Here we have this month´s winner! Congratulations Kemis!!!! Now you can carry your own little piece of green through the winter. :) I tell you, I loooove making give-aways! It´s such fun! I already prepared the next one for December PLUS we will be having a Christmas give-away too. That means next month there will be two! Be sure to check back this week to get your next chance.
5 things I am grateful for today:
my bed, honestly. I´m so grateful for sleep.
looking forward to december! Tomorrow is my name day!
receiving chocolate cake with pink and white sugar hearts on them from Miss Tanja. THE BEST EVER!!!!
I´m actually able to eat tons of sweets and never get sick of it. (But I do also eat lots of fruit and healthy organic stuff as my regular choice of food, so don´t worry *g*)
dressed in black and purple. Pretty rad combination, but I´m so happy I look better in colorful clothes. :)
My birthday is approaching soon and I think I´m going to have myself a little birthday present from overseas. One of my favorite shops is Onepi. The layers and fabrics totally blow my mind, I just can´t decide which piece I like the best. Shall I get a dress or a skirt or a top? A shawl? Everything??? Their prices are pretty moderate if you look at their english page. (they mostly write in pretty nice engrish, but I think you´ll get what they mean easily.)
I really really need your help! I can´t choose! What is your favorite item in the store? After I received my first package and know that the quality is ok (I will also update this post then), I might also opt for doing a give-away from Onepi, so I need to know what you are into. ^____^ Help!
5 things I am grateful for today:
cheering people up seems to be my new obsession
ordering next month´s give-away (theehehe, it´s going to be supercute!)
reading Katakana that is supposed to mean something in english, but it´s rather a riddle to be solved by us non-japanese people. Such a cute language.
I think I´ll never be able to NOT wear my bear hat. Maybe if I replace it with cat ears. Maaaybeeee.
heading out now to play Rayman Origins with Mr.DomDom
p.s.: Sorry that it´s Tuesday for this Mori Girl Monday :)
Eeep, everyone, I´m sorry! I´ve been at work until 10.30pm and there´s no way I can generate any reasonable content right now. But my day was perfect, my bear hat from kawaiigoods.com came in and I love it to pieces. More about this and other delicious stuff on tomorrow´s Mori Girl Tuesday. :)
By the way: How do you like the new blog design?
5 things I am grateful for today:
the trust that some people have in me. It´s outright flattering.
receiving philosophical phone calls at midnight. (Yes, talking about you Mister YouknowImeanyou! Mercury retrograde will pass soon! *g*)
finding two packages on your desk when you come to work, one with a bear hat inside, the other filled with a christmas cracker
my mother posting cute animal pictures on my facebook wall. Oh the times of today!
One of my favorite things to do on a weekend is to clean up. Honestly! I love to keep my life somewhat organized and clean. During the week I´m mostly too exhausted to make big cleanups, so by the weekend the apartment is not as spick and span as I would like it to be. (Monday is good, Tuesday as well, Wednesday is like lifting your head from the pillow after a quick after-work-snooze and thinking "I´ll do it tomorrow.", Thursday is starting to get messy and Friday is just dreadful.)
This week has been so busy and stressful that I hardly got to touch anything on my desk at work. Whatever got there, stayed there. (sorry, everyone for that mess, haha!) But in fact I love to organize things. I sort them either by color (like my books) or by shape. Keeping your workspace clean will keep your motivation up, so you can sit down and start instead of spending 20 minutes to even be able to work. In order to help you, I collected some really nice links to get you going.
♥Get a pin board. The bigger the better. Try to get one that matches the colors of your walls, otherwise it might look like a massive monster, glaring down at you. I like to use white or pastel colored pins that won´t distract from the content too much. Sadly most magnetic pin boards are too small for my taste, so I have to push myself a lot in order to punch pins through the paper. (I always feel like I can´t undo that hole anymore and it makes me very uncomfortable.) Try to organize all your inspirations and papers by color. It won´t look as messy as if you put them on randomly.
