Hello everyone! I guess I'm back? I've really missed writing this blog and I've been meaning to return for a while now. It's just a tiny bit weird every time I try to pick it up again and find myself slacking, only to return a year later. I've got tons of ideas, though, so I'm confident I'll keep it up for a while this time! It's been a while (a year actually..) so let's start with, how am I doing? I'm actually doing pretty well, thanks! I had a really really great summer. I was planning on absolutely making the most of it and I'm confident I did that. I vlogged a good chunk of it, check out my videos! It might make you a bit nostalgic about summer though...
It would be so great if you'd subscribe to my YouTube channel! I've got really exciting plans for the near future. You'll hear more about that soon! I'd like to pick up this blog again, with the usual stuff. I've got some things planned for the autumn vibes I'm definitely feeling right now and I'm excited to share them with you. It'll be the usual random mix of things such as music, films, books, fashion.. In short: I'm back and I'm excited! Thanks for taking the time to read this! I'm excited to be back, Love, Mia PS: You're welcome to follow me on Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram too :)
As y'all know, I watch a lot of youtube videos. They inspire me, some more than others. A few days ago I stumbled upon one of Alfies new videos (well, when I say stumbled upon.. I am subscribed to him and watch all of his videos). This particular video made me very excited and inspired me to follow his example. In his video he explained that he had made a list of 25 things he was going to do this summer. He bought a notebook, put each thing on the list on a page. When he actually does the thing this summer, he'll make a picture and stick it on the page.
Wait you can just watch the video, he explains it way better:
I immediately took my own Petit Prince Moleskine notebook, which I use for 'special things', like quotes that inspire me or a little drawing. You might remember when Sindri wrote in it when I went to his show last year.
This is my list:
# 1 Make a fresh and fruity lemonade # 2 Eat really great ice cream in Norway # 3 Have a Lord of the Rings marathon # 4 Spend an evening outside alone, listening to Sigur Rós (preferably a starry night)
# 5 Have a picnic in a forest # 6 Spend an entire day writing. Just writing. # 7 Paint something # 8 Finish reading a book # 9 See live music #10 Have at least one sleepover
#11 Have a perfect detective night: alone, on a hot evening with the window open so you can hear the birds outside. Sit in your pajamas and eat a Frikandel. (That's probably a memory, but it feels like such a perfect night and I should try to relive it as much as possible) #12 Try to assemble as many cosplay outfits as you can and blog about it (warning: this includes cloting shopping) #13 Get to see a sunset and a sunrise (Tip: at Brygge in Bergen perhaps? Just a thought) #14 Write in your diary every day #15 Buy () by Sigur Rós
#16 Have a good pamper session #17 Make a fruit salad. Eat it. #18 Pick beautiful flowers #19 Reorganise your wardrobe #20 Travel to Amsterdam as a tourist rather than a student on business #21 Make at least one picture a day and try to capture the whole day in it #22 Watch a scary movie. Like, really scary. #23 Get a really good milkshake #24 Bake something really healthy, but also tasty #25 Buy something for yourself that you wouldn't normally buy
If you feel as inspired as I do, please let me know if you're making a list and what's on it :) I hope that by documenting these things when I'm doing them will make this summer unforgetful, and that I'll enjoy it even more.
I hope you have a great day, and summer, and I'll speak to you soon!
Love, Mia
PS: Look I have a new banner! Did you notice? What do you think about it? I also added some social media buttons on the right, you can check those out if you like :)
So last
week the weather was GREAT. Like ‘SUMMER IS ON THE WAY’-great. That gave me a
huge boost of energy and creativity. The weather today is less great, but that
has given me the opportunity to write down the things that made me happy the
past week.
I bought awesome socks. I actually bought them a few weeks ago, but I only
started to appreciate them this week. I love them. Look at my socks. My socks
are awesome.
I also
passed the ice cream section in my supermarket this week and saw that the
Ben&Jerry’s were temporarily cheaper than normal. So I had to buy one. Ice cream is my favourite food. I picked up the
Vermonster flavour. It has maple syrup, caramelized pecans and a caramel swirl.
Oh man. It is THE best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. It melts on your tongue and
the caramelized pecans stay behind and are delicious and just hmmmm. So good,
trust me. Buy it. Now. I’ve had it every day for the past week.
When it
starts to feel like spring and summer are very close, I start to feel more
colourful. That leads me to two awesome things that have occupied my mind last
week: nail polish and The Colours of Madeleine. I love nail polish, but I hadn’t
been wearing it a lot over the past months. Now I’m very excited about the
colourfulness nail polish gives your outfit, and how much it makes me feel like
summer is really very much coming.
And The Colours of Madeleine. Yessss. I’ve written about Jaclyn Moriarty
before, read it here. She’s an Australian author and wrote The Year of Secret
Assignments, among other awesome books. She is my all time favourite author.
