Odds and ends

NEW BLOG!

2012-03-08T18:39:00.002+01:00

Hey you,

if you are still reading this, then you are on the wrong blog!

I am no longer blogging on Odds and Ends, but if you still want to be updated about my ~~not so~~ highly interesting life and thoughts, then go on over to Making Memories! :)

MAKING MEMORIES

I'm saying goodbye to Odds and Ends.

2012-02-22T11:24:00.000+01:00

It took me a lot of thinking to take this step, but I will no longer be posting on Odds and Ends.

This blog just doesn't feel right anymore and I was posting because I felt that I had to, but not because I really wanted to. I didn't even like the recent posts, but I still posted them because I felt obligated. And I don't want that. I want to write posts that I can identify with and that are completely me.
The whole blog feels somewhat...cluttered.

I think it all began when I started accepting sponsors. There was so much pressure because other bloggers were paying me real money and I wanted to give them their money's worth. So I tried posting more, and that's when it started to stop being fun.
But blogging is not about having sponsors and making money (or at least it shouldn't be), so I want to go back to the old blogging days. No sponsors. No obligation. I want to really enjoy blogging again.

Odds and Ends may be closing its doors, but I made a new blog to start all over again. I am really looking forward to this and maybe you are too.
Those of you who are interested, just click the link below to be taken to the new blog. Of course there aren't many posts on there yet, but hopefully there will be soon. And they will be completely me.

Making Memories

A little happy list.

2012-02-20T16:37:00.000+01:00

Here are a few things that made me happy.

1. We bought wooden roller blinds for the windows above our desk. I always hated this room, but now it looks so much better and I actually like it. Just ignore the mess on the desk.

2. My Valentines Day roses.

3. The super cold weather did NOT make me happy, but I tried to bring summer a little bit closer by wearing summer skirts. THAT made me happy.

4. Gerberas. (Even if they're fake.) Especially in Arizona iced tea bottles.

5. REAL gerberas also make me happy. I bought this one 2 weeks ago and it is not dead yet! (If you know me, then you know that this means a LOT.)

6. My new super awesome laptop. It's pink! Isn't it pretty?

What's making you happy?

And PS: Why aren't you entering the giveaway?? The software is really awesome, so why don't you give it a try?? Go and enter, because the giveaway ends tomorrow.

My Memories Giveaway!

2012-02-14T17:45:00.000+01:00

Friends, on this special day (it's Valentines Day!!) I have a very awesome giveaway for you!
One of you can win the digital scrapbooking software My Memories Suite!

My Memories Suite is a great software for digital scrapbooking and more! I had tons of fun playing around with the software, because there are so many features. You can create scrapbook pages (with wonderful backgrounds and embellishments), make photo collages, add music and videos, change the shape of your photos, add effects to your photos, create calendars and cards, and more! There is so. much. you can do with this. Want a new blog header? Make one with My Memories Suite! :)

Here are a few things I made with the scrapbook software.

Awesome, right? And one of you can get the whole software for free! All you have to do is:

1. Visit the My Memories website and tell me which digital scrapbook kit is your favorite!

For additional entries:

2. Be a follower of Odds and Ends

3. Be a follower of the My Memories Blog.

4. Like My Memories on Facebook.

5. Follow My Memories on Twitter.

Please leave a comment for EACH entry! The giveaway is open until the 21st, so you guys have one week to enter.

And for those of you who don't want to wait and purchase My Memories Suite right away, I have another little goodie for you: My Memories is offering you a 10$ discount off the scrapbooking software and another 10$ coupon for the My Memories store. Just enter the following code into the promo box at check out: STMMMS46722

Good luck! And Happy Valentines Day!

3 years.

2012-02-08T20:55:00.000+01:00

Wow. Yesterday, this little blog turned 3 years old.
I still remember, like it was yesterday, writing my first blog post and I still know exactly how I felt that day. It was a very special day. And blogging still is special to me.
A big Thank You to everyone who has made it this special.

I dug out every single header that this blog once had; Odds and Ends (which once was called PrImA) through the years, so to speak.

(And boy, do i wish I had heard of picnik.com when I started blogging. Those first few headers are ridiculous. And apparently I only had this one picture...)

