bye bye birdies

Ok, it's been a while and here's a little update to project de-clutter. 

So, in the past months I sold a bunch of stuff online and at the local fleamarket. I still have bags of clothes and jewellery I didn't sell yet, but about half of it is gone now. I also managed to buy less stuff than I would usually have during that time. I'll get back to that in an extra post sometime soon.

These past days I also cleaned my appartment and made my room ready for fall. I also changed one shelf and finally said goodbye to the little birds on their twig. (see here for what it looked like before) There are also some changes in the kitchen that I might show you next time. These are no major changes, but I feel step by step I'm getting to a more clean and structured space. What do you think?

By the way: to all those bloggers out there who constantly re-paint their walls (like Vera for example): I really don't know how you do that! My walls could definetely need a new paint job, but I guess I'm just too lazy. Hats off to you!

winter is coming

shower courtain and towels: H&M home

...at least in my bathroom

a merry un-birthday

 A little while ago I turned 30. Yeah, I know, I'm old now :-)

Even though everyone seemed to think that I (not married, no kids etc) should feel bad on that occasion I simply didn't. However, I thought it was a fun idea to throw an un-birthday party. So Alice in Wonderland party theme it was.

Here's a little glimpse into what I prepared for the day.

And here is my pinterest with all the inspirations. I didn't go through with all of them though.

 Edible Chess board

 Bar and photo props

 DIY giant red roses

 DIY teacup cupcake wrappers

 Card soldier cake

 Red roses cakepops

 Flamingo caprese sticks

 photo props

and this was me :-)

week 4

 Monday: sweater: Vila; destroyed jeans: American Eagle; worn with black ballet flats
Tuesday: blouse and cardigan: H&M, worn with black skinny jeans (H&M) and pistol boots lookalikes
Wednesday: sweater: Vila, lace dress: Promod; worn with black tights and pistol boots lookalikes

Thursday: dress: COS; worn with cashmere beanie (COS), black scarf (H&M) and black ballet flats
Friday: hoodie: Abercrombie and Fitch; jeans: H&M; worn with tan suede loafers

project de-clutter

Dear readers,

I can't seem to apologize enough for being so absent this summer. I have a lot of things on my mind recently. 

There is something that I feel has been spooking around the blogsphere and my head a lot recently: minimalism. While a lot of sites address this concept directly (like here, here), it is also very evident in the numerous posts about buying quality instead of quantity or the french wardrobe.

Maybe it's a natural process: after all the commercialism of the past decades, people grow tired of it. Tired of having to have the newest bag, hottest shoes and trendiest home decoration all the time. Or maybe it's just a matter of aging. After my student years, when I was happy if I could afford anything at all, I spent the first years as a working girl shopping like crazy, and only since a while realized that that didn't make me any happier nor my wardrobe any better.

Whatever the reason may be, for quite some time, the urge to de-clutter my life has been growing stronger and stronger. 

Clothes-wise, I have talked to you about wanting to buy more quality than quantity before. Now I sometimes feel like throwing out more than half of my stuff, too.

Or my home. In this post you can already feel a bit of the urge to simplify my appartment. This has gotten even stronger. Right now, I just feel that my eyes and brain need a clean canvas to get some rest at home. I would move into Annaleenas or Ivanias appartment this second if I could. 

A fresh start, a clean slate to start new, that would be amazing. At the same time it is incredibly hard for me. Because at some point I get really attached to the things I own. Those chairs that I upholstered by myself, I can't possibly give those away! That dress that I bought in that cool secondhand shop in Berlin. All these things have become friends. Yet they are suffocating me!

So, I don't know exactly where this road is taking me, but I am starting the project de-clutter right now, and would like to invite you along.

One part of project de-clutter also includes this blog. As you know, I have never been one to post very regularly, yet I always felt bad if I couldn't find the time for blogging. With me working more that fulltime on my PhD, this sometimes ended up in crappy posts. I want to try and free myself of this pressure. You may not hear from me that regularly, but I hope it will be for the sake of higher quality posts on this little blog. I hope you will understand and stay with me along this journey.

