Personal: 3 years (and counting)

Today, 3 years ago, Wouter and I had our first date. That day I never expected to be where we are 3 years later. I never expected that I could be this happy and excited about my (or our) life. I'm so incredible fortunate to have him. My heart has grown a hundred times since he's come into my life. I can't imagine my life without him anymore and I know he feels the same.
When you're reading this we're enjoying our weekend in Paris! Oui, oui, Paris! Wouter wanted to take me there as a surprise and even made sure I had a day off at my work, but then I switched jobs and he had to tell me, so I could inform my new job, lol! Oops. More about our trip to the City of Love later of course, expect lots of snippets and hotspot posts in the next weeks.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everybody! I'm spending this day with the one and only Mister Handsome, but you could call him Wouter ;) I'll share some snippets of today tomorrow, we've got a great day planned, with lots of yummy food. what are your plans for today?

Food & Fitness Diary: Week 03

People are often very interested in what I eat, how often I work out and how I work out. So that's why I came up with the idea of keeping a week long food and fitness diary. I liked doing this so much, I'm planning on doing this on a monthly base. I'm not adding my drinks, but I drink water all day long and about 3 cups of green tea every day.

Monday:
I have a 9 to 5 full time job as a graphic designer, so I always have lots of food with me to the office. Because our trainer promised us a heavy CrossFit workout tonight, I'm planning on eating enough, so I'll have all the energy I'm gonna need for that workout!

Snippets of my life #64: New years eve party

We had a super fun NYE party with a bunch of friends. So I want to share some 'Snippets' of our evening right here, enjoy!

Happy new year!

Happy new year lovely followers! Are you ready for the new year? I sure am. I'm looking forward to so much fun things. Like our vacation to Florida, our new home that's being build right now and lots more. To start the new year in a good way, I update my blog layout a bit. If you want to stay updated on blogposts, you can sign up for my Facebook page right here. Now, it's time to work on my goals!

Movies: All the movies I've seen in 2014

This year we've seen a lot of movies, 50 in total! We often went to the movies and we also did an Hobbit marathon last sunday. I love watching movies and so does the Mister. This is this years list, the 10 movies I liked most are bold!

1. Elysium (2013)
2. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
3. Pain and Gain (2013)
4. Man of Steel (2013)
5. Jack Ryan: shadow recruit (2014)
6. Escape Plan (2013)
7. Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
8. White House Down (2013)
9. The Hunger Games (2012)
10. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
11. Ice Soldiers (2013)
12. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
13. Tomorrow, when the war began (2010)
14. Chronicle (2012)
15. Hummingbird (2013)
16. Divergent (2014)
17. Crank (2006)
18. Snowpiercer (2014)
19. Pompeii (2014)
20. Chained (2013)
21. Homefront (2013)
22. I, Frankenstein (2014)
23. 47 Ronin (2013)
24. Non-stop (2014)
25. Monuments Men (2014)
26. 300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
27. The mortal instruments: City of Bones (2013)
28. Game Plan (2007)
29. Patch Adams 
30. Chef (2014)
31. Maleficent (2014)
32. The fault in our stars (2014)
33. Devils Knot (2013)
34. Carrie (2013)
35. Vampire Academy (2014)
36. Captain America: The winter soldier (2014)
37. American Horror Story: Coven (2014)
38. The Giver (2014)
39. Maze Runner (2014)
40. Into the Storm (2014)
41. Hercules (2014)
42. Dawn of the planet of the apes (2014)
43. A walk among the tombstones (2014)
44. Trolljegeren (2010) (The Troll Hunter)
45. The Hunger Games, Mockingjay part 1 (2014)
46. Minority report (2002)
47. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
48. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
49. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
50. Lucy (2014)

Snippets of my life #63: Our Christmas days

Christmas is already over and we've had amazing days. We hung out with our families, had lots of food, presents and fun! I made lots of photos and I decided I want to share some of them right here, on my blog.

Wouter and I always unwrap each other presents on Christmas Eve!

So, are you ready for some Christmas days photo spam? Just click read more for lots of photos!

15 goals for 2015

Hey there! Today I want to share my 15 goals for 2015. I always like to set some fun goals for a new year. And I don't mean loosing weight or eating healthier, I think if you want to have an healthier lifestyle you have to start right away. No, this is a fun list. And I can't wait to do them all!

