Currently; 24.01.2013 and 31.01.2013

Each week I'm taking 5 minutes and record what's happening right now.

This is last week's card. We had a familly weekend and I didn't have acces to a computer.

** Jack is my 4,5 year old nephew..

This weeks card

** My super secret project is soon to be revealed... 

Favorite Reads

I am an avid book reader.
Ever since I've learned to read I read pretty much everything I can get my hands on.
I am always willing to try out something new. But I do have some favorites.

First up: Cecelia Ahern.
I love all of her books. I started off with  "Where rainbows end" but quickly got hooked and bought everything I could find. I think she is most know for "P.S I love you".  Which I found a bit too sad..
My favorite is "A place called here" It is a story about the place where all missing things (e.g socks and stuff) and missing persones end up. Most of her books are kind of modern fairytales. Very realisitc but mostly with a twist.

Second on the pile: "eat, pray, love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.
I picked this up one whilse waiting on a trainstation. "Back in the day" I still bought books based on their cover and this one appealed to me instantly. I finished in 2 days and loved it! One moment you're crying and the next you're laughing out loud People really give you funny looks when you do that on a train...
It is a wonderfull story about finding yourself.

Moving down te pile is "the devine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood" by Rebecca Wells
I bought this because it was on sale and had lots of pages. It is a very complicated story but I love the way how it really sucks you in. You just want to know how it all turnes out and you keep on reading..

Next up: "looking for Alaska" by John Green.
I believe this is more of a book for teens but that didn't stop me. Practically nothing can stop me from reading a book...
I think I saw it somewhere in Flickr in the "what's in my bag?" group.
It starts out as a story about of boy going of to school out of town but the end is really different ( not going to spoil it, go read it). I've recommended it to several students for their english liturature reading list.

Then we have "Book Lover" by Jennifer Kaufman & Karen Mack.
Another book I mainly bought because of the title and cover. It tells the story about a woman who is addicted to books. It starts out as a funny book but at some point you realise she is addicted to books like some people are addicted to alcohol or drugs. It does however have a happy ending. And is a good read.

I love books with happy endings. I am willing to settle for a sad ending but if there is one thing I can't stand it's an open ending... I find that very unsatisfying..

Bottom one on the pile is a very old book. "Désirée" by Annemaier Selinko
My grandmother once gave it to me. It's a journal type book. Well actually it is a set of 2 books.
The story is told by a jong woman in France right before Napoleon got to power. She is middle-class with wealthy parents. She writes about befriending Napoleon before he became emperor. The book tells about how he got to power, the time when he is in power and how he looses grip on things and is send to Elba.
It gives you an insight in those years and in more fun to read then historybooks.
I think I've read it probably about a dozen times.. and still love it. If you can get your hands on it I highly reccomend it. If you are into historic novels.

So these are some of my favorite books to read. I've read and re-read all of them so many times!
Are you a reader?
What are your all-time favorite books?

Perfect Afternoon

Sometimes things just are perfect.
Nico & Abby picked me up from work and we went to Amsterdam.
We found a parkingspot near the ferry to Central Station.
After parking we took the ferry, crossed through Central Station and walked to the city.

First a stop; Subway for lunch. We even found a place to sit and eat our sandwich (steak & cheese for him and Chicke Fajita for me).
After that we went to the top floor of the "Bijenkorf" where there is a small "Paperchase" store. We attracted quite a bit of odd looks; Nico had to pick Abby up because she can't take the escelators (Abby is our 2 year old miniature Bull-terriër). People seem to find picking up your Chihuahua perfectly normal but when you have a small bull-terriër under your arm.... hihi

At the "Paperchase" I immediately went for the sale section. My sister-in-law (who works at the Rotterdam-store) tipped me off that the sale would end this sunday.
While Nico and Abby checked out the rest of the floor (very patiently) I brouwsed.
A pad of writingpaper, v-pen, and some postcards went home with me.

