Instagram #9

Time for a personal update in which I’m showing you what I’ve been up to these past few weeks, as well as give some behind the scenes details on what’s been going on in no particular order. These pictures start some time in January and end right up until this past week.

One thing I did was visit my parents and my best friend. This is the windmill in Best, which is where I am originally from. The windmill didn’t function for years and that one day I visited home again, it did. It was the first time I ever saw that.

Halfway through January I was as sick as a dog. For a week all I did was cough, sleep and run a fever. There were days where I couldn’t even speak because I was so hoarse and it just wasn’t a very pretty sight. Luckily it was that one week and I’ve been fine ever since.

I bought a new calendar from Waterstone’s when I was in London and I’m obsessed with it. Each month showcases a different font and I love it.

I’m trying to use less plastic, so I’ve decided that most of my every day containers had to go and I replaced them with mostly plastic free options in the past few months. I now have a mason jar for salads, a weck jar for my morning yoghurt and a stainless steel water bottle from Klean Kanteen. I also bought a new on-the-go tea mug as the one I had broke, but I’ll be showing you that in a separate post.

Teaching means grading. I went through 60 – 70 of these exams last January. My students did well on the whole so I was very pleased with some of their work.

And all that hard work needs to be rewarded: with music! I went the see Interpol the day I finished grading.

A week later, I got my hands on some bits and bobs from the new Catrice line for spring/ summer 2015. You can find my original video here and most of the new product have already been reviewed as well.

Another concert had to happen. I originally had tickets to see Tove Lo, but that show got cancelled. Friends of mine would be seeing DeWolff in a brand new venue in my home town, so I decided to buy a ticket for that instead and had a blast.

We had snow! This is the only snow I’ve seen all winter. At least on my doorstep. None of it would stick here whereas other parts of the country had quite of bit of it.

But on snowy days I prefer to stay in bed. I am trying to get into the habit of having breakfast in bed on Sunday mornings to have a nice and slow start during the weekend.

Face mask time! I took this rather scary looking selfie just for fun…

I showered using this new shower cream by Nivea. I wrote a review about it here.

One night after a long day at work, I was walking home and it was cold and foggy. But it does make for a very pretty picture of my street.

Rosemary sweet potato fries is one of my favorite foods and I decided to make it again.

I’ve been rockin’ this sweater to the gym and dance class. It was part of my job’s Christmas present. Now I’ll be representing my school wherever I go.

The light bulb in my bathroom broke. And since I am a) afraid of heights and b) the lightbulb is very high up, I can’t reach it. Luckily friends of mine came over the next day to fix it, but I still had to shower. Battery powered lights came to the rescue.

In February, I had a week off of work due to spring break and I went shopping with a friend. We just happened to pick the most dreadful rainy day to do so and so we stayed inside catching up and drinking tea. This is Rotterdam by the way.

I again visited my parents because my brother celebrated his birthday and I had to go to work the next day. So I decided to stay the night because my parents live closer to my job than I do. Takkie, our dog, likes to get all snuggly at night under her blanket. For once, she didn’t mind posing. And this little lady turned 14 the other day too!

Despite the fact that I stayed over, I still had to get up early enough to be at work on time. For a change I boarded a train from Station Best instead of Leiden.

And then it was time for more live music. I bought these CDs from the Sylvan Esso show I went to last week. Their support act Cut_ was also really cool and they were selling CDs as well, so I picked up both.

I love how there is more light during the day. The sun is out more, there is some sunlight when I walk out the door at 7 AM again and the same goes for when I catch trains at 6 PM to go home. I loved this sunset in particular last week.

Tea time! I cleared my cupboards and cleaned my kitchen during my break and found this mug again. It’s been 10 years since I attended College of William and Mary.

Live music again! I saw FKA Twigs at Paradiso last Thursday. The audience was rude, but she was amazing. She’s a great performer and her music works better live than on a record. Who’d have thought.

Apart from live music I’ve also been buying some albums again. I have been stuck in a music rut for 2 months now, but I am now positive it will let up. I discovered and bought some albums that I was curious about and I’ve loved all of them so far.

Last but not least, I tried my hand at recreating a celebrity make up look for the first time. I came up with this, to recreated Dakota Johnson’s 2015 Oscar make up look. You can find the full post on it here.

What have you been up to?