Art supplies!

It took awhile to convey what I was looking for when I stopped in the commercial painting store first. Eventually, after four attempts in three stores, I got there!

Just a little update on the present; tomorrow's post: back to the past.

To Brussels

On Saturday we traveled the very short train trip to Brussels to experience the largest city in our country. Honestly the city seems a little confused with all of the signs in French and Dutch. As neither of us can read either language it took a minute for us to figure this out. Most Belgians can speak at least those two languages and (thank God) English as well. Moving on. What we really went for wasn't the language complications, it was the sights and the tastes. Here's a little of both:

I was one of those crazies who woke up at 4am to watch Kate Middleton become a royal. And it was worth it! The dress, the ceremony, the cute little getaway car...! Naturally one of the first destinations in Brussels for us was the Royal Palace. Unfortunately it just closed to the public for the year on September 9th. Ugh, timing. Good news is it opens up again at the end of July and I will be there when it does (as long as that doesn't conflict with Tomorrowland, if so, royalty can wait a few days (important: if you click on that link a. skip the first minute and b. don't judge haha)). Moving right along...

When we had entered the Coudenberg Museum it was sunny and beautiful out. Upon our departure, it was raining. We didn't bring umbrellas with us, next time that is a must. It promptly became sunny again so it was only a little lesson to be learned this time around. We walked over to the Place du Grand Sablon next. It is an area filled with shops and on weekends (and maybe every other day?) there is an antique market in front of this gorgeous little (by European standards thus far) church. I would love to travel here for a day with this antique market as my sole purpose.

If you've ever heard of Banksy (a British street artist) you may have heard of Space Invader. Chris sniped this little guy while we exited a chocolate shop. 

The only chocolate shops we went into were the ones with free samples. And those were available more than you'd think! This one (Godiva) did not offer any freebies when we went in but they were in the middle of dipping dried fruit in chocolate and we watched until we decided more free samples were in order. So off to Pierre Macolini we went!

If you remember on Friday I said we were going to visit the little peeing boy? Well we were in luck, on Saturday we happened to find him and he was all fancy for us! We didn't dress to the nines as he did but I don't think he minded. I still don't know why he's famous. But we were there along with a street full of other tourists waiting to get our pictures with him (...again, why? Oh, this is why)

Onto my favorite part of any day: dessert! And this dessert was a great one. At any time of the day, the waffles made in this town are seriously good. Really, really really good. I want one just thinking about it. I can't even talk about it anymore I'm too hungry. Don't worry, I let Chris have some. Well, I made sure he got his own:

And then, all of a sudden, we were in the Grand Place (Grote Markt). It felt like it really was all of a sudden because one moment you're on a small side street and the next you come out into this large square with these overwhelming building all around. It was incredible. Brussels will definitely be a day-trip for anyone who wants to take a trip. I actually said "wow" when we stepped into the sunlight in the middle of it all.

We ate lunch a little to the left of where Chris is standing and just stared at our surroundings while we ate. 

 

Last glimpses of Brussels and I'm off to buy a canvas. No, really, this time I will buy something to paint on, not something someone else already painted. 

Til next time!

Copping out

On Saturday night I got so incredible sick that my skin hurt. You know that kind of sick? The kind where even clothing brushing up on it feels like torture? Today things are going much better but I just got up. It's 11am. I never do that. So, today I'll basically be copping out of blogging a bit as I'm writing this from bed and I'm going back to sleep momentarily. But I'll leave you with a few pictures of our little trip to Brussels:

Stories to come tomorrow. For now, back to sleep.

Second hand shop

Remember when I said that I'd been given the line that the second hand store could possibly have "art supplies and more"? Well, no luck in the supplies department. Several easels, all not for sale. Just a lot of "NIET TE KOOP" all over those babies. Ugh.

