via

March started with a quite spontaneous but very beautiful trip to Vienna, where I and my friend Laura met another friend of ours, Elena. I took the bus Friday evening when Laura and Elena came home from work and walked to Elena’s beautiful apartment (luckily I could find my way quite easily thanks to Laura’s great description because it was freezing cold outside and I really didn’t want to stay any longer outside than needed). I’ve actually never seen Elena for long before, we met just shortly once. But it was so nice to spend the weekend with lovely friends and to talk lots ‘girly stuff’. Saturday was fully packed, we visited two different Vintage clothes fleamarkets, where I bought a beautiful small black shoulder bag for 8€ and a dark blue oversized (super comfy!!!) sweater for 9€. Really happy with my finds. While we went to an Asian restaurant, we walked by an English Cinema and saw that they’d play Call Me By Your Name just one hour later. We decided spontaneously to go and watch it and oh my god, what a great movie! Huge recommendation for everybody, go and watch this movie, it’s amazing and worth to see. Timotheé Chalamet is a great young actor and I would have loved to see him receiving an Oscar.
On Sunday it was already time to go back because I had to work in the evening. But still, it was a beautiful trip and having seen Elena’s apartment, I’ve got even more excited to maybe soon live and study in Vienna myself. Also, I’m hoping that me, Laura and Elena are going to meet each other soon again, we have already been making plans for the near future.

But I made an even bigger trip in March than traveling to Vienna. I visited Oslo and my dear friend Paula, who currently lives there. It was such a beautiful trip, filled with activities, laughter and deep talks, good food and meeting new people. I really enjoyed these five days and was kinda sad to leave the city and Paula. Although she and her friend Fabian from Uruguay, who is also working and living in Oslo, flew to Austria just two days after my return, as they were spending the Easter holidays here. I’m planning on writing an extra post about my time in Oslo, probably also with some info about the city and tips on how to get there.

The last month was in general very filled with meeting friends again. For example, I met Irina over a very good Asian dinner to congratulate her on her birthday a little in advance. Then I slept over at my friends Kristin’s place and we spent the night together with some friends. On the same evening, a small personal change has happened too: Kristin cut me bangs! And I love my new hairstyle, never had bangs before but as Kristin is currently doing an apprenticeship at a hairdresser, she got to practice and I got a different look with which I’m super happy. 🙂
Not to forget the two coffee-and-cake dates I had with Magda (she got her driving license and drives so well, I was extremely impressed, as I still suck at this whole driving-thing) and we talked for hours while eating super yummy waffles at a café that she showed me. And I met Laura, actually my colleague at work but for sure as much a friend as a colleague, over a cup of super tasty Chai Latte and we agreed that we have to repeat this very soon. A little shooting can’t be missing in my monthly recap, I met Jakob and we took around thousand pictures. Still, haven’t had the time to look through them – and who knows when that’s gonna happen anyway, as my next couple of weeks are fully planned already. I’m gonna work as usual, take my last eight hours of driving lessons split up on four dates (finally got a date for the driving test, I’m gonna be done by 30th of April if everything goes alright – fingers crossed!), do some stuff for my exchange student organisation and last but not least write my admission test at the university in Vienna on 24th of April (fingers crossed for that day too please) for which I still have to prepare and study.

Even though the month of March has been quite busy (but in a very good way!), I still got the time to do a little “fashion research” on the internet. I found two pieces which now are on top of my wishlist. One is this seamless bralette from Essentials for Zula (I started doing some workouts and a multifunctional and good-looking bralette like that would be a perfect addition) and the other one is this pair of Jeans from Kings of Indigo. I do have several jeans, although not a single one which fits perfectly. They are currently on sale too!
Recently, I came across an interesting webshop as well, it’s called House of Dagmar, located in Sweden and although their items are quite pricey, the designs and their sustainable approach are definitely to recommend.

Sure, there are more pages to recommend! Time for my five favorite blog posts/articles from last month.

• A great article published on the homepage of German newspaper “Die Zeit” that makes you think about how much the work of artists and all kinds of creative workers is worth. And a suggestion that people who create and people who consume value this work a little more, not only with words and prayers but with actual and fair payment.
• Vreni from Jäckle & Hösle takes us through her room and not only are the interior pictures super inspiring (giving me lots of ideas for my own apartment) but also her words are carefully chosen to describe her relationship to this room.
• Masha Sedgwick always makes me wonder about society and their prejudices. It’s quite often that I don’t share her opinion, also in this blog post, there are some parts where I could agree and some, where I think she’s mixing things up. In addition to the topic in her Sunday post that Influencers have got no talents whatsoever, I read another article in “Die Zeit” which made me think of Masha’s post again. Interesting to read and to look at it from different angles!
• Christine Polz shared some very helpful photographing tips and now I really want to experiment with night sky photography as well.
• How many times have I already recommended the blog Flying Away?! I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter anyway, I’m just gonna keep recommending it. This time, a beautiful post filled with stunning pictures from Madeira.

