Garden: Sweet Peas

I've always had an interest in gardening, since I was young I've loved flowers and watching things grow. Last year, in mine and Arjan's old flat, I decided to get some potted herbs for our kitchen windowsill, basil and chive were my favourites. I then got a small window box and planted a lobelia at one end and some radish seeds at the other, along with a sweet pepper plant that never really did much.
When we talked about moving to the Netherlands I started dreaming of finding a place with a small garden or outdoor space that I could grow my own vegetables in.
Now that we're still living with Arjan's parents I didn't want to miss out entirely on the growing season, so I bought a little packet of sweet peas and a seed tray and got planting!

They have done beautifully until now with only a small number of the seeds not sprouting. Arjan and I have come back to York for the next two weeks to house/brother sit whilst my parents are in America with my sister, so before we left I knew I would have to get the seedlings into something a little bigger.
Sadly I couldn't find any taller bamboo canes and Oma had just given her's to her brother-in-law for his beans, so these smaller ones will have to be a temporary solution for them until we get back.
Right now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that nothing disastrous happens while I'm away!

My Brighton windowsill garden 

The seedlings in their tray

Their new pots 

I'm still dreaming of that little garden, but for now these will do just fine and hopefully in a couple of months we will have beautiful, sweet-smelling flowers in abundance!

Outfit: H&M Floral Maxi Dress

When I was home last, my mum and I went shopping and I came back with a good few additions to my wardrobe. One of the items I found in H&M was this floral maxi dress, which I thought would be perfect for a gig outfit, dressed up with my chunky boots and some dark make-up, or for other spring occasions dressed down without the tights and a pair of cute sandals and sunglasses.

Maxi Dress - H&M
Chevron Tights - Marks & Spencer
Boots - Topshop
Rings - H&M

Babies and Blossom

Arjan's Oma (Grandma) has a small meadow behind her garden that she rents to a local farmer to keep a sheep in and since it is lambing season we have been eagerly awaiting the pitter patter of tiny hooves.
Today we got the call that the heavily pregnant sheep who had been in residence had been taken to give birth and had been replaced with a sheep and her three lambs! We headed straight over to have a look at the little bundles of fluffy joy.

The welcoming party.

There was beautiful blossom on the few peach trees in the meadow

They weren't too sure about Arjan

This cute little fella was being very obliging and posing beautifully for me.

They got a little braver when Arjan gave Momma sheep some bread and she chilled out a bit.

They peeked around the stable wall to watch us as we left.

No doubt we will go visit them a few more times before we leave for York on Friday. We also have a gig tomorrow in Nijmegen and Arjan and I have been busy working on a little project that we may reveal soon....

Miike Snow - Sans Soleil

Do you ever get that feeling, you're watching a TV programme or listening to the radio and all of a sudden your hair stands on end, you're not sure what it is about the song that's affecting you so strongly. Is it the lyrics? Is it the melody? Whatever it is, this song is speaking to you on a whole different level and you just know you will listen to it over and over and over again until someone begs you to stop.

During my recent trip home I was chatting with my dad about some new series he's been watching and he thought I should try out, Justified was one of those. So, today Arjan and I sat down to watch a couple of episodes and see what we thought. It's a fun series and I think we'll stick with it, but what really got my attention was the song that played in the final minutes of episode 1. I could barely hear it over the conversation happening on screen (plus we had the volume low as family members were already in bed) but from just the few discernible notes I knew I was hearing something special. 

Naturally, the second the credits rolled I was on google looking for a list of the soundtrack. The track is Sans Soleil by Miike Snow (yes double 'i', that's no typo) and it was even better than I'd hoped when I listened to it properly. I got to play it three times on repeat until Arjan finished replying to facebook messages and wanted the next episode on.

The song is hypnotic, the melody and harmonies working in perfect balance to lure you into a state where nothing really matters at that point apart from the music.

I have no doubt I will be listening to this non-stop over the next few weeks and after that I may have a look through Miike Snow's other works. 

I hope a few of you enjoy it even a fraction as much as I have. 

Outfit: Sunshine On A Rainy Day

The past few mornings I have been waking up surprisingly early, after getting into the rhythm of it back in York. So, with the extra time between then and Arjan finally rousing (he could sleep for days) I have been perusing Pinterest, looking at recipes, gardening and outfits in particular. So many of the things I've been loving have been incredibly spring/summer related and, despite the weather, I have been dressing in increasingly optimistic clothes.
When I was back in York, my mum and I had a day out. We spent a voucher for afternoon tea (that she had from her birthday two years ago!) at Betty's and then hit the Marks & Spencer sales pretty hard. I could barely fit it all in my suitcase on the way back. I now have plenty of material for outfit posts, thus, I have decided to do one as my re-entry into blogging. This top and these jeans are definitely a couple of my favourite things we found!
As the post title suggests, it has indeed been raining for a majority of the day. It took a few tries to get these pictures but we got there in the end!

