CHOCOLATE, o how I love everything chocolate. Since the only thing going on this weekend is learning, learning and more learning, I decided this would be the opportune time to try out this brownie recipe I found a few months ago on www.loveandoliveoil.com. This is my absolute favourite cooking and baking site. Everything they make is just so devine.

Whilst waiting on my brownies, I spend some time going threw the photo's I took with my old school camera the weekend before christmas. There were some really cool ones, plus some failed ones (seriously 10 out of 30 came out all blury..). But still, is there anything better that just old school photography?!















 Roos and Claire goofing around on the sofa..

Annemijn, me, Thim and Claire (and Christmas tree)

Claire, Roos & Thim

@ Di-Rect Concert at Luxor Live Arnhem

also @ Di-Rect Concert at Luxor Live Arnhem

Well my brownies are done, I'm gonna go have a taste!
XOXO, Nina

HAPPY NEW YEAR.
It's always hard to keep blogging when you have got so many other things going on in your life. I thought to myself the other day, pherhaps it's best to just stop my whole blog. But I had a dream last night, it was about me. It was one of those dreams where a lot of weird and awesome things happen that you remember in pure detail when you wake up and just as you wish to tell someone about it, it's all gone. Well, not all gone. Anyhow, it came down to several people in this dream telling me that I never finish what I start. And I must agree with them. So I decided not to stop blogging. I might just take a few posting breaks here and there. But since I feel no one (other than my friends) is actually following me, there is no guilt.

In the two months that have passed since my last post I've had many fun experiences. First of all I turned 18 a month ago with means I am finally a grown up woman. I can now officially do al things adults can do. I'm allowed to vote, buy strong liquor, drive a car, donate money to charity's, own a credit card, buy clothes via webshops (without letting daddy pay first) and get in to any club I like. To celebrate my adulthood, my friends persuade me into throwing a party. Normally I just go for the annual sleep over but since my parents were out of town anyway. I thought what the hell!
We had the best time, dancing, laughing, drinking and eating home made bithday cake. It was seriously one of my best birthdays ever!

Me and my bestie Thim on my 18th B'day.

I also had my christmas gala last month. It was just like a dream, there was snow everywhere and we had it in this beautiful mansion in the middle of the Sonsbeek park in Arnhem. And I'd like to hereby thank my school for their ultimate planing as it was the night before my birthday. All of my teachers and friends congradulated me after the clock striked twelve. I had a ball together with Annemijn and Roos, whom I itro'd to the gala.

Gala with the girls (wearing: dress ZARA, earings Primark, bag H&M)


Other experiences I must share:

Marcel, leadsinger from Dutch band Di-Rect. Yes I was standing in te front!

- I went to a Di-Rect concert with Annemijn. My boyfriend gave me the tickets for my birthday (unfortunately he was sick on the actual day). It was so good. Di-Rect was so good. Jeey for Dutch music!!

- I celebrated Christmas with my friends. Each of us made a dish and we all sat down on the table and dined together. It was lovely, we were all in our prettiest of clothes and our best of moods.

- Christmas was also celebrated with my family and my boyfriends family. We played lots of games, drank lots of wine, ate lots of food and had lots of fun.

- Another les festive (but not less fun) experience was going to Maasticht with my bf yesterday.

- I also went to Amsterdam last month twice in a row and I visited Nijmegen.

Back to the present. It's been 2013 for 3 days now and though I've had a rough start (read horrible, terrible, awfull, dredfull, absolutely worst hangover ever, would not wish it upon anyone!), I am still excided for the new year. Not because of all the great things that will happen in 2013, but for all the great things that are bound to happen afterwards. For finnaly graduating high school (this has been long overdue), for one day living on my own, for getting that dream job, for marrying the best guy out there (whomever he may be), and for just having a great and happy life! I'm not gonna wish you all a happy new year, just because I feel like 2013 is no other than 2012. It's just nearer to the future. Therefore I wish you all an exiting future.

XOXO Nina

Time To Bake A Chocolate Cake

Last Friday Claire, Roos and I wanted to do something fun, but since neither of us really felt like going out we decided to have dinner at Roos' house. Roos would do the main course, I would do dessert and Claire was there to eat it all. After searching the internet for a while I stumbled upon this lovely chocolate/strawberry pie. Easy to make since there is no baking involved whatsoever. I did change a few things here and there but the cake turned out to be so divine. The only downside, it was so rich that we were simply unable to eat more than one slice each.

Here are the ingredients that I used:
For the crust:
- 90 g butter (unsalted)
- 25 g dark chocolate
- 200 g oreo cookies (without filling)

For filling:
- 125 g sugar
- 35 g cornstarch (maïzena)
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 6 egg yolks
- 500 ml milk
- 175 g dark chocolate
- 1 bag of vanilla sugar (8g)
- 150 g raspberry's


Just follow the steps in the original recipe and your cake will be just perfect. One tip from me, let the cake stay in your freezer long enough. The longer it will be in, the better it will set, the better you can slice it.

