Images of Cyprus

Sorry sorry, sorry for not posting that much anymore. I am so busy lately. I have to start studying for the exams which start next week.
Besides that, I have been on holiday to Cyprus. It was so warm. It's strange to have your ass on a sunbed at the end of October, only dressed in a bathing suit. But the island is nice.

For more images, go to my Flickr page.
Flickr.com/heuvelding

Sorry, can't hear ya. Got cake in my ears.

I know, I know.. I don't post much lately. But what's there to blame? I guess days are just not long enough. I don't have the time to craft things. There are lots of things I want to craft though. I gathered more bottle caps. At least enough for crafting something nice. I want to try it out, but I don't have any time to do it.

Well, at least I owe you a post about my chair, which I am not completely content about. Maybe it will be finished right after the holidays. I'll post pictures as soon as possible.

And since this seems to be a bit of a random post, I'll show you my new ear-buds. I wanted new ear-buds, because the old ones were so extremely dirty that I decided to buy a new, clean pair.

Aren't they just amazing?!

Legal drinking age

So, I'm 18 now. That means a few things. I can vote, I can drive a car (and that's exactly what I did yesterday. Seriously, I'm a frightened little rabbit), and I can drink strong alcoholic drinks.

You might remember my 'wishlist', from a few posts ago. I already bought the bread bin of my wishlist, and now the birthday girl got two perfect old glass carafes for strong alcoholic drinks. And yes, I can drink that legally now.

Thank you Sifra for wrapping them so beautifully. I don't dare to unwrap them.. :)

Birthday birds

Last sunday, my family, relatives and some friends came to my place to celebrate my birthday with me. Eighteen years old already. I'm getting old. Hehe.

I just want to show you the finger food penguins I made. Aren't they adorable?

They are so easy to make.

What you need:

- carrot

- black olives

- cream cheese

- wooden sticks/pins

Slice the carrot. Cut a little triangle out of each slice. The slice will be the penguins foot.

Take two olives and slice one open. Fill the inner side with cream cheese until its 'belly' is filled. Place the little carrot-triangle in the the hole of the empty olive.

Stick a wooden pin into the carrot slice and form the penguins.

Yummi.

Bye London - Day five and six

What a great time I am having in Stowmarket. This internship is so much better than the internship I had arranged in London.
I received a few scaring emails from the head of the so called London Street Food bank. He hoped to meet me on friday and asked me if I were okay and such.
Well yeah, I am okay. I definately am okay, but not due to HIS good work. Scaring man.
I am wondering if I should do something with it. What I do know, is that I am going to find out how trusty they are and if they really do exist. I want to know who this Jon Cairns is, and if I find out that he's a swindler. If so, take care Jon. I don't like these jokes.

So yesterday we've been to Cambridge. I've already been there once before, also with Klubgroup, 5 years ago. I was only twelve then, so I didn't really realise how beautiful the city is. But jolly, Cambridge is marvellous. We've seen a part of the city by boat, went for a little city walk, heard some of the history and then we had four (!) hours for ourselves to shop.
The weather was great, the city is terrific, what else do we need?

And today I will be teaching English to those sweet kids here. The afternoon will be filled with activities.

I'm so happy that my internship ends up so well. The food is great, the children are so sweet. This area is beautiful and the people working here are kind. I've got a warm bed and a lovely shower.
Still I can't wait to be home and sleep..

London Trip - Day four -> bye London

So. I have left London. Finally.
Today I've travelled from London to Stowmarket, where I will help at Klubgroup for the rest of the week.
I have got the feeling that the London Street Food Market does not exist. The organisation is really weird. It gives me a bad feeling actually, like they have been fooling with me.
Am I so blind, or was this just bad luck?
However, I have safely arrived in Stowmarket now, which gives me a much better and safer feeling.
I'm looking forward to do the rest of my internship. Tomorrow will be punting in Cambridge (again!). Yay!
My internship can finally start. Thank you teachers for helping me out so much. Thank you.
I actually don't want to think about what could have happened to me, and I didn't really think about it in such a way until one of the teachers here mentioned the dangers of being fooled like this.
This was an adventure already. Like they say in Holland 'een ervaring rijker, maar een illusie armer'.