via

So many months passed by and so little recaps were written! Since February is such a short month, instead of doing “just” a february recap, I thought it’s easiest to make a “summary-recap” of the last five months. Don’t even know where to start… well, as you might know, since November I started working 20 hours a week, which is great, because I have got a regular income and I’m flexible with my time, since I don’t go to university yet. Other than that, I shot some pictures for a theater production named “Dear Diary” which was an entirely different challenge for me, because usually I don’t like shooting inside and with low light. But it turned out better than expected and I think Matthias, who asked me if I would like to photograph the play, was satisfied with the results as well. And then another spontaneous shooting took place in November. Jakob, a friend of Matthias’, asked me to shoot him in the garden of his grandfather, and even though it was biting cold outside, we managed to take tons of pictures and some turned out pretty good. Still haven’t had the time to edit, but I’m working on it. If there’s one thing I’m superslow at, it’s definitely editing. I don’t know how people just find their “style” with editing, for me, it’s always completely different depending on the shooting, the pictures and the models.
And then there was December, the last month of every year, where suddenly a thousand events and meetings happen. I shot my friend and former classmate Edina together with her supersweet puppy called Frida in the snow. We said we have to repeat this shoot someday again, when there’s more snow outside and when we both got more time. I celebrated my 19th birthday with my friends. We were going out on the 20th of December, even though my actual birthday is on the 21st, but I had to work the morning shift on the 22nd, so being hangover at work wasn’t an option haha. Instead, we had brunch at a nice place on the 21st and later during the day, I went home to celebrate with my family as well. For me, birthdays aren’t special because of the presents, but because of the fact that I get to see all my friends together and to receive lovely messages and words.
Since I had to work on Christmas Eve, it wasn’t the same Christmas that we usually celebrate, but still very beautiful and relaxed. Way too much food and way too many sweets, that didn’t change though.
On New Years Eve I had to work as well, but later I went to my friend Lauras place and welcomed 2018 together with her, her boyfriend and two other friends in the city. And I started the new year with a shooting together with Matthias. Very casual and spontaneous, but I loooove the outcomes. It proves me once again that great pictures happen by coincidence, at least this is my philosophy with photography haha. I will show you some pictures soon, since I had to edit them right away!!

Here we are, another month is coming to its end. This gives me also the opportunity for catching up with the ‘regular’ recap postings. I applied for university in the beginning of february and already have a date in late april where I get to write the admission test. Someday soon I’ll have to start learning and reading and doing everything that needs to be done in order to pass this test. Besides that, I’m still learning for my drivers license haha, at least I managed to pass the theoretical part now (after I failed like ten times in a row haha) but the practical part where I’ve actually got to drive is still waiting for me. Hopefully I’m done by today in a month, this whole driving license is slowly but surely getting on my nerves.

It has been a week since I got back from my intense travel through 4 countries in 7 days. On Monday, I caught the earliest bus to Vienna, from where I flew to Cologne and then took the bus again to Essen, where I stayed overnight at my friend’s Kathi place. Continued on Tuesday by taking the bus back to Cologne, where I met up with my deeply missed friend Martina, we slept at a hostel (Pathpoint Backpackers Hostel Cologne) and woke up early on Wednesday to catch the flight towards Copenhagen, where we then stayed in a Airbnb until Friday. From Copenhagen, we took the train towards Sweden and met my friends at Jonnas place, where we also stayed overnight before on Saturday we changed locations again and met Mia, another friend of mine. And on Sunday, after many sleepless nights, we got back to Copenhagen Airport, took the flight to Cologne, while we somehow managed to forget that Carneval season has started and it was impossible for us to move any further than to Vapiano close to the central station. In the evening, it was time to say Goodbye to my beloved friend Martina, when I had to take my flight back to Vienna and Martina had to take the train back to the Netherlands. Really busy, intense but very beautiful week.

My order from the online shop hundhund made my return still somewhat exciting, because I ordered beautiful clothes in the sale. The trousers seem to be outsold already because I can’t find them in their online shop anymore, but the two shirts you can see in the picture above are still available in size xs.
I also bought new glasses from Viu! They opened a store in my city last summer and my parents gave me a gift card from their shop as a christmas present. So I finally went there and couldn’t decide which glasses to get, but in the end I found some and now I’m superhappy with my choice! I hope I can show you my clothes from hundhund as well as my new glasses from Viu soon on the blog. 🙂
Last but not least, I couldn’t resist and ordered some new beauty products from Eccoverde too. I will show you my favorites (and also give you my honest opinion on my “not-favorites”) once I’m done testing everything.

Some of my favorite blogposts and articles are following as usual.

• Mia from heylilahey always inspires me with here extensive travel guides. This time with a compilation of Thailand posts turned into one big travel guide from Thailand, including beautiful pictures and giving me the immediate feeling of “i have to go there”. 
• If you are looking for simple, beautiful and great DIYs, go have a look at Bonny und Kleid. Bonny published two really nice DIYs this year: One of a upcycled stool and one of a upcycling idea for a flowerpot.
• I didn’t take many pictures in Copenhagen and Sweden during our trip, since I always feel like coming home instead of being a tourist (although I have to say, concering my bad orientation, I definitely feel a bit like a tourist every single time when using Google Maps) but Linn has also quite recently been to Copenhagen, and her Travel Guide is useful for everyone wanting to explore the city.
• A few weeks ago, I started watching a series called Younger. My friend Kristin recommended it to me already months ago, but I somehow forgot about it. But as I now found it on a swedish tv-channel, I finally watched it and fell in love. Not only did I fall in love with the series itself but also with one of the main characters. In real life, the actors name is Nico Tortorella and while I was googeling him, I found this really great article of him published on Refinery29 already in 2016. But it couldn’t be more relevant. Please go and read this, I sincerely cried reading those words about 29 women who inspire him.

via

Is it already October?! Wow, time goes by so fast and I’m continuously overwhelmed about this fact. A new month means new recap – and I’ve got to take a look back on all the things I have done last month. As you might know, I decided to take a break between ending school and starting university, which is why I “only” work some hours right now in order to earn some money and making myself useful instead of just sitting around. I don’t work many hours, mostly once or twice a week (only next week it will be three workdays) but it’s still something and I feel that this is just the perfect team you could ask for to work with at your first “real” job. Speaking of which, I attended a training course as well, for which I and my colleague Verena had traveled to Salzburg. It was such a great time we had there, meeting other colleagues, talking and learning new and very helpful things in order to do better at the job. Moreover, it was my first time in Salzburg and I have to say that I would have loved to spend more time there.

I did also travel to Vienna for four days, to visit my dear friends Marlene and Ina. They both have been exchange students as well, Marlene to Sweden and Ina to Chile. Marlene visited me in the summer already, but I haven’t seen Ina for over a year. It was so good to talk to them, getting updates on our lives and promising us that it won’t take so long this time until we’ll see each other again. Especially since Vienna isn’t that far away!

I didn’t only meet these girls there, but also Matthias, the guy with whom I’ve had a shooting in spring. He contacted me to ask if I would like to shoot again and of course, I said yes. Coincidentally, we were both at the same time in Vienna, so we met and talked about his shooting ideas, which sounded really cool. And then, just some days later, we shot the entire day in this awesome hotel where we were allowed to stay and shoot. I’ve been editing a bunch of photos already, but I took around 2000, so I’m by far not finished with editing. Sneak peek above and also on my Instagram account @lizblick. Many thanks to the Weingartenhotel Harkamp and my fantastic friend/Make-up Artist Kristin for all the help! You will get to see some results probably already next week on the blog.

Almost everyone from my old class started with University last week and although I absolutely do not regret the decision to take a year “off” – it’s crazy seeing all my friends starting with a new chapter in their life, from getting used to the University-life to getting an apartment and everything. Not all of my friends though are at University right now, some of them decided to go abroad. Martina, who already lives in the Netherlands for one month now and Paula, who just departed to Oslo to work there for the local YFU Organization. I miss them both deeply and also my friends from Sweden, with whom I managed to finally skype again last month, I would love to meet more often.

Meanwhile, I’m still busy getting my drivers license (I have the test on Monday, so fingers crossed!) and doing some volunteering for my exchange student organization YFU. I will also spend one week at a seminar with them at the end of October to which I’m really looking forward.
Winter and therefore Christmas is getting closer and closer. So I added some new items to my Wishlist because this Pullover from Armedangels and the Chelsea boots from Lanius look super nice, timeless and seem to be just perfect for colder days.

Also this month I collected my favorite blog posts.

