Happy (belated) Birthday to Me!

That's right. Last Friday, on the second of May, I turned 16! Obviously, I didn't have much time during the day itself to blog... Neither did I yesterday, as that was my aunt's birthday and I went to visit her in the afternoon. My promise to blog about dancing and exercise still stands, it has just been delayed for a while as I wanted to talk about my birthday first :)

So, what's it like? Being sixteen?

To be quite honest, just changing the number in my Instagram profile felt quite exhilarating! Somehow there's just a really large difference in saying you're fifteen and saying you're sixteen. It sounds so much older! I don't feel older than I was three days ago, though ;) Only fatter, because of the large amount of nice food I consumed on my special day. (Not to mention the days after; because that's when the real party begins... When you're being left alone with a sick pile of leftovers it's excruciatingly hard to control yourself)

Let's talk food first, shall we? ♥

For my birthday I had three different types of dessert/pastry. My mum baked a lovely apple pie (the Dutch kind), and my sister Annick and I made these yummy blueberry cupcakes from Sally's Baking Addiction. Along with those two, we also ordered a strawberry flan from a pastry shop nearby. I absolutely LOVE pastries and desserts, and I find it more than essential on my birthday. (Or any holiday/celebration, to be fair!)

Recently my mum asked me this question: "What do you like most about celebrating your birthday?" Now of course, I went and told her the proper thing to answer, which is "the attention and nice people that come over". But let's face it: We can all agree that the best thing about birthdays is that you get presents. I mean, who doesn't like getting gifts? So here's what I've been lucky enough to get this year :)

My mum gave me something I've been wanting badly for quite some time now, after seeing a commercial video on the internet. She gave me an instant camera!! Namely a Fujifilm Instax mini 90. Yup, it's one of those cameras where your photo comes rolling out the instant you take it. Isn't that exciting?!?? I certainly think so! I haven't tried it out yet, because the films are quite expensive and I don't want to waste them on silly pictures ;) I'm not going to use it for random photographs like I do with my normal/digital camera. With this one you've got to really think economically and artistically about the photo you're taking and I love that about it. So I'm waiting for a special day to use it for the first time. Perhaps on my birthday party in two weeks?

Fujifilm Instax Mini 90

My brother was sweet enough to buy me new tools for crafting :) I've really gotten into crafting this year, especially crafting in relation to snailmail. So I truly loved that he gave me new tools for this ♥ He gave me several sets of cute tape, crafting paper, mustache stamps and also bubble blowers for my Coachella birthday party.

My sister got me an adorable little shoulder bag from Monki with little cats on it. And I love using smaller bags like that when I'm shopping. I tend to get claustrophobic when I have to carry a lot of things in my hands, so small bags that I don't have to worry about carrying are perfect for me. She also made me a beautiful drawing, in fact a portrait of me! I think I'm going to scan it into my computer at some point to use on my blog. :)

Photo from Monki.com

Later in the evening my brother's girlfriend Denise surprised me with a Lush bath ballistic and a Mockingjay-pin-necklace. ♥ Two things I love to bits: Lush, and The Hunger Games. She really knows me, haha!

I had a lovely birthday and I hope you enjoyed reading about it, too. 

Lots of love! I'm going to have another cupcake :')

- Eva

Cats, Cats, Cats

Hi everybody!
Another one of those lovely sunny days today ♥ I'm already dreading next week, for they say it will start raining again :( For now I'm enjoying every ray of sun I possibly can; absorbing vitamin D for the darker days to come :) Hence why I'm sat outside in the garden, blogging right now!
It's about time I posted my photo for the letter C, so that I can post them simultaneously on my blog and Instagram from now on. So here's C:

C is for Cats, Candle, Cards, Camera and Croptop. 

Let's start with the cats, shall we? :) I adore cats more than any other animal. The Cat in the left corner is a postcard I got through postcrossing, and it came from a Canadian guy who had a very interesting story to tell. This is his cat, and he photographed it to send it to me ♥ It was a really friendly guy, and it is one of my favourite postcrossing postcards. In case you do not know what postcrossing is, I suggest you stick around my blog for a while because I will be putting up a page about my snailmail projects :) The other little cat is my sister's and has no emotional value to me whatsoever, I just loved it in my photo with the little red accents. I have a real cat, too, by the way; only she hardly sits still so she was inefficient for my collage ;) You will find plenty of photos of her on my Instagram account, though, so you could check out the cutie there. ✿

Candles! I love, love, love, love, loooove candles. They just set a certain mood ♥ Especially during winter times do you find me running through the living room with matches because I want to light every single candle we own. I've always wanted little candles in my bedroom, too, but my mum won't allow me to have fire in there. She's probably right, though; I can truly imagine myself accidentally setting my homework on fire... But candles are simply so cute! I just know that when I'm older and have a place of my own; every room will have some candles in it.

You have no idea how much I loved playing cards when I was little. I only knew a few different games, but it was the perfect way for me to kill time. Presumably because when I grew up and went on vacations; there was no Wi-Fi around on campgrounds yet. Nor would I know how to handle a computer at that age, to be fair. I would play card games until everyone was sick of me, or I was tired of losing over and over again. The last time I played a card game was a year ago, when I had to find a way to entertain my Spanish exchange student who lived with me for a week. I taught her Dutch games and she loved them, but when she started teaching me Spanish games I was all at sea.

The camera in the photo is not mine, but my sister's. With the sole and obvious reason that I had to take the photo with my own. I love photography, but I hate my own camera. Well, hate is a strong word... I just don't know how to handle it well! I feel like the snap-button has to be pushed way too forcefully in order to take a picture; often leading to moved frames. I truly wish I was better at photography than I am. Especially when it comes to the camera on my phone:  I literally CANNOT take a proper photo with my phone without using a shitload of filters on it. However, I am completely up to learning. On that note: A Fujifilm Instax camera is high on my birthday-wishlist this year.

To anyone who has never worn a croptop before; please try one out sometime. They are EXTREMELY comfortable, and especially nice during summer. You can wear them with shorts when you're going to the beach or pool, or you can wear them the way I do: With high-waisted shorts/skirts/jeans. Do I write that correctly? Last summer I bought high-waisted denim shorts from AmericanApparel in Amsterdam and I had never been more happy with a purchase. I also wear croptops with my high-waisted black circle skirt from H&M and my higher jeans from Monki. I always like to say; if you have a nice belly, don't hide it! It deserves to be seen! You worked hard on it :) (At least, I know I did: Turns out those ab-workouts during my dance classes pay off after all!)

So that was C, I hope you liked it! I will be posting D very soon on my instagram: @evazuring

Lots of love,

Eva