Origami Dress

12 Apr

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Last year I posted about our favourite homemade Father’s Day gift, an origami shirt and tie garland.  The kids loved making it and their Papa loved receiving it.  We still admire it on a daily basis and according to my site statistics it’s the one readers come to visit the most (it’s even featured on the Disney blog Spoonful here).

As some of you may know, origami is very popular in this house (post to prove it here).  We spend hours folding everything from cranes (once we even folded 1000 for a special friend), balls, mice, pianos and even the odd piece of lingerie.  Whenever we have kids over to our house the origami box is usually the first thing that comes out and my kids love passing on their folding skills to others.

Since Mother’s Day is coming up (On May 12th in Italy) I thought it would be a nice idea to make the origami dress version of the shirt and tie garland.  My kids learned how to fold this dress a few years ago and we have a house full of them.

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For this garland the kids folded tiny versions of the origami dress and then sewed them onto round pieces of paper.  The garland can be folded (carefully) up and slipped into an envelope to be opened on Mother’s Day.  Very sweet.

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The kids also folded some larger dresses and made them into cards.  They only glued the top of the dress onto the cardboard which makes the skirt puff out a little.  Very pretty.  And very quick to do.

Here is a little video of my daughter showing how to fold a paper origami dress.  Please ignore the irritating music, I’ll try and find something a little more soothing soon.

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Strawberry Box

9 Apr

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Is it just me or does the out-of-control over-packaging of produce drive anyone else insane?  The other day I bought a few strawberries for my family and I’m pretty sure there was more wood than berries in the heavy-duty packaging.

I couldn’t bring myself to throw away the wooden trays so I put them on top of my fridge and thought that I’d find a use for them.

In the end I realised that they would make the perfect cupcake/muffin transporter.  I’m constantly baking cupcakes and muffins to take to friends and I’m always stuck on how to package them nicely so that they don’t get squished or fly off a plate while in the car.

I simply glued some nice paper (I used origami paper we bought in Japan last year) on the sides of the wooden crate.  That’s it.  I love the fact that this is a fast, simple and inexpensive way to re-cycle some unnecessary grocery store packaging.

You could use these for so many things.  Besides for muffins and cupcakes I’ll be using them this summer for when I give away fruits and vegetables from our garden (because I always end up planting enough to feed the entire neighbourhood).

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Peanut Butter Cookies

5 Apr

Oh wow.  This has been a week full of white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate with hazelnuts and even 99% cocoa chocolate.  My kids have been eating it on their bread for breakfast (they’re half Belgian), straight up for snacks and even popping a few Easter eggs for bedtime snack.  I’ve declared it “chocolate week” and I want them to enjoy it to its fullest.  Plus, I want it all out of my house by next week when they return to school and I return to my no-sugar lifestyle.

But it’s not all bad.  From what I’ve been reading dark chocolate  is the new super food that can help with everything from depression to anemia (my pharmacist told me that the other day).  And I recently found out dark chocolate can actually prevent tooth decay.

To put a little protein into their chocolate diet I decided to make them some Peanut Butter Cookies with, you guessed it, chocolate.  Usually I don’t make peanut butter cookies due to the extortionate price of peanut butter over here (I pay 6 euro for a tiny jar) but since I was brought a huge jug from America I thought I would use some of it to make these delicious cookies.

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All of my Italian and European friends aren’t familiar with Peanut Butter cookies and even look slightly disturbed by the thought of them.  But once they try them they usually can’t get enough.  These cookies are rich, buttery and have a slight saltiness to them.  I love them to no end.  And you will to.

Read on for recipe… Continue reading →

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Bits and Bobs

2 Apr


It has been a pretty busy and action filled few weeks around here.  We had my in-laws here for two weeks, an 11th birthday celebration, Easter and many day-trips and outings along the way.  Despite the horrible grey and rainy weather is was a really wonderful time for all of us.

Every now and then when I’d mention to friends that I had my in-laws here for a few weeks they would look at me with pity and tell me things like “you’ll get through it” and “hang in there”.  But luckily for me I really do have the greatest and most easy going in-laws ever.  I’ll admit it, I was quite sad when they left.  And the kids are still wandering around the house at a loss for what to do without their enthusiastic playmates that were always available to play a (4 hour) game of Monopoly, go for a walk into town or partake in a Ping Pong championship.

