Happy Easter Weekend!

Exciting weekend for the girls; Egg hunting at our friend's house. The Sabido's will have my dad and our girls over for Easter breakfast on Sunday. And there will be I am sure, quite some egg hunting to do ;-)My dad is taking care of JJ and Jezz this week, since we have a trip to make. A trip to another continent. We are traveling a long way. We are going to South Africa for a look-see visit, with a possiblilty to go and live there. A looong flight ahead of us; 21 hours!! NYC-Dubai-Johannesburg. Next weekend we will fly back. Below is the hotel we're staying, so not bad. Without the girls, quite some alone time here... ;-)

So, I won't be blogging for a week. I'll be back on the 30th.
Have a Happy Easter y'all and I will tell you later about our adventures from SA!
ciao, Mireille

Funky items that make you wiggle & giggle ;-)

Here are a few items that are fitting in the description of Funky Doodle Donkey; unique, groovy, sassy, swanky, hip, bright, bold & funky stuff that gives you the wiggles & giggles! These are items that inspire me, make me happy because of all the colors, patterns, shapes, and materials which are used. Great unique finds from artists who are bright, bold and groovy and also believe just like me that we want to have individual taste in what we wear, buy or create. We don't like Generica America! (the belts are from Barij Belts, found on Style Bakery. Skirt is reversable; unknown source, blanket is from PakhuisOost.nl and the diaperbag is from Flobberdewotsky.nl)
Hope these colors and items cheer you up as well ;-)

Wordless Wednesday ~ wonderful smiles ~

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Green, green, green. Everything you see today is Green! St. Patrick's Day is celebrated today. And since there are more Irish people in the US than in Ireland, it is a big holiday, with parades and festivities.
St. Patrick's Day is Ireland's greatest national holiday as well as a holy day. The date marks the anniversary of the death of the missionary who became the patron saint of Ireland. It is a happy holiday for the Irish wherever they may be - in Dublin, New York City, Boston, or San Francisco. The day celebrated with parades, speeches, festive dinners, and dances. Green is the color of the day, with thousands of little cloth shamrocks worn even by those whose forefathers never touched the shores of Ireland.
Leprechauns are little make-believe fairies from Ireland. They are the little old men who are shoemakers for the fairies. They usually stand about 2 feet tall. Treasure hunters can often track down a leprechaun by the sound of his shoemaker's hammer. The legend is that if you catch one you can force him to tell you where he hides his gold.
Jasmine and Juliet wanted to make a trap to catch the leprechaun today, so the girls would find his gold.
School children have started a little tradition of their own. They pinch classmates who don't wear green on this holiday. Wearing green is strictly a U.S. custom, as the color green is not popular in Ireland. Green is connected to the old green flag and a time when Ireland was not free. Green is also a color connected with hope and nature.
Irish Tradition: Many people will be eating Irish food such as Irish Stew and Corned Beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. Corned Beef is not an Irish dish. It is what Americans think the Irish eat. A more traditional meal would be ham and cabbage or bacon and cabbage. Some say that in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day the traditional green beer is prominent. However, in Ireland, many years ago, St. Patrick's Day is considered a holy day and Pubs were not open for business. There were no parades and no drinking.
...and last but not least, some Irish Humor:
What do you call an Irishman who knows how to control his wife?
A bachelor.
***
Definition of an Irish husband:
He hasn't kissed his wife for twenty years, but he will kill any man who does.
***
Courtship is a time during which the girl decides whether she can do better or not.
***
I hope you all had a great day!!

Taste spotting ~feed your addiction~

Most of you know I love cooking and entertaining friends. Well, I just stumbled upon a delicously looking website: Tastespotting. You have to check it out, the pictures and recipes behind it are just out of this world! And you will find many more blogs, websites with new food ideas. Because once you click on a picture it will not only give you the recipe but bring you to a third website, full of new food ideas and yummy recipes from all over the world. And the photography is clean, fresh, modern and above all it looks YUMMY!

So here some info they have on their own website, which is actually part of a few websites. Really cool place, check it out for yourself!
TasteSpotting.com was launched January 2007, because designers get hungry too, and we are in awe of how delectable the finds on food blogs both look and taste! So, realizing that the passion of food lovers is often as intense as those who contribute to NOTCOT.org we've created this space for like minded people to descend upon and share what delicious dishes, posts, images, products, ingredients, etc. inspire their great tastes.
We've teamed up with Sarah, of The Delicious Life and Slashfood, who loves food the way NOTCOT loves all things aesthetically enticing... We are thrilled to see how many people we can help to drool at their monitors on a daily basis!

