I've decided to Spring clean our kitchen and re-organize it this week (see part #1). It's a fun task and I love how my ideas flow and make me feel so energetic. It's also really rewarding because I can see clearer what I'd really like to do with it. Also it made me so happy about cooking tonight (ok, frozen pizza isn't actually cooking but I made a pretty Spring salad!).

This is how the kitchen looks like today: I've cleaned the working space and the pots and put them neatly in the left corner. I put a few things in my 'to give away' bag but I didn't get around to completely re-organize the cupboards. I have to find a proper space for all the stuff on the dinner table, most of them are photography related and a few things have to go back on the working space, though I'd rather find a good place for most of them.

We opted for an open-kitchen and I love it but when it comes to stuff and cleaning, I'm the messiest person around. I like seeing my things so I don't forget to do it or pay it or bring it, etc. The thing is I have too much stuff that I pile up in any visible surface and it seems like it's a mess all the time. But I've got to put away all that in their righteous place and make some space for the kitchen and its stuff.

So I decided it was time to re-organise the kitchen to make it more practical and cozy and also to find some solutions for my piling up things all over the place.

This is how it looked today before I started the big Spring cleaning:

This is how it looked after I put everything away so I could clean out the cooking space:

I'm not done yet because 1. I started way too late (such a lazybones, gosh!) 2. BabyLuv arrived with the groceries and started cooking (he's so awesome, that guy of mine!) and 3. it's way too late to continue (and I want cuddles).

So tomorrow I'm going:

Lately I've been exceptionally terrible at baking anything: from apple pie to cupcakes or quiche, they all ended being a catastrophe! Not so much for the taste but more for the presentation.

I can't seem to be able to have the pastry look nice and crunchy, it's always so limp and not tasty at all. It always sticks to the dish and doesn't rise (I use ready-to-use dough for want of this). I pre-bake it but it doesn't seem to do the trick.

I'd love to make beautiful cupcakes that don't taste like flour or quiches that don't leak or apple pies that don't fall apart. I'm pretty sure I need to experiment more and bake a lot more to be able to understand more how it actually works but any suggestions are welcome. What do you do? What do you use? How do you make it work?

This is the following up of this article.

I realized that my anger was pure jealousy.

WHY ON EARTH IS THAT POSSIBLE THAT PEOPLE GET TO HAVE BABIES WHEN THEY ARE NOT EXPECTING IT TO HAPPEN JUST YET AND I CAN'T?

I wanted to scream and to cry and to bury myself in a hole until Mother Nature gave me a sign that I should not be desperate.

But instead my best friend had a panic attack and that's when I figured out that she was freaking out because that baby wasn't supposed to come just yet and that it completely changed her life and also blew up one of her so-awaited job opportunity. I understood her fear and her stress and it made myself think about all the consequence a baby brings to your life. They're not all bad, of course, they're not. But life definitely changes. And that's what I finally visualized in her fear, especially when her husband told me it took her quite some time to finally tell me she was pregnant. She is such a sweetheart.

Now even though the feelings I'm undergoing are bittersweet, I know I'm happy for her and I can't wait to meet little J. That baby is going to be so cute!

I watched this movie last night and I was surprised by how good it was. I wasn't too cheezy, neither too cliché. The main characters played together sweetly and all the couples were adorable:

the assistants

the protectors

the protected

J'espère que ce sera une des plus belles journées et que tu en profiteras à fond.

J'espère que tu auras un beau et bon gâteau.

J'espère que tu auras plein de jolis cadeaux.

Et j'espère que tu feras de mignons et merveilleux souvenirs de cette journée si spéciale et que toutes les personnes les plus chères à ton coeur seront là pour la célébrer avec toi.

Plein de GROS BISOUS !

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today my best friend announced me via picture that she was pregnant.

The first feeling that came was shock. Because I wasn't expecting her to have a baby just now and also because she wasn't either.

Then I got all excited and thought about a baby J and it was the cutest thing. I went back to bed with a happy smile on my face, being so happy for her and her husband.

