{Birds in our Garden and Update}

After a real busy day I have only a short post today. Wanted to show you two of my favorite birds that we have in our wood-garden. The Blue Bird and Cardinal. They look so exotic for us; coming from the Old World... Oh, and don't forget to visit Johanna from Silber-Rosen for her fabulous international giveaway. To the right on my blog at the top you can enter right away or by using this hyperlink. June 20 the winner will be selected!

Another fabulous giveaway from Rebecca at A Gathering Place till June 25th. Her button sits at the very top of my blog to the right; or use this hyperlink also.

The day before yesterday,  after I'd finished my post about: {YES; I was at an Yves Saint Laurent Prêt-À-Porter Show in Jakarta}, Indonesia I did figure out that I do have one more accessory from YSL. A beautiful wool scarf with fringed edging. You can see the two photos of it on my blog. Use the above hyperlink to get there. Sorry for being forgetful... but it is worthwhile seeing and I didn't want to withhold those photos.

Now back to the birds. These are photos from a PPS, I once received and I did make a Screenshot of the two I loved most. Impossible to provide you with a photo from our garden. Birds don't sit still. Blossoms already 'dance' in the wind and it's tricky enough to catch them, let alone a very shy Blue Bird learn more about them here at the North American Blue Bird Society by clicking on hyperlink.

Blue Birds are insect eaters and we do have them every year in our nesting boxes. But it is nearly impossible to see them; they're so tricky and adept at hiding their nests... Only if we sit in the gazebo for lunch or tea, we can see them forage on the lawn and fly to their nest. But knowing that they do co-exist on our property is good enough!

{Our Energy Star ceiling fans from Wayfair + Superior Customer Service}

The past weeks husband Pieter has worked very hard. As Rebecca from A Gathering of Thoughts would call her husband being a 'worker bee', mine for sure is one too! 

We'd ordered three white ceiling fans from Wayfair a zillion things home, I've done some Giveaways from them previously. I'd ordered from them before but this time they did excel in everything. First off, our Minka Aire Supra 44" Energy Star ceiling fan in white, with a blade pitch of 14° came with FREE shipping and at a great price. We decided to replace the Minka Aire Chantal Fortepierre 52" in medium maple with a blade pitch of 14° that was in our bedroom, with this white one. It was not available last year (from another company). So we were thrilled to find it here. I went ahead and ordered another smaller one for the kitchen in a 32" white and also for the office; all FREE shipping!

Pieter first moved the medium maple to our living room. There was no wiring yet but by getting up on the attic he did divert a wire from the lamp in the living room and got it hung. He also moved the lamp closer to the fireplace, as we can safely move our furniture closer, since we no longer use wooden logs but artificial gas logs.

Our Energy Star Minka Aire 52" Chantal Fortepierre medium maple in the living room now.

This one has a 14 degree blade pitch

That was the first ceiling fan project completed! I was mighty proud of Pieter, as this is the first time since his open heart surgery on September 3 of 2010, that he's done such kind of jobs. It was hot on the attic too and there is no floor. He had to balance on the red cedar beams and feeling his way underneath the fluffy white cellulose insulation. But it worked out well and one by one they got hung. By the way, Pieter's education in Horticultural Engineering included designing buildings. He's managed to do all the ducting; wiring; plumbing; masonry and carpentering for our Rose Suite, where he could put to use all he'd ever learned. For the Dutch Government he'd designed the first practical training college for mushroom growing and later he designed for Campbell's Soup the two state of the art Dutch technology mushroom plants in Dudley, Georgia and Hillsboro, Texas. Numerous other projects he got involved in as international consultant. BUT, since he's retired he's ALL MINE... And I do treasure this guy! They don't come around any better...

This is the Master bedroom with the new Energy Star Minka Aire 44" Supra from Wayfair. Both of us are very energy conscious, for keeping our planet Green we are Going Green.

We did have a problem with the glass and made a photo of the damaged part. Through Wayfair's customer service that got resolved in such a way that in a couple of days an entire new fan arrived! 

