The Revolution Starts Now!

We are starting the Radical Revolution August NOW!

Be sure to hop over to the Vanillery Garden and join us for this awesome adventure!

XOXO and cupcake kisses,

Weekend Candy: Letters To Crushes And Invisible Tubs

Love british humour @ Bobby´s Food Store

Oy Saturday! Howsitgoin? Who would have thought that Austria has a rainy season too? Monsoon in Vienna! And this all while my parents are in the UK and report that the weather there is splendid. I miss them, I miss England too. Got me some british cookies to make up for it.

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♥ Double-heart the Colorful Living Project!

♥ Simple blogs can be so yummy! Miss Moss shares the most delightful inspirational things with us.

♥ My obsession with colorful hair tips has not ended yet. OMG. Starting to think about dyeing the hair myself instead of going to the hairdresser. But that might be a bad idea…

♥ Can´t get away from the True Stories Told In One Sentence. Very good inspiration for fictional writers. Everything here could have been turned into a really good play by Shakespeare.

♥ Drool! Hot chocolate on a stick lets you have your favorite beverage in summertime too.

♥ Oh my heart, oh my tiny tiny heart! Vintage lovers prepare yourself to faint and keep your money close, because I promise you: Three Potato Four will tempt you to spend all of it on interior items.

♥ I´m a sucker for white apartments. We plan to move next year and I wish they had something like this in Vienna. Bright, big, beautiful.

♥ Getting the feeling of dramatic teenage love when reading Letters To Crushes.

♥ Want to leave the country and move somewhere else on a budget?

found here.

♥ Do you manage to stop wondering at the things that are perfectly normal in Japan? I love this country to pieces, with all its weird stuff and wonderful people. すごい！

♥ Really smart advice from the 10 laws of productivity.

♥ This would be a highlight to every bathroom: the invisible tub! You are your own aquarium!

♥ Punch negative thoughts right in the face and be attractive!




5 things I am thankful for today:

• getting up early and having so much motivation to instantly start working
• 11pm and I still got breakfast ahead=best meal of the day
• finally having a new passport. Not that the photo looks any better than the old one. But still, I´m not 14 anymore.
• Not too long until Radical Revolution August starts!
• my parents might bring me Lucky Charms!!!! Faints!

Have a wonderful weekend, brush and floss your teeth and stay healthy!

Lovebear hugs and rainbow popsickles,

How To Be A Mori Girl Plus Starting Tips

found here.

"Do you have any starting tips for a mori girl newbie like me?" I recently received emails containing this question a lot, since the style is gaining more and more followers. If you have no idea what a mori girl is, you can read everything about it here. The thing is: ever since I started wearing the mori style, I constantly try to put my own flavors into it, for example like handmade accessoires like in the above picture. It allows you to be very personal in your style, bringing great creativity into little items. I do bring features from the gyaru style as well as decora (I just love cute items, ribbons and kawaii characters) and lolita into it. To me mori means caring about the environment and living in the moment. It´s about being very aware of what your place and role on this planet is, loving all creatures on it and generally sporting a peaceful and generous character which is humble and positive.

found here.

I personally like colorful clothes a lot. There is a fine line to walk between gypsy and mori girl then. It´s important to keep it calm. This coordinates on the left contain brighter colors as well as beige and very subtle colors.
It´s important that either the top or the bottom part of your combination contains natural tones. Just take a look at the very cute assembly of large buttons and stuffed animals. LUV!










If you did a little googeling, I´m sure you already discovered the Mori Girl livejournal community. This is an awesome resource for any questions that you have concerning the definition of a mori girl, for example the translated Mixi list of features. It´s a nice to have for a good overview.

But now onto you: Most of us think about buying clothes online, because well…you don´t really find these kind of clothes in a regular clothing store, right? There is one tip that I would like to give you though before you head out to ebay and spend money on clothes. First of all you need to figure out what kind of colors you want to combine. I always do this by going out and just collecting shirts and skirts in colors that I think I like and that would go together well. Into the changing room! (these clothes are just for testing, they don´t need to be in mori girl style and you don´t need to buy them afterwards *g*).

found here.

