Top 3 blogs in September

Last month I started up a series to share with you my top three new blog discoveries every month but I realized that maybe I don't necessarily find three new blogs I fall in love with each month. Some months there are more than three, some months there's just one. This month the blogs I share are really three new September discoveries but I'd love to change this series a little bit and make it about the top 3 blogs I loved for that month. A lot of times I rediscover a blog I've been reading for a long time but haven't checked in a while and I don't want to keep them from you. By making the rules a little less strict I'll be able to share 3 blogs I absolutely love every month. But September was a good month and I am now three blog addictions richer than I was at the end of August. Let's jump into it, shall we?

Loungewear, bouquets & photographs .. #MM

It's Sunday. And Sundays are lounge days. Or most of the time they are. In fact today wasn't isn't supposed to be a lounge day. It's planned in our calendar as a we-have-lots-to-do-day. I really should get properly dressed and out of the door to go paint some windows in our apartment but sitting here on the couch in my loungewear working on blog posts has just been so relaxing lately. And when my mom brought home this beautiful flower bouquet today I just couldn't resist taking some time to experiment with photography.

Do you tell your best friends everything?

Today's book review is about It's Raining Men by Milly Johnson. Like the last book I reviewed (Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty) this book also focuses on the life of three women, three friends. Apparently these kinds of stories appeal to me. I picked up this book because it was in my Goodreads recommendations, simple as that. Here's a quick lay-down of the life of the three ladies at the beginning of the story:

May is dating Michael. She's ashamed of it: he's married. His wife is in a retirement home with early dementia. But is she really? One day May is in the neighborhood of the retirement home so she drops by to ask the staff if she can do anything for Susan but what she discovers rattles her world and beliefs in men.

The power of music - self recovery playlist

Music is a big love in my life but it's a love that comes and goes. I don't really understand it myself but let me try to explain. I've been playing music, singing, listening to music since I was a little girl but I have episodes (days, weeks, months even) when I don't really listen to and search for new music (except for the radio in my car). I actually find this a bit embarrassing to admit but well, you might know by now that I'm very bad at habits and keeping up with music is one of those things that need a lot of work still. Having said this, I do have a subscription to Deezer (a streaming service like Spotify) and I wouldn't want to live without my playlists. One of the playlist that has gotten a lot of attention lately has been my Recovery playlist. It's a playlist with songs to give me more self confidence, promote/create self love, leave past mistakes behind, forgive myself, recover from everything that's is haunting me (which is also a story for another time) and just clear my mind.

Is blogging all about the visuals?

Having been blogging for a few years (on and off, on different platforms) before I started this one it shouldn't have surprised me how much of the actual time of blogging goes into taking and editing photographs. But it did, it does. To clarify: I'm an amateur photography lover but I own a DSLR (Canon 600D) which makes it kind of "easy" to get decent photos. For editing I don't use any fancy programs (yet) - PicMonkey is my hero - and although I have my camera settings set to shoot both in .raw and .jpeg, to this point the .raw files only take up a lot of valuable space on my hard drive, because those files are for the fancy editing program I don't have (yet), get my drift? Before you get the wrong idea: I really enjoy planning, shooting and editing the visual part of this blog. I could take and edit pictures all day long and it wouldn't feel like work. Sadly I don't have the time to spent all day taking and editing photos. (Some would disagree since I don't have a job, but that's another story for another time.) So because I want my pictures to look sleek and beautiful I only manage to post twice a week. If it weren't for the pictures I could probably post up to four times a week. So lately I have been wondering: does every blog post need (so many) pictures? Is a blog post only a good blog post when there are beautiful visuals in there?

Port of Antwerp By Boat - Autumn Outfit

Last week my mom invited me to go on a boat trip around the port of Antwerp with her company and take atmospheric photos of the event. Of course I couldn't say no! Every child living in this area probably goes on a boat trip around the harbour (sorry, port - it's huge) at least once in their school career and so did I, but that was such a long time ago that a lot has probably changed since then. The entire week before the event we prayed for beautiful weather but failed. Thursday morning the skies looked very grey and cloudy and rain fell down faster than I could blink. I knew it was going to be very cold on that boat so better to dress appropriately: full on autumn outfit, even though technically it was still summer last week. (Outfit details at the end of the post.)

