Mission #1 - Completed

I did it! My first story finished! And because it turned out to be quite long I decided to give my challenge it's own page.

On the right, under 'More' are two pages. If you'd like to read my first story click on 'The challenge'!

Now for my challenge to be an actual challenge I'm going to need some rules! Otherwise I could just do whatever the hell I wanted to and that would not be exciting or challenging at all. My first story is a story for children. Or at least that's what I wanted it to be :) Hopefully I succeeded. But for my next stories there has to be some sort of guideline. I wanted to write one story in three different ways.  Children - young adult - adult. My story about Pascal the Hedgehog is my guideline for the other two stories, in the end it has to be the same story.. I wonder if it is even possible.

Without further redo I present to you:

The Rules (for this particular challenge)

• The main character has the same background - parents, brothers, sisters, etc
• The main character has to perform the same action in every story - bringing something to a related elder
• The main character faces the same problem - But there can be slight changes to improve the storyline
• The main character has to learn a lesson at the end of the story - Well, that

So, there you go. A challenge was born. My deadline for the second story is set on Thursday the 7th of August. I barely made this one.. :) But I made it nevertheless! 

Fun update, I'll be house sitting in Amsterdam next week! Two friends of mine are going on a holiday and someone needs to feed and pet the cats. As I am already a bit of a crazy cat lady and can make myself comfortable in the very second I enter someones house, I was the perfect candidate!
I am very excited!

Thank you for reading my blog! Be sure to check out my story if you like to read, I'd love to hear what people think of it!

So many exclamation marks on one page! 

Love,
Anouk

Breakfeast!

A feast indeed!

Water is pouring down from the sky here in the Netherlands, but we've been promised sunny weather - we'll just wait and see.

My story is well underway - I made Thursday my deadline.

But onto the feast! I am somewhat of a breakfast enthusiast. I will never discriminate against any type of food - maybe fungi - but the breakfast is my favorite meals of the day. And because I always make my meals look like a little party, I thought I'd share some of my creations with you here. So sit back and enjoy, recipes are to be found at the bottom - they are all my own original recipes as I like to experiment with my food.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Hungover update

Shh, not so loud. Please. My stomach and head hate me today but yesterdays fun makes up for that! Normally I'm all for being very healthy, but one must be able to let go every now and then. I was going to do a post about running and my upcoming race, the Dam tot Dam. It's 10 miles from Amsterdam to Zaandam and it will be the 30th time that it's held! But I didn't feel the urge to go running straight out of bed this morning. I might do a run this afternoon, sunday is my running day after all.

But on to the update. My first story is well underway, I hope to be posting it today. I'm having a lot of fun with my challenge, if you also enjoy writing your own stories it's something I can recommend! I never really tried to write something for a certain age group, I usually just start writing when something comes up in my mind.

My god, my brain is slow today. I tried to add something about how I find it very interesting to write for a certain age group because you have to keep in mind that your story must be relatable, understandable etc etc, but it wouldn't come out the way I wanted to. Must not drink so much wine, will probably do it again though. Be honest with thyself! Hihi :P

Ok, enough for now - on to my story about Pascal the Hedgehog!

Love,
Anouk

a very accurate display of my state of being today

- that rhymes

Mr. Chaplin

Big fan of the man, his are the words I live by. Well, some of many :)

Writing challenge

I thought of something fun to do as I like to challenge myself to improve certain skills. I've been writing my blog in English which may have improved my writing somewhat. But I also write stories and these are still mainly in Dutch since my Dutch is just much better and my vocabulary is a little bigger and more colorful.

Now, why not challenge myself into something fun for you to read? So I thought of a 3 - way challenge. Not that kind of three way! You dirty little pervert. No, one story for 3 different age groups. A bedtime story if you will.

I'm very excited to start, but I have to wait until tonight since I have to work all day - which will give me plenty of time to figure out how this is going to work!

First up is a children's story about a hedgehog on a crossroad.

If you like this challenge or want to say hi after reading this post - please leave a comment below! I like to know what people think of this idea or my blog in general :)

Thank you for reading and hope to see you soon!

Love,
Anouk

The baby's coming!

Oh indeed, my baby is arriving shortly! I can't wait to hold her in my arms, to nurture her well into adulthood and to keep her safe by my side.
My little baby acer.

So I ordered a laptop. And this time not a cheap version of a really good one, oh no. I went for the real, slightly expensive, deal! A multimedia laptop which will also be able to run the Sims 4 when it comes out in September. Naturally I pre-ordered since I've been a sim enthousiast ever since 1999. It will also be able to edit videos in hd, watch videos in hd, sit beside me in bed while I write blogs, stories, shows and what not! I can record myself in hd via the webcam so I can even upload songs! When I finished writing one.

But all of this to keep up the good work with my ever improving path of life. It's an investment which I can make right now as I still live at home with my parents. And I just wanted something really awesome and good for myself once :D

There is only one problem - I forgot why I started this story in the first place - I can track my precious on this site of the mail order company and it will be arriving anywhere between 8.30 and 22.00 today. And I have to sign the package because it's of high value.
To paint you the picture: I'm home alone,  it is 29°C outside and there are some fresh strawberries waiting for me at the market which I can't get now because I have to wait for my laptop. Well fuck you post nl.