Here are a few images of our past few weeks:

A little trip to Lago di Como and lunch in the famous town of Bellagio.1-IMG_7098

I’m still in shock that my teensy weensy little twin baby girls turned 11 last week.  How did they go from being able to fit in their Papa’s shoe to these long lanky pre-teens?

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It was a rarity that we actually celebrated Easter in our own home this year.  Usually we are in Belgium at the grandparent’s house or somewhere far away on vacation.  Last year we were actually admiring the cherry blossoms in Kyoto on Easter morning.  But this year we really appreciated the first sun we had seen in weeks by strolling along the lake and then enjoyed an amazing Peking Duck dinner (not very Easter-y but so delicious).

Easter stroll at the lake.  Learning how to skip stones and admiring the perfectly round dot on the back of the Jack Russel who kept us company on our entire walk.

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Traveling With Kids: Marrakesh

28 Mar

Time for another of my Traveling With Kids columns over on the fabulous creative parenting blog Classic Play.  This time I write about our time spent in the city of  Marrakesh during our recent trip to Morocco.  Marrakesh is a charismatic city full of so much colour and culture.  After our calm time in the Atlas Mountains it was quite a culture shock to arrive in this busy and charismatic city full of everything from monkey tamers, to donkey carriages to vendors selling everything under the sun.  Pop on over to Classic Play to read (and see) more!

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Have you ever been to Marrakesh?  What was your favorite spot in the city to visit?

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Hot Cross Buns

26 Mar

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It has been pretty silent around here on this blog the last week.  I have my (wonderful) in-laws here at the moment and we’ve been busy doing all sorts of things together.  Lots of walks, trips to Milan, delicious meals together and board game playing.  The kids are in heaven with the non-stop playmates (and chocolate givers).

This past week-end the weather was rainy and miserable so we ended up spending the entire Sunday inside the house.  For vieruurtje (Dutch for afternoon-snack and literally translated as “little 4 o’clock”) I made the clan some good ol’ Easter Hot Cross Buns.

This is a basic recipe and much simpler than the traditional recipes that seem to include a ton of steps.  Usually I would also add some candied citrus peel or currents to the dough but unfortunately my kids would disown me for life and run out the door and never come back if they found such things in their buns.


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I took a basic white bread recipe and added some extra sugar and cinnamon (similar to the Cinnamon Swirl Bread from last week).  These buns come out really soft and spongy and actually keep fresh for a day or two.  Before putting them in the oven I take a sharp knife and slash a cross on the tops.  That way there is a perfect indentation for the ever important icing to settle into (after cooled).

Nothing really gives me that Easter feeling more than a pan of fresh-out-of-the-oven Hot Cross Buns (and a sunny garden full of blooming flowers of course).  Throw in some kids wearing pastel coloured spring dresses and straw hats and it’s absolutely perfect.

Read on for recipe.

Continue reading →

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Tutorial: Small Fabric Basket

19 Mar

{Here’s  little simple sewing project from the Jillian In Italy archives.  I think this would be a great project to do for Easter for the kids or even with the kids.  I can just imagine a garden full of these sweet little baskets filled with Easter eggs and candy.}

Here is a very basic tutorial that a good friend of mine designed for a very sweet little fabric basket.  Very quick and gratifying.  I used oilcloth for the outside and a cotton for the inside but it would be possible to use only cotton as well (or even nicer would be linen).  If using cottons or linens I would recommend using interfacing to make it stiff enough to stand up on it’s own.  The paper clips are used to avoid getting little pin holes in the plasticized material or oilcloth. Please let me know if I wasn’t clear on any of my instructions (I know the corner part is a bit hard to see in the photo).

Read on to get full tutorial. Continue reading →

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Cinnamon Swirl Bread

15 Mar

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For ages I’ve been wanting to try and re-create a bread that we ate often when I was little.  Cinnamon Swirl Bread.  I remember my mom used to buy it on the week-ends and I’m pretty sure my brother and I could polish off a whole loaf in one sitting.  If there happened to be some left over (rarely) we ate it the next day toasted with butter (almost better than eating it fresh).

