Projects to be finished...

... and projects to be started. 


The napkins are pinned (and have been for a week and a half) , they just need to be sewn. 
The mini book is mostly done, it just needs some finishing touches. 
The frame will be filled with a painting (that has yet to be painted) for dear friends of ours, as a housewarming gift. 
The cross-stitch project came in yesterday. It will be a gift for my best friends baby girl, who will be born in about four months. Which means that I have four months to finish it, and that is a good thing... it's quite the project. 

For some reason I always have some unfinished projects lying around. Sometimes they remain untouched for a few days, sometimes for a few weeks. I always finish them in the end,  it just takes me a while to get back to them. Imre gets really annoyed by my procrastination sometimes... I guess he'll get used to it eventually ;-)

Wandering around Utrecht


Last Thursday I got up super early (that's what I consider 5am...) to join Imre on his way to work. The original plan was to meet up with a good friend of mine, but original plans tend to change. So after meeting some of his coworkers I decided to take my camera and wander around Utrecht.




I treated myself to a croissant and a cup of tea and a visit to a museum. It was great to have all this time to myself, just me and my camera :) I came back really inspired, physically tired but mentally full of energy.





Usually I'm a pretty lazy person, so I tend to shoot in aperture priority mode. I know I shouldn't, but it was working, and, well, I was lazy. Today I decided to challenge myself, and shoot in manual mode. It was a good learning practice, and a lot of fun!




After my wanderings I walked back to the buildingsite where Imre works, and set up shop there. It's pretty funny to walk around there as a woman. You get double-takes and weird looks everywhere you go. Quite amusing, I can tell you.

Summer is full


Yesterday Sas's post reminded me that it's the solstice. She asks herself and her readers 6 questions to notice where we are at this moment, at the halfway mark, and I decided to join in and answer her questions. So here we go :)

One: Did you have a word for this year? How has it manifested itself? 
My word for 2013 was LOVE. I wanted to feel love for myself again, show others that I love them (I'm not particularly good at that), spend more time with the ones I love, spend more time doing the things I love.
And now that I think of it, I think all of these things actually happened, and are happening.
Since the beginning of this year I have actually started to listen to the little voice inside of me that represents my heart. It has been overruled by that loud rational voice, that is way too often driven by fear. But now that I actually listen to that little voice in the background, it's getting louder and louder. It's telling me what I love to do, who I love to be with, what I am proud of, what I want to achieve in this little life of mine.

Two: What are you most proud of?
I am very proud of me. And I'm very proud of the fact that I dare say that out loud now. I am proud of the way my body is getting stronger due to all the running, yoga and climbing I do. I am proud of the fact that I managed to keep this blog going for almost 6 months now. I am proud that I am listening to that little voice inside again.

Three: What have you chosen to let go of? 
I am trying to let go of old hurts. It takes a lot of tiny baby steps, but I'm on the right way.
I am letting go of the idea that my job is what defines me. At the moment I don't have a job (I'm a housewife without the wife part, more or less ;), and at first that made me feel like crap, inferior, unworthy. I wasn't contributing, so why did I have a right to anything? Over time I noticed that others did not treat me the way I was treating myself. Not my boyfriend, not my friends, not my family. So why did I, then? That's when I managed to let that feeling go, little by little. This has been such a valuable lesson to me.

Four: What has been your greatest joy or surprise so far this year?
Maybe this is going to sound weird, but I never thought my body was made for exercise. It just didn't cooperate, got tired too soon, I didn't see the fun in it.
This year I've taken up running again (I have done it in the past, but never stuck to it), and I started bouldering about a year ago. Now believe you me, I was so surprised to see that, especially  over the course of the last few months, those chicken filets on my arms actually turned into proper muscles! And I'm now back at running 30 minutes, without feeling like I'm about to die. This was quite the surprise :)

Five: What book, movie, exhibition, tv programme, play, concert, article, photograph, or website has been your favourite find? 
Barfi!, a Bollywood movie, has made quite an impression on me. It got a deep and necessary conversation going between me and Imre, and I'm very grateful for that. Plus, the movie is beautiful.
The blog of Elise is also a favourite find. The way she handles life is so inspiring. She actually gave birth to a beautiful baby girl yesterday!
The Naked Song festival Imre and I went to last Saturday, it was very inspirational. Xavier Rudd in particular.
Ha, and for obvious reasons I cannot leave out the latest season of Game of Thrones ;-)

Six: What three things do you want for yourself by the next Solstice – 21st December 2013?
I want to still be running, and by then I want to keep up with it during the winter.

I would LOVE to have the PhD position I'm currently applying for, because it is an AWESOME project and I would be stinkin' good at it. Just so you know.

I want to hone my creativity. I want to make stuff with my hands, and I want to keep sharing those things and my thoughts on this little blog of mine.


