What I've been doing with my life for the last Month+

A brief summary of my time in Europe from June 23rd to July 28th. 

Mostly in the Netherlands. Summarized in photo form.

July 1st - Den Haag

We went to the M.C. Escher Museum in what was a city palace of the queen's mother.

July 4th - Amsterdam

Canal cruise and the city museum. Isn't the architecture wonderful?

July 5th - Delft

We visit the delftware factory. They had some amazing geometric tiles. 

 

Old Delft city hall. 

 inside the new kirk

 Colin and I climb the tower at the new kirk and you can see all of Delft and outwards to other dutch cities! 

July 6th - Haarlem

We visit the grote kirk. It's giant and imposing, but really neat architecturally. 

There is an organ in this church that Mozart played!

July 7th - Den Haag

We visit the ritterzaal, the knights hall in the Hague, which is now a site for royal ceremonies. 

Note that big, curtained throne.

We stop for ice cream at the most amazing dutch ijs salon, Florencia.

July 16th - Scheveningen  

Colin and I visit the shore of the North Sea at Scheveningen.

Notice the sea defense bunkers behind me in the 3rd photo.

 July 17th - Arnhem

We visit a wildlife preserve with an art museum in the center of it. 

We bike all over in search of wildlife and see none but bunnies.

We do see this neat pavilion designed by Gerrit Rietveld though.

July 19th - Breda

We are going to visit the graphic design museum in Breda and while walking through a park we experience free range chickens?

The while building is the main church of Breda.

 July 21st - Cologne, Germany

We visit the Hohe Domkirche St. Peter und Maria, a GIANT cathedral right outside of the train station.

The floors have amazing mosaics and tile works. 

 

The church itself is absolutely huge and very gothic. 

I had a german beer with our schnitzel for dinner. 

July 22nd - Alkmaar 

We visit the friday cheese market at the Waagplein. The porters are awesome looking in their white outfits and colored boater hats.

 

That's alot of cheese. It better be Gouda! (haha. Cheese pun. Good-A, get it. Gouda?)

Yeah, never mind that the dutch pronoun Gouda as How-da, not Good-a like we do. 

 Later in the afternoon we go back to Amsterdam on our way home from Alkmaar on the train.

We visit the Dutch WWII resistance museum and we pass the Waag, or the old weigh house in Amsterdam!

July 25th - Den Haag

We are going to a last dinner with most of Colin's classmates before everyone begins to leave the Netherlands.

Colin though this restaurant name was too Wonky to pass up a picture!

July 26th - Paris, France

Colin surprises me with a day trip to Paris for my birthday. It was very sweet.

I loved that we could just catch a high-speed train and go to another country!

We visit the love locks at the Pont de l'Archiveche bridge near Notre Dame and wander through the left bank. 

 Lunch at le Bonapart. The awnings are great.

I had Laduree ice cream after lunch at the Printemps locations. 

 We visited the Luxembourg gardens.

 Back to another Laduree, this time on the Champs-Elysees for early dinner.

This is my desert, a giant pistachio macaroon with pistachio cream and berries.

Colin gets an icy mint and blueberry cupcake. 

We also buy macaroons to take with us.  

 

The colors are SO gorgeous. I'm really exited about a Laduree opening in NYC. 

It's going to be Colin and my weakness, those pretty macaroons.

I also bought two new longchamp totes. 

What can I say, they're cheaper in Europe. And I like them and they last a long time without looking beat up.

And it was my birthday and I was going to treat myself!

We're finally back though. The spending has not stopped as of yet however. 

Look at these awesome platforms I got at Madewell today for only $59!

Now all I need to concentrate on is finding a job and apartment in NYC asap.

Colin starts his new job in just about 2 weeks in the city, so we're really pressed for time!

Home town proud...

I may be in the Netherlands, but Europe is living vicariously through my hometown. 

Check out my two very random finds.

Kansas Griller bratwursts from the Albert Heijn grocery. They're bacon infused and actually, pretty good despite the horrifically white appearance. Also on the shelves were Minnesota cheddar filled brats (I would've gone with Wisconsin, just sayin) and Louisiana barbeque sauce filled brats. Yeah, beats me too!

Second is this shirt, which if you can't read it says "Kansas City Legends". This was taken outside of a store called America Today in Haarlem (NL not NY), which is like the Dutch answer to apparently ubiquitous American Abercrombie/American Eagle/ Aeropostale type style. Maybe I should go buy one to wear back home?

pink in the hague

So I made it to Europe safe and sound... but maybe with a teeensy bit of jet lag.

 I wanted to post this for two reasons.

1. This is possibly the most texture my hair has had recently, and it's not even that wavy. I slept on it damp and it came out nice. Straight hair makes you pine for texture.

2. My top matches my flowers! Colin bought me peonies and brought them to the airport when he picked me up Friday. Peonies are, if you didn't know, my favorite flower. But they are also a super fickle, picky flower, so he's never been able to find any to gift me before. 

Gotta love that the Netherlands is still experiencing what is very early spring weather for the Mid-western united states. Peony season is all but over anywhere the weather has gotten over 85 in the states.

On a side note, I really like this top. Blush has sort of been an obsession for me lately. Not that I was ever that adverse to pink. I enjoy being girly and I think pink tends to be a fairly flattering color on me. But blush has super trendy lately and I've been loving it.

This is from Forever 21 and is a textured ribbon knit. I also dig the dolman sleeve.  

easter egg color nails

So, I painted my nails and I am a weirdo. 

I got really excited about these pastel colors though, thus the strange faces.

The toe color is Essie Mint Candy Apple, and I've had it for almost a year. I love it. It's the perfect opaque minty color but without being a gloppy, thick polish. 

The nail color is Essie Nice is Nice. Lilac is surprisingly flattering. I also like the color purple. 

I've been on a purple kick lately. 

Notice I'm wearing a purple shirt. Yeah.

Sorry I look CRAZY and that I'm holding my foot. 

I was on planes all day flying home from Philly. So I'm more than a little loopy from all that recycled air.

Thursday I turn around and leave again for the Netherlands. 

For a month and 4 days. Yeah, I'm cool like that and take super long European vacations. 

We can just pretend I'm vacationing because I have massive amounts of leisure time and disposable income and not because I'm seeing Colin graduate and then taking advantage of traveling before his dutch lease is up. 

Yeah. I'm just hoity toity. Let's go with that.

I have been mildly busy. I'm making this daisy-sixties-mod-pink-green desktop background for my bestie, Morgan.

The desktop I have on my laptop, which you can kinda see in the screen capture, is that pink chevron stripe, which has my monogram in the middle (in an orange-y coral, incase you're curious). 

I'm sort of obsessed with monograms. 

The only other person I know who appreciates them as much is Morgan, so she asked for a pink and green pattern for herself. I'm thinking about hiding the monogram in it sort of like a Lily Pulitzer pattern.