Yesterday when the loaf came out of the oven and I sliced into it so I could take some photos I knew it was not going to be possible to wait until the week-end to give it a try.  This no-sugar-during-the-week thing that I’m doing is great and I admit that I’m feeling much better in general.  Geesh, it has been almost six months that I’ve resisted the urge to eat everything from chocolate cake to fruit pies to bags of my favorite candy.  But the taste of that bread yesterday was probably the best thing I have eaten in my entire  life (have you noticed that I tend to exaggerate slightly sometimes?). No regrets here.

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When my kid’s arrived home from school famished I served them this and they were ecstatic.  “Mama, it’s like a gooey cinnamon bun in the middle of a  loaf of delicious bread!” and “Mama, this is absolutely the best things I’ve ever tasted in my entire life!” (the exaggeration trait was apparently passed on to a few of my kids).

So my advice to you all is to make this bread this week-end and let your families/friends/pets shower you with praise, love and thankfulness.

Read on for recipe…

Continue reading →

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Moroccan Pigment Painting

14 Mar

1-IMG_6298As some of you may know last month we spent a week visiting the beautiful country of Morocco (see my travel column about our time in the Atlas Mountains here).  While in Marrakesh we spent quite a bit of time wandering through the maze of souks (markets) and admiring all the various stalls and shops selling leather purses and slippers, ceramic bowls, carpets, jewelry, antiques and pretty much anything else you could ever desire.

One of our favorite shops to visit were the spice shops.  They were full of bottles upon bottles filled with every kind of spice and herb you could ever imagine.  The aroma these shops give off can be smelled from far away and is almost intoxicating while you’re actually inside.

At the shop above we bought little plastic sacks filled with freshly ground cumin (did you know in Morocco they put salt and cumin on the dining table instead of salt and pepper?), Moroccan 35 spice, the most intense yellow tumeric I’ve ever seen, Moroccan curry and the most amazing and pungent smelling cinnamon ever.  Since returning home I’ve tried all my spices and they are absolutely amazing.  They add so much  flavour to any dish.

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But the most intriguing items we bought in one of these little spice shops were the coloured powdered pigments.  At first we had no idea what all the jars full of coloured water were but the kind shop owner Mohammed explained that these are pigments used for painting and dying clothing.  As a lover of bright colours and anything creative I decided to buy some to experiment with back home on a rainy day.  As luck would have it, the week after we arrived home we had a stay-at-home day and these pigments were the perfect activity to stay warm in front of the fireplace.

Mohammed told us to mix small amounts of the pigment powders with lemon juice.  I think the kids had just as much fun doing this than the actual painting.  The colours turned out so vibrant and reminiscent of the colours we saw everywhere in Morocco.

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The paint has quite a different texture to normal paints and actually dries with a beautiful smooth and almost shiny finish.

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It’s not often that these big kids of mine have time to sit down and paint for a morning like we did so often in the past.  I have to admit that I loved every single minute of it.

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Miniature Bulletin Boards

11 Mar


1-IMG_6699The other day I had to do one of my bi-yearly trips to IKEA to pick up a lot of stuff I don’t actually need (besides tealights and napkins of course).  While there I came across 3-packs of round cork board heat-pads for the kitchen.  As soon as I saw them I knew I had to make miniature fabric covered bulletin boards for my daughter’s room.   They are turning 11 in a few weeks and I’m planning a surprise bedroom make-over and thought this would be perfect to decorate their walls with something useful.

So as soon as I got home I plugged in my hot glue gun (I’m so scared of that thing) and started cutting out circles in various fabrics.  I cut the circles out slightly larger than the heat-pads in order to be able to fold them over the back edge and attach with glue.  And yes, it is very dangerous for burning your fingertips.  I’m pretty sure I don’t have any fingerprints left.

1-IMG_6870In the end I made six boards using different materials.  When I have painted the girl’s room I will arrange them all above their desks for them to pin up various photos, letters and keepsakes (please no boyfriend photos for a while though!).  For the photos above I attached a few to the art corner cupboard in our living room.  I think I’ll be making many more of these in the coming weeks.

1-IMG_6860Now I just have to figure out the best way to hang them up.  For the cupboard I used 2 sided adhesive pads found in the local fai-da-te (DIY shop).  But for attaching them to walls I’ll need something a little sturdier.  And advice out there?

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