Beautiful games: Amanita Design

I've been game addicted ever since I found out computers could also do these fun things. I've had periods where I downloaden five trials a day and played them all. Now I've stopped wasting my time so much and I only play games I really like. Some of these are time management games, because you don't have to think at all while playing (I play these in between studying sessions) but the ones I really like are mostly point and click/adventure/puzzle games. This will be the first post in a series :)

I played Samorost a few years ago and loved it. It all fits together so perfectly! The beautiful environments, the characters, the music.. It's a real adventure to play and the only downside is that it's too short :) Luckily there's a second part!

A few months ago I stumbles across the demo of Machinarium. It's made by the same studio as Samorost. You play as a robot who has been exiled to the scrap heap. You have to get him back to the city to save his robot girlfriend. Once again, this is a beautiful game by Amanita Design. I really wish I had the collectors edition, which comes with the soundtrack on CD and concept art :)

Ever since this game I've been hooked to Amanita Design. The crew consists of eight guys from the Czech Republic.

I wonder why there's one missing...

They don't only design games, but they've also made this lovely music video for the Danish band Under Byen.

They have some other games, which you can all play here. I really recommend doing so :) They also made a book, which you can download as a pdf file!

Looks pretty cute, doesn't it!

I hope you enjoy playing some of their beautiful games :)

Two day holiday: Part 2

So, here's part two of our mini-holiday adventures! You can read  part one below, or click here.

When we were tired of walking around the zoo and I had finished saying goodbye to all the penguins we went to our hotel. It was located in a quite town and it had it's own pool! It was also surrounded by "woods" which consisted of about twenty trees and a large meadow. We walked through it after we had some smoked salmon salad and beef burgers at a pancake restaurant (I know it sounds weird, but it was actually really good! And we had poffertjes for desert) and it was quite lovely. We even saw some hares!

And to make things even better, we saw a hot air balloon! At first it was quite far, but after a while it was floating right above us.

When it had floated past and the people in it stopped waving, I took some pictures of my best/boyfriend :)

My sweet bunny boy :)

We got back to the hotel soon afterwards, where we went for an evening swim before going to bed. Little did I know that the best was yet to come the next day!

I'll post about it tomorrow, or the day after.. :) I've been awake since 6:30 AM and got home at 7:30 PM after a long day of looking at plants, recognizing plants, remembering the latin name of plants, rehearsing the names of plants.. You could say I'm pretty tired.. :)
If you have any crazy stories about plants or about anything else, feel free to share in the comments!

Two day holiday!

The two days my boyfriend planned for us were amazing! We did so many things, though we didn't even have time enough to do all the things he planned. I'll just go through everything chronologically :)

At first he didn't want to tell me at all what we were going to do, but I can't stand not knowing where I'm going. So when I started to look really freaked out, he told me we were going to Burgers' Zoo! That totally eased my mind, because I love looking at animals! I have a subscription to Artis, the zoo in Amsterdam, but since it's in the middle of the city, it's quite small. Burgers' Zoo was huge, with different areas for different parts of the world and an enormous aquarium. We were supposed to spent only two hours there, but when we left, almost five hours had passed! In which I managed to take 184 pictures.. So here is a very very small selection of them!

As I mentioned before, I really like penguins! They can be so silly sometimes...

A pygmy hippopotamus! The only other time I had the chance to see these amazing creatures was in the zoo of Berlin. This one had a much nicer living space though.

Meerkats are definitely on my list of favorite animals. Partly because they so stubbornly keep watch in a zoo, but mostly because they look so cute :) 

This picture doesn't look like much, but it took me at least ten minutes to get one this good. This jackal was running around like crazy through it's enclosure, taking different turns every time and someone next to me with a really expensive looking camera was trying to take a picture of it. I take a challenge when I see one and the guy next to me drooped off after five minutes looking really disappointed, so I'm quite proud of this one!

This is a Malayan sun bear, also known as the Honey bear. It is the smallest bear species and it has inwards-turned feet, which help him climb better, so he can reach his favorite food.. honey :)

This one honoured his name by thoroughly enjoying the sun :)

This bird, and the one below, were in the Mangrove area of the zoo. I have no idea what they're called though.

But they're pretty birds :)

This was seriously the only decent picture I shot at the aquarium. The fish is pretty awesome though.

But nowhere near as awesome as this one! A stingray with a nose! Who would've thought of that...

If you click to enlarge this picture you can probably see the cute owls a bit better! I was so disappointed that exactly these animals had to be behind a huge fence...

I had absolutely no trouble photographing this bird however! It seemed to love cameras! This is a Lesser Roadrunner by the way. It's a member of the cuckoo family.

And to finish off, just one more penguin! He was waving us goodbye with his tail :)

I'll post the rest of our adventures soon, but now I have to cram 150 plant names into my head.. Dutch and Latin.. Wish me luck! Seriously, I need it...

My first handbound journal!

I've finally taken some pictures of my first handmade journal! I've used the things in the package I got for my birthday and it turned out great! If I may say so myself.. 

 I've painted a brown bear taking an evening stroll on the cover :)

 On the back cover I've painted a clouded moon and on the front my name written in the stars :)

 And I kind of need a better camera... This one doesn't take decent pictures unless you're outside and very lucky..

I really like this one and I can't wait to use it! I still have an other one to fill though...

Once I get good enough at bookbinding and can do it a bit faster I'll probably start selling these :)
I've really been inspired by Etsy and all the lovely handmade things you can buy there. I really want to be a part of that community :)

I have a really long weekend coming up and I've planned all kinds of fun things. Well, actually my boyfriend has planned two days of surprises so I have no idea what I'll be doing! I'm really excited though!
And this Saturday my mother and I are celebrating our birthdays together. Yay, more presents! :)