the postcard project no.3

In my mind, postcards are magical. They have the power to remind you of a place that you've been to; the ability to connect you with a friend in a faraway place; can serve as a blank canvas for you to spill your secrets onto; and can slowly, bur surely, turn your thoughts to wanderlust. 

For the past few years, my postcard collection has grown because I've finally been able to travel a bit and because of amazing friends who send me postcards on their travels. And I know there's people out there who love postcards just as much as I can do --

so I'm bringing the postcard project back! 

If you weren't here the first two times around, this is just a little "let's connect everyone through snail mail" project that involves you commenting, getting paired up with someone (or two, depending on how many people sign up) and sending & receiving a postcard! I thought this would be a really neat way to connect with each other; plus, postcards aren't too expensive (and if you want to make your own, by all means go for it!) since I didn't want to make a project that would break the bank. It involves:

Leaving a comment (or e-mail me) with a message that includes Your Name, Your E-mail, Your Country, and Any Preference? - if there's a continent or any specific country you'd love to have a postcard from, list it   here - hopefully we can make it happen, cap'n. And under 'any preference' you can list if you want a silly-ish postcard (if you don't list anything, I'll assume you want a postcard that is country-related!). Example:

• Your Name: Nikolett
  Your E-mail: betterthancoffee@gmail.com
  Your Country: Oh, Canada!
  Any Preference?: Anywhere around the world!

I'll e-mail you back and ask for a bit more info (address-related), and make up a list (I'll be checking it twice; and the only ones who will see your address are me and the postcard-sender/receiver).

I will pair you all up randomly (unless there's a specific preference to fulfill - just depends on how many participate!) and send an e-mail to both of you around Wednesday, September 5th - so you have two weeks to sign up!

Try to have the postcard sent out to the person by Wednesday, September 19th - gives you another two weeks to get the postcard, write it out, and send it out! The only catch - please e-mail me once you have sent the postcard so that way one person isn't left without a postcard after he/she has already sent one out. I'll be sending out a reminder e-mail to anyone who is left on September 19th!

I really liked the way this project turned out the first two times and would love it if you all signed up again :) If you want to spread the word and make it so you're paired up twice, it'd be great if you put one of these buttons on your blog, either in your sidebar or by mentioning it in a post!

<a href="http://better-than-coffee.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-postcard-project-no3.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt222/betterthancoffee/postcardproject12a.jpg" border="0" alt="Postcard Project" /></a>

<a href="http://better-than-coffee.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-postcard-project-no3.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt222/betterthancoffee/postcardproject12b.jpg" border="0" alt="Postcard Project" /></a>

If anything is unclear or you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask :) It'd be crazy to see how many people across the globe we can unite through a postcard! For now, have a great rest of the week :)

P.S. I have a lot of postcards from Budapest/Hungary and Vancouver/British Columbia so feel free to request one of those if you'd like!

hi, my name is...

I feel like I need to reintroduce myself on here after leaving this blog on the back burner (secretly hoping that I'd visit and the blog design would completely change on its own - but yay for a little facelift!). So, howdy! My name's Nikolett, though it's more of a nickname. I'm an almost 24-year old and I still feel a little at odds with the world, although I yearn to see as much of it as possible. And I think it's safe to say that my caffeine addiction is still safely (?) intact. 

This time last year I was marveling at the shallow but beautiful waters of Lake Balaton in Hungary, and am now fully regretting not purchasing the Nikolett 'license plate' that I noticed at a vendor. For my Wednesday Wish, I wish I could just magically teleport or time machine-myself back to last year and relive my vacation in Europe whenever my thoughts turn into daydreams. 

Hungarian cuisine on the left; and a DIY ponytail holder on windy days.

My postcard of Lake Balaton.

This time, this year? Well, I'm safe and sound in Ontario, trying to find a job in the education field and also ready to jumpstart my web/graphics design company after years of maybe/maybe not. Soaking up summer as best as I can is my main objective these days since the whole finding a job part is turning into a morbid and depressing scenario. 

