Coffe, divorce and cat cuddles #littleloves
28 January 2018
It’s the fourth week of #LittleLoves2018 and I’m already lacking in the photo department. I won’t talk about work but the thing is nothing else really happened last week. I’m getting old if work is becoming my life, isn’t it? Anyway, enough ramblings, here are the little things that brightened my week.
READ
I read the numbers on my bank account and saw that I finally got the money for some of the work I had done a few weeks back. Yay! I’m not talking about huge amounts here, but earlier this year, I decided to put aside the money I earn from the extra work I get sometimes. I’m saving to buy myself this beauty. I’m a cliché, I know. Anyway, little by little I’ll get there.
WATCHED
Anyone watching Divorce? I’m happy the show is back on. I enjoyed the first season so much. SJP is playing a mum of two teens who wants to divorce her husband of 20 years. She plays a different character from her usual roles as a fashionista living in the city. HBO has always meant good quality shows to me. Frances and her friends are a bit crazy but I love watching her trying to rebuild her life after such a life-changing decision. Anyway, I highly recommend you watch it if you’re interested. The episodes are 30 min long – perfect for when you’re too tired when getting home from work…
HEARD
I’ve been listening to my usual podcasts from La Première, a Belgian radio station (the jazz section and Tendance Première), the latest episode of Young House Love has a podcast and half an episode of Hashtag Authentic.
MADE
I made a client happy by answering his questions for the umpteenth time. Actually, he is facing a few years in jail so I get why he’s anxious. But still. I need a break sometimes.
WORE
I bought a new jacket but didn’t photograph it! Maybe this weekend. I needed a new raincoat as my old one wasn’t very professional looking. I got one discounted from 120€ to 40€. I was lucky!
AND LASTLY…
I’ve been enjoying doing some crosswords in my bed this week. I don’t know if it’s relaxing or what but it’s definitely an interesting choice of bedtime activity for me… I’m not very good at it and don’t find many words but I like the challenge! On Thursday, my kitty jumped on my bed when my alarm went off because he wanted to be cuddled! I was delighted: he is in a funny mood at the moment, he doesn’t want to be touched and wants to play all the time. It’s annoying, especially when playtime for him means trying to bite me…
Nothing really awesome to report here. I’m thinking about taking up yoga and get the words “stressed” and “busy” out of my vocabulary. The short days and lack of sun are really affecting me this year. It’s hard for me to get up in the mornings and I don’t seem to have the energy to get out. I’m really hoping a proper camera will help me be more creative even when there is no light when I come home from work… Trying to take interesting pictures with my phone is getting harder and harder…
Have a fabulous weekend #LittleLoves crew!
SPF, Positive glasses and a cat hidden in a box #littleloves
20 January 2018
And just like that, another week has gone by… I’m excited about the weekend. I need to sleep in. Work has been relatively good apart from one day of intense stress. I managed to think my car had been stolen or towed after having walked three times past it! I was on the phone with the police until I noticed it was still there where I had parked it…
Last weekend was fun: we went out for cocktails with friends, assisted to a make-up lesson at Bobbi Brown’s shop in Lille and ate brunch at my favourite place in town on Sunday. The rest of week wasn’t that exciting in comparison…
READ
I’m still reading Shopaholic gets to the Rescue. I’ve been falling asleep as soon as I hit the bed every single night this week so I have not reached the end of it yet… I’ve also enjoyed reading the little captions written below the photos I got printed. I made a wall of photos to reflect on the year gone by. It makes me really happy to have this wall where our adventures of 2017 are recorded… I’m not sure if I’ll leave it up all year round but for now, I am happy to have a look at it every time I walk past it.
WATCHED
I went through the whole season 2 of Doctor Foster and I don’t know what you thought of it but I was very disappointed. It’s a shame they made it because season 1 was good and could have been left as it was. The rest of the week was spent trying to put on my positive glasses… I refused to let the stress of the working life get to me and while I’m still not good at being positive when things get crazy, I’m getting there!
HEARD
Ed Sheeran x Eminem’s River is on repeat on all my devices! I’m listening to it right now while I’m typing this post. When I’m obsessed with a song, I just play it a thousand time and I sing aloud for everyone to hear… I also love singing in my car while racing on the motorway!
