Some “old” photographs

by Ashley Posted on April 6, 2013

Tara and I had too much fun talking about feminism and good music yesterday (lol, that sounds so pretentious but I swear we are no hipsters yo, we aren’t even cool enough to be hipsters), that we didn’t have time to take pictures. We did make plans to record a music-video for one of her songs though, which I think is going to be so much fun. I’ve always wanted to try and record something. That will probably happen next week.

Because I don’t have anything thing new to show you, I wanted to share some older pictures I took of Tara. These are from almost three years ago and I still love them. It was my first “real photoshoot” with my first “real” camera at the time and it went all sorts of wrong because of the bad lighting (I did not yet have my 50mm lense at the time), but I still think they look ok. My intention was for them to be kind of cinematic looking and I think I sort of succeeded!

By all means: I am not a professional photographer, but I really enjoyed creating these and that is what it’s all about right?

Posted in daily musings, photography | 9 Comments

Way too much text (also has the word ASS in it)

by Ashley Posted on April 2, 2013

Let’s start this 50th post (yay!) with some instagram pictures:

We went for a long two hour walk this weekend and ended up by the sea. It was sooo cold! I love this picture my boyfriend took of me :) ▲ I drink lots and lots of tea with this cold weather. This one is gentle green tea, with a lot of pretty colours in it ▲ Don’t know why I included this (probably to complete this collage, hehe), but here you can see the contents of my make-up bag. ▲ I took my written driver’s license test (Auto-theorie? Learner’s permit? Translation?) and I passed, yay! Now I just have to get the courage to actually take a driving-lesson… This is a picture of a stupid question in my theory book.


Monday my family from the south came to visit us and we went for a walk (pictured: my niece, nephew and sister) ▲ Me again, with the light-house in the background.

Hey guys! Or girls. Women? I don’t know, which one do you prefer? Well, this week was pretty eventful I must say. Remember I just moved? Turns out that we have to move again! Yes, who would have thought?! The house we are living in (my father’s) has been on the market for 1,5 years, we live in it for almost two months and suddenly it’s sold. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Of course we knew this could happen, but I must say we were pretty shocked it actually happened so soon. Happy for my father of course, but nonetheless a little bit of a bummer for us. Or maybe a new challenge? Hm, I must say it has kept me awake a few nights already, although I do know we will be fine. As long as we’re together, right? (aaw, too much cheese?)

Let’s move on (ha-ha, pun intended).

Have you heard about Annemerel‘s Fit For Summer project? When she added me to the facebook group I jokingly asked her if it was a hint and I kind of dismissed the idea to actually join in, but I soon realized that this was actually the “little push” I was waiting for. Long story short: I plan to complete the Fit For Summer challenge! This week we have to do a 30 minute cardio work-out everyday for five days, so we can take the weekend off or take a rest-day in between. Totally do-able! Yesterday I started the week by biking to my mom, which with the strong wind turned out to be a tough 45 minute ride (times two, cause we had to go back as well). Today I decided to skip the work-out, because my ASS felt sore (I need more fat on my ass!!! Now let’s hope my upper-thighs will hear this and can TAKE A HINT) and my back needed some rest. Instead I watched Sex and the City and ate some american pancakes with strawberries (hey, I need some fuel as well, right?). Tomorrow I will be back in the game and probably go to the gym. Or maybe go for a run if the sun is shining… fingers crossed on that one. Anyway, I’m pretty excited about this challenge. I was missing some routine in my life and this will add some, if only a little (pathetic? me? a little bit? maybe). If you want to join in as well: here is a link to the facebook group.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ MORE STUFF ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

(my sister)

My sister has completed a month of vlogging and I think she’s pretty good at it! Last week she wanted some new profile pictures taken (I also promised to make her “channel art”? Should look into that) and by doing so I also made my youtube debut in one of her vlogs. Curious about her vlogs? Check it out! ♥ I am realllllly excited for Sofia’s new movie The Bling Ring. Emma Watson was great in The Perks of being a Wallflower and I think she will be great in this new one. The trailer looks good! ♥ This week I’m going to have a lot of girl time. Tomorrow Nathalie will come visit me (so brave of her, coming all the way to the end of the world! lol), friday I’m shooting again with Tara (although she doesn’t know this yet, but I’ll be totally bringing my camera), saturday night I’ll be catching up with a highschool friend whom I haven’t spoken to in almost three years (it’s been waaaay too long) and Kim will also be in Holland this week, so yay! ♥ I had a good laugh about Mascha’s April Fools joke. A cheese mask? Really?! Have you fooled anyone yesterday? ♥ Have I told you I love Bill Murray? No? Well, I LOVE HIM. He’s amazing. I finally watched Steve Zissou and the Life Aquatic this week and goddd, that dance of his. I’m laughing just thinking about it (probably only funny if you’ve seen the movie). ♥ If you have a burning question for me, you can now ask it via the link in my menu on the right —-> you see? I don’t know if anyone is ever going to use it, but I thought it would be fun. ♥ What the… hahaha, this is awful. Who made this up?! ♥