Apart from that, I've been addicted to watching the London Olympics 2012 (Team Canada was robbed in women's soccer, I'm just saying) and slowly morphing into a gym rat - the endorphin rush you feel after a workout is better than coffee for me (: What have you been up to lately? 

I'm so excited to make this place more alive again and talk about things on a more daily basis rather than just dumping whatever's happened in the course of 2-3 weeks. Thanks for sticking by me & coming back to read!

Where do you wish you were this Wednesday?

Hope it's a great day!

wednesday wishes: wish come true!

Whoa, where'd the rest of June and the first half of July go? Since resuming my five-summer streak of working in the office of a summer school the days have become a bluuuur - a mostly fun, but kind of exhausting blur. Tomorrow I'll be waiting in line with two of my best friends to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at midnight and waving farewell and adieu to what's left of my childhood once the credits start to roll by (and probably saying "accio tissues!" A LOT). 

I've been both anticipating and dreading the arrival of July since this means the end of an 'era' (for Harry Potter anyways) - but I've been able to fill up these past few weeks with a lot of happy times (too many to recap in one post!). Here's what I've been 'obsessed' with or up to recently:

I decided to put the vain, beauty-related one first haha. Since getting my hands on the OPI Shatter nail polishes and looking up different things to do to your nails I've been hooked on 'nail art' - like cutting bits of newspaper and applying it to your nails with alcohol! Since I'll always bite my nails if I don't have them painted, I'm always looking for new things/polishes/designs to try out.

This one has kind of taken a back seat now that I'm working five days a week but I got bit by the cooking bug a couple of weeks ago which meant lots of cookies, cupcakes, and loaves. Nom nom nom.

I both blame and thank my sister Margarita for introducing me to Pinterest ... it's kind of like having a page of bookmarks except it's images and you can organize them easily and see what other people have 'pinned.' At first I thought, "Oh, like Tumblr" except it's on crack. If anyone else is addicted to it like I am, I'd love to see your boards, as weird as that sounds (here's my account).

Spontaneity might seem a little broad, but it's basically just random days and nights out that have pretty much little to no planning involved but turn into amazing moments, like walking along the lake with The Boy, seeing X-Men: First Class (AWESOME FILM, EPIC BROMANCE) and checking out a fair, and then making s'mores at a friend's BBQ (and looking crazy while doing so).

Hmm, counting down to what, you may ask? Well, since the dawn of this blog I've almost always had this in my description: "Dealing with university life, an amazing Boy and the friends, with a strong yearning to travel around Europe anytime." Well that 'anytime' has turned into a definitive amount of time:

IN 16 DAYS
I'M GOING TO EUROPE!

It was one of those "yes I want to go, please make it happen even if we don't book the flights until three weeks before the trip" kind of deal. But it's FINALLY HAPPENING. For the whole month of August (and the last couple of days in July) I'll be hitting up Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Transylvania, and hopefully Austria and Croatia, too. In other words: A HARDCORE (EASTERN) EUROTRIP. I can't wait to pose by more statues, admire the architecture, eat the FOOD, and meet all of The Boy's family while seeing my relatives again for the second time in my life :) I've kept this a bit on the downlow since I didn't want to jinx it, but you'll bet your bottom I'll be writing about it a lot now!

So finally a 'Wednesday wish' has come true and now I'm just hoping for a bit more time to relax, catch up on some amazing blogs, and get everything ready before we're off! :)

What have you been up to lately?

Anything you're obsessed with?

And who is going to be sobbing at the end of Harry Potter like me?

Hope you're having a great mid-week!

postcard project!

As the snowflakes breeze by my window again, I find myself fantasizing about the Philippines, Cuba, Australia, Greece, Florida, Singapore. I long to squish the sand between my toes (an excellent natural exfoliator - life lesson #12 from What a Girl Wants). At the same time, I also wouldn't mind exploring places with cobblestone roads like England, France, Poland, Italy. Since I'm far from being a millionaire I thought - perfect time to bring back the postcard project! Also, a bunch of you have been wanting me to bring it back so here it is!

