Family time

Last saturday my sis, her boyfriend, my mom and me FINALLY got around to taking a little trip to go see my brother, his wife and my nephew. He's almost six months old now and I can't believe how much he has grown since the last time I saw him. Then again, he IS a baby, so he'll be doing a lot more of that. Growing, I  mean. :-D We had an amazing time and I squeezed, hugged and kissed my nephew until the very end of our stay. He was amazingly sweet and lucky for us he loves attention and hugs! I'm not sure how it works but when I look at my nephew I instantly feel some kind of connection, almost like I "realise" he shares my blood. I have the same kind of feeling with my nieces. Kids in the family are always great but since my oldest brother lives so freaking far away I always had a little bit of heartache when it came to family stuff. I'm crazy about my nieces and I try to skype with them when I can but life gets in the way and the seven hour time difference doesn't help much either. But now that I have a nephew a little closer nearby I feel so happy when I think about the fact that I'll be able to form a real connection with him a little earlier, as his aunt. It's a beautiful thing, family.

The day consisted of listening to good music on the way to my brother, eating some great food (our family gatherings are never complete without some sort of vegetable soup), lots of hugging and singing Disney songs. "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" FTW! The day ended with my awesome sister in law giving me her graphics tablet, which I will be checking out into GREAT detail next weekend when I have a bit more time. Needless to say I was over the moon with this gift, it'll bring editing and photoshopping my pictures to a whole new level. Possibly some drawing, too. AH, ALL THE OPTIONS. Before I go on an arts-nerd rant, now get ready for the cutest babeh ever. Meet my nephew, Daniel.

If that's not an expression that says "HAPPY CAMPER OVAH HIYAH" I don't know what does. To be completely honest, my ovaries were shaking the whole time I was hugging his little body and kissing his soft cheeks. There's a momster inside me, I can feel it. Hazel from Girls with Slingshots style.

How can you not feel at least a little extra soft when you look at this face?

That's right, you can't!

Getting buried under auntie snuggles!

My gorgeous brother and proud papa!

Proud mama!

The cuteness. IT HURTS.

Of course, jokes were made about how happy my nephew was to lean into my boobs. After all, he's a baby. He doesn't need much more than boobs, food (mixed together or not) and love.

He was also incredibly fascinated by our hair and particularly the pulling of it. He's already pretty strong, I can tell you that. But we were basically just too happy to care.

Foods!

Tea, quiche, pumpkin soup and cake mixed with the company of your beautiful family: life doesn't get much better than this. My happiness was shown in my outfit choice: FLORALS on FLORALS:

How stereotypically Dutch can you go: an orange windmill in the background with lots of water. And a blonde babe, OH YEAH. All we're missing is a couple of tulips, a honk of cheese and some weed.

dress: new look
cardigan and leggings: H&M
necklace: gift from my dad
boots: kickers
bracelet: dads

Hope you got your dose of cute baby for the day, I know I did!

Link and Malon lovechild and a little sisterly love

"Link and Malon lovechild" is what I call this outfit, after my sister pointed it out. The golden hair, cowboy boots (formerly owned by my eldest brother!) and the soft colors really made me feel like a modernised Zelda character. This dress is one of the many, MANY things I got out of helping my sister with the cleaning out of her closet. If I did a "shopping haul out of my sister's closet" post, it'd be a hell of a long post, I can tell ya that! Come to think of it, I think that half of my closet consists of clothing formerly owned by my big sis. The perks of having an awesome sister! There are so many. I can't tell you how happy I am with the wonderful relationship I have with my sister. We used to fight like cats and dogs but now that there's no risk of puberty fucking things up anymore, we're like two peas in a pod. If you had told me that four years ago, I would've looked at you like you was a crazy mofo.

I hear people talking about the relationship they have with their siblings and I often hear that they fight a lot. Even if they don't fight, they don't feel a particularly strong connection with their siblings. I can only say that I'm incredibly thankful for the love I feel towards my sister. I greatly enjoy spending time with her, we have SO much in common and I think that we understand each other like no other person can. No one can quite relate to you like someone you grew up and shared those same memories/experiences with. We're two different people so obviously we still have our own opinions and seperate experiences on those same situations but in the end of the day, having a good relationship with my sister is something I wouldn't trade for anything in the world! I won't ever forget the way she supported me through the crappiest summer of my life. I'm so proud of her! She has been my rolmodel and, more importantly, helped me realise that I'm so awesome I can be my own rolmodel. She has always seen potential in me and even though we fought like crazy as youngsters, I can't recall a single moment where she called me ugly. When other people would criticize me for the way I looked, weight or stylewise, she stood up for me. She always makes me feel beautiful. Thank you sis, love ya! And I totally beautified her hair, together with the momster.

How about you? Siblings? Good relationship? Or do you sometimes, just for a moment, want to strangle them in their sleep? :-D

The next three pictures are "happy-dance-take-two". The first happy dance was a lot less photogenic. :-D

dress: sister's
shirt: H&M
tights: Veritas
necklace: mom's
boots: vintage (by now :-D)

To keep the geekery going: I'm going to F.A.C.T.S. this weekend (big nerd convention a la Comic-Con) and YES, I will be cosplaying! To give you a sneak-peek of the geekiest outfitpost ever:

People who have been reading my blog for a while probably didn't even need a hint: OF COURSE I will be cosplaying as Link from The Legend of Zelda. How could I not? :-D Better yet, I will be cosplaying as "badass girl Link". With fake tat sleeves, dramatic make-up and lots of attitude. I wanted to do something a little more personal with the cosplay and I could go for "sexy Link" but I'm a little sick of all the "sexy *insert random character*" costumes, especially now around Halloween times. I'm all for workin' what yo momma gave ya but there should also be options for people who, you know, actually want to dress up in a kind of credible costume. If I want to dress up as Bert or Ernie, I will wear a stripey shirt and ugly jeans. And maybe a unibrow. Not this. Also, sexy Big Bird. Just throwing that out there.

