The measuring journey

So remember this post Juicy Couture. Today I took action to avoid me panicking over conversions ever again! 

I just order this very cool unit:

It consists of:

4 x measuring cups
1 x small non-slip mixing bowl with measurements
1 x stainless-steel mesh sieve
1 x colander/strainer
1 x large non-slip mixing bowl











So now when I have a recipe which uses cups instead of grams I can just use this! And I think I can't go wrong!!! A cup is a cup right?! 

Never again will recipes confuse me! 


XoXo Lieke

24/7 Breaking Mad Obsessions

So I don't know about you, but I always have these obsessions when it comes to TV shows or channels.... there is period that I only watch 1 certain channel, or that I have 1 particular show that I love and am addicted to...

Some examples of additions I had to fight: 

1). SATC, I have seen every episode at least 5 times...

2). 24, doesn't need any explanation does it...? Well okay maybe it does :) When I was studying in Germany, me and my friends started to watch Season 1.. Big mistake!!! We went to school, did our homework, ate and immediately started to watch 24 and we literately stayed up till late in the night because we just could not not watch it! JB (a.k.a.Jack Bauer) was amazing!!!

3). The Sopranos, I needed a few shows to warm up to the characters but loved it!

4). Mad Men, watched the last episode of Season 5 yesterday. I really love this show and also the clothing the women wear!

5). Game of Thrones! My little brother (who is not so little but I still like to call him that) said I soooo needed to watch this show! I tried S01E01 but didn't really feel like watching it... So a few weeks later he tolled me again that I really should watch it... so I did... and in 1 weekend I watched the complete first season... and I was hooked!!! Even ordered the books :)

6). Giuliana and Bill! Hmmmm watched it, loved it and miss it :(

7). Breaking Bad, I started watching the first season last Friday.. and a new obsession is born!

Besides TV-shows I also tend to get hooked to TV channels.... simple example: E!Entertainment! Ohhh soooo love this! Especially E!News and Fashion Police!!! And of course Keeping up with the Kardashians.... Not really rocket science but just a fun show about family... let's put it like that shall we.

Another new obsession is 24 Kitchen, this is Hollands first 24/7 food channel! How come it took so long?!! Really love it and it also makes me hungry... in a good way because it makes me want to try all these recipes and spoil my boyfriend even more :) 

Ps. when I talk about "Obsession" I don't mean a can't eat or sleep obsession (I do sometimes have this with shoes or clothes.... you know that feeling when you have seen this amazing pair of shoes, only 1 pair left in your size but you did not buy and you were so proud! But when you are home and the stores are closed you think "Why did I not buy them?" Of course all reasoning has flew out of the window and the fact that you don't really need them or don't have the money to buy them isn't exactly true anymore... And you can't stop thinking about those shoes!!! So what do you do? You get up really early the next day and as soon as the store opens you run to the store buy the shoes and finally you can relax! Thank god that's been a while since I had any obsession with shoes or clothes, I am so proud!) no I mean more an obsession as in "nice to watch during the weekend or evening". Not that I think about it all day at work or anything or that I can't function properly anymore...  Except for 24.... this was an obsession... we even text-ed each other in 24 language... Oh the things we do when we are young.... CRAZY!

 XoXo Lieke
 

Summer "Must List"

So I saw this list on the blog of Busy Bee Lauren and thought this is an awesome idea! Hopefully I can let you know I fulfilled all items on the below list when Autumn starts...

Must do: - Visit the Spanish ridding school when we are in Vienna. When I was a little girl I used to ride horses and back then it already was a dream to visit this place... I have been to Vienna before with my parents and 2 brothers(back in '95) but we didn't visit because basically I was the only who was interested in horses... how weird pfff...

So this summer when I go back with my boyfriend we will visit it, finally!!!!

  
- And take a 100 or more pictures when we are visiting Schloss Schonbrunn in Vienna. Always loved the Sissi movies and now I am going to visit the palace. When we booked our apartment in Vienna, I immediately booked tickets for the palace :)    

 

- Go to the Efteling! It's been a few years now and they have a few new rides! Sooo need to go there! LOVE IT!!!!