Lace Top - Marks & Spencer 
Vest - borrowed
Jeans - Marks & Spencer 
Shoes - Office 
Necklace - gift (I will eventually remember where it is from, I almost never take it off) 

The sun has literally just started shining blindingly in my eyes, so lets hope that means there is better weather on the horizon and I can actually start wearing these things outside of the house without a coat on. Stay tuned for more posts about all the other goodies I got!

Cursed!

Surprise! I'm alive and not dead in a ditch somewhere, though it may have seemed that way over the past week what with the lack of posts...

I have decided I am suffering from one of 3 things; intensely bad luck, some sort of karmic justice or a curse.
It would seem that wherever I go, if I have planned an intense week of blogging, all IT equipment in the vicinity goes haywire. Take, for instance, the sudden and lengthy loss of internet we had a few weeks back.
Last week I was at home for my mum's birthday and to get the house straightened up a little, the day after I got there (a grand 12 hours after I set foot in the house) the computer decided to blue-screen us and refuse to start up.
So, along came the IT guy and after a few miscommunications the computer was back with us the day before I left. Talk about bad-timing.
Knowing I was unable to write posts in this time, I set about diligently taking pictures that I could use in the future; most of the new recipes I tried, an afternoon tea outing, a trip to a gallery and our visit to the wildlife park. Looking at the previews on the camera, I was pretty pleased with how my photography skills were coming along, at the Wildlife park especially, I got some shots of sunbathing lemurs that were worthy of National Geographic!
Then my batteries died, and did I have replacements? No siree!
I accepted this and seeing as I only had a couple of days till I was back with my rechargeables, sucked it up and got on with stuff.
Fast forward 2 days and I've returned to The Netherlands, after a good sleep and a much needed lie-in I found a set of batteries and popped them in the camera, excited to see what I'd captured! I plugged it into the laptop and 'Hey Presto!'.... Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
However you want to call it, there was not a single photo to be found on that camera. After switching the camera on/off and removing/replacing the memory cards for the 20th time, the disbelief subsided and I got on the internet to try find a solution, but two photo recovery programmes later and all I had were holiday snaps from the previous owner that had been hidden away in the corners of the 'deleted' folder.
I pouted and grumbled and was unhappy with life, the universe and everything, then Arjan suggested we go for a walk and after a while (and an encounter with some teeny tiny lambs) managed to dislodge me from the funk in which I was so heavily embedded.

Yesterday was spent at Oma's house to give some mental recovery time. It was stunning weather and we had agreed to help her with clearing up the garden a bit, so from 10am till 5:30pm we picked, scraped, scrubbed, snipped and swept. Now her paving stones are free of weeds and her lawn is immaculate (it doesn't sound like much but she has a LOT of paving stones) and we are aching all over like you wouldn't imagine.

I decided today to get back on here and, even though I didn't have much of any interest to say, at least let you know I was still around. I PROMISE that I will now be continuing on with regular posts and as my mum and I went a little crazy in the Marks & Spencer sales, I think I will start with an outfit post (I didn't do one today as it was a can't-be-bothered-with-make-up kinda day).

Anyway, stay tuned and I will try not to disappoint!

Sunny-Sunny-Sunday

I hate to sound repetitive, but I just can not get over the weather we have been getting the past few days! I am actually a little bit sunburnt and it's March! It's still officially winter for another 2 weeks but it has felt like we're in the depths of May this weekend.

Today was my Mother-in-law's birthday and she had some friends around throughout the afternoon, I made scones (savoury and sweet) and Arjan made little cocktail stick tomato-mozarella snacks and the sun shone with all its might.
But yesterday was even more glorious, temperatures were in the 20's and people from far and wide were shaking off the cobwebs to go for a walk or cycle along the canal near Meers. Arjan and I joined the crowds and walked the long way round to the Brouwerij De Fontein (Fountain Brewery) where we spent a leisurely couple of hours before making a (slightly wobbly) beeline for home.
I know this post may be a little same-y but we got some pretty nice shots and I wanted to share them. 

We ran in to Arjan's dad, Alex, on his way back from his Sunday cycle.

These are some of my favourite pictures to date, Arjan took them!

This bread was made with the grain left after brewing the beer and the dip was made with herbs from their own garden, it was delicious. 

I made friends with this slobbery little guy, he was pretty cool. 

Relaxing in the garden after a long, hard day.

 I'm going back to Yorkshire tomorrow for my Mum's birthday and so I'll get back to doing proper posts again (instead of just photo dumps of nice weather)! I'll be trying out lots of new recipes so don't be surprised if I do a lot of foodie posts.

Opening of SMAAK

Yesterday we played a gig at the opening of a family friend's clothes shop, it was a beautiful day and we had a great time. The shop is amazing and I fell in love with a few of the clothes but my pocket was empty enough as it is.

Here's a few pictures of the afternoon: