Hello my lovely readers! I can’t believe four weeks have gone by already since the last time I updated you on my personal life. June was a great month with beautiful weather, lots of dancing and trips around the country. I’ve compiled the best photos from the last month for you today, so let’s take a look at what I’ve been up to.
June 1st was Robbert’s and my eight year anniversary. We spent the day in Rotterdam, starting with a brunch up on the Euromast with a beautiful view of the entire city.
We were really lucky, the weather was great, so we explored some of the city by foot. The Markthal is a place I’ve wanted to visit for years, and I’m really glad I finally got to see it. It’s a giant marketplace inside some very unique architecture. I did wish we hadn’t just eaten though, so that we could’ve tasted some of the amazing food that was sold there.
All in all we had a fantastic day in Rotterdam!
Our television somehow just… broke off. I wanted to push it back a tiny bit and it just snapped, haha! It was an inexpensive TV but I didn’t expect this to happen, especially after just a year and a half. We have a warranty but they need us to send over the entire TV and we had no idea how to do that, so we kind of just left it for a few weeks. Oops.
It was very clear that summer was on its way this month. We had a lot of absolutely lovely sunny days, so I made use of them and went for walks in the forest. We live right next to the forest but I rarely go in, which is a shame, really. I don’t go very often because I grew up next to this very forest as well and after 20 years of walking the same routes, I’ve gotten kind of bored of it. We live on the other end of it now though and there are still some paths on this side that I haven’t discovered yet, so I would really like to go more often.
I danced A LOT this month. We had a performance coming up in the local theater, and I spent a lot of time practicing for it. In case you missed it, I’ve been doing jazz dance for the vast majority of my life :)
Warm weather means extra care for the ratties. When it’s hot out, I put a little paddling pool in the cage that they can hop in to cool down. If it’s extremely hot, I’ll put some ice packs in fleece covers around the cage as well. They like to put their tails on them to help them cool down.
I’ve had my driver’s license for a few years now, but I rarely ever drive. Given that driving still makes me really nervous, I was afraid I might completely forget how to do it or become so scared of it that I’ll start to refuse to drive. My friend came up with the brilliant idea of signing me up with one of those car sharing companies. There are a few of those around Amsterdam, but I decided to go with Car2Go. They have a bunch of electric cars scattered around the city, which you can rent and unlock with your phone using their app. You can literally just get in any car that’s not in use, and drop it off anywhere in the city when you’re done. It’s perfect for me as I have no need for a car at the moment, I just want to practice driving every now and then. There’s nearly always a few of them parked in my neighbourhood so I can take one whenever I want.
This was the first time I picked up one of the little cars. I was so nervous! It’s the first time I’m driving an electric or automatic car, and just figuring out how to rent and unlock it was quite a task. I managed however, and found myself actually enjoying it a lot. I’ve found that driving an automatic car takes away a lot of the stress I usually get from driving, related to having to change the gears. It’s just one less thing to worry about, which makes it much easier to actually focus on the road and the driving itself.
I drove to my parents’ house, picked up my brother, and took him for an ice cream. We drove around town for a bit, then I plugged the car into a nearby charger and left it. It was really fun and definitely something I plan on doing more often.
My pilea is making babies left and right, so I grabbed the opportunity to gift one to a friend who was celebrating her brithday.
We had the TV balanced like this, and one day it slipped and fell out. It was bound to happen. Luckily it got caught on all the wires attached to it, so it didn’t break, but we balanced it on the sofa instead from then on. I’m happy to report we actually repaired the TV last weekend, so it’s all back to normal now.
Two of my friends came over from Ireland! I hadn’t seen them in a while so it was great to catch up. We met up in Utrecht and ended up having dinner at Tiger Mama, a beautiful restaurant that offers an amazing 10 course dinner for a great price. We started off with cocktails…
And then went through all 10 incredible courses which consisted of foods like asparagus curry soup and peanut sauce sushi. Every dish featured unexpected flavour combinations but everything was absolutely amazing. We were stuffed to the brim by the end, and very satisfied. I can highly recommend Tiger Mama, if you’re looking for a place to eat in Utrecht!
This book arrived! It’s an absolutely wonderful resource on 18th century hairstyling, featuring bonnet patterns, cosmetics recipes and hair pictorials. Highly recommend if you’re into this kind of stuff!
I went to see Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande at the national opera with a friend. I wasn’t too crazy about the staging of this one, but the music was fantastic and the leading lady had an incredible voice.
I’ve had a bunch of unfinished knitting projects in my closet for years now. I remember starting these back when I was in high school. The colours I used really aren’t my style anymore though, and I knew I was never going to finish these. So I decided to unravel them and make new balls out of the yarn, which I can re-use.
