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My Famous Shoes Collection

October 28, 2020

I’m 40. My famous shoes collection started about 25 years ago, when...

How To Sew Gaynor Mindens

September 19, 2020

Food

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Wrong Food Habits That Age You

October 28, 2020

Have you ever wondered whether the foods you give to your body...

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My 5 Best Read Articles

I have been blogging over a year, and every day I check my stats at Analytics. Some posts score obviously better than other. But what are my most succesfull posts. Today I look back at my five best read articles.

#1. How I edit my Instagram photos. This is actually quite a young post, since this was posted a month ago, on the 10th of January. The titel basically says it all: In this post I show you how I edit my photos for Instagram. Not that I am a Instagram hero or anything, but apparently people like to see this a lot.

#2. L’Oreal lipstick Review: Blake’s pure red & 227 Hype. This is the post that is has the most visitors by search engines. I just bought to random lipsticks at the time, and it seems like a lot more people are interested in these beautiful lipsticks. Hype wasn’t really my colour though, but I still LOVE Blake’s Pure Red.

#3. Outfit #27: Last day of 2015. I have to be honest: This is one of my favorite outfits on the blog too. Love the sweater, love the trousers, love the necklace and love the shoes. Also, I like the photos itself. The colour are beautiful. On TFD you can definitely see that my style developes with every outfitpost I publice, and this outfit is totally me now. Classic but still so comfortable.

#4. Topshop Mini Lip Bullet Pyramids Review. When I found these little lipsticks in the Topshop Webshop I instantly loved them. Looked them up for reviews, but there weren’t any good one. Up to me, I thought, and so I reviewed them. Really like the cute packages, which is made to hang them in your christmas tree.

#5. Room Details. After living in this appartment for over a year, I am still in love with it. The Room detail post was one of the first posts on my blog. I totally get that this article was so popular, since it was one of my favorite posts too.

Moving Out My Experience

Someday you are going to move out and live on your own. Maybe right away when you are going to University, maybe much later. However, it always seems a little scary, but amazing too. You are dreaming about cooking whatever you like and do whatever you want. I was just like that, before I moved 4,5 months ago. Today I will tell you about my experience of moving and living on my own.Moving out and living on my own always seemed like a true adventure to me. I mostly loved the idea of getting new furniture and decorading something new. In high school I always said that I wanted to move out as soon as I got into University. The last few years I even started collecting home accessoires: cute candle holders or awesome kitchenware.

After my last year of highschool, my brother started moving out. He is two years older and stayed home the entire first year of University. My dad made us some scheduled of how expensive it would be to live on our own and to take care of ourselves. Meanwhile I was looking for rooms in Utrecht, but it seemed like a very hard job to get myself a room . That together with the costs that were higher than I expected, changed my plans. I now wanted to live home for at least some more months, so I had the time to search for a room very slowly until I found something perfect.

Which didn’t happen, because in August there was the introduction of Utrecht for all new students. It were four fun days and I realized I liked Utrecht even more than I thought and I was jealous of friends who had a room allready. Again I changed my plans: I started searching more intensive and reacting to a lot of advertisments of rooms available.

Searching for a room can be quite hard. Ninty procent of the people you’re sending messages to, don’t respond. That is understandable when you realise they get hundreds of messages, but it is still stupid. After a while I was super lucky; I found an amazing little appartment that I could rent, which I live in now. Maybe, when you too find it hard to find a nice place, you can stick together with some friends and find a appartment together. I know a few people who did that and it turned out great for them.

After that me and my parents had some painting and hard working to do in my new home. We were lucky that IKEA is literally a few blocks away. It took some weekends before I could finally move it. I couldn’t wait any longer; I was so happy!

My new place immediately started to feel like home. Whenever I open my front door now, I smile and always feel great to be here again. It truly is my place: I love every piece of furniture because I chose it myself and it all suits me.

I enjoy being and living here. It even changed me a bit. In my parent’s house, my room was super messy all the time. Now normally everything is organized and clean. I think that is because I do everything in this one room now. In The Hague I did not spend much time in my room, now I have to. I do not want to look around me and see a giant mess. I now notice that when my room is messy, I am more messy. An organized room makes me feel organized too.

