Hey, everyone

I already told you that I have to write a blog for my university course.
Well here it is - about Latvian brands, logos, symbols and icons.

Today's post is about Latvians and their bikes. Drop by and read it :)

here is the link

Challenge of the Month

I already mentioned that this month's challenge will be hard for me. Maybe I exaggerated a little bit, however it is not far from truth.
Recently I have found a new hobby. Since I have always been "not what everyone else'' girl then also my hobby and even sport activities can't be too mainstream (have to laugh about this). When I was younger I played squash because no one else in my city did, now I have found my heart and time into go karts. Actually, Marcin brought me into it because he was too excited to try it out and now it has ended with regular trainings and trying to achieve the best results.
My personal challenge of the month will be to get 3sec off of my average score till now. It doesn't only mean to have regular driving practice, but also arm muscle trainings and running since it actually acquires some power and cardio in general.
We went today to have a short ride so I could check my result and it was 44,221 sec for a lap in our indoor carting center. Thus in the end of the April I should have at least 41 sec. I know this is still not the best (well the best ones have 37, 203sec) however I just started so it is not that bad for me as well.

If someone of you doesn't know what go karts mean, here you will have a short video to let you know.

And here is the place where I drive. The hill down is my favorite part!

While this is my personal challenge of the month, if you also want to join me achieving something in April and to do it together with me then find the score what you have in some sports and make them better. Running, gym or anything else what you do to keep yourself in good condition or what acquires some workout will work for this! :)

And let me know how is it going with you!

P.S.I will tell you tomorrow how was my challenge of the month in March!
P.S. I added the video with our place later cause I found the video and I had to use the situation :D

I know I know.. I must be a bad blogger if here has been so deadly silence for so long. But I have pretty good reason, so I will let myself excuse it and promise not to do it anymore!
So what have I been up to? Well, not much actually. I spent two miserable weeks in bed and barely being able to get out of it. I even didn't notice the moment when the spring came. Only thing what I noticed was Marcin coming home with a t-shirt from work and me saying that he has lost his mind. Did he? Ofcourse not, I just didn't notice the sun behind my dark blinds. (They were closed for most of the time in those two weeks).
When I just got better I got a visit from my Latvian friend and we had amazing birthday party at another Eastern European guys place where a lot of Latvians and Lithuaninas met. Well, for her it sure was one extra plus for Maastricht while choosing university.

I also decided to step back from my challange of the month for one day and went to airport to meet my mum while she had 12 hours between two flights. Excuse for me - I didn't meet her for 3 full month and it is a lot for both of us because mostly I go home every two month. However, I had an exam that day. (haha. Kinda old Amanda's style). But it was so wonderful day! We went to tulip gardens close by the airport, which is the BEST place to spend the first spring days. My mum was on her way back from Canada where it was already summer and now she got also a small peace of spring before going back to cold cold Latvia. (They called me today to inform that they got a snow! A snow while I am wearing flip-flops?!)

this is from last year, but you just have to see those fields. 

The rest of the time I have spent in deep studying coma. I have few papers to finish before next Thursday and I already can't wait the next uni period. We have a course about blogging so it seems like I will be forced to write (I bet I will hate it then because I usually don't like to do stuff because it is obligatory. Even though it is something what I like)

Anyhow, I already have some amazing stuff to share with you. Since I had so much time to spend with myself I got amazing ideas for some DIY and craft posts. Also tomorrow I will share my new challenge of the month which I have no smallest idea how I will handle, but well.. I guess that is the reason why I have these challenges!

I hope you all had amazing firs few weeks of the spring and you are all ready for summer. Specific note to students - I hope you are ready for last few hellish month of the school year - when you can't find good enough reason to stay inside while outside is so sunny and warm.

Spring illness.

While everyone is excited about the spring, I got so excited that I am spending last few days in the bed. I am unexplainably ill. I have no idea how could I have cached such a bad cold but I am lucky that this week I have two free days from school and I actually can try to catch up with my health and school work. 

Even though I hate to be ill, this time it is pretty funny. While the apartment is turning into a huge mess, I am slowly killing my intellect. (That’s what my best friend likes to say) - I am playing video games. And not any game, but Need for Speed. ME - who has never been into cars and I even don’t have drivers license. This is the most ridiculous thing in the world, however at least it keeps me in the bed (I always have problems with staying in the bed. I have to run and do something, and it just keeps me sicker than I should be) 

I am also filled with amazing ideas for some crafts, but I am trying to keep myself away from that so I could concentrate on my studies. I know if I will start, I won’t be able to stop (luckily, I am able to stop with the games) so these amazing ideas have to wait till April arrives.

I hope everyone else feels much better than me and is actually able to enjoy the first days of the spring!

Coming from countryliving.com I absolutely adore it 

Happy at work?!

Today my tutor showed us this video because of our assignment of immersion and flow in digital games. Even though I don't think it really works, maybe for someone it might be useful. I believe, that if you are good at what you do - you will enjoy it a little bit more. Also focusing might make you happier, however question is if you are able to focus on things which you don't like?! 

Of course, I believe that everyone should be able to do kind of job they love. Also I am for the old saying about true happiness in things you love, however, let's be honest.. There are moments in our lives when we are forced to do something we do not enjoy so much and what we would better never do.

Anyhow, since this month's challenge is about doing your best in work/school this might be kind of inspiring and helpful. Tell me what do you think. Do you believe these propositions are helpful?

It's Friday, I'm in Love

This will be really short list of things I love this Friday, because there is much too nice weather outside and I just feel like enjoying it as much as possible.

 ♥ It was 8th of March and it means - international women's day. I know it is not as popular in other countries as it is in Latvia, but I'm glad my lovely boyfriend remembered it (with a little help from me :D) So I got these amazing tulips from him in my room and it makes me smile every time when I look at them. It is also almost April, so the Netherlands will soon be filled with all the colors everywhere and I just love when wherever you go it is full with flowers.

 ♥ This week we also found time to have dinner in our favorite place - Napoli pizzeria. It's so Italia.

 ♥ My language shelf is also growing. Even though most of the language books are Marcin's, some are mine as well. This week I decided to master some German a bit and Marcin decided I should get back to my Italian. That's his face when waking me up and saying - it is time to study.

 ♥ I also got a small package from my mum. Lazy weekend with Latvian magazines - here I come.

Night vision

Since me and Marcin are having different time schedules lately, the bed is occupied form 12am till 12pm. I have always been the one who loves to sleep in and hates to wake up while he has turned on alarm even for holidays (he keeps telling that he has a lot to do). Even though I have started to try to wake up around 9am or 10am, it is still like a nightmare to me. Meanwhile Marcin wakes up at 6:30am and leaves to work. And since it would be insane to be awake only 12 hours a day, I am the one staying up late and finishing some projects and school work while my dearest is going to bed already at 12am. However in the end life never happens so perfectly and none of us gets enough sleep. Some mornings I have to wake up early as well (and it doesn’t help me to go to sleep early) and Marcin likes to do his crazy language addiction till late night.  

Anyhow, mostly he is in the bed before me and it gives me perfect timing to leave small surprises for his early morning. So this is what is going to wait for him in the morning.

 

I started this scarf before Christmas holidays, but it stayed unfinished because we left to visit my friends and family in Latvia for few weeks, and when we came back it was already warm enough to forget about winter fashion. Even when few weeks ago it again turned to the minus side of the thermometer I was too busy to sit down and have my daily dose of crafts.

Now when I already thought this scarf will have to wait until next winter it suddenly became cold. The last weekend was perfect spring weather and I almost packed al the winter jackets in the deepest corners of the closet (like I would have one – all the non-season cloth are going into boxes and into the shed) but today it suddenly boooom, and its cold! It was windy and freezing and I barely could move (I always think that not moving in cold makes me feel warmer than walking fast and moving each one of my body parts).

Anyhow, here it is. I took out the black wool and already started scarf, turned on some movies and finished it. Since Marcin mostly uses his bike to get to his work he really needed scarf already for a while, because the wind comes up here all the time and he keeps getting ill.

Since I won’t wake him up now, some more photos will come tomorrow. 

P.S. I’m sorry for so bad quality of the picture. Blackberry isn’t as good as I would like to.

P.P.S. Yes, we are actually talking English with each other since originally we are from different countries.

Hope you guys are having wonderful day tomorrow/today!

My top 5 songs of the last week

This week we accidentally started to listen to our teenage time music. Together with the songs came amazing memory evening and suddenly it seemed like I am 14 again.

♫ My Chemical Romance - Helena


♫ The Used - Buried Myself Alive


♫ Three Days Grace - I Hate Everything About You


♫ Good Charlotte - Girls & Boys


♫ Korn - Word Up

It's Friday, Im in love

A little bit late one, but at last it is here. things which makes you remember of Friday's happiness also on Monday. (For me this is something what will make me survive the weekend)

♥ this bedroom

 ♥ I sure need this for this month challange if I want to keep my nerves alive

♥ It's spring! And we can start our bike trips again.

♥ I am actually really following my challange of the month so this question is pretty actual.

♥ The thoguh choice of the year - time to decide which festival we wanna go to time has started. 

♥ these owls comes back to me every spring. And every spring i still love them.

Challenge of the month

First day of the year, first day of the month or first day of the week are always the days when I promise myself something. Or at least I think that from this ‘first day’ I will do like that or otherwise or sometimes I simply challenge myself

So this month my challenge is to do my best for university. I am saying this every five minutes, but I have so much school work to do that I will go crazy. I have to re-do some last year’s courses this month and hand in enormous amount of papers and projects. Every time when I do something school related I know I could do it better. However, life and things around seems much more fun than pile of books in front of me. However, this month it all will have to be paused and I will do everything I can to finish every single thing in my agenda. 

I challenge also you this month to give your best in school, university or work. We all know that we can better, but sometimes it seems like it will be enough as it is. So March, this one is for you – let’s do it!

 This one is from last year when I started the same course what I have to re-do this year. My reasons are much more reasonable, but my course mate said that it was too sunny to do the course. I will agree with him on that one. 

This is what I call rat poison and in the worst situations this energy drink (available only in chinese shops) makes me forget about sleeping for a while.

And even though I don't drink coffee anymore, this ice cold one is the one which will keep me alive.

Let the spring begin

Last few days I have got some laziness fever. I didn’t do anything productive and well… It’s good as it was. I got some energy back and a lot of awesome ideas for some DIY as well as bigger projects. (Which I will share here soon)

I also spent some time „window shopping’’ on internet. Since this week I am out of time, next week I will celebrate one of the finished school works with some shopping. This is my ‘let’s-start-the-spring’ wish list! 

1. Zara

2. Zara

3. H&M

4. H&M

5. H&M

6. New Look

7. H&M

8. NEW LOOK

9. NEW LOOK

11 things

I found this on Kaelah's blog. Since I am new in blogging community no one has tagged me in this (imagine me making forever alone face). Luckily for me, Kaelah has mentioned that everyone who wants should/could do it! So here we go.

There are five rules:

1. Post these rules.

2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.

3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.

4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.

5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you've tagged them.

11 random things:

1. I have a bat tattoo on my shoulder which I got only because tattoo artist asked me what I want and I had to say something. Anyhow I still adore it.

2. I have always wanted to have older brother.

3. I actually can't survive long time in high heels. I end up almost every time hanging on my boyfriend’s shoulder and crying inside. Still I keep wearing them.

4. My all-time favorite food is small salmon sandwiches with butter and lemon pepper. I could eat only that all my life.

5. I have allergy from cats, but I partly live together with one.

6. I start to panic if I get pessimistic thoughts in my head. It's because I truly believe that your mind is the key to everything.

7. I spent one year in Belgium doing European Voluntary Service in the youth center Eldorado, where I was working with teenagers and kids from Morocco, Algeria and Turkey. 

8. When I fail some school paper I automatically assume that I am never going to graduate and get my bachelor. (This happened to me today. I am still thinking that I will have to work in McDonald for all my life)

9. I work in McDonald while I am still studying. However, I hate almost every burger you can get there. 

10. I don’t like most of the vegetables, especially tomatoes. I have never eaten them and I will most likely never eat them (it includes ketchup and tomato juice as well). I tried several times in last years to learn how to like theme, but with proud I can announce that I failed

11. I believe that to write 11 facts about yourself is as hard as to write a paper about Copleston. 

Here are Kaelah's 11 questions 

1.Do you believe in astrology? Why or why not?

