Thank you Caro for supplying us with your lovely Featherweight X-stitch pattern, thank you Bep and Jeannet for organising this day, it was soooo much fun & thank you Bep & family for your wonderful hospitality!

Until next time!

Phyllis