Kingsday Freemarket Sale 2015

We have been pretty absent again recently, but this time we had a very valid reason: Kingsday preparations!

Just like the previous three years, we were present at the free market in our hometown to sell our jewelry (and pretty much half of Lisa's wardrobe). We expected a cold, rainy day, but it actually turned out to be a wonderfully sunny!

 

We woke up at 5 to get ready for our big move - getting a full clothes rack, a table, three chairs, and about four heavy bags of jewelry and related materials to the free market area - and to find a proper spot for us to settle. We found the perfect spot, exactly where we had our stand three years ago! After setting up, we covered ourselves in cardigans and shawls, waiting for coffee, and bracing ourselves for the coming cold and rain. We're not exactly morning people to begin with, so at events like these we always have some difficulty starting up.

But then the sun came up, and the sky was blue. Two adorable kids sold us coffee from a wheelbarrow. Lisa's boyfriend got us some breakfast, and Ivanna got us cotton candy.

And that's when the day really started to become fun! We always love having face-to-face contact with our customers, so we love market sales like this. The coming and going of family and friends is also a lot of fun, and the general vibe in the town is always great on days like these.

It's totally worth the hard labour and short nights ;) We'll be back next year!

Love,

Lisa & Ivanna

Lisa in England - Day 6 (+ Vlog + Shoplog)

This is the last day of our wonderful trip to England. A journal, vlog, and shoplog!

Since we spent a lot of time traveling on this last day, we didn't have much time to do anything but that, and drinking coffee. So no pretty pictures today, unfortunately :( We did make a nice video of our journey back, which you can watch here:

You may have already noticed that we visited quite a lot of shops. So we thought it would be nice to put together a little shoplog as well :)

We only visited a Lush store twice - I'm so proud of myself! :p But seriously, I'm a huge fan of their products, and they're quite a bit less pricey in England than they are here, so whenever I get a chance to go to England, I stock up on all my favourites. The three jars (Sympathy For The Skin, Big, and Angels On Bare Skin) are my absolute favourites, and the round shampoo bar (Copperhead) is well on its way of becoming one. The chunky brick on the right (Movis) is a facial cleanser, and also pretty nice!

Since my boyfriend and I are both former English students, we both have a sweet spot for books. The gigantic stack at the top is my boyfriend's (although we kind of bought I Am Legend and The Graveyard Book together..), which makes my "stack" all the more modest. I love the number and diversity of bookshops in Oxford and London, by the way!

On Day 4, we visited Forbidden Planet, a sci-fi /fantasy shop. I never really see myself as a sci-fi fan, but I was fangirling all over the place for the two hours we were there.  We only bought Doctor Who stuff, because we're both really into it, and this show has the best merchandise. I'm a tad bit jealous of my boyfriend's sonic screwdriver (which lights up, makes sound, and is actually a screwdriver!). We  also got ourselves a poseable Weeping Angel statue, a pair of mugs, and I even got myself a badge :p

Of course, we couldn't come home without a few souvenirs for the families, so we stocked up on mugs, trays, toys, books, and snowglobes.

And since we liked the Banksy poster for my brother so much, we decided to get one ourselves as well.

So, that was it. We hoped you enjoyed the vlogs (if you haven't seen them yet, you can find them here) and journals; we certainly enjoyed making them! We would love to hear what you liked about them, or what you would like to see differently, so please let us know!

xx Lisa (& Ivanna)

Lisa in England - Day 5 (+ Vlog)

A journal and vlog on the fifth day of our trip to England. On this day, we visited Hyde Park and the Camden Markets.

Tuesday was an extra special day, because this was the whole reason we spend a holiday in England anyway: our 10 year anniversary! It was my favourite day too, because we had already crossed all the must-sees off our list, so we had all the time in the world to just roam around the city.

We started off with a delicious breakfast at Maroush Bakery instead of having breakfast at the hotel. Mainly because we just wanted to treat ourselves on our special day, but also because the instant coffee at the hotel was downright depressing. Really, I highly recommend the hotel, especially if your on a budget, but I also urge you to visit Maroush for breakfast ;)

We didn't have to do anything, but that didn't mean we had no plan at all. Since I had never been to Hyde Park before, I really wanted to go there, and I especially wanted to see the Peter Pan statue. And take the obligatory Peter Pan selfie.