If you weren't here the first time around, this is just a little "let's connect everyone through snail mail!" project that involves you commenting, getting paired up with someone (or two, depending on how many people sign up!) and sending a postcard while also getting one, too! I thought this would be a really neat way to connect with each other; plus, postcards aren't too expensive (and if you want to make your own, by all means go for it!) since I didn't want to make a project that would break the bank. It involves:

• Leaving a comment (or e-mail me) with a message that contains Your Name, Your E-mail, Your Country, and Any Preference? - if there's a continent or any specific country you'd love to have a postcard from, list it - hopefully we can make it happen, cap'n. And under 'any preference' you can list if you want a silly-ish postcard (if you don't list anything, I'll assume you want a postcard that is country-related!). Example:
• Your Name: Nikolett
  Your E-mail: betterthancoffee@gmail.com
  Your Country: Oh, Canada!
  Any Preference?: Anywhere around the world!
• I'll e-mail you back and ask for a bit more info (address-related), and make up a list (I'll be checking it twice; and the only ones who will see your address are me and the postcard-sender/receiver).
• I will pair you all up randomly (unless there's a specific preference that I'll try to fulfill - just depends on how many participate!) and send an e-mail to both of you around Wednesday, March 23rd - extended to Friday, March 25th since I'm waiting for mailing addresses and in case anyone wants to sign up! - so you have two weeks to sign up!
• Then, try to have the postcard sent out to the person by Wednesday, April 6th - extended to Friday, April 8th - gives you another two weeks to get the postcard, write it out, and send it out! The only catch that's different from last time - please e-mail me once you have sent the postcard so that way one person isn't left without a postcard after he/she has already sent one out. I'll be sending out a reminder e-mail to anyone who is left on April 4th!

I really liked the way this project turned out last time and would love it if you all signed up again :) If you want to spread the word and make it so you're paired up twice, it'd be great if you put one of these buttons on your blog!

275px - code below:

<a href="http://better-than-coffee.blogspot.com/2011/03/postcard-project.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt222/betterthancoffee/postcardproject_275px.jpg" border="0" alt="Postcard Project" /></a>

175px - code below:

<a href="http://better-than-coffee.blogspot.com/2011/03/postcard-project.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt222/betterthancoffee/postcardproject_175px.jpg" border="0" alt="Postcard Project" /></a>

If anything is unclear or you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask :) It'd be crazy to see how many people across the globe we can unite through a postcard! A more 'normal' update from me will be coming Friday, but for now, have a great rest of the week :)

wednesday wishes: back to the west

My bum, it buuuuuurns. Today marked my first day back going to my university gym (I've been working out at home for a year now) and realized that I'm grateful for their machines but not so grateful for the people who either hog them or the bunch of guys who stare at you as you're doing the butt machine - conveniently located by the water fountain. But anyhoos!

I'm slowly trying to get back into the whole "themed" posts I did way back when. Because when it comes to mid-week, hump day, whatever you want to call it, all I can think about is a) the weekend; and b) all the places I'd rather be than my city right about now.

My last post was all about mellow Autumn and I'd honestly much rather be lying on some warm sands getting my (safe) tan on, but the place I'm daydreaming of is only about 2 degrees warmer than here and has rain in the forecast for the next week. 

I want to go back to British Columbia. When I hear amazing news like Kym's engagement, or realize that I miss my sister and niece like crazy, I miss how easy it was to just see them. It's been two months since I took a trip out there and now I just want to be back in the west. I think this is my danger in wanting to travel the world - I get so attached to the few places I've been, namely Poland and Vancouver. I'm going to try to apply to teachers college in Vancouver and regardless of what happens, I know I want to visit again soon.

Here are just some things I miss - or some things you should see if you ever take a trip there:

I love how it feels like you've stepped into a different time in Gastown.

I love that I could take pictures of my niece anytime I wanted to.

Bowen Island = amazing, and Daiso is the best dollar store around.

Trying out new places to eat and jumping like a madwoman with Kym in Steveston.

Seeing an amazing mixture of ancient architecture with new architecture.

Taking a dozen water taxis with my sister to explore Granville Island, Yaletown, and KOOZA!

And I'm pretty sure if I lived here as a student I would spend half my days at that library, and my "party" weekends up at Whistler. Ahh, delight.

