Friday, May 24, 2013

Amsterdam 2.0

Sitting here with my toffee rooibos tea, ready to throw some more words at you all. Your bodies are ready.

I said my second day in Amsterdam would get a post on it's own, didn't I?
Well here it is.

Let me start with the start. Breakfast! I've already mentioned my (legit) excitement over the apartment in my first post about this trip, but since we arrived in the evening and were going out to eat almost straight away, followed by me getting locked out and then going straight to bed with a grumpy face once I got in... this morning was my first opportunity to actually experience it properly. And by that, I mean investigate the kitchen.

Me and my mum were in heaven. We have a thing for breakfasts.

There were bake-off croissants that we popped in the oven, then we attacked the freshly baked baguette the landlord had bought for us, yoghurt, fancy coffee, tea, tea, tea, dutch cookies, juice, marmalade and cream cheese, regular cheese, salami, ham, fresh fruit and whatnot. Needless to say, I didn't need to eat proper food until many hours later. So worth it. This sounds very cheesy but it was great, so again, legit. Dad only had some coffee though.

Who the hell says no to a warm croissant?
My dad is a strange man.

Well. It was a beautiful morning! Wasn't complaining about the view either.

The day wasn't all about the breakfast. Though I was unreasonably excited about it, I just wanted a little bit of text to match that lovely picture I took once all the yummy was on the table. I am never staying at a crappy hotel again after this place, just saying.

That said, this was the day I finally met up with my friends Dana and Naomi!

And who are they, exactly? Two great people, that's who. Naomi was one of the first people I talked to on Tumblr - basically, when I joined Tumblr, I spent an intense couple of days hunting down all ayabie and AYABIE fans I could find, Naomi was one of them - and Dana and I started talking somewhere along the line. They didn't know each other, but we still decided to all meet up all three as soon as I found out I was going to Amsterdam. I was... nervous.

I had no reason to be nervous, of course, I worked myself up over nothing, because the last time I had met a lives-far-away-online-friend was rather traumatizing. And now I was meeting two. Help.
My dad did not make it better running around the livingroom, going "there's someone out there, someone out there, Saga, go, hahahaha!" but I put on my best poker face and pushed my shaky legs out the door.

Again, my dad is a strange man.
Fortunately, it all went fine and we ended up having a great day together!




















At first we got way too lost for our own good, looking for the mysterious "place where you eat from the walls" as my lovely tour guides nicely put it. You see that picture with a bunch of what looks like tiny ovens? That's the place. Not what I was expecting. I automatically pictured a wall with food attached to it and people climbing on it while eating. It was quite amazing though, I wish we had those shops in Sweden. I mean, you pop in a coin and get a burger, it's like a wending machine in the shape of a store? How is that not fantastic in every way possible? 

I didn't get anything from Febo - if I remember the name correctly - but that icecream up there sure was delicious. Oh, all the food to look at. I might not have eaten a lot that day, but I could literally just go abroad and look at all the "exotic" food.

Moving on.

We walked pretty much the entire time, which was awesome, because I wanted to see the city and not just a bunch of tourist-traps. Amsterdam is such a beautiful place! Got to see a lot of fun shops, parks, and oh my all the water and bridges. It looked like a fairytale, yes, I know how cheesy it sounds, but it looked so different compared to Sweden. Even more thrilling than the breakfast I tell you. Kudos to Dana and Naomi for dragging around an excited, limping, very warm swede all day without complaining.

They were both so nice in person ♪ Great memories right there!

It's so strange to actually meet someone you've only talked to online, isn't it? Well of course it is. I mean, if you think about it, you're actually sitting there socializing with your laptop, or whichever type of computer you prefer. People can be so schizophrenic with an all-capslock hyperactive personality online, and then be too shy to even look you in the eyes offline. Remember that traumatic experience I mentioned? That's what happened to me. Now, this time, I have no idea if I lived up to expectation - I probably didn't, I was very warm and in general I'm quite weird, I sometimes studder, and speaking English didn't exactly make it easier for me to behave like a normal human - but these guys were pretty much like I'd imagined them to be. Thankfully no way near another trauma here.

