Sorry for the lack of posts lately, summer’s been busy and very hot! My boyfriend’s been here a lot, he passed his exams so we’re enjoying a 3 month holiday together! We had lots of plans for the past few days but nearly all of them fell through, it’s simply been too hot to do anything lately. Though last Tuesday it wasn’t as hot, so we decided to go shopping in Antwerp. I bought tons of dresses and he bought at least six T-shirts cause he had several stolen at the Rock Werchter festival.

While he was at Rock Werchter I went to my sister’s birthday party. This is what I made her, a shoulder bag, a pencil-case and a wallet. Besides the wallet the fabrics are from IKEA, when I saw them I knew she would love them! The wallet is from an old fabric her mum bought for my mum in Africa years ago. We’re half sisters, hence… I really hope she liked them and will enjoy using them.

In Antwerp I bought this stunning lace jacket at H&M, it was a bit expensive at €39,99 but I just fell in love with it.

Ignore the clutter behind me, I’m in Dries’ room and we had to rearrange it completely so we could put two mattresses together, yay for the Simpsons pillowcases!

The black dress I’m wearing in this picture is also from H&M, and because I loved it so much (and because it was so cheap! Just €6,95) I bought it in several of other colours as well. Only the black one and the green zebra print were a size small, the others were a size medium and too loose fitting  so I’m going to take them in a bit.

peach, a blue print with hummingbirds, turquoise, black zebra print, green zebra print and white

Last week we also went to the house of his departed grandparents, the house still needs clearing out and cleaning up before it’s being sold. We went alongside his parents to see if there were things we wanted that would be chucked otherwise. I found this gorgeous snake skin clutch, I’m not sure if it’s real or fake, though I’m guessing it’s genuine.

I cut Dries’ hair on Sunday cause it was bothering him, on the back of his head it tends to grow all wonky so I cut it straight, after that I took some passport photos for his new ID!

Note the nails! Will be posting a tutorial on them very soon.

The left one is the one we picked eventually, though the one on the right would have been way more awesome! Oh god, how I love my dorky boyfriend

Yesterday I went to the Boekenfestijn (Book Festival) in Antwerp with my boyfriend and my mum. Last time I went it was in Leuven and I bought 12 books and paid €48, this time I bought 11 and paid €56. My mum didn’t find ANY books whatsoever, she found tons last year so she was very disappointed. We went on a Saturday and that wasn’t the best idea, it was really busy and I think the best books were already gone. Dries did also found a few great books, though he didn’t find as many as last year. I was also slightly disappointed with the turnout and reached for the more expensive books as they took to my liking more hence why I paid more this time compared to last. I could easily spend over €100 there if I had the budget but I didn’t. Saw some really amazing art and photography books, priced at €30 that would’ve normally cost twice that, still a great bargain but too much for me.

Here’s what I found! (Warning: lots of pictures!)

THE ART BOOK, lots of great artists listed in alphabetical order with a short biography and a photo of their work. This normally costs €50 and I paid just €9, it had a few rips and tears in the dust cover but nothing too bad.

Live, Laugh, Celebrate by National Geographic. I bought the love version of this one last time, the love version is better though I still grabbed it as it was only €5,95.

Pop Art Book, I really loved the cover of this one and the inside has got some cool bits and bobs as well. €9,95

Anatomy for the artist, just €4,99. I never had Anatomy lessons and I deeply regret that we didn’t get them at school, anatomy is so interesting!

A book about baroque from Taschen, I also have Renaissance and Portraits in the same series, I really love these books. €6,99

I think this is one of my favourites, 1001 paintings you must see before you die. I also have 1001 books you must read before you die in the same series, and Dries has 1001 albums you must hear before you die, we paid €30 for those, I paid €4,99 for this one! They often retail for €30, the English editions do at least, I think the Dutch ones are €10 or €15 at Boekenvoordeel but I only want the English ones to be honest.

…isms, understanding art. This one is really cool, all about artistic styles for just €3,99!

Lots and lots of art books! I also shopped a few other things.

A biography of Douglas Adams the writer of the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. €3,95

A few Children’s books from Wordsworth Classics! The Wizard of Oz, The Jungle Book and Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I want to raise my children in both Dutch and English so I of course need a few English books to read to them. They’ve also got really nice illustrations inside.