London Trip - Day four

I don't get it. I just don't get it.
Am I dreaming? It feels like I am wandering around in some kind of nightmare. I feel lost in this city. I went for a walk on sunday, and didn't end up anywhere. The blocks seemed to be unending. I only saw homes, homes, homes. No Big Ben, no London Eye, no bridges, no river, nothing but houses.
And then yesterday. What in hell happened yesterday? I wanted to know where I had to go to for my internship. In an e-mail I got from the Food Bank, it said that I had to be at Agar St. at 8:30 PM.
So I went by underground, to the centre of London. I made sure that I got out the metro station closest to Agar St. so I had less chance of getting lost.
I found Agar St. Finally. But there was no building or anything saying London Street Food Bank. Nothing at all. After having walked in that block four times, I gave up hope. No London Street Food Bank. And so I went back to the hostel, to find out if it indeed was there. Couldn't find it. But the mail said Agar St, so no doubt it had to be there.
I went back to the place at 8:15 PM, and there were homeless. Lots of them. All waiting for something. And at around 8:35 PM, all the homeless people walked towards one place. I stood up to look where they went. There was some kind of car opened, and the homeless walked away with a carton with rice.
The e-mail I got from the Food Bank on monday told me I had to talk to the distribution guys Zac and Glen. I expected the people around the car, giving food to the homeless, to be Zac and Glen, so I qued up and whenever it was my turn, I asked for Zac or Glen. The distributors however, did not know any Zac or Glen, and neither did they know anything about a London Street Food Bank.
And I haven't found any Zac or Glen that evening..

Hateful city. No internship.
It's such a failure...

London Trip - Day three

I guess I've got a serious problem. I guess I have .

First of all, I am sure about the following: London is not my city. I don't really like the city. I get lost each time and even though I have several maps, I can't find the places where I want to go.

Secondly, I have to go to my internship tonight, but I just.. can't.. find it!

So that's why I decided to go back to the hostel, to find the exact place on the internet again.

London's making me think ironically. Maybe it's better to call it sarcasm. That's better.

Thank you tube for letting us know that 5 million British people deal with bladder problems.

For ugly English people who would like to buy a new face..?

Sorry, I can't help it..

Okay, so.. I think that I must not wait too long with going back to the block where the Food Bank is located somewhere. I maybe should just ask people in the area where the food bank is.

I'm getting nervous of it.

Tomorrow I'll let you know how my first day of the internship was.

London Trip - Day two

London.. Okay I don't really know what to think.
I've had several thoughts.
1. The people here seem to be rude
2. I lost the thought of London being rainy, cold and windy all the time.
3. People living in this city, using the tube regularily MUST become deaf in their future.
4. I always walk on the wrong side of the street.
5. English people always stand neatly on the right on an escalator, which I forget, so English tend to be irritated whenever I forget to do so.
6. Where's the ice-cream whenever you need it?
7. I forgot to bring an umbrella, a wall-socket converter, earplugs and a shaving knife.
8. What should I be doing all week?
9. I have not prepared myself well enough, because I don't know anything of this city and I already got lost 5 times the first day.
10. What an awesome hostel I'm staying in.
11. Why are they advertising on bladder problems in the Tube?

Crap. I cannot upload any pictures here, and my laptop is empty, which I can't charge, because I don't have such a converter...

Edit:

Sorry London, I've made you sound like a horrific place. It's not too bad after all. The thing is, you have to know where you are and where you want to go to. Wandering around in the city without knowing where you are or where you are going to is bad for your mood. And I have solved my 'problems', so now I can finally enjoy my weekend. My bag is now filled with razors, I can charge my laptop again with my brand new adapter, I know where to buy tasty ice cream and I know where to find a huge supermarket.

