5 Reasons Why Gossip Will Make You Lonely (The Recovery Edition)

Mrs. Robinson talks.

There are only two modes: You are either on or off the gossip bus. You are either talking about others behind their back or you are not. And to be honest: I think most of us do. Right? It must not necessarily be the mean kind of gossip. But we do talk. So what does it do to us? Why aren´t as comfortable with it all as we would like to be? After all: What´s the big deal? Let me take you on a short trip to chit-chat island.

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1. Oh the embarrassment! Let´s start off with the most obvious one: You´ll get heard. If you don´t happen to drop the words directly within range of audibility (high go-tomato factor!) there´s always somebody else to do the job for you. People will know that you are a talkative lady and once you have that reputation … well, probably not what you were going for in the first place. Many will stop to trust you with secrets. One way or another you can end up being an outsider. Maybe not too obvious, but surely when it comes down to important stuff. Ouch.


2. It works both ways. Mostly those who gossip are afraid that others might talk bad stuff behind their back too. You are being harsh on yourself. You have to strive for perfection, otherwise you´ll create space for criticism. (The big sister of gossip. And she is mean too!) This creates a lot of stress, apart from making you seem completely paranoid. Weird!

3. It´s just kindergarden. One day there will come the day when you´ll grow out of it. It´s just no way to be for sensitive people. Empathy, compassion: yes. Nosiness and grilling people about something: no. Adults like to hang out with adults, so if you want to raise your level of intelligent conversations you´ll have to raise your expectations too and leave the cheap stuff out.


4. Teach people how you want to be treated. It´s not just you talking. I´ve said that before. But while you are gossiping here and there you are also giving people permission to treat you the same way. They will not take your secrets as serious. They will not take YOU as serious.

5. Attention! Attention! There are two good reasons for gossip: Either you want to draw the attention away from you (so people won´t see your problems and flaws) or to gain attention for acting like a human newsfeed. There might be better ways to achieve this goal. It´s always of much more benefit to yourself, as well as to all the listeners, to work on yourself and your own issues. Most people like others more if they have something to tell about their life. Being real. Being proud of what you have done. Not making people feel uncomfortable for hanging out with you. Because maybe, who knows, they will end up as your next catchline.

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5 things I am grateful for today:

• finding Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie at our local food store. 
• opening up a society6 store (more tomorrow)
• weekend, I need you, I need sleep
• working on a super fun project. I am the happiest when I get to illustrate.
• bacon for tomorrow´s breakfast! Ah, nice!

Friday friday happy friday hugs,

Saying Hi To My New Baby

Big smile!

I worked on my old MacBook Pro for 6 years now. I love my old girl. She is great. But she is also getting a big slow. Plus I had to take her home every day for blogging. So I was overexcited when it was decided that I should get a new iMac for work. When it came in unexpectedly today, I thought I would faint. I kept jumping around like a small child. This is like triple christmas to me. I love things that make work easier.

color: virgin-like white.

We shall be the best of friends.

It´s been quite a lot of things going on the recent days, I hardly found time to blog. Sorry about that. But I am back for good now, having some nice things in mind for the upcoming days. How was your week so far? Fill me in, I feel like I missed everything that was going on in the outside world!

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5 things I am grateful for today:

• my new iMac....obviously
• my body literally forcing me to fall asleep. With or without make-up, not even close to wearing PJs. Whatever, I had a really good night.
• getting my original Julia Pott illustrations (more about them soom)
• sitting at work, staring at my "new" G1 My Little Pony. I am still a little girl.
• bacon (and nothing else) for dinner. Now heading for the shower! Oh bliss!

weekend coming up soon!
Giant hugs,

Weekend Candy: Free Flamingo Dream Printables and Wallpaper

Rightclick onto image and go to "Save target as...". Please credit if you share.

Happy weekend everyone! Today I have a little present for you. I made this illustration today with pencils and watercolor. The quote says "I talk to you in my dream." To be honest I hardly ever talk in my sleep but I think it´s an expression of a very special side of love. The side that dwells in the subconsciousness. It can´t be influenced, so I imagine that it must be a very intense kind of emotion that crosses the border of dreams into reality. It is a very honest moment and I like to wake from these dreams refreshed and surrounded by love. We should try to have it around us all the time and as a little reminder I made you a wallpaper and small printable notes. The wallpaper is already above, you can click onto it to get the larger version and then download it. You´ll find the printables download link below.