BUT don't worry. I still found something. And who knows, maybe it will be a little investment someday. Even though there weren't any supplies, there was a whole lot of art. Blown glass, ceramics, and a lot of paintings. In fact, I decided to simply buy a painting and use the canvas to start something of my own. I was going to do that until my eye caught a painting I couldn't resist. I picked it up because it was so beautiful. And only 25 euro. (bargain, right?) Here's a few details below, bad lighting though. You should probably all just come and visit to see it in person...bwahahah

But then I noticed the small plaque with the name, immediately my brain is going: who knows, maybe someone famous? Thoughts of Antique Roadshow went swimming through my head. And I quickly convinced Chris it was a necessary purchase since we've been collecting art each place we travel to. I did a tiny bit of research and turns out some of his stuff actually is worth more than 25 euro, more like 1500 euro...but for now I like it right where it is, in our apartment. The artist is W.J. Nuyen and you can see some of his work here and check out what this one's going for at auction!

Until our purchase, the only piece of art we;d had was one my Mom graciously allowed us to borrow. It is her print of our original painting done of the night we became engaged, by dear friend Alison Weeden. Here's our small reminder while the gift is packed and awaiting our return to the states. I just love paintings. Have to get started on my own again soon.

Tomorrow we are heading out on the first adventure outside of Leuven. We're not going too far, just to Brussels for the day, but I'm already excited to be exploring. One of our stops will definitely be this little guy:

Honestly no one has really told us why he's so famous but they did say that all the best Belgian waffles are found there, and the best chocolate. That's good enough for me. More details to come on Monday! 

Enjoy your weekend :)

A day to remember

We need to make friends with more than just this little guy 

Here in Belgium things have picked up a little bit! Last night Chris and I went to poker night. I assume it's usually a "guys only" type of event but as this is my first week here in Leuven, I was allowed to tag along. Having not played poker since 5th grade with my friend Jen Albrecht (whoa flashback) I luckily was able to back out of participating since our host's wife was also in attendance and not playing either (phew). It was refreshing to talk with another woman living in this town from abroad and though she has a job (like everyone else here) maybe we're starting to make some friends? Funny enough everyone last night was from elsewhere, not a Belgian in sight. There were people from Lithuania, Providence, RI (!), Italy and Sweden.

And what a relief to speak English with a group of people. I've felt over the past few days as if I might as well be deaf walking around this town. Conversations continually go on all around me but as I understand nothing, it's as though I could tune it all out and walk around with no hearing at all. (Though I am VERY thankful to have the ability to hear what with bike riders, cars, trucks and people trying to share the space the size of a hallway on these tiny streets...hearing is important to avoid getting squished)

Okay, a little more flashback for you startingggggggggggg now:

Memorial day 2012 was a marathon of little parties from Rochester to Naples and back out to Spencerport.

We started with a picnic lunch with friends after church. 

Then dinner and a sleepover with the Hanlon group at my parents cabin. 

If you haven't met my Mom's dogs, Ruby and Sully, here's a third of one above (Sully at 1.5 years old...big)

 Then we trekked out to Spencerport for a Maloney party. At first Brady wasn't sure sparklers were interesting or worth his time. He changed his mind after a few but I was waiting in the wings to see if he left any behind. He didn't.

I feel like we don't always get the kind of summer we had this year and who would have known in May that the weather we were getting used to would last almost through September? Even here in Leuven I guess I juuust missed the last few 80 F days, (26 C must get used to that), but no matter. Autumn is here and my sweaters were the only things not wrinkled to death in those space bags so I guess I was prepared already.

Til tomorrow!

Reeewind

Told you I'd be more on the ball now. We're 2 for 2!

When I said we'd be travelling back in time, I meant it...here comes a little LA/Spokane action that I promised back in May:

...there was a girl with oodles of family members to visit. She flew across the country to get started...

 Ultimately, ending up at Disneyland wasn't really surprising. I feel like even though we're getting older, my cousin Gina and I aren't really growing up. My first day in Cali we headed to the theme park and scared ourselves silly on the Tower of Terror; Gina's first time. You can just barely see our reaction to the ride!

