2011.

Dear readers,

So this was 2010! What will 2011 bring us?

I do not expect everybody to be on their laptops/computers/internet in general tomorrow, since we're all gonna be busy preparing food, hanging out with friends and family members and celebrating new year's eve :)

I want to wish you all a greaaaaat day! Have fun,

enjoy, and last but certainly not least, be safe (especially you Dutch people; fireworks are dangeroussss!)

A shout-out to all Rachelle's Life readers of this year since May; thank you so much for supporting me so far and I hope to continue writing in 2011 and more years to come!

Keep the good things coming in 2011 ;-)

Love,Rachelle

Happy mood, happy song!

Dear all,

Unfortunately no real blog post today, due to babysitting for about..uhm..8 hours?! It's gonna be a long day haha. Hope it's gonna be fun though :)

I'm in such a good mood, and this song really makes my mood even better.

You should definitely listen to it! Stay the Night - James Blunt

If this is what we've got, then what we've got is gold.

Enjoy!

Love always, Rachelle

Sieradenkistje.nl

Dear readers,

Hope everyone had a good Christmas, with friends and family, presents and food. It didn't really snow here on Christmas day, though I believe I saw a couple snow flakes fall down....I don't even remember. haha. I checked Facebook about an hour ago and was amazed about all those statuses saying '16 inches of snow!!!' I'm so jealous!

So now that Christmas is over and ya'll got your money and gift cards, I thought this would be the perfect time to introduce you to www.sieradenkistje.nl ('jewelry box'). This website sells bracelets, rings and necklaces. Unfortunately ordering is only available to those living in The Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom. I was planning on buying the ring showed above, which is only € 6,50, plus shipping cost €7,50 and I think that's pretty cheap!
You can pay using PayPal, Ideal or sending the money in advance.

I will keep you posted on my orders (:

xoxo,
Rachelle

Lalalalalala

I think everybody in Holland has heard of this show; The Voice Of Holland. It´s just another one of those talent shows where they want to find the next best singer but you know they won´t find him or her from the beginning. Yet a new show to watch on a Friday night, yet more of the same.

The only thing different about The Voice is that in the first couple of rounds, the jury has their backs turned away from the singers, so they won't be able to see them - just hear them. This makes choosing the 'good' singers easier, because you can't judge their clothing or personality in general.

So you get excited once in a while because someone has a really nice voice. And once in a while you hear someone sing SO BAD, you just want to watch another show. Been there, done that.

What I never understand is that the judges keep saying ´THAT WAS JUST AMAZING!´ while everybody knows that was just awful. I think judges should be judges and not be entertainers who just want to please the crowd. But hey, that´s just my opinion.

And i´m sorry to whine about this show. You´re probably wondering why I even watch it. But it´s just picky old me. Take these guys above for example! Lenny and Ben. Don´t look too ´super star´-ish, huh?

Guy number one, Ben, is the most beloved singer on this show, so I don´t even doubt he is going to win. He is going to, just because he´s different, looks interesting (yes?) and has a nice voice. He also lives in the same town, by the way. Totally forgot to mention that. Important stuff, Rachelle...

So you're wondering where your spare underwear is?

Lots of people are going on vacation during winter break. Ski resorts, Hawaii trips and family visits to Cali. Some kids even get an extra week off, if they don't already have two weeks like I do (I realize I've mentioned this a lot lately, hehe.) Unfortunately, the weather has been acting up and getting in the way of the flights! The millions of snow flakes that fell down this and last week, have caused for trouble on the roads, train rails, but also at the airports.

As we speak (read: as you read this), there are more than three thousand suitcases stranded in the Arrival Hall at Schiphol Airport. Due to the many cancelled flights, most of the luggage was already checked in before the passengers knew they we were not going to reach their destination. KLM is trying to send all the luggage home to the passengers, but you can also get it yourself as long as you bring some ID and prove of dropping your luggage off.

Good luck looking through all the piles and stacks. I'm sure you'll have your pretty little black dress back just in time 'fore Christmas!

http://nos.nl/video/206980-3000-achtergelaten-koffers.html

Love, Rachelle

Wintery thoughts ( 1 of 2 )

Hola todos,

Oh I'm so excited! I just found out that Blogger is able to track how many times I've been viewed today/last week/last month/this year/ever, but also where my readers come from, which internet system they use, and which of my many links they clicked on. Oh so so cool! Now I'm constantly checking to see if I've had any more views. hehe! :) (please don't forget to click on the Follow button on the right side of this page!)