• Paula is a great photographer and I adore every single one of her photographs. This is just another blog post including beautiful pictures – take a look!
• Justine has a weekly series on her blog called “Satisfaction Saturday” and these articles are always super interesting and inspiring. This time, she wrote about why we tend to wait for something to happen until we can be happy – while we could also just decide to be happy instead of waiting for it.
• Kayture is a blog whose founder Kristina Bazan was probably the first one to make blogging famous and a real business. She took a break from blogging but her honesty in her articles didn’t change. The dark age, a new chapter of Kayture and Kristina Bazan.
• Authenticity is super important for me as a reader of blogs and also a huge topic among bloggers themselves. Someone who, in my eyes, still sticks to this, is Jana from bekleidet. Readers could ask her questions and she answered them and isn’t afraid of passing her knowledge further on.
• I found was this awesome blog post on the blog Heylilahey and it shows that ethical fashion really can be cool, modern and affordable. I would love to own every single item, please!

via

First of all, you might have recognized that my july recap was missing last month. I don’t even know why, but time went by so fast and all of a sudden it was August and I forgot to write the recap. Well, now it’s September and I thought the recap of the last two months is gonna be huge, but weird enough, I don’t really have any exciting news to share with you. The two things I already did two months ago, learning to get my driving license and working some hours, haven’t changed and I’m still kind of busy with this. Maybe you wonder why I still haven’t managed to get my license – well, I tried it twice already but failed every time, so in one week I’ve been given a third chance for which I also have to pay 75€. This sucks, ’cause I didn’t imagine getting a license could be as tough as it actually is… (at least for me haha)

Some thoughts in German from an exhausting week in August: Nachdem mein Laptop unerfreulicherweise am Wochenende entschieden
hat, den Geist aufzugeben, bin ich an meinem ersten, etwas weniger
vollgeplanten Wochenende seit langem, trotzdem nicht dazugekommen,
einige Blogposts fertigzuschreiben, die schon lange in der
Bearbeitungsschleife festhängen. Zum Glück hat sich aber ein
verständnisvoller Verkäufer des Elektrofachhandels darum bemüht, mir
einen Ersatzlaptop zukommen zu lassen, da ich ansonsten nicht nur keine
Blogposts schreiben könnte, sondern auch meine theoretische
Führerscheinprüfung in zwei Wochen auf wackeligen Beinen stünde.
Nichtsdestotrotz
nervt es mich, dass ein nicht mal 1 Jahr alter Laptop einfach so über
Nacht seine Funktionstüchtigkeit aufgibt und mich damit in 2 Wochen
wieder mit der Wiederherstellung aller Daten und Programme beschäftigen
lässt. Den Großteil habe ich zum Glück auf einer externen Festplatte
gespeichert, aber ich bin dennoch genervt, Zeit für das neuerliche
Aufsetzen aufbringen zu müssen.
Aber apropos früher genannte
Führerscheinprüfung – die theoretische ist ja eine Sache, aber die
praktische wird mich wohl mein Nervensystem kosten. Nachdem ich (auch
schon leicht gereizt von einigen sehr unüberlegten Aussagen meiner
Fahrschule) endlich zu den L-Übungstaferln gekommen bin, damit ich
privat auch mit dem Auto meines Vaters üben kann, war ich erstmal
zufrieden. Der Schock kam dann, als mir Papa auf der Heimfahrt, ca. 5
Minuten von unserem Zuhause entfernt, das Steuer überließ. Auf der
Steigung zu unserer Einfahrt wollte ich irgendwie einparken, stehen
bleiben und losfahren gleichzeitig, was in einem kollektiven Versagen
meiner für die Koordination zuständigen Gehirnzellen geführt hat und
darin endete, dass meine Füße an den Pedalen und meine Hände am Lenkrad
bzw. Kupplung schlichtweg nicht das taten, was Papa ihnen lauthals
anordnete. Das Ergebnis ist ein ordentlicher Blechschaden und ein leerer
Gehaltszettel vom Juli, da wohl alles für den Selbstbehalt bei
Vollkasko draufgeht.

Other than that, I’ve been reading Paper Towns, enjoyed some time with family and friends and said Goodbye to my dear friend Martina, who you can see in the picture above. It was a very sad farewell, already one week ago at her farewell party and then once again when I hugged her on the day of her departure to the Netherlands, where she’s gonna spend one year to work at a social project. I’m gonna miss her deeply, she has become such a good friend in the past two years and as much as I know that this is great opportunity for her I was also sad to see her leave.

Considering what’s going on in the world, with all the sad news coming from Barcelona or the hurricans in Texas and Bangladesh, Donald Trump with all of his fauxpas during the summer has almost been a sarcastic amusement, Twitter messages like the one above made it bearable – nothing more to add.

Something else is worth mentioning here, I’ve been talking to my employer (boss is weird for me to say, because she is so kind and helpful and I don’t know, boss sounds just kinda harsh to me) and I told her that I’d like to spend about a month abroad in November. Still haven’t decided on where to go, but I’m thinking about either North America or Australia. I’m gonna update you as soon as I’ve figured out the details, fingers crossed that everything works out the way I hope it does!!
While my wanderlust is starting to take shape, some smaller trips are planned for September as well. I’ll visit my friends Ina and Marlene in Vienna for four days and then I’m gonna travel to Salzburg with Verena, who is my colleague at work, to attend a seminar.

