Current loves: lots of ♥♥!

Hi everyone! How has your Valentine's day been? Mine was everything I could've asked for :) I never got to spend it with someone special before, so I wanted to go 'all out' for once! It involved making a cake and valentine's day cards in secret, getting beautiful pink & purple flowers with starbursts and chocolate + deep dish pizza, chicken & watching the first Harry Potter movie. Omnomnom!

Other little things making me happy...

♥ waffles with canadian maple syrup ♥

♥ My new wallpaper ♥

♥ Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2! I think it was even better than the first one. ♥

♥ Practising to paint with watercolours ♥

♥ Zorro the cat sleeping with us every night (after some jealousy issues) ♥

& Rolo ice cream ♥ long morning cuddles ♥ MTV's The Challenge ♥ endless Pinterest browsing

Hope you're having a great week so far c:

Cats can say hi.

Hello lovelies! I'm still in Canada and it's still cold and snowy. Right now I'm sitting here with a showercap on my head waiting for my hairdye to be done :) Live has been pretty 'slow' lately, which makes sense since I'm basically re-starting my life! I'm already pretty used to everything, but I still feel like everything is settling and we've got plenty of things to take care of before things can start picking up again. I still freak out every once in a while when I start thinking about everything that could go wrong. What if I still got to go back home in the end? What if things aren't as simple and easy as we think they are? etc. etc. Things aren't so slow that I have a lot of time to worry about all that though. So far everything is going great! Here are some random shots of the past few days...

I've been using my mini instax polaroid camera a lot since I got here so we had a bunch of polaroids just lying around. I decided to do something with them and made this cute heart on our wall!

My latest obsession: gel manicures! It lasts for up to 3 weeks (even longer if they didn't grow out) and makes your nails super strong. It's the greatest thing ever. I never got my nails done 'professionally' before, but yesterday I went for a second time and now I'm officially hooked haha

I do try to keep up with drawing/painting/being creative even though I'm not in school right now. Sucks that so many of my supplies are still at home in Rotterdam.. just got to start hoarding here n.n

Zorro the cat loves to help me

Skype is my (and probably everyone else's) hero when it comes to long distance calls! I love skyping with my family back home every once in a while and see their faces :) and my mom enjoys taking pictures of me when we do lol. The cat here even got to say hi to my own cat thousands of miles away!

And obviously, this is a shot from today. My favorite part of dyeing my hair is definitely mixing the colors. It's like a mix of art and cooking! I always want to eat it.. somebody make edible hair dye please..

Now it's time to get this dye out of my hair and watch new Regular Show and Shameless episodes. Hope you're having a wonderful week so far!

Random update with tea and cats.♥

You guys! It's already December! Can you believe it? Because I can't. So many things going on every day, it's crazy. Today I am the master of procrastination. I should we working on this research thing right now, but instead I blog, eat, shop and spend time with my iPhone. Because ummm... there's a christmas version of the Kitty Kawaii Game and it has to be played. Anyway, here are some pictures I snapped over the past few days :)

I changed up my usual morning green tea with a new one: Clipper Tea Zen Again. The packaging makes me smile every morning, and it tastes amazing! ♥

Last Saturday I went to The Flatliners concert! It was in an awesome tiny venue with a lot of people going nuts. They were awesome live and I got a pretty t-shirt n.n

Last Thursday we finally finished the mural I showed you in my last post! I absolutely love how it turned out. We hid some characters in there like Wally/Waldo, Stewie Griffin, Miley Cyrus, Harry Potter, this dude from One Direction, Voldemort and ourselves of course.

Here in the Netherlands, it's Sinterklaas time right now. It's like a dutch christmas. It means baking/eating kruidnoten and presents! Yesterday I celebrated it with some friends by exchanging gifts, eating baked goods, watching movies and eating take-out on the couch. ♥

My presents were the cute erasers and mini cupcake xmas cups below, a bunny iphone cover, red ribbon and some pink touchscreen gloves!

Like I said, today was procrastination day so instead of doing homework I went sweater shopping. Because I obviously need winter gear when I will be in Canada in freakin December. I got this awesome, super warm leopard print sweater at H&M. I also couldn't pass up this adorable cat purse.. MEOW.

Less than 4 weeks until the holidays and until my big trip! I'm sorry I keep bringing it up.. I'm just way too excited :) I hope you are all doing well and are getting into the christmas spirit already n.n

Cardboard Cats and the Cutest Cookies.