Winter officially started yesterday so I think it's time to expand on this season, right?

At this time of year I mostly complain about how cold it is, how I don't wanna go outside, that I wanna stay in bed, but not this year. Yes, it is snowy and cold out but I feel like I'm getting over my yearly complaining-period. It's a matter of drinking a lot of hot stuff (tea, coffee, hot chocolate, soup), putting on the right clothing (extra shirts, extra pairs of socks, leggings underneath jeans), putting a thick layer of lotion on your face to protect against the cold and keeping your head held high waiting for spring!

Listening to music like 'Driving home for Christmas' makes me feel so wintery haha.

Most Dutch people don't even celebrate Christmas with presents. They just get together with family and friends and have a good dinner. I guess this is because we had another celebration called Sinterklaas on the 5th of December. This is when they give and get tons of presents. We even have a SECOND Christmas day in Holland! Bizarre right?!

I guess our family is odd. We didn't celebrate Sinterklaas and I don't think we get presents with Christmas. We did, however, get an amount to spend when we go shopping during our break :)

So this is Christmas, and what have you done, another year over, and a new one just begun.

Love, Rachelle

Wintery thoughts 2

All I want for Christmas... issssssss youuuuuuuuuuu!

It never gets old. Those really really antique Christmas songs that we sing on a yearly base. I mean, get real, Mariah Carey's 'All I want for Christmas' dates from 1994! And take the Christmas story itself, for example. That's from sooo long ago. I won't even try to express it in digits.

Every winter we try to change things up a bit. A new Christmas song, a new Christmas movie, a new way of putting your Christmas wishes, a new boyfriend who is also coming over for Christmas (?), new presents, etc. But it is (and always will be) a yearly routine.

ExcentricPT posted this amazing video about the modern Christmas story on YouTube. You've got to see this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA I laughed so hard haha

Just to remind you, don't forget there is After-Christmas sale in basically all (clothing)stores! I'm planning on going to Amsterdam next week for some real time, hard core, shop till you drop, shopping haha.

I seriously hope we get a white Christmas this year! I heard it was gonna snow tonight or tomorrow morning, so keep your fingers crossed!

Love,Rachelle

How to plan a dinner date

Dear all,

I really need to apologize for not posting anything for over two months. It's horrible I know! But I do have my reasons, hehe. I started writing columns for the school website (http://tabor.nl/index.php?id=1262) so I spent about three hours a week writing one. It keeps me busy!

So, to make it up to you, here is a how-to on dinner dates. Me and my friend Sharona are hosting one tonight for a couple of our friends. We just went grocery shopping and want to tell you about how we came up with the idea...

Our winter break started last Friday (yes we've got two weeks off!) and we wanted to organize something nice for friends. (5 to 6 people). First we were thinking about making the dinner together, but that would get too complicated and you never know if somebody doesn't like the meal. So, in the end we decided to grill (also known as 'gourmetten' in Dutch). At our house we have a grill (see picture) for about 6 persons so that was perfect! We made some simple invitations telling our friends about what to wear, to bring money (10 euros = 13,18 dollar) and to come over at 5. We're counting on five people for tonight so we went shopping for the groceries around about 50 euros. We ended up spending 51,19 euros so we did a great job hehe!

What we bought:

-steak, meat, etc.

-french bread

-herb butter

-cheese (Brie)

-mushrooms

-cucumber

-peppers

-sodas

-lettuce

-chips

-salad dressings (lemon & honey mustard)

-pickles

-onion

-salmon

-cashew nuts

-vanilla ice cream

-chocolate sauce

-eggs

-pancake mix

-fruit topping for the ice cream

-chocolateeeee of course! :)

As we just mentioned, our friends are coming over at 5. We're gonna eat some snacks and then prepare the food together (cutting up veggies and the bread, etc.).

And, because it's almost Christmas and we wanted to have a dress code, we decided to ask our friends to come in formal clothing (black dresses, heels etc.) for fun :)

We hope we have a great night!

(Pictures are coming up!)

We want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy & healthy new year :)!

Love,Rachelle & Sharona