MADE
Last weekend, I made an effort to go to the museum. There was an exhibition of contemporary art at our local textile museum and the bf had insisted that we should go and see it. It was a bit weird, I didn’t understand much of it. However, it was very interesting to see what others can create and where their imagination can take them.
WORE
Have you seen the new Cherry Healey’s documentary called “The truth about looking good“? She’s researched the beauty industry and tried to find out the truth behind most claims on cosmetics. I was aware of many things they showed but was most intrigued by the tests they made on this bus driver that showed how the sun had damaged her skin. I have a pretty good skincare routine but seeing the documentary, I decided to add SPF to it. And we only had one sunny day this week…
AND LASTLY,
I’m so thankful for my amazing friends and my little family. Of course, I love my parents and siblings, but the bf and my furry baby bring me so much joy and comfort. I’m lucky. Even my work family is great. It’s not easy but I always love it when we all gather round and calm down for a bit to go out for a meal or for drinks on Fridays. Last Friday, I tried the best gin I had ever tasted. I might buy myself a bottle this weekend… Searching for Gaston all over the house and finding him hidden in a box, going out for drinks with my girls and eating brilliant food is my definition of living the good life… It fills my heart with joy and love! This weekend’s plans include: sleeping in, drinking cocktails, going out for a meal with my knitting ladies, brunching with my girls and visiting a newborn… What are you up to? Have a fabulous weekend!
I have added this post to the #LittleLoves linky over at Morgana’s blog Coffee Work Sleep Repeat.
2017
19 January 2018
My Lalalab order arrived in a flash! I was inspired by this Emily Quinton’s video to print a few photos to remind me of the year gone by. It had been ages since I had printed anything… 2017 came with its lot of good news, successes and stressful moments, money worries and little adventures abroad.
Let’s recap.
From looking for jobs to finding one… it took me a few months of absolute despair. I had been sending applications for what seemed like years. Even when I worked in a supermarket, when I was at uni, when I worked the odd jobs here and there and applied to loads of positions, I never found anything. I have been through a few episodes of depression during my years at uni but it was nothing like being unemployed. It has seriously been a nightmare. It didn’t help that I had other family stuff going on. I complained, I was tired, exhausted even and had low self-esteem. Most of all I was angry and struggled a lot.
Fortunately, my hunting efforts paid off in April when I got a job at a bailiff’s office. I was so happy and excited… but I soon discovered it wasn’t very well paid and the boss was a bit crazy.
I got a contract though so I put off looking for another job for at least a year. I wanted to save up a bit of money and looking back, I was actually scared to look for the job I really wanted. Lawyer internships often start in the fall in Belgium so I had planned to apply again in March 2018.
At the end of the summer, a miracle happened. I got a call from a lawyer who was looking for an intern. He had seen the resume I had sent months earlier and where I had written that I spoke English and that I loved blogging. He wanted me to come for an interview. After a week of intense stress – I didn’t want my boss to know I wanted to leave until I was sure I was hired and I also was very scared to miss this wonderful opportunity – I got the internship!
The bailiff wasn’t happy about my resignation. I had a two-week notice but paid my way out of it in order to start my new venture as soon as I could!
My big adventure had finally started and I was delighted. However, it was not all bursts of sunshine and rainbows. Finally getting that job was the end of a long and painful process: uni, exams, crappy jobs, applying for jobs, being rejected, interviews, … But it was also the beginning of another process. Building that kind of career comes with its pros but also its cons: the pay is lower than what I got from being unemployed, at least one working day a week is insane (I thought I had “lost” my car in the street the other day… I had walked past it three times without seeing it…), I sometimes work long hours, I need to study again (not as much as uni though) for the bar exams, many court hearings I go to don’t go exactly as planned, etc.
However the pros are amazing: I’ll arrive late at the office tomorrow morning because I stayed there too late yesterday night, the members of the firm that hired me are super helpful and available, they are getting used to my panic attacks (they’re getting calls from me asking them about where my car is parked when I’m 20km away from the office…), they encourage me and get me working on interesting cases.. The possibilities for growth are insane. I’m so lucky to have got where I wanted to land which is on the doorstep of my future. I always loved the image “all the doors are open for me, I can choose whatever I want to do, I have the keys”.