California love

Dear readers, I'm sorry for my absence these past weeks. It's just that summer is in full bloom and I am trying to enjoy every minute of it.

Some weeks ago I made a longtime dream of mine come true: I went on a roadtrip along the famous Highway 1. It was an amazing experience, and I wish I had more time to see even more places. Unusal fo me I did not always take my camera everywhere which was good and bad at the same time. Good because I felt a lot more connected to the things I did and saw, not constantly thinking about the next picture. But of course I missed out on a few great pics.

Anyway, here are a few impressions of the trip.

 

week 3

 Monday: sweater: Primark; scarf and jeans: H&M; worn with black ballet flats
Tuesday: dress: H&M; longsleeve: Primark; denim vest: current elliott; worn with black tights and star print converse
Wednesday: flower pants: Primark; black T: H&M; worn with black ballet flats

Thursday: silk harem pants: Fleamarket; black T: Primark; worn with brown leather sandals
Friday: lace dress: Promod; black T: H&M; worn with black tights and ballet flats

Lovelies, with last week's rise&shine I am saying goodbye for the next 3 weeks. There will be sun, fog, a snow covered mountain, the ocean and a very famous bridge for me to meet. See you when I get back!

always be a unicorn

 I have been in this weird situation regarding my home for quite a while now. I yearn for a simplistic appartment like the swedes show on so many great blogs, but at the same time I can't seem to part with my ballet shoes, little birds on the twig, and rose blanket. At least not quite yet. Some places are slowly getting there, though. Like the area around my bed, or my new emaille pot filled with candles. What do you think? Do you just thow everything out when you want a new style in your home? And if so, where do you put all that stuff?

week 2

Monday: dress: COS; scarf: H&M; raincoat: fleamarket; worn with black platform sandals
Tuesday: oversized sweater: VILA; scarf: H&M; printed denim pants: Primark; worn with black canvas sneakers
Wednesday: batwing sweater & rose printed pants: Primark; necklace: H&M; worn with black ballet flats

Thursday: everything H&M; worn with Akira Pistol boot lookalikes
Friday: everything H&M; worn with Akira Pistol boot lookalikes 

week 1

Monday: everything H&M, worn with black tights and Akira Pistol Boots lookalikes
Tuesday: shirt & black jeans: H&M; cashmere shrug: Strauss Innovation, worn with Akira Pistol Boots lookalikes
Wednesday: dress: Mint& Berry; scarf H&M, worn with black tights and black ballet flats

Thursday: faux leather jacket: Primark, oversized sweater: Vila; scarf: H&M; worn with black jeans and Akira Pistol Boots lookalikes
Friday: oversized sweater: Vila, dress & scarf: H&M; dotted tights: Primark; worn with black Chelsea boots 

mint & lemon

Just some water, fresh lemon juice and mint

s'mores cake

With summer just around the corner I had to try this s'mores cake recipe. I just swiched the brownie dough to my go-to chocolate cupcake dough, which is a little less heavy. I still found the cake relatively sweet, but that's fine for me.

rise & shine

parka: Primark; dress and shirt: H&M

worn with black tights and ballet flats

Let me tell you a little something about my shopping behaviour. (And maybe grab a coffee, this might be a "little" longer than usual) So, I've always loved shopping. It just feels so good to roam the stores, look at the pretty things, imagine yourself wearing this piece or that. How would you wear it? When would you wear it? What would you feel like? (Little confession here: in those thoughts, I always look incredibly beautiful. Does that happen to you as well? Do you even have such thoughts? Come on, tell me I'm not alone here!)