Fifty things that make me happy

I was tagged by the lovely Suzie Marie of Eeep I'm A Blogger to do a post about fifty things that make me happy. Fifty is a lot, so I was afraid that I just wouldn't be able to find fifty things but once I'd started writing a lot more silly and little things came to me. Agreed, it took me about a week to finally finish my list but when I read it back now maybe I should add that this list makes me happy. I don't think this post could have come at a better time for me. While feeling absolutely horrible (both physically and mentally) the best thing you can fill your head with are positive thoughts and that's what preparing this post did for me. So thank you Suzie Marie for tagging me to do this. It made me realize that there are so many little things that can make a day beautiful, even if you don't necessarily see them on first glance. I loved her original Fifty Things That Make Me Happy post so much that I wanted to do it the exact same way: with image collages. Imitation is flattery right? So here it goes: my fifty things that make me happy! (Don't forget to read the first 10 at the beginning of the post!)

Mashed Potato & Caramelized Onion Patties

It's been too long since my last (and first) food post! If you missed that I talked about how to make my super fast avocado dip. I love reading food posts on other blogs and even though I'm no "kitchen princess" as we like to say in Belgium, I like food and I'd love to do more food posts myself. So why the food-post-break then? There's even a whole category for it! Well, I thought we would have moved by now but renovations are still not finished. That means no kitchen with my own name on just yet, patience Margot. Not having your own space makes preparing food posts a little harder. Especially since my mom and brother will look at me weird when I want to take pictures of my food at every angle before eating it. But after almost two months of nothing food related here on the blog I just couldn't wait any longer to try some new things, so I sneaked an afternoon of cooking in my mom's kitchen in my calendar and made these incredible mashed potato and caramelized onion patties.

I feel like a fraud in my own life .. #MM

Impostor Syndrome is a real thing. That's something I only recently found out and you can't imagine how relieved I was. Relieved because that means I'm not alone. And I'm not crazy. There are moments when I feel like I deserve everything I accomplish, but most of the time I feel like I'm going to be "found out". Even while typing this I'm afraid I'll just come across as trying to get some attention, afraid that I'm even posing to be an impostor, if that makes sense? Once I discovered that there are more people out there who feel this way I went searching for their stories and I recognized so much of it. "I'm not good enough", "I'm not an expert!", "why'd they give me this job?", "I'm not competent", "I don't deserve this reward!", and so on and so on. If that's something you've felt too, keep on reading.

Back To School: Healthy School Night Habits

School has started and the change in routine in comparison to summer break can be tough on your kids. Some are all happy and smiles to go back to school because they missed their friends and teachers but others have a hard time adapting. No matter how your child handles going back to school, there are simple things you can do to make it easier for everybody, including yourself. In this little back to school series I already talked about having the right homework essentials and the right lunch and snack (hardware) essentials. Today I'd love to talk about healthy school night habits. The reason I'm doing this post is because I see so many children come to class that are just too tired to learn anything and I believe it can be different. I know, modern times, but sometimes the old ways are just what you need.

Top 3 blog discoveries in August

Being part of the big blogger community brings so much to the blogging experience. I always thought blogs were little islands in the large online ocean but they're not. Not really. All these little blog islands and their owners are connected through invisible bridges and ferries that sail up and down the waves. Okay, not really. But wouldn't that be nice? What I mean is that bloggers not only inspires their readers. They can also inspire other bloggers to be the best possible version of themselves, online and offline.

So to give a little back to that wonderful blogger community, at the end of every month I'd like to share my top 3 new blog discoveries that inspired me that month. New, because for me they will be. It's perfectly possible that (like this month) the blogs I stumble upon and love instantly are in fact quite well known and established already but it's also possible I find a brand new up and coming blog with almost no followers yet. Size doesn't matter for this feature. Heart, passion, writing style, beautiful pictures and that-what-makes-you-you does. So without further ado, here are my top 3 new blog discoveries in August!

The illusion of growing up

A thought that has been nagging me for the past few weeks is this: do we ever really grow up or is it all an illusion? I'll clarify what I mean by telling you a story. When I was in first grade I used to look up to the sixth graders (the last grade of primary school in Belgium) and I would be like "Wow, they're so big and cool, I want to be just like them one day." But then I grew up, went to second, third, ... and eventually sixth grade. But nothing ever changed. I didn't feel big and cool. I still felt like the 6 year old first-grade-me. What I had thought being in sixth grade would feel like, that feeling never came.