However, despite the cons, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I never took the easy ride anyway. I’m not sure I would enjoy it…
I had a great summer. Even if we didn’t go on a week-long holiday, the bf and I enjoyed our weekends and went to Versailles and Oxford. We were so lucky that the weather was hot and sunny. It truly felt like proper holidays to us.
Our furry baby Gaston has been a pure joy. He is the funniest but also the angriest cat on the block. He is always happy to play with the bouncing balls we throw at him in the evenings. Then he quickly becomes a monster when he attacks us for no reason…. okay, I probably try to hug him when he doesn’t want to…
We didn’t travel very far but still quite often. We saw Paris in January, I went to London in March (and I met Jim Chapman!!) with my Finnish bestie. We visited Oxford in May, then Versailles in June (I’ll probably write a post about it soon). We went to the New Forest and didn’t see any pigs running around in the streets in October and finally, we stayed three days in Paris between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
We’ve decided to take it easy in 2018. We’re off to Finland in May and apart from that, we have no plans. I put up the photos in a chronological order above the mantel in our bedroom. I love having a peek at them in the morning… It’s a great way to remember happy moments!
Kintting, Baking and a red coat #littleloves
12 January 2018
It has been an interesting week. I tried to be more organized and relaxed but it didn’t end up the way I wanted. Baby steps. I got two exciting new cases at work – yay! – but didn’t manage to do as much as I wanted as I have been distracted by other things I needed to do for the office. I saw four of my friends last week: Julie on Monday, Louise on Tuesday, Anso on Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday and Marou on Thursday as well. We met for coffee, board games, and dinners… It was just a bit much, I’m happy today is the last day of the week. I needed an evening at home lofted on my sofa watching tv. Overall, I had a good week and feel pretty happy I remained positive throughout some of the stressful days I had at work.
READ
My bedside table hosts the latest book of the Shopaholic series. I started it before Christmas and am still reading a few pages every other night – I try to make it last longer! I wouldn’t say it’s the best book I’ve read but Becky makes me smile a lot despite the fact that her adventures are completely unrelatable and far-fetched. The characters often lack depth but still, I very much enjoy reading what Becky Brandon née Bloomwood is up to!
WATCHED
I have been enjoying watching The Crown with the bf but we’re a bit slow: we’ve only watched episode 4 on Wednesday. I have been busy with work and I saw a couple of friends during the week so I haven’t had the time to sit down and watch more than half an episode at night! I did start Doctor Foster while I was ironing our clothes and I can’t wait to see the next episode tonight…
HEARD
I’ve listened to a recommendation I read on a #littleloves post over at Mum Reinvented. I enjoy listening to podcasts in the car so I gave Hashtag Authentic a try! It felt good to start listening to something else! My plans for 2018 is to put more effort into my blog and try to take better photos so I enjoyed listening to Sara’s tips and recommendations.
MADE
I baked for a few hours on Sunday afternoon. On my Christmas break, I thought about what I needed to change in my habits to be more present and less stressed during the week. I often come home late in the evenings so the bf cooks and does the dishes a lot. I’m always too exhausted to do anything so I thought I should start doing some batch cooking on the weekends. I baked bread and a brownie for dessert. I prepared spinach and ricotta canelloni, a veggie quiche and a hachis parmentier. We had some leftovers for lunch and didn’t need to spend hours in the kitchen cleaning all the pots and pants. I’ll definitely repeat the process next week!