Done and done!!!!

 - Take my little niece out for a walk to the petting zoo. She is only 4 weeks old but hopefully this is something I can do soon. Than I finally have a good reason to feed the animals ;) Now people probably think who is that weird woman feeding animals without a kid running around... 
 
- Finish Games of Thrones book 2, ok so first I watched season 1 on HBO then ordered book 1.. When I finished it I quickly ordered the second book hoping I would finish it before the second season aired... but who was I kidding?! Never finished the book but did watch the complete second season :) 

- Oh and go to Amsterdam :) Love Amsterdam!! To be honest it took a while to warm up to our capital.... I had been there when I was younger but never really cared for it too much... until a few years ago when I went to Amsterdam more frequently. Now I am looking forward to visit our beautiful capital again.  
 
Must have:  

- Biker boots!!! Not really summery but o so cool!  

- Cook book Annabel Langbein
  
- Nude colored pumps   

Found a pair on sale at Zara for ony € 9.95

- Games of Thrones book 3, need to finish it before season 3 will be on TV.

- Almost forgot: tanned legs before the summer ends!  

 Not as tanned as I wished but they are getting there!

Must feel: 

  - Happy 
    

- Proud

  
  - Loved 

So there you have it.....


Do you have any "Summer musts"?


XoXo


Lieke

Oh the glory of it all!

So I only started blogging recently, to be honest I think I only started following blogs like 6 months ago.... but these last weeks a whole new world has opened up to me! It is amazing!!!

Now that I am a glorified blogger it really feels like I am a new member of this cool family. It is a friendly world,  which is both funny and bright! It is strange that this virtual world can become so real. And for some reason it also feels like all of a sudden I have loads more friends! Not that I have any followers... (which is totally my fault, am working to put Friend Connect and Facebook Connect on my blog so please bear with me just a few more weeks). Now that I am following some blogs daily it is really cool to get to know these people. Some blogs are really fun and really are about nothing actually which I like! And some blogs are more serious or even heart breaking.... But still it is nice to hear what people do and see what they are up to and get inspired! I think that is the thing I love most, the inspiration I get from these blogs! 







This reminds me I still have to reply to an email from one of my fellow bloggers, need to do this immediately or else I will forget. Normally I don't forget anything but lately I start to forget more and more thinks... Small 'to do' items at my job..... my appointment with the dentist...... in my defense I am getting closer to thirty.... is that a valid excuse?

So in November I turn 30.... IIIIEEEEEKKKKKK..... normally I don't like to really celebrate my birthdays but now I decided it is time to grab 30 by the balls and PARTY!!!! I am still not sure what to do (yes I am seriously already planning this small gathering, I like to plan such things ahead, even if it is half a year away...). But for sure something that looks like a party :)

Okay peeps need to go, have some grocery shopping to do! And no not like in Extreme Couponing, that doesn't fly here in Holland. But my biggest saving on groceries was once € 25 which is quite a lot, and I didn't look crazy ;)

Have a lovely evening!

XoXo

Lieke

10 things that help me swirl!

So here are 10 things that I love at the moment and that help me swirl away everyday! 


1) Accessories. Love these items at the moment! We have a H&M Fashion Against Aids Necklace (black one) and an H&M ring. The rest of the items I ordered online at Fashionology. I have the Evil Eye Bracelet, which love because the evil eye protects you against evil. A turquoise Skull Bracelet and my Wish Bone Necklace! Which I also love because of the meaning of the wish bone.

2) DIY. From Tie & Dyeing my jeans to sowing a dress and even painting! Not that I do this everyday or every weekend, no just every now and then. As for the dress I am sowing... I have a bit of a designer block, the dress is almost finished but for some reason I cannot find the time to finish it.... When I do I will make sure to post some pictures :)

3) Making sandwiches in the weekend. I love to make tasty sandwiches in the weekends! Sometimes I look up a recipes online, and other times I just look in the fridge and cupboards and make something of the things I have in house. Today I wanted to make a simple sandwich with a boiled egg, but I was like let's see what else I have... I ended up making the below sandwich which has on it: butter, cheese, turkey, mustered, egg and cucumber, which is except for the cheese both healthy and tasty.

