Westvleteren, the world most famous beer à volonté

About fish and a dog

I thought that Saturday, the 21st of October would be a bad day, but luckily, something made my day. Why would Saturday be a bad day? Because my children and grand children, my brothers and sisters and my nieces and nephews with spouses/companions, my cousins with their offspring and many more relatives from other sections of the family were gathering in Westvleteren and I couldn't attend! Does Westvleteren ring a bell? I tell you in a moment.

The weather forecast for last Sunday was bad so I went swimming on Saturday, before the water gets too cold to be enjoyable. You know already I like to snorkel. I look out for  places with weed and stones because there house the fish; lucky me, there was an abundance of tiny colorful fishes, like sardines but really tiny, baby sardines, maybe 2 cm but with brilliant greens and blues and silver; and then I found bigger fish, some 15 cm in length, about 5 of them circling around. I started following them and then I saw that on 1 fish there were mollusk like things clinging to its side! You know those red snails, without a shell, slugs,who get fat on your vegetables in the garden, they looked like them but then in a silver color. That fish was carrying parasites! I followed that fish for a bit to get a good look at the parasite and saw there were two of them. Yes, it was worth the cold sea.

I had left my clothes on the beach and when I came out of the water, a Labrador was guarding my clothes. I have been very angry at this dog because he barks a lot, and continously; and I have yelled at him to shut up and there he or she is, guarding my clothes. Isn't that sweet? This and the fishes made me feel a lot better that day.

Westvleteren and Sint-Sixtus

Now what is Westvleteren? It is known for 2 things: the trappist beer Westvleteren and the abbey Sint-Sixtus in Westvleteren, Belgium, where the beer is brewed! It has been rated as best beer of the world by Ratebeer, can't remember the year and couldn't find it on the internet.

Sign to the abbey. Photo courtesy of  Lis and Fred Vaessen

Why would our family gather or better get invited to this abbey? Because my grandmothers name is Marie Thèrése Lebbe and every year in October the trappist convent of Westvleteren  celebrates the Lebbe family! But why? Because my great great great grandfather, Jean Baptiste Victoor Lebbe is at the roots of the convent. In 1814 he went living as a hermit in the woods of his estate. In 1831, monks of the Catsberg, a cistercians abbey in the north of France, (if I recall well, there was a disagreement between the monks) heard of this hermit and settled next to him and there was a new cistercians monastery born. Later the adopted son or step son donated the woods to the monastery. My sister Mieke told me that there was one condition for the gift: "every year a celebration should have place for the family followed by a meal". At this point, the story told by my family and the story told by the abbey are a bit diverging. Since then the monks commemorate annually the Lebbe family. The celebration in the chapel has place and seen that the family Lebbe has become rather numerous, the meal has been replaced by a reception. We get treated  to the worlds most famous beer à volonté! in big 1 liter pitchers! Can you imagine: the whole of Belgium has to make an appointment to buy the beer because the abbey brews not more than X- liters and they only sell it locally and we get it offered by the liter. But as I said, I couldn't attend (and couldn't take pictures).

Lebbe family in the abbey. Photo courtesy of Lis & Fred Vaessen

I have a small anecdote to tell you about Sint-Sixtus in West-Vleteren: from time to time my father went to visit the abbey. When I was small, maybe 8 or 10 years, we went to visit the abbey by bicycle: my father, my eldest brother Jo, my 1 year younger sister Lieve (see my first post) and me. It is a trip of 6.5 km. We children were all happy to visit a real trappist abbey! We are before the front door, my father pulls the bell, a monk opens the door, they talk together and then my father and my brother enter and when inside my father says: you girls can't come in, girls, females not allowed!!!! Can you imagine! We waited for the whole time outside on the street!!!

Door  where we waited. Photos courtesy of Lis & Fred Vaessen.

Leather projects

My time is still restricted because of the olives, the walnuts, visitors... on this side not much new. I still had some snake head clasps in different colors and hadn't used them because it is so hard to decide which color of snake head goes with what color of leather! I have spent at least 2 hours altogether on deciding!

My clasps and scraps of leather spread out to choose

I chose a purple leather for the pinkish snake head; funny, next to the purple, it doesn't look pink any more! Yes, color is a chameleon!

Made by LoveLea: purple leather bracelet with snake head clasp.

Look, my LoveLea bracelet has
 the same color as the olives we picked!

And the yellow metal Tibetan dragon goes well with white leather!

LoveLea's white leather snake head bracelet 

Look at my stitching, isn't it beautiful? Yes, the same white leather they told me I wouldn't be able to handle!

