Cozychalet

Still no decorations up

2011-12-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while, I think maybe due in part because I feel I'm just talking to myself, it's a bit discouraging.
I'm hoping to get some followers to my blog , at least someday :)

I haven't put up my tree yet, a bit strange maybe considering the subject of my blog, but it's been so busy with my new baby , and I'm taking care of him alone as the father lives in Europe.
I'm planning to put up possibly two trees still though, with the help of my brother , at least by tuesday .
And off course I'll show some photo's once they're up :)

Knee high socks and arm warmers

2011-12-09T20:30:00.000-08:00

I just love loading up on these! They are cheap , warm, and most of all fun! Any color, style or pattern will do . Just this week I bought 3 pairs of fingerless arm warmers on eBay. One pair is purple/white checkered , a short fingerless style :

The seller is li-shi-jian-0123 just for reference.
And I got these :

The seller is wanlu.rog . These are my favorite.

And finally these , from the same seller :

None of them are here yet , but I have similar styled gloves already and they are a great addition to my winter wardrobe :) I didn't buy too many knee high socks , just some red nylon/spandex ones , but I'm sure more will come , as they are a winter wardrobe staple favorite of mine :)

December, one of the coziest months of the year!

2011-12-04T20:18:00.000-08:00

Already I see trees on top of cars , lights around my neighbours homes , and off course plenty of decorations for sale at my local shops. Where I now live (Florida) it's still too warm though to feel very 'wintery', to me it could be just out of summer going on to fall. I grew up in the Netherlands , so I'm used to four distinct seasons, something which I absolutely love . I love exercising outdoors in the cold , give me running in -20c above running in +20c anytime! I just love the cold clean crisp air , especially in the mornings :) This month I'm likely to be making a lot of soups , one of my favorite from traditional Dutch cooking is so called "erwten soep ", just plain pea soup , but delicious none the less ! It can be made vegetarian by replacing the meat with some meat substitute , though I prefer to just leave the meat out, the substitutes don't cut it. Today I made pumpkin soup , which is also very nice , and healthy , and so easy to make! If you have any favorite cold weather recipes do share them with me , and I shall try them and let you know how it turned out :)

After eight mints

2011-11-29T19:07:00.000-08:00

I'm really craving these right now! I don't think you can buy them here in the US. I think they are European. They're pretty plain, just a chocolate outside with a minty creamy center, but I'm really in the mood for some right now .
Too bad, I only have some sugar free fudgesicles, those will have to do right now :)
And a pic for reference :

Really in need of a home make-over

2011-11-28T21:05:00.000-08:00

My home has the same carpet still in place as since I moved in more then ten years ago. I have always disliked it , but as I'm unable to afford to do much about it for the moment, I can only dream of better flooring :)
It's this beige carpet that's in most of the rooms , except for the bathroom and kitchen.
Off course over the years it has accumulated various unknown stains and spots, so by now it's a complete mess. If you look at home improvement/ decorating magazines, almost all have some wood flooring variation in all the rooms. It's so much neater, cleaner, and pristine looking .
One option would to maybe try to install the flooring myself , but it's not that easy with moving furniture and other things as well, and where would I leave those ?
Gorgeous isn't it ...

Taken from http://www.bamboofloorings.org/ I am in no way affiliated with them , but feel I should include where I got the picture.
Do share ideas if you have any, about how to redo a floor on a budget :)
Dreaming on for now at least :)

British comedies

2011-11-27T16:48:00.000-08:00

Who else here loves all those classical old British comedy series? My favorite by far has to be "Allo Allo " , it's just absolutely genius the plot , how all the episodes connect and it all just makes perfect sense which makes it even more funny. And I love the setting , a quiant French little village during the second world war (it's cozy! ). This scene is just perfect , it is when Renee (who runs the cafe) has to watch for signals from Le clerk (the towns forger) , and luietentant Gruber comes and messes it up :)

Also brilliant are Fawlty Towers, Are you being served, The good life, To the manor born, Keeping up appearances, Blackadder, The vicar of Dibley, and Bottom :)

I remember watching these during the 80's and 90's before I had internet, and me and my mom would watch all these episodes saturday night. Not of every series, I think it may have been two or three at least , and to me they are still just as funny as back then.

