What I’ve been up to #4

It’s only been just over a month since I last updated you on my life. But the past month has been exciting enough for me to have plenty of pictures to share with you. I celebrated my birthday, got some exciting news, participated in a cool blog activity and I rounded up work for the summer. Here’s what I’ve been up to!

Doing lots and lots of make up for instance!

Since it’s been vacation, I’ve been doing my make up loads. I like being able to take my time and just go all out. So despite the warmer weather, I’ve been doing my make up pretty much every single day. Only to take it off again because I got so hot and sweaty. I was very pleased with this spur of the moment concoction: navy on the lower lash and a metallic purple lip. What’s not to love?

I also participated in a super cool blogger event: the national beautybloggers day. Organized by two fellow bloggers, Hilde and Astrid, there was a massive blog hop with 36 participating blogs and an equal amount of giveaways. It’s been a great ride and it’s great to be ‘meeting’ more bloggers. I’d been flying solo for so long!

Fresh flowers are still a major part of my routine. I try to get new ones every week. However, lately my regular guy at the market has been on vacation, so I haven’t been able to buy any since.

Did you spot my review of the Essence Lights of Orient limited edition collection? I happened to spot this in store and fell in love. Mainly with the eyeshadow palette which you can see in the middle of the picture. How gorgeous is that packaging? I happened to pick up two and gave one away in my blog hop giveaway.

Because if you can create stunning looks such as these, then what’s not to love? I used the products in this picture and absolutely loved the way the look came out.

What’s even more exciting is that I went to Amsterdam fashion week. Yes, me, invited, to fashion week, for my blog. How crazy cool is that? I was second row at the Spijkers & Spijkers show and really loved every minute of it.

It seems I only got to do cool things these past few weeks and in a way I have. Our yearly work outing is always a blast and I chose to do a DJ workshop in the afternoon. I can now start a song and mix in another one without too much trouble, provided they have the same BPMs. I can’t do anything fancy yet, but it was nice to play around with all those buttons.

The second activity at my work outing was a whisky tasting. We tasted whiskys from all around the world: France, India and also a good Scottish one. I like that one the best.

Lately some great new music has been released and since I was super busy it was nice to just unwind with some new music playing in the background. Here you see the latest releases by Whitney, James Blake, Radiohead and Fews.

Also new in are these booties. I found them in the ASOS sale and just had to have them. Not really the type of shoe for the summer time, but I’m saving them for the fall.

To celebrate the start of my vacation I bought myself some new books. I also got them to hopefully get through my reading slump. As you may have read last Thursday, I didn’t finish a single book last month. Here’s to hopefully finding that reading bug again.

But the best news was quite possibly that very very soon I can stop my monthly allergy shots! In case you didn’t know, for the past 5 years, I’ve been visiting my doctor to get immunotherapy. I used to have really bad hayfever and what they do is inject that which you are allergic to. It’s been tough trying to stick with the program, but I went in for a test at the beginning of my vacation and was told that once I finish this bottle I won’t have to do them anymore.

Even more good news: my dad managed to fix my bike! For the past 2 years this puppy was very sad and lonely and dusty and just sat in storage with two flat tires, no working lights and what not. It now runs like a dream again and so I’ve been using my bicycle a lot more again.

At the beginning of July, it was my birthday and one of the gifts I received was the Harry Potter Page to Screen book you see here. I also got some voucher and money and I used that towards the hardcover boxed set. I now own 3 complete sets of Harry Potter books. Three times a charm right?

Last but not least, I have to show you these little guys. I went to Ikea to buy some glass storage containers, and spotted these cacti just before leaving the store. I’ve been majorly obsessed with plants to begin with, but to show you just how extensive that obsession is, you’ll have to stay tuned for Thursday’s post.

What have you been up to lately?