Since I’ve been saving most of my money lately for travels, there wasn’t much I bought or added to my wishlist. Because I need to wear Make-up at work, I had to buy some new cosmetic products. I bought everything online at Ecco Verde. They sell natural cosmetics of great quality and I’m planning on writing a review about the items I’ve purchased. Furthermore, I decided to test some products of the high-end natural cosmetic brands Savue and Nui. I won’t write a blogpost about that because I had only ordered their Testkits – which is by the way a great way to check out their products before actually spending lots of money. Apropos spending lots of money – I probably have to do that on flights in November, even if I find a good offer. If you like, you can check out my Kleiderkreisel profile, ’cause I added some new pieces and really need the space in my closet plus the money on my bank account. 😉

And nope, I didn’t forget about my five favorite blogposts. Here they are!

• Masha Sedgwick traveled to Taiwan, and her blogposts about it are awesome! I didn’t know much about Taiwan but her informative travel report makes it a “I need to travel there myself asap”-destination.
• I know, there are plenty of articles out there about body issues and accepting who you are. But Kat from the blog Hollerkat finds the absolut right words to describe how wrong every judgement about our bodies is. Must read: Ein Hoch auf Dehnungsstreifen
• Take a look at Sloris for this post. Firstly, the look she’s wearing is beautiful and secondly, everything she writes about is so true and important to know.
• Rebecca from the blog “fromroses” sums up how to let things go when you worry about something too much. Pretty accurate and helpful for many of us, I believe.
• A DIY can’t be missing in my compilation. Bonny knows everything you can build with pallets and this time, she explains how to build a flower box. Doesn’t seem to difficult and is definitely a project I need to try in spring!

This was my update which turned out to be more comprehensive than I expected it to be. Anyway, I do plan to publish about four or five more blogposts in the following two months until it’s most likely gonna be a little quieter on the blog again. See you!

via

Waaaaay too late, I know, but here it is: my june recap! I think there was really no summer where I was as busy as I am this year. I won’t complain – I like to have my calendar filled every day with things to do, but the last couple of weeks have been nothing but a constant challenge of getting enough sleep to make sure I’m not falling asleep during the day after. But as I’ve already said, I don’t wanna complain about the last weeks, because if I haven’t had work and my lessons everyday at the driving school I would just be bored sitting at home and waiting for the next workday. Before I finally get my driving license it will probably be the end of August, which means until then I’m gonna continue my work- and study schedule. I really hope to manage to write some more blogposts in between as well, besides the monthly recaps (which I actually really enjoy, but at the same time it scares me, because those recaps make me just realize how fast every month is going by!!!).

Let’s make it an actual recap then. In June, I took my final exams and on the 22nd, we celebrated the end of our school career at school. It was a beautiful and emotional ceremony, but to be honest, I didn’t quite realize what just has happened in this moment. It seemed surreal and felt just like “Okay, we’re going to have summer break now and see each other in class in autumn again”. My classmates then went to a big graduation party, but unfortunately, after I got back from my little trip to Sweden, I was really sick. I just didn’t feel well and first I thought, I could maybe join the party later when I ate and drank something, but it kept getting worse and in the end I fell asleep with fever and bad headache. I’m so so so sad I couldn’t join the last big party with all my classmates, teachers and friends from school.
But apropos trip to Sweden, I had a lovely time there. Except coming home sick, I had a great time visiting all my friends, my family, and to join the graduation party (“Studenten”) of my best friends and former classmates. I love them all so much and I’m beyond grateful that I got the chance to meet them and to make such good friends in just one year. They are literally the best!!! My friend Laura and I traveled together to my second home, and we took lots of pictures during our trip, I might upload some of them as soon as I’ve got a little more time.

After my swedish and austrian graduation, I immediately started working, and so far I’m really happy with the job and my colleagues. They’re all so helpful and kind and I admire their patience with me (as I’m asking thousand question just to make sure I do everything the right way).
Other than that, I’m having driving lessons since a week now and I’m really not sure if I’m gonna be a good driver someday – it feels like I have no control at all over the car when I’m driving haha.

We’re in the middle of summer now – time goes by so fast! When I visited my folks in southern Sweden, I couldn’t resist to buy some summer-sale items. Two jumpsuits from Weekday, silver earrings from Urban Outfitters and a backpack as well as a silver shirt from my favorite Second Hand Shop landed in my bags on my way back to Austria.
But scrolling through the internet made me wanna get some more pieces, for example those really beautiful shoes from Maddies Outfit (which itself is gorgeous too) – but as soon as they were on sale, they were sold out. It feels like I’m always coming late when my favorite pieces are on sale. 🙁
Luckily, the Indie Magazine, which I lately found again, won’t be sold out if I finally subscribe to it. I wanted to do it already months ago but always forgot about it – now it’s time, I guess.
And then there are some items on my wishlist, which let me combine business with pleasure. For my job, I need to wear tights (yes, even inside, but there are air conditioners, so it’s not as bad as it might sound). I found two extremely beautiful tights at Swedish Stockings: Nina Fishbone and Svea Premium. Gonna order them this week as well. The people behind Swedish Stockings follow a exemplary mission, because they produce their tights only from recycled ones. You can benefit from this as well, when you send them at least 3 of your old stockings and in return you will get a 30% voucher for your next purchase.

