May wrap-up

May went by fast. All in all it was a good month: it feels like my life has regained some momentum. Finally.

For four weeks I worked at a company that does door-to-door marketing for good causes. So basically I had to convince people to structurally donate money to a particular organization. Now I know I have a ready tongue, but this was a whole different story... According to Imre I am too empathetic to be good at this job, and I can't say that's a bad thing. It just felt wrong to try and convince someone that is already in dept (and has already told me all about it) to start donating money on a monthly basis. Or someone that has just lost his job. And if you want to be good at this job, you'll have to look beyond that and keep insisting. No thank you. Oh, and some of my colleagues were so freaking good at telling lies! At some point I didn't even know which of their stories to believe anymore. I can't say that telling lies is something I would like to be good at. Thank god.
So yesterday I decided to quit. I want to focus on getting a PhD position, and since this job was not paying very well either, it was just not worth it for me anymore.

Besides work, may was quite good:
I had an epiphany regarding what I want with my life: it's ok to not know where I want to end up years from now, as long as I know what I want to do right now. And that is do a PhD. So that's the plan, and the plan feels scary but good :)
It's been great spending time with family and friends this month. Everytime I spend quality time with one of my close friends, I wonder why this doesn't happen more often. You'd expect that at some point the idea should stick, right..?
Just like exercise, crafting is helping me so much to not worry about things. I am quite the (over)thinker, so this therapy is very welcome. I'm starting to think of ways to do more scrapbooking, but not in the traditional way with layouts. I like the idea of minibooks, but I also like Project Life... Ah well, we'll see. I just hope I can keep the momentum!

So, of course I already have fun plans for June. Tomorrow I'm heading for Hilversum. I'll be there for 10 days, mostly helping my best friend paint their new house, but I'll also be meeting up with a lot of friends. I'm so excited!
After that I'll be focusing on getting a job, and getting Imre an awesome birthday present. My man will turn 27 the 20th of June, and boy, do I love a birthday. I love that we can throw a party and actually have a BBQ. My birthday is in december, and I just hate it. With such a passion that when I grow up, I'm gonna try to make sure that our kids will not be born during December (I know, spoiled brat talk here...).

A big goal for June is to finish my Start to Run schedule. I have three more weeks to go, so that should be doable. How awesome would it be to actually run 5k in one go?! I could talk about running a lot more, but maybe I should save that for another blog post.
I feel like I should have a goal regarding my job hunt, but I have no idea what would be realistic. It would be great to have at least one interview before the end of June!
One of the goals on my 'things to do before I turn 25 list' is shooting a real fotoshoot. I feel like June would be a good month to do that. Perhaps even next week when I'm in Hilversum. So if you're reading this and are interested in doing a photoshoot, let me know, and we'll work something out!
Then my last goal is all about crafting. I want to start creating my own style, so in June I want to create two things that I have designed myself. No other rules, just two somethings I came up with.

Whew, that's a lot of words at once... June, let's go!

Currently...

Currently...
...drinking a lot of tea and water.
...eating grapefruits almost every day.
...wearing red lipstick more and more.
...applying for PhD positions.
...feeling incredibly terrified because of that.
...looking forward to spending more evenings with Imre again.
...preparing to leave for Hilversum next week, to help paint Floor and Geerts new house.
...feeling inspired to be creative.
...experimenting with homemade Mod Podge.
...dreaming about a new wardrobe.
...looking forward to starting our own little family. One day.
...searching for inspiration all the time.
...finding myself in a reading slump.
...planning to reread some of my childhood favourites to get out of it.
...feeling confident enough to paint again.
...realizing I'm a creature of habit and routine.
...missing that very routine so much.
...starting to think about Imres birthday presents.
...enjoying the ride home a lot more than my actual work.
...having good conversations with myself in the mirror.

I love me a good quote...

Photo was taken at the Bosbaan in Amsterdam, October 2011. 

I also love the full quote by Roald Dahl:
"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

I love everything I've ever read by Roald Dahl, and that's not even everything he's written. I'm planning on reading all his books, but first... I should read at least half of the over 50 books in our bookcase that I haven't read yet. I'll get there. One day. 

I love me a good quote...

