Letter.

Hello december 2015 Winnie,

I'm writing you this from my sisters room in London. A place you won't go to anymore after leaving it te 4th of january. This isn't your last visit to London this year, though. I hope James McAvoy will blow you away and that the rest of your stay in London will be as satisfying as you need it to be. After that, Plymouth is planned, where I hope university seemed as amazing in real life as on the internet. You should have also started applying by now... (!!!!)
Apart from that, another planned exciting thing is Pinkpop. Even if it wasn't Pinkpop, I really hope you have seen Muse by now. I really hope that dream came true this year.
With friends, I hope you made Spain happen. Right now, it seems like such an amazing idea and I really hope it didn't die down with words.
On the not planned side,
I hope you've finally made a proper nice portfolio website, where you used your own identity you've hopefully perfected this year. School should have bought you some time to finally do things for yourself. Talking about school, an internship? Please tell me you'll have found one by now. A good one, preferably, one to be proud of.  And please say you've figured out your jobs. Working 2 jobs next to school isn't the best thing in terms of time and with you being in the middle of graduating the more time you'll have, the better.
On the 'deeper' things,
I hope you've kept going building your confidence and pushed down your feer for judgement just that little more. I hope you took the chances of going on more adventures, memorizing it with photographs, preferably analog, or did you let that go by now? I sure hope not.

Please, say you've done things, seen things, read things, felt things, Lived. You deserve to. Now you can.

I hope you've had a nice life this year,
Xoxo
Winnie.

December things | Day 4

Time for my Album top 10 for 2014. Or not.

You see, this year didn't really consist of listening to new albums as much as I would have liked. Because of that I don't feel like I can properly put together a top 10. 

But, I do want to share some with you, because I do want to talk about albums nontheless.

First off, Passing Through by Chef'Special.
Beside the amazing album art, the music is pretty great as well. It came out at the start of the year and I listened to it a lot around that time. I think you can describe it as a nice funky, happy vibed album. It's really an album that makes you feel good, with some good songs on it to make you do nothing else then move, dance, be happy. Nothing but love for that one.

To go with another Dutch love right away, there is Rivals by Kensington.
It's really recognizable Kensington, as it's their second album. The music is great and the voice makes everything even better. I've loved it since the first time I heard it.

Moving away from my own little country, TRXYE by Troye Sivan.
TRXYE is Troye Sivan's first EP. In june or july the first single came out and it took a few listens, but I ended up playing it on repeat non-stop. You will probably understand I was quite excited to hear the rest of the EP. I am completely in love with the songs Fun and Touch. They are both on my most played this year list on last FM and they will remain in my Spotify playlists and they will remain being listened to a lot in 2015. I'm less of a fan of the songs Gasoline and The Fault in our Stars (MMXIV), but I can't deny they are quite good songs. He's talking about working on a new album and I would be lying if I said I'm not excited to hear what he makes next.

An old love renewed, Nick Jonas by Nick Jonas.
I'm not sure if I talked about it on here before, but as a teenager I was in LOVE with the Jonas Brothers. They were everything. But, as known, they stopped, came back together last year and ended it again right before starting a new tour together due to 'Musical Differences'.
This year, though, Nick Jonas came back into the picture again. And he brought new music with him. He started of with the song Chains, which had to grow on me a bit but in the end I liked it quite a lot. But, then came Jealous. I was sold. Completely. What a song. Can't get tired of it. When the full album came out there was no doubt in my head about the fact that I had to own this album, even if it was only to have it in my collection next to my Jonas Brothers albums. I had to give it a try and there was a rather big chance I would end up liking it, as there is not much I don't like at the moment.
Honesty hour, now, it's no Fastlife (Joe Jonas' solo album, as the genre is kind of comparable, in a way), which I can still play over and over again without getting bored of it. I'm not completely sure of it, yet, as a full album. I prefer having it in a playlist and hearing the songs by themselves. Wilderness, though, needs to be mentioned. WILDERNESS. If you're going to listen to Any song from this album, listen to Wilderness. Instant happiness and dancing. Even if it's only on the inside. Love that one. A lot.

I'm going to leave it there. You probably get why there's no Top 10, now, as that would be kind of scraped together from albums I kind of heard once or twice but would still be mentioned as I need 10 albums to fill the list.
My year mostly consisted of finding old bands and albums (Arctic Monkeys, The Joshua Tree) and songs on their own that kept me going through 2014. Maybe it'll be better next year.
We'll have to wait and see.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

December things | Day 3.

