So happy, today is the day I haven’t smoked for 1 year. On 22 April 2014 23.30 I smoked my last cigarette. All the non-smokers who never smoked, probably think why is that so special. But out of my own experience I know by now that one time a smoker you will always stay a smoker. At least someone who is easily becoming a smoker again.
I was a non-smoker for ten years when I was 23, and at 33 I started smoking again. Stupid hey. But I just did, only because I was on a vacation in Kenya and Tanzania and I thought after 10 years it wouldn’t matter anymore. But it did.
After that time I quit for 7 months and of course during my pregnancy of Larsman I didn’t smoke.
But when he was born I started all over again. The only difference was that smoking a whole package a day was to much and I stayed for a while on 9 cigarettes per day.
And more changed, I had a son, and more and more I felt I had to quit smoking because if him. I want to see him growing up, and I want to stay healthy. Keep smoking wouldn’t help me with that.
And then at the end of 2013 I started to have some colds. That’s not so strange with a 10 months old baby who is going to childcare. But my colds didn’t go away. And for almost 12 weeks I was sick, coughing, sneezing etc.
I really thought that I wouldn’t get better anymore. In the meantime I tried an electronic smoker. But that felt like fake smoking, I didn’t like that at all. Continue reading “One year a non-smoker”
Sunday Smoothie: Strawberry – Blueberry Smoothie
Sunday morning is a good day to drink some smoothies. I’m not such a fruit eater. It’s not that I don’t like fruit, but most of the time I just forget to eat it. I always buy our fruit at the supermarket, M. Loves fruit and also Larsman seems to have the genes of his father. It’s so funny when we have a Mango at home. Larsman walks to the mango all the time, and says mango in a very funny way. It’s a little bit difficult to pronounce the word, since he’s two year’s old-;). And the whole time he want’s to eat it.
So for me it’s good to try some smoothies or fruitshakes. They are healthy, with a lot of vitamines , that’s definitely something I can use these days. And they taste good! With cakes and pumps I force myself to eat more healthier food and of cours I love to share this recipe with you!
Today is lazy sunday and visiting friends sunday, so I keep this post very short.
The Recipe
Sunday Smoothie: Strawberry - Blueberry Smoothie
Strawberry Blueberry smoothie, nice for breakfast or as a healthy snack
Servings 1
Ingredients
- 180-200 gram Strawberries
- 75 gram Blue Berries
- 120 ml (Biological) Yoghurt
- 60 ml Milk
Instructions
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Mix al the ingredients in a blender.
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Put the mix in a jar or a glass.
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Smoothie finished. Delicious for breakfast or as a healthy snack
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Yellow en white striped Spring shoes
This weekend my new shoes arrived. As some of you know, I’m really a shoe addict. Haha just like a lot of other women in this world. I think with all my pumps, flip-flops, sneakers, heels, boots and other kind of shoes, I’m at least over 100 pair (haha I will not tell you exactly how much otherwise M. will go crazy;-)).
100 pair sounds like a lot, but it’s not making me the Imelda Marcos of Holland, who had more then 4.000 pair of shoes. I’m also very selective in what kind of style I buy, so I don’t have 4 pair of black pumps in my closet, but diverse in colors and style. Next to that, I buy good ones, which can be used for many years and are good for my feet. The nice thing about having so many shoes is that you can keep them quit neat because I don’t wear them all the time. Continue reading “Yellow en white striped Spring shoes”
Hotspot: Bazar Rotterdam
Yesterday we went with friends to the baseball movie “Boys of Summer” in Rotterdam, at least we thought it was a movie but it turned out to be a documentary about young baseball players in Curacao. The tickets were free because Bailey Lights is sponsoring the WPT in Rotterdam, that’s why we went to that movie in the first place. For me the movie was boring and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t really interested in Baseball. After the movie we were looking for a restaurant in the neighborhood and we found restaurant Bazar Rotterdam on the Witte de Withstraat 16. One of our friends checked the internet for reviews and it was nr 33 on the top 500 restaurant list of TripAdvisor in Rotterdam. So that must be a good one then. But first need to find some seats. The problem was that it was Friday night, which is normally busy, we didn’t make a reservation and because of the first really good spring day, it was also extra busy on the streets. But we were lucky, in the basement they had a table for four, so “strike”..;-) (to stay in the baseball language).
When we entered the restaurant we were very surprised about it.
