the maxi-dress that wasn't maxi enough

I can't really remember what I was thinking that day, but on hindsight it must have been something along those lines: "Ah! a big, ill-fitting stripy tent! Just what I need!"

It came from one of those shops that only sells disposable fashion: you know the kind: stores that think they do you a big favor by selling you clothes for a buck or so, that will only last a season or two before disintegrating in a heap of misery.

Disposable fashion.. I don't know who came up with it, but I can only hope he/she is eternally hunted by a herd of angry hippo's in ill-fitting garments, in whatever kind of afterlife there is.

beasts, benches and bed frames

Lately the weather has been so beautiful, that even the biggest sceptic (and for Dutch people, blaming the weather for being bad comes as natural as breathing) can’t deny that spring is operating in all earnestness, and everything is teeming with life. 

The branches of our various fruit trees are heavy with blossoms, and the air itself is positively buzzing.

Our cats, Inky and Lieve, have gotten so fat that every time they squeeze themselves through the cat flap to go outside, it looks as if our backdoor is giving birth.

branch becomes coat rack!

"your house is so cool.. it's like.. magic!" the two girls from next door (9 and 10) came by to say hi, and check up on our renovation-progress. Being the little girls that they are, it took them exactly two seconds to make their round through all the rooms, but they had high praise. Their comment was honestly the nicest thing I had ever heard about our house, and I stood there basking in the glory for a moment..

Until I heard the youngest say to the eldest on their way out: "When I grow up, I also want a messy house, just like Joost and Marije!"  hahaha, ouch!!

Throwing some (lamp)shade... a diy'd industrial lamp!

The cashier, a man with an alarmingly bushy moustache, gazed upon all the stuff we had dumped upon his counter (two books, a slatted bed base, cd's, some kitchen stuff and the star of this blog:an enormous lamp) scratched his equally bushy ear and announced in a loud voice: "madam, sir, 10 euros please!"