I was meant to sail the sea

REGINA SPEKTOR - SAILOR SONG

I'm almost through with finals! That's also why there has been such a lack of activity on my blog; I've been a bit preoccupied, having to study and such. However, I did find time to pop out of work for a second and buy this adorable cardigan at Zara. It's a sailor jacket! I'm not loving how the pictures turned out, maybe I'll re-do them at some point, when I have more time. In just a few more days I'll have over three months of vacation before starting university in September, so that should do!

ranting and rambling

1. I attempted to make outfit shots today, but it just didn't work. I should wait until after my exams before trying to not look like I need some sleep, I think. The one above is the only picture that turned out remotely good.

2. The weather is so odd - it appears to be the sunniest of days when you look out the window, but when you step outside, it's very cold and windy and I just hate the climate in this country and wish I was in Paris already, where it's 20 degrees (the ideal temperature when you're in a city, in my opinion) and very sunny. Yes, I'm talking about the weather on my blog. It's what happens when you haven't got anything interesting going on.

3. I had my Art History exam today, and it was a bit weird - it featured people dancing in sticks, an opera in scary devil masks and Tom Cruise's War of the Worlds - but it went well, I think.

4. I want to go blonde! Haha, don't worry, I'm not suddenly going to show up here with white hair - I actually hate the look of bleached platinum blonde hair. But my hair always turns a bit lighter in the summer, what with all the UV-rays and the salt of the sea, and now I'm opting for a little bit more - I discovered something called "Spray Blonde" on the bathroom shelf that should gradually make your hair lighter over the course of a few weeks, which is ideal because I'm a bit scared of the effects of hydrogen peroxide. So that'll be a nice little experiment! I want it to turn out a bit like this:

(And yes, I did totally steal this picture from the H&M online shop.)

5. I saw A Roman Holiday for the second time a few days ago, and oh I just love it. I want to walk in to a barber's shop in London, sit down in the chair and demand that the barber chop it 'All off.'  'All off?' 'All off.'

6. Why is it that always when you're broke, suddenly every shop starts selling such appealing stuff? When I went to the local mall to buy bread and milk and the ELLE, I made a little round through the normally completely dull shops, and what did I find? Completely Marie-Antoinette-worthy, adorable underwear at Hunkemöller. The sweetest floral sundresses for €10 at C&A (?!?). Even Hema (for you non-Dutch readers, that's this über-Dutch warehouse where you normally buy things like plates and pastries and sensible underwear) suddenly sold the sweetest cropped cardigans in cream and pale pink? Oh, so annoying! Luckily I will be able to deal with all my shopping frustrations by going shopping for my prom dress, two weeks from now. Yay!

7. Speaking of prom dresses, I've been doing a little research (okay, I mean that several hours that should have been filled with study-related stuff, were spent looking at dresses in every online shop I could find) and turns out I'm leaning heavily towards lace, poofy skirts, and pastel colours. The prom is vaguely 50's-themed (though I'm sure half of the people attending don't actually realize what's meant by 1950's so they'll just assume they mean 50 Cent and turn up in their sluttiest minidress) so that allows me to wear the daintiest dress, biggest petticoat and reddest lipstick I can find. Oh, I can't wait! 

8. This list has been sufficiently long. All of you that are currently suffering from exam stress - good luck! And for the rest of you - have a very nice week!

you've gained my heart

Uh oh, exam time is finally here and I'm starting to feel the nerves! I had my very first exam - Dutch - today, and it went quite well, fortunately. Although it's quite common for people to wear comfortable clothes like sweatpants to exams, I wore... well, this. Being overdressed when you're making a test is good for your confidence, right? Well, just two-and-a-half more weeks and I'll be gone from high school forever!

Because my mum was away for the weekend and she took her camera with her, I had to use an older one and immediately realized how spoilt I am by being able to use a good one - the pictures I made with the old one were so pixelated I had to edit them way more than usual, not to mention the teeny tiny screen!

I'm wearing a top, shorts and tights all from H&M, a necklace from Six and a hair bow made by my mum.

Les Blogs du Moment

The sudden and miraculous upsurge in comments in my blog has also resulted in me discovering a lot of cool new blogs I didn't know about. Of course I already have a blogroll (see right), but those are mostly quite well-known blogs; the next eight blogs are relatively unknown, but still really worth checking out! You can find them by clicking on the image.

you've got me begging you for mercy

GLEE CAST - MERCY

Less than a week away from my first exam I'm finally starting to feel butterflies, though I still can't quite seem to comprehend that these are my final exams, and my last chance to make something of the six years I spent at high school. Studying is only bearable if you take time for nice things some times, and so I've been watching movies, seeing my boyfriend, catching up on Gossip Girl and Glee and reading old magazines as well for the last few days - only to find that I have so little time left to cram the complete 17th and 18th century of Holland, Cicero's entire Pro Caelio-speech, and various mathematical problems I can't understand the first thing about, into my head. Anyway, I'm compiling a list of 'blogs du jour' right now - with relatively unknown blogs I recently discovered (or who discovered me) - so stay tuned!

(P.S. I'm wearing only thrifted, brandless or very old items here, so there are no shops I can put underneath this picture)

one spring morning

AKRON/FAMILY - ONE SPRING MORNING
this beautiful song is from Rogue's Gallery, a cd produced by Johnny Depp with pirate- and sailor-themed songs. It's incredible.

So, what does one do to unwind after a day of intensively cramming facts about the Vietnam war into your brain? Of course. You put on a striped top and a red skirt and go stand in front of the closet. I bought this top during lunch break at work (so convenient to work practically next to a H&M Divided); it's the seventh striped tee I own. I don't know why I keep buying them, but they just seem so now but at the same time, very basic and timeless. And anyway, it was only €5!

Something very exciting happened: I bought train tickets for a trip to Paris with my boyfriend! I've been to Paris two times before and it's my favourite city in the world; going there with him should make it even more perfect. We'd planned it for some time but when my computer screen said the (non-refundable) tickets were paid, it was somehow real. Now we only have to book a hotel; I found a cute one in Montmartre. Oh I'm really looking forward to it, I hope it'll be very sunny and warm when I'm there.

H&M striped tee, my mum's skirt, thrift store scarf, Topshop necklace, the belt was a gift from my sister.

we give away perfect boots for free

Yesterday was Queensday, which is always paired with a widespread flea market and a lot of music and noise. I somehow always find the best stuff at this flea market - last year I found a great pair of high-waisted shorts and this year I found.... these.

They're exactly what I was looking for, and when I asked the lady who was selling them how much they cost, she looked at her husband and he said: "One euro."
One euro! For the most perfect shoes in the world! Okay, they're exactly one size too small, but I figured that if I can walk in heels all day, I can definitely squeeze my feet into these. They came with the original box and it said they had once cost 199,- (the brand is Manfield). And my day was brightened even more when I found these on the Topshop site. They are nearly identical (they also came in brown before) to mine, but exactly sixty-five times as expensive.
I also bought a cute little book from the 1920s with English love poems, but more on that later - I have two weeks to go until my final exams, eep! The end of high school is near, which is a fairly frightening prospect, to be honest. But first I'll have to cram a ton of books into my head in fourteen days!