WORE
I was waiting the January sales with excitement as I had my eye on a red coat I had tried on at Zara. I nearly bought it before Christmas but ended up waiting for it to be discounted. It was marked down from 99€ to 69€, not exactly what you call a bargain but still. I wear it with confidence as it brightens my grey, navy and black wardrobe a lot. I also got two new pairs of black shoes. I had seen a woman wearing black rain boots when we were in Paris so when I spotted a pair on sale in the shop I grabbed it and ran to the checkout…
AND LASTLY…
I went back to my knitting club on Saturday morning. I’ve started going last autumn and at first, I was a bit shy. I don’t knit a lot during the week so I make most of my progress at the meetings. The group consists of older women, pretty much all of them are already grandmothers. I miss seeing and talking to my grandmother so it’s been very lovely to spend some time with older and wiser women. I don’t know much about them but love hearing them tell their stories and anecdotes. I also appreciate their confidence a lot. Mostly, I am grateful they teach me their tricks and help me with my needlework. As I’m a beginner they laugh at my mistakes a lot!
I hope you’ve had a fabulous week and am looking forward discovering new blogs through the #LittleLoves linky hosted by Morgana over at Coffee Work Sleep Repeat!
NEW YEAR, BACK TO WORK AND MAKING PLANS #LITTLELOVES
5 January 2018
Here’s my first post of 2018. Nothing really happened last year on the blog as I was busy applying to jobs, starting new ones and quitting others… As I shared in my stories on Instagram, I made a promise to myself that, this year, I would be more regular at blogging and I would finally buy that camera I had been eyeing for so long! That’s why, in 2018, I’ll join (again*) Morgana and the #LittleLoves crew in the weekly linky she hosts on her blog, Coffee Work Sleep Repeat.
* I shared a few #Little Loves back in 2014 when I started my blog which was called Ravacholle. I was such in a bad place at the time, I couldn’t see enough of the bright side of life to keep up.
Let’s get to it.
READ
This starts well as I didn’t read much those past few days except for drinks menus while I was in Paris. We had the loveliest cocktails at Café Laurent, a jazz bar the bf and I went into to celebrate our achievements of 2017. I had a sidecar and the bf ordered an old fashioned. We loved seeing the barman prepare the mixes right in front of us! The next day, we enjoyed our free drinks at our hotel. I had the rosemary gin and I loved how fresh it made it taste.
WATCHED
We saw many Christmas movies while we were away from work: Love Actually, Jingle All The Way, Deck the halls, Miracle on 34th Street, Grinch, Beethoven, The Muppets, You’ve got mail, The Beauty and the Beast movie … We started watching The Crown and continued this week. It’s such a beautiful set with wonderful costumes. I needed something to satisfy my Downtown Abbey cravings and this does a fabulous job!
HEARD
Usually, I listen to podcasts in the car on my drive to work. This week, I just enjoyed listening to the hit songs that blasted on the radio. While we were in Paris, I’ve listened to the band playing beautiful jazz at Café Laurent where we went for drinks. It was magical, I’ve enjoyed the night so much! You can read more of our Paris adventures here.
MADE
The bf and I DIYed a few Christmas cards that we sent to a few friends and some family. I had shared a few crafts I wanted to do lately and I can now tick one off my list.
I went back to work on Tuesday – yay for a short week! The new year was a good excuse to swap the furniture around in my office. All my colleagues approved the new layout and it felt good to open the door the next mornings… I hope the feeling will last longer than a few days!
WORE
I wore my black polka dots shirt on my first day back at work. Ioved how good wearing it made me feel. I had been wearing it the wrong way right from the start and I finally got the hang of it – I needed to button up the shirt to the top!
I also wore Tanya Burr’ “Season to Sparkle” day palette. It contains a light sparkly pink eye cream pencil, three sparkly eye shadows that I love, a liquid illuminator and a nude lip gloss. Everything is absolutely brillant for the price except the gloss which doesn’t stay on the lips very long and whose colour is not one I would have chosen.. It’s a bit childish but I love the packaging! It’s a no-brainer to apply in the morning and it feels a bit like opening a present every day!
AND LASTLY…
We had the loveliest time on New Year’s Eve, eating seafood and watching the fireworks.
New Year, same me. As I reflected on 2017, I’ve declared 2018 the year of simple joys! No big life altering plans, just living the best life we can afford right now and settling into our works and routines at home. It feels good not to have a life-determining agenda. It will also make me focus on what really counts after all, my family and friends.
Now, it’s that time to sit back, enjoy the weekend and burn that super expensive Christmas gift I’ve got… #goingupinsmoke
Happy New Year to all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)