Detail of my stitching.

By next week, the other ones probably will be made.

When shelling walnuts you can do a lot of thinking: Christmas and New Year are coming, maybe I should design some special jewels, fancier or some small objects like a card holder, a coin purse. It can't be just another card holder, I should design my own holder or coin purse, maybe participate in a x-mas market, that would be fun!

Be sure you get to see what I'll design for the festivities! Sign up to get my new posts in your mailbox!
You can get all this bracelets in my fb shop; the link to LoveLea  is in the left column, beneath the heading "pages".

Leather projects and Harvest Time

Remember the picture of the very unsightly bag in my last post? I gave it "non leather project" as title; and when I was writing those words, I had a small aha moment: why don't I double the handles with a strap of leather? I am a leather designer. I was lucky to find a matching color. It turned out rather good.

LoveLea made leather straps for thiss bag.

As you can see, I haven't found time to sew the painted panels to the bag, I just pinned them on. When I am in a hurry, my sewing machine senses my mood and won't sew well. I prefer to wait till later.

Do you have similar or other project? Tell me in the comments below, I would love to hear from you.

Nights in olive oil

Before going to bed/sleep, we make a tour in the garden, mainly to control if the dog has come home. We give food and shelter to a stray dog; her fur is mostly white with black, coal like eyes;  she's just adorable and sweet and peace loving, loves to be pet and stroked and cuddled. When it is windy and there is a lot of rustle from the platan she stays outside, is afraid of the noise, she won't even come inside to eat. She has a metal bowl I tap to the granite stones, this sound tells her dinner is being served. We didn't raise her and learned her to eat meat and veggies; she has her own taste and is picky: bread with chicken broth and a piece of chicken  or boiled bones and bread; sometimes I give her dark bread, left over from the bread we eat, but she won't eat it, just sifts it out. I wanted to make her a nice leather collar, but just the sight of a collar makes her run away, there must be an old issue with collars. If she wears a collar, people know she is not a stray dog.

Our dog resting with coal black eyes.

Since 3 days, the night smells heavily of olive oil; there are a few mills in the neighborhood and the pressing of the oil must have started. Funny, it only smells at night and not during the day since the press works continuously. I love the color and taste of freshly pressed olives: gold with a green shine and tasting like fruit juice, not oily at all. Take some fresh cheese, crush it in the olive oil, add some black pepper and  wild thyme, maybe a little salt and eat it outside on toasted bread, delicious!!!

White choker with skull closure

This is harvest time and there is a lot to do in the garden, even if it is a small garden. This means I don't have the opportunity to make my leather jewels; I'll show you the one I made this week. Lately I'v been busy husking walnuts.

Walnut harvest.

It s a time consuming job because the nuts are small and very very hard; a nutcracker is of no use, 2 stones do the job, a big one with an indentation as anvil and a smaller one as hammer. The local stone is granite thus I have the luxury to crush my walnuts with granite. (Can you imagine a village where for the ground floor of the houses granite has been used?) Second inconvenience: there are lots of rotten ones or they have WORMS! This to the delight of a very cheeky, bold jay. He looks you in the eye and continues to do what he intended to do. Still it was difficult to take a picture.

Jay in the garden

We don't want to use chemicals or harsh stuff so we put up with 1/3 of bad nuts. But last week somebody said the three might have worms around the roots and this could be true because we keep a compost heap right beside the tree. We should make our compost on another spot  next year. Why do I go through all this trouble? Because they taste so good, very delicious with a deep, intense, well nutty taste. The jay only comes around when there are walnuts shells laying around.

Jay in the background steeling a walnut 

Time to tell you about my creations: I had 2 closures with skulls, one I  used some time ago for a choker with dark brown leather and I was ready for another one; my leather supplier had a long piece of white leather, nice and thick and stocky. My supplier asked me: will you be able to use it, because it was very sturdy. I said: I will sew it by hand. Oh my, he was right: it took me a lot of time and power to punch the holes for the sewing; once the wholes punched, the sewing with black linen thread went smooth and easy; I like the result, how about you?.

LoveLea's white choker with skull closure

If you like it, it is for sale on my fb page LoveLea: (https://www.facebook.com/denyshildemaria.lovelea/)

Lovelea's white choker: detail

A couple days ago, the weather was awful, strong winds, threatening rain, high humidity, bad for health but good for spectacular pictures.

Sunset above Lesbos

If you liked my choker, I have similar ones on my LoveLea fb page. The link is in the left column.