Close-up from the inside of the Wizard of Oz.

Close-up from the inside of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

They always have rows and rows of stationary at the Book Festival, I grabbed some HB pencils for €0,99.

That’s it! All in all I’m happy with what I found though most of it was more expensive than other times. I’m looking forward to the next Book Festival in Ghent in December! I have no idea where to put all of these, my shelves are about to collapse already… Off to stamp them now! See you at the next edition!

Yesterday my mum went to Veritas again, to pick up my labels! I was very excited, they look really great I think. I’m really pleased with the font, I think I made the right choice. They were somewhere around €20 for 100 labels. Now I can cut them out and sew them in my fancy projects! I can’t wait.

When my mum came home and entered my room she had a very mischievous grin on her face, “you’re a very spoilt girl, you know!” She had, as a surprise, bought a new €5 bag of buttons as the discount box with buttons had been refilled! She’s the best, they’re so pretty! Thanks mommy! She found a lot more vibrant colours than I was able to find last time, and really beautiful golden ones, she’s not as patient as I am so she just grabbed a few nice ones then filled her bag up with random ones. I was so excited, I had to go back for more!

And I did! I filled my cone shaped bag as full as I could, and with a very joyful smile I handed it over at the til.

You can tell I LOVE teal and minty greens and my mom LOVES bright green. It’s really funny to see the two pictures next to each other I think.

BUT where should I keep all  these buttons? I remembered seeing Severien’s buttons in a jar, I really loved the idea and looked for the biggest jar we had lying around our house, unfortunately the one we had is not big enough for all my buttons, I’m going to look for another one soon. I really want to be able to look at these every day!

Went to Sint-Niklaas with my mum today, we went to the Irish Inn for a sandwich first, then to the Stationstraat to do some shopping!

First we went to Veritas to order nametags for me to sew in my sewing projects, I chose “handmade by Emily Denise” with a black ribbon and white letters. Hopefully I can pick them up next week. We also found these two beautiful balls of yarn, in bright green and dark aubergine for €2,25 a piece.

A few weeks ago I saw that Severien bought a whole bag full of buttons at Veritas for just €5, I was really envious! A  few days later I sent my mum to the Veritas at the shopping mall in Sint-Niklaas and she didn’t see any buttons anywhere besides the expensive ones you can buy a piece. I had more luck today! When we were getting ready to leave my eye caught a box of buttons! But… disappointment I felt when I took a better look, these don’t look pretty at all. Though I decided not to give up and browse through, did I find some nice buttons! Hidden beneath all that trash I found true gems, I’m so happy with these!

We also made a little visit to our local yarn store for a few more colours to do our crochet flowers, from left to right and top to bottom: Grey, White, Turqoise, Camo green, Amber and Coral pink, on top a 2,5 Crocheting needle. Most of these were only €2 a piece as they came out of the sales boxes, it’s always fun to find a few bargains.

Because sometimes a girl just needs some pink in her life.

Look made with 88 warm shimmer and 88 matte palette, The falsies volum’ express mascara, Manhattan eyeliner.

Nailpolish by Gosh, 544 Pink Lady.

Sunglasses from H&M, purse from Topshop.

Went to Antwerp with my boyfriend and mum today. I brought along a camera for Dries, I showed him the pictures of my cousins fiancée Yannick who’s taking lots of really cool analogue pictures lately, and jokingly I said “Why don’t you take some pictures like that” and to my surprise he totally felt up for it. I picked out one of my cameras for him to try, in the end I picked a Praktika MTL 5 with a 50mm f1.8 lens, a basic analogue reflex camera but with a cool TTL (through the lens) feature which enables you to measure your light.

Loaded with 400ASA Kodak black and white film he’s now ready to go! Hopefully he’ll get some cool results out of it. When he finishes his roll we’ll develop the pictures together, it’s been a while since I developed pictures in my dark room, I’ve really missed it.

We went to get our first Belgian Starbucks coffee in Antwerp, I had an iced Mocha Frappucino Light and my boyfriend took a chocolate muffin (the most amazing thing ever) and a signature hot chocolate. Was delicious but I think it’s a bit too expensive and overhyped. Not to mention really heavy on your stomach! Some of their coffees are at least 200kcal, even the light versions, that’s a lot! Not good when you’re on a diet, coffee in general is not a good thing when you’re on a diet. But for this one time I allowed myself a Starbucks and I enjoyed it with great delight.