Have a great weekend y'all, hope you will find some inspiration for your next party or fancy dinner with friends at home! Ciao, Mireille

Declutter fast

OK, that is the goal for me for the coming weeks: Declutter fast, especially the fast is important to me. Since I hate this project that I put onto myself, so rather fast than slow... We are getting closer to spring time, and I feel the need to clean up the home. This is not the only reason though, however for now that is the only reason I'll share with you. So I googled the word declutter and this link came up. How to tackle my house room by room. We, and my hubby would say I, have the tendency to accumulate and collect all kinds of treasures, clothes, keepsakes and arts & crafts materials. And our house can only hold so much! So I need a plan, an easy plan I can stick with and work my way through. With at the end a HUGE yard or tag sale. I am not looking forward to this whole process, and it won't be over within a day, but then again, it didn't take 1 day to accumulate as well.
It is not that my house is super disorganised but things are in places it shouldn't be. And clutter they say can put you in a bad mood, but an orderly room will make your energy soar. And that is so true!
So this is my plan, and I've found this on the internet, copied and pasted it and start tomorrow ;-)

1. Cupboards - Go through all you kitchen cupboards, one at a time of course, and you will be amazed at what you find that can be thrown out. When I cleaned mine out not too long ago, I had four coffee maker decanters that I could not even use anymore because I had a different coffee maker! I also found spices that were about 10 years old!!

2. Bedroom Closets - The saying goes - If you haven't worn it in a year, get rid of it. I am not sure I agree with that statement totally, but it is a good guideline to follow. I am always amazed at the clothes I get rid of (and how many I still have) when I clean out my closets!

3. Bookcases - Now, I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to gather books. At last count, I had well over 200 and definitely had to get rid of some of them. I looked them all over and got rid of the ones that didn’t sound interesting. Also, go through knickknacks, papers, magazines, or anything else filling up those bookcases.

4. Kids Room - This is something that needs to be done about twice a year in my house. My girls go through their clothes, toys, video games, etc and out goes anything they are no longer interested in.

5. Bathroom - We know how cluttered and overflowing those vanities and medicine chests can get. Go through all those goodies and if it has hardened, softened or changed color, get rid of it!

6. Linen Closet - Towels, sheets, curtains, etc, are also things that need to be periodically sorted and tossed. I just recently discovered that we had almost 100 towels! Who knew?? I removed all the semi worn out ones and was left with about 30 or so. That should suffice.

7. Under Your Bed - This part of the decluttering can be quite scary. Proceed with caution and always have a weapon, such as broom, vacuum cleaner or bug spray with you! Who the heck knows what you will find under there, but I can bet a lot of it can go.

8. Organize - There are so many great products these days that hold everything. Get some inexpensive plastic boxes and neatly store all your items that are not in display or not used daily. You can get small ones in the dollar stores to organize your CDs, use them in your pantry or cupboards, store odd and ends, letters, papers, you name it!

9. Throw out the Old - One thing you must absolutely remember when decluttering is you have to THROW AWAY the NOT USED or WANTED. DO NOT just take everything out and rearrange!!! That is a temporary solution and is not sufficient!!!!!

10. Everything in its Place - Once you have everything decluttered and organized, get everyone to keep everything in its place and your home will remain
Organized and clutter free forever! Yea, right - nice dream, but we will be doing this very same thing in the not too distant future!

We have a decent size home, so I am planning to go through this process about once a year. Decluttering and organizing gives me a sense of control and achievement. This might not mean much to some folks, but think a moment......... if you can get control over this part of your life; maybe taking control of the big things will not be so hard!

Wish me luck y'all!

Busy weekend...