I don't even watch tv anymore nowadays, I have just completly given up on it.

Too many ads, and not enough interesting content!

More tomorrow :)

More about me :)

2011-11-26T16:08:00.000-08:00

I noticed I have a profile I can update, but I thought I may as well add it in here as it seems friendlier :)
Well, I'm half-Dutch, moved from the Netherlands to Florida when I was 26( 12 years ago!) to join my parents who moved here for their retirement.
I have studied online with Grantham University , and achieved my associates in Computer Science , and my bachelors in Information Systems. It is likely that I will continue soon with a masters degree in IT management. My main income at the moment will have to come from online sources as I have had severe social anxiety since I was 15 , and although it''s getting better the thought of working full time gives me serious anxiety.
I have an online relationship ,and a little baby boy , Oliver who is 5.5 months old :)
That was the boring stuff .
Off course you're probably not interested in any of this , but if anyone will be interested enough at some point to follow my blog then it's nice to know a bit about the person who's writing it all :)

I love metal ! All kinds (death, melodic death, black, folk, doom ) , it's my favorite music genre.
After that probably opera , and classical.
I'm always open to play a game, either board or video , online or on my xbox/gamecube ( no xbox 360 just yet). I used to read a lot , but it's been getting less and less over the years. I'm guessing since college, and the internet . But when I do get the chance , and have the patience to read , then I enjoy it a lot.
I used to have pet fancy ratties , I've had many since I was about 19 , but at the moment with a young baby it's a bit much. Though I'm sure I'll take care of some again , in the not too distant future :)
I'm into running , and biking , especially in the winter , in the snow , and in some European city :)
I visit Europe now about twice a year since my long distance relationship, and off course since I'm half dutch .
There's much more I could write , but that will be it for now I don't want to overwhelm and then you're off to the next blog :)

Please anyone reading feel free to introduce yourself , I"m very friendly and open to make new contacts online :)

Online boardgames.

2011-11-25T16:46:00.000-08:00

Anyone maybe remember that site games.com (before hasbro bought back the rights) , when it was still with multiplayer options for games such as Monopoly, Sorry, & Yahtzee? I especially miss the Monopoly. I haven't found it anywhere else online, not in a similar format at least. Though a lot of people would cheat when they were losing, by simply stopping to roll the dice on their turn so their score wouldn't decrease , it was still a fun game site . Especially if you don't have anyone to play these games with in real time , this was a good alternative.
I have looked all over the internet for a similar site , if anyone knows one please let me know :) There's Pogo.com , but it's not the same , the game is very fast paced and hard to follow.

Thanksgiving day

2011-11-24T21:18:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a lovely thanksgiving day! My mom made the best vegetarian dinner with sweet potato, vegetarian meatloaf, brocolli in some yummy sauce , spinach/egg omelet , and off course for dessert flour free chocolate cake with whipped cream! It was delicious :)

I went for a run again to today , I hadn't since a few months since my late pregnancy ( I ran up until 33 weeks ) and the birth of my son . It went well , it was cold and I had a bit of a sore knee , but it was great to be running again!

I have yet to introduce myself in some way , but that will come still. Possibly in my next post , maybe by tomorrow :) I'm feeling soooo excited to be blogging finally, I should have done this much sooner ! :)

Very new to this !

2011-11-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

This shouldn't be too hard right, millions of people have posted blog messages before online before me.
I'm not entirely sure yet what I will be blogging about , but I do feel a lot of my messages will center around cozy living , shopping , trying new products, travel (especially to Europe!) , the internet, games , music etc etc etc.

And just to test my new blog I will already post this , regardless of how un-interesting it still is :p