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?

I have been nominated......

... for the Leibster Award!
Woohoo!
Thank you Fabienne from Snail mail Love.

So here we go!

The Rules 

1. Mention the person who nominated you on your own blog and link them.
2. Answer the 11 questions chosen by the person who nominated you

3. Nominate 5 to 11 more blogs you like who have less than 200 followers.

4. Create your 11 questions

5. Let your nominees know!

1* What is your Favorite and Least Favorite part of having a blog?

My favorite part would have to be the responses I get to a post. It's such a nice feeling when you hear that something I have worked hard on does something to someone.

The part I struggle with sometimes is the pressure to post regularly. Obviously that is something I pressure myself to do.
 But I always find it a shame when I really like a blog but the person only posts about once a year. I don't want to become that person. But combined with all my other obligations , writing a blogpost sometimes falls inbetween the cracks. And I can feel really guilty about that.

2* What are some of your sources of inspiration?

This is a tough one.. I love browsing Pintrest. For blog -inspiration I love reading other people's blogs. See what they are writing about.

3* If you where given $100 to spend on yourself , what would you buy first?

A new pair of runningshoes.
I started running a while back but had to stop due to the fact that my old shoes where making an existing foot-injury worse. So on the advice of my physical therapist I'm holding off on running until I have some new shoes.
And since money doesn't grow on trees I need to save up some money first.

For the record; I've always hated running.. until now. I actually miss it...

4*Do you have any guilty pleasures?

You mean aside form the small bowl of Doritos and the can of Monster I have here?

I think going to bed early would classify. I love that, when I'm home alone, I can just go to bed at 21.30 if I feel like it. Also, taking a nap. Fabulous!

5* What's your favorite word in a foreign language?
That has to be the German "wettervorhersage" It means "weatherforecast".
I've always liked it. 
** we used to watch a lot of german tv at home..

6* What's the story behind a random object in your room?
With a whole house filled with random objects .. what to choose?
Well we have a spray bottle on our diningroom table. You know, what you usually use to spray your plants with. We use ours to correct Abby. Since she is deaf we can't use verbal commands. And when she is naughty we spray her. These days just showing the bottle is enough warning. The rule is that she has to sit on her bed while we eat. And we use the spray to "enforce" it.

7* What is your most bought stationery intem?
It's a toss between notebooks and pens. 
I have a huge stack of unused notebooks. *blush* So at the moment I'm on a notebook-buying-ban.
Second most bought are pens. Nothing expensive; just random cute ballpoints and gellpens.

8* How do you take your tea/coffee?
Tea: just the tea please. Preferably some "weird" flavor
Coffee: either as strong as possible; black. Or with lots of milk and sugar. And at a coffeeshop I usually go for the most extravagant combination. Cause I can drink regular coffee at home.

9* Do you have any craft-related favorite books?
I'm not shure if it's craft-related but I love " Groots &Meeslepend Leven" from Lou Niestadt.
It is only in Dutch but talkes about how to make an ordinary life grand. And also about art-journaling. I went to one of her workshops last year and it inspired me to draw more in my journal. 

10* What's something about you that would be impossible to assume?
Ehm.. well.. I'm actually very much an open book.
Maybe the fact that I have 3 tattoo's?

11* Do you collect anything?
apart from craft-materials? ;)
I have a small selection of fountainpens.. and some on my whishlist still.
I also have a small collection of glass presse-papiers. But , aside going to Venice and buying some, they are hard to find. So the collection isn't growing very fast.
Other than that I am currently trying to own less "stuff".
So I am currently getting rid of lots of things I have been hanging on to for far too long and without a good reason.

Thank You Fabienne for all of these Lovely questions! 

Now I have to nominate a few blogs.
I nominate Petra from "de witte Lanteern", Gittepetit , Jessica from "The Paper Trail Diary", and Sara from "Sincerely Sara"

Excuse me if you do have more than 200 Followers and I nominated you. ;)

Your Questions are:
1. Why you choose this name for your Blog?
2. If you had a whole afternoon to yourself, to spend however you want without any obligations. What would you do?
3. What's in your bag at the moment?
4. What is your most treasured posession?
5. Is there someting you would still like to learn?
6. What would be your most ideal vacation?
7. What is the best advice you have ever been given?
8. Summer or Winter?
9. What do you miss most about being a child?
10. What is on your playlist right now?
11. Why did you start blogging?

I hope you all want to play along. But no hard feelings if you don't.
If you do play along; please leave a link in the comments below so I can read your awnsers.
If haven't ben tagged but still want to play along; go for it!

Where the "magic" happens..

but also where the bills are paid, paperwork is filed, ratties are loved and many more things take place..

Today I am taking you on a small tour of my craft room.
Which doubles as our home-office, book-room and rat-room.

In our old house my room literally was the boilerroom. It was a 1 bedroom appartment and the boilerroom was the only spare space for all on my crafty bits and pieces when I moved in with Nico.
When we bought this house I immediately claimed this room for my "junk" ** as Nico calles it.. lovingly... I think..

