I've been writing and telling stories on my blog for almost two years now. In this time, I got to know a lot of other bloggers mainly through Instagram. Recently I also joined a Facebook group where other bloggers can ask questions related to their blog or how to collaborate with a brand etc. Last week I was scrolling through all the questions to see if I had similar problems or just questions and answers that would benefit me in the future. This is when I saw an event pop up on the right hand of my screen. A blogger meeting in Courtrai.

The whole idea of meeting other bloggers always scares me in the beginning. I've met some before at the Great Blogger Dinner where you can read everything about it in that post. Maybe I'm not that confident enough in the beginning to express myself and show my true self, but if I survived a dinner with more than 40 bloggers, I'll surely survive a tiny meetup with six other bloggers. Courtrai is quite the drive away from Antwerp, but I met up with Florence from Go With Flo to take the train. Florence is also from Antwerp and I've known her for a while through Instagram and her vlogs, so we finally met up in real life to then meet the others. 

Jennifer from Lipstick On A Budget organised the meetup and showed us around her lovely city. The first thing on our agenda was to have brunch in Tarterie, a new hotspot in the centre of the town where you can have breakfast or lunch. They bake artisan cakes and quiches (I prefer cake though) in an open kitchen where I could see my brunch being made. You can also order your cake or quiche to take home but the rustic and natural interior brings a cosy and welcoming vibe to stay and have your coffee with cake here.

After our delicious brunch, Jennifer took us to Byttebier, a beautiful shop where you can find all things related to interior, stationary, makeup and soon also food! We talked with one of the owners of the shop who came to ask if we were bloggers. Maybe the fact that we all had camera's and were taking pictures of the shop gave it away. Lieve told us she was a blogger herself on Rue de Surène (where she writes about easy and delicious recipes) and asked for our 'business' cards, which I don't have (do I need to have business cards for my blog?) so we all wrote our websites down. She also told us about her idea to include her passion for food into the shop. It was nice to talk to someone who has similar thoughts about blogging and all things related to bloggers in general. We didn't get to meet her daughter Sofie from Ms April Fish but I'm definitely going back to Courtrai when Byttebier relaunches their shop with their new concept. 

Our next few stops where some nice hotspots for food and drinks. The first one being Oats & Heremiet, a lovely shop by Chloé and Shephanie where you can have breakfast and lunch, buy healthy snacks and second hand vintage clothing. A unique concept which I haven't seen before. The big 'oats' sign and the single light fixtures give a certain feel of coziness and warmth. We didn't stay here but we did take a look at the vintage clothing which you know I like a lot by this previous post. The weather was terrible as it was raining all day so we went to the shopping mall to warm up. We then went for some fancy drinks in Fanny's. The interior is to die for with it's pink walls, tables and cushions. A lot of plants and some real chirping birds finished of the interior. I could sit here the rest of the day but we got hungry again so we left and found De Klein Keuken where I had the butternut soup, so yummy!

Our day came to its end and we had already separated from half of the group who had to leave early. Florence and I said goodbye to Marjolein and Jennifer and took the train back to Antwerp. We are definitely going to meet up again soon in Antwerp with the entire group. I can't wait until the weather gets better to go out with this group again. This meetup was the exact thing I needed to be more motivated to work for my blog. In the end I met some new friends and I had an amazingly fun day, so why don't I do this more often? I need to say more 'yes' than 'no' to these kind of things! 

- xoxo -

Chiara

Last month I left on my own to New York to visit a friend of mine for ten days. We spent our first few days in Carmel which I told you everything about in my last post. This post is the second part of the previous one, so if you aren't caught up yet, quickly head over to that post so you are totally up to date. In today's post I'll tell you a bit more about what we did, show you a lot of pictures and there is also a vlog!

It feels like I haven't written a post in a while. But today I'm here to tell you all about my exciting trip to New York. I already got a lot of questions from friends and family on how my trip went and what I visited. The trip lasted for ten days so it's not easy to talk about everything I did in less than five minutes. If you are interested in my adventure in New York, keep on reading! Or if you don't like reading, make sure to watch the first part of my vlog down below.