FASHION : Office Chic

Hello Cradians, good afternoon and welcome to jet another monday..

Not a great one for me to be honest. Found out my wallet was stolen yesterday, so I had to stop by the police station first. But there's light; my internship period starts today :)

And to celebrate that one; some office chic inspiration with my new wardrobe pieces.

Jeans : H&M
Top: Mexx
White shirt: H&M
Leather jacket: Vero Moda
Shoes : van Haren
Bag : Second hand

A basic pair of skinny jeans, comfortable heels, a casual blouse and a leather jacket. Comfortable and food for endless variations!

The bag was a trophy from one of my recent thrift store hunts. Love it, perfect to hold you pens, agenda, notebook and all other basic needs!

What do you prefer to wear on a semi-formal work day? Do you prefer dresses or jeans?


Love,
M.

DIY: the hipster PDA

Dear craydians,

Did I ever tell you I'm a bit ADD and also a bit OCD, and that it's kind of a crappy combination? Well I think I've found a solution to this problem: I got myself a hipster PDA.

Why? Because first of all, I get really anctious when having my phone/ laptop around all time. I mean, the interwebs! (Can't even count the times I've gotten lost there, while I should be doing more important stuff. ) I think this is a solution because I already tried buying a notebook, or an agenda, to write everything down. But my pages only keep filling, and nothing really gets done. But mostly because this semester I've got way more to do as I'd actually want to, and I need a way to get myself through.


So the Hipster PDA, it seemed such a great and simple idea I had to try it. Basically it's just a stack of cards. No cover, no back. On the front page you write your to do list for the current day. The second card holds your "long term" to do's, and on the back I made a small monthly calendar. Every day you make your to do list, and at the end of the day you should be able to get rid of the card!

I feel better already.


DIY :

The ingredients for a hPDA

Foldback clips will keep your paper together better as regular
paperclips.  I got mine at Flying Tiger for 1 euro.

Optional: 

- An elastic to attatch you pen to the PDA
- colored paper in the same size of your cards to organise different sections

All you do is stack the cards as pictured, add your binder clip to one of the corner aaaaand, you're done. My cards are just blanc a6 (14.8x 10.5cm) postcards, I used these because they won't wrinkle as much when I put the pda in my bag.

If you want you pen to be attatched to the hPDA all the time you can wrap an elastic around it. You can also use colored paper to divide the hPDA in different sections.


How it worked out for me

Having my to do list around in a simple an visible way clears my mind so I can spend the time working on the list instead of wondering wat I had to do.

Being able to get rid of your card really works, this way the tasks you've completed are crossed off and removed. Time for a new slate.

For my chaotic mind: this is a great solution.


Love, M

Rainy Inspirations

It’s been raining for a good solid 8 hours now, I think… At least as long as I’ve been up and a little before that. This is typically the kind of day I would normally love when I’m at my parents, but unfortunately, today, I’m not. I’m home alone in Leiden, my housemates have both gone out to work or otherwise and left me to defend our fortress. My plans of studying are slowly evaporating because of the inspiration I always get when it’s this rainy.

Rain is traditionally a phenomenon that makes things grow. In my case it makes my hopes grow. I dream of going places, think about that one time I put on a hoodie (I was about 16 I guess), turned up my mp3-player and just started walking in the woods near my house in Ede. Without realizing, I had been out for about 3 hours and saw the most amazing things. I didn’t run into any people which made the walk all the more calming. I came back soaked all the way through but with some kind of new found “zen”-thingy that I hadn’t had in a long time. You can see why thinking back to that time always gets me in a good mood.

Having the house to myself gives me more freedom to do whatever I want. I’ve already taken a bath in the middle of the day, played my music very loudly in the living room, made a whole pot of tea just for myself and started reading about 10 different things (study material, the newspaper, several blogs, etc) before I realized that I had all these thoughts in my head that kept me from really reading what was there. I ranted to the other Craydians about what my afternoon’s been like up until the point where I confessed to actually listening to a Taylor Swift song (She’s my guilty pleasure and I’m not gonna apologize!) and they stopped responding. I think they’re in shock.

Not many of you may know that I’m a huge fan of making lists of things I want to see, read, hear, watch, places I want to go or basically anything I want to do. The rain got me thinking about all the places where I would someday like to travel, so here goes!