And as usual, a song to close it all up:

Because Lost in Translation is always a good idea.

Have a good week everybody! Hope you are all doing well!

Posted in daily musings, Instagr.am, tunes | 6 Comments

Yep, that’s me, sitting on top of a washing machine

by Ashley Posted on March 30, 2013

To everyone who left their blogurl at one of my latest posts: yay! To everyone who didn’t: WHY NOT? Let people discover it! You can still leave it! :)

Let me be honest: I’m kind of at loss what to write about. Is there a blogging school? Maybe I should take a lesson.

When I came about a post up on Emma’s blog (it’s super cute, check it out!), I realized that she worded perfectly what I’ve been experiencing for the past years. Blogging has changed. People are doing it for money. People are treating it like a job. There’s nothing wrong with that (I actually think it’s pretty cool), but it’s a lot different than how it’s used to be and a whole lot different than how I used to blog. Back in my day (I know I sound like a grandma right now…) the word “blog” wasn’t even around! Everyday I had to use that super slow annoying dial-up connection to log in and write lousy entries about my school day (yes, almost every single day – I think I even wrote about my food habits) and that was it. It was a diary. And later on, when I didn’t want to be as boring as I used to be, I also began to write movie reviews. And after that I bought a camera and started to use more pictures than words (pictures of my feet, but nonetheless they were pictures).

When blogs became popular and everyones friend of a friend’s niece started one AND you could make money out of it, it really changed everything for me. I felt pressured to deliver entertaining content, not just once a week, but every day. That’s what blogging is, right? Delivering content, every single day. So people will follow you, add you on bloglovin and your stock will eventually go up. But it didn’t feel right to me and it still doesn’t. It’s just not my way of blogging. I started to take it way too seriously and I knew it wasn’t right for me. So I quit my blog while I was living abroad (sitting on top of washing machines) and I really enjoyed that time.

After a while though, I realized I really missed being creative. And then this thing was born. Now I really love blogging again. I post about the things I love and my experiences and that for me is what it’s all about. I also really like the fact that a lot of people take the time to leave a comment (I really do, thank you so much!). I know my blog isn’t exactly HOT STUFF (I have a category named “granny hobby” for god’s sake), my drawings are really mediocre and my love for Silent Witness is kind of embarrassing, but I still LOVE it. I think that’s really important. And yes, I sometimes do feel pressured to update, but I just keep telling myself that this has to be fun. If I don’t want to update, I just don’t do it…

Anyway, this was a really long and boring way of me saying: I don’t want to update every single day. I’m simply not that bothered with making money, I am way too lazy to blog everyday and I just want to make fun stuff!

Thanks for letting me share. See you next post (hopefully). And if you have any thoughts to share on this topic, please do!

Posted in 90's child, blah blah, daily musings | 28 Comments

Ginger & Rosa

by Ashley Posted on March 25, 2013

Yesterday was movie-night, so we lit some candles and a fire and curled up on the couch. We watched this beauty, Ginger & Rosa. It was SUCH a pretty and inspiring movie. And also a bit heartbreaking.

Ginger & Rosa is a story about two best friends who share everything together, but slowly drift apart because of how different they turn out to be. It’s all set in the sixties, which was the time where the Cold War met the sexual revolution and nuclear bombs were a threat; it was the decade in which people were experimenting with how one should live. There was a whole generation who wanted to figure things out for themselves and who did not want to go down the traditional route. Ginger’s father is a perfect example of the sixties zeitgeist, who instead of apologizing to Ginger comes up with this “excuse”: ‘Antonymous thought, personal truth, freedom of action (…) these have been my guiding principles’. All nice words, but by doing so he hurt his daughter enormously. Everyone’s thinking about themselves, but who is thinking about Ginger? And, like Ginger asks throughout the movie, what about the world?!

