London calling - yes, I was there too!

 
An' you know what they said? Well some of it was true
London calling at the top of the dial
And after all this, won't you give me a smile?

                  (by my favourite band the Clash)

For five days I finally went to see the City again. It was on rather short notice as my sister and

I both got some time off work and decided to go on a short trip together   

So we met for tea & crepes at a cute little shop made of an old coach called the Tram Café

C`est ca ===>






There we tried to come to an agreement over which city to visit. Of course we had both made lists

 Mine contained three citys with cheap places to stay and a cost estimate - hers at least 7 cities and 

 lots of drawings - typical grafic designer...It was really hard, ugh. She kept telling me to stop looking

 at costs and to decide which city I prefered...Amsterdam? too expensive, she´d rather go see  

 Stockholm anyway. And not too much sight-seeing, thank you very much. Air BnB was a no-go.

 So when we finally decided on Paris, we had talked on two meetings for at least a couple of hours.

  

 

When I was lying in bed I kept pondering what I really wanted. And deep down I found my 

 wish - to go back to my mother´s birthplace and the country that held a special place in my 

  heart - good auld England!

  So I called her and convinced her and booked two return tickets with

  EasyJet and a small hotel room in Kensington. Finally! Aftet ten long years it felt like coming home.

  (And I dicovered I had a hidden passion for flying - it really felt so good going up I whooped   )

awesomeness! (despite tourist invasions)

by the river

 

Although my sister had said she wanted to keep the sight-seeing to a minimum, I just had to go see

the Tate, I mean come on! When there´s so many cool museums in London!

And when they have paintings of the one and only John William Waterhouse, genius of the pre-raffaelites! swoon

Tate circular hallway

my sis <3

really cool hand-smoothed statue

me in front of  221b Baker Street (after that we had a beer at a pub)

Of course I bought some stuff - the coat you can see, a vintage Jaeger from a thrift shop, the stripy cutout dress from Topshop and a pink & gold necklace from Vivienne Westwood. There was a really

gorgeous asian girl working there - probably thai - wearing a midnight blue angled dress. I didnt see

that many clothes that I could imagine looking good on me, but I would have instantly bought all the

shoes, bags and accesoires if I could.

at Vivienne Westwood, trying on the baby asterisk print cotton dress (looking a bit dorky)

next time I`m definately going for the royal orb earrings!

The best thing about the whole trip - meeting our childhood friends Laura & Rachel in The Slug & Lettuce! They´re both sisters too. apparently nobody in London wears glasses.

In search of Gifts

I have finally completed my Christmas shop & wrap. It´s been so much of a hassle, I already am 

a bit miffed at the whole idea of presents. Why on earth has Christmas become so comercial?

I just wish you wouldn´t have to contemplate for hours on end whether you should buy a coffee machine or a new vacuum cleaner or an expensive gown - before you go mad and it´s the famous faux-pas socks all over!

That being said, it was nice to meet up with my family at the Winter Tollwood, which is a nice 

cozy market where there are tents, works of art, food & drinks, clothes, trinkets and even concerts.

It is a great place and me and my sis managed to snag a sheepswool pullover for Dad (which you dont have to wash, only air) and a festival bag (because we are planning to go to one next year).

My sister bought me the loveliest dress, all lace in an ivory shade. We found it at a Tollwood exclusive stand selling french lace garments. <3 Looove

I bought most of the prezzies for my girlfriends at the Body Shop and it was there where I found

my very first BB cream that I actually felt like buying. Its this one: 

Body Shop tea tree oil BB cream

and I don´t regret it one bit! It has a nice light texture, the coverage is good and it contains lots of tea tree oil, which I personally like very much. Hooray! I don´t know about recommending it, since everybody has different skin, but it was very hard to find a BB cream that hadn´t gotten a lot of crappy comments online - asian BB creams seem superior. But now I have this one, so I will try using it instead of this:

and see how it works out. I hope it will do for my circles and blotchiness/oily skin/redness/ whatever.

I bought a Clarins product in France, but it is a tinted moisturiser and I will only use it in summer:

Créme de Soins by Clarins

Did a Photoshoot with Laura as well. She gave me this book for training:

It´s fab!!! I´m learning lots of new stuff about bases, highlighting, conturing etc. 
I hope I can become better at doing make up. Let´s work hard! (not to forget studying for exams as well...blegh)


My only wish right now is for there to be snow...

 

Mon petit péché mignon

or "my little weakness"

While fearlessly taking the bike to the city in spite of the rain, I came by a really cute shop. 

It was crammed full of little clocks, cups and porcelain, jewellery, umbrellas and pretty boxes.

Take a look

Of course I went and splurged, paying 90 € for little tidbits to take back home to my friends. 

I don't know if you can say it was worth it, but I love my picks:

Lisbeth Dahl umbrella - all covered in frills & stars

A cigarette case and perfumed letters and cubes by Givre Blanc

golden sugar crystals and sugar pearls for my baking girls & cook bf

Atsuyo et Akiko Star Dia necklace 

I found out that Lisbeth Dahl and Atsuyo et Akiko are well known brands and have their own online shops. 

  You can find Lisbeth Dahl online  here  &  here 

   

   Mind you, the shop is only for the UK, so if you live somewhere else,

   just type Lisbeth Dahl and your home country into the search field

    in your browser.

Atsuyo et Akiko you can find      here   

they sell a lot of tutus, shirts and jewellery for children too and have a Atsuyo et Akiko Disney collection.

Environ-mental pendants

I found this really cute site >> ♥ TITIMADAM ♥

They sell brooches, pendants and earrings - all with really cute animal motives.

Im thinking of getting a personalised one, I would really like a bee.

Bees are just creatures that I can identify with, they are hardworking and small, and can achieve the most when working together.

But the whale made of walnut wood is cute too ^^

Inspiration : floral blouses

listening to Chris Cornell - Long Gone



have been having a look around. Today is a friday and nearly all of my french collegues were wearing these breezy floral blouses, which look so refreshing and feminine if you combine them right, with uni pants and skirts.

I found it pretty hard to find any that I could imagine looking good on myself, though.

By now I have mastered the art of knowing what will make me look good and which colours dont suit me at all. Yes! I came across Sheinside.com while perusing the web and thought - why not? These are my picks:

Love the interesting clash of textures ✩

the mix of seethrough and lace is superb!

admittedly very girly - but you can always dress it down



the sleeves are not too long and the flowers not too overbearing

Good Times, Conversations

 feat. The Preatures - Take a Card

Ahhh~ I had heaps and heaps of fun today!!! 

I went to town again and discovered some really nice places ❤♥  and of course nice things: at the cool teashop, where the clerk was wearing a darkgreen yukata robe and a japanese store where they had Pocky & other stuff...

I am so happy!

as I am in need of presents for all my girlfriends in Germany, I bought some lotion at the local

☆click☆ >> Yves Rocher : I bought two different lotions to try out - Muguet/Lily of the Valley and Lila/Lilac which are both scents I love.

 Despite looking at many blogs I have yet to find a good Lily of the Valley perfume. The Yves Rocher one made my nose burn, so I hope I dont get any rashes from the lotion...it is a poisonous plant after all...☠ 

dum da dum dum!

Bento leaf dividers



japanese Washi tin with beautiful maple print

Post Scriptum: learned about the word "Weeabo" today.

I am not one of them, luckily, because I enjoy every culture there is, but I am still proud of being british/german. 

I would be terrified to be on the same level as Venus Palermo..brrr