Unbelievable courtesy at this time and age...!

Our Rose Suite downstairs now has one too!

All three of those Supra 44" come with a 14 degree blade pitch

With the fans came natural wooden knobs for the pull chains... Clever idea from Pieter to spray paint them white while sticking them onto plastic forks!

This 32" Minka Aire ceiling fan hangs in the office, right above me... There was a lamp, like in the Rose Suite so the wiring was all there.

And finally the one in our kitchen. There was no wiring, but my handyman got it done by dividing an existing wire and creating one for this 32" Minka Aire Supra ceiling fan.

These smaller 32" Minka Aire Supra fans have a 22 degree blade pitch.

It feels great when cooking with this fan running; quite a joy. It served me well a while ago when preparing our supper!

In our bathroom, laundry room and in the gazebo we got this Westinghouse Wengue 30 inch and it has a steep 18° blade pitch.

How many degree is the blade pitch on your ceiling fan(s)?

P.J.C. Vedder's 1987 Design for NEW COMPOSTING SYSTEM (Phase I)  | post explaining Pieter's education

{Yes; I was at an Yves Saint Laurent Prêt-À-Porter Show in Jakarta!}

• After I'd been for the first time to the USA with Pieter in 1983, we also went to Jakarta, Indonesia where we stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. 
• We were making a choice as to where we wanted to work and live... Our boss in Jakarta did the utmost in making it a pleasant stay for us, even though we were flying and driving to other cities to view all the work areas. So here we are, back in the capital city of Jakarta at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel (see picture further down). When we checked in on this Thursday morning, also a group of catwalk models from Yves Saint Laurent arrived with us from the airport and checked in to their rooms. They came from Bangkok where they did a catwalk show... Now some rest for them, and again at 7:30 PM they would start a whirling Prêt-À-Porter catwalk show for Spring Summer 1983.

We went first to the Bogor botanical garden and came back to the hotel where we dressed for the evening. It was obvious, that our boss wanted to please me with this dinner and show, right up front near the catwalk! As I've studied fashion and design and obtained two diplomas for drawing and making dresses, costumes, jackets and coats, I certainly was more than thrilled to be seated right there.

• The three years that I studied fashion, this catwalk life looked very glamorous to us students... like a dream. But nothing is farther from the truth; it is hard work and that night after night on such a tour through Asia or to any other continent. We could see underneath the curtain, and there the shoes got kicked off and skirts, pants or dresses fell to the floor as they hastily changed into the next garment. And that for hours... My goodness, I felt for those girls. Here we were, sitting in posh chairs, only observing. Meanwhile feasting on a yummy four-course dinner.

• But it was one of those once-in-a-life-time events that will stay with me forever!
• Many thanks to our generous boss for whom we did work years later...
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• All of you probably know Yves Saint Laurent's perfume and cosmetics line. Several items I do use from this designer as you can see below:

• Some blush, lipstick, nail polish and Poudre Sur Mesure Semi-Loose Powder, which replaced their Silk Finish Powder (contained 2% of silk powder).

• It is not easy to photograph such glistening gold items; but they sure look elegant!
• Sadly Yves Saint Laurent died of brain cancer on June 1, 2008.
• Did I ever own a garment from YSL? No... only a wool paisley scarf and a pair of silk, low-heeled pumps that you can see in the photos below.

• Soft wool paisley pattern from YSL

• I'm holding my belly for laughter as my husband Pieter prepared the camera on its tripod for shutter delay. As is evident, it went off before he could merge next to me... Hilarious!

• So that's both of us now; it went perfectly well with the camera.
• My YSL silk pumps and Pieter in his silk shirt; kind of partner-look.

• And than there is coffee in the gazebo... Wearing my Pearls that got strung for me in Singapore.

'En dàn is er koffie!' or 'And then there is coffee!'

A well known Dutch slogan for their famous Douwe Egberts Coffee founded in 1753, which is now also available in the USA.