Last minute projects/flea market finds!

Leevi and I said that we didn't want to buy a lot of nice things and 'adult furniture' until we were wrapping up our military career because things always get damaged in the moves BUT after coming over to Europe it was too hard to resist!  We got the big table, bench, wine cabinet, wine barrel, and antique trunk and there were quite a few little things I also wanted. 

 

A vintage dough bowl was definitely on my list but they are getting extremely hard to find since they have become extremely popular with the Americans in this area.  A friend of mine lived here 15 years ago and she said that she had never heard of them and other things were the hot item.  I perused my local antique shops without any luck...my last chance was going to be at the Spring Bazaar, but it was the weekend we were in Italy.  I asked my neighbor if she could go for me and she said that she had a dough bowl that was given to her that she didn't want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  My jaw fell to the ground!!!!!!  It had a pretty big crack in the bottom and someone had attempted to repair it, but it definitely needed some work.  She saved me $100!!!!!!!!!  I wish I had taken a photo of the crack before Leevi repaired it, but here it is with the repair before the stain...and then after!  Since the move came so quickly after I finished it, I didn't decorate it, but it will be the centerpiece on our table for the new house and I'll change out the décor seasonally!  It's big and I love it!!!!

A fun Pinterest project I attempted was a letter rubbing onto wood.  My first attempt (the blue sign) was tooooooo easy so I tried again on the grey sign and it was super hard (definitely don't look too close!!!)  I do love them though!!!

 

Some ladies from the neighborhood and I went together on a USO bus trip to Tongeren, Belgium...it is the oldest city in Belgium (founded in 15BC!!!!!!!) and every Sunday for the past 35 years they have been hosting an antique flea market.  We got there a little late for flea market standards (they opened at 6 and we arrived after 8) but we still found some great steals!  My only regret was a cute stool that was the absolute FIRST thing I saw on the corner when we entered...we ran into someone we knew later who bought it and it was only 10 euro!!!  Lesson learned quick, but seriously, who buys the FIRST thing they see!!???  I should have at least asked the price!

 

The middle right photo is the remaining old Roman wall and the colored photo on the bottom left are old Belgian bicycle license plates!!  We were seeing them everywhere and finally stopped to ask what they were.  Each district has it's own shape and each color was for the year...most of these were from the 70's and 80's...pretty fun!  Cycling is HUGE in Belgium!!!

My 15 euro barn ladder!!!!  I stained it and I'm going to hang it on it's side in the new house and put picture frames on it like in the photo below...

 This is a little too cluttered for my liking but I'm picturing something like this! 

 Another dough bowl...super awesome 10 euro steal!!!!  I'll keep my fruit in it! 

An old milk jug for 15 euro! 

ANOTHER demijohn!!!!  I got the big green one on the left for 25 euro...I've had the clear one on the right and I also have another green one that fits into a crate.  My friend, Jewlee, has a silhouette machine and helped me made the "M" out of vinyl!  I LOVE it!!!  PRAYING it survives the move!!!!!

This is not from Tongeren but a Pinterest idea...I got the knobs from Hobby Lobby on clearance and Leevi drilled holes in a beat up pallet plank for me...we are going to hang purses and backpacks on it in the new house!  And I also made a silver one for the girls to hang their necklaces on in their room! CHEAP and CUTE!

 

Bruges, Belgium

Bruges, Belgium has been on our to-do list for quite some time, but the weather over here really only allows for great travel in the late Spring through early Fall.  We were supposed to go back in August, but a terrorist threat in Belgium prevented us from leaving Germany (thankfully it was just a threat, but unfortunately we didn't get our money back from our hotel)  Anyway,  since our winter was so mild and our spring was looking great, we decided to try Bruges over Leevi's 4-day weekend in March.  It was a little chilly on the first day, but Saturday was perfect!  Bruges became a major trading city back in the late 1200's with it's harbor being the most important link with the Mediterranean Sea.  It was hopping until the 1500's when it's connection to the sea turned into sand!  For almost 300 years it was just a regular city but in the late 1800's more and more tourists started visiting and it is now known as the cultural capital of Europe!!!