♥Follow a certain routine. What I´ve learned from the way I clean up is that I try to do multiple things at one time. That might be good, but it also brings one fact into the game that is very crucial. The rule is to never pick up a thing a second time. Meaning: I you pic up a pencil from your desk to store it away, make sure you are not doing 5 things at the same time, or you will end up leaving the pencil somewhere else because you just quickly wanted to get the clothes from the dryer. You then have to go search for it and you lose time. Every item that you pick up has to be stored correctly right away. One step after another. That brings me to my next point:
♥Use labels. Sounds simple, yet it´s very effective. It prevents being sloppy and putting things somewhere just because you´re in a hurry. For me labeling also means making things look nice and cute. I always buy cute asian diary stickers on ebay an put them onto jars, folders and everything else that I use for work. I need to "own" my things, making it much more likely that I use them.
♥Get things off the table. One of the hardest things to to is to keep your desk free from too much clutter. Put whatever needs to stay on the desk in a cute desk organizer. Everything else needs to go. Either boxes or folders or jars. The ones of you who might be interested in Feng Shui will find this link as very helpful. Starting off your work with a clean and empty desk can change your workflow a lot. I hate it when I need to clean up everything before I can start. I know that I am picky when it comes down to that, but even if you´re not, you might profit from an organizes workspace too.
♥Order your drawers in layers of importance. You know the situation: You look for something in your drawers and it´s not there. Or you have to get down to the bottom drawer what feels like a zillion times a day. Funny enough it took my quite a long time to re-organize my drawers in a more effective way. I put the things that I use the most in the top drawer and anything else according to importance below. Keep the things that you need often in reach. Don´t make work unnecessarily harder than it needs to be.
sleeping like I haven´t slept in weeks. I had the weirdest dreams, but at least I had enough rest.
re-working the blogdesign twice since yesterday and I think I get closer to the feeling that I want. I´m glad I can do this all by myself.
learning more html tricks from Mr.DomDom
cooking for the whole family. It´s more fun when more people get to appreciate the food.
finding hilarious old pictures of my on my external hard drive. (I think I need to share some soon, right?) Looking back, it´s not all too bad, but I never want to be 16 again. Or 19. Or 22. In fact, I love being 25 and getting to be 26 soon. One should always make the best of each year. Its just a number for the record, that´s all.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! My week has been full of work and deadlines (14 hours yesterday) and this is why the blog has been a bit empty this week, but I´ll charge ahead from tomorrow on. I have done my "5 things I am grateful for today" list now since May this year (already?) and I can hardly describe how much light it has brought into my life. Writing down my blessings is a way to focus your attention onto the good things. You keep your eyes open for small miracles in your everyday life. It´s such a big difference on how you look onto things. I wanted to encourage you to do the same thing: Write down 5 things that you are grateful for today on my little printable and hang them somewhere for you to see as a reminder of how lucky you are. You can read, you can type, you can obviously use the internet and you have access to so much knowledge and love. See? Already got 4 out of 5 down. ^___^
So, Thanksgiving 2011, what are you thankful for?
5 things I am grateful for today:
someone decided to adopt Mr.Kitty! That´s the most positive thing that happened this week.
I´m totally in love with my Missha BB cream that came in yesterday. I think I´ll have to do another makeup video soon, so I can talk about my new items. ^__^
sharing a good laugh with a former teacher of mine. It´s so nice to know that people will help you out if you ask them kindly.
having to smile when my mother writes me emails from her new iPad2. I think that made the perfect birthday gift EVER, hehehe.
making chicken soup for Mr.DomDom who had one wisdom tooth removed today.
I don´t ask for much from others, but this breaks my heart. Mister Kitty was found at CIMB SS15, Subang Jaya in Kuala Lumpur. Aiko Rin, a friend of mine on facebook, is fostering him right now but she is unable to keep him because she's a student, lives in a hostel and she has four other cats. So she can´t keep him. But it would be so much help if somebody without a cat could take good care of him and give him a loving home.
If anyone is able to help out in any way, please contact Aiko at 0123814278 or otaku.aiko@gmail.com.
Mister Kitty is FIV positive, but that doesn´t mean he has to be put to sleep! This article gives you a good summary on the whole situation and his conditions are good, making it possible for him to recover as good as can be. Skin infections are an associated problem, but with a bit of good diet, vitamins, medication they will go away soon and love this cat can survive and have a happy life. If you know anyone that can help save him, please contact either me or Aiko as fast as possible. She cannot keep him very long, so this is a matter of hours. Please help me save him before he has to be put to sleep. (one way of helping would be sharing this post, so we can spread the news.) I believe we can do this!
UPDATE!
Somebody decided to adopt Mr.Kitty!!!! How amazing! Thanks for all your help! If you want you can contact Aiko for a way to donate to the medication of this furbaby, so he can get everything that he needs.
In winter it´s really hard to get myself outside and do some sports. I just can´t. I like to stay inside and cuddle up and do some crafting. But from time to time I get the feeling that I should do something with my body. If you decide do to move yourself a bit, look for something that makes it more pleasurable. To me it´s dancing. I´m no professional whatsoever, but I do like to shake freestyle. ^___^ My legs start to twitch when I watch inspiring videos and I hardly can wait until I can start. I collected some videos and tutorials that also might get you going. Enjoy!
Well, these girls are on a professional level, yet I love the dance so much! Learn the dance here. It´s french and it´s a guy, I know, but you´ll get it. It´s the best tutorial around. The other ones just explain some steps, but never the full thing to this extent.
I really love the locations here and how brave the girls are for dancing in the middle of New York. Watch the original 2NE1- I am The Best. Learn the dance here.
You don´t necessarily need high heels to make this dance look good. Watch the original SNSD - Gee. Learn the dance here.
Yes, it´s another SNSD song, but I just HAVE TO introduce you to Chris Koo if you don´t know him already. Seriously, the best dancer I´ve ever seen! Watch the orignial The Boys. Learn the dance here.
What are your favorite things to keep fit? Any suggestions for a lazybone like me?
5 things that I am grateful for today:
working on weekends is not as bad as it seems
bom ratatata tatatatata ey! (there´s nothing better than a catchy tune to dance to!)
Mr.DomDom made my working days as pleasurable as possible (also spending time with touching up one of my favorite photos with my sheep hat)
going to my parent´s tomorrow to celebrate my mom´s birthday
my hair is getting really long and it still looks somewhat healthy although I bleached it like a thousand times when it was shorter.
Today is my mother´s birthday! I love my mother to pieces, she taught me everything I need to get through this world on my own feet. Once you get through puberty and do some growing up, you realize that it´s pretty nice to be a self-sufficient person. Especially if you look around and see everybody struggle and drown their thoughts in alcohol. I´m very happy that I was brought up in a surrounding that supported my creative spirit. My mother has had a big impact on the fact that I am never bored. We both have different passions every two months. There´s so much to discover on this planet. Could a girl be happier to have such a mother? I don´t think so. Happy birthday Mom! ^___^
5 things that I am grateful for today:
my mother, obviously. :)
Norman Crystal is having a bath, so he will be a yummy smelling cat instead of stinky pooh.
Matcha saves me everyday from my afternoon sleepyness
knowing that the huge deadline comes closer and I might have more time after next week
my diary stickers came in and they are too cute! Definitely ordering more!
Did you just happen to find out that the boy you are dating is a real loser? Did you have an argument with your family, making you feel like you´re an outsider and totally misunderstood? Or are you generally just having one of those days where you feel like you haven´t accomplished ANYTHING in your life? Well, I´m glad you´re here. Here is my list of 30 things that I like to do when my day doesn´t go as planned. They mostly involve inspirational things, because I try to get my mind off the bad energy and get into a creative mood. That always saves the day.
♥UNE VAGABONDE by Sandrine Philie is a photo diary that has a calming effect on me. The pictures involve friendship, sepia colors and lots of nature. It also inspires me for my next point, which would be:
♥ Go for a walk. Go somewhere quiet, where you don´t have to dodge others constantly. Sometimes our mind is too strong and you have to put things into perspective through your legs. You know what I mean? After a walk I feel like I have achieved something, I made my way from A to B. It´s a result. I like things with results as they prove that you actually did something with your time. Mostly I returned inspired, with lots of oxygen in my lungs. Happy.