Not to forget, my 6 (not five this time, I couldn’t decide!) favorite blogposts in June were really inspiring and gave me lots of motivation to try something new or to think of something from a different angle. Take a look yourself!

• Peppermynta Mag regularly puts different sustainable and charitable institutions in the spotlight. Last month it was an intiative called Shades of Love. In the Himalaya region the population suffers from sunlight – something, I didn’t know anything about. But thinking about how easy it is to help, namely just to donate sunglasses, it’s something everyone should consider to do.
• Corinna from the blog Kissen & Karma posted a super sweet DIY on her blog, perfect for the outdoor summer: How to build a muntin window.
• I love love love Mias travel guides. Here are her recommendations of Londons best cafés. I want to visit every single one she recommended! I consider to travel to London just to sit in these beautiful looking cafés…
• Another blogger whose postings I adore are the ones from Stef. Her recipe of how to make Basilikumpesto seems to be easy and especially very yummy!
• Vreni from Jäckle & Hösle writes an article about a topic which I never read somewhere on the internet before. It’s an issue for me as well, because to accept, that I’m simply never gonna to have browned skin in the summer, wasn’t always easy. Embrace your paleness!
• I can’t name any article from Maddie from dariadaria which I don’t find somewhat inspiring. Maybe not a “classic” dariadaria post, she writes about her experience with Tesla and why it maybe is more than just a car for “the rich”.

On Sunday, I had a shooting with my lovely friend Sabeth and we took
some really sweet pictures which I hope to show you soon as well. And
today, my dear swedish-exchange-student-buddy Marlene is visiting me for
three days – we haven’t seen each other for almost a year now and I’m
really looking forward to meet her again! I hope you enjoy the next days as well and wish you lovely summer days ahead. 🙂

via

So much happened during the last few days and weeks that I don’t even know where to start. For once, all news are fun and exciting – which is also the reason why my monthly recap comes so late. Life has simply treated me good and kept me busy in a positive way.

Let’s begin with the most surprising thing (for me at least): I got through my finals in Math and well, I actually can’t really believe that I’m going to be completely (!) done with my exams in just a few days. It feels all so unreal and most of all, I didn’t dare it to myself. Thinking about my “exhausting” history with Math, it feels almost a bit like a little marvel to me. Now there are just my oral exams in English and Religion left. And then I really are done with my school career! (Can’t say it often enough, feels still weird!)
Besides that, another exciting event is about to happen. My swedish friends will take “Studenten” (the swedish word for taking finals or in German “Matura”) next Friday. And since me and my class are the first ones to take our oral exams, we’re also going to be done by Tuesday, which means me and my dear friend Laura will be able to travel to my beloved second homecountry to celebrate Studenten together with my friends and my former class. This is almost like a little dream coming true, me and my friends talked about this day already two years ago and I didn’t believe I could actually come just because of all my exams. But it seems I’ve got the fortune all on my side in the past two weeks and well, you maybe can tell, I’m beyond happy! There probably won’t be any blogpost until I come back on 20th of June because I just hadn’t the time to prepare some posts, but you can follow me on @lizblick on Instagram until I’ll show you the highlights here on the blog.

Other than that, I have to update you on my little wishlist. Remember the bralette I’ve told you about in my april recap? Unfortunately, it was out of stock when I wanted to purchase it. Fortunately, I found a bralette just as lovely as the ones from troo (you can get a 15% discount there right now!). The bralettes from the Austrian shop Körbchen are handmade by the two owners and the quality and beautiful design is sincerely worth the price. I got the chance to meet one of the owners at this years Feschmarkt, which is basically a local market where mostly small shops from all around Austria are selling their items. Now, you’ve even got the opportunity to buy pieces from Körbchen online. They just started their online shop, which means that not all items are available yet, but at least my favorite one is already online! “Stella” (picture above) is beautifully made and really comfortable. I love the back too, just take a look yourself.
Since I can tick this bralette off my wishlist, time to add a new “wanted”-piece. Can we please agree on that this light pink dress would be the perfect choice for a nice summer evening on the beach?! Just a bit unsure about the size, since this is only produced in xs/s, but it looks too good to not order it and at least try it on…

And as usual, I want to share my five favorite blogposts from May with you.

