shades of red

When you take a look around my room, the predominant colour you see is red. Red walls, red carpet, red closet and (depending on the week) red sheets. You'd think the owner of the room must really like the colour red, yet I don't.

I don't own a single red clothing item and I never buy anything red if there are other options (except if that option is orange. I really hate orange.).

While I don't appreciate the look of red, I can't deny the feeling of comfort it gives a room. I feel instantly calmer once I step into my bedroom and I give the dark red walls credit for that.

These are just a few snapshots I took over the past few weeks and quite liked. The jar on the last picture is filled with strawberry chia seed jam, which I really suggest you try, such an easy and natural way to create marmalade (I used this recipe).

Berlin Wall

We went on a 4-day class trip to Berlin last week, and even though the sky was grey and gloomy almost the whole time we had a blast! I don't think it really mattered where we were to be honest, we would've had fun anywhere.

The days were filled with laughter, too much beer and far too little sleep, so i've been a bit of a zombie this past week. My bed is the most appealing thing to me right now and i can't wait to finally be able to sleep in tomorrow, it's all i've been looking forward to for days.

I was planning on taking lots of photos while we were there but on the one day where the weather was actually decent, i'd decided not to take my camera with me as it just meant additional weight on my already sore shoulder. I did take it along on our last morning when we went to the East Side Gallery and took some touristy shots of the Berlin wall. I hope you enjoy!

afternoon lights

I had some spare time on monday and the sun was still just peaking over the hills so i grabbed my mom's old rollerblades and my camera to get some fresh air and take a few pictures.

This spot is on my running route and somehow the sun always shines beautifully onto the fields and track, no matter what time of day it is. I am so glad i finally got to capture some of the beauty of this place as everytime i run past it i think to myself "you really should take some pictures here sometime", but i never did - until now that is. It is one of those places where i instantly feel calm and positive.

A few people ran or drove past me on their bikes when i was lying on the ground in the weirdest positions, trying to get the right angle to photograph some leaf or plant - they probably thought i was some kind of a lunatic but oh well.

While i don't always like living in my small town too much, i do love that it is so close to nature. I am literally 1 minute away from either a lake or a river with parks surrounding them so i can escape to get some space whenever i need to. The landscapes in the region i live in are just gorgeous in my opinion so when i am in nature it reminds me that living here isn't all too bad after all.

I hope you like the pictures. Do you have a safe spot like this in your natural surroundings too?

still i'd rather be working for something than praying for the rain

I stayed home sick today as i was feeling really weak this morning and my coughing was even worse than yesterday. As i already felt much better by noon, i had the time to play around a bit with my new lens - the two selfies are the result. I can't wait to take pictures of someone else with it as it is a bit difficult to adjust the manual focus on myself as well as think about the aperture.

The book you can see on the third picture is my Q&A 5-year-journal. Basically there's 365 pages with a question for each day, which you should then answer every day for 5 years. This far i've been quite good at doing so and haven't skipped a single day - i really hope i follow through with it as it would be so interesting to see how my answers change over the course of a few years.

Not only do i love the concept, it's also just so pretty to look at! If you're interested, you can get it at amazon.

I honestly don't know what i would be doing without my kindle. Since i got it 2 years ago i've been reading much more than before as it cuts out the step of having to either wait for your book to arrive or go to an actual store and buy one. It also makes english books far more easily accessible to me, seeing that most book stores near me don't really carry that many. While i still love the way an actual book feels and smells (yes i am one of those book-smell-lovers), the size of the kindle simply makes it easier to carry around and actually read in - no weird turning around in your bed trying to find a comfortable position to read a 500-page book.

Currently i'm reading (or rather i've just started) 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen R. Covey. It is supposed to be a manual for performing better in your personal and professional life.

 So far i absolutely love it and i can clearly see why it is such a bestseller. I rarely read books that are non-fictional or at least tell a story but this one already has me sucked in. I might give you a short review once (or if) i've finished it.

Basically i just wanted to show you a few thing i'm really liking at the moment - this song is one of my absolute favourites. It's one of those songs that i listen to on repeat for a while, forget about it but somehow i keep coming back to it and every single time i realize once again how amazing it actually is.

