For Me?

Yup, and it's just another Friday!  

xoxo with great joy in my heart and a big smile on my face.

Giraffe

I love this little guy!

The artist is a dear, 5 year-old friend of mine.

It's Mr.Wonderful's Birthday Today

I made him a love note. 

What I'm Up To

I am up to 3/4 on my second sleeve!

Out and About in Antwerp

Happy Earth Day!

WIELS

Last month I went to Specific Objects without Specific Form, a Felix Gonzalez-Torres retrospective here in Brussels at Wiels, a contemporary art exhibition space, artists' residency and work space. Wiels is an old brewery that brewed its last beer in the 1980s and has been a contemporary art space since 2007. 

 A pic of a pic of the brewery, which hangs in a stairwell. Just to give you an idea of the building, which is a totally inconspicuous art project.  

The exhibition was impressive, but it also had an element of experiment - the exhibition was reinstalled halfway through it's three month viewing. I was only able to view the reinstallation by the artist Danh Vo and not the original Wiel's curated show. I noticed a few pieces were not on view. Perhaps this had something to do with logistics or another show? I was not disappointed by any means, I just can't help but think what I would have, could have seen  had I showed up two weeks earlier.

Walking through the exhibition, I had feelings of loneliness, of mortality and of celebration. It was somber and quiet. One gallery had a time line stenciled in silver close to the ceiling. I like the idea of timelines, especially in relation and reflection of events that have taken place in my life. It's a simple way of looking at the past, yet it was a revelation as I had not thought to look at one life that way. 

There were many works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres that I had not seen before. I have tried to find the titles of the pieces I saw, unfortunately and stupidly, I did not write them down. 

Untitled (Beginning), 1994

Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1991 

Untitled (Placebo), 1991

The view above:

and below:

Read more about the exhibition, here.

Learn more about Wiels, here.

Just Another Saturday

Other than that, I can't think of a reason why Mr. Wonderful bought me a mango and matching roses. He is the best!

A New Leaf

Have you ever seen leaves like this before?

April 15th

We're back from holiday in Amsterdam. I have lots of pictures to go through before I create a post about our trip, but it was so much fun! Today I woke up to an email about cupcakes. Not a bad way to start the day. Cupcakes are hard to find here...

It's a beautiful Belgium day here, but it's not a day to rest. Later, I will go to Brussels to visit a friend and take a look at Cook & Book, a big two building book store with 9 libraries and restaurants inside. I can't wait!

Tip-Toe Through the Tulips

We'll be away for a few days...

Can you guess where???

Anyone?

Anyone?

Delft graffiti tiles by Hugo Kaagman. 

Fiets Foto

I am not sure about the translation of the title of this post, but in Dutch fiets means bike, and foto means photo.  Make of it what you will, but I've been riding my bike a lot more. I just wanted to share some photos that I've captured during these rides,

Another Blast from the Past

I was out and about in Dallas one year ago today. This post never made it up, I'm sure because I wanted to go on and on about the Charlie Harper exhibit at The Public Trust. I just love his work. It's beautiful, simple and just so pleasing to my eye.

Another thing that looks wonderful in this post is the food.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it. 

I ate at Twisted Root today. I just heard about this place last night. I couldn't believe that there was a hamburger place in Dallas that I hadn't tried. The burger was excellent, tasty and seasoned with just the right amount of pepper and spice.

I treated Leslie to a Root Beer Float. His birthday is tomorrow and it's the least I could do, since he is helping me with my next project:

Hamburger with sweet potato chips

Ice Cream Sign

After lunch, Bill, Leslie and I went for a walk to discover the old neighborhood...

Something interesting in between buildings...

At The Public Trust, flanked with my posse.

My favorite Charlie Harper piece:

The best thing about this piece are that some of the animals are actually cut out and then pasted onto the paper. It makes me wonder if he had made a mistake? It also reassures me that mistakes happen, and it's ok to keep going. Even if you have to cut out a piece of paper to cover it up. 


What I want for Christmas:

Buy it here.


Acme Rubber Stamp shop: they can create custom stamps

This is only a SMALL portion of the HUGE amounts of stamps. AND they do custom orders! Hmmmmm... the possibilities are endless!

Old stuff is the best...

It's still dusty!


My mouth is still watering thinking about those hamburgers.

Mr. Wonderful and Mark Bittman

I am such a lucky girl. I have Mr. Wonderful and Mark Bittman, and when the two come together, it's a magical night. One such night was last night, Mr. Wonderful and I cooked this delicious meal after an evening bike ride and run* to Park Abbey.
*Jon runs, I walk.

Jean George's Fried Rice

(Recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman, here.)

Cookbook author Mark Bittman, always features fresh recipes on the new Diner's Journal, a New York Times blog. His older blog Bitten, was fabulous - full of recipes, interesting articles about the food we eat and my favorite - how-to videos. Mark is also known as The Minimalist, that's probably the reason Mr. Wonderful likes him too.

Mark's recipes are simple to make, the ingredients are always fresh and accessible and the outcome is always delicious! He has traveled to Europe, has eccentric taste and has the best sense of humor - no wonder I LOVE this man!  Spend an evening with Mark Bittman, you will not be disappointed.

Oh, and check out Kate Murphy's article, First Camera, Then Fork. It's really interesting!

 Now for some fun photos from last night's dinner...

It's the USA in leeks!

Outside our kitchen window:

Perfectly pink and placed jet trails in the sky...

And the Leuven Bat Show!

How cool is that?

I Hear

And my hair is long. 

Lovely Leuven Day

In the center of Leuven is Europe's longest bar - Oude Markt. Although, it's not really a "bar" in American context. It's actually more like an open space, the size of a football field, filled with chairs and tables - outdoor extensions of the cafés that outline the space. 

 

On a beautiful day Oude Markt is filled with people - sunning, sipping coffee, drinking beer and hanging out with friends. Yesterday was a gorgeous day sunny day in the 60's, a break from the 40 degree weather we endured all weekend.  I met some friends at a table and learned how to play Mahjong.

We played a simple version from the Chinese province where my friend is from. The first step in the game is to "wash" the tiles.

Next, you build up walls between the four players. These walls are about 13 - 15 tiles across and two tiles high.

This is fun to do with architects.

Now, we are ready to play!

The dice is rolled in the center of the walls (the courtyard). The highest number is the dealer, or the one who goes first. The first tiles that are to be dealt out are determined by the number rolled on the dice and counted on the walls in a counterclockwise direction, and then by the number of tiles on the wall in a clockwise direction. Did you get that? 

All four players take turns taking four tiles until they have 12 tiles, and then the dealer delivers one more to each player for a total of 13 tiles. 

The object of this version of mahjong is to be the first with four sets - there are many combinations - but the one I was striving for was four sets of three and a pair. It's a lot like gin rummy.

 

The characters that we played with are stones, bamboo and ones (100,000), but there are more in the set. Maybe next time we'll play a more advanced version and use all of the other tiles. 

It's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the Chinese characters for the numbers 1 - 9. 

Mahjong is also known as the silent battle, something I understand now. It's a fun game especially when played with friends (good teachers) and refreshments.

Nothing like a Hoegaarden on a gorgeous sunny day,

and Chinese cookies, also known as Want Want.

A fun day in the sun!