You´ll find that some greys will go with your type well while others look yuck. For example: I´m blond and if the grey is too cool, I start looking really pale and sick. When your skin color is very pinkish you might want to step away from warm/reddish brown tones. It´s all about trying out! Now, get your camera and take a picture of the clothes so that you have a color schedule at hand. Apropos color schedule: Take a look at colorlovers.com to get a good view upon what color palettes you can put together. You can even create your own if you feel the need to experiment. As for buying japanese clothes: never go for small! You can be as thin as a chopstick, but westerners have thicker arms and wider shoulders. You´ll look like you accidentally crushed the children section. Don´t do it. (^___^")



I did this very quick mori makeup tutorial some time ago and I plan on doing more of them, as this was really filmed in a rush and I want to do it in a better quality. Plus: hair tutorials! Yay!
Again: This is where you are free to experiment. The look here is very natural, but I´ve seen mori girls with fake lashes and brighter blush and thought it looked adorable as well. Be brave and develop your own taste. I have never tried out fake lashes or circle lenses myself, but who knows, I might one day?


If you decided you want to go mori or any other style in public and you lack the confidence, then you are perfectly in time to join the Radical Revolution August group on the Vanillery Garden. It´s free and you have other wonderful women supporting each other along the way! More info here.



5 things I am thankful for today:

• 

• Ben and Jerry´s Chocolate Macadamia. FINALLY in Vienna!
• my messed sleeping schedule. Reminds me how much better the world could be if everyone got enough sleep. (she said at 12pm)
• making lists and raiding google for cool spots in Berlin (I have mentioned it far too often by now, but hey, I´m a sagittarius, we love to travel!)…(Did I mention that too before?)
• twitter. twitter is amazing if you just want to drop somebody a line without actually needing to stalk him or her for the email addy. Way less creepy, way more convenient.

Much much much love to you!
Love,

Pastel Hair In Process

found here.

I am having plans with my hair! I am very much in love with pastel colors and ever since I saw the rainbow braid on the freepeople blog I knew that this idea would never leave me until I put it into practise. 



I will go for purple, turquois, pink and blue. I´m buying the colors myself and the team from HeadQuarters will put the highlights in. Soooo excited! This will happen after my Berlin vacation.

I can totally see it happening! I love color, but I don´t want to constantly bleach my whole hair and put in all that toxic color, although I adore people with cotton candy hair like Angelina from Albinwonderland.

Anyone of you ever got colorful hair? What are your experiences?


5 things I am grateful for today:

• they sell rare kind of organic tomatoes at our local food store and they are SOOO tasty. Much better than the regular ones and they even come in purple!
• the darkroom app for iPhone does not force you to put every picture online and does not crop your pictures...unlike instagram (which I love too, don´t get me wrong!)
• being asked for repairing a very old costume for a movie. I like to help and it means that I am trusted with my skills.
• not fainting during our little vet visit. I hate doctors for no obvious reason, but they make me highly uncomfortable. Fight the fear!
• the most awesome of awesomest funny game soundtracks: Katamari

Much love, light and hugs

Weekend Candy: 200 Amazing Secrets And Cheeto Art

Oh my, there are muscles hidden somewhere in my arms! photo by Mr.DomDom

Is summer already over? This weekend it might seem a little like it, since it´s only rainy and cold weather. So basically the best thing you can do is stay inside, bake a redcurrant cake (with so much sugar in it that it would give any nutritionist a heart-attack) and watch Lost In Translation. (one of my alltime favorites.) I´m being a little frustrated by the world lately, seeing that so many people are unable to love this life and walk down the destructive road. The pain that comes is very deep and when it comes to that point I have to remind myself not to watch the news anymore. I feel very sorry for what happened and my compassion is bringing me down and I am much more use to the world being happy and supportive than depressed and in bed. There will come the day when I am strong enought to take it in a more corageous way, not letting everything into my heart. Right now I work on becoming brave. Soooo, what do I have this week for you?

Nom nom, so delicious!

♥ There´s a new community for you out there that you will absolutely love to join if you are a creative person. Take a look at Artsy Avenue! It´s still in its infacy, but aleady has so wonderful and loving people on board.
"We are an online art community with artists of all different styles, from painters, photographers, mixed media, poets, chefs, and more! We believe in freedom of expression and respect our artsy members for their differences and similarities." Word.