We also visited Urban Outfitters, it’s been a while since I’ve been in there, I can’t go in there too much cause I just can’t help but buy something, they’ve got so many cool things. Yesterday I browsed through their website and found a ton of stuff I really wish I had. In the end I bought some really cool fridge magnets! (again, I know!) And a really cool book with photography tips, and also a few DIY tips, how to make your own lampshade but with pictures and a few sewing tips, which totally won me over!

They’re like newspaper cut outs, really funky! €14

It’s really fun book, it retails for €23 which is not very cheap but it’s so much better than all those boring photography books filled with technical things which don’t teach you anything, it’s those Do-It-Yourself ideas that makes your images stand out from the crowd.

I went to the Boekenfestijn in Leuven on Saturday with my boyfriend, his brother Hannes and his girlfriend Tessa, their aunt Yvette and nephew Tom. It’s an event I’ve been going to for a few years now, we usually go when it’s in Antwerp or Ghent, now it was in Leuven near where my boyfriend lives and we decided to ask a few people and go there as well. I was looking forward to it for quite some time now and finally the day arrived! As usual, I took my blue trolley and browsed through the arts section and English novels, then followed my boyfriend around through the dictionary & references, brain food, travel section and many more.

This time I bought around the region of 12 books and paid €48. Very decent I reckon! It’s been a while since I bought books in a regular shop as they are so low priced at the “Book feast”.

A few books related to the English language, Dictionary of Disagreeable English, How to speak like a Cape Codder and What not to say. Price tags are from left to right; €3,95, €0,99 and €2,95.

Ahhhh, a lovely book about Dali (edit: seems I have too much to even remember what I already have, this Dali book was already in my possession so I’m passing it on to my sister!) and a Wordsworth classic with 2 books in 1 from Nietzsche. I already had Thus spake Zarathustra, and now I have Human, all too human and Beyond good and evil as well. Philosophy is always nice, especially Nietzsche. €1,99 and €4,50.

Two Taschen books, Dadaism and Frida Kahlo, both €9,99 a piece. Not extremely cheap but the most “expensive” ones I bought, and to be fair, they’re still pretty inexpensive.

This is my favourite I think, only €4,50! Love, published by National Geographic. It’s a beautiful book with beautiful and honest photographs related to love and friendship. The bottom picture on the left is my favourite out of the entire book. It’s an image by the Russian photographer Gueorgui Pinkhassov. The book also features works by the famous Henri Cartier-Bresson, Magnum Photographers Elliott Erwitt and Martin Parr and many more.

My boyfriend also bought a lot of really great books, amongst them he bought 4 books of the Introducing series of which he already owned two from a previous Boekenfestijn in Ghent.

They are really a great find, they’re a gentle introduction to a few challenging subjects, accompanied by great black and white illustrations. I am now borrowing his Wittgenstein book, I’m loving it. I hope one day that we will own the entire collection.

I’m now off to stamp my new books! See you soon at the Boekenfestijn in Antwerp.

A year ago my mum and I discovered this great Dutch magazine called Flow, we were really gobsmacked when we first bought it, we had never seen a magazine quite like this one. It’s a feel-good magazine, and each time it’s packed full of bits and bobs and crafty things you can use, this time it featured the most wonderful little notebook with Matryoshkas on the cover, window stickers and a weekly mindful-calendar with quirky phrases you can attach to a string and hang up, which is what we’ve done, it hangs very proudly in our bathroom! We really do look forward to the new number each time. It costs €6,95 and it’s published 8 times a year.

This time while browsing through the magazine I found the most amazing item under their internet shopping column, called Magnetic Poetry. I just had to have it!

