Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. After you read this, you should delete and write your own post, with a new title above. Or hit Add New on the left (of the admin dashboard) to start a fresh post.

Here are some suggestions for your first post.

1. You can find new ideas for what to blog about by reading the Daily Post.
2. Add PressThis to your browser. It creates a new blog post for you about any interesting  page you read on the web.
3. Make some changes to this page, and then hit preview on the right. You can always preview any post or edit it before you share it to the world.

What I’m working on (blogger starter pack)

Source: 365q.ca via Lara on Pinterest

I would like to share a little about what I’m working on these days. I don’t get a lot of time to work on it, what with work and a family (and recently a very sick child).

When I first started blogging – which wasn’t very long ago- I understood nothing about blog design or what goes where. I didn’t know what a button was or a header (ok, I knew what a header was). Do you remember those days?

Because I struggled with getting a nice design up I am now developing a blogger starter pack which can be downloaded for $5 or so. 

The pack will contain around 10 different options to personalise a blog for each of the following:

1. Header
2. Horizontal menu bar
3. Favicon
4. Post date image
5. Background tiles

So basically you can mix and match with these and create a unique look for your blog. 

Here are some headers from the confetti series I am working on:

Pink/Orange Confetti Header

Orange/Pink Large Dot Header

Blue/Green Clear Header

When finished I will be organising some giveaways, so send me an email if you would be interested in hosting a giveaway for your blog/site.

Create an Inspiration Board (for all your ideas) – free download

Ever feel like coming up with ideas for writing blog posts/essays/ is tiring? In desperate need of collecting thoughts over a period of time?

I have created a free downloadable thought board that you can print out (or use as a digital file) to collect everything you need for writing great posts.

Any pics you collect (from magazines, newspapers, etc) you can pin onto the ‘cork’ board. I like to download cool fonts and keep track of the new ones that I want to try and use. You can add the name and the type of use that allowed in the font boxes. If there are any colours you love using there is a place for the web colour codes at the bottom.  

The best cheesecake in the world (and beyond)

My dad wanted a cheesecake for his birthday this year so I made him one using a Jewish recipe that I completely redid because I didn’t have half the ingredients. But it turned out to be, by far, the best cake I have ever made. My sister Rebecca asked me to put it up so here is for you and all cheesecake lovers out there. 

Ingredients

• 370 gr/13 oz full fat cream cheese 
• 375 gr/13 oz cream
• 3 gelatin sheets
• 175 gr/6.2 oz sugar
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 3 eggs
• 20 digestive cookies
• 90 gr/3 oz butter
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• (optional) fresh raspberries

How you make this delicious, miraculous creation which will bring pure joy

Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 Fahrenheit.

1. Heat a bit of the cream up on low fire with the gelatin sheets until the gelatin is dissolved. Don’t boil. Let it cool and then add to the rest of the cream.

2. Whip cream until slightly stiff.

3.  Melt the butter. Crumble the cookies. Add the butter and the cinnamon to the cookies and fill the base of your tin with this (ok, ok, you can try some of this delicious mixture before you place it in the tin). 

4.  Add lemon zest, sugar and vanilla essence to the cream. Beat the eggs in one by one. 

5. Place this on top of the cookie layer and bake for 45 minutes.

6. When completely cooled you can add the optional raspberries. 

7. Enjoy and try not to eat the whole thing by yourself 🙂

Top 3 bloggy activities this week

My top 3 favourite bloggy activities this week:
 

1. Changing the share buttons at the bottom of each post

Do It Yourself: Get the widget fromShareThis

2. In the process of joining an affiliate programme

Do It Yourself:JoinSocialSpark.com (note that this is a referral link, if you don’t want to be referred click here)

3. Looking into creating a custom post date (or whatever those date buttons are called). Do it yourself: Date Badges. I love the ones Kate does on her blog designs. I feel a tutorial coming up after I’ve figured it out.

What have your bloggy activities been this week? 

TunFun

entrance of FunTun by the Waterlooplein in the Center of Amsterdam

Being a mama and wife and working full-time it can sometimes feel like I don’t get enough time with my loves (senior and junior). So I decided to take the afternoon off and Sam met me with Eli at an underground playground in the center of Amsterdam, not too far from our apartment.

TunFun is obviously a mix of the words ‘Fun’ and ‘Tunnel’ which actually describes the place pretty accurately. It’s a converted, underground tram classification yard (we have to use every free square meter in Amsterdam) that is packed with trampolines, foam cushions, balls, art corners, bowling alley, climbing gear and a restaurant in the middle. Eli absolutely adored it and I have to say that Sam and I had a great time too. It was so much fun taking the afternoon off work, I felt I was bunking off school.

Have you taken some spontaneous time off work lately? What would you do if you suddenly had an afternoon off?

People with Skills – Annelise from Aunie Sauce

I am so happy to announce that Annelise from Aunie Sauce is my guest blogger today. When I first started out blogging Annelise helped me out a lot with advice and just being a friend. This post is just a taster of what she writes, so imagine how cool a whole site full of her writing and pictures. Go check her out!

hELLO friends of Lot!

My name is Annelise

and I blog @ Aunie Sauce.

I’m a swanky blogger with a quirky sense of style…

and I’ll be sure to keep your entertained all day long.

I’ve got to tell you,

I was thrilled when Lot asked me to do a “how-to” guest post.