Enough about my dark past, let's continue!

In the afternoon, Naomi unfortunately had to leave earlier to go see One Direction live. I dislike them personally, but hey, not judging. After all I do have a thing for the Biebster. It was just sad that she had to leave earlier. So we said goodbye, and me and Dana were off to a place that at the moment seemed impossible to find, a pancake restaurant.

If my excitement for food was forgotten somewhere in this sea of text, this is a kind reminder.

Dana had been talking about wanting me to taste "poffertjes" since we started to plan what we should do on our day. She had actually given me an entire pie already before that, a cherry "vlaai", ridiculously delicious, but still insisted on treating me - which I'm way too Swedish for, so I basically wanted to apologize at least a hundred times, though I hadn't asked her to treat me, and actually tried to make her let me pay. Man those things were gorgeous.

Poffertjes are some kind of Dutch mini-pancakes, poofy little things, mine were drowned in cream and honey and clementines (I deserved it. I walked for five hours on a foot in need of penicillin. Five. Penicillin). I regret not taking a picture of them, but we were both pretty dead, so my brain was floating some place other than my head.

That was almost it for day two! It was enough for the entire trip, kind of. It was great being shown around the city by friends instead of some robotic tourguide. I hate tourist-y things, it was great just walking around. And I found a book I fell completely in love with - a beautiful edition of "Alice's adventures in Wonderland & other stories" - so much better than basic souvenirs.

I'm too tired and it's too dark to take a good picture of it now, but believe me it will be spammed one day or another. Not even sorry about that.

Thank you for a lovely day girls ♥ and for the pie. And the poffertjes. And the keychain Naomi threw at my mailbox today. We'll meet again, okay! Get your asses to Sweden.

Now here's a random picture of a seventy five year-old man. The right one, that is;



Okay, it was a lie, he's not very random at all. That's my grandpa.

I'm going to finish this post, but I have to give this charming man a shoutout, since he's the whole reason we even went on this trip. My entire family hid in a restaurant later that night, where we surprised him and I was the only one who remembered that he has a pacemaker before he grabbed his chest and thumped down on a chair looking terrified. The others had a lightbulb-moment there and realized what I had already thought about for minutes.

Happy belated birthday grandpa!
I'll leave this huge pile of words here now, quietly wishing someone will gather the strength to actually read it, haha. Otherwise it will just be a great memory I can look back on!

Sorry about the pacemaker grandpa. Happy birthday!
And thank you again dear Dutch friends!

That said, goodnight you little cutiepies.
Much love from the woman who always writes too much! ♥♪

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

iro ♡ Stay Cute





Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and all you in between! 

I know I've tweeted about the fact that I've been writing on my second post on Amsterdam, which has taken some time because going through the pictures was way too much fun, and I couldn't resist procrastinating Photoshop-style. And, on top of that, exciting things have gotten in the way, so Amsterdam part two will have to stay in my pile of drafts for now! 

What exciting things, you ask? Well, you probably don't ask, since it's pretty damn obvious. I'm kind of shoving it in your face, aren't I? That's right. 

The prettiest deco case from Stay Cute jumped through my mailbox earlier today!




I love it so much ♪ Just look at this bad boy, 
it's like someone threw a pile of pastries on my phone and topped it off with some roses and glitter. 

The case is handmade by suteshi @ tumblr, and you can go get one yourself at her etsy shop - westaycute.etsy.com! This was actually customized for me, since she made a shoutout looking for people that might be interested in her cases. Since I have the case next to me right now, I was obviously interested, so I listed a ton of things I liked, and this was the result! 

I literally threw in every little thing I liked, so I'm surprised she actually managed to make something with a little bit of everything I like. It even sort of looks like an outfit I wore recently, haha.