After that we had a nice walk to "de Vlieger". A huge papershop in Amsterdam. I needed some white paper bags. But I also took a rol of masking tape, 2 pen-tips I had been looking for, a new pen holder and some beautiful Japanese paper home with me. I would have taken so much more home but I restrained myself.
When we came out of the store the sun had come out and we had a lovely walk back to Central Station. After a quick visit to Starbucks (an double espresso for him and a chai tea latte with soymilk for me) we took the ferry across the Amstel and went back home.

all my finds...

And now, I am exhausted from all the walking. But I had a really nice afternoon. I'm so happy with all my little bits of paper.
All afternoons should be like this; shopping for paper, nice weather and drinking Chai Tea's

And how was your day today?

December Daily; the end-result

A little applause please: Today I've finished my December Daily album!

Before I share the full album,
I really had a hard time making the pages this year. It just didn't sit right. Making the pages was so much more work than I really wantend to do.
So about half-way through the month I kind of gave up on the whole project. That's why there is one day missing.
Also a big factor in my giving up was the quality of the pictures printed by our home printer. They where just awefull. And having them all printed out would have been costly. But I really didn't want to leave the project half-finished. So I decided to , to hell with the budget, have the rest of the pictures printed out at HEMA.
(the only place here in Holland that lets you import your pictures straight from Instagram, that I know of)
It was less expensive then I thought it would be..
With all the pictures printed I had no more excuese not to finish it.

But for next , oh wait this year, I'm not shure if I want to do another december daily.
Definitively not in this format. But december is still a long way away so I still have time to decide.

And now, without further ramblings, here is my finished December Daily album:

I am so glad I can cross this project of my to do list.

Did you do a December Daily? Is yours finished?

Share a link to your December Daily in the comments.

I would love to see how yours turned out!

Currently 17.01.2014

Each week I take a moment to record the right-now.
I use the currently cards from rukristin.com

Today's list:

What are you doing right now?

One Little Word 2014

This year I wanted to try the "one little word" thing. ( among other things..)
I've seen severeal people blog about it, seen it pass by on instgram and it seems interesting.
I've read about it on the Ali Edwards Blog, since it is her idea I thought it would be a good place to find out how and what exactly it is.
I found it hard te really get a clear idea what it actually is. Ali is hosting a class but I have no intention of signing up for that.
So now what?

I've decided to wing it. And it scares me.
I like it when a project has clear guidelines and step-by-step instructions to follow. It makes it all clear and easy to folow ( and still I seem to have trouble completing projects..)
So it will be interesting how I will do with a project without guidelines.

First task; pick a word.
That is the easy part. I've had a word in my brain for the last month or 2.
So my word for 2014 is Balance.

Balance is the thing I struggle with most.
Finding the balance between all the things I want to do and all the things I need to do.
Balance between work and fun
Balance between all and nothing
Balance between beïng active and rest

So this year I am going to see if I can find some balance.

I am not really shure in which form I will do this project. I am an avid journal keeper so there will be some writing invloved for shure.
But I also want to branch out so I am leaning towards making a sort of art-journal.
But we'll see.
I have pulled an sketchbook (A4) from my stash and intend to use this for the whole thing.
But for the moment I still have nothing to show you guys.
What are you doing with your one little word? Leave a link in the comments so you can inspire others.

I will post here regularly about this project. If you can't wait for that; follow me on instagram and be the first to know!

Currently 10.01.2014 and something extra

This year I am continuing with the currently list challenge.
I'm taking a moment each week to record what's going on in my life right now.

this week

I totally forgot to upload last weeks card ..whoops..

And the something extra I promised?

well...

Kristin (rukristin.com) who thought up the whole currently challenge, is looking for 2 Currently ambassadors. So go to her blog and apply for this awesome "job"!

There is also a facebookgroup you can join. Just search: "currently list journaling challenge" and join the fun.

Also she is offering an exclusive one-month-only special edition every month!

For january she made a very stylish grey edition.

You can buy it HERE!

What are you wainting for? Get printing and fill out your card!