I do not find it hard to take care of myself. Ofcourse I need to clean more now. Before living on my own, I only sometimes needed to vacuum my room. Now I have more householding to do; cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, cleaning the windows and doors, go grocery shopping and more. I don’t even mind doing all that. It makes me more mature and grown up. This is all a new chapter of my life and I am loving it.

Olay Anti Aging Starter Protocol Pro X

The Olay Anti-Aging Starter Protocol Pro-X is a set of three products designed by the Olay Professional Alliance for Skin Care Innovation to sooth,

protect and restore the look and feel of your skin to a glowing and more youthful-acting state. The kit contains an age repair lotion with SPF 30, a wrinkle smoothing cream and an eye restoration complex.

They are intended to be used throughout the day and in conjunction with the rest of your beauty regimen to hydrate and shield your skin from damage. The Olay Alliance, which is a group of “renowned dermatologists” and Olay “beauty scientists” has officially endorsed certain levels of vitamins, nutrients and various amino acids and peptides as being ideal for skin care. This starter kit contains the highest recommended levels of these compounds and is intended to “resignal” your skin to repair the moisture barrier and boost cell turnover rate so that you get younger looking – and literally younger – skin in 28 days or less.

To use this product, you should apply the Olay Age Repair Lotion SPF 30 to your clean, dry skin in each morning. Olay recommends a “liberal application” to the face and neck. Then, before applying your makeup, massage the eye restoration complex into your eye area to diminish puffiness and dark circles. In the evenings, repeat the process with the eye complex, and smooth the Olay Wrinkle Smoothing Cream over your entire face and neck after you have cleansed and toned your skin.

My Rating is: 4/5

Drawbacks:

While Olay is known for its affordable, effective products, you do need to factor in a few things before you buy.

If you do not already have some minimal signs of aging, then this kit may not work for you since Olay anti-aging products often make still-youthful, healthy skin break out.

These products have a mild medicinal scent.

Benefits:

There is a reason that Olay is known for its incredibly effective anti-aging products. Here are a few things that make this kit so attractive.

It is extremely affordable.

It produces comparable results to many dermatologist-recommended regimens.

Allure magazine found that using this kit resulted in a 25 percent reduction in wrinkles after the proscribed 28 days.

The Olay Anti-Aging Starter Protocol Pro-X is particularly good for weathered or neglected skin, unlike many anti-aging treatments which rely on preserving skin intact rather than repairs.

Price:

$61.50

Guarantee

Olay simply says that if you are not satisfied with your results, the company will reimburse you fully for your purchase. Further information on the guarantee can be determined on an individual basis by contacting the company directly, but the company has an excellent customer service record and the only real difference from scenario to scenario appears to be determined by how you return the products and receive the refund.

My Review

I love Olay products, and I am excited by the Olay Professional Alliance. Even though it’s basically just a marketing tool (I mean, you cannot even find a single name of any member dermatologist, let alone a “renowned” one) the products are definitely sound. Even better, they actually have a visible impact on weathered and damaged skin, which is a refreshing change since so many products seem to do a lot to moisturize but do not really change the look of deep lines and furrows.

The regimen does take a little bit of time and adds about fifteen minutes to your morning and evening routines by the time it all soaks in and you start applying makeup or going to bed, but the extra half hour a day is well worth it. However, do not start if you are not going to use it every day, because missing days seriously messes up your final results. Also, while results are guaranteed in 28 days, you will continue to improve the look of your skin if you continue to use the protocol, so be prepared to renew your products when they are gone.

You will probably not run out of them evenly since the lotions usually last a little longer than a month and the eye cream can last anywhere from 28 days to two months. It all depends on how you interpret the words “liberal” and “pea-sized” and what works best on your skin. The only thing that you need to consider when purchasing this protocol is that if your skin is not damaged enough, then you may suffer from a rash of tiny red bumps. When Olay says something repairs, it definitely does, but it also means that if you do not yet need the repair, then your skin may go into overdrive. If you use the product for three or four days and notice that you are developing serious blemishes particularly around the mouth or on your nose, you may need to return it and get a refund because your skin may just not be ready for it. However, with an ironclad guarantee that simply requires that you are not 100 percent satisfied, then you really can’t go wrong with this starter protocol.

