Around here // I'm Back!

 So I have been away from my blog for a while. For some reason I just couldn't get myself in gear and blog.
But I'm stille alive, don't worry! And I have been busy as well but just haven't gotten myself to share it with you. So here is a recap of what I have been up to lately.

Firstly, something I am really proud of: I have finished my very first crochet blanket! When a friend of mine announced she was pregnant, I instantly knew I wanted to try and make her a blanket. I didn't tell her anything about it. Just in case it would be rubbish. When it was finished I couldn't wait for the baby being born and gave it to her right away. She really loved it. And the colors where spot on! I am really proud of myself for finishing this. And have since...

started on a blanket for myself. It's the same stitch but totally different colors and bigger. It's not going as fast as the baby-size but it's nice to have something to do when I'm watching tv.

I found the pattern on the Attic24 blog. Its called "the granny stripe" and is really very easy. If you are thinking about crocheting a blanket I highly reccomend it.

We love taking trips. First of all we went on a small camping trip in May. We've never been this early in the season. And we did have some preperation-fails. First of all; we went in the coldest weekend in the whole month. So it was COLD!!! Think -2 degrees celsius at night. 

Secondly for some reason we forgot our gastank. Which meant we had to buy a new one; that is a very expensive fail. But overall we did have fun. I got to visit my favorite stamp store in Deventer and I discovered a small shop filled with postcards and notebooks. Awesome!

And with the woods right of the camping Abby got lots of walks and free running through the bushes.

Another trip was to the Zoo in Amersfoort. It's probably the only zoo in Holland where you can take your dog. We had lovely weather and it was really cool to see Abby interact with all of the different animals. She even got a kiss from a giraf. ** Sadly I wasn't quick enough with my camera to capture that..

We also had lots of fun at a family trip. My aunt goes to the Pasar Malam in The hague once a year. I went along a few times years ago before we had dogs. Even before I'd met Nico. But a friend of ours was kind enough to dog-sit so we got to go this year. It's a collection of tents filled with all kinds of exotic food, drinks, bits and pieces. My brothers, step-mom, sister-in-law and my nephew all went along also. We had a wonderfull day filled with real Indonesian food, I had chendol and bubble tea for the first time and we went home with a nice stack of "spekkoek"

Ever since my art-journaling workshop I have been really making an effort to draw more. And with the beautifull weather we have been having I'm spending a lot of time in the garden.. 

Thanks to Instagram I have found not 1 but 3 pen-pals. ** finding a pen-pal was on my 2014 intention-list. I really can not descibe the happiness of finding such beautifull things in your mailbox. I can reccomend it to everyone! Not ready for a ''commited realtionship" with a fellow-snailmailer? Try Postcrossing. I will do a post on snail-mailing soon.

I have been strugling with my body lately. I have gained a bit of weight over the past few years **if you are not carefull that's what living together does to you.. And it is starting to affect my health. So I have been trying to take better care of myself. Getting enough sleep and make better food-choices. Like taking a healthy snack with me to work. I am not on a diet because that never works for me. Just trying my best to make better choices. The added weigtht ( and poor food choices) also means my fybromyalgia and gout has been acting up lately. And pain always affects all other areas of your life. 

After 2 years it was, finally, time to upgrade my phone. So out with the old (HTC) and in with the new (samsung galaxy S4) Best part of the upgrade? The fact that there are so many cute covers available for my new phone!! Yes I know.. shallow.. but hey.. I'm a girl. I need cute stuff!

So that is what I have been up to lately.

I have every intention of keeping up with blogging but if I do get caught up with life you can still find me on Instagram!

Have a wonderfull evening and see you later!