She has started a new trilogy: The Colours of Madeleine. I read the first when
I got if for my birthday from my sister: A Corner of White. I fell in love with
it on the first page. It was so good.
And a few weeks ago part two came out: The Cracks in the Kingdom. I ordered it
the second I found out about it. It comes out in The Netherlands on the 25th
of March, so I’ll have to be patient for a few more days. Moriarty has also
been writing a few blog posts. She interacts with the people who comment on
them, which made me love her even more. She even responded to my (unfortunately
anonymous) comment on this post. The way she writes is just so funny and
generally happy (fits my blog, you see).
Of course I haven’t been all creative and cool all week. I’ve been watching a
LOT of George Gently. I watched the first episode when it was on the Belgian tv
and fell in love. I’d seen one episode before, but never really continued
watching. Now I just had to. Quick synopsis: a detective series that takes
place in the north of England, about a detective chief inspector and a detective
sergeant. Solving murders basically.
I am especially in love with John Bacchus. He is a racist, sexist idiot but I
love him. His character is so interesting, so real. Lee Ingleby is incredibly
good. Gently is of course an essential character, he’s the only reason Bacchus
isn’t a super corrupt policeman yet. I love the dynamic between the two, and
the historic facts about England 1964 are super educational. They really
emphasise the real problems: sexism, racism, homophobia. John is always the
problem, but his being wrong gets pointed out. And apart from that it’s just a
really good detective series. Would recommend. I've also watched Penelope yesterday. It has it all: James McAvoy, Simon Woods, Peter Dinklage, awesome outfits, an amazingly decorated bedroom, even Hoppipolla. If you want me to go into detail on this film, let me know. But it was awesome.
Song of the week: My IT’S SUMMER song
Buildings and Mountains by The Republic Tigers
Alright I've been loving a lot this week I see. More next week?
I went to Cambridge
a while ago with my cousin Corine to visit my sister who has been there for a few months now.
Here's how it went:
On Friday we took a plane from Eindhoven to London Stansted, where we arrived around seven thirty pm. We took a train to Cambridge and arrived at the super cute Bed & Breakfast where we had booked a room for three nights.
Picture by Corine
It was literally the cutest pub you’d ever see. It was the perfect English
place to go to for a weekend of Cambridge, I think. First we weren’t supposed
to have our own bathroom, but we got upgraded and had a little showerroom after
all! There was stuff to make tea with on our room as well, which was very
British obviously.
Cute little bed
We kind of made ourselves at home and went to bed pretty early, because the next day we were going to meet my sister in town!
We had a lovely and simple but delicious breakfast on Saturday morning and went to Cambridge shortly after that. Seeing my sister again was super awesome! She had been there for a while so she knew the way and cute places where we could get coffee. We bought tickets for a guided tour through town and while we were waiting for it to begin, we went to a bookshop. Which was really awesome because I love bookshops and this one was huge and had all sorts of Doctor Who things! I bought a TARDIS box filled with a hundred Doctor Who postcards!
We had coffee at a pretty cute place and I ate a huge Jammie Dodger.
The sweet woman who was our guide took us to all the colleges (we weren’t allowed to go into any of them because of exams). We did go into King’s college chapel, which was amazing and huge.
We went shopping for the remainder of the afternoon. I bought the perfect brogues which I’ve been searching for for an eternity. After walking around town since 9 am we were a little tired and decided to go to Evensong at King’s College, where that awesome boy choir sings (you know, at Christmas?). It was really beautiful, their voices filling the whole building, reaching up the high ceiling.
After having enjoyed a lovely “proper” hamburger, we went to Sainsbury’s to get some food for the next day. I found a super cute kid’s Doctor Who magazine with a plastic Sonic Screwdriver.
The next day was our last full day. We went to a church in the centre of the town where all the students of Cambridge have their own student service. I had a Flat White and a Chelsea Bun at Fitzbillie’s and after that we went to the Fitzwilliam museum. I’m not really a painting person, but it was pretty interesting to check it out.
We took it easy that afternoon and had a little picnic on Jesus’ Green. We also climbed the St. Mary's church tower and
after we found out that my sister’s bus wasn’t going to come anymore, we had a cup of tea at our Bed & Breakfast.
View from St. Mary's tower
Brogues from Clarks
Monday was our last day and we just sat in the lovely sun the whole morning
before getting on the bus again. It was stupid that I had to say goodbye to my
sister again, but we had an amazing time. She’s coming home soon, so that’s
good too!
I hope you enjoyed reading about my awesome trip :)
This song was the one I listened to while I was in bed trying to ignore the sounds of the pub just below us:
By the way, I'm going to see him (Sin Fang) live next Friday, *happy dance*.