Sas, thanks so much for these questions. They were exactly what I needed!

Today Imre turns 27


Happy birthday to my main man.
I love you, to the moon and back.

Around here













Whew, the last couple of days went by so fast. I spent them either playing housewife or making sure I didn't melt (it was pretty hot around here). And prepping Imres birthday, which is tomorrow! Woohoo!
 When I was a little (and later on not so little) girl I loved my own birthday, but couldn't care less about anyone elses. Yeah, I was a little self-centred brat at times. The last couple of years that's turned around, though. I kinda miss the excitement over my own birthday, but I'm super excited when Imres birthday is coming up.Well, at least I'm excited about a birthday.

Our weekend was awesome: a foam party, an amazing singer-songwriter festival (the tickets were a gift from Floor and Geert - thank you so much!!!) a road trip to Imres parents for Father's Day, and great weather.
We took a bike ride to IKEA, and got back with some pretty and some ugly (read: in need of a cover, but the right size) pillows and that checkered fabric that I'll turn into napkins soon.
I've almost achieved my main running goal for this month: one more start-to-run training to go, and then I made it! I've been wild picking flowers that along the way, they make me so happy :)
And check out those cactuses! They're growing like crazy, the difference between the top and bottom pictures is only 8 days. You can almost literally see them grow.

Tomorrow and this weekend we'll celebrate Imres 27th birthday. Our house is decorated, presents are made, bought and wrapped and friends are invited: bring it on!

Check it out - Cactus planters


We used to have two windowsills full of cactuses. They had been kind of neglected for a decade, and most of them were just dry, ugly, on the verge of death. Imre really, really wanted to keep at least some of them, and so we came up with a plan to get them healthy and pretty again. And not have our windowsill look like a mess. We've searched the www for planters, we visited some garden centres to see what they had. We thought rectangular planters made of something other than plastic wouldn't be too hard to find, but boy, were we wrong. So we decided to just make them ourselves. Imre drew up a design, we got some wood, glue, plastic, aluminium strips and paint and... here they are! 


They're pretty cool, aren't they? And just look at the difference they make. 


I finally convinced Imre that those plastic stickers on the window had to go, too. Double yay!






We were kind of worried that the transfer would damage the cactuses, but they're thriving. I'm completely amazed. We only kept the ones that had some potential, and they're all doing really well. I'm amazed at how fast these dudes can grow!
I used to hate these cactuses, they were a mess. Now that they're pretty and growing again, I'm secretly in love with them. And the red woks out pretty well, too! I was a bit afraid it would be too much, but I'm glad we decided to add some more colour to our living room. 

I love me a good quote...

Photo taken in Zuidoost Beemster, July 2012

It's been a crazy fun week



I spent the whole of last week in Hilversum, and it was the best thing I could have done.

I had time to catch up with a ton of friends, meet up with my second family (my neuroscience buddies), sleep too little, sleep a lot, go running at my two favorite places in the world, talk A LOT with my bestie, eat awesome food, have deep conversations with people very dear to me, hear my mom tell stories about the old days, discover super fun pictures of my dad, miss Imre, find a couple to do my real photoshoot with (yay!).
Oh, and in the mean time I helped my bestie and her husband every day, sanding and painting their new home. Which was fun and very therapeutic at times.

It was a crazy fun week.

20 secrets

I often watch movies (at least) twice. Preferably on the same day.

Perhaps not that much of a secret anymore, but I LOVE quotes. I have notebooks filled with ones I like.

I often feel like nothing I do is ever good enough, though I'm not per se a perfectionist. How weird is that.

I am in love with Pride and Prejudice. The story, but also very much the BBC series starring Colin Firth.

I have too much imagination, according to Imre. I make him sigh on a daily basis.

I'm starting to love the cactuses I once hated.

The office/craft room of my dreams contains Expedit bookcases and a desk pointing into the room (something like this or this).

I'm so excited to have children one day.

I find myself looking at wedding blogs more and more.

And no, you have not missed anything, no question has been asked, no answer has been given.

I hate the smell of warm milk.

One day our house will be clutter free.

I have yet to find out how to accomplish that though.

I had to look up how to write 'accomplish'

My first guess was correct, as it usually is when it comes to the spelling of English words.

Makes me question my decisions regarding my education.

Ah well, too late anyway.

'Let Go' by Avril Lavigne is one of my go-to albums if I want to head back to my teenage years.

I'd love to be a scrapbooker.

I just never know where to start...



I love me a good quote...

Photo taken at the 'Hilversumse heide' in November 2011. 

This is something I need to remember every now and then... Or preferably every day. I tend to get overwhelmed by what I want, ending up completely lost, and then nothing happens. I'll try to remember this quote more often...
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