Friday night; Dirk was gone all week, as usual, and we signed the girls up for Kids night out. They have fun and we have fun! So we went to a fancy restaurant as JJ said. We had a lot to talk about, since changes are probably ahead of us.
Saturday; it was raining all day, so we decided to go to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. Georgous museum with dinosaurs, a space section and we did the butterfly conservatory. They re-created tropical forest environment filled with over 500 live butterflies. We met some friends of us; Hans & Sam, and spent hours walking around seeing lots of dinosaur bones, did the Imax theater with a show called Cosmic Collisions: The breathtaking new Space Show launches visitors on a thrilling trip through space and time—well beyond the calm face of the night sky—to explore cosmic collisions, hypersonic impacts that drive the dynamic and continuing evolution of the universe. And an Imax show called Dinosaurs Alive! shows AMNH paleontologists Mike Novacek and Mark Norell and an inspired team of dedicated young graduate students on an expedition to the Gobi Desert.
.

Sunday we've spent all day with dear friends of us from Rye, NY. First we went out for lunch at Sripraphai in Woodside. It deserves its reputation as the best Thai restaurant in New York City. Once a local hole-in-the-wall, Sripraphai became a more welcoming Ikea-decorated space thanks to a 2004 renovation. Consistently praised by food critics and locals, Sripraphai is a neighborhood Thai place that has become a destination restaurant for foodies throughout New York and beyond. They come for some of the best Thai food in New York. Great choice of our friends Joop & Dorien! And since we all have lived in Thailand we knew what we wanted, everybody had their favorites, it was so Yummy!! After that we had to walk a bit on the beach of Rye to get rid of the calories we had taken in, it was such a georgous day. So a lot of fun!


A weekend packed with good food and spending time with great friends!

slurpie, slurpie....

So JJ is a pro in eating noodle soup. She loves it and eats it at least 2-3 times a week for lunch. Her twin sister loves it as well, but she didn't want to show us the slurpie technique. She just was enjoying her lunch without having to do anything funny or make silly faces. Jasmine is our silly willy in the family and normally shows us her very funny faces, today she just wasn't in the mood. That is OK, we'll catch you another time on camera Jezzy!

Wordless Wednesday

Thai princesses

Isn't this picture adorable? We used this image when we sent out our adoption announcement in 2003. We were living in Thailand at the moment and since the girls are born there, we thought it was a cool idea to use the traditional clothing of Thailand.
These pictures were taken in a studio, and we had about 100 images, and this was the only 1 where both girls were kinda looking 'happy' in the picture. See some more below that we didn't use, but are still really funny!
You can see that they get bored and start chewing the jewelry.
Then Jasmine starts 're-adjusting' Juliet's tiara, which she is not happy about and starts crying.After a while, she thinks; what my sister can do, I can do and she starts messing with Jasmine's tiara. Of course she is not too happy about that! But look at Juliet's face, how smart she thinks she is, how funny is that face!

spotlight on: Indie artists at ETSY

As you have read before I LOVE arts & crafts. So Etsy is the perfect platform for (individual) indie artists. Here everybody who makes something can sell their crafts. This is the coolest website for unique, one-of-a-kind gifts and in the meanwhile you support the artist her/him self. So the concept is just great and fabulous!!

I would like to put the spotlight on the artists I bought something from, so here a list from the pictures of my collage. These are all items I bought from this month to last year.
Star of the east; Sea urchin ring. Just plain beautiful!
Gigi Gems; Peachy keen bracelet. Georgous!
Blue Ruby; ~Forget me not~ Mixed media ACEO collage. So well done!
Tumble Weed and Rose; Ladies at the marketplace, paper collage. So sweet and artsy!
Garden Painter4; ~pASSing Time~ Mixed media ACEO collage. The donkey feels at home here ;-)
Pea Soup; A true beauty pin. So cute, get a lot of reactions on this while wearing!
Enamor; Forest Friends handbag. Beautifully painted!
Aorta; Vintage photo pin, tiny football player. Great with my other crafts!
Photo Glass Works; Mother & child -Gustav Klimt- hanger. So delicate!
Nikki74992; Japanese Garden magnets. Adorable on my fridge!

PS: I don't know how to add the link directly to them, so you have to go to Etsy first and put their name in the search link.

All these artists are unique, great at their craft and I hope they are doing well and keep people happy with the art that they make and sell at Etsy. Go and check it out, I am sure you will find something that suits your taste. And these are artists who live around the world, and ship around the world! Isn't that the greatest?!

You can even search from different perspecitves, like color, categories, geolocator or time machine to name a few. You will fall in love with this website, go google it!
Have a great weekend, y'all!