Why don't you sign in with your email address, so you get my new post in your mail; and in my next post I'll be revealing a awesome story. Wait and you shall read.

My leather creations in warm colors, inspired by fall

Fall is here

I like fall, but I also dread it because when fall is over, winter is coming. But it IS a very romantic season, full of muted colors, warm days and cold nights.

Ducks in fall

We live in a house that is badly isolated, I should say: not isolated at all; it sounds bad on paper but is is even worse in real life: what the temperature is outside is what you get inside. During the day it is a nice, warm 25°, but inside we only get a 18 à 20° because the pergola prevents the sun from getting inside. The temperature rises a bit if I open the windows; upstairs it is nice and sunny and warm and with the curtains a little bit closed, oh so very inviting for a nap.

In winter we live in another house that has central heating, nice and warm. The heater starts 30 min before we get up and when we go downstairs, it is nice and cosy and the outside doesn't touch me.  My point of telling all this is that not having central heating makes me more aware of what is going on in nature. I live and feel the seasons and I understand how live was let's say a 100 years ago for the poor. They didn't have a nice warm house! probably no wood for the stove

But fall is nice for taking pictures; nature is dressed up in beautiful, warm colors in millions of shades and it inspires me to use warm colors for my leather jewels, the dry leaves make a wonderful background for pictures of my leather products.

I had made a rather large cuff in June and embellished it with some lace. People liked it, but the weather was too hot to wear such a large cuff, they said. Now the weather  has turned a good 10 degrees lower, I made a second one. I like to try out my creations so I made this one for myself. This is just the right season to have something large next to my skin, it warms me like the warm hand of a friend.

Red leather cuff made by LoveLea

It keeps me nice and warm but it looks somewhat too plain so I fumbled for checked paper and a ruler, made a nice geometric pattern and with my tools cut the motif out; it doesn't look cut out yet because I made very fine incisions, at the moment almost invisible. With time and wear the incisions will get wider and the pattern will become more and more visible.

Detail of red leather cuff

Leather tassel earrings as birthday present

This month, on the fifth, is my youngest grand child's birthday. Vicky is 8 now.

Vicky with the family dog Filou

I made her a nice pair of earrings: tiny leather tassels in the new nude color for her little ear lobes. I hope she will like them, I hope she'll wear them. Since we can't be present, I put them on the mail together with a birth day card.

LoveLea's Leather tassel earrings 

And I choose a plush dog that can be warmed in the micro wave and then gives off a smell of lavender; if she isn't feeling well, her mama can warm it so the warmth and the smell will help her go to sleep. She loves her new little friend.

New non-leather project.

 Do you see this bag? Very unsightly but very sturdy; could be a good shopping bag! If I alter this bag, I could use it instead of storing it in a closet. Just wait for my next post and see!

How about you? Do you like to give things a new look? a new destination? Do you like crafting? working wih your hands? I would love to hear from you!

Leather straps for Furoshiki bags

Leather straps for Furoshiki bags

I ended my last post admiring the Japanese tools; but my admiration goes much farther, they have a big expertise, an innovative spirit without throwing their past overboard, blending in modernization with tradition. An example of this is the furoshiki bag! It is the most simple and sophisticated bag possible: you take a piece of cloth, you make a couple of nods and you have a bag to carry your stuff. Initially it was to take your belongings with you when going to the public bath, you know your towel, your soap, clean clothes I suppose or at least a clean set of underwear. You can't go bathing and returning home in your dirty clothes, can you? Then the use gradually extended to other stuff or other destinations. Wandering merchants must have used them too. Like the Roma people in Turkey used to do. Till about 20 years ago, Roma women went around with a huge cloth on their back in which they wrapped the niceties they were selling: embroidered towels, nice sheets, table clothes, things that weren't readily available in small towns or villages; I haven't seen them in a long time.

You can also use them to carry books, to wrap a gift; hence there are different sizes of furoshiki. I am interested in bags and the usual formats are squares with a side of 45 cm, 95 cm or 105 cm.

If I lived a 100 years ago and I went to the public bath, I would have used a furoshiki cloth   matching my clothes or one contrasting my clothes. It is not surprising that there are shops selling only furoshikis. Anyway, I don't live in Japan, I don't know anybody going to Japan and I don't want to pay taxes when buying one online. So to make my own furoshiki bag, I went through my stash of fabric; last year I went to an antique market in Ayvalik and saw a colorful silk-like cloth heedless dumped in a corner but with magnificent colors. I couldn't resist buying it despite its extreme slipperiness.  Luckily I did buy it, because it is just perfect for my furoshiki bag. The fabric is a bit light and I could or should have lined it, but 1) I didn't find a matching fabric and 2) I couldn't wait to have my own bag. I just hemmed the square and started laying the knots; then, noblesse oblige! I had to have  leather handles and with them my bag will look a lot more dressy.