♥ You already know that I am a sucker for good songs and this is a fantastic way to bring up good songs that you haven´t listened to in a long time: Lyrics To Live By is full of oohs! and aahs! for me.

♥ Awwww! Did you think that a squirrel hit by a snowball looks so cute? You did? Oh well.

found here.

♥ These double exposure portraits are wonderful! *gets camera and starts playing around*

♥ Still wondering how this can be done: Sculptures Made Out Of A Single Paper Sheet. Omg.

♥ This link will teach you how to do any kind of braid you can think of with videos. I will go for the fishbraid next. (*^___^*)

♥ So, it´s rainy and cold? Can´t bother me. I now can have August Ambiance all year long.



♥ It´s not like you actually always have to EAT cheetos.

♥ I wish I had known some of the 200 Amazing Secrets before, would have saved me from a lot of trouble.

♥ From very strange to very beautiful messages: "___" will "_____" you gives you the opportunity to add your own little statement!



5 things I am grateful for today:

• pastel nailpolish
• looking through websites, deciding what pastel color strands I will put into my hair (got some suggestions for me?)
• eating fresh bread. I don´t know how people can live without good pasta and bread.
• hot water bottles 
• soft kitten fur 

Many many hugs to you,

Bang Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down

found here.

I hate ego-shooters. This might sound quite harsh, but I really do. As well as films about war, like "Pearl Harbor". Glorifying weapons and brutality lets me lose hope in mankind. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! It makes me sick to the stomach to imagine that some people really like to spend their time in front of the screen, playing some WWII simulation and feeling good doing so. Hello??? Have they ever thought about what they are DOING there? They are playing a game with the intent to re-enact one of the darkes hours of humanity. Not so much time ago humans actually died. And now they sit there and think they are the big hero?

"Oh, come on Lady, this is not reality!" Oh, it isn´t? Isn´t your heart beating faster, aren´t you feeling the tension? Why then is there blood and men crying out loud when you shoot them in the head? And the sounds? I just don´t get it why people will go through something AGAIN that has been a traumatic experience for generations. Oh wait, I guess it´s because there´s no pain. It´s not real, meh?

But it´s the idea behind it. You shoot people. They might be made out of pixels, but they represent the idea of a real human being. That´s pretty creepy if you ask me. The brain does not differentiate between an action that is done in a computer game and an action that is done in reality. Sure, your mind might understand. But the brain is a muscle and muscle memory works in a different way. You can´t tell me that you aren´t influenced by it if you play these kind of games a lot. Everyone who says he never dreamed about it afterwards is a liar.

found here.

I´m not going to play it all black and white. It´s not like everyone who plays these kind of games is capable of shooting or hurting somebody in reality. Actually most of the gamers are quite aware of the difference between fiction and reality. But others aren´t. And especially when it comes down to simulations with a high level of reality, I do think that it might affect some people in a bad way. I´m lost here. I simply can´t imagine why somebody would spend years of their life to programming a game that is advocating non-fictional violence. Or what kick somebody gets out of WWII games. So you shot that polygon-Nazi. Are you feeling good now? Is this what you consider entertainment?


Am I the only one who is utterly disturbed by this? As if we would not have other problems than amusing ourselves by re-enacting historic wars. Or watching war movies that contain just a little hint of a dramatic love stories to make it more interesting for us ladies. Like that would do the trick. How do you deal with this topic?



Things I am thankful for today:

• having 2 weeks of holidays ahead
• getting to choose from 12 different kinds of bagels for lunch
• knowing that I can trust my guts and intuition 100%.
• looking ahead to a rainy weekend. These are the best kinds!
• watching Lost In Translation tomorrow after a really long time.

Much love and hugs to you!

The Nail That Stands Out Will Be Hammered Down

found here.

I have a thing for brave girls. I like women who spent a lot of time to develop their own character, look and opinions. It´s what makes them original and interesting. I don´t need to be 100% of their opinion all the time, it´s enough to know that they are brave, humorous and clever in their own way. One of these girls that I recently discovered is Xiaxue. I don´t know how I could have missed her since I read quite a lot of blogs and she is pretty big in the blogosphere. (plus: She is friends with Michelle Phan and also featured in one of her recent videos.)

