Dinner with Irene from Bloesem Kids
Irene Hoofs is the creative brain behind two of our favourite blogs: Bloesem Living and Bloesem Kids. She always digs up the most beautiful finds, and her blogs are full of inspiration. Irene lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with her husband Rik and their two cute sons Lode and Kiet. Here is her dinnertime story!
In my house we have dinner in ‘shifts’. We are all together, my two boys, my husband and I, but the boys have dinner first around 5:30pm or so while my husband and I sit at the table or kitchen countertop to have a drink and a snack. We have an open kitchen that directly connects to the dining area. Since we both work full-time, this is our moment to blow off a bit of steam and share the day’s war stories. After the kids have gone to bed around 7:30pm we sit down and have a quiet dinner, sometimes with friends or family who are visiting us in Malaysia. All sounds pretty organized? Not so organized actually; getting the boys to sit still for more than a few minutes and finish their dinner is quite a challenge! As a measure of last resort, we promise a reward, mostly ice-cream or a frozen yogurt-stick, if they finish their veggies. What is a mom to do?
My secret weapon, chef and backbone of the household, is lovely Ruth. Ruth is our live-in nanny and cook in Kuala Lumpur. She is simply amazing. Ruth left Myanmar when she was 15 years old and has been working as a private cook since. First, ten years with families in Bangkok and now she has been with us for almost a year. We are very lucky to have her and enjoy Thai cuisine every day; she also makes wonderful what she calls “non-spicy and a bit boring Western” dishes, such as Shepherd’s pie and lasagna. Ruth’s homemade secret recipe spring rolls are to die for! As you know, it is quite common in Asia to have a live-in nanny. To me, living in Malaysia without the support network of my family in the Netherlands close by, having a trusted pair of hands to help run the household is truly a blessing, allowing me to work at home and run my Bloesem blogs.
Of course, I do dabble in the kitchen myself in the weekends and make a few decent Italian dishes. I really envy the Italians, such a beautiful tradition of food and family dinners. So I try to instill a bit of that traditional family dinner culture in my house – time out for all to simply enjoy mom’s home cooking. If I don’t feel like cooking in the weekends, we eat out in one of the many restaurants in Kuala Lumpur; our favorite one, Chinoz, is only a short walk from where we live; they make excellent fresh sushi that even the boys enjoy; their favorite is the “cucumber maki”. Eating out with the entire family, including young kids or babies is a very normal thing to do in Malaysia and most restaurants are fully equipped with baby chairs, coloring sets and all sorts of other distractions for the kids to help them sit through a long dinner. This is one of the things I like about Asia: kids are allowed everywhere, all the time, the more the merrier.
Thank you ladies from Babyccino for this lovely invitation. I simply love Babyccino and all the inspiring things you do so it is a treat for me to be a guest here. xxirene
Last but not least a recipe… well actually I don’t really have one. But here at BKids you can find some handy ones!
Picnik time!
Our New Earth
I was recently introduced to Hugh Dinning and his lovely brand Our New Earth through the Australian father-in-law of my friend Elke. It’s funny how we sometimes get to know people on the other side of the world just like that!
Our New Earth is a completely organic line of baby clothes and accessories, and Hugh has passionately told me how he’s constantly striving to find the cleanest and most honestly fabricated materials for his collections. He’s now for instance working with gorgeous 100% organic and natural dyed denims for his upcoming winter collections.
In the meantime I’ve completely fallen in love with the simplicity and timelessness of the Our New Earth designs. It’s all just so adorable! The little sunsuits (see photo of Ava featuring one above), the sweet embroidered and smock dresses, all with the sweetest details, the adorable dress shirts and jackets and pants, the easy bloomers and tank tops…
You can find Our New Earth on our shopping portal here, with a great 15% discount this month — and the prices are already so very, very pleasant!
xxx Esther
The 4 Reasons hotel in Turkey: a heavenly stay!