We Don't Eat - James Vincent McMorrow

(Higher Love is also pretty great)

2013

I know i'm a bit late on the whole "review of 2013"-post-train but i believe it's never too late for me to talk about what has probably been the most defining year of my life so far.

2013 was full of changes. I encountered some of the most challenging situations i'd ever had to face, one of them being alone on the other side of the world for 6 whole months.

Going on exchange was one of the best decisions i've ever made, it taught me so much more than i would've ever expected. Not only did it give me experiences and memories i'll never forget, i simply came back a different person.

I'm not trying to say that i'm all grown up and wise now, but i've just come to realize how lucky i am.

My family & friends support me in everything I do, they accept and love me just the way i am and, most importantly, they're always there to catch me when i fall into a deep hole of over-analyzing and self-doubt.

I have the incredible chance to be healthy, live without any serious financial worries, do well at school without having to work my a** of, and most of all, even though I don't always feel confident about myself, be appreciated for the person i am.

If anyone had told me a year ago how much i will have experienced by the end of 2013, i would've straight-up laughed at them. Of course i was expecting to have a great time in Australia, but i didn't imagine those 5 months to change me in the way they did.

No words can describe the way i feel when i look back at 2013. Happy with a hint of nostalgia because i know these things lie in the past now, thankful for even the hardest times as they've only made me stronger - and a part of me is afraid. Afraid that 2014 won't be able to live up to 2013, afraid that it doesn't hold anything for me except for the feeling of having wasted a whole year.

I do know how foolish it is to say this when i have 12 months in front of me to make something of it, but somehow i feel like i simply don't deserve another year as great as the last one. It seems obvious to me that it is somebody else's time to shine now.

However, while that part of me tends to win the overhand at times, i am not going to let it keep me from making the most of this year. Our lives are not decided by destiny - we decide about our own destiny.

As no "new year" post is complete without a set of resolutions, here are mine:

become at ease in my own body - by being active and eating healthy, but more so by appreciating the body i have

reduce the amount of over-thinking and over-analyzing that i tend to do

stop trying to force love and relationships - whatever is supposed to happen, will happen, when it happens

accept that i am not perfect, nor do i need to make everybody happy all the time.put myself first when it's necessary

take care of myself as much as i do of others

I wouldn't technically call these my resolutions for 2014 in that I want to have accomplished all of them by the end of 2014 - it seems extremely silly to me to put a time-limit on resolutions like these. Most people tend to set unrealistic goals for themselves and then feel like they've accomplished nothing just because they didn't achieve them. so what if by next year i will still worry to much about having or not having a boyfriend than is healthy - i'm sure there will be enough other "accomplishments" over the course of a year to make up for it.

These are areas that I wan't to focus on working on during the coming year - not a list I want to have ticked of.

I hope you all have the best year 2014 you could wish for and that you don't let tough times bring you down. you'll always come out he other side, and chances are, you'll come out stronger!

Cheers!

family is everything

I was never too much of a fan of the time around christmas and christmas itself. It's only in the past 2 years that I've actually come to appreciate simply being with my family and not just be excited for the presents.

I always love the food on christmas, but this year was simply insane. My grandmother had been preparing for christmas day for a whole week - and you could truly taste how much effort she put into everything. The turkey was divine and she makes the bets "pommes dauphines" in the world - or at least I think so. 

Then for dessert, not only did she make a homemade "buche de noel", she also made a heavenly tiramisu (i had to get the recipe, although i'm sure it's one of those grandmother things were it will never taste as good when you make it yourself" and an "ile flottante" which we'd eaten before the children even got back to the table.

I stuffed myself with tiramisu and didn't even eat a piece of the buche - gotta have my priorities!

Apart from the food, it was such a nice christmas in general - the children weren't too loud and my grandfather didn't fight with anyone for once, so it was probably the most peaceful christmas we've had in a while.

You can say what you want about christmas, it's always somehow about the gifts. I'm always astonished about how much thought my family puts into what they get me and that they actually do remember  some of the things I say haha. This year was no different, I am so incredibly thankful for everything I got especially cause I wasn't really expecting any of it.

I hope you had a great christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate!

perfection is the disease of a nation

what kind of a fool thinks love's a prison or a handicap?