4) Planning my summer holiday!!! Me and my boyfriend are going to Vienna by car for a few days in September! And then drive to the city of Reutlingen in the south-west of Germany. I actually studied there for 2 years and haven't been back since I graduated (which was in 2005). So now we get to eat Wiener Schnitzel in Austria and drink beer in Germany!

 
5) Running!!! Love to run, especially now since I am kinda starting a bit of a running group with some friends from our Wednesday evening training group. On Wednesday evening we train with Nuijten & Donkers. Where we have the best and most lovely and trainer ever: Monique. And on Friday evening and Sunday morning I run with friends. And yes we do really run fast and not just talk and laugh all the time. Of course we also do that otherwise it would be boring, but we really do train seriously.

6) Train. And no I do not mean a train as in a locomotive, I mean Train the band from San Francisco. They had 1 hit in Holland in 2001 "Drops of Jupiter" and after that it went pretty quiet.... But in 2010 they made a new album (Save Me San Francisco) and now they have another new album which love even more than the previous album. Their new album is called "California '37" and I love their songs!!! Especially "Bruises" and "50 ways to say Goodbye". In this song he sings about a crappy purple Scion, in case you wonder why it's called crappy see a picture of the car below and judge for yourself....

7) Shoes! As most girls I also really like shoes. My favorite pair of this moment are my Mango Touch shoes which I bought online. I think Rachel Zoe would be proud of me since these are my first proper flat form heels. They look cool but to be honest they are a bit uncomfortable walking.. guess I need some practice.

8) My balcony! And the fact that I transformed it into a herb 'garden'.

9) Clinique's "Take the Day Off". This is the best make up remover ever!!! It will for sure take off any waterproof mascara and also these 24 hour stay lipsticks. Amazeballs!!!!

10) Last item..... this necklace. I got it for Christmas last year and it is very special to me. Reason for this is that my boyfriend had the hanger especially made for me. So it really is unique and I am the only person in the whole world who has this!!!! LOVE IT!!!!

So here you have it a few items that help me Swirl Everyday... when I started on this post I thought I could not thing of 10 items... but guess what, I can think of 20 things that help me swirl!!!! Maybe even more! So of course I am curious to hear what makes you Swirl Away Everyday... and yes you may include shopping ;)

Enjoy your week!!!

XoXo,

Lieke

Barry the Bumble Bee

So this story might gross you out, especially when you (like me) do not have any warm feelings towards our creepy crawling friends....

Tuesday morning my boyfriend advised me to leave the curtains in our bedroom closed because some kind of bug fell through the open window during the night.... And he told me it sounded pretty big.... Since I had to go to work I was not bothered and kept the curtains closed... And when I came home in the evening I forgot all about it (thank god!). But yesterday morning when I woke up I was like, let's see if this bug is still sitting in the windowsill. So carefully I opened the curtains.... and there is was... the meanest, largest, most hairy looking critter I had ever seen! I am not sure what it was, it looked like a very large bumble bee, and with very large, I mean very large!!!! Like huge!!! I was freaked out, it was a bug and it was huge and it was like stuck to the window in my bedroom!!!!! So quickly I closed the curtains again and went to work, that looked like the smartest move at the moment...

But this morning when I got up, I decided to put the little fellow on camera, in case people did not believe and so I could share it with you guys, but...... the beast was gone!!!!! Like lost without a trace! IIIIEEEEUUUWWWW!!!!!! And to be honest I was to scared to go look for it because what if it was near the bed, or even worse in the bed!!! OMG can you imagine having such a scary thing in your bed!!! To be honest I am a bit anxious about going to bed this evening, maybe I should ask my boyfriend to double check the bedroom to be sure it flew out of the window when we were away. Hopefully Barry the bumble bee (this what I like to call him, that way he seems less scary) is now happily living in a tree with nice green leaves and his little critter friends.

