short summer series. hot tub time (machine)!

This project began somewhere in March. Okay, maybe that is not entirely true: it actually began when I was sixteen years old, when my big brother -the most inventive engineer I know- crafted a wood burning stove with a water heating system to warm up our inflatable kiddy pool. Due to the enormous succes of the invention, he and my dad quickly replaced the inflatable pool by a more durable tub made from something that was previously used as a cattle watering tub, and hence the first DIY hot tub of our family was born.
When I first took Joost to my parents' house, and showed him the hottub made by my big bro and my dad, he immediately responded: "We should totally make something like that!

short summer series: we can be heroes ( not just for one day)

If you could be a superhero with any kind of superpower, what would it be?

short summer series: a miniature bride

I may have mentioned it before: my little nieces love absolutely nothing more than dressing up.

For the oldest one this means imitating her favorite Disney princess of the week.
For her little sister, it usually implies putting on her hot pink rain boots ( your guess is as good as mine on why she does that..), wrapping herself in whichever kind of fabric is at hand as "a dress" and skip off to chase the cat. So, when I had to think about birthday gifts, it wasn't a difficult decision: dress-up clothes!

short summer series: Traffic light tank top ( and how to sew stretchy fabric)

What do you have when you have a few short tops, and a spine that goes on for miles?

back with a backless shirt)

hey guys!

"How on earth is it possible" I muttured in Joost's general direction, "that all of a sudden it is summer? What happened to April, and May, and June for that matter? I was supposed to get work done in spring, get some rest, and you know... enjoy life, but all of a sudden it's almost summer holiday, and everything is still unfinished!"
Joost turned his eyes away from from his computer screen exactly long enough to look at me and indicate that he had heard me, knitted his eyebrows together, and hummed incomprehensibly in agreement. His screen showed at least 5 different projects that he was frantically working on. Ugh, I do love summer and summer holidays, but could it please not arrive in such a hurry, and be preceded by such an ungodly amount of deadlines? thank you very much!

But somehow we managed to survive the wave of deadlines and summer hols arrived in all its glory. So Joost and I decided to throw a tent in the back of our car, cue the (frankly awful, since we both have absolutely no taste at all) music, and head towards France for a few weeks of camping, hiking, paddle boarding and generally embarrassing myself with my not-so-smooth French language skills..

"l'art est amour, l'amour c'est la vie, la vie, il faut la vivre et non la subir", (Carrasco , the painter of this church)