My favorite: Stores in Hoorn

Today I'm taking you on a tour of my favorite stores right here in my home town: Hoorn.

Hoorn lies about 35 kilometres north of Amsterdam and has about 72.000 inhabitants.

We moved here 3 years ago from Oosthuizen ( wich is not far from here) 

 

Our home is about a 5-10 minute bikeride from the city centre ( It depends on the wind and trafficlights). With paid parking everywhere I always take my bike when I'm going into town. the city is filled with places to park your bike. But never forget to lock your bike up properly ;-)

First stop on the tour: Sissy-Boy homeland.  I always love the look and feel of this store. They sell a mixture of clothes, furniture and housewares. They also have toys and a small selection of paperwares. I have to admit I don't often buy something here as most of the time I find things are very expensive. But I love to have a look and be inspired. 

Right across the street is HEMA.  This is probably the store where I spend most of my money.

They have a great selection of paper goods, homewares and very well priced cosmetics. I buy most of my postcards here and when I'm in need of a small gift, this place is often where I end up. 

I just love their clean crip designs and happy colors. And most things are very nicely priced ;-)

Just around the corner is Xenos. They have a bit of everything but mostly home decorating things. 

They also have a very large seasonal section. When I was there yesterday they had all of their fall and halloween stuff out. Price-wise most things are very cheap. The quality is about what you would expect for the price you pay. But it's always a nice place to score some bargains.

( I broke my no spend and bought a drinking jar with a lid and a straw for..., 2 euro's)

 

It's also a good place to buy picture frames for a reasonable price and other home bits and pieces you might want to swap out regularly. They also have a large section filled with all sorts of exotic groceries. And sweets from al over the world..

A small street conectng the 2 main shopping streets...

When you pass underneath this cute little gateway you end up at the library and De spellenhoorn.

This tiny little store houses an enormous amout of games. No videogames to be seen; only boardgames, card games, dice games and everything you can imagine. they also sell Magic, Pokemon and those kind of cards. The staff is really knowlegeable and can reccomend you a new game if you tell them what games you like. They also organise tournaments in different games and once a month they have a game-night where you can play almost all of the games they sell. 

Next up ; De Tuinen. they sell all sorts of natural beautyproducts, vitamins and tea's. They staff is lovely and it's the only place I can find my Burt's Bees handsalve. 

On "het grote Noord" the main shopping street here in Hoorn you can find "schouten handwerken" The store is tiny but filled to the brim with all sorts of yarn in the most fabulous colors, And in the back they have  lager selection of knitting needles, crochetneedles and everything you might need for your yarn projects. I often just walk in to have a look at all of the beautifull yarns...  I also prefer to buy my yarn here in these kind of actual shops instead of big internet stores. Maily because I want to feel the yarn before buying it. But also because these stores always have a lot of knowledge they are more than willing to share with you. 

Now this is the only real tourist shop we have here in Hoorn. It's the place where I buy most of my "tourist- postcrossing-cards". they also have a very special "i love postcrossing" card they print themselves.

This not so pretty storefront belongs to the biggest organic store here in Hoorn. It's located right next to the trainstation. But when you get inside....

They sell just about everything and anything realted to healthy and organic living. They recently chaged the whole store around wich means I have to look for everything . But that also means I keep discovering new things. The staff is lovely and always knows where everything is. And if it's sold out they will always order it for you. This is also the place that got me hooked on Green & Black's Maya Gold chocolate... 

And that is the end of my tour. 

You might have noticed that there are no real clothing stores. That is because I really do not like shopping for clothes. Offcourse there are some stores where I usually buy my clothes. But I don't really count them as favorite stores... But maybe someday I will take you clothes shopping with me...

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?

Blog-Love

Today I want to share some of my favorite blogs with you.

*The Nerd Nest
if I ever become a parent I want to be just as awesome as Megan and Jake. I love how they still are themselves and be parents.
I love reading about their day-to-day life.

* RuKristin
I love all of her memory-keeping projects. I followed her "Find your voice" workshop this summer (still have to finish it though) And she is the creator of the awesome little Currently Cards.

* Elise Blaha
I love the design of her blog. Clean and simple; easy to read.
My favortie posts are those about her decorating the house and the keeping of plants.

* Lou Niestadt
I recently read her first book. Well actually it's more of an art journal. I don't know if it's available in english yet.. She inspired me to start drawing again..

* Geninne's art blog
She lives in the most fabulous houses built by her very talented husband. Her sense of interior design is awesome. And her drawings are magical. Plus; she takes beautifull pictures of it all.

These are some of my daily/weekly must-reads.
What blogs do you read?