• New Orleans, because of the amazing stories and great pictures I somehow always run into in the internet.
• Charleston. I’ve been once with my dad in 2006 but I’d really like to go again and have more time to see everything I missed out on the first time.
• Chicago
• San Francisco. For some reason I never felt that drawn to LA, but San Francisco does sound amazing. Maybe it’s the one too many Charmed episodes I watched.
• New York, of course.
• Prague
• Vienna, though I’m going there this February with my mom!
• Budapest
• Paris, because you can never go to Paris enough
• Indonesia, but maybe in 10 years or so.
• New Zealand and maybe even Australia
• Scandinavia, though they would hate me for generalizing like this.

Ideas anyone?

xoxo Ko

DIY: Autumn essential

What's more comfortable during your morning class than a hot cup of coffee? Right, not much. Maby some tea or hot chocolate. The thing is, being a student and all, I don't really have an endless amount of money to buy coffee every day. And usually I'm late anyway so I don't have time to get in line at the coffee corner.

To fix that problem I've been searching the internet for a cool travel mug. At thinkgeek.com I found some awesome dr. Who mugs. But they were actually a bit above budget, since I had to pay quite a lot for shipping. And for that money I could buy myself a semester worth of coffee.

Today I found a super simple travel mug for only €2.95 and decided to transform it into a TARDIS mug myself! Check the entire process below!

 

First of all: your supply list

 - A travel mug

- One ruler

- Black felt tip markers

- An old atlas 

- Tardis blue paper

- Some white paper

- Scotch tape

- Scissors

- Something to cover the table with

 

The mug I got today had a really boring cappuchino background. So I took apart the mug, removed the old decoration and put aside the black parts.

 After that I took a page of the atlas and wrapped it around the transparent part of the mug. I marked the bottom of the paper and cut out half a circle. This allows the paper to fit in the mug at the bottom.

I put the background insider the mug the way I wanted it and marked the top (see the black line) and cut off the paper that didn't fit inside the mug. After that I put it back in and used tape to secure it on the inside.

 Tardis time! I decided I wanted a really simple tardis on this mug. The shape was cut out of thin blue paper and I used a ruler to get perfectly straight lines. I didn't measure all the windows because I didn't want it to become too static.

 

The tardis needs some windows too, and a flyer on the outside. To glue it on I used spray glue, but you can use anything you like. 

Glue your tardis to the background and put it inside the transparent part of the mug. Re-assemble the mug and you're ready to go!

Have fun with your mug! I would love to see if anyone tried this diy!

Love,
M


Find me at instagram and check out my other blog aboutthebluesky if you want to see or read more!

make up madness: kissable lips

Don't all girls just love to have the most kissable lips of all? Preferably in a color/tone/shine that lasts, because no one really has time to run to the bathroom for a touch up every hour or so. And if you're wearing lipstick, having lip shaped staines on every cup you touch are not the result you were going for.

For me, finding a good lip product is a quest I've been on for years. And over that time I've tried, thrown out, used, loved and hated a stash of products that is almost resembeling a mountain by now.
Last week I went through said mountain and decided to get rid of every product that I hadn't touched in a year, the mountain went down to a small hill and I am left with my favorites.

Today I will show you, my all time favorite lip products for all effects:

1. Lipgloss - MAX lipgloss €0.50
The basic, for every occasion lip gloss. My favorite brand is not only budget, it's super super cheap. It doesn't have the sticky feel most lipglosses have, and it fades really subtile. That way you're not left with a strange red circle around your mouth when you're to busy to toch up. I've got about seven colors but these are my favorites!

2. Emphasize your own beauty - Maybelline Color Sensational Popsticks (crystal pink)
This lipstick is somewhere in between a lip stain and a lip balm. Super comfortable to wear and it  gives a natural and subtle result. This lipstick emphasizes your natural lipcolor and feels really soft. It's a perfect finish to a natural make up look or a day at the beach.

3. Bold color - ELF studio matte lip pencil (rich red; €4.00)
This lip pencil can be used as a liner, or a lipstick. It gives a bright, matte, red color to your lips. And it's a color that lasts! Usually I wear it just as it is, but when I want to glam up even more I add some lipgloss to the middle part of my lips.