And since my laptop is alive again, I can show you where I spend my nights. It's really beautiful, the breakfast is nice and it's not even expensive!

Well, this is how my hostel looks like from the outside.

The corridors.

And the room where I sleep. It's a female dorm. I love the curtains. It gives a lot of privacy and gives a bit of a 'bedstee' feeling.

I found out that the block where the hostel is located, is much more fun than I thought. There was a store selling second hand clothing and antiques. 'Charity' it said. So there I've bought my first souvenir. It's a teapot for my collection.

London Trip - Day one

So, today is travelling day. My mum just brought me to Hoek van Holland, where I checked in on the Stena Hollandica to Harwich. I've just made myself comfortable on a hughe leather couch near a 'Barista Coffee House'.

I am stuck here on this Stena Hollandica until eight o'clock, so I considered a comfortable place as quite important. But hey, I am lucky. This spot has free internet, a pretty view, the sun shining through the glass and not too expensive coffee just 10 metres away from me. What else does a girl like me need? Maybe a toilet... But hey, I may not complain at all!

So... At eight o'clock I will arrive in England, and then I have to catch the train to London, to then find out how I will reach my hostel.

But I look forward to it. :)

Oh and they've got this new Ola Ice coffee on board, which is a good thing, because I'm feeling hungry all the time, even though I've just had lunch.. Since when have I got this super-metabolism?

Over the ocean

Tomorrow I will be on my way to London!

In order to graduate for my IB exam, I have to do an international internship.

After approximately two years of searching, mailing, asking and arranging, I finally managed to arrange something in the UK.

I'll be working at the foodbank for a week in the centre of London.

I'll keep you updated!

Brabantia beauty

Here he is. My beautiful Brabantia bread bin.

I already wished for this design. There's also a design with different flowers, but I preferred these flowers. And there it was.. On that market..

It was only 10 euros! Well, actually it was €12,50, but he agreed on €10.

The lovely old bins on top were for free. If we didn't take them, they would end up in the bin the day after. So we were right on time!

I love love love my founds! Unfortunately, I the teapot I wanted to buy was sold just before I could buy it.

Great day

Short update:

I've finally found my Brabantia bread bin! Yay!

Aaaaand I got some extremely beautiful old boxes.

I'll post pictures of them as soon as possible.

How writing becomes a feast

I bought this cute little book in the second hand store where I am to be found regularly. It is only a small booklet with a few pages, but I really like this found.

On the front page it says:

"How writing becomes a feast

Manual on learning to write with the broad pen - by Jan Schalkwijk"

It is a booklet made in 1970, and is full of exercises to learn you how to write like the handwriting they have used here on this first page.

And look, on the past page is a handwritten advertisement, and a letter to invite you to Jan Schalkwijk's writing club. It's an invite, sent on the 5th of January, 1977.

"Mercator

club of lovers & practitioners of Italic handwriting.

Dear sir, may I very much invite you

by Mercator. On saturday January 29 we are in

the Poort van Cleef. Opening 1400 hours.

We are going to practise then. Everyone is welcome.

Nice, if you too would come to meet

Sir greeting

Jan Schalkwijk

5.1.1977"

DIY - Hat exposure

Hello ugly rusty owl. You look like some popular home accessoiry, vegetating in our back yard. You can be much more useful baby!

Sorry owl, but I just felt like tearing you off. Unfortunately you left some rusty spots, which I decided to cover with black tape. It doesn't have to look too neat. I'm planning to cover it anyway.

Look. Why not exposing your prettiest hats? You can use anything. Old lightning standards, candle standards, whatever you like!

Wishlist

We all wish things, don't we? We all have certain things we would like to have. My wishlist grows pretty fast lately. I started to think about how I would furnish my room whenever I am going to study. Most of us aren't that rich being a student and neither will I be. That's why I have to take a good look around of what nice things there are to buy on a small budget. Of course I do have my preferences.

A few things I would like to find this year:

- A retro bread bin, preferably an orange one with flowers.