 

Luke is always so helpful when we need to pack!

Good ole minivan!  It was exactly a 4 hour drive to the hotel.  I remember we found out that we were moving to Germany and it not sounding as cool as say, Italy, but holy moly, Germany is the absolute perfect central location for European travel...less than a five hour drive in any direction from our house can get you to France, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Netherlands or Poland...add a few more hours to that and you'll be in Italy, Spain or Russia.  It has been such a blessing to see all that we have and we know for certain we wouldn't have been able to see on a European Vacation from the States.  The money spent on all of our travels combined for the past four years would probably come close to what a family would spend on a 2 week vacation here if you have to factor in airfare from the States. 

We always look for an apartment type rental to stay in so we can put the kids to bed and not have to tiptoe around a hotel room at night and I found this 'chalet' super close to the city center of Bruges.  It was basically a trailer at a camping ground and Leevi made fun all weekend that we were staying at a trailer park, but it was absolutely perfect for our family!  Clean, lots of space, we could cook our own meals, and there were fun woods for the kids to explore! 

One of the last standing city gates...

Bruges is known as one of the Northern canal based cities and compared to Venice.  And take note of the dog sleeping in the window of the bottom right photo! :)

The Markt square and the Burg square...

After we checked into the hotel on Friday, we wandered into town just as a Carnival parade was starting!  It was definitely a fun way to begin our weekend! And again, note the sweet dog in the middle left photo...he stood like that for a lot of the parade! :)  We recognized a lot of the floats (Thomas, Ice Age, Turbo) but some we had no clue and Leevi and I laughed at the amount of parade participants drinking beers and smoking cigarettes while they were marching!

Gotta love an afternoon ice cream treat!  All three kids had battled a nasty virus over the 2 weeks leading up to our trip.  Hailey was the last to fall victim and had missed two days of school that week of our trip and was still feeling blah.  Thankfully she woke up Saturday morning as good as new! 

Such a cute town!

The willow tree in the top left picture is a popular photo taking spot, but it had yet to bloom when we were there :(  All three kids had battled a nasty virus over the 2 weeks leading up to our trip.  Hailey was the last to fall victim and had missed two days of school that week of our trip and was still feeling blah.  Thankfully she woke up Saturday morning as good as new!

 

These were the woods by our campsite...very fun!

There was a VERY challenging ropes course!!!

And a fun lake to throw rocks in!

The sun was out on Saturday and we were able to do the canal tour and stop at the Beer Wall and sit in their garden for a bit.  Belgium has 780 beers and the quote Leevi is standing below says, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Benjamin Franklin  Apparently the Belgians are the 2nd highest country to consume beers behind the Brits and ahead of the Australians!

The kids enjoyed the 30minute boat tour as much as we did.

Kailee and Luke were obsessed with touching the water!

I had to include this photo because it's too funny...it's so hard finding a person to take a picture with my big camera and try to explain what to do when mostly likely they don't speak English!  Sometimes I just go with my iPhone.  The person asked if this was ok and we just nodded and said, "yes, yes, thank you, thank you!" :)  Round two was much more successful! :)

The chocolate shops were EVERYWHERE and of course we had to get a Belgium waffle!!!!  The chocolate spoons in the top left picture are popular in Bruges...you add them to hot milk to make hot chocolate...we bought a few to make at home.  YUM!

A french fry treat from a popular vendor in the Markt square...he had about 20 different sauces to try, but since they were written in French, we stuck with good ole ketchup! Europeans mainly use mayonnaise on their fries or a mayo/ketchup combo!

Saturday afternoon we made a 20 minute drove over to the shore!  It was biting cold with the wind, but the kids had fun digging in the sand! 

Blankenberge beach on the North Sea

And our "redo" photo!!!  It was a great weekend!!!