Next, we took the tube to the Camden Markets, to stroll around between to little shops and stands. I had already been there once myself, but my boyfriend hadn't, so I wanted to show him how awesome it is. If you ever go to London for shopping, you should definitely go here instead of just visiting Primark and Topshop!

Afterwards, we had dinner at Nando's again. I am almost ashamed to admit it, but it's just so pleasantly low-key, and it was close to our hotel, so after dinner we could get into bed and romantically watch Doctor Who together ;)

Didn't feel like reading? No problem at all! You can also watch our video right here:

So, did we miss anything important on our trip? What would you have done on a special day like this?

xx 

Lisa

Lisa in England - Day 4 (+ Vlog)

This is the journal and vlog of day 4 of our trip to England.

We started our Monday morning with a rather scanty breakfast. To be honest, after our stay at Susanne any breakfast would have seemed scanty in comparison, and we didn't expect much for what we payed for our stay, but instant coffee?? Luckily, we had a busy day ahead of us, so instead of sulking, we grabbed our stuff and went to the Natural History Museum.

I love this kind of museums. As a linguist, I am often expected to like literature and arts, which I absolutely do, but I also have a soft spot for biology. And animatronic dinosaurs.

After spending the entire morning at the museum, we took the tube to Covent Garden, to have lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. We had planned to visit the Lush store there as well, but since it seemed to have vanished (?), we decided to go straight to the next point on our to-do list: Forbidden Planet. After stopping at the Tea House, because I have this strange habit of buying tea in every country I visit.

In case anyone is wondering what he Forbidden Planet is: it is said to be the biggest sci-fi/fantasy store in Europe. My boyfriend and I were both too excited to take pictures :p but it is briefly shown in our vlog, whichyou can find at the bottom of this article.

After our visit to Forbidden Planet, we decided to just take it easy for the rest of the day. Stroll around for a bit, have some coffee, visit some shops, and try to find another Lush store. It all worked out perfectly, and after having dinner at a cute indian restaurant, we dragged our bags full of Lush and Doctor Who merchandise back to our hotel room, where we almost immediately fell asleep.

If you want to see a bit of Forbidden Planet, or - even better - an animatronic T-Rex, check out our vlog! All vlogs on the previous days of our trip can be found on the Spring to Fall Youtube Channel.

Have a lovely day!

xx
Lisa

Lisa in England - Day 3 (+ Vlog)

Day 3 of our trip was a bit bittersweet. We had to leave Oxford, and thus our friend Susanne behind, but we also continued our trip to London!

Again, I've written a little journal below. Don't feel like reading? You can also watch the video:

Once again, we started our day with a Dutch-English fusion breakfast prepared by our incredible host Susanne. Tea, juice, eggs, scones, crumpets, and Old Amsterdam cheese. Really, that girl knows how to make breakfast.

We packed our bags, and made our way to the bus, but not before making a short stop at Blackwell's bookstore. This short stop turned out to be nearly two hours, but what else would you expect with two former English students?

With lighter wallets and heavier bags, we finally arrived at the bus station, where we hastilly said goodbye to our friend before hopping in and driving off. Goodbye Susanne, see you in April! And goodbye Oxford!

And hello London! After a two and a half hour trip, we finally stepped out of Earl's Court station, and were immedtiately welcomed by the familiar rain and wind. This is the England we know :p We had some difficulties finding the hotel because I had forgotten to bring the address and directions, but managed to arrive there pretty quickly. We stayed at the Garden View Hotel - a tiny, but cozy and clean hotel at a great location. No, we were not payed for this review :p

After unpacking our bags, and taking an unplanned nap, we headed to Nando's for dinner. Not the most interesting option perhaps from a blogger's perspective, but Nando's is just always a good idea.

Do you have a go-to restaurant when you're in London?

xx
Lisa

Lisa in England - Day 1 (+ Vlog)

Last week, me (Lisa) and my boyfriend went to Oxford and London for six days. This is a journal of the first day of our trip.

The main reason we went on this trip, was to celebrate our ten year anniversary on February 24 - hooray for us! Also, since we were heading in that direction anyway, we thought it would be a great opportunity to visit our friend Susanne who is currently working on her PhD at Oxford University. 

