Postcard from... Utrecht

This guest post is part of the 2017 Makers Postcard series - find other posts here, and the 2016 series here.

Good morning from The Netherlands. I hope you are having an amazing summer. I know I am, and I am spending it right at home. A couple of mornings a week I run. I am not very fast, nor am I very good at it. But I love it, it helps me clear my head, tackle the problems that have gotten very big in my mind (but are actually quite easy to solve, if I could just stop fretting about them) and give me the energy that I need to start my day.

The fun thing is that I really have no reason to be in Utrecht. I didn’t go to university here, I never even had a job here. Basically, I moved here from the South of The Netherlands, where I am originally from, as it felt good. My, then, job was only a 15 train ride away and the city and me just clicked, right from the start. It was home. And it became even more of a home, when I met my husband Paul here.

Utrecht is the 4 th largest city in The Netherlands, but it has a compact 2000 century old city centre full of gothic churches, quaint little squares and canals (what would a Dutch city be without canals). The city is easy to cycle through and that’s basically what I love doing best: get on my bike and see the sights from my ‘Batavus’ point of view.

Oh wait, I didn’t introduce myself now did I? I am Esther and you may have seen my crochet over at Happy in Red. A blog I started way back in 2011 when work was bad, really bad, and kept me up at night. The internet taught me how to crochet, helped me clear my mind (as there was nothing else to do but count and change color every now and then) and Happy in Red was my way of giving back to the internet, to get to know people who loved crochet just as much as I did. Over the last 6 years I have met amazing people (both online and in real life) through Happy in Red, you simply can’t imagine how grateful I am every day for people stopping by and saying hello on my little only corner of the world.

In 2013 I decided to take a big leap and start my own business. I am a journalist (when I’m not holding a crochet hook) and I felt I could be more, do more and inspire more sailing under my own flag. Since then, my life has become an amazing adventure. I was able to turn my travel journalism into a fulltime business. Every month, I pack my back once or twice and I’m off for a couple of days, exploring the most beautiful cities in Europe (but I also traveled to South Africa for work, a dream come true!). In June Portugal was on my list, in July it was Heidelberg in Germany and right now, I am planning a work trip to Prague for the beginning of August.

But the best part of traveling, is opening the front door and seeing my husband on the balcony, waiting with a cup of tea, or a glass of wine. All I need to do then, is unpack my latest WIP, slide next to him and I am truly at home.

If you’d like to read about my adventures in The Netherlands, I have just launched a new online project called ‘Your Dutch Guide’ showing you the most beautiful parts of my country, beyond Amsterdam.

Read more from Esther on Happy in Red and Facebook. You can see more of her photos on Instagram and her projects on Etsy. Catch up with the other posts in this series, and join in on Instagram with your own story, using the tag #makerspostcards, and be sure to tag me @craftsfromthecwtch.