What places have you been daydreaming about lately?

wednesday wishes: where have I been?

So, it's definitely been a while! Never fear, I didn't convert to an Amish way of life or have my computer stolen (I would probably cry hysterically and alert the presses if that happened). And I don't want to make excuse upon excuse for my absence, because if there's anything I have learned in the past three weeks, it's that sometimes it's just best to suck it up and truly apologize. I'm sorry for being away for so long - I've missed your blogs and blogging, too. 

And a big THANK YOU, GRACIAS, MERCI BEAUCOUP to every person who signed up for Project Postcard - I've sent out all the pairings so if you haven't sent out your postcard yet, try to do that by the end of this week! For those who signed up a little later and weren't paired - never fear, I'll be doing this again towards the middle-end of August and I'll keep track of those who wanted to join in! Hopefully by that time everyone will have gotten their postcards and we can all do a show-and-tell, as well!

But for now, I'm going to keep it a little light and simple today with my Wednesday Wishes with a twist - things that I wish to happen or continue happening for the remainder of the summer - in no particular order, really :) And if you're tired of lists - just read #7 for some news!

01. More hang-outs with him / more visits to the beach

Both of these things make me a happy camper and this month at work has made me miss both these things terribly.

02. More yummy homemade food

Another lesson learned from working: sneaking away every day to get some fast food on top of the little sandwich you eat at work does not make for a healthy diet. I miss real, good food - like this homemade pizza The Boy made for an excursion to the beach :) 

 03. More amazing moments with friends

When we all come together, it's a bit of a miracle but always good, every time. In this picture we decided to head to a park with a beautiful view after seeing Inception - to take silly pictures and talk about the craziness that is Inception, haha. 

 04. Mmmm, ice cream.

'Nuff said. The one pictured is mango ice cream from an Indian restaurant. Please sir, I want some more.

 05. Meeting up with people I haven't seen in a while :)

This past Sunday I headed to Toronto to meet up with two ladies I love and have known since I was around 13/14. It made me realize that I need more spontaneity - like how we went to the theatres to see Toy Story 3 (so nostalgic/good!) and then snuck into Despicable Me (so funny!) ... okay, maybe more legal spontaneity in the future ;)

 06. See Herro Hachi launch

Oh wait, it just did! A big reason for my absence is that for the past week or so I would work from 7am-3pm and then jump into coding like a madwoman and passing e-mails frantically with an amazing woman who designs fashionably funny t-shirts - but the hard work has paid off :) I am so happy for this site and for Kym, so everyone please check it out! 

 07. Visit Vancouver

My dream this summer was to spend a month in Europe - and unfortunately that's not going to happen this year (hopefully next, fingers crossed)! But if I can't do that, I'd rather spend some time in the other half of this country to visit my sister - I haven't seen her since last October and I miss her to bits and pieces. So I wish I could travel to Vancouver.

Oh wait a minute, I AM! SURPRISE :D

I'm going to Vancouver, baby! 

I just purchased my ticket - I'm leeeaving on a jet plane in a matter of weeks!

Incredibly excited, I am :)

After a long month of working and feeling like my summer is just flying by, my mission is to fly off to see my sister for a couple of weeks and then spend the rest of the summer making the most of it with those I love. No more afternoon naps - I will drink a gazillion coffees if it means more time doing things! Now my question is:

Do you have a 'mission' this summer?

P.S. My #08 on the list? Visiting your blogs more often so I can find out what you've been up to for the past month!

wednesday wishes: postcard project

For several Wednesdays (though I'll admit, not as many as I'd like), I've been fantasizing about seeing different parts of the world - from a more in-depth look at Warszawa to Ireland to Antigua to across Canada, and more. Though sometimes it's hard to truly get your feet off the ground and explore somewhere new (darn responsibilities), there are certain things that can make you feel like you've been somewhere else, even if you've never stepped foot there. 

One main thing for me? Postcards. I've been collecting postcards for the past two years and feel as though I've been in Singapore, Netherlands, Mauritius, Cambodia, Hungary. And I thought - hey, so many bloggers here are from around the world! Why not unite us - off the Internet - with some postcards? And although this kind of thing has probably been done before, this was born:

What's this all about, you might be asking?