We just came back from a week in Turkey where we stayed in the most beautiful, relaxing hotel: the 4 Reasons hotel on the Bodrum peninsula. It was like a dream! The hotel is just amazing: it’s located on a hill top, overlooking old olive orchards with the little village of Yalikavak behind it, located on the Aegean sea with its many islands. The hotel gardens are stunning, with the grand palm trees, the olive trees in bloom, the Murlberry trees full of fruit ready to be picked (the kids loved it), the shady grass area with a lily pond full of quacking frogs and at least one turtle… There’s bocce ball to be played (a ball game similar to pétanque), a huge refreshing swimming pool, an award winning barman who makes the best lemonades in the world and loves children, a well filled library, a pool table for entertainment at nights (my husband and I were both crap at it but so competitive!). We were spoiled with an extensive breakfast on the terrace every morning, overlooking the beautiful bay area and village below, and lunch and dinners were equally lovely and tasteful. The service was impeccable, the staff super sweet and helpful, and never intruding.
The village is a pleasant 20 minutes walk and there are a few nice restaurants, a little harbour, and some touristy shops — it makes for a lovely little outing. We greatly enjoyed the local market with the most amazing fruits, vegetables and textiles on Thursday!
A trip to Bodrum was fun with the local mini buses (dolmus). We spent most of the day visiting the 15th century Bodrum castle with in it the underwater museum with treasures and ship wrecks, a worthy visit — the castle is beautiful, with great gardens, peacocks roaming around, and amazing views over the city and the sea. We also visited the insignificant (but still impressive!) remains of one of the seven ancient world wonders, the Mausuleum of Mausolus. The Bodrum daily market was fun with stalls filled with spices, fruits, veggies, housewares and some handmade wooden toys and utensils.
We booked the 4 Reasons hotel through I-escape and stayed in one of the ‘functional’ rooms, which was not at all big but very nice, fresh and functional, with a separate bed and bathroom area for the two bigger children (5 and 6). We had Ava (1) in a cot in the room with us. We took a flight to Bodrum airport and the ever so nice and helpful hotel staff arranged transfers to and from the hotel for us. All in all, this was a vacation I can totally recommend if you like to go somewhere relaxing and beautiful with little children in tow (or without!). We’ll certainly be back.
xxx Esther
Monkey Feet
One of the great things about living in the Netherlands is that you’re never far from the beach. Dutch beaches are wide and sandy and perfect for wintery, windy walks, but even better to enjoy on a sunny summer day — what’s better than playing in the sand for hours and hours? Even I still like to build a good sand castle! Besides the obligatory buckets and spades, these fantastic Monkey Print Sandals found at the new web boutique Sweet Pea will also provide hours of beach fun this summer. My son has already tested them out endlessly on our wooden living room floor, he sounded like the perfect clog-wearing little Dutchman but thankfully no foot-stamps were left. I can already imagine the fun he will have at the beach pretending to be a little monkey!
xxx Esther
Dinner with Jordan from Oh Happy Day
Jordan Ferney from Oh Happy Day is one of the most creative people we know. Her blog is super inspiring, and we love her adventurous nature — she recently spent a year living in Paris with her husband, Paul (an artist), and their two cute boys Moses and Roman. Here is her dinnertime story!
My husband Paul and I both work and we both share the childcare responsibilities. I do the menu planning and a big grocery trip once a week while he does the small trips through out the week. Our dinnertime happens about 7pm. Paul cooks dinner most of the time. But I do the prep work for dinner in the morning after breakfast. I hate that feeling late in the day of having to prepare dinner but you don’t have any food or ideas. So I eliminate it by preparing food in the morning. Then Paul just has to throw it together.
My kids are still small (2 and 4) but we try to all sit down for dinner together in the dining room. We don’t have any real rules but the kids have to at least try the main course to be polite. There are certain vegetables my kids love like fresh peas and haricot verts so we usually have a side of those and then make sure there is some sort of protein. One of the best things about France is the bread and cheese so we have a baguette and cheese with our dinner most nights. About once a week we do green smoothies. Our kids love them and it’s our last resort for getting vitamins in our kids when they are feeling picky. (Basic recipe is: 2 bananas, 1 cup of orange juice, ice, 1/2 cup plain yogurt, and two giant handfulls of baby green spinach and water as needed to blend.) Since we moved to France we don’t do take out very often but we do have regular easy meals like one night a week where we buy a rotisserie from our local butcher. And when the weather is nice we grab a pizza on Fridays and go to the park across the street from our house for a picnic. Besides that we eat lots of soups and bean and vegetable salads. I’m really inspired by 101 Cookbooks and Ottolenghi Cookbooks. I usually prepare a salad in the morning then we eat it for lunch or as a side dish for dinner. My favorite salad is this lentil salad. I make it 2-3 times a week. It’s so good, simple and fresh.