My first furoshiki bag with leather handle.

I searched for leather with a matching color and a scrap long enough to make the handle; I had 4 D's left, stringed 2 of them at each end and closed the ends with rivets, really easy.

Pink leather strap for my furoshiki bag.

 Here a detail of my bag:

courtesy of Suat Ozonder.

When searching for the handles, I found a piece of long black leather, perfect to make a long handle to use the bag cross-body. I had used my last D's for the pink leather handle and had no time to go to town to buy other ones and I decided to make the D's myself: I cut 3 square (I had a white square  doing nothing)  of 5 x 5 cm and emptied a square of 3 x 3 out of the middle and rounded the corners; then I cut a long strap, stringed the D's unto the strap and closed each end with a snap button.

made by LoveLea: black leather strap long version

To make the handle more useful, I measured out how long the handle had to be to use it for a shoulder bag and put a third snap button in place. Now I have double use for the handle. Just imagine a nice  fabric going well with black, maybe red or cognac brown; 1 strap, 1 piece of cloth, at least 2 different bags!

Black leather strap, short version, made by LoveLea

For my bag, I used a square with a side of 105 cm and it is a big bag; in the picture it holds a light cotton cardigan and a woolen (knitted with my own hands) cardigan. My new bag will look super with denims, black jeans and 'll look right going to town, casual style or to the beach, very "user friendly".

Origami bag

The Japanese have also a popular triangle bag, origami style: one piece of cloth, the length being 3 times the width, you fold it one corner up and one corner down and then diagonally in two, stitch two seams after hemming all around, knot the two ends together and there is your bag; or you make 2 of them, one as lining and one as the outside and sew them together. Here is a tuto with pictures and text: http://pm-betweenthelines.blogspot.com.tr/2013/02/triangular-bag-tutorial.html if you want to make one for yourself and I can get you a leather handle to make it a bit more stylish.

I  love the fabric I used for my furoshiki bag so much that I used the same fabric for my origami bag. It is a quite simple but a very rewarding bag and so versatile. And instead of knotting the ends, I slipped a tubular shaped piece of leather over 1 end, sewed the 2  ends together with a couple of stitches, slit the handle in place, covering the 2 ends and then govgo, stuffed with your wallet, cell phone, comb, little make-up bag, whatever you need. I had 2 pieces of fabric left, 60x 20 cm and used them for my bag; but the standard size is 75x 25 cm, which is a better size. I had some colorful small scraps of leather, just big enough to make some handles; the first one I made I glued the ends together, but the hand stitched ones look a lot better! See for yourself.

my origami bag with red leather handle.

Origami bag with LoveLea's leather handles in different colors.

Choice of LoveLea's leather handles for origami bag

Harvest

The olives are almost ripe; this year our 6 year old trees are doing very well. We have 4 of them in front of the house.

Olive tree loaded with fruit

 We prefer our olives black but since the trees did so well, we decided to pick some of them green; this way we will have less work when they are turning black and the remaining olives will grow bigger. We picked about 2 baskets of the biggest ones, washed the dust away and put them in a large basin with water. We'll change the water every day, for about 1 week and when their bitterness is gone we'll cure them with some salt and slices of lemon. Yummy yummy; most people crush them but they get mushy and soft easily, fall apart after 2 months, thus we leave them whole.

Harvest of green olives

This year the trees have made a lot of little bunches; I was afraid of worms and rot because last year the mandarins came in large bunches and where they touched each other, they were rotten. When I saw this bunches when small, I was afraid the olives would rot, but nothing of the sort happened.

Lovely bunch of olives

Swimming in October: today the weather was sunny and no wind, perfect for a little swim. I love snorkeling and I was witness of a special thing. I came to an area with a lot of different fish, followed 2 seabass around and then saw the kind of fish that cleans the bottom of the sea (I don't know their name); they have vertical stripes and before my eyes, one of the fishes, about 10 à 12 cm big, spit out or threw up a half of an empty shell, a delicate, triangular shell about 2 cm long en 0.5 cm high, followed by some pieces of dried seaweed! This just made my day! But I didn't get my post ready in time, sorry!

P. S.: if you feel like writing something in English, Dutch, French or Turkish, please go ahead; I would love to hear from you and have some interaction; at the bottom of the post, just below the date, you can leave your comment.