Anyway, I can talk for hours about this, but let’s just watch the trailer:

It’s pretty right? I’m in a 60′s mood ever since (minus the nuclear war stuff – although, is it really different nowadays?). Too bad my wardrobe isn’t exactly 60′s proof, hmm… But I’ll be definitely wearing some winged eyeliner today.

Posted in born in wrong era, cinema, inspiration | 11 Comments

Daily musings, lazy instagram version (again)

by Ashley Posted on March 16, 2013
My sister painted her bedroom last week in this pretty blue colour. Makes me think of Sweden… ▲ 50 kronor! ▲ My mother in-law got me these pretty tullips. Well, they WERE pretty, but on this picture: not so much anymore. ▲ My sister came by to do my make-up, just for fun! (her make-up bag and it’s contents are considerably larger than mine).


My boyfriend had his birthday this week (happy birthday baby!) and I baked apple pie. As a present I got him a flying lesson. Fortunately he really liked it! We still have to book it, but we are waiting for the weather to get better. ▲ We went to Amsterdam to pick up my diploma, yay! It took me forever (boring story) but now I finally got it. ▲ I could not decide if I liked the leather vest when I was in the store, but I’m glad I bought it. ▲ When everyone was complaining about the snow and all the discomfort they were experiencing because of it, I took this picture to show that we had beautiful weather. Next morning I woke up and what did I see? SNOW. Karma? (yes of course my karma can make it snow)


Pizza! Home made is the best! And super easy as well. Just add some flower, an egg and water (or olive oil) together for the dough and use whatever you want for toppings. Delicious and also very healthy (although, if you want, you can probably make this very unhealthy with various toppings like A LOT of cheese, hehe…). ▲ A picture of me with my bike when I was in Sweden. We (the international students) all had such crappy bikes, it was hilarious! I don’t think we got home from a party in the middle of the night without someone’s bike breaking down. Mine was quite alright though. And it had a cute basket, so I was happy ;) ▲ My boyfriend got me this watch as a graduation present. I can’t stop staring at it! So sweet of him. ▲ Like I said… SNOW!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ MORE STUFF ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Got hooked on Sherlock and found myself liking this cute facebook picture. Can’t wait for season 3. ▲ Wow, I wrote about Veronica Mars last week and now it turns out there is going to be a movie after all. I must be psychic or something (a very logical explanation I think). I’m SO EXCITED!!! ▲ You MUST watch something by Derren Brown. I had never heard of him until a good friend of mine introduced me and now I’ve seen every episode he’s ever made… oops. My favorite episodes: Apocalypse, The Secret of Luck, Svengali (a theatre show) and well, I almost like everything he’s made. The Secret of Luck is up on youtube, here is a link. It’s a good one to start of with! I seriously teared up at the end… ▲ My sister started a youtube channel! This month she tries to make 1 video a day, talking about how she deals with life right now (and also about fun stuff, like movies). I think she’s super brave for being so honest (and being on camera!) and I think she deserves some viewers. Go check it out :) (I kind of freaked out one time when I had one of her videos on in the background, because I really thought I heard my own voice, hehe!) ▲ Today I woke up with a horrrrible cold. Does anyone of you have a great tip to get rid of it quickly? ▲ Thanks to Annemerel’s post I rediscovered my old Dido album “Life for Rent”. There’s some serious nostalgia going on when I’m listening to it. I forgot how great it was. ▲

A song to close this up:

No diggity! (can’t beat the original, but nevertheless enjoyable ;) )

And last but not least, a request: please leave me your blog-url, because I want to discover some new lovely blogs (as I’m sure yours is)! :)

 

Posted in daily musings, Instagr.am, tunes, tv | 37 Comments

Potato soup!

by Ashley Posted on March 15, 2013

Whoops, a little late, but here it finally is: the potato soup recipe! It’s very easy and also verrrry delicious. After Tara introduced me to this, I probably prepare it once a week, each time served with something else. Usually some bread with some extra toppings, to make it more of a meal (like smoked salmon or some eggs). Although I must say that this soup is a meal on it’s own and it doesn’t really need anything else if you don’t feel like it. Anyway, here it is!

