Travelling through New England

If you want to follow my trip please visit Laura's blog.  In the mean time you can follow me on facebook. I'm having a great time.

Visiting Albert Heijn in de Zaanse Schans......

With all those american girls running around our house we are becoming tourists in our own country.

Yesterday we visited a rather famous place in the Netherlands "De Zaanse Schans". De Zaansche Schans, north of Amsterdam, packed with wooden windmills, barns, hourses and museums and built in the typically dutch woorden architectural style, relocated piece by piece since 1961.

Nijntje or Miffy

 

Highlight for Marne? Visiting the AH-shop in de Zaanse Schans.

Supermarket chain Albert Heijn started life as a small grocery store. In 1887, Albert Heijn took over the store from his parents at the age of just 21. In this old grocery store, you can see the original furnishings and stock. The store shows how much shopping has changed in just over a century.

The museum shop is located in a listed building, a typical example of a simple local wooden construction from the 19th-century. It is a combination of two different buildings. The front part of the shop was originally located on Oostzijde in Zaandam. The rearmost part is a house that originates from Kerkbuurt in Westzaan

 And a short visit to Marken as well, were we found this lovely fabric shop. Don't you love the tiles on the floor.

Great British bake off ....

....... at The Hague ; ). The showstopper "oatmeal cookies with cranberries", make 36 all even. No it isn't an old family recipe. Maybe it will.

Unfortunetaley our "Mary"couldn't approve, that we didn't pick our own berries.

The verdict of the jury: taste is good, a little bit dry, maybe slightly overbaked ; ).

Presentation could be better. 

Wedding anniversary

Yesterday Rob and I had our wedding anniversary, 17 years married. It's amazing. We didn't do any special. The last days we had a house full of guests (about 6-8 each evening for dinner), so now it's just the four of us (Marne, Elaine, Rob and me), and of course Mies. She is a really happy dog now, Rob is back from is cycling tour, so she didn't destroy anymore Hema underwear.

We had a quiet evening, made a leftover dinner and watched episode 5 of the great british bake off.

Marne and I will do the technical challenge today: Oatmeal cranberry cookies! BAKE.

We will keep you informed.

With my parents.

Doing "silly things" in the Hague

Sometimes pictures are just enough to explain what you did on sunny sunday .....................

Sun Bonnet Sue from the '30s

.... my friend Marne is very good at finding interesting antique quilts tops and blocks for me.

This Sun Bonnet Suue blocks she brought with her last year, and they were waiting in my cupboard to finish.

This is the story about the blocks given by  Doris to her daughter Susan, who is a friend of Marne. (Doris is the daughter of the Grace Quilt).

Letter from Doris to me.

The blocks were made by Clara Petefish Moore (1918-2008/2009?), 1st cousin to Frances Moore, Frances was a friend of Doris. She started these blocks 80 years ago (1932). Sugar sacks were used during the depression as were flour sacks and feed sacks. Clare gave the sugar sacks block to Sandy Mercer O'Brien, daughter of Frances. Clara had no childrens and spent the last 18 year of her life in a nursing home, part of the time bedfast. She lived in or surrounding Lawrence Kansas.

I sewed the blocks together. In my antique quilt box with leftover pieces from antique quilt I found some nice blocks to make a border. I hand-quilted it, and put a binding around from a new red fabric. Now it's waiting to go with me on my antique show-and-tell.

I did some research on the internet to found more about Clara. And I found this picture of her and story about her life.

And a traditionally dutch meal again .....

...... well you could say that "sate met pindasaus en patat' at Mauce in The Hague.

This evening another traditionally menu: gourmetten ; ). All the girls got their task to prepare something like: meat, salad, get wine etc.  More pictures to follow after the gourmet party.

Delftse Pauw : dutch pottery

With all those american friends in and around the house you explore new things in your own country. 


One of them was visiting the Factory “de Paauw”, established in 1650. Just one 9 kilometers from our house. The tour (in english ; ), was very interesting.  http://www.delftpottery.com/. 

   

History about the Delftware
In Delft, in the seventeenth century 32 factories were producing Delftware, among them factory "de Paauw". These factories were often established in beer breweries which had stopped their production.
In the nineteenth century due to competition from other factories and lack of innovations, the highlight of Delftware had come to a close. Nowadays in Delft only a few companies still produce the entirely hand painted traditional Delftware. One of these companies is "de Delftse Pauw".
"Delft Pottery de Delftse Pauw” exclusively produces and sells entirely hand-painted Delftware which is a unique approach.