JUNE’S LITTLE LOVES
29 June 2018
What a month it has been! It was not all sunshine and mojitos on the patio as I would have liked it to be, but it was definitely filled with warmth and love: we celebrated my bf’s 30th birthday and I got a job! We’ve been super lucky with the weather this past week here in Belgium, so I’m enjoying sweating in the heat and, I must say, working on my tan – even though I got a little sunburn the other day, oops!
This month, I’m joining Morgana over on her blog Coffee, Work, Sleep, Repeat to share my June’s little loves!
READ
Do you remember that lovely book I was reading months and months ago? Hmmm.. Probably not. It’s A Little Princess by Frances H. Burnett. Yup, I’m still reading it. It’s really a lovely story, I don’t know why it’s taking me so long. I only read it in bed because I don’t want to damage it carrying it around in my bag or anything so I’ve only gone through one or two pages in the evenings before snoozing off. I’m super slow finishing it. The bf told me he read somewhere it was better not to do anything else other than sleep (and sex) in the bedroom so, I don’t know, should I change my habits? I’ve been so used to read a book before getting to sleep that it would be very weird not to do it anymore… What do you think?
I got the July copy of Red Magazine and I enjoyed going through the pages, especially on the Saturday mornings we were having a nice breakfast. I lurked into the books recommendations column and found my next read: How do you like me now? by Holly Bourne. Have you read it yet? It looks like I would love it. It’s about a girl that vaguely resembles me: nearly 30, friends that are getting married and having babies, in a cycle of self-doubt and unhappiness… Well, okay, it’s not exactly me. But it looks like it’s about the new Bridget Jones, so I’m going to order it ASAP.
WATCHED
NETFLIX
So many things… First things first, we’ve been watching Friends again! We’ve seen the episodes so many times but still, we love it, it’s so comforting and still remarkably very funny. We also watched Safe as everyone was recommending it. We saw all episodes in the space of three days if I remember right. I really wanted to see what was going to happen next as soon as each of the episodes ended. My opinion on the show is that Dexter wasn’t very believable as a British guy. I also couldn’t stop thinking he was going to kill someone… Overall it was a bit meh but still enjoyable.
YOUTUBE
I’ve just discovered and recently been obsessed with Hunter & Heels. It’s a family/lifestyle channel starring Lauren, a mum of three, who looks so sweet and kind. I’ve enjoyed watching her make up tutorials because I love Bobbi Brown and because I think she’s so stylish! She’s totally my summer crush! Do you follow her or watch her videos?
MADE
BAKING
I baked two beautiful cakes for M’s birthday. It was a lot of work but it tasted really good. I had wanted to do a Milk and Cookies cake with cookie dough filling. I found a recipe online that didn’t include eggs yolks in it at all so it wasn’t going to get us all sick with salmonella. You can never be too careful! I might share my adapted version of the recipe, would you be interested?
BLOGGING
I made an effort with my photos and blogging skills. I set myself some goals like ‘post every day on Instagram’ (already failed that one!), ‘publish a post a week’ and ‘improve my photography’. It hasn’t gone like I had imagined so far because I’m still into the ‘planning and discovering tips and tricks’ stage…
Anyway, I play with my sister’s camera settings: exposure, depth of field and all of that. It’s a bit tricky and it takes me forever to get some good shots, I probably take hundreds of photos to get just one right! It’s good practise though and well, I’m learning.
WORE
I really have been into wearing stripes and polka dots… But to be honest, my wardrobe is super sad-looking: I got rid of my old clothes and I don’t have much money to spend on new ones right now even though I’m dying to get some new summery pieces…
One thing I’ve have been doing every week since getting fired is to paint my nails. It’s weird, isn’t it? I didn’t use to do that before, it was more of a random thing for me. Now, I’m hoping this habit is going to stick because it’s a great way to take care of myself. It makes me feel a little bit more polished. At the moment, I’m into nude colours, I wear mostly Essie’s limo-scene and fiji.
My go-to makeup right now is Tanya Burr’s My Paradise eyeshadows palette. The shadows look very summery and fresh. It’s not high-quality makeup, but it’s cheap and it does the trick. Plus, it’s super handy to travel with as you’re never going to smash it… like I did with BB Shimmer Brick… *insert crying here*
HEARD
I’ve listened to A LOT of podcasts this month. Here are two that I particularly enjoyed: Stopping the glorification of busy – it resonated with me a lot since I experienced a tiny burn out last month… Jen Carrington was a guest of Sara Tasker on Hashtag Authentic; and Show up as if you’re already where you already want to be – Jen Carrington’s Make It Happen’s episode is super inspiring because she gives great tips on not just ‘faking it til you make it‘ but on actually getting into the right mindset, something I’m trying to do more recently.