Ingredients:

Potatoes (depends on how much you want to prepare, but I’d say about 1,5kg)
An onion
A carrot
Garlic
Honey
Mustard
Thyme
Rosemary
A bouillon cube (I always use the meat stock version, but you can adjust this when you’re a vegetarian)
Water
Important: you need a blender for this! (Dutch: staafmixer mag ook)

How to prepare:

1. Chop the onion and garlic and cook them for a bit in your pan, just till your onions are getting brown.
2. Peel the potatoes and chop them into smaller pieces. Do this also with the carrot. Add them both to the onions and garlic and keep stirring for 2 or 3 minutes. You can also add some pepper and salt now.
3. After the potatoes got some colour as well, add the water with the bouillon cubes to the pan. It depends on how much soup you want to end up with, but I usually use 1 to 1,5 liter (+ 2-3 boillon cubes). It depends on how much potatoes you’ve used. You don’t want the soup to be watery when it’s finished!
4. Now boil till the potatoes are done (i.e. when they’ve become soft enough to blend). And after that: blend away!
5. After blending, add the honey, mustard and herbs (like rosemary, thyme… whatever you think will suit it). You can blend some more after that, or just stir the mixture, whatever you prefer.
6. By now it must look like a soup. It shouldn’t be too watery, but if you think it is too thick of a mixture, just add some more water and blend again.
7. Cook it for a few more minutes and it should be done. Easy!

Don’t forget to taste it before you serve! If you think it should be sweeter, add more honey. If you think it’s too bland… you’ve done it wrong! Hehe, just kidding… Just add some salt, or pepper, or more herbs. Whatever you feel like.

If you tried the recipe, let me know what you think of it :) Enjoy!

Posted in how to generate dirty dishes, recipes | 10 Comments

Three movies that make me want to move my butt

by Ashley Posted on March 7, 2013
*

When I was in Sweden I had no problem with going out for a run (almost) everyday. It only took me one step out of my building to be running among the trees, the weather was almost always great, I had some suitable music on my Ipod and all that just really made me love running outside. Somehow that great habit stopped being a habit when I came back home. Since then I went to the gym only twice, which is kind of embarrassing because I’ve been home for more than half a year…. Yes, you read that right! I did purchase new running thights two weeks ago, in hope of giving myself that “push”, but I’ve only wore them once… oops…

I kind of don’t mind not being a sporty type (I will probably never walk a marathon and I don’t mind a bit), but there are moments when I kind of wished I was in top shape. I know I have to be realistic (I’m not 100% healthy, although I’d rather not talk about that on my blog – this is my happy place ;) ), but seeing top-fit people around me and on screen, it makes me feel a bit jealous. I’d rather not see it that way though, and try to look at it in a positive way. I’d rather feel inspired! And that’s what happens when I watch these movies. It makes me want to hop into my new thights, put my hair up in a bun and work my ass off. And how about that great feeling afterwards? I love the feeling after a good work-out!

Here are the three movies that will maybe give you that little push as well (and if not, than that’s totally fine, they are enjoyable as it is)

Fast Girls (2012)
A girl from a bad neighbourhood in the UK lands a spot at the national running team and OF COURSE not everything goes as planned… Very cliché story, but one of the few “sporty” movies I’ve seen that’s not about dancing. Has a great soundtrack for getting you pumped up and contains a lot of fitspiration (normally I hate that word… but oh well). It’s a fairly new movie and I’m a bit suprised that it hasn’t gotten more press.

Make it Happen (2008)
Dancing! Yay! Story is a bore (girl from small town goes to big town to try and make it into super hard dance school), but the dancing is great (as far as I can tell… I’m not a professional of course). I really like that the lead character is not super skinny, just looking really healthy and owning it!

Step Up (2006)
I’m sorry, but if Jenna Dewan doesn’t make you want to dance, then I don’t know what will. Also: Channing Tatum. Woof!

! Let me clarify that for me it is not about being skinny, but about feeling healthy and fit and being comfortable in your own body! Being skinny or having curves, everyone is beautiful. No body-shaming here !

Anyway, I think I’m going for a run again next week. I’ve really missed it!

In other news: tomorrow it’s International Women Day! What are you doing to “celebrate”? I’ll be attending a lecture at our local library with a friend about the role of women in the Spring Revolution. Hope it’s interesting! :-)

* Loosely based on a Miley Cyrus lyric that’s been stuck in my head for days…

Posted in blah blah, cinema, girl stuff, inspiration | 11 Comments