- Jordan
gorgeousness from Minikin
What a pleasure to look at, these images that Anna took of her daughter for the Minikin Lookbook! I love the styling, and what a beautiful little girl she has… Take a look at the Minikin boutique — you’ll discover even more gorgeousness to drool over. I couldn’t resist getting Sara the long tutu in grey which she’s actually wearing today — a super piece!
xxx Esther
Dinner with Zoe from Zoe & Drew
Zoe Grant studied Creative Arts at Birmingham University, and loves creating and designing and has a passion for prints and patterns. She, her husband Drew and their five (!) children (Connor (13), Jack (12), Lucy (11), Amber (9) and Kitty(5)) all live in a little village in Suffolk, UK. We’re so impressed that Zoe still finds time to write her blog Zoe & Drew! Here is her dinnertime story.
Dinnertimes for me, in our house are the most important time of the day. It is the time when we all catch up on each others days and also helps my children to take turns in conversations. With five children life can be incredibly chaotic, especially during the week with Brownies, Guides, orchestra practices and sports matches. However apart from Tuesdays we manage to eat as a family everyday, with the occasional exception. We eat between 6 and 6.30pm everyday, which may seem a little late as our youngest is only five but with a healthy snack after school to stop the tummy rumbles, Kitty is more than happy to wait to eat all together. (more…)
Musical Mushrooms from Annabel Kern
I’m a big fan of soft musical toys for babies. I truly believe it’s soothing for them to hear a familiar melody just before they fall asleep, and especially when traveling it can help to make little ones feel relaxed in new surroundings. These musical mushrooms from Annabel Kern are a great choice! Super original, royally sized, a wonderful deco piece in the nursery (and I love ‘Hey Jude’ as a tune). But have a look at the boutique, there are also apple and pear music boxes, adorable pillows, soft ice-cream cones, lovely pillows, and more to discover!
xxx Esther
ONE YEAR AGO WE WROTE ABOUT:
• Personalised charm bracelets from Merci Maman• The delightful Anne Taintor
Poco Nido baby shoes
Sweet! Love these little baby shoes from Poco Nido. Little baby slippers are so handy this time of year (well, any time of year, really) — we don’t want our little ones to be getting cold feet, or slipping all over the place when they just start trotting around! These sweet shoes come in a nicely designed, tube-shaped gift-box, so they are also the perfect present to give to a newborn. (Everything at Poco Nido actually is really well designed — their website is one of the best ones we’ve seen in a while!)
xxx Esther
Corby Tindersticks
Posters made out of felt and decorated with hand-embroidered details. Sweet screen printed t-shirts made out of fair trade, organic cotton sourced in Africa. Handmade toys with funny legs and big bellies and interesting stories to tell (and with a back that is as nice as the front). Fun! We’re loving what Carly and Nick from Corby Tindersticks have done for their first collections, and are anxiously waiting to see what they’ll come up with next! (Their sketch book looks promising!)
xxx Esther
1,2,3, FOUR! (Times 2!)
Tadaaaa! We’re excited to share the BIG news with you: both Courtney and I are pregnant with our fourth babies!! A FOURTH baby!! We feel so very lucky, blessed, and excited too! (A little nervous as well — we hope we’ll be able to manage it all!) We also feel very lucky to be pregnant at the same time. We were pregnant together with our second babies, and it’s so nice to be able to share the excitement, joy, insecurities, inconveniences, etc.
So, for the next coming months, we’ll be focussing a bit more on maternity and newborn essentials. So fun to be back in baby mode again!
Love, Courtney and Esther
p.s. Any guess as to which baby above belongs to whom? Extra bonus points for people who get it right!
We love: Beau Loves
Beau Loves is a new fashion label — we met the team at the last Bubble trade-show in London and we instantly liked what we saw. Fresh stripes, bright red accents, fun superhero-mask prints, and great detailing like dino spikes on the hood of a sweatshirt! If you like the collection too, then head over to Sweet Pea for part of the collection, or to the newly launched (and very cool) Beau Loves webshop.
xxx Esther
Pequeño Tocon — at Orfeo
Swoon… Pascale from Orfeo emailed me about their new Spanish brand Pequeño Tocon. Beautiful, natural colours, soft, delicate fabrics, and little details makes this brand stand out. What a great find, and a perfect addition to the other outstanding selections at Orfeo — we are big fans!
xxx Esther
Sweet butterflies from Dents de Loup!