♥Watch every single video of Maru the Cat. (promise me to watch it til the end!)
♥Read some Rainer Maria Rilke. He has the most beautiful way of describing time and life. Every second has the potential of becoming a lifetime story.
♥I don´t know what I should think about young girls wearing make-up, but that girl and her tutorial are just adooorable.
♥Take a cat nap. Set the alarm in 20 minutes. Then come back to read on. :)
♥I really don´t watch tv. I have certain youtube channels that I subscribe to that become like a TV show to me. My favorite channel of all times is brought to you by Simon and Martina from Eat Your Kimchi. (it does help to be into Asian culture, but not necessarily. They are the cutest married couple on the planet.)
♥Head out and get a kind of tea that you never had before. (If you ever come across Pearl Dragon Tea, try it! It might be a bit pricey, but trust me, it´s the best kind of tea that you can get.) Or make yourself some Bubble Tea.
♥My favorite new obsession is to wear animal hats. You have no idea how uplifting it is to see everyone smile at you. Mr.DomDom brought this sheep from a trip to Germany. It doesn´t need to be an animal hat, just make sure you have to put a little guts into wearing the item.
♥Did you know that Ellen DeGeneres is on tumblr? Needless to say that this is highly entertaining. (I stopped counting the numbers of times she has made me laugh/cry.)
♥Stay overnight at your best friend´s place. I bet it has been far too long anyway since you had your head resting on an unfamiliar pillow after a night of silliness and laughter.
♥For the love of God: Etsy has recently joined pinterest!
♥Marcel the Shell is a real cutie too. I especially like his dog.
♥Write a list of 10 things that you are happy to have learned/discovered this year. Looking back doesn´t necessarily need to make you feel bad if you try to learn your lessons.
♥I´m pretty sure you have bought an asian product that had a weird description on it. This is why I love engrish.com, I really can´t get enough of it.
♥Online comics that I (being a cat lady) lover: Cat vs Human
♥Have a pyjama party. Either alone with lots of pillows, your laptop and your favorite movie or with your best friend, some cheesy girly magazines and hot chocolate with marshmallows on top.
♥Song interpretations done with a ukulele or guitar always bring a smile onto my face. Like this Lady Gaga version or this MGMT or this Darwin Deez cover.
♥I always cry tears of laughter while reading Damn You Auto Correct. Might be a very superficial kind of humor, but when you feel bad and you need some cheering up, it does the trick.
♥Start with the basics instead of deep questions about your self-identity. Sometimes a healthy sleeping schedule and an energizing breakfast can do so much for you. Plus: Don´t let yourself get too hungry. Being hungry makes me (and basically every human being) very grumpy and unreasonable.
♥Get yourself a little goodie goodie. Nothing really expenisve, just something to look forward too. In my case I ordered washi tape and Jetoy stickers for 7$. Diary deco stickers are so cute. I put them onto things I use on a daily basis like on my scotch tape dispenser.
♥Clean your desk. Working at a messy place is just annoying. I always clean my apartment when I´m mad, so I can channel my energy into a positive task and then admire my work.
♥Spend time with animals. Chasing my cats around with a toy takes off my mind. If you don´t have one either visit a friend that owns a cute furry friend or go visit a pet shelter and give a dog a walk. The dog will be superhappy and you will feel so much better.
♥Go to a library or bookstore. Every book is a world on its own and we need some escapism sometimes.
♥Reduce negative influences. Analyze who or what is dragging you down. Block the phone number of every person who only calls you to complain about their messy life. Stop reading that blog/twitter/tumblr with the constantly grouching messages. Some people attract bad energy and you don´t want it to wear off onto you.
♥Head out to the piscina. Yes, go swimming! It´s always magical how I feel so different afterwards.
♥Say something nice. Now we all are on one or more social media platforms. And we don´t nearly say enough nice things. So go and post something nice on somebody else´s wall or twitterstream NOW!