More dance practice!
I watched all of How To Get Away With Murder. Once you accept how over the top it is and just roll with it, I found this show really enjoyable and binge-worthy. It took me quite a few episodes to unravel this nearly finished, but ill-fitting, sweater.
D&D! All our players are in the Netherlands at the moment so we’ve been enjoying playing in real life, rather than digitally like we normally do.
I put the American Dutchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty to use and tried one of their tutorials for a video. It took a lot of time and effort, but I love how the hairstyle came out.
This is the aftermath, the part you don’t get to see on camera. And don’t even get me started on getting that pomade out of my hair, haha! I struggled with it especially this time, I think I must’ve used more than last time because it was absolutely impossible to get out.
The next day me and my shiny pomaded hair headed over to the Rapalje Zomerfolk festival in Groningen with my family. I really like this festival, it’s small and laid-back which I love. Many of these folk & fantasy types of festivals that I’d visit frequently as a teen have changed a lot since then, but this one still has those vibes that drew me in in the first place.
We got treated to a lovely sunset on our way back home.
I’m still over the moon with our new tiny toaster! It’s the cutest thing ever and is really helping us reduce food waste.
Time for our dance performance! My still pomade-y hair came in handy now, haha :) Here’s a little peak at one of our costumes. I had three for this show, I hope I’ll be able to show you more photos when I receive them in a few weeks.
Filming my little corset wearing experiment. I was a bit worried about how this video would be received, but luckily it was received well. I find myself wanting to make more fashion related content lately and it seems to be doing quite alright on my channel, so I might just add more of that in in the future.
My lavender is blooming for the second time this year! This truly is one of my favourite plants, I just adore the smell and the little purple flowers.
I got to visit beautiful Utrecht a few times this month and that always lights a spark in my heart <3
Towards the end of the month we got engulfed in a heatwave. As long as it doesn’t last for days on end, I actually quite enjoy a bit of a heatwave. I love to soak up the warmth and the sun and just bask in it all and enjoy wearing my summery clothes.
A new little setup for my jars of seeds. Having them on display like this is a great reminder to get some of those omega’s in. Plus, they look adorable.
Since it was so hot out, I suddenly felt the desire to visit the beach. Let me tell you, that doesn’t happen a lot. I decided to act on it and I texted my brother to see if he wanted to come. He did and so we went to Zandvoort to enjoy the sun for a bit.
When we came home, we ordered sushi and had our dinner out on the balcony, entertained by the neighbourhood kids who were having a very serious bike race of about a hundred laps around the block.
Another hot weather activity for the rats: frozen pea bobbing! They absolutely love fishing for peas and it’s the cutest thing ever to watch.
We’ve been having lots of salads this month. Nothing like a good pasta salad to get you through the heat!
Cefin gave me a proper fright when I found him in the cage like this. I’ve never seen any of our boys sleeping on their backs so I feared the worst when I spotted him. Luckily he was just chilling out with his feet up, and when I scratched his belly he woke up and turned right side up again :) Look at him, little potato.
I finally finished the back of my sweater. I honestly don’t know whether I’ll even be able to finish it by autumn at this rate. I really need to pick up the pace!
I’m pretty happy with the way our home looks right now, but one thing I cannot stop doing is restyling the shelves. All the shelves. This is my latest little switch-around, and I have to say I’m very happy with it. I have a place in one of those cubicles now to store all the new food photography props I recently bought with my Patreon donations :)
This beautiful Ana Luisa jewelry came in the mail! I did a sponsorship with them this month, so they sent me these three gorgeous pieces. I absolutely love them.
A summery outfit featuring my new wide-leg trousers. A girl with hip dips can never have enough of those, haha :)
My go-to breakfast these days: soy yogurt with muesli, fresh berries and nuts and seeds. Yum yum!
Wizards Unite came out this month and boy oh boy, have I gotten caught up in it. It’s the Harry Potter themed version of Pokémon Go and it’s a lot of fun. I’m a level 10 auror now and I must say the game does get a bit repetitive after a while, but so far I do still enjoy it. It gets me out of the house :)
Like on this day, when there was a special event going on. I went out to take a little walk around the park and ended up being away for hours because I’d have to stop to catch a foundable literally every five steps I took. It was crazy.
Last Sunday I went to the beach again, but this time I visited Bloemendaal with my friend. It was a bit chillier this time, which made spending a few hours in the sun much more bearable. We brought snacks and chatted the afternoon away.
And that brings us to the end of June! I’ve had an absolutely wonderful month, and hope you have as well. I’ll talk to you soon!
