trois jour weekend

as commercial as these belgians claim our american halloween to be, you can't refute that, i will be thinking halloween thoughts this weekend, and i'm wearing halloween socks from thriller four years ago to prove loyalty.

i will miss seeing the color orange everywhere. i will miss eating reeces ghosts, goblins, ghouls or whatever shape they are selling this year. i will miss seeing my nieces and nephews clad in wigs, make-up, and plastic in the hopes for a day becoming their ultimate idol: ariel or dinos. i will miss seeing my parents pizazz come out as they don a cleverly planned costume so opposite of their true nature: a pirate judge or the wicked witch. i will miss decorating pumpkin sugar cookies with my beloved family. no costumes needed, no screams, or scares. just love. such a simple tradition we've had for---to say it this way: i think the pumpkin cookie cutter that has made thousands of waistline spreading goodies is older than i am---that is how long we've been making pumpkin sugar cookies. i love family.

we're off for a three day weekend. not because of halloween, but all saints day. 

we took our first night snapshots and the candlelit streets were as spooky as it got here...

take home chronicles: impressionism, spirals, and stuffing

i spy something with my little eye something that is colorful all over...

an artist at work. wow.

 

in our wildest dreams our house has a spiral staircase.

and an overly tufted sofa.

i really like europe, almost everything about it. but our wildest dreams do not include taxidermy. sorry every other store here who has dead stuffed somethings hanging on walls.

but i have a hankering for plastered or papered taxidermy and even have considered making a taxidermy giraffe of sorts.

1/2 point five 50%

i'm half way to a birthday as of this week. normally my half birthday in october passes without my recognition, but i realized a few weeks ago that it was coming up and got all excited. we made belgium chocolate cake to celebrate. i scouts-honor-promised devin could eat the whole rest of the cake, after my yummy piece was gone. we were both happy campers.

 we played the very merry unbirthday song, and then devin demonstrated "the carlton", from fresh prince-dunno how i missed out on such a dance move like that until now. it all was worthy of a half birthday

pics from rainy brussels saturday

i exaggerated yesterday, maybe there is fall here in belgium. but this is one of the few trees i've seen that changed color.

i selfishly started what i hope to keep as a half birthday tradition for our family. it was a friendly reevaluation checkpoint, a half way mark, and who doesn't love a reason for some extra cake?

the flea market that happens daily: RAIN or shine.

there is frost on the grass this morning. it is below freezing here. no fall here in belgium. just jump into winter. over the weekend it was rainy Rainy RAINY.

i'm learning i'm a flea market follower-where they are, we follow. 

it's a given then, that i've been itching to visit the well known belgian flea market in the place du jeu de balle. it earns it's fame for going on day in and day out. 365. amazing.

 some of this stuff is hard for me to believe anyone would want: mannequins, rain soaked teddy bears, piles of old hardware... but one man's junk is another man's treasure.

after all the hunting through junk, we did find a stellar hat vendor. the photo below is proof of purchase. our first improvement to the gear that'll help us better brave the bitter winter.

enter...exit

enter friterie that i wistfully drool at every time we go grocery shopping.

exit with many pounds of blissful fries all wrapped in a lovely bouquet.

belgian frites, thick and caloric, lived up to their expectation.
bon travail belgique. j t'aime.
i really honestly love belgium...it's taken some time, but it's spot in my heart is growing.

take home chronicles: cobblestone

devin's achilles heel (second after me of course) is european cobblestone. it is not unusual to see him in the middle of a busy square hunched over, mesmerized, and wanting to memorize that perplexing pattern. once he got his chapstick out and was taking pictures to get the dimensions right and was in the way of almost everyone, and i especially loved belonging to him at that moment-i also wished i had another camera to capture it. he has been known to stop the car in the middle of the road to try and pry a loose rock free. he hasn't succeeded yet, but our trunk does have three cobble stones in it from a construction site. so endearing, but so not coming back in my suitcase.

i really hope he's figured the pattern out, heaven knows i haven't. i'll let him stare and hunch, park cars and pry rocks, block traffic and picture-take all he wants because who wouldn't want a driveway like that? well, i guess i probably wouldn't in snowy utah. but, still.

teeny tiny itsy bitsy little luxembourg

little luxembourg has a more formal name than that, much more formal actually. the grand duchy of luxembourg is our neighboring country, and is quite different than belgium, which i find fascinating. they have cheaper gas, a different flag, bigger hills, their own language, and most noticeably was the absense of brick in architecture, which is all there is here in belgium. all the colorful plastered buildings reminded me of both scandinavia and san fran-we called the mix scan fran. i stood on the oldest structure of my life: casemates bock, built around 900 BC. i didnt buy a plate, but i found one. i guess well have to go back.  it was raining hard while we were there. i welcomed all the rain that could fit in my boots, until my toes were numb. time for new boots i guess.

citadelle at dimant

if ever you are in belgium, this is the place to see. it's smack in the middle of the ardennes forest, smack on the edge of a cliff and a river, and now smack in the middle of my heart. we fell in love with it for it's small size, lack of tourists, tram rides, never ending stairs, flags, bridges, on the water feel, huge cathedral stain glass windows, old school mini coopers, and make ya quiver in your boots view. it was a perfect day trip destination, and among our top five favorites of belgium.

before and after

devin cut my hair. i mentioned having him cut it because i didn't want to pay a hairstylist with whom i couldn't communicate. he didn't put up a fight and agreed suprisingly fast, although i shouldn't have been surprised because he loves a new challenge. it took only about ten minutes. we were crackin up the whole time because we had no idea what we were doing and didn't really care. it's long hair. it'll grow. we're in europe, when are will be the next time we have where we don't see anyone we know so you can actually try this? now or never.

can't tell the difference? yeah i can't really either.

tree street in your husband's blazer or a red convertable

about every twenty minutes worth of driving in belgium you will run into one of these streets lined with canopy trees. i remember adoring the canopy trees on the provo canyon trail nearby my childhood home. with one so close by here, it's hard not to want to walk down it with every setting sun, even if it means you have to wear your husband's blazer to stay warm. now i gotta build a tree street of my own...

...and drive this car down it, wearing those same old man caps and all:)