This weekend… A Friday night potluck dinner with friends followed by a mini-pub crawl in De Pijp // waking up early Saturday morning for the IJ-Hallen flea market in Amsterdam-Noord // taking the train back home on Saturday afternoon // chicken soup with rice for dinner // this movie // a slow, quiet Sunday morning // booking my flights to Florence for later this month to visit a close friend // an afternoon walk in the dunes // and Jamie Oliver‘s chili con carne for Sunday dinner.
It’s a week before Christmas!
- A last ‘hurrah’ on Friday night, spent at Pacific in the Westerpark;
- My sister returned home for the holidays on Saturday morning, such a relief after last years’ fiasco;
- My mom cut out paper snowflakes and stuck them on our bedroom windows… she felt bad we weren’t going to have real snow with Christmas this year and after 4 years of snow before Christmas in Montreal (see post) and 2 years of white Christmases in the Netherlands (see last year and the year before), it just doesn’t feel the same (1);
- Back up to Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon for the ‘Funky Xmas’ Sunday Market in the Westerpark. Definitely the best Sunday Market I’ve been to so far (nevermind coming home empty handed!) (2);
- And a final dinner with friends on Sunday evening. I know, the table, decorated in a makeshift white theme + a few Dutch accents, is adorable. It was bittersweet, some tears were shed but there was laughter too. Can’t believe how fast these past 4 months have gone (3).
Happy Monday!
This weekend…
- Home on Friday to help pick out the Christmas tree;
- Watched the French movie ‘Heartbreaker‘ with Romain Duris (of the wonderful movie ‘L’Auberge Espagnole‘) after a lovely dinner, complete with this Donna Hay goat cheese, tomato and onion tart;
- A slow Saturday morning;
- My parents put the lights up in the Christmas tree (1);
- Baking up a storm Saturday afternoon, ventured into these Christmas-y cookies that my sister and I made last year (2);
- Back up to Amsterdam on Saturday evening, a night spent with friends;
- Browsing the Sunday market at Roest on Sunday afternoon (3).
Happy Monday!
Another wonderful weekend has come and gone. Sometimes I wish I could just press pause…
- My weekend started on Friday, when my mom came up to visit (here are photos of her last visit). We trekked up North to the Landmarkt, a biological grocery store, then back to Museumplein in the center for the exhibition, ‘Snapshot: Painters and Photography 1888-1915‘ at the Van Gogh Museum. We then went to Tony’s NY Bagels at the Waterlooplein (see my post on Amsterdam-Oost), before going to the Jewish Historical Museum for the exhibition, ‘Saul Leiter: New York Reflections‘ (1);
- Saturday, I went to the city of Utrecht for the afternoon with a few friends (2);
- And Sunday was perfectly relaxing: waking up late, having a lovely breakfast (3), visiting grandparents and taking an evening walk, sitting by the fire and having a ‘Thanksgiving’ dinner with Apple and Cranberry Crumble (oh, Martha…) for dessert.
Happy Monday! See more ‘weekend in 3‘ posts.
Good morning! I know I usually start with my weekend in 3 posts on Monday morning, but sadly I left my camera at home (I went back home on Friday afternoon) when I came up to Amsterdam yesterday afternoon. Luckily I’ll get it back tonight so I can upload my weekend photographs but this will do for now…
A few of my favorite things this October.
First, two lovely friends visited me in Amsterdam the other week as they were both nearing the end of their European adventures. We had a great time wandering the streets of the Jordaan (and sampling apple pie with whipped cream at Cafe Winkel!) They really didn’t have to but they gave me these wonderful tulip-shaped chocolates from Jordino, the lovely chocolate and pastry shop on the Haarlemmerdijk that I visited with my mom the week before, as a ‘thank you’ …
We celebrated my friends’ birthday last weekend (and my brothers’ birthday the weekend before that), and the decorative bunting is still hanging…
Even though it was lovely to have an unexpected “summer spell” upon us in Amsterdam last week, I really don’t mind that it’s finally autumn weather. It is October, after all. We’ve had lightning and thunder and intense rain showers, but that makes it so nice when you’re inside, drinking a cup of warm tea, bundled up in an extra scarf and warm socks, sheltered from it all…
Other things I’m loving right now… I’ve mentioned Lucy Rose before, but have you seen the new video for her song Scar? Download two of her songs for free here, and listen to more on her Myspace. I’ve also been really into baking with whole-wheat flour, have you noticed? Here are a few posts and recipes: Whole-Wheat Zucchini Banana Bread, Whole-Wheat Pancakes, Honey Whole-Wheat Banana Bread, Peach and Raspberry Crumble (with whole-wheat flour), Oatmeal Peanut Butter Snack Squares and Whole-Wheat Apple Muffins. Mmm yumm! More recipes to follow, in my weekend in 3 (#25) post.
Have a great Monday!
And last but not least for my “weekend continued” posts (click for muffins & coffee and Saturday’s beach adventure), I wanted to share some photographs with you from our Sunday afternoon “family” walk. After a pancake breakfast and a simple lunch of pita, falafel and left-overs from the night before, we went on a walk around the neighborhood…
It’s really starting to look like fall, isn’t it?
Such a wonderfully relaxing weekend, thanks for all the great laughs friends!