Xiaxue has an online episodes channel with hilarious videos with tips for the daily life. I really had to laugh out loud, she is very original and funny! Yet, if you read her blog you will notice that there are a lot of very rude comments below each posting, especially if you move back to older postings with more comments. I wonder why people feel free to just vomit their hate and disgusting views onto her. So yeah, she had a plastic surgery. But she is very open about it! She´s not hiding it, like so many Hollywood celebrities do. I also find it very disturbing how so many Singapores are utterly upset by the fact that she is married to an American. Helloooo? Ever heard of globalization? How can people be so narrow minded? It´s 2011, for heaven´s sake! They look so happy and cute together, you really have to see their proposal video:



The thing is: if you want to be yourself, you will face resistance. Especially if you are a bit more on the extroverted side. Or if you are artsy and unconventional. You are out of the "normal" basin. You swim freely. People become afraid. Or jealous. How dare you be different? How is it that this is so easy for you, when it is so hard for the rest of us. You must be faking this, it can´t be real. You are fake. You are a liar and a fraud. People like to keep to their safety level. Nothing new, nothing extraordinary that seems threatening to their peace. And yet this young blonde girl shows up with her American husband, becomes the most famous blogger of the country and some out there become afraid that she could be inspiring to other girls.

And trust me: She does! But way beyond the "plastic surgery" level. This is not about the looks. It´s not about her being super pretty (whatever that means, in the eyes of the beholder ...) or famous. It´s about being courageous. Be yourself anyway, but yourself out there anyway. Did Xiaxue ever stop blogging, even after so many horrific and ugly comments?

No she did not!

Some men have the balls to go onto her blog on a regular basis just to tell her that she looks ugly. Nice, isn´t it? (Get a life, mister! You would not have to be afraid of american men snatching away "your" women if you would treat them nicer. like real gentlemen do.) But she continued to do what felt right for her. This is not easy. Every blogger knows how much work goes into filming and writing and being brave enough to face the rough world out there.

In my opinion Xiaxue is a really good role model when it comes up to doing your thing. Do it anyway! It is soooo important, I cannot stretch the importance of your work and your style and your voice out there loud enough. It can be bleach-blonde or mori girl style. It can be with blue or short hair, with brown or blue eyes, with anxiety or with courage, but it can only be with you.

Xiaxue and her mother. found here.

Thanks a lot to the universe for brave girls. For females with strong voices. For women with views and opinions and plans. If you struggle with your way of finding your path to yourself, please don´t forget that on August 1st we start with the Radical Revolution month. It´s free and you can join us early right now on the Vanillery Garden.


You rock!!! Much love,

Weekend Candy: Whimsical Disney Princess and Mini Dream Home

If I were a Disney princess, that would be me. Artwork by ~jimbopunk

Waking up far too early on a sunday gives me the feeling that I am far ahead of the crowd. I just love it. I have grown to be an early bird over the last couple of weeks. The morning air has a fragrance to it that the rest of the day just hasn´t. Virgin, fresh, unspent.




♥ Don´t know what to read? Maybe the best 100 first lines from novels will help you find something. I HAVE TO  read Walter Abish´s "Alphabetical Africa" (1974) now:

Ages ago, Alex, Allen and Alva arrived at Antibes, and Alva allowing all, allowing anyone, against Alex's admonition, against Allen's angry assertion: another African amusement . . . anyhow, as all argued, an awesome African army assembled and arduously advanced against an African anthill, assiduously annihilating ant after ant, and afterward, Alex astonishingly accuses Albert as also accepting Africa's antipodal ant annexation.

♥ How is that even possible? A fake pool that you can walk in. It looks so real! (O___O!)

♥ Very moved by little words with absolutely huge meaning.   I´m here for you.


♥ Stunning artwork with water and ink!


♥ Drool! Living big on a budget: Old garage turned into mini dream home. Can I move in?

♥ LOL and here is the reason why you should not overthink stuff too much. It gets you nowhere.

♥ Oh, oooooh, ooooohooohooooh: 12 dozen places to educate yourself online FOR FREE. Oh my!

Lindsay Campbell´s artwork is so touching and amazing. Brought tears to my eyes!

♥ These page corner bookmarks are essential for everyone who is thinking of rereading the Potter series after seeing the movie. :)

♥ Look at these clouds! The 10 most fascinating natural phenomena are proof to how strong mother nature is. And how wonderful.