Hope this did not freak you out too much.

Juicy Couture

There is nothing couture about this post but it sure is sour! So about 2 weeks ago when the weather was really summery in Holland I had my first attempt to make home made American Lemonade! I found a recipe on-line which was fairly easy... or so I thought.... 

It started with the fact the the recipe was in English and had US measurements... As you all know by now I am Dutch and we use Kilometers and meters to indicate distance, and grams and kilograms to indicate weight. Since I am no star at conversions it was a challenge! 

The recipe was as follows (best-lemonade-ever):  


Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 8 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups lemon juice

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to boil and stir to dissolve sugar. Allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until chilled.
2. Remove seeds from lemon juice, but leave pulp. In pitcher, stir together chilled syrup, lemon juice and remaining 7 cups water.

Okay so I would say a cup is a cup... but I looked up the actual conversions and here the confusion started. Apparently a cup of sugar isn't the same amount as a cup of water in EU measurements... And a cup of normal sugar has a different weight in grams than flower or brown sugare. I was amazed how difficult could it be?!!? Again a cup is a cup isn't it? So after doing some calculations I figured it out (or so I thought) and I made the lemonade. But it was too sweet for my taste, on the other hand since I never tasted the real deal I couldn't really tell if it was good or not.... 


So last weekend I decided to make it again but this time with less sugar.... and not paying any attention to the recipe and all the cups/grams/liters and so one, I decided I can make it without any help... but now it is too sour... Hmmmm I think I need to make it more often until I have it right! 

In case there are any readers who have a home made recipe PLEASE send it to me!!!!!

Once upon a time....

Once upon a time there were 2 girls who both loved to discover new and exciting places...

On a sunny Saturday morning they got into a cute red car and went to the lovely city of Hoofddorp to investigate a new and supposedly wonderful world called Primark. They drove in the little red car for one and a half hour. During this trip they talked about politics, which blogs they liked and exchanged blogging tips. Then after a long drive they arrived at the Primark parking garage! They parked the car in the first available spot and ran to the exit in search of this wonderful new world called Primark. After running down the stairs they did not know where to go, left or right...?! First they tried going right but this did not feel good, so they quickly turned left and followed the people (who looked rather relaxed and not stressed, which is strange when you are near Primark...). They entered the main shopping street but there was no sign of a store called Primark! So they turned left again, passed the H&M and there is was: 

 Carefully they entered the store and grabbed a basket. Now what to do in such a large store full of fashionable items? First they wondered around at the t-shirt section, then they went to the section with dresses, skirts and blouses and then it happened, they lost each other! They lost each other in a sea of affordable clothing! What to do.... and how to find each other? Maybe they would find each other in the shoe section! This of course was a section both girls planned on checking out! And yes while trying on shoes they found each other! They both had gathered some fashionable items into their baskets and decided to investigate the fitting room.... The fitting room was found to be OK, and after this they went to the accessories department. This is an area where a lot of gold and silver treasures can be found!!!

And you should think that by now they were finished, that they had discovered all of Primark, but no there was one more floor to discover..... They went up the escalator and there it was.... the bikini, nightwear, children's, men and home wear department!!! How amazing was this world, where would it end?! They stayed here for about an hour during which they lost each other again for about 20 minutes! They could not reach each other on the cell phones and there was no way to locate each other, but somehow they managed to find each other after which they proceeded to the check out.

In the end they each brought home a large bag full of wonderful affordable treasures! So our tip to everybody is to go out and discover the amazing world of Primark for yourself! But do keep an eye on each other because you easily get lost.

 

Colour me not so Bad

So I don't want to brag but I do think we can conclude that I have a lot of bottles of nail polish.... I think almost all colors of the rainbow :)

Any favorites? In general I love everything pink and also my newest colours which are more neon (neon pink/yellow and green).