Click here to download the free printable! Enjoy! :)

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Oh so sleepy!

5 thinks I am grateful for today:

• cuddly cats that purr all day long

• talking to good friends on the phone and laugh
• looking forward to seeing my family tomorrow
• getting ready for bed early
• freshly washed bedclothes (mhhmm! *presses face into pillow*)

 Happy sunday to you and see you next week,

Couple Outfit //// Last Summerfeeling

At the Naschmarkt. Mr.DomDom and I took photos of each other.

New category! I thought that it would be nice to show some of our wardrobe once in a while. I always love to read blogs where they show what both wore: she and him. This saturday was probably the last warm one and we wanted to celebrate it by wearing something light.

Oh ballerinas, how I will miss thee!

I love to use shawls as belts, it gives each outfit an instant hippie look. White is always a bit difficult as I tend to get it dirty within minutes. There seems to be a magical barrier that I break as soon as I leave the house.

Gotta love those colors.

Mr.DomDom´s shoes have a little background story. They are from the Ken Block special edition to the game Dirt3 and as we both really love it, our little heart skipped when we saw them here in Vienna, as we really didn´t expect to ever find them here. Ok, maybe a bit of nerdism going on here. :D

hello there!

I love to make photos that look like there is no gravity. Surprisingly enough I can almost do the splits still. Let me practise for 4 more months and I´ll be able to be all pretty ballerina again.

I´ll come flying to your house!

What she wore:

white shirt - H&M

jeans - cross

scarf - H&M (but from the men´s section)

shoes - bershka (but with handpainted illustrations on)

What he wore:

shirt - cyroline

jeans - cross

shoes - DC Ken Block special edition

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5 things I am thankful for today:

• dieing my hairtips in my favorite purple color (photos tomorrow)
• starting to watch the G4 My Little Pony series and they are both funny and emotional. I feel like my inner child is squealing in excitement!
• finding the cutest emails in my inbox that keep my spirits up
• having a bubble tea shop around the corner and walking by a very cool clothing store that just happened to be open by incident. Awesome!
• Vienna. Everyone might be terribly grumpy at times, but the city is so sweet and small.

Pony hugs and pastel hair kisses,

Traveling Berlin //// Part 3 (pic heavy)

Movin´right along!

Have you ever been on the rooftop of the Reichstag even though you are afraid of heights? I´ve been there and wow, it IS huge! They make you go through all of these security checks, you need to bring your passport and take a reservation online before you even can get up. Pretty neat! Looking down from the rooftop you really can see how green and huge Berlin is.

Trying to distract myself by taking photos, haha!

Rooftop ballerina.

The Reichstagskuppel.

Inside the Reichstagskuppel. All photos taken by Mr.DomDom except where mentioned.

Talking about green and huge I do absolutely have to show you the Chi Sing restaurant. The address says Rosenthaler Straße, but it is actually close to Mulackstraße. You´ll notice it by the very nice decoration outside (unless you go there in winter, I guess). In Berlin you can see a lot of people putting much effort into making the city look a bit more friendly by having flowers on their balconies or windows, but this restaurant beats the regular style.

Come and take a seat! The concept of sitting outside, but somewhat inside.

Some steps away from the restaurant you can find the No More Sleep café. It is small and cozy and it looks so lovely from outside. We simply adore the designer aspects of Berlin. There´s a lot of good typography around, good graphic design and you feel that everyone is working hard in order to put out their own identity in this city. There is a lot of unique style going on.

No more sleep - a lot more coffee!

There is no Berlin without Currywurst.

So much to see! As we walk along the streets we took random shots of things we liked. I saw this band aid stuck onto a lantern with the cutest ducks on them. I´m a sucker for kawaii style, haha!

I´d fall down on purpose just to get these!

A bit of Duchamp everywhere.

Walking through the streets of Berlin. See what I mean with the green?