The bright mint color on the wall was a leftover from my apartment in Haarlem. I had my whole bathroom in this color. Almost all of the furniture also came with me from Haarlem.
The desk is made of 2 Ikea tables and gives me enough room for the laptop and printer.
As well as leaving me some room to work. And store some essentials on-hand.
The windowsil is covered with little knicknacks and rocks I've collected on our vacations.

Above the desk there are some narrow shevels ( again Ikea) to show of some prints, bits and pieces.
The cardrack (Hema) was a christmas gift 2 years ago. It mostly holds my most recent Postcrossing cards and some inspirational quotes.

On the opposite wall is the bookcase. Well 3 of them actually.
We both love reading and together have quite a number of books. However we both don't like how a stuffed bookcase looks in the livingroom. So the books ended up here.
I'm thinking about moving some books to the bookcase in the guestroom because it's getting very full in here. 

Aside from books there are my photoalbums, Nico's buisness paperwork, our pritavte paperwork, a collection of inks, my Project Life stuff and small bits and pieces.

The mint-colored trolley in front came from my parents house. They bought it ( at Ikea) when they first got married.. a long long time ago. My borther had it at his house for a while and when he moved it ended up in my mom's shed. So I claimed it and asked my father-in-law to paint it.
It houses my binding machine, some empty snailmail boxes, 2 boxes of stamps, the rat-carrier and other little rat-related bits and our printerpaper.

See? It is full of all sorts of stuff...

In the small nook behind the door we've put up some shelving
(which was quite a project and resulted in pieces falling out of the wall on the other side.. =( )
Stuffed on there is a wide varity of "stuff".
Mostly craft-related. Drawing and painting stuff, old journals, my sewing machine and typewriter, snail-mail stuff and a huge stack of "not-yet-used" notebooks. On the top shelf there is more paperwork and a pile of boxes from mobile phones and such.
Sometimes I get really overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I feel I need to keep. I've tried editing these shelves a few times but have not been succesful in getting rid of stuff...

Still working on that..

As said;this is also where the rats live. I bought this cage on Marktplaats ( a kind of Dutch Craigslist) when we moved here and I still love how practical it is. And the rats love all the space they have!
(I believe it's a "Critter Nation" and is also available as a 2-level cage). 

So this is my room.

It is the place whee I go to dabble a bit with this and that..

Rats!

Almost exactly 7 yeas ago I bought my very first 2 rats.
We where at a flea market and there was a boy selling baby-rats.
They where just too cute and in the end we took two little ladies home. They were named Lavender and Rosemary

After that there quickly came another pair of rat-ladies to live with us; I spotted Rock all by herelf in a cage at the petshop.
Rats are group animals so I instantly decided to take her home.. Then the petshop-owner said he had another rat all alone.. So I took that one as well.. And so Arrow and Rock came to live together in a big cage right next to the cage where Lavender and Rosemary lived..

After Lavender, Rosemary and Rock had died there was just Arrow left.
I felt sad for her that she was all alone and decided to get her some new friends.
I knew Arrow was alread an old rattylady so I decided on getting 3 little rattie friends so that when Arrow died her new rattie friends would not also be alone.

So after some searching on the internet Shiva, Buddah and Kali came to live with us.
Arrow enjoyed her new rattyfriends for at least half a year before she died.

When Shiva, buddah and Kali had all passed away I thought I was done with having rats.
We had moved houses and in our new house the ratcage was located in my study.
So they didn't get as much attention as when we lived in our old house. Where the ratcage stood in the livingroom.. And I felt really guilty about that.

But the empty cage made me feel so sad. I missed having rats!
So I searched the internet and found 4 lovely litttle ratty boys that needed a home.
At first I didn't intend on having 4. But I couldn't just leave one.
So Thunder , Lightning, Rain and Drops all came to live with us.

And now.. now I am amidst a rat-crisis.
I had to have Lightning put to sleep because it seemed he had had a stroke or tumor in his brain. He was desorientated, had trouble with his motorskills and was in extreme discomfort.
But now, Thunder, his brother, is showing the exact same symptoms.
I have consulted with my vet, who is very good with rats, and there are several options, Ranging from a severe brain infection to a congenital defect.
We are aslo considering enviromental factors such as food and bedding..

I have him on strong antibiotics and special food but all I can really do is keep my fingers crossed.
I don't think I could bear losing another ratty so soon....

I love rats. They have such enormous personalities and are so much fun!
But I hate the way they get sick. Often very sudden and very serious.
Aside from Lavender  (who died in a dog-related accident) all of them had some sort of illness (mostly tumors) and had to be put to sleep.
I think that after this my ratty-days are really over...

April 1st Update:
Thunder left for the Rainbow Birdge yesterday. He was really trying so hard but he was losing weight and overall just not a happy ratty anymore.
So now there are 2 ratty misters left...

Rosemary & Lavender

Arrow

Rock

Kali , Shiva and Budda

Budda & Shiva

Lightning and Thunder

Thunder and Rain