Though it was customized for me and my iPhone 4, I looked at the shop just now, and it seems like you can order this design and get it customized to fit your phone too? And it seems like you can get a case with this design for iPod and Nintendo too. It says that it is available for any device with a hard case. I should probably double check this before posting but I kind of want to surprise her and... okay, going with my gut on this one. 

You can find this case right about here → click, click. 
It came with a screen protector and extra gems too, in case some would fall off.

I've never owned a deco case before so I'm a little afraid to actually move it around, but hey, my phone looks like a pastry, so I'll survive. Thank you so much Suteshi! 

 WESTAYCUTE.ETSY.COM 

That's it for today, if anyone's reading this. Sorry for being rather hyperactive. I've gone back to caffeinated tea after only drinking rooibos for a week. And I'm finally feeling a little better after spending way too much time with my couch, feeling sick-ish and PMS-ing. So there's a lot of extra energy over here. Sigh. I'm sorry. 

I'll log off now and go bother someone else. Maybe finish my Amsterdam post. Hm. We'll see. 

Take care until next time! (๑・ω-)~♥”

Monday, May 20, 2013

Dropship ClothingBest Wholesale Clothing Online

CLOTHINGLOVES.NET


So the people at Clothingloves.net has asked me to write a little about their website here, which I of course will since they're so nice.


Clothingloves.net is a website that offers a wide range of wholesale clothing, both for men and women. They have clothes in all different styles, so if you're like me and like more alternative, quirky fashion, or if you're more the flowery dresses-type, you'll find very nice pieces no matter what.

They have cheap dresses, very nice jewelry, and even cheap wedding dresses! In general, the prices are very low.

So go click one of these banners, visit their page and have a look around ♥ ! 

I'm sure you'll find something you like. Like I already said, they have a very varied selection of both clothes and jewelry. 

That's it for now! 
Hugs and kisses people♪
                    

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Once upon a time I went to Amsterdam

I thought about coming up with some sort of clever title for this post. But what the hell. Amsterdam. I went to Amsterdam. A simple truth. I can't be clever all the time, damn it. This will have to do!

Anyway.

I realize this short little intro makes it sound like I'm not very happy about this, which is wrong, as I am actually quite overjoyed, to the point of feeling very curse-everything-and-everyone about being home in Sweden again. I had such a great time! And that says a lot, considering that after this trip, I'm on pencillin, have my right foot wrapped up in a bandage, and have to walk on my toes because my heel is completely useless.

I'll get to that later. It's confusing to start at the end instead of the beginning, isn't it? So let's rewind this a little bit. Why did I go to Amsterdam in the first place?

Well, it so happens that my dear grandpa Kjell turned 75 on the 4th of May, this Saturday, and his wife went a little crazy. She invited me, mum, dad, my dad's brother i.e. my uncle, his wife, and my younger cousin Sasha to celebrate with them in Amsterdam. And she paid for our tickets.

I suspect she might have robbed some random bank.
I don't mind.

I haven't been abroad in a while, so I turned into a perfectionist wreck as the trip was nearing. I wrote a checklist with a million things on, re-dyed my poor hair, tried on clothes until I felt like crying, and so on. I have no idea how I managed to look normal on the picture I took of my travel-outfit. Let me just say that under the surface, I was pretty much ready to lie down on the floor and breathe into a paper bag for a few hours. Not my proudest moment.

I was quite happy with my hair, at least. Even though I ended up wearing a wig because it was quite cold and windy, and I flipped. I was also quite excited about something else. Not Amsterdam itself, strangely enough, I was just really excited about getting my hands on something from Starbucks. Yes, you heard it right.

Starbucks. Fucking Starbucks. Of all things.

It may seem weird, but the only place in Stockholm where you can find a Starbucks, is at Arlanda airport. I can't explain why I've been so obsessed with the thought of visiting Starbucks, because I don't know myself. I'm weird that way. I have a strange fascination with food and things I don't see every day. We have Starbucks in Sweden, but only in Gothenburg and at Arlanda.