• Darja from the blog flying away doesn’t only visit wonderful places, she also takes stunning pictures. Her shots from the Red Sand Beach made me wanna travel there so badly as well!
• Useful travel guide from Angie on hellopippa: The best adresses in New York to shop sustainably produced fashion.
• A blog entry from Christine which I agree to 100% with. Why she didn’t like the so extremely hyped series “13 reasons why”: Click here! Definitely worth reading (in German) because I think you shouldn’t just watch the series without actually discussing the impact that it might have on its viewers.
• Jana from bekleidet wrote another important article. She makes a plea to go outside and to experience things instead of just being in your usual work environment day in, day out.
• Not so much of a recommendation because of the topic, but because this is in fact one of my favorite typical Austrian meals. Stef from magnoliaelectric tells you how to make “Kaiserschmarrn mit Apfelmus“. Mhhm, bon appetit!

Hopefully, June is continuing to be as good as it already is. I wish you all a very calm week ahead and just the best until you hear from me again in two weeks!

via

Furthermore, I came across some really great articles in the blogosphere this month. I definitely recommend you to take a look at the following:

• I adore Maddie and her way to put personal experiences into words. If you haven’t already read her article about things that we try to find at far away places while they are right in front of us, please switch immediately to her blog.
• Jana, whose style of writing I love just as much as Maddie’s, published an entry that got right into my heart. She writes about old times, unforgettable moments and about a life worth living. Nostalgia.
• I’m in urgent need to travel again! No, but seriously, my wanderlust hit this month a new level. I simply want to explore new places, meet new people and see something different. Mia from heylilahey just came back from her trip around the world and wow, just look at those awesome pictures from Costa Rica! I’m in love. And her budget guide for travelers is also very helpful.
• One article that made me quite thoughtful this month was this one from Linn. She comments the election in Turkey and makes an enthusiastic plea to make use of our voices.
  Justine wrote an essay about why it doesn’t matter what’s happening to you and why instead it’s more important how you handle such situations. I agree on what she has to say, even though I sometimes struggle with this attitude myself…
  And Stef talks on magnoliaelectric, a fantastic blog which I follow since some years now, about her desire to just write spontaneously again, without thinking too much about it, something that I can absolutely relate to.

And what would be a monthly recap without a wishlist what to buy next? In particular this (way to good looking) bralette you can see above! I wanted to buy it last week when I saw that it was sold out… 🙁 The description says it’s limited but I subscribed to their newsletter and let’s cross fingers that they’re going to produce a few more pieces! The brand itself is called troo.ch and is very recommendable, since they produce in a transparent way and because of the fact that all of their designs are simply gorgeous! The prices are not too high either, between 40 and 50 Euros I’d say is a fair price for a quality piece like that. So if “Grace” isn’t going to be available soon I’ll definitely look out for another piece from their shop.
As I mentioned above, I won’t have much time for the blog until next week due to my final exams. Maybe I’ll publish some prepared posts, otherwise you’re going to hear from me next week on Sunday. I wish you all a nice week!

Where to
start. Well, the last weeks have been quite stressful but also emotionally exhausting. There isn’t
much I’ve done except studying and sleeping. One reason for that was our final Math test, which I was really nervous and anxious about since it decides if I’m allowed to take my finals in May. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get a good grade on the test and this means I’ve got kind of a “last chance” the week after our Easter holidays. I’ve been struggling with Math since the very beginning of my school career but now that I’m so close to the end I just wanna get this whole thing done and never think about it again.


Besides my personal life happened something else which made me feel extremely upset. You probably have heard about the terror attack in Stockholm too. I got messages on my phone when my friends on facebook marked themselves as being safe. Just about ten minutes before I should hold my presentation of my final paper in front of a committee. Hearing about this awful news, especially because it happened in my beloved second home country, was horrible for me. The topic of my final paper was, silly enough, Austrians in the Swedish Exile. I was supposed to talk about similarities between the asylum policy in Sweden today and during the Second World War. So pretty much all I should say was that Sweden handles immigration issues really well but the moment I got the news about the terror attack I felt completely lost in my issue. I didn’t feel excited and enthuasiastic about the presentation anymore. However, I’m really blessed to have such understanding teachers who always help and support their students whenever needed. The presentation itself then went well and I was just glad to have it done, even though in my thoughts I was constantly in Sweden and by all my friends there.
Mitt fina Sverige, jag beundrar dig för ditt sätt att hantera så pass svåra och mörka situationer där alla befinner sig i sorg och osäkerhet. Jag hoppas att människor rycka nu ännu närmare till varandra. Mina tankar är hos er. Stockholm i mitt hjärta.