We're All Stars

So as most people I LOVE my Chucks! I especially love my (RED) All Stars. I bought them in the US of A in 2008 (so they are rather old, but they never go out of fashion). 3 reasons why I love these sneakers:

1). they are (RED) which was a huge step for me since back them all my shoes were black, now I have some more shoes in different colors (mostly still black and boring brown....)

2). I sponsored a good cause by purchasing these shoes since these were designed for (RED) Fighting for an Aids Free Generation http://www.joinred.com/

3). they have all these words on the shoes which have the word (RED) in them such as: "DESI(RED), ADMI(RED), (RED)EFINED, (RED)IGNED. Which is very smart!

What is your favorite word that contains the word (RED)?

Falling Away (not everyday)

Boyfriend and I had a house warming party last Friday, which was a kinda of Friday Afternoon Get Together right after work. My boyfriend took the train to Tilburg Central Station where I picked him up by bike (as you know I am Dutch, and what do we do best? Ride a bike!). We first went to the restaurant with the golden arches to grab something to eat a.k.a a Wrap Menu. Then we went to the party.... 

At this party we only knew the host and hostess so what do you do when you don't know anybody else: you get a drink (for some reason the first glass of wine is empty the fastest), introduce yourself and try to mingle and get involved into a conversation. Like most people I know the etiquette's, I know what to do when you want to talk to people you never met before.... but still it is much harder to do in real life! But after the second glass of wine I started to talk to some people and carefully made a joke or two, and by the third glass of wine I was really enjoying myself! Not in an annoying way, you know when everyone else is bothered by your tipsiness, no just by talking to people and making jokes :)

So after cracking a few jokes my boyfriend and I went home, but we had to share a bike.... So he cycled and I sat on the back, but then something pretty amazing happened.... I fell ... of the bike...... Which is pretty amazing because as a Dutch person we are used to drinking and cycling and sitting in the back whilst being slightly tipsy. But this is what happened:

We cycled, like 50 meters and we encountered these brown poles (see picture). Since my lovely BF had a few beers he wasn't cycling too straight... So my legs bumped into one of the poles! For some reason I managed to stay on the bike for another meter or so and then I fell! Well I didn't like fall fall but it was more like a wobbling of the bike... and it happened in slow motion! Which was another amazing thing! 

So to make this long story short, I fell, got bruised but my clothes and tights were still in tact!!! Which was again is amazing!


What did I learn from this event? Uhhmmm well basically not a lot.. sometimes you have no choice but to share a bike.... :)

Before it is in Fashion....

So apparently before it is in fashion it is in my closet! I was reading the new edition of the Dutch Vogue and spotted the below items, which surprisingly are living in my closet :)

In the left corner: My Herome nail polish! In the upper right corner, my Greek sandals which my boyfriend bought me 2 years ago when he was on holiday in Athens. In the lower left corner, my snake bracelet that I bought about 2 months ago at Shoeby Shop. It was also on sale so I only paid € 7.50 for it!!! And in the lower right corner, my cross necklace which I bought yesterday at Primark in Hoofddrop!

All these items are Amazeballs!!!!

The land of the Dutch

So my first official post! How exciting!!! Okay so the goals of my blog is to learn all my lovely reader (technically speaking I don't have any...yet) how to swirl through life! I am an almost 30-something girl ( I should say woman because that is more appropriate for this age, but I still feel like a girl) and I live in the land of the Dutch a.k.a. Holland a.k.a. The Netherlands. I live together with my lovely boy friend of almost 4 years (that is amazingly long!!!) and with my cute rabbit who's name is Brammie.

Every day I swirl (well at least according to my boyfriend) and since my life feels average I think it actually might be exciting, well to be honest it is awesome (most of the time anyways)! Especially when you swirl around like I do! So on my blog will record my day-to-day swirling adventures and will keep you posted on average and less average events in my life!

Enjoy and do not forgot, if life lets you down just wiggle your toes!