#tinywebventure

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A few of our favourite things~ | Archive re-upload

Faux Leather Backpack (eBay)

Purchased this little guy in April and have been using it ever since. Despite its small appearance, I manage to fit in all my everyday essentials. I love the classic look of it and many others do too, as I've received quite a few compliments on this bag. One time, as I was walking through the city center, a woman even started walking so close behind me that I started getting a little paranoid. So unsure of her intentions I kept looking behind me, which startled her a little and eventually she explained that she was trying to read the brand tag of my bag because she liked it so much!

Bunny Ear Headband (NewLook)

This cute headband never fails to brighten an outfit, especially when it's your boring work uniform. It also helps with keeping greasy hair away from you face .

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

I've read Fangirl by the same author some time ago, fell in love with the writing and wanted to check out her other books, hoping they'd be just as good. Oh boy, did Eleanor & Park deliver. The story follows two high school misfits from the 80s; Eleanor, a girl with fiery red hair, bigger than average build and Park, a half-Korean boy who has to deal with two clashing cultures. You relive what it feels like to fall and be in love for the first time as the two slowly, but steadily grow towards eachother, developing this tender but overwhelmingly strong relationship. Although it's a teenage love story, the book also gracefully deals with more heavy topics such as domestic abuse, poverty and emotional instability.

Compact Umbrella (H&M)

What made me buy this umbrella was its size. Normal fold in umbrellas would usually be slightly too tall to fit in the small backpack mentioned above, so when I saw this one during a random shopping trip I immediately added one to my shopping cart. The print is lovely and the umbrella is still big enough to keep you dry. However it does have a few issues with strong wind, but then again what ordinary umbrella doesn't?

Stationery (HEMA)

Although I still think this country has a lack of nice stationery shops, the HEMA sure stepped up their stationery game the couple of years and I have gained a few very functional additions to my collection. Their sticky bookmarks are great for revising and sectioning of notebooks, I use them all the time. As for their highlighters, apart from being ridiculously affordable (12p for 2,-!) I love how many colours there are and the thinner line they generate compared to your classic chubby highlighter. The canvas pencil case is large enough to fit in everything I want, withouth becoming bulky. And the neutral colour is perfect for any sort of customisation.

Sunnies (eBay)

These sunglasses were an impulse buy, but ended up serving me so so well. The clubmaster style flatters my face and these glasses actually fit on my barely existing nose bridge (#asianpplproblems). Also, they costed me 2,- (incl. shipping).

Daim Chocolate Bar (IKEA)

The IKEA is probably one of my favourite places in the world. The fact that they have Daim is just an added bonus. I'm not a huge chocolate lover, but there's just something about this bar man. The chocolate is smooth and rich and the almond in the crunchy caramel sets this chocolate bar apart from the other ones on the market. Definitely try one, if you never have!

Koala Slippers (Primark)

Found these cute slippers on sale last winter and couldn't resist them. Fortunately, I'm the kind of person that wears cozy slippers all year round. These have kept my feet very happy throughout 2015.

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Foodventure: Manda’s Mug cake | Archive re-upload

We decided to dive right in with an untested recipe. After a bit of trial and error we managed to make a cake, which was both not entirely burnt on the outside and actually baked on the inside. Verdict: It tastes like chocolate cake. Nutella chocolate cake.

Ingredients: 3tbsp of vegetable oil 3tbsp milk 1 egg 4tbsp sugar 5tbsp self-rising flour 3tbsp nutella

Instructions: Mix all the ingredients in the order listed above, or at least make sure the Nutella goes last. Then use your baking senses to guess how to bake your cake as we used both a recipe that had microwave instructions (1 ½ - 3 minutes on high setting) and a defunct oven which is not at all representative (but 15 minutes at 140-150 °C seems like a reasonable guess). Additional tip: Try covering your mug with aluminium foil at first to make it bake more evenly. Second pro tip: Wanna go the extra mile and turn your basic nutella cake in a mug into a superb nutella cake in a mug? Add whipped cream and some choco crispies or any toppings you like. The whipped cream is especially good when you’ve accidentally baked your cake too dry.

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Foodventure: Bubble tea at Bubble Tea Bar | Archive re-upload

We walk into a very quiet shop on the busy Ferdinand Bolstraat. There are no other customers except us and only one saleswoman. Luckily, she is willing to patiently talk us through our first bubble tea experience. Gab chooses a milk tea with green apple and mixed flavour jelly. Manda chooses a yoghurt drink with lychee and tapioca pearls.

Look:

The cups are normal, clear cups which works nicely with the colourful drinks and jellies. It’s a nice touch to have pictures of different countries on the lids as well as different colours straws that you can choose yourself.

Smell: You can’t smell anything through the lid. Even with it off, there is only a faint smell.

Texture: The jellies are much softer compared to the pearls which are pretty chewy. This is definitely not for people who don’t like solid parts in their drink. However, Manda likes how the pearls balance out the sweetness of the drink.

Taste: Overall, it tastes nice, but there is a lot of drink even if you pick the small size. After a while there was also a bit of a chemical aftertaste in Gab’s drink, which might be due to the jellies. We were also already warned in advance and the yogurt drink is indeed very sweet. Especially when combined with a mild flavour like lychee, it can be a bit overpowering. The green apple milk tea did taste very fruity.

Final verdict: The idea of the bubble tea is very nice, but you need to know which combinations are best to order. There is also no control over how much jellies or pearls are added to the drink, which was a bit much for our taste.

By itself these bubble teas were quite okay, but they might be even better combined with some kind of (savoury) snack.

Directions: Bubble Tea Bar Ferdinand Bolstraat 37, 1072 LB Amsterdam Both tram 16 and 24 stop almost right in front of the shop, get off at the stop Albert Cuypstraat.