TOODLES and have a great weekend, lovers!

OH MY GAGA

I have no words for the greatness that is Lady Gaga. I have always liked her, loved the message of acceptance she preaches and thought her music was catchy. Her voice and paino skills are amazing. Her outfits are amaze-crazeballs. Even if you don't like her songs, you have to AT LEAST recognise that she's an amazing musician and performer. I particularly adore this version of "Poker face". Now, this all was more than enough reason to say "HELLZ TO THE YES" when my sister offered me some tickets to the Born This Way Ball, since she already bought her own and got some extras from skype. I can only tell you this: next time, Imma buy my own tickets.

Needless to say, I think, that the show was amazing. The set consisted of a BIG ASS castle where she, the musicians and the band danced around/in. You can see it here. Sadly, I didn't bring my camera because cameras were strictly forbidden and I don't have a compact camera I can sneakily stuff into my bra . I took a friend with me and she took a picture with her cellphone, which is also good! :-D Better than nothing! The fun already started with getting ready, helping/messing up my sister's make up and picking out my outfit. If I had a bit more time I would've tried making a faux hawk but no worries: as long as I have short hair I will definitely try out that faux hawk. I might give it a try this weekend. And I still won't guarantee you I won't ever go for a full on mohawk one day. ANYWAYS, going to a concert is always the time for me to go full on rocker. A Gaga concert means sexy rocker! You can't go to a Gaga concert and not show some skin, folks. This was the outfit of honor:

Yes, it looks like I have very, VERY tiny feet.

lace blouse: la redoute
skinny jeans and earrings: H&M
boots: torfs
belt: my dad's
bra: Marie Jo

crappy, but very appreciated! cellphone pictures from my friend:

putting my paw up!

A shot of the castle

The Darkness as supporting act


She had a cold and still did an amazing job with the singing. In times where Katy Perry is a succesful singer while she can barely sing live (no hating, just the truth!) it's refreshing to have an actual SINGER earn her living as a singer. I loved all of the songs, I screamed so hard during "Born this way", "Alejandro", "Americano", "Bad Romance"... OKAY just every song. It wasn't even on the edge of glory, it was full on glorious (see what I did there?). The best parts of the show, for me personally, were the parts where she talked to the audience. Somewhere in the first half hour of the show she gave some boring business men a tonguelashing for not standing up and having fun at her concert. If there's anything I hate at concerts, it's the party poopers. People who look at you like you're some crazy person when you dance around and yell out "GAGA I LOVE YOU" between songs. YES, I DO THAT SHIT. When at concerts, I go full on fangirl. And I love it. If you don't want to go crazy at a concert, don't come! There was a group of really tiny women next to me (like, TINY, they might've been 1.55m/5ft1 max) and they were giving me the stink eye everytime I showed some sort of enthousiasm. They were giving some serious stink eye the whole concert, basically. :-D One of the girls even sat down on the floor a couple of times. Sitting down. On the floor. At a concert. JUST. NO. And Gaga was right to give the boring men a tonguelashing. They had the best seats in the  errr, arena and they weren't even enjoying themselves. You can give me your tickets then, mate! They probably got tickets from the company they work for or something. HMPF.

In the later part of the show she noticed something: the first time people came to see her, they would dress up as her. Now, years later, they dress up as themselves. No more pretending to be someone else but just being who they are. If you have a message of praising individuality and acceptance, I don't think that there's anything more beautiful than this. Inspiring people to be themselves, to have the courage to dress, talk and walk however they want to. Lady Gaga, I salute you. Thank you for the wonderful night, giving us bad kids these days some solid ground and spreading the body positive message!

OH and The Darkness! Great supporting act. They were really good and the leadsinger is kind of adorbs! I had a great time! Thanks to my lovely sis, her awesome boyfriend and my great friend!

Post awesome weekend post

POST POST POST. I had an amazing weekend! Friday night, I helped my sister with the blogger closet sale in Antwerp. She earned some good dough, I got to meet a lot of cool new people and other bloggers and I got some awesome new clothes from blogger sweetheart and writer of one of my fave Belgian style blogs: Insomnia! You will get money for them, I promise! :-D We had sushi, talked about everything and nothing and looked at all the fashionable peoples coming through to buy some shiz. It was inspiring just to be there. I saw so many gorgeous, unique looks! And had lots of fun.

Saturday night I went to, wait for it, GAGA. A couple of days ago I got a facebook message from my sister telling me that she won some extra tickets and that I could invite a friend to go see Lady Gaga! AWESOMENESS! I'll do a whole post on the concert, including outfit of course! All Imma say for now is that I had an awesome time and that Gaga is amazing. I danced, screamed and sang my ass off. It didn't do much for my already achy throat but I had fun like nobodies beeswax. Now I wanted to do a quick outfit post since it's been too long I put something up on my blog and get some stuff ready for school tomorra. Hope you lovelies had a great weekend too!

Still digging my blonde 'do!

shirt: T2 Vintage
tanktop: Pimkie
leggings: H&M
sneakers: Converse
earrings: Claire's
belt: JBC