I'm reading: The House at Riverton

2012-02-07T18:06:00.000+01:00

What Goodreads.com says about The House at Riverton:

Summer 1924

On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again.

Winter 1999

Grace Bradley, ninety-eight, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and old memories - long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind - begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge, something history has forgotten but Grace never could.

Set as the war-shattered Edwardian summer surrenders to the decadent twenties, The House at Riverton is a thrilling mystery and a compelling love story.

I LOVE Kate Morton's books. They are full of secrets, love and they are beautifully written. I devoured The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours, the latter one being my favorite of her books.

SO, I was really excited when I got this book for Christmas. I was looking forward to being completely taken in by a book once again, wanting to know the big secret so badly that I could not put the book down (this is what happened with the other two).
But with The House at Riverton, this did not happen. It is a great book, but for me, it is not as great and gripping as the others. I was a tad disappointed. Somewhere in the middle of the book, I even forgot a big secret even existed!
Maybe this should have been the first of Kate Morton's books to read (which makes sense, since it is her first). I probably would have liked it more.
But if you like mysteries, love stories and big family secrets, Kate Morton's books are for you! (Just maybe start with The House at Riverton if you want to read all of them...if you don't, then only read The Distant Hours. It is AWESOME.)

Because February is the month of love.

2012-02-01T14:13:00.002+01:00

I love February. Because it usually means that my man brings home a bouquet of roses for me and we spend a lovely evening together. I can't wait for the 14th!
Happy February!!

Does anybody else enjoy randomly editing pictures as much as I do?

2012-01-28T21:00:00.000+01:00

When I am bored, I edit my pictures. Anybody else love playing around with editing programs an changing the mood of your photos?

The Blogscar Awards

2012-01-26T19:10:00.000+01:00

Guys, I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I saw that Miss Janette is hosting The Blogscars. As in, The Oscars for Bloggers. And I am nominated!! For Foreign Blog / Non-US Resident Blogger.
Can you believe that?! Thank you so much, Janette, for putting me in between all these awesome bloggers.

Since chances of me winning an Oscar are pretty slim...or rather non-existent...I'd really like to win a Blogscar.
The competition is fierce, but you guys can vote for me!
Just go to Janette's blog and vote there. But since the polls seem to have a little mind on their own and don't always show up, you can vote for me right here as well!

FOREIGN BLOG//NON-US RESIDENT BLOG/BLOGGER » make online polls
Tags : blog

Voting is open until February 20th, so you have enough time to vote for me ~~every day!~~

Home alone.

2012-01-25T18:39:00.000+01:00

Friends, I am currently living the wild single life.

No worries, all is well with Bedis and me. He is on a little work related thing for this week and the next, which means that I have the whole apartment to myself for a while.

Also, when I say that I am living a wild life, I mean that I go to bed at 10 and get up at 7 to write on my paper for Uni. I am such a party animal.
BUT I am finally getting somewhere with my paper. There were moments today, where I thought that some points I made were so good that I wish I could high-five myself. Well, I could high-five myself...but technically that would be clapping...and I think that applauding myself would be a bit too much.
So I rewarded myself with a bubble bath and a hot chocolate instead.

Even better than a high-five.

PS: I think everybody is aware that picnik.com is closing in April? I know that is sad, but do you know about pixlr.com? It's what I use to edit my pictures for quite a while now and it is fantastic! It is completely free and reminds me a little of photoshop. It also has this awesome feature called pixlr-o-matic (or something?) that easily gives your photos a vintage look. I used in on the picture above and I seriously love it. (Go to this post to see the original.)

Lately.

2012-01-16T14:14:00.000+01:00

1. Rocking my study outfit: oversize sweater, tights and warm sockes. Comfiest outfit ever.

2. Reading The Help. I know I am late on this one, but it is so good. I wish I could read this book all day, but unfortunately there is a paper that needs to be written.

3. Trying to be artsy with the reflection of our fairy lights in the window. Didn't really turn out how I wanted it though.

4. By the way, the Christmas decorations? Still up.

5. I love my new bow sweater.

6. Listening to Boy a lot.

7. We are currently drowning in candy. For Christmas, we got a box with 4kg of Haribo. And lots of chocolate. My family knows me well.

