First notebook: Done!

I finished the first notebook for my friend yesterday evening, but I couldn't touch it because the glue was still drying... So today when I got home I was all excited to see how it turned out, and I'm pretty happy about it!

This is the front cover. It has a tree with a little blue owl, and two tanuki that are going to cross the bridge :)

This one is a bit scared it's going to rain though...

I made this little owl to match the Blue Owl Elastic Bookmark made by my friend Laura, which my friend from school is probably going to buy :) Laura has a shop on Etsy where she sells bookmarks and lots of other cute things! You can also find her pretty blog here :)

 This is the back cover, with a nice vulcano and two red-crowned cranes.

 One flying...

...and one who isn't so much into physical labour :)

And I was so surprised I can still fold cranes as well that I just had to share it :)

 Now I'm just hoping my friend will like it as much as I do!

I would totally buy this, if I...

... wouldn't lose every bracelet that isn't tied permanently to my wrist.

{Marolsha}

... had a lot of money.

{Zerkahloostrah}

... had a kid. So probably not for the next ten years...

{Little Goodall}

... wouldn't lose something so very tiny.

{Got Crow Creations}

... didn't have cats who would love to chew on these.

{TCM Designs}

... if I... no, I just really need to have this :)

{Corduroy}

Everything here is from Etsy! I'm so addicted... I'll probably get withdrawal sympthoms while I'm on holiday... I can't believe there's only four days of school left! And then just one more week until Rome, Venice and Berlin... :)

I've got a Book and a Bag

But not just any Book and Bag...
You might remember the post I did a while ago about some lovely bird themed items I found on etsy. Well, I own one of those things now!
I have a Chewy the Owl bag!

I'm so in love with it I had to admire it a few days before sharing :) okay, okay, probably more like a week... But just look at it and you'll understand :)

Today was the first opportunity to take my gorgeous bag to school (I'm finally not feeling blegh anymore) and show it to my friends. Well, I think the first biologist who doesn't like animal shaped bags has yet to be born :)
The only downside to this bag is that I have to yawn every time I look at it... But no way that's going to stop me from wearing it!

And for the Book part... I couldn't wish for a more perfect notebook to accompany this bag. And you always know you can expect something good when you get a package like this:

Inside was the Clear Skies journal from boygirlparty! It isn't for sale in the etsy shop now, but you can still buy it here.

The inside pages have four different designs, for all the seasons. For some strange reason I forgot to take a picture of summer though... I really really hope this isn't some kind of omen...

I actually got it in the mail a few weeks before the bag, but I had to stop myself from posting it, because they are both gifts from my aunt and uncle. So (though they'll probably never read this): Thank you so much!

Now I just have to think what is worthy enough to be written in such a pretty notebook...
Any ideas?

What's been happening?

Well... nothing much.

I've been ill the whole weekend, plus yesterday and today and it doesn't look like it's getting any better :(
So I've just been lying in bed or on the couch all day watching season one of Avatar again. I just don't seem to grow out of that series! I'm probably just very much in touch with my inner child :) But since I haven't had any exciting experiences to talk about (except for eating two apples this week, which is quite something for me, since I normally eat two apples a year) I'll just share some things that made me feel a bit less blegh today :)

Krystin from Sappy Apple did a post about Dear Photograph today. It's a lovely initiative that invites everyone to "take a picture of a picture from the past in the present". I think it's such a great idea! I would really love to take pictures like this myself!

One thing that can always make me smile is pictures of cats, or real cats of course! Being ill suddenly isn't so very bad anymore if you're being smothered in warm, purring kitty love the whole day :)
And this might be the cutest kitten I've ever seen :)

But this is absolutely the best thing I've seen all day! A cat with a hat!
It's actually Kaylah's Doctor Octopus and you can see the whole photoshoot at The Dainty Squid!

That's all for today! I'll be at home again tomorrow so maybe I'll post some happy things again :)

Total(ly invisible) eclipse

Yesterday, my parents and I drove out to a high point to watch the lunar eclipse that was going on.

It was supposed to look something like this

{Photograph by Harry Kikstra of ExposedPlanet, a really beautiful photoblog!} 

or like this.

But instead it looked like this

Stupid Dutch clouds... I was really excited about this! Well, at least the next one isn't so far away... Only four years to wait! And I shot some nice pictures of the sunset :)

On top of my disappointment, the stupid clouds decided to turn into rain today, while I had to spent the whole day outside to count plants. (You may ask me why someone would bother to do that, but you'd better be prepared for a long and boring response)

So I'm feeling a bit pitiable today...

But I've got some good news too! A friend from my class asked me to make two notebooks for her! My very first buyer! Yay :)

I hope it isn't raining where you live :)

Two day holiday: Part 3

This will be the final part describing my two day holiday. You can also read the first and second part!

We had a very nice breakfast at the hotel, with smoked salmon again :) I really love that stuff! When we had eaten enough, we went to the Dutch Open Air Museum. It's a really large area, where they have rebuilt houses, farms and shops of the last two hundered years to "bring the past to life". At first we were both quite excited about it all, but in a while I became more interested in the flowers and animals that were around.

This bee was way too small for the flower! He kept tripping over the stamens :P

This pig was actually rolling around in the mud! How cliché...

This chicken was very suspicious of my camera...

This is one of the most beautiful carrousels I've ever seen! I would have loved to have a ride in that swan if I wouldn't have driven the average age up so much...

This little guy looked like he was smiling in his sleep :)

And this one had a really sheepish smirk :P

This must be the weirdest chicken I've ever seen... My father didn't even recognize it as a chicken when I first showed him the picture! It is actually a traditional Dutch chicken breed, so I guess I must be proud or something...

Though we got bored quite quickly with this place, we found out we had walked around for nearly three hours! We went to the next place quickly, but I'm a sucker for museum shops, so we had a look around there, and they sold a journal by boygirlparty! I think that's pretty cool :)

Next, we went to National Park the Hoge Veluwe, which is one of the largest nature reserves in the Netherlands. On the way there we came across a building site and in the enclosure around it were small holes so you could look at what they were doing. They weren't doing anything actually, but someone very genius had put this sticker next to a hole :)

At the park they have free bikes at every entrance, so you can cycle through the park. So of course we did that! It was lovely to cycle through the woods, underneath te trees and to stop at all the nice sites. We parked our bikes under a tree once, and wandered into the woods. It was really beautiful and quiet :)

When we cycled further, we saw a sign that said "observation post" so we went in that direction. When we entered it, we immediately saw a group of deer! The longer we stayed, the more there came and in the end there were seven adults and a little one!

You can click on the pictures to see them larger!

You can see the little one in the middle on this picture!

I could have stayed there for hours, just watching the deer move around. One time the little fawn lay down and you could only see his ears twitching above the grass sometimes. It was so cute :)

I was really sad to leave, but we still had to cycle back to the entrance, take two buses to the city, find some food and take the train back home. I had a really wonderful time though and I can't wait for the summer holiday to begin so we can go deer spotting again :)

This post must be the longest I've ever written! I hope you enjoyed it :)