5 things I am thankful for today:

• Bubble tea! The chai was ultra strong, but oh so good!

• Mineral pigment powder. No oily face in summer and no plastic on your face. Still have color on my thumb from painting, lol.

• cats in sinks. 
•  Wearing flipflops that actually fit, even though they are already 2 years old.
• Only one more week til holidays start! Harrrr!

Much much love to you all! 

Things I Want You To Know

Happy Wednesday! There are some things recently going through my head. Things I´ve seen and things I´ve experienced and things that set the mood for upcoming August. I really do think we need a revolution. But it´s not like the french revolution aka "up the warpath we go!" No, it needs to be a revolution of the mind, a revolution that everyone does by himself/herself. A new understanding for this is growing in the world and we are part of it! Now let me share my little insights with you:

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Everything in this world has two sides. There is no ultimate right or wrong. What is good for me might be bad for you. What is good for the U.S. might be hell for Darjeeling. What is good for a cat might be bad for a dog. There are no rules to live by that another person/institution/school could give you that are of any worth for you. You are an individual, you need to find out what is right for you and what not. Your heart speaks the truth to you anyway. Learn to listen and to rely on yourself.


Don´t be afraid of anything. There is nothing to fear. Fear creates resistance and resistance creates pain. If you feel afraid, become and observer of your own feelings, but don´t associate yourself with them. You are not your anxiety. Anxiety makes you stop in your tracks and keep you from growing. If you are not growing and developing, you are basically dead already. (Can you tell that I read a lot of Osho recently? *g*)

Go where your dreams are. Find out what you want to have in your life so much it makes your heart race and your eyes watery, because you cannot imagine anything better to happen than this. Don´t make this dependent on another person. Like: "I want to marry XY!" This would be unfair to the other one, because it creates a lot of pressure and takes away freedom of will. Be as independent and yet as trusting as you can be. You are responsible for your own happiness as well as everyone else is in this world. So what is it that you want to be in this life? Living self-sufficient of your garden? Build a house on yourself? Move to a new country?


All is new and constantly changing. Be ok with that. Be part of the change. You are now allowed to be more daring than ever. Today I saw a tv commercial with a volleyball player that was tattoed all over. It was a very serious commercial and yet: they picked him. Impossible to imagine some 10 years ago. What I mean with this is: just because some people are stuck in the older times and older views of this world´s history, doesn´t mean you can´t push them a little towards their limits and expand their view. Your impact onto this planet is your responsibility too and you can either choose the status quo to continue or to wander new paths that nobody has walked before. Are you that kind of person? I think so.

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I hope you enjoyed my little philosophical thoughts of this week. Please come and join the Vanillery Garden for our free group that will open up officially on August 1st (you can still come sign up for it right now, so that you don´t forget, hehe!) Both of the pretty photos were shot by Mr.DomDom.

There´s something else where I need to fill you in too: I am as of July 1st working as a graphic designer and conceptual thinker in a media agency in Vienna. I still plan to be self-sufficient in the future, nothing changed about that. In the meantime I need to eat and sleep somewhere too. ^__^ I need to tell you this to be completely honest with my readers. Love you!


5 things I am thankful for today:

• Lemon-lime-elder-yoghurt
• two purring cats on my pillow to wake me up from a bad dream
• rain that is to come. Hopefully soon.

• My new cowboy hat. So nice for bad hair days.
• Cold shower on a hot evening. Home spa at its best.
 

Much love to you and enjoy yourself,

Weekend Candy: Alice In Wonderland Restaurant And Slides Inside The House

Norman Crystal sleeping throught he heat. photo by Mr.DomDom

July! It´s hot! I´m sitting here, waiting for Mr.DomDom to get some breakfast (I´ll have an avocado bagel. There´s no way I could eat warm food when it´s burning hot outside.) How is your July coming along so far? We booked our flights to Berlin in August and I can´t wait to start travelling! Yes, we are flying. I might be chicken shit by the time we arrive, but you hear me fear? I´ll look you in the eye! Ha! This weekend I have selected wonderful eyecandy that will make your heart sing:


♥ I´m a sucker for good quotations! Like these from Tiny Buddha.

♥ The Crystal River is definitely a place that I want to see once in my lifetime! Amazing colors!

♥ An Alice in Wonderland restaurant! Can you imagine???