To see the anti aging skin products that my friends and I are using right now that we’ve been extremely satisfied with, visit our list of best wrinkle creams.

How To Sew Gaynor Mindens

Trying to sew ribbons on to Gaynor Minden pointe shoes is a headache! The sockliner is more or less fused to the satin, and the two fabrics combined are very tough and difficult to get a needle through. I’ve even known dancers to break needles trying to sew them!

Unfortunately there are no easy fixes. I haven’t tried the new Pointe Snaps with Gaynors – if you have and they work, let me know!

To be safe, buy a stronger needle – you don’t want to risk getting bits of needle stuck in your shoe. “Crewel” needles (available from fabric stores) are a heavier gauge and have a bigger eye than regular needles.

For thread, you could use upholstery thread, dental floss or even fine gauge fishing line – or buy the Bunheads pointe shoe sewing kit, which includes proper waxed pointe shoe thread.

Some people persevere with sewing the ribbons on to the sockliner – it is possible to pick up a few stitches, and with a stronger thread, that may be enough to hold the ribbon. However it’s easier (if you can call it that!) to sew straight through the satin.

A thimble is absolutely essential, unless you want blisters. It enables you to put more pressure on the needle to force it through the material. Buy one that fits on your middle finger or your thumb (it should stay on if you hang your hand downwards, but shouldn’t pinch).

Never used a thimble? It’s easy. Start your stitch. When you get to the stage where you need to push the needle through the material, use the thimble. See all those little dents on the top and side? Notice how the end of the needle fits snugly into any one of them. That’s what they’re for – to hold the needle still and straight while you push it through the fabric.

Most people use the tip of the thimble to push the needle through. Place the tip of your thimbled finger against the end of the needle, making sure the end is nestled in a dent, and push. You’ll find you can exert a lot more pressure than with your bare finger, because the metal protects your skin!

Many tailors wear the thimble on their thumb instead of their middle finger. It’s more awkward to use, but your thumb is stronger than your middle finger so it’s a good option if you’re working with tough fabrics – which, with Gaynore Mindens, you are! You may find you have to take it on and off as you sew, and it can be tricky working out how to push – you’ll probably find using the side of your thumb works better than the tip.

There is one silver lining to all this – because Gaynor Mindens last so much longer, you won’t have to sew ribbons on so often!

5 Favorite Breakfasts With Oatmeal And Fruit

There are people who do not like to eat breakfast in the morning. Not me. I always look forward to having breakfast. I like to try new combinations, but in case I need some comfortfood, I go back to myy 5 favorite kinds of breakfast. Today I will show you those 5 favorites.

Oatmeal with Banana & Honey

Oatmeal is perfect for breakfast: Mix it with some yoghurt and great and you are done. Oatmeal is super easy and great to eat with anything you want to add. I added some honey, which gives a sweet flavour to the yoghurt, and some banana. If you want a little more bite, you can add some raisins.

Forest Fruit Smoothie with Kiwi & Orange Juice & Banana

Whenever you need a quick breakfast, just grab some fruit and mix it all together. For this smoothie, I used some forest fruit from the freezer and a fresh kiwi and banana. The orange juice makes the smoothie more liquid. This is an instant fruitbomb: In this one glass (250ml) are around 3 pieces of fruit.

Banana & Oatmeal pancake

A true trend in Instagram and Bloggersworld: The banana oatmeal pancake. You need 1 egg, 1 banana and some oatmeal. Just mix it all together, bake it in a pan for a while and voila; You made yourself a delicious pancake for breakfast. I only use 2/3 of the banana to put the rest on it later, as you can see on the picture. I definitely recommed this!

Apple with Raisins & Cinnamon

Sometimes there are days when you don’t feel like eating much for breakfast. Whenever I have a day like that, I make myself some apple with raisins and cinnamon. Cut the apple in pieces and add the rest of the ingredients. This is super jummy, easy and healthy.

Oatmeal with Raspberries & Almond

Yes, another yoghurt&oatmeal breakfast, just because I eat this a lot. Almost every morning, to be honest. Now I used rasberries from the freezer and some almond. Just put the raspberries in the microwave for 1-2 minutes and they are soft again. They give a lot of colour and flavour to the yoghurt. The almond gives a little bite to the mix.