But I wrote "hello baby, I was expecting you" meaning I was expecting them to have a baby even though not so soon. To that she replied "it was a surprise for us =/ ". That smiley is what made me explode with rage. She is going to have a baby without any trouble conceiving it and she's not happy. What the heck? She will never even understand how I'm feeling, she won't have to worry that maybe she can't be a mother, that maybe what I've been waiting for my whole life won't happen.

On the other side, when a baby is not expected, it can cause a lot of troubles and all the plans you made are being put on hold and it also can really be a bad timing. I think that's what she meant by this. I hope she'll find peace with this though.

Thank you Em for sharing this.

Look at this dazzling smile!

Even though this is a sad view, this is one of the most adorable part of the movie.

When we moved to Gent in 2007, we received a map of all the pubs there and BabyLuv & I decided that we'd go to all of them. Unfortunately the map teared when I tried to move it to another wall and I had to throw it away.
Early November 2009, I got a new similar map but it pointed all the Gentse restaurants! This was just perfect because we adore going to the restaurant. So we decided to try every restaurant in town. What a challenge! We're on the right track already and we still go to our favorite places often but we like to try a different one now and then.

BabyLuv and I celebrate Valentine's day every year. You can say all you want, I like the idea of celebrating our love one more time each year, especially since our Valentine's always come after our anniversary. It feels like we're celebrating it again and I really enjoy this.

To me, the best part is when BabyLuv gives me a card he wrote: this is and will always be the best present he can make me. I just love those hand-written words he put there. He's really the sweetest man I've ever met, he's attentive and protective and kind and honest.

To celebrate Valentine's Day, we always try to go to a restaurant since it's one of our favorite things to do. BabyLuv usually chooses the restaurant but this time I wanted to try something new and maybe different. I was looking for coziness and comfort. I looked around and found this restaurant called Toi & Moi: it was just perfect (it means you and me)! And the person who answered the phone was so kind and helpful. Definitely the right place to celebrate love.

Specialties: French/Belgian cuisine. Atmosphere: soothing and charming. Service: quick and friendly. Food: extremely good. Bathroom: clean and light. Open from 11.30 until 23.00 Kitchen open until 21.30 Closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays

This was one of the best Valentine's I've ever had. BabyLuv was a little tired at the end but we enjoyed each other greatly. Oh how much I love him! ♥

Toi et Moi

Sint-Michielsstraat 31

9000 Gent

Tel: +32(0)9 225 86 33

Specialties: French/Belgian cuisine.
Atmosphere: cute and wwelcoming.
Service: quick and very friendly.
Food: very good.
Bathroom: clean and pretty.

Open everyday from 18:00 to 22:00.
Open on Sundays from 12:00 to 14:00.
Closed on Wednesdays.

I called BabyLuv to come witness the most gorgeous sky we've had during the morning. It was a real painting and it seemed blurred too. I took a few pictures with the iPhone and went to get my camera but it was gone! I was so disappointed but still happy I could capture it somehow.

Tonight we witnessed another live painting when the sky turned all shades of orange and pink. The layers were so visible I could almost count them. It even lasted for more than an hour, which is not very common this time of year.

We're so lucky to be able to watch the sunrise and the sunset from our home. I'll never take this for granted. The sky is magical!

Last night I had this weird and intense dream.

I often have really intense dreams where everything looks so real and most of the time I know the people involved in it. Sometimes I'd even change character so I'd always see what's going on, and I have to say, it feels really strange when I understand I'm in someone else's body then.

Often my dreams reflects something I've seen or watched or experienced during the day. Sometimes it comes from thoughts that first keep me from going to sleep.

Last night I dreamt of a baby girl.

"The baby girl was wearing a stripped pink pajama and she was awake in her baby chair, smiling. I was talking to a friend while taking care of her and playing with her.

My mom came to us and said my little sister had to take care of the baby girl so she took her away to the kitchen. I didn't want to but I let her take the baby girl away because I knew she wasn't mine...

My sister turned out to be my step-sister and she didn't know how to take care of the baby girl, she held her by one arm trying to change her diaper and it was all wrong. But my mom was smiling so I didn't do anything because I know she wasn't mine.
Until I couldn't take it anymore and took over my step-sister and changed the baby girl. And she stopped crying and she smiled and she was happy. When I was finished, I held her tight, really tight and didn't want to let her go... even though she wasn't mine."