Another sweet baby find! These beautiful butterflies are completely handmade by Paula from Dents de Loup and luckily enough I was able to catch one here in Amsterdam — it came fluttering by all the way from India! I love the combination of techniques used (knitting, sewing, embroidery), and the unique finished product is ideal for little babies to play with, feel it, chew it… So cute!
xxx Esther
Stitch ‘n Kids: the Sewing Machine
Last year we gave Sara a sewing machine for Christmas. She was five at the time, and had always shown an honest interest for sewing (she would almost sit on my lap when I was busy with my machine). So after reading up on the best age to give a child her (or his!) first sewing machine, and not finding a very clear answer, we decided to just go for it — if she would still be too young, she would certainly grow into it at some point.
I’ve rarely seen a child so excited by a gift as Sara when she opened her package, and her sewing machine is still one of her most treasured possessions. So, what does she sew? First of all, she still needs a lot of help. Preparing the machine (inserting the bobbin, leading the thread through the machine, pulling it through the needle etc) is something she can’t completely do herself just yet. But she’s getting quite good at cutting the fabric, pinning it together, and sewing straight lines. So far she’s made lots of little pillows, an easy thing to make (with fast results) and a great present for her friends (doll’s cushions!), or teachers and grandparents (pin cushions!). Simple bags are a step up from the pillows and she needs a bit more help with these. She also made a little dress for her little sister’s doll, and this was something we did together according to her design, and it turned out really nice!
All in all, I think we made the right decision to give her the machine fairly early. In case you’re interested, Sara’s machine is a Janome Sew Mini de Luxe.
xxx Esther
Dinner with Sarah from Nyom Nyoms
Sarah from Nyom Nyoms is a full time mummy of 2 little children, Noah (6) and Matilda (4). She lives in Bushey (about 20-30 minutes outside of London), and is passionate about children’s clothing and interiors, and easy-to-prepare dishes. Here is her dinnertime story!
Ok…let me begin this by saying that when I was asked by Esther to guest post my dinnertime rituals, I was thrilled!! So that night, when pesto pasta was on the menu, the camera came out hoping I could get some great snapshots. The kids were enthusiastic to help. Fantastic, I thought, I should get some fab pictures! Then within the next 10 mintutes my son Noah smashed one of my favourite glasses after I’d told him to calm down for about the fifth time, one of the cats was sick over the kitchen floor and the pan of water cooking the pasta boiled over and put out the gas on the hob….which I hadn’t noticed!! I became monster mummy!!!! Aggghhhhhh!!! Of course it isn’t always like this, but some days it is… (more…)
PrestoBingo shapes App
Sweet, this Shapes app by PrestoBingo! We’re loving the beautiful graphics and the educational content. Currently only available in English, but thanks to the easy lay-out kids will quickly figure out how to play this mathematical app, no matter what language they speak. A great way to practise shapes, math and basic geometry!
xxx Esther
Great things to win this month!
Wow, we love this month’s items to win!
* What about a stunning Tutu du Monde Sugar Drop silk tutu in the size of your choice? A dream for every little girl!
* Or, a super handy Bizzyboard week planner — the fun and interactive organiser for the entire family.
* The oversized wall decals from Pop &Lolli will cheer up any room — you can now win a $150 gift certificate to spend on any of the cool wall decals.
* And last but not least, the incredibly cool DESKHOUSE from Ninetonine! It’s a desk, a drawing board, a playhouse and a hiding spot all in one!
Wow! The four winners at the end of this month will be highly envied by all of us! Have you already entered? You can do so here. Good luck!
ONE YEAR AGO WE WROTE ABOUT:
• The perfect Easter dress from Baby Barn• Win!! Amazing kite from Gray Label!
• Nettle quiche
Our little monster!
It’s not often that personalised art takes the shape of a cool looking monster with a very big mouth and a bright red background! I couldn’t resist this Little Monster print from KoKo Kids: very modern and fresh and cool (and very cute too, but not obviously so). The royally sized poster is giclee printed with archival print, so it has a very artisanal, matte look to it. Our little monster Pim is over the moon with his poster!
xxx Esther