• Leave a comment (or e-mail me) with a message that contains Your Name, Your E-mail, Your Country, and Any Preference? - if there's a continent or any specific country you'd love to have a postcard from, list it - hopefully we can make it happen, cap'n. And under 'any preference' you can list if you want a silly-ish postcard (if you don't list anything, I'll assume you want a postcard that is country-related!). Example:

•  Your Name: Nikolett
  Your E-mail: betterthancoffee@gmail.com
  Your Country: Oh, Canada!
  Any Preference?: Anywhere around the world!
  
  
• I'll e-mail you back and ask for a bit more info (address-related), and make up a list (I'll be checking it twice; and the only ones who will see your address are me and the postcard-sender/receiver).
• I will pair you all up randomly (unless there's a specific preference that I'll try to fulfill - just depends on how many participate!) and send an e-mail to both of you by Thursday, July 8th - so you have about a week to sign up!
• Then, try to have the postcard sent out to the person by Thursday, July 16th - gives you a week to get the postcard, write it out, and send it out! Then just wait and enjoy the postcard :)

I thought this would be a really neat way to connect with each other; plus, postcards aren't too expensive (and if you want to make your own, by all means go for it!) since I didn't want to make a project that would break the bank.

Depending on how many of you sign up (i.e., if there's quite a few), I'll try to pair you up twice so you send two postcards out and get two postcards back. And, on the flipside (i.e., if there's less of you signing up), I'm going to try my best to send out a postcard to everyone who signs up - I'll let you know if this will happen in about a week. That way you're getting a postcard from Canada whether you like it or not, bwahahaha.

If you want to spread the word and make it so you're paired up twice, you can put one of these buttons on your blog!

275px - for code, use this:

<a href="http://better-than-coffee.blogspot.com/2010/06/wednesday-wishes-postcard-project.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt222/betterthancoffee/postcardproject_275px.jpg" border="0" alt="Postcard Project"></a>

175px - for code, use this:

<a href="http://better-than-coffee.blogspot.com/2010/06/wednesday-wishes-postcard-project.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt222/betterthancoffee/postcardproject_175px.jpg" border="0" alt="Postcard Project"></a>

If anything is unclear or you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask :) It'd be crazy to see how many people across the globe we can unite through a postcard! Hope you're interested and I hope you have an amazing rest of the week!

my week in a nutshell

Here's what I've been up to in the last week, with the moments divided up into lists of the 'good' and the 'not-so-good', or just plain weird. Hope you've all been doing well!

ROMANTIC: Cuddled up in bed with The Boy and watching Buffy, and at that moment where you see Buffy and Angel kiss, I feel a pair of lips pressed to my arm and I smile, thinking that he's kissing my arm. 

NOT-SO-ROMANTIC: Realizing that it's not exactly a kiss but him drooling on my arm because he's fallen asleep since we're watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer at 1am. 

COOL: Sitting on the bus after my night class test on the way to my boyfriend's place to celebrate his birthday (yay, happy birthday!) and it's all dark and I'm on the verge of spacing out when I see this bright light strike my eyes that's coming from the other end of the bus and I think maybe I'm about to have a wicked daydream.

NOT-SO-COOL: Realizing that 'bright light' is in fact a woman (I'm still unable to guess her age) who had the bleachiest blonde hair I've ever seen which contrasted with her wrinkly tanned skin and her black/sparkly Ed Hardy shirt (I'm not even kidding). Her hair was blinding.

YAY FAMILY MOMENT: Eating breakfast and then my Dad comes downstairs and goes, "Good morning!" (Seriously, this is a yay family moment.)

NOT-SO-YAY FAMILY MOMENT: Getting up to clean dishes and then Dad proceeds into a lecture about where to place towels in the bathroom when I'm taking a shower ... blergh.

YES, I'M WEIRD: Both on Saturday and Tuesday at two different friends' houses, the first beverage I ask for if they ask me if I'm thirsty is milk. I've always been a milk drinker. 