Let's change the name of this seasonal series. More fitted to the things I want to write about, more time to post the planned blogposts. I'm pretty happy with it.

Now, let's get on with what I want to write about today. It's something I've discovered this year and I'm planning on keeping it going in 2015 as well: Analog photography.

Before going to Sziget, I got the idea to capture the festival with a disposable camera. So early this year I got myself one, to get used to how it works and see how it works with lighting and focus. I ended up not using it as much as I would have liked to. Not in my day-to-day life and not at Sziget I kind of regret this, to be quite honest. I was very doubtful wether the things I wanted to photograph were 'worth' the spot on that roll, since you only have one go. Quite a scary thought. This scary thought kept me from using the camera's to their full potential, which made me end up with far from the amount of captured memories at, for example, Sziget.

But, a few months ago, my mom showed me an automatic analog camera we had laying around, that hadn't been used in some time. We also, luckily still have some rolls as well, so, for me, there was no question but to start using this baby as well. Same as with the disposable ones, though, I was very scared photographing with it. I used it far from enough and that was a real shame. But I'm starting to get used to it now. I'm making myself take it everywhere i go when I go do something else than sit at home in my bedroom or go to internship and I'm starting to get the hang of it. At my last London trip I finished my first roll and I'm soon bringing it in to get developed. This roll was black and white, so I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out. It contains pictures from my first London trip with my sister, as well as the second one with my parents and grandparents and some things that happened in between. So excited.

i can't wait to get more into it and more experienced next year. I'm finding myself having less interest in the digital DSLR camera and more in the analog one and pinning kind of analog-feel pictures on my pinterest. I just love the atmosphere they have over them and I'm really excited if I've managed to capture it as well.

Maybe, just maybe, if I'm happy enough with the outcome, I will share some shots with you. You'll just have to wait and see.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

PS. If you're wondering where the blogpost on last saturday is, I'm not writing one. Not really anything exciting to tell really. I had an amazing time with my friends, we talked, laughed and exchanged presents and christmas cards. I love them.

Christmassy things | Day 2.

Last saturday I went out with one of my friends to get a christmas sweater. But that's another story. This story will be told after coming saturday.
Today is for something else: Music.

To be exact: Songs. The songs that got me through the year.
Later this month I will compose an Album top 10, but I'm not quite ready for that, just yet.

So first I'm going to talk about songs, because when I thing about the past year, I mostly think about songs that ment a lot to me for a period of time, or still do. In no particular order (because I just can't):

This year I REALLY got into The Heist, the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album. From that, Ten Thousand Hours stood out for most of the year. (I love the whole album, but that one touched me on a spiritual level, or however you want to put it) 'A life lived for art is never a life wasted.' 'Take that, system, what'd you expect? A generation of kids choosing love over a desk.' 'I could be who I wanted if I could see my potential.' 'The greats weren't great because at birth they could paint, the greats were great because they paint a lot.' I'll stop now, but I could easily go on. When I was standing at Sziget and I realized they started this song, I felt like all year had been leading up to that moment. Perfect music, perfect people, perfect place. Pure happiness.
But hat's not all from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (who I truly fell in love with, such amazing music), after Sziget, where I heard some ~for me~ unknown music, I hade a wade through everything they made and I found the gem that is Irish Celebration. Just listen and be happy about life.

Something else I for real found this year was Arctic Monkeys. I loved their last album (as seen in my Album top 10 of 2013) but I left it to that. After catching their show at Pinkpop on tv, I was sold. Form that also came some songs that became anthems for different periods in this year.
The first one probably was Crying Lightning. 'The next time that I caught my own reflection it was on it's way to meet you, thinking of excuses to postpone.' Not sure why but I feel so 'connected' to that line. It did something to me. This made me love the whole rest of the song right away. Just that line made it. One that has been Really, Really important this year is Secret Door. One part of the song gave me some kind of... hope?... many, many times this year. 'Fools on parade cavort and carry on for waiting eyes, ones you would rather be behind then in front of, though she's never been the kind to be hollowed by the stares. Fools on parade frolic and fuck about to make a gage, turn to a scribble on a page, by a picture, that holds her absence, but you're daft to think she'd care.' Every time I felt unsure or unconfident about something, this is what I sang to myself. In my head, or softly out loud. These are the lines I quietly sang to myself as I was rising up in the little basket, ready to see the Sziget sight from high above and then jump towards it. These lines gave me a lot of hope and confidence this year and I feel like they will keep doing this for times to come. A smaller one is Love is a Laserquest. The line 'I've tried to ask you this, in some daydreams that I've had, but you're always busy, being make-believe.' is relatable to me, since I'm a day-dreamer, always coming up with whole stories in my head. I love that line. So much. Oh, and find an acoustic version on youtube. I promise you'll fall for it, too, as soon as you've seen that.

