Texel 2017

*spoiler alert* 

be prepared for lots of photo's

This past weekend we went on our first trip of 2017.
We visited the dutch isle of Texel. It is no secret that I love the sea.
The sound of the crashing waves, the smell of the salty water and warm sand.. What's not to love?

But this has only been my second visit to this island.
When I grew up it was just to far away and in the recent years it just didn't happen.
But it has always been a must-visit destination for me.
This past summer we had already been for a day and I instantly knew I wantend to come back for a longer stay.
We often take a small trip in january ; as Nico usually has some days off  then (something about winter weather and painters ;)
We found an awesome last-minute deal so away we went.

We decided to take an early ferry on Friday to take advantage of an extra day on Texel. I always get ridiculously excited on things like a 15 minute ferry journey so no pictures. I can tell you we enjoyed an excellent sandwich on board. It was way too cold to stand outside and watch the sea though.

First stop on the island was Den Burg. A little town that is situated almost in the middle of the island. We did some essential shopping for food, drink and some souvenirs. And a little sightseeing of the town.

After that it was on to the first beach of the weekend; De Cocksdorp.

We tried to go here on our trip last year but we where on bike and it was just to far for us ( we are not bike-people) This lighthouse is pretty iconic for Texel. I did not venture up all of those stairs but just the red exterior was so pretty!

"Can I please take off this stupid sweater?"

It was freezing cold on the beach. Hence the cristmas sweater on Little Miss Abby. She very much dislikes it and kept trying to take it off. She was up to all sorts of antics. It was a low tide so the sea was quite a distance away but despite the freezing wind we decided to walk to the sea and back.
I quickly discovered a leak in my wellies so I had to stay out of the water. 

We ended our beach walk with a beer ; "Texels Schuumkoppe" and went to check in at the Chalet we booked for the weekend. 

After settling in we went for a quick swim in the pool (inside and heated thankfully). The rest of the evening was spent snuggled up on the couch. Nico reading, Little Miss snoozing and me knitting. 

When we got up on saturday (after sleeping in, what a luxury) the weather was quite wet. So we had a lazy morning knitting and reading. And went out to lunch for a pancake at an old farm. The weather got a bit better so we toured around the island for a bit. We ended up in Oudeschild. There was a dog-friendly museum so we went inside.
They happend to have an exobithion about traditional fishermens sweaters. Very cool. 

Little Miss Abby wasn't that impressed with the museam though.. So after the daily food-shop it was off to the beach again.

When we got to the beach the sun was just about to set. And the colors where the most glorious pastel colors! I must have snapped a thousand pictures. The Little Miss was happily playing with a brown labrador for a while and we ended up doing not much walking.
Just enjoying the sights.

We ended the day with a beer at a local bar and some more knitting and reading "at home"

On sunday we had to pack everything back up and go home. You always bring way to much stuff on these kind of trips...

We decided on one last visit to the beach before going home. It was very quiet on the beach; the weather wasn't that fabulous so we had the whole beach to ourselves. 

 Little Miss Abby raced around and had a blast. Here you can she her meeting a new "human" friend.. XD

We were a bit early at the ferry so I decided to squeeze in some more knitting. This is slightly addicitve... I have never knitted "in the wild" before but it was a nice change to checking social media on my phone. 

When we got home around 5 pm I quickly orderd some chinese for dinner and while we waited for that we packed away all of our stuff. 

I can not wait for our next trip!

The Rotterdam Mini Marathon

It's been a few weeks ago but I really wanted to post about my very first run.
When I think about it I am still so proud of myself!

Just over a year ago I started running after my physical therapist said I should take up a sport.
A friend provided me with audio guided lessons to train for a 5k run.
It was really hard at first but I quickly discovered I loved it.
Now I don't have a runners-body; No slender frame and long legs here.
And my speed is also not race-winning.
But I love being outside and pushing my body.

Running races was not a goal of mine. But when my brother ran the full Rotterdam Marathon last year the vibe of the whole event made me want to run a race. Not 42k but something small.
So Nico suggested I'd sign up for the mini marathon; a 4.2km run organised in the same weekend as the Rotterdam marathon.