We left on Friday February 20 to Gatwick Airport, and took the bus to Oxford. We stayed there until Sunday afternoon, when we took the bus back to London, and we stayed there until Wednesday Februari 25. This meant we had almost 6 full days to enjoy all the goodness these cities have to offer! (and it proved to be not nearly enough :p)

The first day started out a bit more exciting than we had hoped for. Spoiler: we had a little issue at the check-in, because I am unbelievably stupid. For the rest of the story, you'll have to check the video ;) Thank goodness everything turned out alright, and a few hours laters, we were able to meet up with Susanne. We had a wonderful, busy first day in Oxford, thanks to Susanne's activities program. 

Since we did so much in these six days, it would be madness to cram it all in just a single post and one video, so we decided to spread it out and post an article and a video about each individual day. So stay tuned for the rest!

Have you ever been to Oxford and/or London? We'd love to hear what you've seen there, or would like to see!

xx Lisa (and Ivanna, who has edited all the videos!)

Halloween Treat: Bug Candy

I don't know why I've put of writing this piece for so long. I guess these things still creep me out a little bit (I'm not as tough as Ivanna, who eats bugs like it's nothing). But with Halloween around the corner, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to show you my bug candy!

Ivanna's Beauty Basics

Ever since I can remember I have not worried much about the care for my skin and hair. While other girls neatly remove their make-up at the end of the day in order to keep their skin clean and healthy, I never bothered to wipe my eye make-up off before going to bed. However, since about a year I have developed allergies in my skin which could be caused by a reaction to make-up. Therefore, and because my mom silently couldn't stand my laziness anymore, she bought me face cleaning products. Since the moment that I have these products standing in my bathroom I instantly feel so caring for myself that I decided to show you guys the standard bathroom products that I use everyday;) What I use isn't a big deal, but these favourite items make that I can start my mornings and feel confident about my appearance.

DIY Fabric Yarn

Fabric yarn, or t-shirt yarn is, well... yarn made of woven fabric like t-shirts. The fabric is cut into longs strips, and pulled to make the edges curl in. Since this type of yarn is rather thick and sturdy, it is often used to crochet small furniture like poofs and lampshades, or firm items like bowls.

Sushi bowls

One of the things we have in common is our profound love for sushi. Given the chance, we'd probably go out and have sushi at least twice a week. Unfortunately, we neither have the money for takeaway sushi, nor do we have the time and patience to roll our own sushi every time we crave it. So, luckily we came across the perfect solution: sushi bowls! We had seen different versions of this genius idea on Pinterest, but it wasn't until Lisa's birthday in April that we gave it a try. Because it's so simple and versatile, it instantly became one of our favourite dishes.

Stray Cat Project Skiathos

How was your summer? Did you enjoy your holiday or did you do something else? For me this was my last summer as a veterinary student, since I have completed all my courses and internships. On September 5th I will receive my diploma and from that day I will be an official vet. Because I had a lot of free time left during July and August, I decided to use this time for gaining extra experience. I wanted to do a volunteer internship in another country, so that I could help (stray) animals and at the same time enjoy another view and culture. Via a website for animal internships I found the volunteer project Skiathos Cat Welfare Association, which is located on the island Skiathos, Greece. I spoke about my plans with my boyfriend and since he is a big cat lover, he liked to come with me. We booked our flights and boat trips (a tip for you guys if you want to fly cheap; departure from Brussels, Belgium with Ryanair is way cheaper than departure from Amsterdam; I paid under 200 euro for a return ticket) and I collected some medical supplies and study books. After this we were ready to go on this adventure. 

Swan Market Rotterdam

Last week we went to the Swan Market in Rotterdam for the first time. We had heard a lot of good things about it, so we've been wanting to go there for a while, but for some reason we never got around to it. Which is quite a shame, because it's it really is one of the coolest markets we've ever been to! 

Lisa's Birthday

Because of all the turmoil around Kingsday, and the subsequent handling of orders, I almost forgot to mention that I turned 25 last month! I don't really like throwing big parties, because to me they're quite stress-inducing rather than fun, so for this little celebration I just invited my best friends over for a little get together. Friends, drinks, sushi bowls, and some nice music in the background - that's all the party I need :p