I am aiming to be as good a hostess to any Belgian trip takers as Gina was to me during my stay with her. We didn't stop for a moment and we also ate at the most amazing places. This little place was called The Griddle. Frequented by celebrities and consistently packed wall to wall, our breakfast's standard was set high. And it did not disappoint. I completely finished my gigantic helping of "Tis the Season" a pumpkin flavored pancake topped with homemade whipped cream, powdered sugar and a little more pumpkin filling...Christmas in my mouth! Must replicate. I should note that Gina's boyfriend Dave made a comment when I was three bites from the end that he has never seen anyone finish their serving before...whoops.

Side note: We DID see a celebrity while there, Simon Pegg! If you haven't seen him in anything, Hot Fuzz is a pretty stellar movie, albeit a little violent.

A little more California for you: here's the family in Temecula. I haven't seen some of these cousins since their birth, (okay, only some of the 2nd cousins), but it had been waaaay too long. So thrilled to see them all!

And last but definitely not least, I finally got to see Megan at her college in Spokane. The weather was actually better than I'd expected from the northeast, but we brought umbrellas just in case! And mainly what we did was eat. Honestly. So far here in Belgium all I've found that I can figure out what it is to eat has been bread, cheese (and who knows what kind it was), strawberries and the Magnum chocolate ice cream bars. It'd be nice to eat somewhere new where I had someone to show me the ropes again! But, I digress.

Megan and I ate assembly-line sushi, my first experience, mmm. Then headed to Donut Parade which apparently is a big deal. The place was packed. And again, definitely not least (we went twice in two days) was Froyo Earth. It's like Coldstone but with frozen yogurt and make-you-own style. LETS GO BACK.

Tomorrow I may bring back a little bit of Belgium to keep some attention out there. I'm headed out to shop on my own for the first time. Chris told me about a second hand shop where I might find art supplies and more...should he have added the "and more"? I'm thinking no, but I'll try to keep the euros in my pocket!

Forgive the lapse...I'm back

Last time I posted was well over a month ago. I have a LOT of updating to do.

Starting with the most current update and working backward, I'm bringing you my first day in Leuven, Belgium.

Honestly I was beginning to feel as though I'd never be joining Chris here so when I finally received my passport with that little Visa stamped into the third page I thought, oh okay, its the standard unfortunate picture, but oh well. Now what? I'll show you a little "now what" now:

I hopped on the first flight that I could, with a little (read: a LOT) of help from our friend Mike and his airline-employee sorcery, and headed right over to Chris. I'm not sure that this first picture should even be shown (two flights a quarter of the way around the world and going on 72+ hours with no shower and only 9 hours of sleep altogether...) but here it is, for the record: our first photograph together in Leuven, Belgium.

We wasted no time and in an effort to stave off the jet lag, headed out for breakfast, shopping and exploring:

The town square and one of the side streets. I don't think there are many uninteresting places in our town.

 

I think that I may be one of the luckiest girls to have a husband who will hold off on eating a real Belgian waffle for over a month just so we can share the experience together. And I'm not joking. Because these waffles are nothing like what we have for breakfast in the U.S. They are a more of a dessert and, they are delicious. This is one we got while shopping, they're just sold from vendors on the street. I have a feeling I'll be frequenting each one until I find my favorite.

Someone once told me that if runners were super heroes one of our talents might be something like      pathfinder extraordinaire...case in point, second photo on the right.

The harbor outside of our apartment. And our view of it from the balcony (see it? just left of the chair?)


I may have had reservations about moving, and I know that eventually they might come back up and nip at me now and again, but for right now, I'm contented to be living in a tiny historic town with Chris in the middle of Europe. More on the rest of our summer soon, I promise not to leave everyone (is it just you, Mom?) hanging for so long again... until next time, goodbye, goedenavond, au revoir, salukes, or auf wiedersehen!