Hi guys! School has started again and omg, it's harder on my than I thought it would be. With preperations for the possible exchange going on it's hard to focus on another 3/4 months of assignments. And my confidence in my illustrative abilities also dropped down to near zero. All in all, this week has been kinda heavy on me, but luckily there were also plenty of things to keep me positive, which I will share with you right now!

This picture of my friend and I at Lowlands makes me smile! Giant cats made out of cardboard? Ummm yesplz!

My  other friend (who's name coincidentally is Sarah as well!) went to England in the summer and gave me some of these goodies! Omnomnom! I think Jammie Dodgers are some of the cutest cookies ever, especially when they're MINI SIZED! And they're delicious too. And isn't that tea packaging the cutest?

I got some super sweet mail from a reader from Russia the other day! She basically included everything I love : tea, Halloween, cats, Hello Kitty, foreign tickets and coins. Thank you so much! A reply is on its way c:

A random picture I took of my desk the other day while decorating my new depressingly black sketchbook with gems and stickers. Much better.

I'm the absolute worst at shopping for bags/purses. I don't like about 80% of all bags out there. I don't know why. And when I do find one I like, it's usually too obnoxious to use on a daily basis, so then I end up using cheap old tote bags with holes in it (to great dismay of my mom..) BUT, I really needed a new backpack for school, and after browsing the interwebs for weeks on end I decided on this one.

It has Hello Kitty on it (with a pink bow!), it's by Vans and I had a discount coupon for it so I was like 'whatever!' and ordered it. It also came with a cute little coin purse. It can easily hold all of my stuff and in the end I'm really glad I got it!

I do have to admit that sometimes I feel a little ridiculous when I get another Hello Kitty item (and this time was no exception) but she just makes me so happy. No matter how down I feel, she will always cheer me up and I think it's amazing that such a simple character can has such a powerful, positive effect on me! So I'm just gonna keep buying Hello Kitty stuff and live happily ever after n.n

Finally, I wanted to share this beautiful quote:

"One of my philosophy professors lectured wildly about love once, yelling: “When you’re in love with someone, that person is the lighthouse of your universe.” (I scrawled it inside Science and Poetry in pencil—lighthouse of your universe—as if I would ever forget that phrase.) He was a delightful caricature of his position. I could swear he literally tore his hair out while howling at us. He went on, “Nothing means as much without that person.” One of the men in the class repeated, incredulous, half-laughing, “So you’re saying you can’t enjoy, like, a vacation, without someone if you’re really in love with them?” “Of course not.” the professor replied. “Not completely. You recognize beauty, but beauty means less if they don’t witness it with you. Beauty is less. You see something sublime and your first thought is that they should be there with you. It’s not as good without them. They illuminate. They make everything more." 

— [via nightmarebrunette.wordpress.com]

Thank you so much for reading my blog. It just wouldn't be the same without your sweet messages ♥

My Summer to-do list!

Summer To-Do List:

♥ Visit museums
Two I already have on my list are the cat museum and the GO Gallery in Amsterdam and the fashion biennal in Arnhem, but I'm sure there will be lots of other interesting shows over the summer!

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♥ Stay in a different place/city for a couple of days
Last year my mom and I stayed in Amsterdam for a couple of days (in the same hotel as in John Green's 'The Fault in Our Stars'!) and it was such a nice getaway, even if we were just about two hours away from home. I definitely want to do this again, but in a different place.

♥ Have a picnic at the beach
For some reason, I always have a picnic at the beach at least once every summer. I prefer 'dinner picnics', in the late evening with fresh pasta salad, bread, chicken and fresh fruit.

Moonrise Kingdom

♥ Make a zine
Maybe just a zine of my 'summer adventures', or just random stuff. I don't know, but I want to make one.

♥ Take lots of (instax) pictures
So far I haven't used my new instax mini camera too much, but summer vacation feels like the perfect time to use this baby more!

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♥ Send lots of fun mail/postcards
I haven't been able to send out a lot of fun mail lately... I want to change that this summer!

♥ Make jewellery/accessories
I want to try making at least all the things I listed right here!

♥ Explore my city more: discover smaller cafes/shops/other places
There are places in my own city I've been wanting to go for some time, places I dont even know exist, cupcake shops that have to be tested...

