Category Archives: Life

My Reading and Blogging Resolutions for 2018

Posted in Life by

We’re a week into the new year already! How time flies. I was planning on writing and posting this blog post a lot earlier this week, but I’ve been feeling pretty lousy lately, so I haven’t done much of anything. It’s been all about taking it easy, since it seems I overexerted myself (and mostly my brain) a little during the holidays. Today’s been good, though, so here I am typing this at last!

I’m excited about 2018! When 2017 started, I had no idea what it would bring. I was going to graduate and then I would need to start looking for a job, which is always a tricky thing. But now, at the start of 2018, I’ve got a job I really like and life is pretty good. I’m excited about reading and blogging and figured I’d put together a little list of resolutions to go with that excitement.

Schermafbeelding 2018-01-07 om 17.35.02

Continue reading →

Advertisements

Festive Fortnight [14]: Merry Christmas!

Posted in Life by

merry christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas day, which means today is the very last day of the Festive Fortnight ! I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone by! Of course, two weeks isn’t a very long time in the first place, but still. I started preparing all of the past thirteen posts in November, and now they’re all up. Time does fly when you’re having fun!

And I did have a lot of fun! I won’t lie, it was a bit stressful at times, but I’m really happy with all of my posts. The idea for the Festive Fortnight was born out of the fact that I wanted to post more Christmas recipes and bake more Christmas-themed stuff. Well, that definitely worked out great!

Considering the fact that I did have to think of thirteen posts for the past two weeks, my imagination has run dry right about now, which is why today will be a simple round up of everything that’s happened this Festive Fortnight. The links to all of the posts (except the first one, which was the announcement) are below the pictures!

Before we get to that, though, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Continue reading →

[Announcement] A Festive Fortnight of Blogging

Posted in Life by

P1000535

Only two weeks until Christmas! Who’s excited?!

Since I started this blog, an inadvertent annual tradition has made its way into my Decembers; it consists of me kicking myself for not starting work on Christmas recipes earlier in the season. I love Christmas, and I love Christmas recipes, but I mostly end up not posting them, or posting them after Christmas, like last year’s gingerbread cookies.

That’s why this year I started planning my Christmas posts at the start of November. In fact, here’s a little secret: I’m typing this on the 14th of November (while rocking out to Mariah Carey and Wham!, of course). That’s because I’ve been planning quite an ambitious project…

For the coming two weeks, I’ll be posting every single day as part of my Festive Fortnight of Blogging!

There’ll be plenty of Christmassy recipes (6 in total!), and there’ll also be bookish posts and other festive fun things. I’ve got it all planned out (for a change)! This marks the first post, and the last one will be a round-up on the 24th.

So, get ready for two weeks of holiday cheer and festive fun leading up to Christmas!

What I’ve Been Up To [4]: NaNo Edition

Posted in Life by

It’s been over a year since I’ve done one of these posts and my life has changed quite a bit since then, so I figured I’d catch you guys up on what I’ve been up to lately!

So… Where to start. I don’t really feel like going over the entire year, so let’s do a quick recap of what’s happened: I graduated in February, worked at a book shop from May until September, and started work at my first actual “proper” job just over a month ago. I’m a web editor, meaning I mostly write/translate blog posts and run said blog and it’s accompanying Facebook page. It’s a lot of fun and my colleagues are great, so I’m feeling very good about the whole work situation! Working at the book store was lovely, but it wasn’t a very steady job since I worked irregular hours. The staff discount was fun, though. But I’m so glad to finally have a routine again. I like my life to be at least a little structured. So, that’s good. I’m actually adulting. It’s weird, but also kind of fun!

IMG_20171101_224944_964

Continue reading →

Happy New Year?

Posted in Life by

Sooo… Happy New Year!

I’m a bit late with that one, aren’t I? Oh, well. It’s not any less sincere! I wanted to do the End of Year Survey on the 31st of December but didn’t get round to it, and then it kind of went downhill from there.

BUT! My internship (you know, the one I’ve been blaming my lack of blogposts on since September) ended yesterday which means I have a lot of time all of a sudden. I do need to write a report and fix all kinds of boring things related to graduating (yay!) and adulting (yegh), but all in all it seems like I’m going from being very busy all the time to doing very little indeed. Seems like the perfect opportunity for lots of blogging!