5 things I am grateful for today:
getting a cable duct at work so people won´t stumble over any power cables and cause my Mac to crash anymore.
getting up super early and starting half of this post while eating my breakfast and drinking green tea
working on my handwriting. I have changed it so many times over the years and it has become a bit too messy for my taste recently. Now back to good old single letters.
filling dates with marzipan (and I mean the fruit, not any kind of lovers. *g*)
For this Mori Girl Monday I have something very special for you! I´m so glad to introduce you to Karen Blackburn and her totally rad project that she did especially for us here. Anyone who is even just slightly into cooking, knitting, sewing or getting inspired by others living the creative life should totally read her blog. Or totally fall in love with her etsy store. (the plaid bunnies and the fingerless gloves are to die for! *christmas presents! wink wink!*) I totally admire her for all the creative juices that she has got flowing, so you can imagine how happy I was when Karen presented me her wonderful cookie recipe along with photos. (Thank you so much!!!)
Let´s head to the kitchen!
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
1/4 c. shortening
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice (or orange)
powdered sugar for dusting
Directions:
Beat butter and shortening until soft. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and lemon juice and mix in well. Add flour, baking powder cinnamon salt and nutmeg and stir until well-mixed.
Divide dough in half. Cover or wrap and chill at least 3 hours.
On a lightly floured surface roll each half to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutter and make lacy holes with straws. Place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes.
Remove lace cookies and cool on wire racks. Sift powdered sugar generously over cookies.
Enjoy! And head over to Karen to give her a hearty thank you!!!
5 things I am grateful for today:
buying two kinds of marshmallows at the British Food store
looking at the Christmas Crackers there I totally want to celebrate Xmas at the States again
I can´t help feeling like in a Harry Potter-like store when I´m there ^___^
Vanilla isn´t as shy with strangers anymore. :)
girly after-work chit chat with cooking and relaxing with Tanja
There was never a time where I really enjoyed going to a club. I was always very sensitive to loud noise (you can ask my mother about that, I loathed New Year´s Eve. In fact, I still do.) The music mostly isn´t to my liking either, you can´t really talk, everything smells of smoke and people are too drunk to have any reasonable conversations. Plus: Vienna is really small, so you get to see the same faces at the same places over and over again. Boring. I rather invite selected people to my home, serve them good tea and rich cupcakes and have a good talk with some crafting and chatting. Here are some ideas that I might integrate into my next tea party.
♥ I´m thinking of decorating my kitchen this way. So colorful! The wedding photography from Our Blog Of Love is generally really wonderful, you should look at the whole post.
♥ Dust Jacket has collected some other photo inspirations on her blog for a more lady-like Tea Party. Definitely something that calls for your best dress and a nice hairdo.
♥ I wish I had had an invite to the Mad Hat Tea Party 2011 by A Fanciful Twist. I mean: Even the dog gets to wear a wonderful giant hat! I can see Alice growing jealous.
♥ Has there ever been a more colorful and hearty Blogger Meet + Greet than this one here in Seattle by the sweetest occassion? I don´t think so. It looks like so much fun!
♥ Of course you need buntings! In case you don´t want to make them on your own, you can always buy them in the Knotted Nest etsy store.
♥ I don´t want to talk about my wedding here, but oh, I just came across Emily Heizer´s photography and I guess it will have to look somewhat like this. Perfect for mori girls.
5 things I am grateful for today:
finally somehow catching 8 hours of sleep. Not in a row, but with little naps here and there.
spending the day in bed, re-charging my batteries.
eating Lindt chocolate. Even the simple pure milk chocolate is so yummy.
the fact that both of our cats like to cuddle under the blanket in the morning.
Are you in for some relaxing tunes? This month´s playlist contains korean songs only. I found so many of them over the month where I thought that you would enjoy them and so I said to myself "Why not make it 100% korean?" So there you go. Get into the bathtub or do some painting or make handmade christmas presents (the key is to start early, right?) and enjoy some sweet music for the heart! ^___^
