oh april

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.

Oh April, how you made it feel like summer.

✧  ✦  ✧

The first two weeks of April I had a little vacation. At home, but still nice to have free time (#staycation). All I did was take lots of time for myself, to write, to enjoy the sun, to practice watercoloring (very inspired by Andy Warhol's butterflies) and videochat with my friends. We had a lot of evenings where my family and me could sit in the garden and eat dinner, which was really fun. I hope for more evenings like that in May!

At the beginning of this month, I was really into a creative do-it-yourself kind of practicing spree with all kinds of materials. We have three picture lists in the hall at home, which is now used as a "gallery wall" and I had the honor of creating art to put in one of them. I had the idea to make a collage of all our holidays from the past few years (in the end, most of the pictures I gathered were from our trip to England, but hey). I really did not like how it looked at first, but when I see it now I really do. Which is so weird, but fortunate.

Something I also got into this month is making more little clips of my day. The movie Chef (2014) inspired me to download the 1 second a day-app and record more often, so at the end of the year I'll have a little overview of 2020 not that I have a lot going on right now, but hopefully that will change soon!

Easter also happened this month, and together with my brother I made delicious scones. We tried a new recipe, because we didn't have any self-raising flower, and it actually worked out really well. On easter morning we also did an easter egg hunt, which I always look forward to, and then we had brunch!

That day my brother had a crazy idea: to sleep in the living room. The 'sleeping in the living room' part didn't really appeal to me to be honest, but when there were movies involved I was persuaded. We watched Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and The Secret Life of Pets and went to bed really late. I didn't get the best sleep, but it was a really fun experience.

What has really lifted my mood is reading in the sun on my balcony. Just enjoying the bird sounds, a slight breeze and the already hot spring sun, whilst holding pages of words in my hand. This month  I finished reading The Dream Thieves (loved it!) and Normal People (which I enjoyed less). I started reading The Insecure Girl's Handbook by Olivia Purvis, which I like so far, it has some great tips and it's just so reassuring that I'm not the only one who feels certain insecurities!!!! She also as a great website filled with inspiring articles.

I've also started reading a poetry book my grandmother gave to me. And after watching the Dead Poets Society I wanted to read it even more. It's filled with beautiful sentences and I just love picking it up at random and just reading one.

If you ever wanted to find out what tv/movie character you are most like, this is the ultimate quiz to take. It's as if you're taking 30 'Who am I most like'-quizzes on Buzzfeed. You get a set of questions and in the results you can see the characters from the Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, Friends, and many more (some of which I don't even know). It's really elaborate, so take your time, but it's a fun quiz to do! I'm most like Beth March, Peeta, Cho Chang and Ross, to name a few. 

Together with my mom I baked Zeeuwse bolussen and let me just say- WOW. They were delicious. I've always loved this Dutch delight when my grandmother used to give them to us when she'd visited Zeeland and I hadn't eaten them in a while. We never made them ourselves before, so this was very exciting. They turned out so well and I can't wait to bake them again. 

This month I've also started watching Friends again, from the beginning. It's such a nice and comfortable series to watch. I put them on in my lunch breaks and sing to 'I'll be there for you.'

And now, at the end of the month, school has started again. The last two courses before summer vacation starts! And my first time following the courses online... Up till now it has been weird and I really need to get used to it still, but the online seminars have something funny about them. It's great we're using all this technology to still stay in contact and continue as before. I do hope we'll be able to look forward more optimistically in the next few weeks, but until then I'll just be online and trying to plan my day as good as possible.

In short, I just really had a great month. I hope you did too, even though the circumstances aren't optimal, and wish you the best last day of April! 

Love,

Eva

♡