When I was younger and still in University I would go to the city often to look around, see what's new, maybe try on a few pieces. But as I did not have a lot of money I would evaluate rather thoroughly what I would eventually buy. If I liked something, I would generally wait about 1 or 2 weeks. If I was still thinking about the piece come the next trip to the city, I would go ahead and buy it. If not, I did't really need it after all, right? Now, I'm not saying all the purchases I made back then were perfect. I was a lot younger then, experimenting a lot with different styles and figuring out what worked for me and what not. Naturally there were some mispurchases. However, most of the things I bought, I would wear at least 1 or 2 years. 

Towards the end of my time in Uni, Primark came to my town, and I went totally crazy. For probably the first year, I would just mindlessly buy everything I liked in that store, because it was so pretty, yet so cheap I could afford buying a lot more than before. I even created a special blog. But all the prettiness did't really last that long in most of the cases. The dresses were usually too short for my bodytype (most bodytypes actually, to be honest), a lot of pieces so "on trend" you could wear them for a month and then it was over. And some things I only bought because I saw something similar in a blog or magazine and, well, they were cheap. So most pieces I ended up returning or selling on Ebay. I'm not saying it was all crap. I also bought some amazing pieces that I still wear today, like some simple leather sandals, a few pieces of jewellery or the parka in this post for example. Fortunately after some time, I habituated to the "Primark-craze". I bought less stuff there, returned to my old trusty swede, and - thanks to my friend A. - learned that designer brands can make a huge difference in product quality, but don't necessarily have to. (Did I tell you the button of my Marni coat (that was a gift and ridiculously cheap, just so you don't think I can afford Marni normally) came off after wearing it 4 times? Still, the fabric feels amazing.)

And then I started my first job. I'm not saying I went from rags to riches, but for the first time in my life I could afford to buy things at H&M, Zara, and the other usual suspects without thinking too much. That was actually not a good thing. I ended up doubleing the amount of clothes I had within one year (and I already had a lot to begin with). My closet was exploding, yet I always felt like I had nothing to wear. At some point, I challenged myself to 3 months without shopping to save some money for a DSLR. Maybe you remember that. This shopping detox put things back into perspective a little bit. Ever since then I have been trying to change my shopping behaviour bit by bit. I want to buy less clothes so I can invest in higher quality. I want a closet full of clothes I love and feel great wearing. I don't want 20+ purses and 50+ shoes to choose from, but a few really great ones. But at the same time, I want to have fun shopping, and sometimes you just see something, love it right away, buy it, and keep loving it for years to come. I don't want to cut myself off of fast fashion and trends completely, it's just too much fun. I've made some progress in the past year already. I am not saying there are no mispurchases anymore, but the amount has considerably dropped since I've started to actually use my brain while shopping again. I still have a long way to go. I still tend to rather buy 5 black T's than one quality one. But I know I have to give it time.

So after this long story, here's why I created this new category on the blog. I realized I don't really manage to take proper outfit shoots most of the time. Yet I think it would be nice to keep track of what I am wearing in everyday life on a regular basis. Keeping track of which pieces and styles I am wearing more or less often might help me decide even better what to buy in the future. In rise&shine I will document my everyday outfits in a most simple manner.

So, what is your shopping behaviour? And have you found your signature style yet?

This post was sparked by a comment I recently posted on this very inspiring article over at amazed.        

april showers, may flowers

denim shirt: Gina Tricot; jeans, flannel shirt: H&M; star canvas shoes: Primark; handknitted shawl: gift from A. B.

my jeans are too tight

cupcake cups: HEMA

Ok, so I figure out half my jeans have become too tight and what do I do: bake some cupcakes. Yeah, that's totally logic.

Just my go-to chocolate dough with some peanutbutter on top this time:
Mix 1 Egg, 100g Butter and 100g sugar together. Add 2 teaspoons of baking powder, a bit of salt, 200g flour and 3-5 Tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder (depending on how chocolate-y you'd like your cupcakes). To soften the dough, add about 100ml milk. Bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes.
Voilá, nothing fancy, but soo good!
By the way, I think those cupcake forms are actually ice cream cups, but they work anyways.  

the sparkle in sadness

necklace: H&M