4. Perfect Pink -HEMA Pure shine lipstick (Dark Coral; €2.50)
Simple lipstick in a pink that is not super bold but definately there! It's comfortable to wear, feels almost like a lip balm, and lasts for hours! 

5. Lip stain -Catrice color infusions (rosewood avenue)
A lip stain is like watercolor for your lips. It colors your lips in a subtle and almost transparant way. Results are different for everyone. But this one works for me. A big plus: it's long lasting, even when having dinner/drinks. Another plus, it's like a big felt tip marker so you can apply it exactly where you want it.

6. Lip balm -Labello
And last but not least: just an average colorless lip balm. Because honestly, boys don't like lipstick. It makes you feel kissable, but they won't want to. They fear pink and red marks all over their face.. at least my guy does. What boys do love, soft lips. And this is my all time favorite weapon! Labello lip balm.


The moment we've all been waiting for: this is how they all look when I wear them (and the internet premiere of my new hair color!)

Am I the only one with this endless quest for the perfet lip product? Probably not.. hopefully this little article helped you a bit in your own quest.

Love,
M.

(this article was also published on my personal blog)

Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé, or Chocolat III

This morning I started reading Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé, the sequel of The Lollipop Shoes, which was the sequel of Chocolat, the wonderful novel by Joanne Harris that first caught my attention with Johnny Depp's deep brown eyes. Just as the previous 2 novels, the 'voice' of Vianne Rocher immediately trapped me in her world. All of a sudden I'm not in my tiny room in the Netherlands, but I find myself in a small (fictional) town called Lansquenet in Southern France.

Even though I'm only about 50 pages in, this book is one I would recommend any romantic soul. The whole feel of this book is so cute that I simply can't put it down anymore - only for making more tea. I wish I had a better word for this than 'cute' or 'romantic'. I'm sure there is, but as of now I'm in weekend-mode so don't you give me that look ;)

A few weeks ago I wrote about my Summer Bore, and how I planned on curing that bore with books and friends. I wish I had started reading this book before instead of right at the end of summer. It makes me want to put up a hammock and eat lots of fruit while lying in it listening to birds...

So here's my shout out to you: get this book, settle down with a nice big mug of tea and don't leave your chair for at least another hour. Relaxation guaranteed.

Lots of love,
- KoKo
doesn't KoKo sound better than MP?

Oh, and if the book doesn't have the warm story I'm expecting, I'll be the first to tell you just how wrong I was.

Shopping In My Own Closet

Shopping, buying new stuff, clothes, shoes, make-up, decoration, kitchen utensils. Things you really want at that moment. But never actually need, or use a lot. Things I buy because, well, reasons?

Until this month, the month after my summer vacation, the month that will not be finished by the end of my money. Unfortunately, this month has quite some fancy occasions that require some awesome dresses. Dresses that I can't buy, because of my lack of budget for it. Dresses that I won't need, because I have so many already. 

And it was this realisation that made me feel quite uncomfortable. You see, I've got so many clothes, and own a closet full of shoes. And still I think it's necessary to buy more. Even though I haven't worn most of these. At least, not for more than half a day. 

When I packed my bags for two weeks of travel, you could hardly see a gap between the stacks of clothes in my closet. 

So why did I want a new dress for the glamorous birthday party? In spring I bought a super glamorous dress, one that I've never worn. Because I didn't like it? No, because I've not yet found the right occasion. And now that occasion has come, I still don't want to wear it.

I've bought blazers, that I've been wearing only once before they disappeared in the back of my closet. Shirts that have only seen the living room and the supermarket. Skirts that have only been to the pub once. How much money did I spend on these pieces?

Money that I would've otherwise spend on different wardrobe pieces. Because somehow, I enjoy it. When all I do is waste my money, and feed the pollution, the consuming nature of today's society. Exactly what I dislike. And still, I surrender.

While, honestly, I don't want to.

So since this month is a time where I don't have the money to fill my wardrobe with useless pieces. I think this is the best time to finally wear the forgotten items. To not waste money on other pieces that'll end up in the back of my closet. To go to the party, wearing last spring's dress. And wear it with pride. Probably without anyone taking notice. 

This is the time to get creative and find new outfits, without spending another euro for one whole month.

Love,

-M