A bin like this would be nice:

- A glass set for alcohol. I really like those chique heavily decorated carafes with matching liquor glasses.

- A good glass display case for my teapots (to store even more teapots in, haha)

- Cutlery. I adore cutlery. Especially spoons. I don't know why, but I have a weakness for beautiful cutlery.

- Coctail glasses. Serving drinks in a coctail glass will even give a fancy twist to a dead simple fruit juice.

I prefer glasses like the second one, seen from the left. The typical triangle shaped glasses.

Hurray for second hand shops. :)

Bottle Cap Artwork

I have started to craft with bottle caps.

Attempt one:

And attempt two:

Hahah this looks so stupid. I really really need to have more bottle caps to make something good. This looks more like a.. Yes, like what actually? A hill of rubbish I guess. At least is does not look like a 2CV Charleston at all..

Do whatever you like, they'll talk anyway

Oh my room looks so much better after bringing in images and objects to fill up the emptiness of my snow-white room. I had several new things ready to be pinned to my cookie walls, so I took a few minutes, some nails and a hammer. I found these iron photo-frame hangers in a drawer somewhere at home. They've never been used. The best thing is that I could just slide my post cards in between the iron plates. I've also nailed one hanger behind the wooden plate with the tile saying 'Doe wat je wilt, kletsen doen ze toch.' which I had to buy when I saw it. 'Do whatever you like, they'll talk anyway'. Lately I've noticed that this is so true...

And yes, I like the temporariness of the iron hangers. I can slide in whatever image I like at that moment.

Rubbish chair

A new school year means new assignments for art classes! Finally! The first assignment seriously makes me happy already, because it suits me perfectly. The assignment is to make a chair from rubbish. You may use everything, every kind of rubbish, as longas you make a chair of it. Cheap, original and very exciting!

A friend of my mum gave me four bike wheels, to use for this assignment. I do have some ideas already!

We had to start off with making some 'mood board', of what you have in mind and what you like.

Here are some images I found:

Kaftpapier

No, this is not a gift. This is not a painting, yes, it is a plastic bag. But.. I have used my plastic bags as wrapping paper for my school books! I had wished that I could do this post weeks earlier, but due to some ordering mistake, my school books came too late.

So, I hope this can be an inspiration for next year (or you might be mad enough to wrap your books again this year?)

Wrap your books in plastic bags! It actually only has advantages:

1. It doesn't cost you anything (I mean, everyone gets plastic bags when buying a new piece of clothing)

2. You can't tear it off so easily.

3. Your book isn't totally soaked when it's raining because it's covered in plastic.

4. You can write on it without the risk of getting ink on your book because the paper was too thin and the ink leaked through.

5. Your books are unique.

Give me one reason not to wrap your books like this!

DIY clothes hanger improvement

Always struggling with clothes sliding of your clothes hanger? You don't need to buy new ones, it's ever so easy to solve the problem of sliding.

The elastic bands make sure your clothes won't fall off. Cheap and easy!

Saved from demolition

There's a light source outside! Finally! The veranda is a really nice place to sit, but when the sun goes down, it becomes so dark that it doesn't feel as pleasant anymore. And since it's getting dark earlier and earlier each day, I thought the time was high for making a warm and cosy light source that lets us sit outside for a long period of time until it's too cold to sit outside.

Now my mum is on holiday, I thought I to surprise her whenever she gets back home. The hubcaps really give a warm and luxurous feeling to the veranda. I think the effect on the stone walls is absolutely fantastic!

Golden oldies

Yesterday, I've been to an Oldtimer day near the castle of Doornenburg: a perfect location! The surroundings make it very suitable for taking nice pictures.

Here's an impression:

The volvo P544, which we call 'Kattenrug' (Cats back) in the Netherlands.

Not sure, but I think this is a Ford model A.

An MG TA.

Hello beautiful Traction. And seriously, evertime I see this car, I know it's the most beautiful car I've ever seen.

Skoda 1102.

I think the surroundings do so much to the pictures!