No way I'm going to Gothenburg, so I was unreasonably happy about going to the airport, which was a good thing, it turned out, since the beautiful frappucino in my hand calmed me down quite a bit. Okay, I'm extremely weird that way. It just looked so... movie milkshake-y! 

Truth be told, it wasn't as good as I'd expected it to be though. It was pretty tasteless. Just my luck. But it looked beautiful, and at least I can say that I've finally, finally been to Starbucks, victory.

Once on the plane, I must admit I started to panic a little again. I like flying, but I hate starting and landing. It feels like the whole plane is falling apart. Extremely scary. In between the scary parts, however, I think everyone who's ever been on a plane can say it's very worth it.


My lovely country. It's not cold all the time, proof right here!
Look at all the clouds you can't look at because they're not there.

When we flew over the sea and above the Netherlands, all I could think about was how organised the crop fields were. It was completely ridiculous. Sweden looks like a messy quilt made by a five year-old in comparison. Everything was neatly arranged in a rectangular pattern, with little streams dividing the fields. Just, wow.

Surviving the landing came next, followed by riding a taxi for around 45 minutes with my nose pressed against the window and Sasha looking at me like I was retarded. We dropped them off at their hotel, then off to the apartment we'd rented over the weekend. Oh, it was crazy.





















Look. At. This. Place.

And yes, that's my family. My dear uncle was the only one who reacted when I said that I was about to snap a picture. The rest; completely ignored me while eating tapas and talking about the view.

The last hotel I stayed at had plastic sheets, one chair in the kitchen, we stayed there with another family of three, and I had to sleep in the same bed as my friend with her feet in my face. So I was kind of overjoyed coming to a place with fresh flowers in vases everywhere, lit candles and a fireplace, enormous windows with a beautiful view, and the best part was that the guy had squeezed in everything he possibly could in the kitchen. Juice, teas, ham and cheese, like a billion cans of cola zero, even artificial sweeteners. Or wait, that wasn't the best part.

There was a tap next to the normal tap in the sink that immediately produced boiling water so I could make tea without having to wait how do I even live with that it's too much fantastic-ness what are commas look at me losing track of everything.

This must be super boring to read, but I had to.
Like I said, from plastic sheets and feet in my face, to this. I'm allowed to brag.

After freaking out over the apartment, we didn't have much time left of the day, so we met up with the rest of the family to have dinner. We went to this insane place called Bazar, a restaurant in an old, gigantic synagog, with two floors and mosaic in the ceiling, which was at least 150 m from the floor. And I'm not kidding when I say the food covered the entire table. We couldn't talk because it was so loud in there, but “låt maten tysta mun” as we say here in Sweden. That was pretty much it for the first day!

My parents went with the rest of the family to their hotel for some drinks, while I went to the apartment and couldn't figure out how to open the door (neither could my parents, once they came home, so it took quite some time), so I ended up sitting in the stairwell, angrily eating apple pie from my doggybag. Then off to sleep.

I don't know why I'm telling you this, but hey, why not! I want to remember this trip, so might as well torture you, dear readers, and write it down. Now, this is getting very long, so no more torture for today!

I say that a lot, don't I? Hm. 

Have a quick picture of the result of my oh-no-it's-cold-my-outfit-won't-work-help-where-is-my-wig-and-knitted-beanie-freakout. Sigh. I'll have to recycle those twin buns with my Weasley-hair someday soon, without the freakout.

Oh, and about my foot, saving that for post no. 2, since it happened on day no. 2. Won't make a post for each day, but day two deserves a post on it's own, just saying.

Until next time, have a nice day and enjoy the sunlight, if you have some outside your window! Seriously get away from your computer. Just because I can't walk doesn't mean you can't. I'll limp my way over to Alex's place for a movie night later, but you, go outside and jump down a meadow or something, damn it. Okay? Good.

I'm off! Good day dear people (๑・ω-)~♥”