♥ This tank dress with pockets is easy as pie and looks so great!

♥ If objects could write letters, they would probably communicate like this.

♥ Always nice to remember: How To Tell If Somebody Loves You.

♥ The most simple and charming online clock.

♥ Oh, I really really needed this for the horror vacui: How to Think of What to Draw.

♥ I want to have slides in my house! I want want want want want!!!!

♥ Pure aaaaaaawwwwwww!

♥ Get your old photos out and try this!


♥ Wow. The world is a beautiful place to be.


5 things I am thankful for today:

• watching Vanilla Diamond grow up. She will be such an amazingly beautiful ballerina of a cat.
• trying on my bikini yesterday for the first time in this year and discovering that I actually don´t look that bad despite lack of workout.
• my long hair. I´m still undecided if I should add some colorful strands (cotton candy!) but it only took 2 years to grow from supershort to past my shoulderblades.
• New challenges in work and private life. Yeha!
• Yummy breakfast. Smells so good, I gotta run!

The best of sundays to you!
Hugs,

August Is Radical Revolution Month Plus Give Away!

Are you looking for an adventure? Then this August is your time. I´ll be starting a free group on the Vanillery Garden that is open for all of you, who believe that they need to work on self-acceptance, love and taking responsibilitly for your own life.

One month we will focus on developing skills to increase the quality of our everyday life, talk about upcoming problems and try to solve them in a gentle and reasonable way. We will have live-cam events, podcasts and lots of personal inspiration.

What is on the agenda?

It´s so hard to be brave enough to be yourself. We are trained to be there for everyone else, but not for ourselves. This adds frustration to your life, because there is a huge imbalance between giving and taking. Society and the system doesn´t like the term self-fullfillment. If you need guidance, you are dependent and this is where they want to have you.

But you are individual and you deserve to have the freedom to be the way you are!

More information about this will be added to this blog page and below this entry from now on, so you can get a better image of what is going to happen. Plus: Of all the people in the group I will select 10 members that will get my new upcoming e-book plus online class for free!

I already set up the group in the Vanillery Garden for you, but the content will not be added until August 1st (where I will be in Berlin for the first time with wlan and I´ll do a livecam session for you!). I would love to see you there! If you have any questions, please feel free to comment!


Many hugs to you,

Saying Goodbye To An Old Friend

My old cat went to live on a cloud.
15 amazing years. I was there when he was born, I was there when he opened his eyes, when he learned to walk and when he grew up to be the most amazing personality a cat could ever have. Zizo von Zitzewitz never felt or behaved like he was a cat. There was something very human to his nature, even when he talked.

He is the grandson of Lilli, my first cat. As develish as his grandmother has been, as angel-like was Zizo. He would never hurt anyone. Never ever. Even when he became ill some 3 years ago the vetenarians said that they had never seen a cat with such patience and character. He was everyone´s darling.

Zizo suffered from a very rare neuropathy and there was no chance he would ever fully recover from it. At times it was better, at times he could not even walk. This week it was time to let go. I won´t show you any recent photos because I want him to be remembered as the cat that I knew, which is a funny, gentle and caring cat.

I love and miss you forever.

Many hugs to you and your furbabies,

The Weathers Are A Changing

In case you wondered what I am up to:
I am still recovering from my cold. My throat is giving me some scratchy times and I haven´t even had the time so far to realize that I am not a student anymore. Slowly it begins to sink in. I´ve spent some quality time with my parents and it was really really hot. Time rushes by so fast and wow, my brother is twelve and really handsome. :)

Then swooosh, heavy rainfall and it´s been yucky since. We got our dinner from the Naschmarkt today and while we were waiting heavily rainfall set in. Sitting there, waiting and drinking jasmine tea. Perfect bliss.

rainy photos by Mr.DomDom

Right now I´m focusing on my recovery, so I can be back with full energy and bring some awesome news to you about August. Brace yourself, it´s going to be nice nice nice.


5 things I am grateful for today:

• The Internet. It brings awesome people together.
• Growing to be a lioness. More brave, more daring.
• Cough syrup. I might be dead by now without it.
• Being early at work. I´m a morning bird and I love the solitude and the silence that it brings.
• Azzurra Paglieri products. The smell reminds me of my childhood.

Love and hugs to you,