She has featured some way-rockin’ bloggers.

Since I don’t have any extraordinary talents,

besides my ability to collect bouncy balls and paint nails,

I thought I’d show you a little “how-to” with some style pointers.

Today, I’m going to show you how to wear boots.

Granted, this is the winter addition… so I want to be straight up with you

and tell you that every look here can be duplicated in summer,

but you may want to get rid of the tights or pants.

Just sub a mini or some cute capris or shorts, and you’ll be set!

Ok buddies, are you ready for this?

HOW TO WEAR…

BOOTS with leggings

Tall boots, paired with a simple tee, black leggins, a belt and a blazer is one of my favorite looks right now. This can easily be transformed into a chic summer outfit if you sub shorts for the leggings.



Want to be comfortable all day and still look put together? Pair some leggings, boots and a cardigan with an oversized scarf for a wearable, comfortable style.

Or pair those leggings with a funky sweater and a long tank. I even wore this look to church!

BOOTS with pants

Tuck those pantalones into your boots and head out the door! I find this style works best with skinny jeans, of course, but if you have boot cut jeans, don’t worry about the tuck-in. Boots with boot-cut jeans make legs look so long and slender, with a bit of edgy style.

BOOTS with skirts

I love this look! Pair a funky skirt, some tights, big socks and boots together and you’ll look like you walked right out of a Forever21 catalog.

Or, skip the funky skirt and add a bright scarf. You’ll bring those boots to life!

BOOTS with dresses

I’m confident that boots work with any dress. Whether it ‘s a maxi or a mini, boots add jazz to any dress in summer or winter.

BOOTS around the house

If you’re really wanting to be comfortable around the house, pair a big, oversized sweater with some leggings and Uggs and you’ll be cozy and warm all day long.

And last but not least,

HOW TO NOT TO WEAR BOOTS:

No Uggs with shorts. No Uggs with skirts. No duck face. Enough said.

If you like my outfits— that’s awesome.

If not… hey, we all have our own sense of style.

But, if you like my hairstyles, please head over and visit

my hair blog where I post weekly tutorials about how to do those styles.

I really hope you all enjoyed my little style pointers.

I may have a quirky sense of fashion,

but hey, if you want to try something different,

JUST GET OUT THERE AND DO IT!

Don’t be afraid of those nay-sayers.

How you feel in what you’re wearing is the most important thing…

And if you feel like a rockstar,

by golly— YOU ARE A ROCKSTAR.

Don’t know about you but I just absolutely LOVE the last picture. Be warned! Thanks Annelise for posting!

Choices

I am proud to say that I too, like many in the IT work force, love:

• lists like this
• logical choices
• diagrams
• structure and order.

Not in any specific order.

I am also a firm believer in the predictability of choices. What does that mean? Simply that before you make a decision you can predict what the outcome of it will be and thus, the outcomes of our choices can (to a certain extent) be predictable. For example if you steal a loaf of bread the logical pattern is that you will get caught, incarcerated, punished and then get to try again. Not rocket science. 

Even though I might know what the consequences of my actions will be,I find it extremely helpful to put them on paper. So if you want to try it, follow me… (I use a somewhat simplified version of the flowchart, so please don’t hit me with a techie-stick if you notice a deviation)

There are only three symbols to remember: 

1. Circle – your start and end point(s)
2. Diamond – your yes/no/maybe decision point
3. Rectangle – your state or situation

If you use those to create a sample flow it will look something like this:

 

So what you have here is an example of the consequences of each decision. I find that just writing it down in this easy way helps me to make a decision very easily because I can SEE in a glance what will happen.

I have recently used this to plan a holiday. Being married to a foreigner always brings a lot of extra stress when travelling because of visa concerns. We really needed to think carefully about how, when, where. The flowcharting took a little bit of work but the decision making was easily done.

How do you make your decisions?

The Fantastic Game Snap – free printable game

In the mood for a fun, active and quick game that you can make yourself? Then Snap is your game, and attached is the free printable you can use to print the game.

I have been working on this for a while now and am very happy to share the end result with you guys. One of the games my wonderfully lovely mum used to play with us as kids is this super quick game. 

It’s a very simple game but because it’s so quick it can become quite competitive. What you do is you turn the card over one by one until there are two that are the same. The first one to SHOUT ‘snap’ gets all the cards on the table. This goes on until one person is in possession of all the cards. Well, there’s a little more to it but this is explained in the free printable that comes with it. 

All you need to do to create this game is to print out the fronts and backs of the cards 5 times that can be downloaded below. You then stick the fronts to the back and you are ready to go.

The download pack contains the fronts and backs to the cards and the rules.

And just as an FYI: I used the wonderfully fantastic Bebas font here by Flat-it

My buddy Gustav

 

Source: leninimports.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

The early 1900s are my favourite years for art and architecture. I love it so much that when I was single I took a train trip by myself for two weeks to go to all the big museums with paintings from that era.

In Amsterdam I went to an exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum. In Prague I went to an Alphonse Mucha exhibition. All this was only leading up to my main destination: The Gustav Klimt museum in Vienna.

Source: leninimports.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

There is no other artist who’s work I love more than Gustav Klimt. He was an artist that truly knew how to draw and paint and how to use his colours and patterns. I think his works are truly inspiration and really recommend checking out his way of colouring patterns for your own (blog) graphics/designs.

• Pinterest collection
• Wikipedia