The sun, the moon, and a little bit of magic…
A while ago we received this email from one of our readers with some old-fashioned, valuable advice:
I am not much able to contribute to the aspect of your site which touches upon being a mum and living a stylish lifestyle as I am afraid I must admit that I really am not tremendously stylish and am living the glorious life of being a mum on a shoe-string.
However I am not so poor or slovenly that I wish my baby son to go out into the big wide world covered in the demon orange blotches that spatter across his lovely white tops and hale from some carrot concoction I have fashioned whilst trying to improve my “good life” culinary skills.
NO!
Amsterdam! Dah… Dishwashing!
Can you believe it? This morning I spent at least 30 minutes of my very valuable 2KAAT time (2 kids are asleep time) on typing this/our first blog entry ever, and, of course, to make a long story short – I lost everything when I tried to include a hyperlink in the post. So far for trying to be a nerd!
Anyway, this was my first day alone (well, as far as alone goes with an 8-month-old baby boy and a 2 1/2 year-old daughter). Meaning – it was hubby’s first day at work here in Amsterdam. (He’s now sitting on his favourite spot playing with his new blackberry and laptop – thank god it’s a laptop – I keep hearing ringtones from that little room)!
I spent most of the day cleaning up our (well, Frank and Silke’s) little flat – kids in front of Baby Einstein – which is why I initially wanted to write something about a product I dearly miss (besides my dishwasher): my Dishmatique Scourer Washing Up Liquid Dispenser. It’s a truly brilliant invention Courtney got me hooked on about 2 years ago, and for some strange reason it can only be purchased in the UK. And mine is at the moment tucked away in one of our many moving boxes waiting for our new Dutch p(a)lace! Aaargh!
What it is? OK, it’s basically just a dishwashing sponge. But it has a reservoir that holds the dishwashing liquid and dispenses it as you wash! Brilliant! You can buy replacement heads that come in green and white – I prefer the green ones.
My mum is hooked as well, she has brought them with her to France and Belgium and has given them to all her sisters here in Holland. Because, as I said, it doesn’t seem to exist on the continent!
So I was nearly going to ask one of my London based girlfriends to send over a Dishmatique with a life supply of replacement heads, until I found this site:
British Corner Shop.
WoW! Michela, isn’t this GREAT? Not only do these people sell Dishmatique, they also sell our favourite organic baby food like Plum Baby, Hipp, even Ella’s Kitchen! For only 8 pounds you can shop for up to 30 kilo’s of British food and they will send it right to my doorstep here in Amsterdam!! Hurr(a)y!!!
-Esther