I had the best time ever the past week and I have a lot of sleep to catch up on (seriously staying up until al least 4 am for 4 days in a row is not good for you). So it's good night for me.
XOXO Nina

I JUST RIDE

Lazy Thursday

Today I literally did not get out of bed until 4pm. It might have something to do with the fact that I didn't come home before 5 am but nevertheless it is still quite an achievement. I mean 4 PM! Well at least I did have the best time yesterday..

This is what I've been doing for the last week..

1. Me and Annemijn went to my old school to watch our friends band play live. There were some other bands playing to and an old classmate of mine was DJ'ing between the different acts. Laught a lot, danced a lot, had a ball!

(Wearing: ZARA top worn as dress, AMISU blouse, H&M booties, vintage belt)

2. Enjoying the lovely Dutch weather.. Yes, it is raining again!

3. Wishing I was back in South Africa. So beautiful, so warm, so lovely!

4. Sorting through old pictures. Finding this super cute one of me and my brother..

5. Catching up on my TV-series, currently watching Royal Pains.

6. Still wondering what dress to get for my school gala and I also need to buy one for my upcoming birthday. I just can't believe that I will be 18 in less than two months.

7. Trying to do some work for school. I still need to finish my painting and start learning for my upcoming exam week. Urg...

8. For some relaxation I went to the sauna with my mom. We always go to the same one in Veenendaal.

It feels like my vacation is almost over and as all fun things it is going super fast. But looking on the bright side, every day that goes by is one day closer to December. And that is when all the fun begins!

Are you enjoying your week as much as I am?

XOXO Nina

The outfit.. school gala

Before reading, please press play..

As I told you in my last post I've been looking for a new gala dress. And it is a seriously hard job. I've never had to wonder about a dress to wear because my lovely niece gave me this beautiful red dress. But after two years of wearing the same thing I feel like it's time for a change. however the dress I loved most was way over budget so I am now wondering about just wearing a stunning skirt/top combo, in this way I get the whole peplum/wide skirt thing just how I like it.

So here's the dress (for those of you who have the money, do buy. I'll just be a little jealous):

BAD GIRL dress Three Floor Fashion €158,87 


As for the skirt/top combo I absolutely fell in love with this Topshop Peplum top, lucky for me it's on sale for only €37,23. All I need now is a great skirt and some statement jewellry to go with it. I've created this outfit below as an idea. This outfit is still terribly over-budget but I will look for a cheaper version.

Jaquard Peplum Top by Rare €37,23

Blue Sequin Skater Full Skirt €55,85

SHAKESPEARE Velvet Platforms €43,44

ASOS Permium Spider Jewel & Spike Necklace €70,58

Have a great week and for all my dutch followers enjoy your autumn holiday!

XOXO Nina

P.S. I found my flat black booties. I bought these super cute Bowrain boots from Supertrash.

In With The New

Hi Guys,

I feel like I've been a really bad blogger lately since I haven't really posted anything for over a week now. I still want to make outfit posts but I'm having trouble finding a photographer. I'll have to work it out sometime, but for now I will just post other things.

I have been looking for the perfect coat for winter. I felt like it was about time to buy a new one, not that my current coat isn't lovely and comfortable (you can never go wrong with a simple black trench), it's just also six years old. So after weeks and weeks of web store searching I finally found one that was to my likings. Unfortunately it was just a tiny bit too expensive (say €185 too expensive), so I don't think that I will get my mom to agree on that coat..

The search kind of stranded after finding that coat until I was checking up on my favourite blogs the other day. I came across KAYTURE, and she was wearing this lovely grey coat from the Zalando Collection. It was instant love, especially when I found out that it was also available in red. It is still a bit pricey, so I have to be really convincing when I claim my case. Let's hope for the best.

Coat 1: Kyra Coat by Coast €285,00
Coat 2: Classic Coat by Zalando Collection €119,95 (in red)

Now that I found my perfect coat I still have many other things to look for. A few other thing on my wish list include
- A dress from Three Floor Fashion, the only problem here is money..
- Flat black booties with a twist (trying to find them is the hardest job ever, since I always wear heels.. But I need them for my driving lessons and I guess I have to agree with my dad on this one when he says that stiletto's are probably not the best choice when it comes to driving a car)
- A new gala dress (also very hard since I never had to buy my current dress, it's my niece's old one and it is drop dead gorgeous (figure hugging, flaming red), but after three whole years of wearing the same one I feel like it is time for a change.
- A statement necklace (I DIY'd one the other day but I just need a shinier version, one that just stands out)
- A pair of black go-to jeans that I will actually wear..


Lots of shopping to do here as you can see. I did buy a few things that were on my wish list including a red jacquard skinny from ZARA, a grey/green blouse from amisu and the camouflage shirt in the picture below from ZARA.

XOXO Nina