YES, IT GETS WEIRDER: So my friend gave me a glass of milk and I chugged it in less than twenty seconds. She looked up and went, "You're already finished?" and then asked if I wanted a refill ... I made sure to drink that second glass slowly so I wouldn't rid her of all her milk.

PRIORITIES: My midterm is finally done and so this month will be full of planning my funeral (a project for my night class) and designing a site for Kym, aka herrohachi, whoop!

"SHE NEEDS TO SORT OUT HER PRIORITIES": I'm graduating this upcoming Monday afternoon but all I can think about is going to Canada's Wonderland on Saturday and riding the rollercoasters and hope that there's no rain so we can go on as many rides as possible.

And now, for a list of places I'd like to be today rather than go to night class:

(consider this my Wednesday Wishes on a Thursday haha)

Any of these places. Let's also add Poland, Vancouver, Hungary, Indonesia, and Philippines to that list! {picture via here}

Stopping to smell the gorgeous flowers. {image via here}

Or maybe just going back to sleep so I can continue that dream with the Supernatural brothers (it was ridiculously odd though and involved them getting diseases, but no matter). {via here}

Or having a sweet backyard office called an archipod to do some designing in. {more info here}

More than anything, I want to dip my feet into the water and run around with my friends while watching the sunset. {photo via here}

Where would you rather be right now? 

Remember to be happy where you are, though!

I was really surprised to see I wasn't alone on my views about teenagers - it's weird because, although when I look back now I know I was a crazy teenage lady, but I grew from it (for the most part), and I guess I just fear teenagers nowadays won't learn? I dunno (ahh Manju, us and our 'i dunno' phrase haha).

Ah, I can't wait for the weekend. I have a feeling this month is going to go by as fast as May did and that worries me in a way, but I know I have lots to look forward to ... and hopefully a trip to Europe by the time August rolls around! Hope you all have a great Thursday!

wednesday wishes + shopping sprees

It's that time of year where I can step outside, take a breath of fresh-ish air and cry out, "FREEDOM!" Of course, that freedom is going to be short-lived, but at the moment I am a proud (albeit tired) student who has finished her undergraduate degree! And although my back-up plan kicks off next week (i.e., coming back to do a minor in Religious Studies on top of my double major in English and Multimedia), I'm going to enjoy the time I have off ... plus, I'll only have class on Tues/Thurs of May and June, so let's just say it's summertime for me! Yipee!

And because I'm finally on vacation, I've been doing some hardcore wishing on top of some celebrating with The Boy in the form of sleepovers and shopping sprees that make us happy. I'll admit, The Boy bought more clothes than I did but I tend to be really picky when spending my limited amount of money (gulp).

I've been looking for a cute skirt for a while and though I was aiming for floral print, couldn't resist this one - if you want larger/more details about the skirt, please look at the image right here. And then I just got a simple white tee, but it has a neat design in the fabric and I love little tiny pockets :)

Oh, and the other day my mom graciously bought me a pair of Adidas running shoes - motivation to run outside, whoopah!

And as for where I've been wishing about lately? It's somewhere I've been to before, but never really got the chance to explore fully - Warszawa (or Warsaw), the capital of Poland. Exactly two years ago I was there - boarded my first airplane and flew off to the main city, jetlagged and make-up-less, taking in the sights for a mere few hours before driving off to see family. But the city captured me in its spell - a combination of both old and new, of typical Polish food and all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants. I can't wait to hopefully go back there this August to take more of it in.

In the 'new' part of the city, high-rise buildings are spread and combine old and new ...

I saw so many shopping malls it made my head spin (really hope I get to go to at least one).

A small view at the colourful buildings in Stare Miasto - Old City, my favourite part of Warszawa.

So many look-out points and so many bright slanted rooftops.

This is my "Welcome to me shop!" pose :)

The streets of Old Warsaw are hustling and bustling - if you take a little peek at the roped-off area you'll see an older war-truck ... there were shooting not one, but two films that day on that street, and at a nearby church there was a wedding going on! Always so much to see.

And being the first European city that I ever stepped onto, I fell in love with the cobblestone streets. By the way, can anyone tell what that fuzzy figure is? In Polish, it's called piwo.

What are you wishing about today?

Hope you're having a good hump day!