I’ve also heard some great news this month: a particularly romantic engagement story and the yes! I got from my new employer when she told me she was hiring me! Hurrah!
AND LASTLY…
With everything that happened with my job and all, I’ve realized that blogging is important for me. I can write things down and get some perspective. It also helps me be more creative because I have to think about what to post and what pictures I need to take to illustrate my point. I even get out of the house to practice my photography skills so, that’s a plus. While I was job hunting, I really thought about how my ideal working life would be and neglecting my hobbies and self-care is something that shall not happen ever again.
What are your plans for July? The bf and I are off to the beach for a week and I plan to rest, do a little bit of work for a friend and get the house in shape before my first day into my new office in August. I’m excited about it all actually, I really want to get cracking now that I found a nicer boss – it’s like I’m at my first ever job, starting all over again! Happy July lovelies! x
THE ROOM TOUR YOU NEVER SAW
17 June 2018
This post has been in my “drafts” forever so you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ll recap for you…
BACKGROUND INFO
Three years ago, we left our little flat in Brussels to live in a small city in the eastern part of the country. (I’m from Belgium in case you are wondering…) It was a big change because we moved into a HOUSE that has many many rooms.
The house needed a bit of work as I hated the kitchen and most of the rooms’ paint colours. We had to deep clean everything because everything was filthy: the previous occupants had so much stuff it was hard for them to keep everything tidy. We changed the flooring in both bedrooms, in the kitchen, and in the office. We completely redid the kitchen by ourselves… If you want to see some photos, you can find all the posts I wrote about the work we did here.
THE OFFICE “BEFORE”
First things first, I feel like I need to tell you the truth… We don’t use this room as an office anymore. As it’s the first room when you enter the house, we use it to store our bikes and our cat’s litter box. We drop off our bags, our coats and store our shoes in there as well, so its main function now is to be an “entryway”…
The “before” photos look pretty bad because of the orange walls… It was hurting my eyes so much! Some plastering work needed to be done around the windows and the flooring was in a really bad shape as well as being super ugly. Also, we were storing lots of things in there while we were redoing other parts of the house.
We store our shoes in the wooden cabinet. I got it off second hand and need to sand it down but I haven’t got around to doing it yet. It’s a bit too orangey-looking for my taste… We layed down the flooring ourselves with left over wood planks my father-in-law had in his garage. I’m not a fan of the colour but it’s good quality and it was free so we couldn’t pass it up.
WHITE, BEIGE AND WOOD TONES
At the time, I was in a hurry to get this room done because I was writing my end of the year paper and I wanted to have my dedicated workspace. Since I had discovered Made.com, I wanted to buy “real furniture” instead of going to Ikea. I had spotted a few pieces that I thought would go well with my colour scheme “white, beige and wood tones”. Moving into this house was my perfect opportunity to buy new pieces of furniture so I went crazy and ordered a bookcase, a new office chair, and some lamps.
I found the cute lampshade at Maisons du Monde, we bought the print at the Tate Modern shop on our last trip to London and the world map corkboard is from Notonthehighstreet.com. If money was not an issue, I would have gone a little overboard with the accessories and office supplies. Unfortunately, I’m too reasonable in that area and I have not overstyled the shelves with super pretty boxes and trinkets… but I’d love the room to look more glamourous!
DIY DESK
We actually built the desk ourselves to save us some money. At first, my idea was to buy two trestles from Habitat because I loved the look but I then I thought it was too expensive. We ended buying a nice and thick wooden board and built the trestles ourselves. I painted the trestles white and left the wood as is. It fits perfectly against that wall and it’s super easy to move. What I love most about it, it’s that we have plenty of space for our legs!
Overall, I’m happy at how everything turned out. It’s a shame we don’t use this room as an office anymore because the light is really nice in there. Alas, we’ve discovered that an office/entryway is not practical for us. I would probably do it another way if I were to start decorating this room again and if I had a bigger budget. I love so many things!
MAY’S LITTLE LOVES
3 June 2018
It’s been a strange couple of months over here since my last Little Loves post. I was having a hard time at work and completely neglected myself as I was drowning in work. The worst is that I wasn’t even working properly and I was stuck in a very unhealthy routine. Eventually, at the beginning of May, I had a realization and as a result, I quit/was fired.
