Making the Most

My midwife's office is on the north end of Chicago. That makes it a great excuse to go see something new, which we did in spades last week. I've discovered my favorite Village Discount Outlet on North Kedzie. Both youngsters have benefited from this so far. Unfortunately, I packed away the yummy pink dresses (yup, you read right) right away. They won't fit for about a year.

We discovered Toast in Bucktown for an impromptu mama-grandma-Pumpkin lunch. Their sign (a piece of toast) and a few happy looking people in the window were enough to convince me we should eat there. Just to prove that some things are meant to be, they had three versions of egg Benedict on the menu. For some reason, eggs Benedict is not on every single breakfast menu in existence. This oversight baffles me since I think it's one of the yummiest things going. I can vouch for Toast's prosciutto version. Their Hollandaise sauce was a bit too citrusy for me, but the overall effect was yummy.

Our final stop was also my primary destination, The Needle Shop. One of my resolutions for this year in Chicago is to take my crafting more seriously. An important part of that is acknowledging the value of my crafting by investing in better materials. That has been easier for me to do with yarn than fabric, so this was an important stop to support that resolution. There was some modest purchasing.

The zipper is a zipper off a roll, something I didn't even know existed. I also picked up a bit of Wee Woodland by Keiki, a gorgeous blue solid that I didn't write down a name for (dumb), and Herringbone and Flower Fields, both by Joel Dewberry. There aren't any concrete plans for these yet, but there might be a pair of summer bloomers in there and some accents for Peanut shorts. We shall see. Regardless of where they end up, it's lovely to have them home to inspire and delight.

Drawing

This picture just makes me smile. Peanut loves to draw and is now enthusiastically making "zeroes" both big and small with help from anyone he can convince to draw with him. I've been much inspired by Amanda Soule and her lovely post. When it came time to buy art supplies as an Easter gift, I decided to go ahead and spend on quality instead of quantity. The results have been outstanding.

Peanut's first color pencils are a set Lyra Ferbies that I picked up in Haarlem. The price tag made me pause a full five minutes in the art supply store before just buying them. However, they have more than proven their value already. Today was the first time any of them required sharpening. Maybe we just don't color much, but the Crayola crayons I also got are half way to trashed, so the credit goes to the pencils!

The Rock Crayons were a gift from a dear friend who seems to not only be able to read my mind but even sends gifts to my parents' place when I visit there! I've been coveting these since first spotting them here. They came out for the first time yesterday and are an instant hit. Even the grandparents are in awe over their utter coolness.

With some luck, there will be daily drawing in our future. My only complaint now is that our roll of paper is packed away with everything else in storage and we're using individual sheets instead. I really liked the roll and being able to cover the entire table surface. It was a good way to silence the perfectionist who keeps reminding my 22 month old son to color on the paper only. Any tips?

Accidental Internet Finds

I ran across this image at Apartment Therapy while looking for information about IKEA's new SVABBA soap. The internet is a strange and fascinating place. Now to decide whether we should have spaghetti hot dogs for dinner or not....

Oslo Weekend

I've been in Oslo for the weekend and having a wonderful time. We arrived on Thursday, went to the art museum on Friday afternoon. Saw Werner Herzog's White Diamond outdoors in the rain (they provided ponchos) that night. On Saturday, we hiked up to an IKEA decorated cabin for an overnight. Magazine-coordinated interior, but no running water or electricity. On Sunday, we had a long wander down fron the cabin and then went for coffee and waffels over-looking Oslo, and visited town, including a peek at the awesome opera house, today. To make it even better, the weather has cooperated. It's gotten warmer and sunnier every day. Also, my friend here takes full advantage of her local public library, which happens to house the comic and graphic novel collection, so I've also been reading loads!

Today, me and Peanut are on our own, so that gave me a chance to indulge in some guilt-free retail tourism. We stopped at Ahlens (think of Target household items if you're American or HEMA if you're Dutch). Picked up some gorgeous fabric. It's 100% cotton and if I get my way, will become a summer skirt.



Right now, Peanut is taking a nap while I type. We're heading back to Haarlem and our so-called real life in a couple hours.

Amsterdam Saturday

*x-mas_queens, originally uploaded by rbrtdotbiz.

We arrived at the Bijenkorf in Amsterdam at the same time as these fabulous ladies were turning up in three separate horse drawn carriages, if you can believe that. We would have been late if we'd tried to plan it, but since we were there on a mission, we were right on time for the madness. Our rare and daring trip was to return our espresso machine. We love it, but it's recently developed a rust spot that I'm hoping they will fix so the machine doesn't slowly fall apart. But there's a real story to tell here.

Our first dilemma was deciding whether to go by train or car to the store. We had to move the espresso machine (weighs 12 kg) and Peanut (current weight 6kg+) and ourselves. With the car it's easy to move stuff and bodies, plus you can park at the Bijenkorf. Costs an arm and a leg, but you can park there. Unfortunately, driving into downtown Amsterdam is a miserable experience and probably worse with a crying baby. With the train, you have to move all the stuff, but no driving hassles, the tram stops in front of the Bijenkorf, and it is a bit nicer for ye olde environment. We opted for the train. So, that's F with the espresso machine, nicely packed up in its original box, on the back of his bicycle walking next to me and the stroller to the train station in Haarlem. One train to Amsterdam central and a tram to the Bijenkorf.

When we arrived, the entrance to the store was mobbed. It was confusing at first, but then we figured out that there were these lovely ladies arriving. Unfortunately, we've 18kg of stuff and baby to deal with and however lovely they are, we'd rather just get into the store. F was much more mobile than me and made pretty good time, although he apparently did get caught in the photographic cross-fire at one point. I got told off a couple times for daring to move (off the street, towards the door), wrestled with a tiny revolving door, and made it inside, hoping to find F. Once we found each other, our goal was to find the elevator and get upstairs to customer service.

Needless to say, on the first Saturday of December, department stores are packed. It was a challenge to move forward at all, but we managed with a bit of patience and a couple nice loud "excuse mes". We stopped to ask a store employee where the elevator was when the bottom fell out of the box - and the espresso machine, too. There we stood with our stroller and empty box and espresso machine and parts all over the floor, just steaming with frustration. Suddenly, the rust spot that prompted this whole trip seemed immaterial. The fall broke a piece off of the plastic reservoir and bent part of the metal casing so that the back flap would not close anymore.

We picked up the machine and box separately and made our way through the crowds to the elevator and up to customer service where we told our story. Clearly, the fall and resulting damage were not covered by the factory guarantee that would hopefully cover the rust damage. We argued that had there not been any rust damage, the machine would have never left our house and therefore never been able to fall and, lucky for us, they agreed. If the company does not cover the damage, then the Bijenkorf is going to pay for the repairs.

So there you have it. The story of how our weekend intersected with three lovely models and why we love stores with good customer service!