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Team Friet or Team Patat? A household and country divided.

If the potato was never introduced in Europe we wouldn’t have this discussion but this golden miracle that grows in the soil has lead to major strife between the Dutch. And it all boils down to what word is favoured for the fried version of this vegetable. Is it friet or patat? (English: chips or American french fries)

My husband hails from Overrijsel which is above the rivers as we from North-Brabant would say. Above the rivers is defined by everything above the river Meuse that cuts right through out petit country of the Netherlands (Holland for some parts of the world which would only cover the two provinces North and South Holland but that is a whole different discussion lol).
This particular divide in our household has lead to many inoffensive quips about my soft spoken G while he really rolls his G around during conversation. But we will never settle over the friet/patat divide when it comes to what the best name in Dutch is for french fries.

This has always been a slightly controversial toppic, with a lot of banter and poking fun of the people who live above or below the river. Let me share with you a demographic on how the divide is seen.

The green area is team patat and the yellow/orange area is team friet. Yes, it also includes Belgium and they used to be a part of us and are dubbed the brother from another mother by people who live in the South. Looking at land mass, team patat outdoes team friet. But according to the TeamFriet website french fries were invented in France during the French revolution and slowly made its way up towards the Netherlands and the first portion of friet (American: french fries) was sold 150 years ago on a fun fair in Breda. And that lies below the river! The word patat (American: french fries) did not exist yet.
And this is historical proof that it has always been Team Friet!

But I do love the banter people have with this word rivalry. During carnaval, festivities that are always held before the lent period our municipality of Oeteldonk (‘s-Hertogenbosch the rest of the year) had put up signs for the suburbanites that came to visit.

The sign says:
Attention suburbanites!
The following will be found here in Oeteldonk:
Beer at € 3,50
Friet at € 5,00
Patat at € 50,00
The flu for five days

Team Friet patches to show your united spirit for the Dutch delicacy.

Lays caters for both sides: with their flavours: patatje mayo (American: french fries with mayonaise) and frietje satésaus (American: french fries with peanut sauce).

Fuck Friet (American: french fries). It is patat! (American: french fries).

I did notice that team friet has more merchandise than team patat. I guess we are more petty about it. 😉

I do feel bad for my husband because everytime he orders a patat oorlog (American: french fries warzone which has mayo, peanut sauce and raw onions as toppings) at our local fry shop they always say: “Pardon? (As in I didn’t hear you the first time) and you almost hear him rolling his eyes and then gives up and asks for a friet oorlog. And it does not only happens at our local spot, but almost every fry shop in the south of the country. Give the poor man a break.
Funny thing is while he has been living longer in the south than where he was born, the word patat is so ingrained in his vocabulary.

I hope you enjoyed a little insight in the quirkiness of the Netherlands. How a french fry was able to split a country in two.

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Sheep and cute clothes, a match made in dollyworld.

We are not talking about real sheep but about the cute little sheeplike dolls created by QLYwork. They really give you a retro feel, with their painted eyes and cute features.

a white sheep doll with red eyes, brown paws and wearing black mary janes together with a pink sheep doll with blue eyes and wearing red mary janes
These girls are ready to get dressed. 😀

I spoiled myself a bit when I found out that QLY made new outfits for 2025. They had previously been wearing the travel outfits and while these were extremly posh clothing the headdress would not stay on because the girls have smooth scalps lol. Besides they were both fully black and white outfits and my girls deserve a bit of colour.

I made my pick of the three below. 🙂

Three outfits still in their original packaging. On the left a red checkered dress, with a white frilly apron decorated with two apples, a frilly collar and a frilly headdres with an apple. In the middle is a red riding hood outfit, with red trimmings, a red caplet and a red headscarf with images of apples printed on them. On the right is a white sailor outfit with blue thread trimmings, a blue collar with a white bow and white pillbox hat.
Apple Candy Dress set, Little Red Riding Hood of Apple and a Sailor outfit.

Getting them dressed was way easier than with the travel outfits. Elastic headbands versus ribbons to tie them down, my preference goes to the elastic.

Once again amazed by the quality of these outfits. I can’t do it for such a small scale. These sheep are only 11,5 cm in height.

The White and black sheep is dressed up in the sailor outfit while the pink sheep is wearing the red candy apple outfit.
Aren’t they cute?
Close up of the red apple with stem attached to the frilly white headdress worn by a pink sheep doll
Look at the wee stem on the apple headband!

But I bought two more items, a print for my wall and a bear pin cushion. The pin cushion is my all time favourite now and I know some people will be very jealous of such a cute item on my sewing desk.

A lovely round taupe coloured box with a drawing of a sleeping bear wrapped in a duvet with a red apple print dreaming about peeling an apple.
Well protected in transport with cute bear apple art on the box.
A pin cushion shaped in the form of a white bear while on his tummy a red giant stuffed apple is placed.
This pin cushion is the bomb!
The bear shaped pin cushion holder is shown from the side while three pins are sticking out of the red apple pin cushion
Just perfect for my dressmaker’s pins.
A colourful print shown of a anthropomorphic sheep wearing a white dress with yellow and green flower trim and a red headdress with 2 yellow flowers attached to it. She is holding a blue watering can and is watering some pretty purple hydrangea while a little white dog with a pink bow is look at her activities. She is running a flowershop with many pretty flowers like sun flowers, roses, tulips and calla lilies.
Now to find a perfect frame for this one. Maybe a coloured one would be nice?

I love it when the sellers add an extra gift with your purchase, I got the 2025 New Year gift containing some stickers and a 2025 calendar.