Back To School: Lunch + Snack Essentials

The second post in this little Back To School series is going to be about lunch and snack essentials for school. It turned out to be a very happy and colorful post. Just look at those pictures, right? All items featured in this post scream "Food is FUN!". And it is! So eating at school should be fun too. If you missed the first post in the series, I talked about must have homework essentials, so be sure to give that post a read as well. Now on to snacks and lunch.

A school day is a long and very tiring day for your little ones. A little bit like our work days. Learning new things is hard work for sure. To make it through the day and maximize their learning, our kids need a lot of energy, both physically and mentally. And what better way to provide them with energy than healthy and yummie foods? In colorful boxes obviously, like that is even optional. This post is going to be about the best choices of "hardware" to take food and drinks to school, not about what food to bring to school. Maybe I'll do one about that in the future, if you'd like to see that, let me know in the comments below!

Sunset at the river .. #MM

I'm always complaining to Ruben that we don't do anything together. We do sometimes but we really ought to do more activities together out of the comfort zone of our daily lives: go on a city trip, do a biking tour, visit a museum, ... I'm a big fan of doing fun things and building happy and unique memories together but for some reason we're kind of bad at it. We always stay in our comfort zone and at times we even get bored at home with no idea what to do other than play some ping pong or badminton which Ruben is always begging me to. Lately the number of "special" activities we do together has even dropped from few to none. Being in the midst of renovating our apartment there doesn't seem to be much time left to have some quality time together and get away from it all. Past weekend we decided to do just that. We got ourselves some take out french fries (I know I know, don't judge) and went down to the river to watch the sunset.

Back To School: Homework Essentials

Here in Belgium, school starts again in a week. What? Yes. One more week and the deliciously long summer break will be over. In fully Back To School season I thought it would be appropriate to do a little series on some important school topics. Today we're kicking this series off with a post dedicated to Homework Essentials. Are you a parent looking for what to stock up on to make your child's homework experience just that little bit easier? Then this post is exactly what you need. Over the next week or so there will also be a post on Lunch & Snack Essentials, Teacher Essentials and Healthy School Night Habits.

21 reasons why you should love yourself

Initially I was going to write an entirely different blog post. A post about me feeling horrible, sad, unworthy of love and ashamed of my body. A feeling that started after viewing some pictures of myself on my 25th birthday party. Last Friday I had thought that I looked gorgeous in my shiny bright blue dress but I must have been wrong. Feeling sexy must have been a mistake. I just couldn't shake the sadness and the shame and kept thinking "If this is how other people see me, why do they love me? Why does he love me?" If you too are feeling ashamed of how you look, I am here to tell you you don't have to be.  You are allowed to love yourself. No matter what. That's what I realized, looking again and again at those pictures. Feeling sexy wasn't a mistake.

How to paint a triangle accent wall

Browsing through Pinterest for inspiration on how to paint our walls, I came across various pictures featuring a statement/accent wall and I thought by myself: I want this... and I can do this! Since we're going for a white-and-grey-neutral color scheme on our walls with colorful decorations throughout the entire apartment, a statement wall is the perfect way to spice things up and give our interior a modern Pinterest-ready look. And the best part of all: painting a (triangle) statement wall is actually easier than I thought it would be. You will need a couple of days to finish this project but it is so worth it!

Do you have secrets?

Reading books for me is like going on holiday. When I'm reading I should have a sign next to me that says "out of service".  I'm not joking, my ears literally stop working when I'm reading a book: I don't even hear my phone, the doorbell or someone talking to me. It's like I'm just not there. Time and again my friends and family need to shake my shoulders to get me back to reality. Or I should say this reality. Because even though books are fiction, in there it's all real. My latest read Big Little Lies by Liane Mortiarty is one of those books with an intriguing reality.

DIY Animal Art with Buttons + printables!

For my first kids' activity post I wanted to share something really bright and colorful for summer: DIY animal decorations made with buttons. It's a project you can either do as a team, together with your kids as young as 5 or a project your older creatives can do on their own. You can use this technique not only to make room decoration like I'm going to show you today, you can also make cards with it or customize notebooks. Are you ready? Let's do this!

Fresh air and flowers .. #MM

Every other week or so I'd love to sit down in front of my computer and write a more personal, life events inspired post on top of the normal Sunday-Thursday schedule. A post without all that much of a plan but with lots more personality than the other tutorial-like posts here on A Hearty Home. Don't get me wrong, I love doing those and that's what I want to keep focusing on but I also want this blog to be a representation of all of me. I debated whether or not to do them from the minute I started this blog but since I love to read these kinds of post on other people's blogs I thought I too could get away with rambling about life and its ups and downs. I feel like without a little bit more personality this blog could become too clean and unrealistic which is exactly the opposite of what I'm going for. For your information I'll be indicating these personal posts with #MM, which stands for "Margot's musings" so if you don't like chatty personal posts you can just skip those. I'll be putting them into the "life + more" category so you'll be able to find them in the tabs if you'd want to.