Ten To Three Bakery
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♥ Go to concerts/festivals
I already have one concert and one festival planned! And I'm sure there are many more (free) ones to be added to that list.

♥ Make picture books out of my photographs of the past few years
I've taken lots of pictures over the past few years and I think it's a shame they're just sitting there on my laptop. I really want to make picture books out of them.. maybe I'll get to that this summer.

♥ Visit lolita store in Bilthoven
I've been wanting to visit this store for such a long time, so this summer, it has to happen. Especially after seeing this post about it on Icosnap! Cute!!

Picture by: Icosnap

♥ Have a Hello Kitty high tea
Another thing I've been meaning to do for a long time (and coincidentally icosnap made a post about too!) There's a place not too far from here that organizes Hello Kitty high teas, and I really do want to stuff my face with anything Hello Kitty, literally!

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♥ Finish portfolio website + business cards
This has to happen this summer. Not just for school, but also for myself. I want to figure out what kind of work I have for my portfolio right now and see where I want to go from here :)


Do you already have plans for this summer?

A post with tea and cats is always good.

My anxiety level is pretty high these days due to school, things in our house breaking down and other stuff going on. One moment I'm all relaxed and ok, next moment there's a gigantic knot in my stomach and insecurity hits me in the face like a wrecking ball. Like right now. So, I'm making a little list with things to be excited about.

Things I'm excited about:

Getting a haircut
Confession: I haven't had a decent haircut in at least THREE years. Last time I got it cut, it was cut super duper short and I felt misserable for at least a couple of months. It was horrible. But I've decided to face my fears and just GO, since I've been saying for months now how I need to get a haircut (and it's starting to annoy me that people constantly tell me I should..)

I'm terrified. Yes. This hairdresser I'm going to this Saturday has NO Mirrors, also serves as a art expo space and everyone just sits at a long table to get their hair did. I give them all my trust.I don't want anything radical, just a nice cut that doesn't look like I put a pink dustball on my head. Wish me luck.

Japanese Soda
I never drink soda, but I couldn't pass this one up! I actually got the strawberry one sometime ago already, but I also wanted to try the melon flavor n.n it's very sweet and fizzy and tastes of cute! And most importantly: the bottles make for nice decoration c:

New tea
My roommate recommended this tea to me, and I absolutely love it! It's green tea with a twist. It's nice and soft, fresh and definitely energizing!

Our cats making new friends
My dad is away, so our cats are staying with our neighbor for a little while, and they made a new feathery friend! How cute is that!?

Asking for help
I suck at asking for help. I always have. But I feel like I'm learning. The other day at school I openly told my teacher how I just got completely stuck with an assignment and he was very nice and understanding and helped me a whole lot to figure it out and get me moving again! And today I also asked my classmates about some stuff and it took away a lot of anxiety. I don't know if I will be able to keep this up, but I sure hope so...


I think that's about it for now.. What are you excited about?

The best Green Chai Tea and Fancy Kitties

Oh pretty daffodils!

Hello there lovelies! Last weekend I finally got to relax for a little bit again and went over to visit my family. I'm homesick far less than last year, but after like.. two months without seeing a 'familair face' I can get pretty down. And luckily, I'm from an island so it's like an actual holiday! It's an awesome feeling getting on that ferry and just really truly be away for a couple of days. As usual, I took a bunch of pictures!

The beach! It may not look like it but it was soooooo cold.

The greatest green chai tea EVER. I always get this tea when I'm having tea at the beach.

Found these fancy kitties while shopping!

Mmmmmm freshly baked bread... I wish I could eat this for the rest of my life.

My mom got me some cute goodies! Can't wait to try out those egg shapers n.n

Purple glittery bouncy ball *_*

Berriesberriesberries. My latest obsession. No berries are safe from me.

Got my niece some cute little goodies for her birthday!

Other loves: hot pink tissue paper ♥ soy yogurt - ohmy, it is the greatest thing ever ♥ not having to wear a coat ♥ a week of no school ♥ my new gigantic (secondhand) iPod! ♥ flowers/floral everything ♥ rows and rows of colorful embroidery thread

I can't wait for this weekend and my week off following that! I really need a short break from school. Going to celebrate it with a loooong lunch tomorrow with some friends and hopefully some fabulous weather! Do you have any fun plans?