– voor Nederlands klik hier –
Hi! I’m Mandy Bollegraf. Welcome to my blog, thanks for visiting! I write about tiny (or huge) pleasures, things I love or stuff that makes my heart flutter. Which are mainly: plants, travel, baking, styling, crafting, springtime, unwinding and nature (and of course the people I love!). All those combined would make for awesome PICNICS IN JUNE and aren’t those the best thing in the world? I think so!
From top to bottom, left to right: Me in my hometown Enschede (Holland), Innsbruck (Austria), Münster (Germany), Java (Indonesia), Cinque Terre (Italy), Enschede, Edinburgh (Scotland), Isla de Ometepe (Nicaragua), Münster (Germany)
♡ PLANTS ♡
This blog is mainly about houseplants (they don’t call me a crazy plant lady for nothing!). How to take care of them, which ones to choose from, how to style them to make your home look plantastic etc. My love for all things green has always been inside of me. Some plants have been living with me for about five years now, but my green thumb/green fingers started to lose control in 2017 when me and my boyfriend moved into an apartment with lots of room and loads of big windows (meaning so much natural light which plants LOVE and not to mention a bunch of windowsills to stuff them on haha!). Since then, our home went from crowded-with-plants-windowsills, to plAntiful, to a complete urban jungle so fast we stopped counting our plant friends at 115!
Urban jungle vibes in our apartment
♡ INSTAGRAM ♡
Like my love of green, my passion for photography has been a part of me since I can remember. In 2013, I started to post my pictures on Instagram and I have been hooked ever since. Like on my blog more than half are about plants but there’s always room for my other pleasures ♡
♡ BOOK ON HOUSEPLANTS ♡
Summer 2019 my very first book will come out! It will be published by Blossom Books and it be will about houseplants. Mainly through Instagram I found out lots of people want to create their own urban jungle at home, but they don’t know where to start, let alone know how to keep their plants alive. With my book I hope to help you grow green fingers and inspire you to add some green to your interior! I will keep you posted on my blog about new developments when it comes to the book 🙂
♡ STUDY ♡
Some more info on me: I live in a city called Enschede, in the East of Holland. I’m 31 years old. I have a bachelor degree in Journalism, obtained in Utrecht at the oldest school of Journalism in Europe and I lived there for about 7 years before returning to my home town in 2010. During my studies, I spent 6 months in the UK (Wales) for an academic minor in Film Studies. One of the best times of my life!
♡ TEA ♡
Where to study abroad wasn’t a difficult question for me as a proud Anglophile (I always tell people I think I was British in a previous life, haha!). I share this passion with my mom and our love of scones has lead us to running a tea garden together (not the plantation kind but the outdoor tearoom kind). We serve home baked goods and delicious (iced) tea and coffee since 2009. We bake with fresh produce from our veg patch and go on occasional ‘foraging safaris’ for cool wild food ingredients. Al fresco only, so in fall/wintertime we’re closed for business. www.deoalezessprong.nl
Tea garden De Oale Zessprong
♡ DREAMS ♡
Ever since I read this quote: ‘Speak your dream into existence and the universe will attract the right circumstances and conditions for it to be realised’, I have to share my dream on this blog too 😉 One day (!) I would love to own a guesthouse with a small eatery attached, with a big but sweet dog walking around who is friends with everyone, with a huge veg patch, maybe even live self-sufficiently, where I’m enjoying a cool breeze while writing my own books in a wonderful place in the world where tropical plants can live outside all year round. With Remco of course, my best friend and the love of my life 😉 This quote might even be better, love it’s simplicity: ”Speak what you seek, until you see what you’ve said’. Who knows…
♡ BLOG ♡
Starting a blog has been a dream for years now. And after answering many, mostly plant care related, questions on Instagram almost daily now and hearing encouraging people tell me I should definitely start blogging, it’s here. Hoping to be found by many fellow plant lovers! Happy to say that that ‘one day…’ has finally come and I hope to share lots of big and tiny pleasures with you. Thanks for your time!
Love, Mandy ♡
PS You’ve probably noticed that my blog is bilingual, you can choose to read it in Dutch or in English. This is because most of my Instagram followers are from abroad and I receive (plant)questions from all over the world. I will translate most of my blog posts in English, sometimes summarising a little bit. But the same also goes the other way around: some posts will be more extensive in English. It just depends on what subject I write about.
PPS You should know that I’m in no way a specialist expert or a scientist when it comes to botany. All of my knowledge and tips come from owning plants as a hobby. I learn to take (good) care of plants by trial and error.
PPPS All pictures on this blog are mine unless you see a named image source. Please contact me if you would like to use my photos.