For a very short time, but a very important one nontheless, there was one more song. That was One Three Hill by U2. It was mostly one night, to be honest, but that one night it did its work in a way that stayed with me right up until now. It was a few nights before Sziget. I was home alone and I was so nervous. It was unreal. Constantly feeling nauseous. Being a ridiculous emotional wreck, ready to cry at any given moment. Being really unsure about myself en al the decisions I've made. Feeling like the whole Sziget thing was a big mistake and I should just not go and leave it for what it was. Worst mistake ever. It was pretty bad. Not really a time to be home alone, let's be honest. But I was. That day I also worked, where I said goodbye to one of my co-workers, who said something immensly nice to me that kept haunting me the rest of the day. She brought back a little bit of hope deep, deep inside of me. That night, I dicovered 'The Joshua Tree', the U2 album. I had listened to it all night. Then late, late at night, I finally let out all my emotions about the amazing, sweet things my co-worker had said, wrote it down, cried very loudly out of confusion and decided to put the music back on. This song started playing. It was all I needed and more right then at that moment. That particular moment stayed with me for the rest of the year and I stil haven't forgotten it now, which makes listening to the Joshua Tree in particular song number 9 just that little more special.
~I did go to Sziget in the end. I stepped over my worries and insecurities and just did it and ended up having the best time ever. I can't imagine there was a chance I could have missed Macklemore & Ryan Lewis just because I was a bit nervous for something new. Thank god I didn't. This didn't change the fact that I couldn't properly eat for that rest of the week, though. Sadly. Luckily my apitite was back when at Sziget.~ 

Wow. Big story around one song, there. I'll just leave it at that. Long post. Maybe I'll come back with some more songs later. These are the songs that came to mind at this moment, but I'm sure I'll be hitting myself tonight over some really important songs that I forgot to mention.

I will be back soon. When I have something else to tell. Until then:

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

The songs on Spotify:
Ten Thousand Hours
Irish Celebration
Crying Lightning
Secret Door
Love is a Laserquest (+Acoustic)
One Tree Hill

Christmassy things | Day 1.

Sooooo What is this about, then? Day 1? Planning something, eh?

Well, yeah, maybe.... Some idea I got literally just a second ago and typed out. This is a day 1 in, hopefully, a christmassy series of blogposts leading up to christmas.
Today I got the idea to talk about my wishlist, as I realised I have some things I want.
I'm not going to number them. I can't. Just a ~fun~ little list.

- http://catandbot.com/collections/necklaces
I want them all. So ridiculously beautiful. Usually, I ALWAYS wear my triad necklace, but lately I found myself seriously looking at other necklaces with a serious, wanting, eye. Mostly when looking at these necklaces. So minimalistic, simple, pretty. I want them.

- http://macklemoremerch.com/collections/music/products/the-heist
You may know about my love for CDs. If you do, then you may get why this is in my wishlist. Apparently Mackemore & Ryan Lewis (who I've come to love a ridiculous amount in the past month) get what music is about. Fully. And they sell it. I want this so bad, only the shipping costs are $20,-, which is more then the album itself, so I have already found something else to crave from that shop.
Go to this video for more. Brings back my faith in humanity.

- http://macklemoremerch.com/collections/posters/products/heist-scarf
The scarf I've been looking for for ages. I've always found the 'The Heist' flag really cool and I always had this thought of 'if I could have it I wouldn't mind it at all'. This scarf is all I need. It's the type of scarf I have been seriously looking for and the fact that it is the flag makes it the PERFECT scarf.

- Gossip Girl, the complete series
God, I love this serie.

- http://www.danandphilshop.com/collections/prints/products/whiskers-mug
I want this. Secretly. Maybe not so secretly. The cat whiskers, they come from within.

I'll leave it there. Just got myself way too excited for the things I want.
I just want to order EVERYTHING right now. Oh god.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.