The ambiance looked great with all kinds of Middle eastern and North African accessories and lamps. The restaurant is located in a monumental building. There is a basement, a ground level and a layer above. And above that is the hotel I guess. And indeed all tables were taken, except the one who was waiting for us. Continue reading “Hotspot: Bazar Rotterdam”
Latte Macchiato
We really like Latte Macchiato’s but we don’t drink them very often. Because of all the milk it’s a heavy drink and I think there are a lot of calories in it, but it looks really nice and it’s easy to make. Latte Macchiato is some kind of alternative for a Cappuccino, although there is some difference between the two. A Cappuccino is an espresso with warm milk in it and a Latte Macchiato is frothed milk with a shot of espresso in it. You also have a Caffe Latte, which is an espresso with a little milk in it. But that’s really a different drink. A couple of years ago we were in Ibiza and I ordered a Latte Macchiato, I had to explain to the waiter what that was (hahaha I should have cancelled it by then-;), and he said he new what it was. You can imagine how surprised I looked when I received this:
We crazy Dutch drink these drinks whenever we want to, but Italians only drink a cappuccino before noon, after 12 it’s a crime to drink these kind of drinks. Since a Latte Macchiato is an alternative for Cappuccino, I guess it’s the same crime;-). Continue reading “Latte Macchiato”
Ibiza: Portinatx
The weather is still not good here in Holland, so today I’m dreaming of Ibiza, with the nice warm beaches, beautiful landscapes, nice restaurants and beach clubs and all the places where you can party all night. Ibiza is so beautiful, and the nicest thing of the island is that there is something for almost everyone. If you’re young and only want to party and lay your head down on the beach, choice enough. But also a lot of fun sites for families or places to enjoy the beautiful nature. Eating out in Ibiza is like paradise, you can have your food cheap, in a little place on the beach (ok I agree, Mc Donalds, pizza etc is more cheap, but I don’t call that paradise), and also very very expensive restaurants for example like The Sublimotion, which was in 2014 the most expensive restaurant in the world. And of course everything that’s in between.
I have never heard of anyone not liking Ibiza. We really like to travel, party and enjoy nice food, but the strangest thing is, we only went to Ibiza for the first time in 2013. Little Larsman was 6 months old and we didn’t want to go to a far away travel destination, but also didn’t want to spend our vacation in some kind of family resort. That year, Ibiza was on the spot in Holland, and the idea was born to go to Ibiza. And since the day we set foot in Ibiza, we planned to go back there every year. This year we will go for the third time and since spring is on his way, Ibiza season will open in a couple of weeks, I thought it would be nice to do some posts about Ibiza on this blog.
This one is the first one and it’s about Portinatx beach. Portinatx (you pronounce it as Port-i-natsj) is a village in the north of Ibiza. You can go there by car or by bus (I read bus 20 from Eivissa or bus 21 from Santa Eularia, but i’m not sure). It’s a bit of a touristic village, with some hotels and apartments. It’s not big and so is the beach of Portinatx. The beach is really lovely, with quiet water. Specially the quiet water is nice for little children who can’t swim yet. Continue reading “Ibiza: Portinatx”
Five Pictures: Easter 2015
For this new serie I made five pictures with the subject Easter. In this new serie I will show you 5 different pictures of a chosen subject. just for fun, because I love to make pictures. The first picture that you see above, is made with small eggs. It took me more time to make this image than I thought before I started this little project, but I’m happy with the results.
For the next image, I bought a couple of fake eggs at the Hema. The instruction said I had to break the top of the egg with a spoon. haha not, in reality I could have better used an axe to top it;-). Now wait for a month to see the plant grow out of these easter eggs.
My paintings from the past
In 2012 en 2013 I painted a few paintings, after years of doing nothing. A couple of paintings were hanging on the wall, waiting to be finished. It all started when I wanted to make a painting for the babyroom. One year before I had an idea to make a fantasy dragon for in our hall. I designed it, started painting with blue, but then I changed my mind about the color of our hallway. My original idea was to paint the hallway pink, which wasn’t exactly M.’s favourite color. So finally I changed my mind and painted the walls in Bluegrey . The only problem was that the painting I was working on, wouldn’t fit into that new color scheme, so the painting moved unfinished to the attic. But when I found out that I was pregnant with a boy, it all made sense and I finished the painting.
When the fanantasy dragon was finished, I thought it would be nice to finish some unfinished paintings, like this one: Continue reading “My paintings from the past”
42nd Birthday today and start of Cakes and Pumps
Today is my birthday, my 42nd birthday! I don’t have much time today to celebrate this day, because I’m studying for my (hopefully) last exam. But today is also the day that I wanted to start this Blog. The last couple of years I had only a little time to do creative things like painting, DIY Projects, cooking, Photography etc. I started a Master study on Nyenrode in the beginning of 2012, a couple of months after that I found out that I was pregnant of our little boy Larsman, who was born at the beginning of 2013. After some time back to study and no time for all those creative things that I love so much.
But now the end of my study is near, only a Master Thesis after this last exam, hmm hahaha and I think that I will have some time left? I do, because I decided to put the Master Thesis on hold, until September 2015. So I’ll have much more time to be creative.
With this blog I will keep you posted with alle the nice things that I will make, all the cooking and Food photos to make about that cooking. Maybe even making some Jewelry or some artwork again. You will see it soon…..(But for now back to study).
p.s. The site is not completely finished yet, but I will work on that in the next weeks. So come back for the updates, or you can follow me on my Facebook page CakesandPumps or on the other social media (see the icons on the right).
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