After lots of training saturday 9. April was race-day
Because my brother took part in the full marathon the next day we where in Rotterdam for the whole weekend.
First up was picking up my "bib". My brother came along since he had to pick up his as well.
It is a bit special; walking around with so many runners. Everyone dressed up in their gear.
After picking up our numbers we had a stroll around the Expo. A kind of fair with all sort of running related things. I really wanted a special tshirt. At the New Balace stand you could buy a tshirt and have it specially printed. I opted for a bright fuchsia tshirt and a modest "run rdm" print.
Next up: waiting for the race to start.

There was no point in going back home and back into town later so we opted to stay  in the city. After a stroll we ended up at a small festival at Schouwburgplein.
We just hung out a bit there for a while; had a drink, something to eat and listened to the music.
I was super nervous the whole day.
At 15.45 it was time to head up to the start.
Best part of the mini marathon; both the start and finish where at the Coolsingel. Just like the real marathon.
I pinned on my starting number, checked my stuff and waited... I discovered my earphones didn't work so no running-music for me. The waiting was sooo long! They delayed the start a bit because of the fact there where still some kids from the kids runs before on the track.
It was really quite a special thing waiting for the start.. all of those nervous people..

After the start it was quite busy at first; some people pushing and shoving. And all of us trying to find our pace. I tried my best to stick to my own pace. I looked to find some people to keep up with (not to finish last was one of my goals) and after a kilometer or so I got into the groove. I saw my mom quite soon after the start. It was a lot warmer then I anticipated and there where already lots of people walking.
But I had set a goal of running the entire distance so no walking for me. I did slow down a bit though. It's quite difficult to stay in your own pace. I kept a look out for my brother but couln't see him.
I'm not familiar with the part of Rotterdam we where running through so I just followed the rest. It did make it difficult so guess how long I still had to go.
But I did feel I was running much faster then my ususal pace.
Suddenly I spotted the bridge and I knew the finish was close. Just before the Coolsingel I spotted my mom again; cheering me on.
With all the people along the road I knew I couldn't start walking. When I saw the finishline I was sooo happy. I even remembered to make an effort to smile for the finish-photo =)
I crossed the line in just over 30 minutes; 30:27mins to be precise. That is about 5 minutes faster then my regular time!

After the finish there where people handing out the medals, bananas, a small smoothie and water.
I had arranged to meet up with everyone at the medal engraving stand.
Because on your first race you go all out; so I had my time engraved on the medal.
Apparently my brother had missed me as well. Eventhough he was wearing a tshirt that said : "GO NINE" So cool!

We wrapped up the day with some Corona's at a bar and an early bedtime to prep for my brothers big day the next day.
* I was on "team banana" handing out bananas and water and throwing confetti*

I can reccomend siging up for a race to everyone! Even if you are running just for fun; pick a distance you know you can finish. The vibe is just amazing!
I got bitten by the 'race bug' and have already signed up for my next race.
On June 4. I will run a 5k right here in Hoorn.
**also I've started training for the 10k in Rotterdam next year =)

Getting Organised: Birthday cards

To me there is nothing more birthday-like than having a big stack of birthdaycards sent to you by mail.
Yes the old fashioned kind of mail with a handwritten card and a stamp on it.
It just gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing someone went to all of the trouble of buying a card, writing it , putting a stamp on it and dropping it in the mailbox just to wish you a happy birthday.

And wanting others to have the same feeling I try to send out birthdaycards to the people I know as well.
But with lots and lots of people and time flying by I found that I missed some of them.
Enter: The birthday Chart.

 

I found this idea somewhere on the Martha Steward website a long time ago. And as we all know Martha is the Queen of good housewifery ;)
She has a printable chart on her website but I decided to make my own. This way I could keep it as small as possible since I wantend to stick it somewhere in sight.

I have it taped onto a small shelve just above where my laptop lives. That way I see it practically every day and can quickly see any birthdays coming up. I update the list every time I find out a new birthday with a pen. And then update and print a new one about once a year.