Two sticker sheets were gifted with multiple drawings and photos of the QLYworks sheep family. Together with a 2025 Year of the Snake calendar
A thank you note in several languages. The message is in Chinese, Japanese, English and Korean if I am not mistaken. A small gift for you. Best wishes.

I feared that some items were lost when I received the prcel from the postal service. It had two gaping holes and felt so light. But because it was all wrapped in bubble wrap together and the print was on the bottom nothing was lost thankfully.

I used to work for the postal services and I had parcel tape in my truck to fix holes in parcels. They must have changed the policy since I left as this parcel was an absolute mess.

All and all, I always love to shop with QLYworks and hope to see more outfits and maybe another sheep girl in the future.

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First order via the Doorzo app

I saw an add for the Doorzo app via Instagram and while I had ordered in the past via proxy services, this one looked easy to use. And easy to use it was and dangerous for my wallet. 😀

Doorzo is a proxy service that helps you shop on sites like Mercari, Rakuma, Surugaya and my newly discovered Minne.com (Japanese handmade goods). You browse via keywords and see if you can find your most wanted items. I did cry a little seeing the sold out Baby, The Stars Shine Bright collab outfits for Volks dolls going twice and triple the price. *shakes angry fist at scalpers*
After payment the goods will be shipped after the sellers confirmed that you won the purchase and ship it to a central warehouse, I found out it is in Saitama prefecture. After your items arrive, for a small fee you can have them checked and repacked for international shipment. It all went pretty fast and the longest time I had to wait was for the Dutch customs to release the package after I paid the ransom. Everything done by Doorzo was done swiftly and with great care.

I bought 2 kimono’s form I Doll House and when they arrived I was pleasantly surprised. The fabric quality has the most beautiful and deep colours. The gold looks like the work of a skillful painter.

Both kimono’s are Blythe, Licca-chan and obitsu 22 sized.

Up close inspection you see that the kimono’s have been hemmed with care by their creator.

Workwomanship 10/10
Pretty colours

And I feel the price was too low for them. The red/blue kimono costed me ¥ 2.500 (€ 15,36). It came with an obi, zori sandals and a hair ornament. I think this one is the prettiest of the two, the red, blue and gold go so well together.

It suits Licca-chan so well. <3

The other kimono is fitted on my Blythe, Rhiann. She has auburn hair and this set really fits the autumn mood. Too bad it’s winter, all the leaves are gone and a photoshoot at the park will look pretty bleak. The details on the obi are really pretty and I love the handstitched flower on it. This set costed me ¥ 2.300 (€14,13).

Acer palmatum
This colourscheme gives me the autumn vibes
Poor lass is still shoeless. 🙁

The overall experience of using Doorzo and the items that I have received has been fantastic. I have listed this seller in my favourites and I will undoubtedly buy more form her in the future. I have already made a few purchases on Doorzo during the weekend and whoosh €75 gone. 😀

Another package with a set of clothing arrived via PostNL later on the day but it’s 1 AM now, I need to work tomorrow so I should leave the photo editing and posting of the blog for tomorrow or Friday. For now I will wait for my other Doorzo packages, two of them coming my way soon.

I got a hairpin as a gift. 😀

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Nice plans for the future.

In 2024 I decided I didn’t want to fully earn my living from working in corporate. It had been a stressful year, several colleagues ended up leaving the workplace along with quite a few redundancies. Do I have faith in the future with my current work? I wish I could but appeasing the shareholders and having a stable work environment do not mix. This is the way in capitalism and I don’t feel I can grow old in such a world.

My hobbies give me energy and motivation to become a skilled person. While it is a niche market, the doll collecting world, I think I will be able to generate some income out of it.
Often you hear that you shouldn’t try to make a living of your hobbies but on the other hand working myself into oblivion for bosses that don’t care is not a future that I want for myself. I care alot about my work, but being underminded and facing understaffing is the fight I need to give up on. For my own sanity.

Can’t remember how long ago I started collecting dolls, maybe at the beginning of the millenium but I have made quite a few friends nationally and internationally. Taking photos, exchanging ideas and even trading or buying stuff from each other. While I have been in the hobby for a long time, I am pretty much absent from the online communities like the ones on Facebook or forums.
I enjoy looking at the photos that people share but I shy away from commenting. So In 2025 I want to be more active in showing my love and support to other doll fans, creators and enthousiasts.

Another plan for 2025 is launching my online shop. I have already registered myself on bigcartel, created a designated e-mail address and have been reading up on all the legal stuff that I need to know to open up my shop. Will keep the name underwraps until everthing is ready to launch.

On the todo list:
– to register at the Chamber of Commerce (I feel like a Ferengi 😉 )
– get my VAT-number
– open a business bankaccount
– create a logo
– create business cards
– find sustainable packaging solutions
– set op business shipping accounts with various logistical services
– figure out the pricing
– all the legal requirements that the EU has set up for product safety.

It is a massive list before launch and it takes a while to get through it. I work 40 hours a week and on the weekends I am working on my shop stock. I might do a soft launch via Instagram, offering a few of the items to test the waters but I am not a big van of Paypal with its fickle tendencies.

And the 2026 goal is to have a booth at a local doll and bear fair in my hometown. The organiser of the event passed away and it was not certain this fair would be continued but they launched the 2025 campaign so I am hopeful for next year. A couple of years ago they only had 1 stand with Blythe and now they dedicated two whole rows with Asian ball jointed dolls, Blythes and Smart Dolls.
I can’t wait until March to find out how big the floor has grown and see my friends again.

I feel good about these plans, I get the support I needed from my family and friends. Even some don’t really get my hobby, they still think I should pursue my dreams.

2025/2026 will be my turn around.