It is a little overwhelming to be back, to be honest. I haven’t written anything in over a month and haven’t read any blogs lately either. But I’m looking forward to it a lot! Same goes for reading. I’ve hardly read anything over the past couple months and I’ve been reading My True Love Gave To Me since Christmas. It’s nice to still feel a little festive in the new year, but to still be reading Christmas stories in February is pushing it a little, I think. So finishing that one’s on my To Do-list for this week.

As I’m writing this post I keep getting ideas for all the posts I want to write after this one, but it feels wrong to just get back into the swing of things without acknowledging the fact that I’ve been gone for a long time or talking about what I’ve been up to, so this is just a very short post of me doing exactly that.

Life’s been good the past couple of months. Busy, but fun! My internship went really well and I also passed the last university course I was taking at the same time, so I’m well on my way to getting my MA degree at the end of this month. My personal life’s been pretty darn wonderful as well, so all’s good in the life of me. Now all that’s left to do is to get back to those hobbies of mine. You know, the books and the baking and the blogging…

Here’s to the New Year!

im-back-baby

What I’ve Been Up To [3]

Posted in Life by

Previously on… Books Baking and Blogging:

I’ve decided to temporarily scale back on the blogposts. I’m going to aim at putting out a blogpost once a week, which I think should be manageable.

– Monthly Recap August, 5 September 2016

Well. That didn’t go quite as expected, did it? Seven weeks it’s been. That’s the longest consecutive period of time I haven’t blogged since I started BB&B three years ago!

It’s not that I didn’t want to blog, it’s just that I’ve hardly had any time to read or bake, let alone write about it. As I said in my last post (which most of you will probably have forgotten about by now), I started an internship at a publisher’s at the start of September, and that – together with one last university course that’s been a buttload of work – has left me with very little free time. After not having had the time to post anything for a few weeks, I decided to just let that go and post something again when the first part of the uni course was over and I would have a little time again. Which is now!

tumblr_n11z87uu4q1s8hnhko1_500

Continue reading →

Things I Want To Do This Summer

Posted in Life by

A few weeks ago, my three month summer vacation started and since then I’ve been doing very little of anything. I caught up on some TV shows and hung out with my friends, but I haven’t really done many of the things I planned on doing this summer. Three months is long, and I just figure “ah, I can do that later”, but it’s turning into a bit of a thing in my mind. I’m starting to resent the doing nothing, which has somehow led to doing even less. I haven’t posted a blogpost in over a week, for instance. What’s that about?

I know, I know, first world problems. You’re all probably resenting me for complaining about a three month vacation, and to be fair, you should. This post is pretty whiny so far.

ng gif boohoo

So let’s change that!

Instead of whining, I’m going to make a list of things I want to do in these coming two months so that I can refer back to it and actually start doing things instead of thinking about doing things and watching YouTube videos in the meantime. Time to get off my ass and start being productive (while also having fun), yay!

Continue reading →

What I’ve Been Up To [2]

Posted in Life by

A while back I did a “what I’ve been up to” post, and I really enjoyed it, so I’ve decided to make it a thing!

I got back from my little vacation in France on Saturday to amazing weather in the Netherlands. Apparently, we’ve had the nicest weather in all of Europe for the last two days, which is nuts, since that includes places like Greece and Spain. Either way, I’m loving it. Today is my mother’s birthday and we spent the entire afternoon in the garden, which hasn’t happened in years; and yesterday I spent a lot of time outside as well, eating pie and ice cream, and burnt my nose and forehead. Good times, good times!

P1030687

Continue reading →

What I’ve Been Up To

Posted in Life by

It’s been rather quiet around here lately. Yes, I’ve done a few posts, but not a whole lot of them and I’ve hardly been commenting on other blogs. Mostly, though, I just feel like I’m kind of out of it. So, am I in another blogging slump? I’m not sure, actually, because it’s not like I don’t want to blog. I’ve just been having a hard time trying to find the time and energy to write and come up with posts. So, in order to ease back in and let you guys know about what’s been going on in my life, I figured I’d just do a personal post and ramble for a while. It might even become a series – who knows!

Exciting, I know.

chandler excited

To be honest, I’m never really sure if anyone wants to read about my not very thrilling life, but I always really enjoy personal posts by other people so apparently us humans simply like taking a peek into other people’s lives. I guess that’s why reality shows are so popular (although I despise those).

Anyway, let’s get back on track, if we ever were to begin with (this post is a mess already).

Continue reading →