Such a hard knock live, I know. :P

So baby o' mine, please come to momma so she can get her daily fix of summer fruits for the upcoming week!

Love,
Anouk 

I'm a proud momma - baby's first pictures:

The nights watch

Again I find myself up and awake in the middle of the night. Might have everything to do with the fact that I've spent my evening playing the Sims 3 - my sim baby was growing up and stuff so naturally I had to be there when it happened.
So why not blog?

I've been trying to put something up here all week, but somehow I'm best at writing whilst lying down in my bed, mostly in the middle of the night. Since that is most often the time when I'm actually in my bed. Oh well. 
I'm here now! And as I've been wanting to  write something about food anyways I will now tell you all about my favorite meal of the day - breakfast.
There's nothing quite like breakfast. And I prefer a sweet one filled with fruit! I combine my fruits with yoghurt, eggs a thick yoghurt-like thing we call kwark (I have no clue how that translates to English, but you can compare it to Greek yoghurt). With that I mostly add some superfoods to kick start my morning and finish it off with some coffee. Goodness me, the joy I find in eating a healthy, filling breakfast. Love it. It is said that a good breakfast helps to keep you full until your lunch, but I'm quite a big eater so that is not always the case.
I always find these rather skinny girls telling you about their healthy breakfasts and ways of eating and how superfoods and porridge and yoghurt keep them stuffed (or at least full) until lunchtime or even way past lunchtime, but as I love food, think about it almost every second of the day and being not necessarily skinny, I find these girls - sweet as they are - somewhat annoying. One cannot love food that much and not show it at least a little on the hip/belly area! People with very intens metabolisms and diseases not included of course.

I have my days where I can relate, but mostly I'm just very hungry in the morning. 

Well, that was a quick bit about breakfast. I might make a list of my favourites up here :) I have to make one for my other blog anyways, so why not translate it and put it up here as well? My other blog is one I have with my sister - kookmutsen.com. It's a site with recipes, from my side mostly originals as I don't like to follow directions. If you're Dutch, check us out!

On that note, why am I writing this blog in English when I myself am Dutch? I've always had a strange obsession with the language which started when I was about 10 years old. So other than - because I like to write in English - it's also to keep up with my current level and to improve it wherever possible!

That's it for now, thank you for reading, sleep tight and don't let those stinking bugs bite - it will ich.

Love,
Anouk

First stop - the food truck!

Trends will come and go but we will always have to put some form of energy in our bodies to keep it going.
What better way than to just put some food in?

You've probably heard all about them, superfoods. And you've probably heard all about their health benefits, that a diet of superfoods will get you slim and beautiful and incredibly healthy!
I can't deny their health benefits, but superfoods should be added to a diet that lacks nutrition - it doesn't have to be all you eat.

I believe that if you feed your body proper foods it will be happier and healthy-er for it. Combine this with some exercise and you'll be well on your way to become the best version of yourself. Apparently this already has a name - the 'normal diet'. Well, call it all you want, it's just going back to basics really.
First focus on what your body needs to get you through the day, you'll probably don't even want sugary or salty treats. And if you do, limit the amount you eat to a reasonable one and enjoy your treat!

I'll write a longer post on this subject very soon as it is something that I strongly believe in. No paleo, no superfood diet, especially no Atkins, glutenfree, sugarfree diets or any other program that will let you cut nutrients (like fats and carbs - which give you energy!) to let you drop a pound! It will only make you very unhappy in your everyday life, an outsider at social events and when you've lost the weight and reintroduce those cut away foods back into your diet your body will horde those missed vitamins, minerals and nutrients to restore the balance in your body - so you'll probably gain weight and get an upset stomach.

So for the love of yourself, a happy body and a healthy mind - don't go on a diet. (I know what I'm talking about, sadly)

This is it for now as I have to get ready for work!

Love!

- Under construction -

I've been wanting to do this for quite a while now and as I decided that I wanted to stick to my goals and plans and ideas and.. all the rest why not start today!

I've already shared some bits and pieces of my everyday life, but there's more to it than what I've been sharing here.

Besides singing and the occasional performance, I write songs, stories and shows.
I'm not only overly enthusiastic about food, I create my own recipes, work at an organic supermarket and know my way around in the world of the foodies and health freaks - as I am one of those.
I don't only spend hours on the internet drooling over the beautiful dresses on freepeople.com, I spent my time finding those and other stuff to complete my beloved hippie/boho look.

And there's more, but as I am somewhat of a chaotic character it won't come to me now. Oh well, more then enough time for that.

I remembered! Sports! I love running and fitness! So I'll share some stuff about my upcoming 10 mile race.

There's one more thing that controls my everyday life, but I still find it scary to share that part of me as it is very personal. I'm working on a post about it, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to share that here - for the world to see. Not yet at least.

So yeah, that'll be it for now. I have to start making some pictures, translating some recipes - I'm excited!

Xx

What I forgot: series, films, music, vintage, kitchen supplies, BOOKS! How on earth did I forget reading?!, notebooks, theatre, city trips, campfires, my cat, rings, dancing, owls, philosophy, coffee, laughing and learning