Near the end of the month I gather up my birthdaycard supplies and set about writing all of the cards for next month.
I have a huge selection of pens, washi-tapes, different cards and bits and pieces to make every card a little special. I also love special stamps. I find the standard ones a bit boring... 

After writing the card and decorating the envelope I immediately stick on a stamp and put a little post-it on the envelope with the "needs to be mailed" date on it. I always try and plan it out so the card arrives to the actual birthday itself.
The stack then moves downstairs.

Underneath the stairs we have our shoe-cabinet. I bought a little silver toastrack a while back and that's where the birthdaycards live until their "send date". I ususally have a look  every morning before I walk Abby to see if something needs to be mailed.

And there you have it. How I try to send everyone a birthdaycard.
Do you send out birthday cards?

Project Life: February pages

yes yes ... I am wildly behind on the whole thing.
I am finding it harder then I expected to find the time to put the pages togehter.

But I am all up to date on printing my photo's. Whoop whoop!
Now to find the time to make lovely spreads with them...

With no further ado I present to you my february spreads.

 My first running adventure, Thursday 3 with a special apperance from Thunder and how we where a 2 car household for a day..

 My first bananabread, the mess I call my craftroom and our trial Hello Fresh Box

 Abby's new harness, lunch in the garden and the start of a new crochet-project

 My mother-in-laws birthday. With Abby Wan Kenobi

 Monday morning coffee, more garden sitting , Abby's first time in the basket on my bike and studying..

 Lazyness all around; ratties in their hammock and Abby sleeping. My first tiny crochet-project. And our Albert Heijn "garden"

More bananabread; with peanutbutter this time, a coffeedate with my mother-in-law who refuses to be in pictures XD and the finished shawl.

So that's it for February.
I really love seeing all of those moments back already =)

Around here...

yes I am still here!
I am so busy living life that I can not seem to find the time to write about it..

We had a lovely Kingsday on april 27. Browsing the fleamarktet in the (early) morining and having drinks in the sun with friends in the afternoon.

Bbq season is here!!! This burger... really.. it was fabulous! Many more to come this summer..

The Round Robin project has started. More on this later since I can't share any of the pages I'm making at the moment. But basically we all ( a group of 7 lovely ladies including me) bought an empty notebook. We all fill 12 spreads (so that is 24 pages) in each tohers notebook. and then send it to the next one.
In september we all get our own notebook back filled with the artwork of the other ladies.
I'm currently working on notebook no. 3 and love seeing what the other ladies have come up with. Can't wait to get my own notebook back!

For those of you who don't know me.. I am not a runner. Not build like one and certainly never felt the urge to run.
But earlier this year I got the all clear from my physical therapist ( not only that.. she made me take up excesise) and running was the best option. I started with audio-lessons from Evy ( all the dutch runners know her..)
But my body wasn't fully cooperating. So after some more physical therapy and new shoes I started back at lesson no.1.
As of now I'm at leson no. 8 (out of 26).

And.. hold on.. I really like it!

At the end of may we went on a small camping trip with friends. We usually go camping quite early in the year ( weather permittng) cause we just can't wait until summer. We get to check all our gear and it's a great excuse to have a small vacation.

We had a weekend filled with lots of fun, talk, campfires ( I finally figured out how to make the perfect smores) and all sorts of camping-fun.

With the nice weather also come longer walks with Abby. Well we try to. She isn't really a long walks kinda doggie. 

I have been spending lots of time in the garden. Soaking up te sun, doing some writing and reading and just hanging around..

Meet my new friend!
A few weeks ago I had the car for the day ( had to pick up N.'s birthdaypresent) and decided that I might as well pay a visit to the thrift-store. (woohoo for me since I really do not like driving)
In the electronics department I saw the ugly grey case wich I suspected might house a typewriter. After opening it and finding this I quickly did a small test on a scrap of paper to see if it was working. And then quickly snapped it up. The price? 4 euros.
Yes!!!

Aside from all this lovelyness I have been doing some major catching up on my Project Life.
I finally finished all of my February (blush) spreads and will share them here soon. 

You see? Lots of things going on!

What are you up to lately?