I fell in love with Berlin hardcore. Even the place where we stayed was amazing! Mr.DomDom found it via Airbnb and we loved it. A lot. The lady that rented out the room was DJane and had an amazing collection of  records. Funny enough we should listen to the same style of music, which also made us feel a lot more at home.

9am. Hello sunshine.

Our bedroom.

The apartment also had a wonderful balcony where you could climb up to be over the rooftops of Berlin. I have a thing for shabby looking backyards mixed with a lot of flowers and some modern balconies inbetween, the variety of different styles is so inspiring.

That is what a wandering cat must feel like!

Berlin was beautiful and amazing and breathtaking! I´m going to update this post tomorrow to show you the video we did here. Thanks so much for coming here and traveling with me!

Ending with same facial expression as starting the post. Peace!

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5 things I am thankful for today:

• I was at a huge meeting today that I expected to be boring but it was moderated by a comedian and I almost fell off my seat laughing tears. Could have saved the makeup.
• I slept in so early today, that I am basiclly up again at 4am to make this blogpost. Why is it still dark outside?
• Peppermint tea is such a life-saver when your tummy in in trouble 
• the cats are slowly getting their winter coat and looks superpuffy
• as it is getting colder Norman is sleeping on my feet. This serves us both, as he is too hot and I am cold.

Morningly hugs,

Traveling Berlin //// Part 2 (pic heavy)

Berlin 2011 Dramatic Jump by Mr.DomDom

So where did we stop yesterday? Ah yes, the sparrows! Today we are continuing our journey from Oranienburger Straße up to Rosenthaler Straße. (and yes dear Berliners, we WALKED all the way!) We passed the Tacheles, a rather run-down house in the midst of all the chic buildings, yet being one of the artistic hot spots of Berlin (and there are a lot of them around.) They sell all kinds of handmade goods and the people that hang around there look like they could tell you enough stories out of their lives to fill a whole book within hours.

The Tacheles and High End 54. Pretty much an eyecatcher.

You have no idea HOW MANY shops there are on this street. It´s amazing. But I want to show you one in particular. The house I am talking about is called Haus Schwarzenberg and it´s pretty easy to miss if you don´t know where to find it. It´s in a backyard near the Hackescher Markt.

The entrance.

The whole backyard is covered in handdrawn illustrations. They are drawn onto wallpapers, because they are removable. Thus the artist is not acting illegally by spraying the artwork directly onto the wall. One of the famous artists is called El Bocho and his style is very unique.

Haus Schwarzenberg by MrDomDom

Ooooh, I like this one! :)

Inside of Haus Schwarzenberg you´ll find the most inspiring hallway on this planet. Every inch is covered with illustrations and graffiti. Walking up the stairs I had at least then new ideas for illustrations, I could have stayed there for hours.

Heaven of a hallway.

Inside you´ll also find a shop called NEUROTITAN that sells all kinds of comic books, design magazines, postcards, tshirts and other creative stuff. Brace yourself and don´t bring a lot of money with you or you´ll leave the job with a lot less of it.

Inside the Neurotitan. Oh boy, we came here twice, it´s so good!

The best thing I found in Berlin was this 24h organic food store. I would die to have something like this in Vienna! They sell all sorts of things, from ice-cream to cheese to soda pop. We got ourselves a drink called skull. I have to say that we mostly tend to buy new food things because we like their design.

Yummy!

I was amazed that food in Vienna is a lot more expensive than in Berlin. Even the organic one. The idea is just wonderful, imagine going out at midnight to get some demeter chocolate caramel ice-cream! More fun and photos tomorrow! :)

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5 thinsg I am thankful for today:

• watching Dirty Dancing on tv. After all of these years I still think that the movie is just freaking genious. 
• getting in the first huge package of our new cat tree. The babies will love it, it´s giant and cozy. Two more to go and we can start building it up!
• I like my teeth. They might not be all Hollywood glamour perfect. But I have a toothgap that I would not sell for any money in the world. Madonna style. :)
• looking through the Berlin photos I do think that Europe has some pretty rad cities to offer
• I feel dizzy all the time since three days, but I´m still productive. Ain´t no stopping me, haha.

Hot peppermint-tea hugs,