Nice to stay - Maastricht

 

 

Exactly one week ago I was in Maastricht. Purpose of the trip was meeting some other bloggers from the south of the Netherlands. And we met in a beautiful place: Townhouse Design Hotel. The hotel is perfectly situated, just around the corner of the railway station in the trendy quarter of Maastricht: Wyck.

Wyck is the place to be: beautiful renovated townhouses, often filled with specialty shops. Good news is that the shops are also open on Sunday! Wyck offers a wide range of shops, restaurants and tearooms. 

When you have explored Wyck you just have to cross the bridge and you're in the city center of Maastricht.

But let's get back to the Townhouse Desigh Hotel. A home away from home, that's what they want to be... And that's what they are! Homey atmosphere in a design environment.  

 

 

A pot of soup on the stove, for you to serve yourself, a hammock in the lobby, board games, comfortable couches, coffee and tea for you to take as you wish.

They make something special from day to day business.

 

Rooms are cozy, clean, small or big, with rainshower or bath. Breakfast is served in the living room and full of local specialties. 

 

So should you spend some days in Maastricht, Townhouse Design Hotel is the place to stay. For reservations: www.townhousehotels.nl

Inside the elevator

Blondie

Another cold & rainy Sunday afternoon...

Reason enough to bake :)

This time I wanted to try something new:

 

How to:

* Preheat the oven to 175°C.

* Grease a square baking pan with butter & line with baking paper.

* Melt the butter slowly, take the butter of the heat and add 75 grams of the white chocolate

and let it melt. Stir.

* Mix sugar and eggs until thick & yellow. Add flour, butter with chocolate, salt and vanilla essence & mix until well-combined.

* Finish by adding the dried cranberries and mix them carefully with the batter.

* Add the batter in the baking pan and put the rest of the chocolate on top.

* Bake the blondies for about 35-40 minutes. Let cool down and cut in squares.

 

 

The taste was great, but next time I will add the chopped chocolate to the batter instead of putting it on top. And I will also use less heat on the upper side and let it bake a bit longer.

 

The rest of the family enjoyed it to the last crumb so there will definitely be a next time!

 

Bon appetit!

 

Sunny garden

Finally, the weather has turnt bad again (after 2 amazing weeks full of warmth & sunshine), the garden definitely needs this break, me too, if only to update my blog!! Although I must admit that the rainy Sunday was already enough for me... it can stop now :)

Rainy & grey it is today, so I decided to cheer you up with some sunny pictures of our garden. What do you think? Sounds like a good idea?? Ok, here we go then:

The (very late planted bulbs of) tulips did a good job this year! 

 Lots of pink & purple in the back yard but...

 lots of blue, yellow and white in the front yard :)

An overview of our back yard
Remember what it looked like before winter? Have a look: here

 As you can see, working in the garden is a tough job...

Last week I also visited 2 beautiful nurseries in the south.

Made some pictures, but somehow, I don't manage to upload them.

Will keep on trying & write a post about them later!

And now let's keep our fingers crossed that the beautiful sunshine will return very soon!!

Have a great week!

Inspiration

As we're approaching spring... although there are some rumours that we might have some serious winter again, I am in urgent need of light!

One of the projects on my (long) to-do-list is the kitchen.

Since we're back in the Netherlands (end of August 2011), I've been collecting bits and pieces

that I like. Just in case we decide to go ahead with the kitchen renovation.

A girl needs to be prepared, doesn't she? 

But do I know what I really want? No! There's just too much choice!

So I keep on collecting & who knows, there will be a moment I know exactly what I want.

Until then, I drool over all the beautiful kitchens I find online!!

 And you? Any project planning on your side?

THE tree...

It took me some time...

Our living room is not that small, but still...

I couldn't find THE spot for THE tree!

I moved chairs, sofas & tables, but put them back in the old position again

(positive about this is the fact that I finally cleaned the floor under the furniture!!)

Still not totally happy with the location of the tree, but I'm afraid there's no moving anymore,

it's completely decorated now, too dangerous!!

Red & white it is this year...

Have a nice week!!

Back home...

It's been a busy couple of weeks: clearing out the house, donating lots of stuff, packing boxes & cleaning.

The movers arrived on Monday afternoon, August 22, in Versailles and the trucks were packed on Tuesday 5pm. Unloading in the south of The Netherlands started on Wednesday 9am and was done by 5pm again.

What a difference it makes when you don't need to pack or unpack everything as sea freight:))

So you can imagine what the last couple of days looked like: yes, unpacking & finding a place for everything (which seems to be a mission impossible!!).

But, in about a weeks time, we went from this:

To this:

Thanks to some well-appreciated, colourful bunches of flowers from friends & family

Time for some more unpacking now!

See you later this week!!