Photo taken in Masai Mara National Park, Kenya

I love to travel. I know I haven't seen that much of the world (most of my travels so far have been within the borders of Europe), but I will. I have a huge bucket list of places to go, views to see, experiences to have and, obviously, pictures to take. I'd love to go on a road trip from NYC to San Francisco. Climb Icelandic glaciers. Go back to Kenya and watch cheetahs hunt. Rent a scooter and drive along the coast of Italy. Or Spain.

No matter where my travels take me, I always love to come home. Sometimes I'm already longing for home on the way back, sometimes it strikes me the moment I open my front door. When we came back from Kenya it was soooo weird, but a good weird. Our home seemed extra clean and white... And the floors were so dark (most Kenyan houses have colored walls and white(ish) floors). But since most of out vacations involve camping, it's usually just awesome to be inside a house again.

Yay for sunday walks

Lots of sun, baby geese, pretty reflections, sunburst, good talks, blowing dandelions, fun with my man, trying to capture the fluffy stuff in the air... Yesterdays walk was a good one. 

Check it out - String art DIY

There has hardly ever been a moment in my life that I didn't have a project lying around, be it something I was knitting, cross stitching, sewing, cutting or gluing.

Lately I've been inspired to take up some more DIY like projects. More wood, sawing, hammering, painting.  More home made home decor. 

For the first project in the (anticipated) series I was inspired by this and this. It involved leftover wood, glue, a hammer, nails, and yarn. Oh, and some paper. Check it out!

It's currently standing next to our front door. Maybe we'll move it into the house, but for now I like where it is. I'm still debating adding our house number to the heart, though.
What do you think?

An unexpected adventure

Last week Maud, Imre and I went on a little adventure in a forest nearby, and stumbled upon this little lake. The weather was great and I sooo needed the walk. I didn't bring my big camera, so I took some pictures with my phone. Save for the occasional blown out sky, I'm actually pretty happy with how they turned out :)

I love this shot, even though it's totally overexposed. 

I love me a good quote...

It's so much fun going through my pictures of the last few years to look for a picture that matches with the quote at hand. Especially if the picture is one that at the time, I didn't think much of. This one was taken last summer at a cactus nursery Imres dad took us to.

Happy mother's day, mom!

Mom and me. It's always been just the two of us for as long as I can remember: my parents divorced when I was three years old, and I have no brothers or sisters. We've had our good times and bad (my puberty was a particularly rough time for my mom...), but overall we were quite the team.

Since then I moved out, lived on my own for 2.5 years, and moved in with Imre. The relationship with my mom has changed, but when we're together we still laugh untill we cry, need only two words to understand eachother and are just plain crazy. 

Mom, happy mother's day. I love you, you're the only mom I'd ever want :)

P.S. I had so much fun preparing this post, going through my old photobooks. Save to say you can expect some more pictures from the archives soon. 

It's... me!

So, one of the few traditions Imre and I have, is roaming the Hilversum flee market on Queensday (a national holiday in the Netherlands). Which is exactly what we did this year. I brought my DSLR, and decided to turn the day into one big photowalk. The only rule was: a reflection of me had to be in every shot. The shots turned out fun, but technically not that brilliant. Which is fine. I enjoyed it, which was the main goal for this challenge :) I like how the stuff people sell is very different in each shot. I like how you can see the pictures getting lighter throughout the day (they're in chronological order, from top left to bottom right). I like that sometimes even manual focus didn't work out because the mirrors were so dirty... Yeah, I had fun!

I love me a good quote...

Photo taken at Tiwi Beach in Kenya, september 2012. One of the best weekends of my life. 

As you may or may not know, I love me a good quote. Over the years my preferences changed, from teenage love quotes to getting-things-done quotes to... I'm not really sure where I'm at right now. Mostly inspiration to love life, I suppose.
I've been hoarding quotes for half my life, but I wanted to do more with them than just keep them in a notebook on my bookshelf. So a new series for the blog was born: monday quote day. I'll pair each one with a shot from the archives. I hope you'll enjoy them!

Queensday fun

Queensday was a lot of fun, as usual. We roamed the flee market, Imre bought some board games, we met up with friends, I turned the day into a big photo walk with 'my reflection' as a theme. I'll share the pics later this week, but here's a first peek: