Hey there!

I haven’t written on here for ages, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, if you are an old reader. I am consistently inconsistent. And I always have a decent excuse too.

I probably wouldn’t be writing this now either, were it not for a stomach bug that forced me to slow down. Hence the title.

So things have been moving with a fast pace around here. I have been busy with Toverstuff, creating new products almost on a daily basis and also handling social media and trying to add videos as well. Plus, there’s a tax office deadline by the end of January, so I ‘ve been busy with that too, since I am doing my own VAT declarations this year. Let me tell you, that’s no fun and there are tons of tiny letters that you have to look carefully into.

just some Toverstuff stuff: my miniature family

For about two months once we tucked the girls into their beds, I run upstairs to the attic, where my studio is. And N. would go to his own office to study Italian, which is his new language-learning passion. We were both very taken by our projects and content to invest our free time on them. Then at some point we figured “uuuh… we should probably spend some time together too?”. So we started planning that in as well.

Let me tell you, when you have a project you are passionate about and you also have a person you take more or less for granted because, well, marriage, it isn’t easy to put the effort into the relationship. Especially when everyone is in a happy place. Still we both agree intimacy is important to keep a relationship alive so we did the romantic thing and watched the last season of Game of Thrones together. Nothing brings you closer than frozen zombies and cold-blooded murders, right? Right!

And since we were quite proud of that whole “investing into our relationship” thing we thought of taking this a step further and going with the girls into the Dutch wilderness, in the middle of nowhere, so we could all bond together, without internet, in the middle of nature. In winter. In the Netherlands. Where it gets dark at 17:00 in December. I can write you all about it, but you can watch it here as well. If you are too busy to watch, let’s just say that spending Christmas day at an indoor playground with a “Cowboys VS Indians” theme and horrible coffee wasn’t exactly what we’ve hoped for. Also, toddlers and preschoolers don’t give a damn about ancient Dutch Dolmen.

my holiday journal. I am not good at keeping a daily diary but I always drag this one with me when we go away.

Despite the challenges involved in our little Christmas trip, we did actually manage to spend even more time together chatting and bonding after the girls went to bed. Some times, if you projects are too exciting, you need to take some physical distance to remember the people around you.

That winter break and the stomach bug that attacked us one after the other reminded me that the world doesn’t actually stop turning if you don’t show up online for a day or even for five days or for weeks. Yes, maybe there are a few more messages waiting for you on facebook and maybe you ‘ve gotten one important mail too, but it is not the end of the world if you reply a few days late occasionally.

We do live in a very fast-paced world. The only thing we can control is our own rhythm and attitude. Which means, if you need a break, you can’t wait for life to give it to you, you have to allow it to yourself. Well, life can also offer you a break but it will usually be in the form of a stomach bug, so that’s no fun. Better take things in your own hand. And there’s no need to be dramatic about it either. When we went on our winter break, I just put my Etsy shop on vacation mode, notified my friends and family that we would be internet free and I would catch up once we would be back. Guess what, the world didn’t stop turning!

slow down. Do yoga. Or stab some felt.

That stomach bug helped me realise one more thing: my girls are both big now. So big, that when they want to throw up, they grab the special vomit-tupperware on their own and aim with great accuracy. We had zero soiled bed sheets this time around! How cool is that? (hope you were not eating while reading that last part)