Except the horrible news from Stockholm, the last weeks went by quickly and some good things happened too. First of all: I’ve got a job! At least I think so, since we didn’t talk about the exact details yet. I’m so happy to finally have made some decisions for the near future. The job itself seems to be great because I’ll work at the airport, which I think is really fascinating. I’m going to start working there in exactly one month and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Certainly, this seems to be a good first step into some more future-stuff-planning.
After the presentation of the final papers (which was by the way also kind of our last school day because now we only have to attend the subjects in which we are going to take finals) me and my classmates went to the appartement of our dear friend Luise where we celebrated this very last day of our school life. As I’ve said a couple of times before, I just love my classmates and even though I’m glad to go out of school soon, it’s sad to know that we’re not going to see each other every day in class after that.

The first days off from school did I use to do several things which I wanted to do for a long time. Such as ordering two books. One from Astrid Lindgren (“Die Menschheit hat den Verstand verloren”), a book where her diary entries during the Second World War are collected. The second one is from Joachim Meyerhoff, whose first book my class teacher recommended to me. Now I’ve ordered part 2 of his trilogy (“Wann wird es endlich wieder so, wie es nie war”). If you are looking for an enjoyable book, written with careful chosen words, I can only suggest you to take a look at his books.

While I’m happy to read something different than the literature for my final paper, I was also looking forward to the release of the fourth (and unfortunately last) season of Skam. I think it’s really cool that Sana is going to play the main character this season and I hope it will be as good as the seasons before. Something else I recently discovered is the online shop Ecco Verde. As I have to wear make-up for my job, I need to get new make-up and this is the ultimative opportunity for me to finally buy natural cosmetics. This BB Cream from purebio which you can see on the picture above seems to be the perfect choice, but I wanna look through everything first and then decide what I’m going to purchase.

Today, it’s the last day of our little semester break from school, which means tomorrow starts a new week with new tasks for the second semester. It will also be the last school semester ever for me, and I’m just beyond excited to end school soon. At the same time, a very vague time lies in front of me and all my classmates. It’s definitely going to be hard to leave the surroundings I got so used to in these four years. Nevertheless, I need to keep focused at the last couple of months which won’t be easy. The first part of our A-levels will be the final paper which needs to be handed in this friday at the latest. I’m so glad because I finally finished it last week on Monday and it feels just so good to be done. I’m gonna print it these days and then the only thing left will be the presentation in front of a committee, but since I really enjoy talking about this topic it won’t be too difficult.

Oh and then of course today is the Oscar Night too. Needless to say that La La Land is the biggest favorite this year. I’ve seen it I think two weeks ago with two friends of mine. I don’t know, maybe it was because of the high expectations I had, but it didn’t really catch me like other movies did before. The Storyline wasn’t the most exciting one, and I kinda just waited the whole time for a highlight, some deeper message behind it, but there was none. Still, it was a great evening and especially the music deserves in my eyes an Oscar. Really great songs, which I could listen to for hours and hours. My absolute favorite one is Audition – The fools who dream.

Then I read some great blogposts this month. Masha for example gives some tips for a more hygge life on her blog and also explains the word hygge. It’s a Danish term actually, in Swedish it would be called mysig. In Scandinavia, these words have so many different meanings, but I think Masha explains it very good. It also reminded me how badly I miss this mentality.
Maddie, whose blog dariadaria I absolutely adore, has written two really amazing articles (to be exact, one of them is a vlog). First, a reflection about herself and how to answer the question “Who am I”. Secondly, a video where she talks about seven reasons to travel alone. I thought about this quite often in the last couple of days, because I really want to go and travel solo for a couple of weeks/months after I graduated, but I don’t really know yet where/when/how. Her video just made me so excited about going abroad once again soon.
The next super interesting blogpost actually fits the issue of traveling solo. Jana writes about being alone in public. Even if you choose to go alone somewhere, there is always this little feeling of what other people might think etc. etc. I by myself feel sometimes really weird in places, where everybody seems to have someone to talk to.
Last but not least, Kristina Bazan published a massive travel guide to Tokyo on her blog. I need to admit that I’ve never been really attracted of the countries and cultures of Asia, but after I got to know some people from China and Japan during my exchange year, I got more interested about traveling there. And this Guide just reminds me once again of my endless Travel Bucket List.
Besides the Wanderlust, I’ve got another major craving right now. Aren’t these glasses you see on the picture above amazing??? They are called “Voyager” and are produced by the sustainable label Viu Eyewear. Not only are their glasses good-looking, but they have also prices which are actually affordable. They are without doubt on top of my wishlist, but I wanna wait with buying one pair until they open their new shop in my city.

Since the next four or five weeks are going to be quite stressful, I prepared some posts for you. Hope you like them and I wish you a good start for the week ahead!