Game & puzzle time...
After a game of Monopoly & Risk (I lost both!!), we started this 1,000 pieces puzzle.
Cold outside, warm & cosy inside, cup of tea, glass of wine (depending on the time of the day of course) and trying to put the pieces together.
Good for an unpatient person like me!

Although there are still quite some things to do in & around the house, making this puzzle is quite relaxing! Still not finished, so guess what I'll be doing tonight?

Enjoy this beautiful Thursday!

XX Chantal

Des fleurs...

What's a house without a bouquet of flowers? Right, it's just a house. Add a nice bouquet and it becomes a home!

And that's what I finally did last weekend: buying a bunch of tulips, anemones and ranunculus in spicy colours. It really made our house our home!

Have a nice Monday!

Slowly gettin´ there!

After 2 months of hotel living, we finally moved into our new house. Don´t get me wrong, I just loooooooove hotels, but trying to live your regular life (work, school, etc.) is just not that comfortable out of a hotelroom. Add the dog to the story and you´ll get the picture!

But last Friday it happened: the first night in our new house! And we slept pretty well!

The weekend we used to paint the downstairs area (white, so far) & to empty as many boxes as possible. Now trying to find space for everything (I already know that this will be an utopia!).

Anyway, meet our new home:

I´ll be back soon(er) & wish you all a great day!!

In case you're wondering what I'm doing? What do you think about this?

Hopefully we'll get the keys to our new house soon. In the meanwhile I started thinking about the work that needs to be done. So I'm off to the DIY shop for all the paint & the materials...

I'll be back soon!

Pitstop in the Netherlands these weeks... and it's freezing cold here!

Luckily we're in one of those holiday parcs with an indoor snow center. And Thom started some classes... He loves it!

And then all this snow... who had expected that?

Must say that the summer temperatures of Brazil seem very appealing to me right now...

Anyway, we'll be spending the holidays with family and friends in the Netherlands this year.

In the new year we'll be moving into our new house! Stay tuned!

Wishing you all a merry Christmas, relax & enjoy!

Love, Chantal

On the move...

Our house is packed in boxes

The boxes have been loaded on the container

The container is on its way to the ship (I hope!)

When will I see it back?

Busy times,

Good-bye lunches & diners & parties

Emotional times too

Sad to say good-bye to good friends

Sad to say good-bye to the ever-friendly Brazilians

Sad to say good-bye to this beautiful country,

where we spent an amazing, wonderful 6 years

But ready for a new challenge!

(to be continued...)

We (my parents and I) went to Buenos Aires last week. And although I've been there numerous times, the city still surprises me now & then.

It always reminds me a lot of the southern European cities. What a beauty Buenos Aires is!

For my parents it was their first visit ever so we included quite a lot of sightseeing (Recoleta, San Telmo, Palermo, Plaza de Mayo, Puerto Madero, etc.), but we also visited an 'estancia' and San Antonio de Arreco, 100 km northwest of Buenos Aires.

I won't bother you with pictures of the obvious, instead I'll show Buenos Aires 'au naturel', hope you like it!

Have a wonderful weekend & enjoy!

How I have neglected this blog... busy times for us... sorry!

Got some news to share, but can't do that - yet!

For the time being some nice pictures in and around Paraty (litoral norte, between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro). Enjoy!

Travelling to Buenos Aires tomorrow, love that city!

Have a wonderful week!

A rainy day, perfect for some chocolate tasting.

And that's what we did with a whole group of women...

We started with the 100% cacao chocolate, tried 85%, etc. The last one was the milk chocolate with only 32% of cacao. Must admit that the first dark ones were really strong and thus didn't like them at all!

After the tasting we all had coffee or tea with... chocolate of course! This time we could choose ourselves and thát was good!

It was a lovely & cosy morning, learnt a lot about chocolate and even had time to chat with everybody! When is the next tasting??

A lovely day today, full of blue sky & sunshine... is this winter?

A relaxing day today, gonna try to enjoy the sunshine a bit!

Maybe cleaning out the garage or

maybe a light lunch in the garden?