The way to not be constantly on your phone

It is impossible to go through life for an hour without thinking about the corona crisis... As soon as I turn on my phone or TV, look outside, or think about what we will eat tonight: with everything you do, you are confronted with all the misery happening in the world. And I absolutely do not want to stick my head in the sand, but it would also be nice to occasionally put on blinders and earplugs and just enjoy the fact that we are all at home together. And I can definitely recommend that to you. Jon and I occasionally consciously put our phones in the ‘holy box’, where we are not allowed to take them out. No TV channel on, not looking at your laptop, and just being in the here and now. It really works wonders, I can tell you.

The entire film industry is at a standstill, just like almost all other professions. I think it's amazing to see that everyone is trying to be as creative as possible to still bring their products or services to the market. That's why I also try to do as much shopping as possible with the locals (tip: everything is still in stock there, so avoid the big supermarkets). With the #supportyourlocals you can show that you support small entrepreneurs. For example, I have already had a delicious assortment of cakes from Life of Pie delivered to my lovely sister, we were able to have butcher Van Dam delivered, and the best bread from Levain et le vin can be pre-ordered and picked up. You go, locals!

That list of to-do tasks around the house has actually only gotten longer, because don't think for a moment that I have any time for myself with everyone at home... Otis wanting to play, Elias needing to drink every few hours, the household that has become three times as much, and then occasionally working from home: it's quite a challenge, I can tell you. But every evening I now try to force myself to tackle a task that has been on my list for months, like making photo books. Secretly quite a fun task, as long as you have collected all the photos in one place... Now I was tipped off about the app Once Upon, with which you can make photo books with your photos on your phone. Where I thought I would be busy for five evenings, I finished my first book in an hour. So nice: selecting photos, choosing from different layouts, and you're done. I just received the result and the quality is really beautiful. For all mothers with little time but a stack of photo book to-dos: this might just be the solution.

Now that we all have to pay a bit more attention to our spending, I have taken up a new hobby: scouring vintage sites for designer gems. Hmmm, this doesn't really sound like paying attention to your spending, does it? But it does when you see that you can find the most beautiful pieces for ‘a pittance’ that sometimes cost ten times as much in the store. Here are my favorites in a row:

• The Next Closet: I always look here for beautiful high-end fashion, but they also have stunning designer pieces. Be sure to check out my ‘closet’.
• Designer-Vintage: the best for designer bags. I scored a beautiful vintage Chanel here for little.
• Vestiaire: if this site doesn't have what you're looking for, then you won't find it anywhere. With sellers worldwide, you always have enough at home per brand or design. Very addictive, because you can make offers on items, and if they are accepted by the seller, it feels a bit like you've ‘won’ something. The psyche of a fashionista is hard to understand...