I am boring.

2012-01-10T15:50:00.000+01:00

The other day, I sat my lazy butt down on the couch, getting ready to watch some Greys Anatomy, when the laptop suddenly decided to stop working and broke down.
I took that as a sign that I should finally start working on that dang paper that I have lying around for months.
And that is what I did. Are you proud of me??

Anyways, that is why it's gotten a little quiet around here.
No great and exciting things are happening right now. Except that I tried parting my hair differently than I usually do. (Turns out the butt part is not working for me.)
And that's as exciting as it gets around here at the moment.

Oh wait, there's one thing. I bought new shoes. Pretty!

It's still Christmas over here.

2012-01-05T18:06:00.001+01:00

It's January...which means that I should be taking down our Christmas decorations now.

I don't think that I ever was this sad about Christmas being over. I usually can't wait for summer as soon as Christmas is over, but not this year.

So for now, I refuse that Christmas is over.
Today, I am going to fully enjoy and breathe in the last bits of Christmas before all the pretty decorations and lights get taken down: I'll finish my book (Divergent. It is awesome) while being all snuggled up in a blanket and jammies, put some Christmas music on, with lots of candles and fairy lights in the background. And maybe I'll throw in a hot chocolate or two.
Man, I'm such a rebel.

2011 in pictures.

2011-12-31T10:35:00.002+01:00

I couldn't commit to choosing only one picture a month, so this is a very long post. I'm sorry.

January.

February.

March.

April.

May.

June.

July.

August.

September.

October.

November.

December.

I am not quite ready for 2011 to be over. (Just like I'm not ready for Christmas to be over. But oh well.)
This year went by so fast, things that happened in January seem like they just happened yesterday.
A lot of things changed and happened this year and I am curious what 2012 has in store for us. Like a job for Bedis, hopefully?
2012, please be good to us.

We decided to change things a little this year and got a Christmas cactus.

2011-12-28T19:29:00.000+01:00

Awesome, right? But we also had a real Christmas tree, of course.

Christmas this year was lovely. Although with two little boys in the family, it wasn't as relaxing as it used to be. But still fun.
Being together with family is always the best.

"The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear."

2011-12-23T04:00:00.000+01:00

Guess what I'm watching while wrapping Christmas presents?

Oh, just the best Christmas movie of all times!

Hot chocolate.

2011-12-22T06:00:00.000+01:00

This morning, I was feeling super crabby. It was raining outside and I did not feel like going to work and Uni.
So I thought of the one thing that makes everything better during the winter time: hot chocolate. With marshmallows. In my new snowflake mug.

Needless to say I felt a lot better afterwards.

Christmas. And hello again!

2011-12-18T19:57:00.000+01:00

Yes, I am still alive!
I know, I was a little absent on here. To be honest, blogging felt more and more like an obligation to me and I I just needed a little break. I don't want to blog because I feel that I have to, but because I want to! Blogging is supposed to be fun, and I want to keep it that way!

I am enjoying Christmas to its fullest right now. I'm trying to have a little "Christmas time" every day, but I still feel like there's so much I didn't do yet. Like having a Glühwein at the Christmas market, having a Christmas Latte at Starbucks, listen to all the Christmas music out there...
But I'm working on it.
And I really love our little Christmas tree. We decided on a fake one this year and I am glad we did. The real one last year didn't bring the Christmas tree smell to our apartment anyway, all it did was scatter its needles everywhere.

Christmas is less than a week away. Unbelievable.

Cookies and nephews.

2011-12-04T00:02:00.001+01:00

I spent yesterday and today at my sister's to bake Christmas cookies and get some long-awaited cuddles from my nephews.
Did you know that being woken up in the morning by a big wet kiss from your almost 3 year-old nephew is absolutely perfect?
And did you know that those big teethless smiles from your 5 month-old nephew can absolutely melt your heart?
I really can't (and don't want to!) imagine life without these two boys.

(Oh, and the cookies were pretty good as well.)

Christmas lights.

2011-11-26T09:42:00.000+01:00

May favorite girl Jay helped me a little with my Christmas decorations yesterday. We couldn't help it, but just had to play around with the fairy lights for a while.
Sigh, I wish I could cover my whole apartment in Christmas lights.

