Monday 30 July 2012

Monday Miles


I love taking photos (using a humble Canon digital Ixus 80IS). Especially when travelling. Trying to capture stunning nature, a pretty building or just an atmosphere. Through this blog feature I would like to take you on a little travel. As I go through my (very long and always growing) list of places to-go and the (much shorter list) of the places I've been. 

About a week ago I went to see some friends. We were catching up on memories from 2007. We went to Dieci a very small village in the Eastern part of Romania, near the city of Arad. We had a great time.

This picture was taken on our last evening there. The community there took us on a ride through the village as a thank you for our work on their school (we built toilets and turned a gym into a computer classroom).

Sunday 29 July 2012

Sunday Sounds - Mandisa

“You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe–a harmonic connection between all living beings; every where; even the stars.” ~Wizard (character from the movie August Rush). When I found this quote, I thought: that's a truth.  This feature is my little reminder that it's not only organ and choir music in a chuch. I hope you get inspired or if faith isn't really your thing, I hope you just enjoy the music. 

There are songs that just give you a boost. 'Good Morning' from Mandisa (ft. Toby Mac (I'll write about him some other time, because he rocks too!)) is one of those songs.

Mandisa was in the top 9 of American Idol in 2006. Now, she has four albums out. The song that got her name out to me was on her latest album 'What if we were real'. A beautiful album inspired by the struggles in life in an empowering way.


Volume open, play and there you go fire up your day (like I did):

Sunday 15 July 2012

Sunday Sounds - Lecrae

“You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe–a harmonic connection between all living beings; every where; even the stars.” ~Wizard (character from the movie August Rush). When I found this quote, I thought: that's a truth.  This feature is my little reminder that it's not only organ and choir music in a chuch. I hope you get inspired or if faith isn't really your thing, I hope you just enjoy the music. 


A little while ago I stumbled up on Lecrae. Very happy to discover this artist! He brings some beats and urban sound in the mix. I share with you his honest song Just Like You. It's serious, honest and fun (referring to Jack Sparrow just made me smile).






Wednesday 11 July 2012

Wisdom on Wednesday


One of the things I find inspiration in for life, whether it's the good  or the bad; are quotes by people who, generally speaking, have a little more experience in life than me. Or just in proverbs, lyrics or books. Enjoy some inspiration to help you the first week of spring! All are photos are taken by me unless otherwise stated and of course quotes/lyrics used belong to the people quoted.


"You are a unique gift, to this world. Without you the world would not be the same place." 
From Max Lucado's great and beautiful book You Changed My Life (and this is obviously the dutch version). It makes a great gift (I speak from experience ;)). I could not find who this background picture took...

My humble addition to this quote:

IN OTHER WORDS: YOU ROCK!

Sunday 8 July 2012

Sunday Sounds - The Afters

“You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe–a harmonic connection between all living beings; every where; even the stars.” ~Wizard (character from the movie August Rush). When I found this quote, I thought: that's a truth.  This feature is my little reminder that it's not only organ and choir music in a chuch. I hope you get inspired or if faith isn't really your thing, I hope you just enjoy the music.

Last week I was caught by music from the band The Afters. Another honest band. And, believer or not, if you read this lyric from 'Life is Beautiful' from their upcomming album, it's a truth right?


A father's love, A wedding dance, New Year's dreams, A toast with friends, A soldier coming home from war, The faith the hope of so much more, A brand new life, a mother's prayer, Shooting stars, ocean air, A lover's kiss, and hard goodbyes, Fireworks, Christmas lights


These are things that make us feel alive, These are the times that make us realize
Life is beautiful

And for the record, they're not just good writers, I assume they can make some good coffee too, since they met while working at Starbucks.

Enjoy and feel blessed!



Friday 6 July 2012

Food adventures on Friday: a shor note on why I love food so much

I learn cooking and baking stuff by doing (with the kind help of recipes found all over the place). But this post has nothing to do with me baking something and it has all to do with the joy of food.


I go out for dinner a lot the last few weeks (a real luxury). Food + great people = The Good Life for me.

I could write good food, but you know what, food doesn't even have to be that great at all to make it a great memory. I have some great memories of disaster food, they're fun (most of them are).
And: food gives you a chance to travel the world on a plate. I ate Greek and Italian last week and there's a dinner-date set heading for Japanese food next week.
But it also works the other way 'round places I traveled I remember food.....

A few of my place-bound memories:
* At the foot of the montmartre in a small alley in Paris I ate the best salmon ever
* I had a winter's meal (split pea soup) at 30 degrees celcius for diner in Romania (and it tasted great!).
* my most expensive glass of coke I had in Florance, Italy.
* I first tasted wheatgrass juice in London (and renamed it: healthy green stuff).
* In Taiwan I ate crazy stuff like shark fin soup (did not knew until afterwards, I do not support this soup. Very cruel to the beautiful sharks) and chickenbutts (and that tasted great).
* A small and very Italian bakery in Rome served the most heavenly tiramisu I've ever tasted.


What's you best food-memory?





Thursday 5 July 2012

Thankful Thursday

It doesn't hurt anyone to remind yourself of how lucky you are and to be thankful for that.I had a bunch of thankful moments I'd like to share with you this week.

  • Thanks for food. I know, it's a cliche. But I've been going out for diner a lot last week (and there's one more food-date tomorrow). It certainly is a luxury, and a blessing to my life it really is.
  • Thanks for memories. They're there to hang on to at some moments.
  • Surprises are always worth a thank you (espescially when they come from the other side of the world, by the good old mail).
  • It's been Summer all the way this week. And although it's sticky and hot, I'm thankful for it. At least there is a summer :D
  • I had this moment this week. I heard this song on my ipod (for the X-time) but it just hit me right there. I was like: it's so true what's being said here. It was Come to the well by Casting Crowns. I wrote about this great band a few weeks ago.
  • I'm also very thankful that I took some me-time. It sounds very selfish, but you can't run for others all the time...
Inspired by the blog of Julie of Perfectly Imperfect (please go visit her inspirational blog, it's lovely.

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Tuesday Tunes: Linkin Park

Ok, so I've been featuring soul-kind-of music mostly. But I like a bit of guitars too every once in a while. 

Linkin park does a good job on that for me. And I get some beats and a bit of a hip-hop flow as a bonus. I watched their live show via the livestream of Itunes-festival, last year. That convinced me to put this band on my try-to-catch-live-list.

Very happy to share with you a full-concertvideo of this world-famous (because that's a fact) band from a live concert, from the LP-blog on their website :


linkinpark_nokia_deliverable_4000k

Myspace Livestream | Myspace Video