1. Move into our new home.
2. Make a painting for myself.
3. Sell stuff at a flee market again.
4. Print business cards.
5. Go on a road trip.
6. Run the Dam tot Damloop.
7. Go on a food tour in Amsterdam.
8. Read 50 books.
9. Try out Bikram Yoga.
10. Buy CrossFit shoes.
11. Finish another year of Project Life, but digital this time.
12. Daily updates on the blog.
13. Use my Fuji Instax Mini more often.
14. Try a new recipe every month.
15. Say 'No' more often.

I think most of these goals are pretty easy and that's what makes it fun. Like selling stuff at a flee market, we already booked a table at a local flee market, so that is set. A road trip through Florida is booked too, so that's definitely gonna happen. Daily updates on this blog is gonna be a harder one, but I think with the right planning it's manageable. Reading 50 books is gonna be harder next year, because we're probably busy with our new house, but we'll see!

Around here: Ready for Santa

My mother in law gave me the doggy ornament, because I thought it was awesome because of it's ugliness :p

Hey there! Are you having a good sunday? I sure am and I want to share a little bit of my day right here. We decided to decorate the house for Christmas, so we put up the tree, lit up the candles and some extra lights. It's so cozy right now. This will be our last Christmas in our little apartment (hopefully!), so I wanted to take some photos, to remember how this place looked!

What I ♥ about fall

A day at the zoo (Artis, Amsterdam)

A couple of weeks ago, we went on a spontaneous trip to Artis, the zoo in Amsterdam. I've been there a lot of times with school, but Wouter hadn't been there for years and couldn't really remember anything about it. So on a saturday, the weather was super nice, we went to the zoo! I didn't make as much photos as I usually do, but I do want to share some of them. Click 'read more' to see them.

Mom and Dad's 30th anniversary

With my mom and Buddha!

Last saturday my parents celebrated their 30th anniversary. We organized a huge party when they were married for 25 years, so my parents decided to celebrate this special day small, just with their kids. I made them a painting from the four of us (from a photo my mom wanted to have printed really badly, but it was to small to print properly) and we gave them a coupon for their favorite restaurant (De Koperen Bel in Zaandam). The painting will be here on my blog very soon.

My parents took us out for dinner, but before we went there we did a little photo shoot in the garden. Most of these photos are made by Wouter and my dad! :)

Click 'read more' to see all of the photos!

A little bit of change.

Ladies and gentlemen, maybe you might've noticed that my blog isn't very much alive anymore. Yes, I do post my project life pages and my name paintings every week (at least, I try to), but I used to do so much more for my little bit of space on the interwebz.

A couple of years ago I did have a lot more time and my blog was my number one priority. 2 years ago I completely changed my life and I got other priorities. I rather spent my time couch potato-ing with my (not that new anymore) boyfriend, running and other sporty activities. This change in my life is a reason I don't blog as much as I used to. I once started this blog (more than 10 years ago) to blog about food, art and scrapbooking. Scrapbooking has changed into Project Life and art has changed into name paintings. Next to my full-time job as a graphic designer, the custom orders for the name paintings and Project Life I don't have lots of time left to do any art for myself and I don't really mind.

So I was trying to figure out how to get back into the blogging world and I've decided that I'm gonna introduce some new topics. I need to write about topics that interest me right now.

So this is what I came up with: 

• Fitness - In this topic I will write about my experiences in sporty events, like runs, obstacle runs, bootcamps etc. 
•  Blogging Tags - I often get tagged to do a Q&A kind of post and I always forget about them or I don't feel like I have the time to do them, which is nonsense. I think it's a nice opportunity to get more personal and for you to get to know me better :) 
• Trips and Travels - I often do fun stuff in the weekends and I'm going to share more of that right here on the blog. And since this is a lifestyle blog, so this will fit perfectly on here! :)

Of course some of the old topics will stay on here: 

• Project Life - I will try to post my Project Life pages on a weekly base, like I used to, every tuesday. 
• Name Paintings - These will be on my blog when I have custom orders. Right now I have plenty to make, so this won't be a problem. 
• Monthly Reviews - About the movies I've seen, the books I've read and fun stuff I did. Snippets of my life - Picking this up again :) 
• Recipes - When I think up something delicious, I will share it with you! 

So I hope you guys don't mind and like the change around here. After such a long time of blogging it's hard to stay focussed and I hope this change will help me!

King's Day 2014

Koningsdag (Dutch) or King's Day is a national holiday in our country, The Netherlands. Celebrated on the 27th of april (26th when the 27th falls on a sunday), the date marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander.