Meet my newest sponsors!

2011-11-23T20:49:00.000+01:00

Let me introduce you to my newest sponsors! Please do me the favor and take a look at their blogs, because these girls and their blogs are absolutely wonderful.

Hey guys! I'm Gentri and I blog over at Gentri Lee. I like to blog about life and all of it's adventures with a little fashion, food, and crafts thrown in. I am constantly trying to come up with new ways to connect with other bloggers and love meeting new bloggy friends. I'd love for you to come visit me at Gentri Lee and say hello- anytime!

BLOG / BLOGLOVIN / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

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Hiya! I'm Shannon and I run the little blog shannon*bear. I like to drink lots of coffee, play with my brand new little blue, Daisy Bear, listen to my Mr. play guitar, take lots of photographs, and make pretty things to put in my shop! I'm a photographer full time and am working on developing my business. It's probably one of the most fun endeavors I could have ever imagined! In my free time I love to make things come to life through leather and fabric and maybe a little magic too. Be sure to stop by my little blog and say hello!

BLOG / SHOP / BIZ / TWITTER

Lately.

2011-11-20T17:39:00.000+01:00

Things are very quiet around here at the moment.
We celebrated my birthday by having a yummy cake and going out for dinner.
I found the perfect curling iron and lipstick.
I cried over a documentary about turtles. (Yes. That really happened.)
I used my birthday money to buy new clothes. Finally! I didn't go shopping for months.
And we bought the last Harry Potter movie on DVD.
Happy.

Let's announce the giveaway winners!!

2011-11-18T23:35:00.001+01:00

But before we do that, may I please draw your attention to a guest post that I wrote?
Kaity from Adventures of an American Girl asked me to write a travel related post, and I wrote about my trip to Tunisia this summer.

You can read the guest post here and please leave Kaity some love, ok?

SO now let's get down to business. All winners were chosen with random.org.

The Twirl giveaway won...

HELLO

The YarnPlusYarn givaway won...

And the isavirtue giveaway won...

KAYCIE

Congratulations, winners!

Please email me at

oddsandendsblog@googlemail.com

New shoes.

2011-11-15T10:10:00.001+01:00

For my birthday, I got my beloved Blowfish boots (that I already mentioned here). Needless to say that I am absolutely in love. Most comfortable boots ever.

Also, my mother got me the most wonderful antique locket. It's amazing how she always finds something that I absolutely love. She just gets me.

PS: Today is the last day to enter my Twirl giveaway! So don't forget to enter if you haven't already!
And don't forget the other giveaways! Here and here.

And the birthday festivities continue: another giveaway! [closed]

2011-11-10T15:52:00.001+01:00

Today is the last day of my

Big Birthday Giveaway

and I have one more super awesome giveaway for you!

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isavirtue is a shop full of wonderful stationery, cards and envelopes. If you are such a big lover of paper goods like me, you are going to LOVE this shop.

Visit the shop HERE.

Today, Kaitlyn from isavirtue is offering a very special birthday/circus package that you cannot buy in her shop in this form. So this giveaway is super special.

This giveaway includes:

3 black envelopes with embossed white ferris wheel image

2 white envelopes with black ink hot air balloon image

5 admittance ticket envelope seals

10 sheets of writing paper with admittance ticket writing paper

4 miniature white envelopes with hot air balloon image

4 miniature white cards with admittance ticket image

Isn't this amazing? And do you know what is ever more amazing? It is Kaitlyn's birthday as well and she is also having a big giveaway on her blog! Even more chances for you to win!

In order to win this giveaway, you have to (mandatory entries):

-be a follower of Odds and Ends

- be a follower of Katlyn's blog isavirtue

- visit Kaitlyn's etsy shop isavirtue

For extra entries:

- followe me in twitter (@PeaLoys)

- follow Kaitlyn on twitter (@isavirtue)

- tweet about this giveaway and post the link in the comments

- blog about this giveaway and post the link in the comments

- like Kaitlyn on Facebook (do that here)

Please remember to leave an extra comment for every entry.

And please note that this giveaway is only open for US and Canadian residents.

Good luck, my friends!