The bf and I had planned to spend two weeks in Finland as we were going to attend a friend’s wedding (on the same day as Harry & Meghan’s). I wasn’t in the best mood to enjoy everything as I often dreamt and thought of my work problems but I still enormously enjoyed my time over there. The wedding was absolutely perfect – simple, beautiful and elegant – and we had the best time! We were also very lucky with the weather for this time of the year – so warm and sunny – and I was delighted to eat ice creams every other day! As my Aussie friend smartly mentioned, who could have thought we would see an ice cream melt in Finland?!
Morgana, over at Coffee, Work, Sleep, Repeat, has decided to host this linky once a month instead of on a weekly basis so I’m happily joining her again with my May’s Little Loves. Let’s get down to it, shall we?
READ
I read two books this month – it had been too long! That’s what you are supposed to do when you’re on holiday, right? I went with a classic and an old time favourite.
I was deep into Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I had read it before, like 15 years ago!, but didn’t remember exactly how it ended. It’s the story of a young woman who marries a rich English man who has a dark and mysterious past: his first wife was found dead after a storm had unleashed its fury at sea. The new Mr. de Winter arrives at Manderley, where her husband and his first wife had lived happy years before the tragedy, and she soon becomes haunted by the ghost of the perfect Rebecca… It was such a thrilling book. I definitely recommend it! It’s well written and it was quite hard to put down.
The second book I read was Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding. It’s one of my ultimate favourite books. I must have read it like 4 times already, along with the second book. It’s a bit old now and not everything about it is relevant anymore. I raised my eyebrows at a few things Bridget wrote in her diary but I still – and will forever – love how imperfect she is! No matter what embarrassing situations she finds herself in, she never loses hope and always find her way back to being content with herself, always trying to do her best and forgiving herself for her mistakes. Also the Colin Firth and Hugh Grant’s references are hilarious when you think about how the books were adapted for the big screen! Have you read one of them? What did you think?
WATCHED
I watched The Dressmaker while we were in Finland. I was so surprised at how funny it was. Kate Winslet is just so beautiful, I loved her to pieces in this movie! The plot is set in rural Australia, in a small town Kate Winslet comes back to after 20 years of absence. Beautiful dresses and some dark secrets are revealed as Tilly (Kate Winslet) tries to find out about her past…
On Netflix, we’re into The Crown right now. We also discovered an Australian show on there called The Letdown. It was so funny! It’s about a new mum who is having a hard time coping with her new baby and who feels totally unsupported by her husband and her parent’s group. Celeste Barber – you now the Instagram icon who makes fun of celebrities? – plays in it and she’s hilarious!
Of course, we’re also watching The Handmaid’s Tale every week -I looooove it!
HEARD
My friend saying I do on her wedding day. Well, it was all in Finnish so I’m not sure… I was all emotional as always, I love weddings! I also listened to my favourite Aussie friends speaking and I realized I had missed they beautiful accent…
MADE
The bf and I made a few trips to the lake after sauna. We experienced the magic of having a proper sauna in Finland and I never want to forget the feeling of dipping into the cold water after having sweat so much because of the high temperature. It’s THE BEST feeling!
WORE
I wore a lovely skirt at the wedding we attended and a new pair of stylish heels. The shoes cost more than the whole outfit because I wanted to invest in a good pair that I could always wear again. As you don’t wear the same outfit at every wedding… I think it was super smart of me 😉
AND LASTLY…
I had to go back to work after my holiday to discuss what I was going to do now that my contract was terminated. I was afraid my boss was going to be mean again but I was actually pleasantly surprised as he acted very professional and everything ended out well for me: pay for the three-months notice period and no work to do any more for him. I really felt relieved because I absolutely was dreading going back there every day. Now, I’m all set to find another position. I’ve been job hunting since the day I was fired but haven’t had any luck so far. If I don’t find another internship before the end of July, I’ll have to look out for available paralegal positions. I’m still unsure about it all but as the future is so uncertain, but I’ve decided I would try to be unemotionally attached to the process of job hunting and then choose what makes me happy from all the things that will come my way! If I don’t feel it, then I won’t do it – it’s my new motto!
Happy June to everyone! I hope the weather is going to be warmer and sunnier…
I have added this post to Morgana’s #LittleLoves over on her blog Coffee, Work, Sleep, Repeat.
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