 I have never been much into astrology, but for past few years my mum is. Since she was so excited to go to astrology courses I got to know everything what she learned there. I find it fascinating but also creepy. I like to read my horoscopes, but I believe in fact that even things which we don't believe in stays in our subconscious and if so, they are also influencing our life. While finding out nice things would courage and inspire you to do something, bad things stays somewhere deep inside of you and work from the inside. However, I guess this answer turned to be more like yes i believe, than Hm I don't know!

2.If you could teleport to any time and place, where would you go? 

First I would teleport to my home city in Latvia and visit all the missed birthdays and namedays of  my family and friends. Or I would also pretty much enjoy teleporting to all of the rock concerts in 80's.

3. What are three closest item to you right now?

Closest emotionally - shoes, bike and guitar

Closest as standing close to me - computer, my blackberry and cup of tea.

4. If you had a spirit animal, what would it be?

Bat. Or maybe even rat. 

5. What is your earlier childhood memory?

I remember licking sugar powder off of my birthday cake when I turned 2. However since a year ago I read a book about false memories influenced by stories and pictures, it also might be that I simply think that I remember that. If so, then I remember hiding under kitchen's table when my uncle was coming over because I was SOOOOOOOOO afraid of him. (Not to mention that every time when he came, after half an hour I realized he is pretty awesome cause he brought me a lot of nice things).

6. Where do you hope to see yourself in 5 years?

I hope to see myself working in media and having job which I love. Having my small business plan starting to work and living in place where I feel like home. 

7.Have you kept in touch with your childhoods best friends?

My childhoods best friends were kids of my parents friends. We still rarely meet up in some big events, however I know what each of them is doing now and in which country they are living.

8. If you would have to describe yourself in 5 words, what would they be?

Talkative, happy, in love, loves beer, lazy

9. Describe your idea of a perfect day: Where would you go, what would you do, who would you do it with?

My perfect day should be sunny and I would wake up pretty early and go to a small trip with my boyfriend and some friends. We would have picnic in the middle of another city, we would make a lot of pictures, and pretty much just enjoy a free day ( yes, free. that's something rare in this house). In the evening we would go to a concert and afterwards wouldn't rush back home, but stay and enjoy the night.

10. What kind of "weird" foods do you like?

The problem with me is that I don't like weird foods in general. However, recently I found out that my traditional Christmas food is weird for everyone else - we have a pigs head on our table and the most I love its ear. (I know how cruel it sounds, believe me. But my family has owned several farms and I grew up spending my summers in them and seeing animals being killed and turned into a food since I was 4 years old).

11. Do you collect anything? If so, what?

Not really. However I always manage to collect cinema tickets of a year.

And now my 11 questions

1. How do you manage your time when you don’t have any?

2. If you would have to choose one food to eat for rest of your life, what would it be?

3. Have you ever experienced real love?

4. Are you proud of yourself? Why?

5. If you would have to leave your life behind and start a new one, where you would do that? Why?

6. What is your all time favorite movie, book and band?

7. What do you want to improve in yourself?

8. How would you survive if you would have left 5$ for the rest of the month?

9. Do you rethink things what you are planning to do or are you acting emotionally? Do you know why?

10. What is your favorite color? Why?

11. Where would you like to spend the last days of your life?  

And who am I tagging? No one precisely. But let me know if you take part in this!

My top 5 songs of the last week

I guess in this list should be some weird Dutch carnival songs since I had to hear them much too much in last week, however I was so sick of them that I don’t think they should make it to any top anywhere. 
So here are my five most listened songs from last week. I hope you will enjoy them.

♫ Coldplay - Strawberry Swing


♫ Death Cab for Cutie - Grapevine Fires


♫ Tennis - Origins


♫ The Black Box Revelation - I Think I Like You


♫ Satellites LV - Pirmais

Happy cupcakes

Once in a while I and my boyfriend decide to make something nice. Mostly it’s me who ends up making everything, but I can’t deny that he is a great cook and makes delicious food for dinner (or breakfasts in bed). The problem is in the fact that if I make cake it has to be decorated as nice as possible and this is where I end up alone in the kitchen – for three hours putting faces and hearts on cakes or cookies.

This all started when I bought oven for my small studio. Since I left Latvia I lived two years with small cooking plate and no possibility to cook gingerbreads or apple pies. It was breaking my heart, so after two years of almost forgetting how to cook I got back all my inspiration. I guess this is some way of growing up, because when I go to visit my family they are surprised how much time I spend in the kitchen. Well, they used to be surprised, because now they are simply expecting me to cook all the time.

