Rhinestones are a girl's best friend

Last Saturday my mom needed some things, so I went with her on a quick shopping trip. (I realise that it seems as though I go shopping with her every weekend, but that's not true. It's probably every other weekend, haha.) I bought several small things, two of which I think are extremely cool.

 

The first one is this hairbrush. I absolutely love it. It's so sparkly and colorful I can't stop grinning every time I look at it. I'm a sucker for bling, which is apparent from two items I got a while back:

 

On the left is my computer mouse (duh) and on the right is a contact travel case. I'm taking it with me to New York in December. (Did I tell you about New York? Ahh, inspiration for a new blog post!)

The second item is something I need for the wedding.

I'm planning on putting a picture of my late grandfather in this locket. I don't remember where the idea came from but I'm going to ask our florist to attach it to my bouquet.

I also got this, because I've decided hand cream will become my newest addiction.

It smells so good. I like to put the hand cream on my hands, rub them together until they're not slippery anymore and then stroke Juul. It's so nice when he smells all chamomiley... Or something.

I love buying little items like these because you do get the shopping-and-acquiring-new-stuff-thrill while you aren't actually spending any money. Anyone out there who does the same thing?

Wedding shopping

Today my mom and I decided to go shopping. There were some things we needed, but we ended up buying other items. She finally found a dress for our civil wedding and I bought earrings and a bracelet for the civil wedding and a necklace (and a bracelet and even more earrings) to go with my wedding dress. The necklace is from a Swarovski store and I think it's a very simple and elegant one, yet with just enough bling to suit me and my ways, haha.

My parents and brother came over to dinner tonight, so K. made his famous casserole (potatoes, cabbage, minced meat and Béchamel sauce). I wasn't here when he made it because I was out shopping, so I'll make sure to take a picture and post the recipe when he makes it again. It was dee-lish (yes, I did just say that).

I'm still looking forward to Joke's husband's post. Read more about it here. Come on, Joke, don't keep me waiting! I'm so curious as to what his answers will be.

Anyway, that was it for today! Yes Man is on and I emo heart that movie. My favorite scene is this one:



It even has a Bloc Party song in it, how awesome is that!

End of summer

Every year, at the end of summer, I get this huge hankering for winter. Let's just skip fall, with its stupid rain and stupid wind. Even though winter is just as rainy and windy as fall, I like the former much more. Maybe it's just the feeling the winter season gives me (not to mention the fact that winter outfits are SO much better than those in summer!). It's freezing outside (sometimes there's even snow!) and you can curl up under a blanket inside, in front of the fireplace (or stove, in my case). We started lighting our stove again yesterday! It had been turned off for about 2 or 3 months, I think. Mind you, this is our only means of heating the house.

I also went shopping with my mom today. I bought a blazer for my job interview on Wednesday, 5 pairs of pants (including a pair of black stretch jeans that look as though they're dress pants and 3 AWESOME pairs of corduroy pants which will be soooo comfortable when we're in New York in December) and a poncho!

K. left me alone tonight. I'm in a winter mood, so I combined the stove with the poncho. Suffice it to say that I'm so hot I'm blushing like a virgin on her wedding night. Still, it's far too cosy to take off the poncho, so I'll just suffer through it.

I'm looking forward to putting up our Christmas tree. We didn't do it last year, because we'd only just adopted O'Malley and I was scared he would find all the precious and fragile ornaments too intriguing to leave untouched. :)

Another reason that I'm excited about this winter is that we're finally getting married then. I get such a warm and cosy feeling thinking about how we'll always be celebrating our wedding anniversary during a cold winter, wrapped in the warmth of our home, which seems much more intimate than having an anniversary in any other season... <3

P.S. Sorry for the bad quality of my pictures! K. took the good camera (i.e. his iPhone) with him.

Long time no see

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhh, I was THIS close to finishing my blog, pressed backspace and GONE was the whole thing. I'll start over.

Hello everyone! (Or should I say, "Hello, 2-3 people who read my blog!")
It's been so long since my last blog, but I just haven't done anything worth mentioning. My blogster friend got back from her trip-that-lasted-way-too-long last weekend and FINALLY wrote a blog about her summer. So I felt obliged to update you as well.

Our camping trip was fun, but the nights were cold:
 

 

We also visited the town of Maastricht.

 

  

Last weekend, I tried out my hair and make-up for the wedding! My baking friend (who can do a whole lot more than just bake) is doing my make-up and my cousin is in charge of my hair. They both did such an amazing job. I'm so happy to have them in my life and I'm so lucky that they want to do this for me - free of charge. :) I may have to find them an extra present.

 

I went to Action yesterday. It's the perfect store for when you feel like going shopping, but don't actually have any money. Here are some of the things I bought:



I actually bought these little make-up bags in June to put my cookies for our cookie club in (more on my cookie club in a later post). They didn't have them in this color back in June, so these immediately caught my eye. Our wedding has a beige-gold-brown color scheme, so I'm going to use this bag to put my wedding make-up in. I'm hoping it will look good in the pictures of our Big Day. :)

These babies cost me €5. They actually aren't that comfortable, but boy, do they look amazing or what?! Even if they only last like a week, I'll still have got my money's worth out of them.

I'm not sure how handy this recipe folder will turn out to be, but it was just so cute I had to have it.

 

I bought all this and more (a door mat, a dog pillow for Juul, 4 extra drinking bowls for the dogs, cupcake toppings, doggy shampoo, etc etc) for just €30!

 

Speaking of recipes, I've been trying out some new ones! I didn't like all of them, so here are three that I'm definitely making again!

 

American macaroni salad. I'm addicted. It's so good. I swear to God (if I believed in one) I'd eat this every single day. If only it didn't have so much mayonnaise in it.  I make it with cherry tomatoes. I also substitute the celery for cherry tomatoes and I put in little ham cubes.

Sloppy Joes with some random salad (I see arugula, tomato, cucumber, pine nuts, onion, chives and a garlic dressing). I remember watching It Takes Two (that Olsen twins movie) when I was little, and one of the Olsen twins eating Sloppy Joes for the first time and absolutely loving it. I'm so glad I finally tried it out for myself. It was really good.

Yakitori chicken with rice. This was good. Nothing more, nothing less. :)

 

My future mother-in-law sold her house and had to get rid of a lot of stuff (the new house is smaller), which meant that we got the piano! K. is obsessed with it, constantly looking up new songs and exercises.

 

 

 

Here is how sweet Flo and Juul are (when they're not playing and chasing each other loudly through the house):

 

 

Stay tuned for next week's episode of The Wonderful Life of Tulips!