From 1890 to 2013 this day was known as Koninginnendag (Queen's Day), But that changed now we have a King. On this holiday we celebrate in the streets, all dressed up in Orange, our national color. There are flee markets, kids performing (making music, dancing, games) for a little bit of cash and there are lots of open air parties. I had a very relaxed King's Day myself. I used to plan the whole day, thriftshopping in the morning, lunch with friends, going to party in the city center till we're tired. But this year I decided not to plan anything and just see where the day would take me. The mister always goes to Amsterdam with his friends, so I wouldn't see him all day.

Orange breakfast - Bootcamp - Protein Shake

I started the day with.. Bootcamp! At 9 a.m. we started a heavy bootcamp session at Bootcamp Zaandam. It was a really hot and sunny morning and I was glad when it was over. But I'm happy I did it! When I got home I had a delicious Creamy Coconut protein shake from Body en Fitshop. After a shower I decided to relax a bit, reading a book and messaging with my friends about their plans for the day. Caroline decided to come to my place and have lunch before we would join the party people in our home town.

Me and Caroline, ready to party!

When we were there, we met up with a bunch of friends, some family and had an amazing day, with good weather. We drank lots of wine and danced all day. We had a huge hamburger for dinner (cheat day!) and before we knew it, the guys were back from Amsterdam to join us in Zaandam.

Click 'Read more' to see more photos of my King's Day!

Christmas Bootcamp movie

People who have been checking out my Project Life pages know that I workout a lot. I go to the gym 2 to 3 days a week, I run long distances and every saturday morning at 9 a.m. I do Bootcamp by Jorrit Baars. So last Christmas he organized a Christmas Bootcamp. It was a lot of fun and I was super sore the day(s) after!

Here's a little compilation of what we did, I'm wearing the bright pink shirt!

Storm in Amsterdam

Here in the Netherlands we don't really have extreme weather. We don't have hurricanes, (natural) earthquakes, typhoons or tsunamis. Thank God, our little country would disappear in the ocean when one of those things would happen. But, 2 weeks ago we did have a big (to us) storm and a lot of trees collapsed on cars, houses, highways, you name it. The day after, I took Jens and Sniffy (and my camera) to the nearby forest for a little walk on lunch break. There was this huge tree that collapsed, that left a gigantic hole in the ground and it's roots were about 3 meters high!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, my dear blog readers! I've already celebrated it last saturday. We went to Amsterdam Halloween in Westergas and had an amazing time there. Like every year! These photos were all made before and during the party last saturday. How did you celebrate Halloween?

28 before 29

I've seen this all over the blogging world and I thought it would be fun to do one of these too. 28 things to do before I'm 29. Last tuesday it was my 28th birthday. I don't like the thought of getting old, but I must admit that I've never been feeling better. I always did a lot of sports; gymnastics, kickboxing, gymclasses, running etc.  I now feel I've got the right combination of sports, mixing bootcamp, weightlifting and running to fit my working lifestyle. I feel awesome. I don't have a lot time left for a lot of creative things, but I'm keeping up with project life, wich is fine by me. A custom name painting from time to time and that's it. I rather spend my time with the Mister.

This list is all about fun nights, sports, trips, eating, drinking and more photography. I don't think it's hard to check everything of this list in a year. And that's okay. If I do everything on this list, my year will be awesome.

Wel this is it, my list:

01. Move to a bigger place (with the Mister!)
02. Visit London with Mr. Handsome
03. Do 5 unassisted pull-ups
04. Buy a MacBook Air
05. Sell my old stuff on a flee market
06. Discover a new band
07. Read 15 books
08. Complete another 10 EM run
09. Do 3 photoshoot with Snif
10. Start a written (daily) journal
11. Go to a concert
12. Take a yoga class
13. Try out 5 new restaurants
14. Go to a festival
15. Make an abstract painting
16. Bake bread from scratch
17. Organize a cocktail night
18. Visit a new (to me) country
19. Movie day with Snif
20. Go wine tasting
21. Take Photo Booth photos
22. Try out a new recipe every month
23. Have a mother and daughter day
24. Use my record player
25. Host the biggest b-day party ever
26. Do 5 photo walks
27. Finish my cross stitch pillow
28. Design a gym clothing line

I will post an update about my progression every 3 months! That should keep me motivated.

Have you ever done a list like this? How did it work out?

One year.

One year ago Wouter (a.k.a. Mr. Handsome :p) and I had our first date. It's true, time does fly when you're having fun. It seems like it was yesterday that I met him on the birthday party of a mutual friend. I love you.

The Color Run 2013

We did the first Color Run in the Netherlands! It was awesome, our group was fun and at the end we were all covered in colored powder. These are the photos we took with our phones, that's why the quality isn't as good as you're used to ;)