These are one of my favorite lovely things - cupcakes. I baked them a while ago and actually in very lazy way. But the point was to spend all evening in the kitchen and decorate them. I don’t even remember how did they taste, because it broke my heart to eat them. 

I posted this story on my latvian short-term blog, however, I think it will be nice to translate it.

So first you take everything what is necessary and make sure to make perfect dough. If you are lazy, you can also buy already prepared powder and ad water to it.

While you are making it, don’t forget to lick the spoon and allow other to do it as well.

When the dough is ready, you have to take your cupcake forms and place them in the best position ever. It took me 5 minutes until i decided how to match the colors on the pan.

Afterwards, of course you have to fill the forms, put them in the oven and cook them. But most importantly, don't forget to decorate them for few hours. While decorating you can eat some of the cupcakes and most of the decoration supplies. But it's worth it because cupcakes are not about eating them, but about baking and decorating.

When your happy-cupcakes are ready give them to everyone - to your family, friends, neighbors and even to someone who is walking by your window, but also don't forget to leave some of them for the next morning.

The ones which you have left for the morning pack into lunch box and take them to the work, school or kidnergarten. After making everyone smile share them with people who are around you, even if you get only half of a cupcake yourself.

This should make two days of your life filled with happiness and a lot of surprised smiles.

This is my happy-meal, what is yours?

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It's Friday, Im in love

I have no idea why, but on Fridays people start to feel much happier than on any other day. Either it is feeling of weekend in the air or simply nice weather (could it be that weather is always nice only on Fridays?) but these are the days that even Friday 13th can’t destroy.

So, to keep this nice feeling in the air a little bit longer, I will collect my Friday’s lovely things to keep me in nice mood also on Mondays, when opposite to the Friday, everything seems grey and depressive. 

♥ this nail tutorial. I will make them as soon as possible.

♥ my new shoes. Can't wait to wear them. (The weather now is slowly getting better, so I hope for next monday)

 ♥ this congratulation from Latvian girls to their classmates in mens day

♥ this cute picture as well as the blog. I found this blog recently, but I simply love it.

♥ this  picture which makes me feel the spring in the air (today after a month of -10 it suddenly was +8. How am I supposed not to love it?!)

♥ at this moment I tend to love this movie. However, it is just a small teaser while we are expectind Rec 3, which is supposed to come out in the end of March. I hope this time they won't cancel it. Anyhow, if you have no idea what these movies are about, WATCH THEM! (however, I allow you to skip this point if you are not a fan of horror movies)

♥ and at last. I have decided to improve my Dutch and get NT2 diploma. fingers crossed for that.

So, dear someone, if you are reading this, would you like to tell me your lovely things of this Friday?

Dear Someone who has accidentally got here.

Photo by Katarzyna Ciszek

I am Amanda and I am lazy. Not that kind of lazy which spends all her days in her bed (it doesn’t mean that sometimes I don’t have days like that) but lazy to write, lazy to stop and breath and lazy to find some me-time. 

So this is what this will be about. While most of the people who I know might have problems recognizing me as the same person, this will be more about the both type of girls which I present to the world and both finds time and space to fight with each other in different locations.

This will be my me-time and moment to stop from daily running and balancing between people I love, work and school.

Photo by Katarzyna Ciszek

Since this is introduction to what i call „get over yourself and keep one thing alive on internet” thing,  I guess I should say who am I. While I have no idea if you, dear Someone even read this, i can honestly say that I am typcial European girl, more precisely, I am typical Latvian girl. I live in Maastricht (Netherlands) and study arts and media (i skip some words in the name of my studies, because this just sounds SOO much more wooow) and work in.. For now lets keep in quiet where I work. The main point is that there isnothing extra ordinary about me.

So dear Someone, you know my name, what I do and where I live. What I like and what I love or hate you will find out through this two-girls-in-one fight over the cushy love and so I will leave you hanging and maybe coming back here again.

P.S. Even though my studies are in English, my grammar is not in the level I wish it would. While my school works are being corrected by my boyfriend, I think this would be too much to ask. So this is another me-time good part – maybe one day my English will improve.

Photo by Katarzyna Ciszek

Buži buži (I will explain this one day, but for now lets assume it is something like xoxo)
Amanda