DIY Blog Planner

I am so excited for today's post that I can barely stay in my seat (which is a sunbed in our garden actually, if you must ask). But seriously, I am over the moon to present to you: A Hearty Home's very own DIY printable blog planner! It is available in my Etsy shop as a digital instant download so right after purchasing you can start printing and planning! You can choose to purchase the complete blog planner which consists of 25 printable files or you can choose to purchase some of the files separately. This blog post is a tutorial to show you how I put together my planner. If you want to see what each printable looks like, head over to my Etsy Shop and browse the photos of the individual files. So, are you ready to DIY?

What do you really want?

Today I'd love to talk to you about a book that will change my life and probably yours. What? I know. It sounds a little weird when I say it like that but let me explain. I read "Women, food and desire" by Alexandra Jamieson in February this year, a month after it hit the shelves. I discovered it by accident, on Goodreads or on Amazon, I honestly don't remember. It was one of the first books I read on my (then) new Kindle Paperwhite 3G. I didn't even know Alexandra Jamieson even though she's quite famous for being a chef in Super Size Me. But however I found the book doesn't matter, I'm glad I did. I believe everything happens for a reason and I'm quite sure this was the universe giving me a push in the right direction, my direction. I said it will change my life because I'm not there yet. It's still a transformation in progress but from the very beginning till the last word this book hit home for me, starting with these powerful opening lines.

Memories from Helsinki - photo diary

Complete zoom, high in the air. Taken from the boat to Suomenlinna.

As I told you in the previous post "Apartment renovation progress - part 1" I don't do much these days apart from working in our apartment. When I'm busy working I tend to start dreaming about traveling: both trips I did and places I'd still like to visit. So since I do not have anything else of interest to share with you I thought this would be the perfect moment to show you my memories of Helsinki in a photo diary (it was the first time I brought my DSLR on a trip!). The capital of Finland might seem like a strange travel destiny and it probably is. I went there mid april with two friends to visit another friend studying there on Erasmus. It was more like a social vacation/visit but we ended up seeing a lot of the city while we were there.

Apartment Renovation Progress - Part 1

In the introductory post (that is now moved to the about section) I told you this blog would be a place to share everything, real life everything - not just the pinterestable bits. Well today I'm making good on that promise. I was debating whether or not to share these pictures with you just because of the fact they're not at all pinterestable. But this is my life right now. So what's the point in trying to come up with something to write about for hours and finding nothing (lack of space to take good pictures, lack of time to do anything but renovate, ...) when there's a topic dangling right in front of you? The elephant in the room if you'd like: we're in the middle of renovating our apartment. So instead of finding something else to talk about I'm taking this elephant by its giant ears and I'm sharing the progress we've made so far, pinterestable or not.

5 minute avocado dip

Even though this looks like guacamole, I wouldn't dare call it gaucamole. Or sometimes I do, when I'm with friends. But it's not, because there's no tomato, onion or jalapeño involved. It's a simplified avocado dip with exactly the same purpose as guacamole: to enjoy with some crispy tortilla chips (or any other purpose you would use guacamole for, but let's be real: it's best for dipping triangle shaped crispy heaven!). It really only takes 5 minutes to make this and you don't need a whole lot of ingredients. So let's whip this up, shall we?

DIY: Bucket List Wall Art

Last week Ruben and I celebrated our first five years together. An anniversary is always a bit special but for five amazing years I wanted to find a suitable and equally special gift. Gifts for men are hard, I can't imagine ever knowing just what to get him, but you can't go wrong with something you made yourself right? Even the toughest man in the crowd can't deny the romance of a hand made gift .. (or can he?). But then again the question remains: what can you make him? After thinking long and hard I finally had the perfect idea: a huge (couples) bucket list to hang in our bedroom, dated for the next five years. I tried to add both things I like to do and things he likes to do to keep the balance in the list. It's a really easy and fast DIY and bucket lists are fun for many occasions! In fact it's so easy your older kids would really enjoy making these bucket lists to hang on their walls too. Ready? Let's DIY!