As I’m not the most keen internet shopper I searched for a shop that sells this, that proved to be quite hard. When I visited Charlotte and An-Sofie a week ago I saw these magnets hanging in Charlotte’s room and I went crazy over them! She told me she had bought them at a toy store in Leuven called Krokodil, which I went to the same day, but they only had the Dutch variant Koelkast Poëzie, which was the one Charlotte had, but I was hoping they might have sold the English one as well. They didn’t. Sad, I looked on the internet for a few more days, found another chain of stores that sold this, Expo. My boyfriend went to the Expo in Leuven the same day, apparently they only sell the magnets in their stores in the Netherlands. As I live right near the border of the Netherlands I hoped I could find them in the nearby Expo in the town of Hulst, no luck there either, they didn’t have it and couldn’t order it. The clerk at the Expo in Leuven did tell my boyfriend he had seen them in another toy store in Leuven called The Grasshopper. Me and my boyfriend thought they would only have the Dutch one like the Krokodil store so we didn’t went there immediately, though yesterday we were in the neighbourhood and we dropped by the shop. My god I don’t think I’ve ever seen a toy store like that, it’s very fancy, must be a real treat for children. We browsed through the entire store, almost giving up, but when I got to the till I saw them standing there, an English variant of Koelkast Poëzie. Not the Magnetic Poetry version but this was close enough! I was happy!

Both Koelkast Poëzie and Magnetic Poetry retail for around €20. It isn’t very cheap but my version’s got 510(!) words in total, the possibilities are endless.

On Thursday I went to Ikea with my boyfriend and my mom. I always love going to Ikea, you can find such great things for a very good price! Even when you don’t need anything you always manage to come home with lots of stuff. This time though we DID need a few things, a new coffee table for our living room at home and a table mirror for doing my make-up, and as my boyfriend’s godchild was turning 1 year we looked for a gift for her as well. Severien recently told me that Ikea have got fabrics for sewing, which I never knew about but decided to keep my eyes open for.

We found the perfect coffee table! It was on sale, only cost €19,95. Insanely cheap! Can you believe it? My boyfriend and I put it together, took us about 15 minutes, it looks very stylish I think, certainly a lot better than what we had before.

I also found the perfect mirror, it’s got a sort of bowl underneath, perfect for storing everyday routine items.

Then we bought this great set of wooden blocks for Dries’ godchild Ella. We gave her the present on her birthday party on Saturday. She instantly figured out how to fit the round piece on top of the cylinder. How clever! I think wooden toys are always a good choice, they last for ages and go down the family, and even the older kids enjoy them, Ella’s sister Marie who’s 4 years old loved them too.

When we finally got to the textile department we went bonkers! How could we never have seen this corner before? So many amazing fabrics, and one of the shop assistants told us they’ve got a ton more stuff arriving around April. Exciting news!

These are a few of the textiles I purchased, the middle one will serve for a project for my boyfriend, I’m going to try my hand at making him a wallet. My mom also bought a few different fabrics, all flashy colours of course. Very cute!

I went to Leuven on Friday to meet up with An-Sofie and Charlotte to deliver their Zoeva goodies and teach them a few make-up basics. Was really good fun! I did a black smokey eye look on An-Sofie and a blue look on Charlotte with the metallic stones palette. Afterwards we dropped by Kruidvat cause I wanted to show them some things I had talked about earlier but didn’t bring with me from home. I bought a new mascara as I desperately needed a new one and a liquid eyeliner pencil.

My word, I don’t think I’ve ever had such a good mascara! I was a bit reluctant to buy it at first, as mascara is a bit pricey but I didn’t like the one I had and it was on sale (which always pulls me over!)

It retails for €13,99 and it was now priced at €9,99, to be fair, great bargain! I don’t know how long this promotion will last so go get it now! Maybelline mascara has always been popular, I never tried the collosal edition (the same tube but in bright yellow) but that got good reviews as well. I must say I’m over the moon with this, I have always had the shortest possible lashes ever, I even know boys that’ve got longer lashes than I have *sob*. But this makes my lashes look long and thick and you can actually SEE them now! This is one of the best buys ever.

I also bought a liquid eyeliner pencil. It’s liquid eyeliner made easy!

Manhattan eyeliner original japanese ink.

It retails for €5,35, not the cheapest out there but it’s great quality! I previously had the same liquid eyeliner pen from Essence and from Hema. Neither of those were up to satisfactory quality, from day one they felt a bit dry and weren’t really black and didn’t had the desired coverage I wanted. This does! It’s Black with a capital B and it’s got a very nice and fine tip.

I also needed a new eyeliner pencil, I have one from Manhattan called X-ACT eyeliner, which is also very good but it’s SO short I’ve sharpened it all up. They unfortunately were out of stock, will have to get to another Kruidvat soon to pick one up. They are a dream!