Oh, hello...

Hello lovelies!

I'm taking a not so intended break from blogging at the moment (well, sort of) because I am visiting my parents and honestly just don't really find the time sitting in front of the computer when I have paradise outside my door and family around me.

The last few days have been great. I got to see my two best friends and got to touch my besties 7 month pregnant belly. I got to cuddle with my nephews and niece and got to spend some time with my wonderful parents. It's been relaxing. Almost too relaxing. My mind keeps kicking in and keeps trying to get that negativity level up...but so far...I've kind of got it in control.

I went to see an organic farm yesterday to get some research done for a project I am doing in school. It was AWESOME. For the first time in my life I have really seen evidance and proof why organic is just so much better than "normal" food production. I also got to see the most beautiful and charming cows ever! They were SO cute. They got all excited when we came by and wanted to be cuddled from the farm guy. They were a little sceptic about me but warmed pretty fast and let me pet them. My heart melted about a thousend times.

The last two days have been blue sky and pure sunshine. The temperatures were insane and I got lots and lots of vitamin D in the last two days. YESS!

All in all, life is good here. :)

I hope your weekend was fabulous and full of laughs

xoxoxo
Melanie

Yesterday

Yesterday was the BEST weather. It started out sunny but cold and then turned in to a wonderful spring warm/hot day at around 2pm. We headed out to go location scouting and ended up just sitting at the Phoenix see. Dangling our feet above the water, eating ice cream and unfortunately getting sun burned ;)

We sat there for about an hour and then walked around a little more. We didn't really want to leave, but after a while I guess responsibility kicked in and we got on our way to check the next location out. We found a little pond that Boots was aloud to swim in.

She's a little afraid of deep waters. It is the cutest thing. She will go in and fetch her play toy as long as she can feel some ground beneath her. As soon as she can't feel ground She will head back out. But that little bit of water makes all the difference. She LOVES it. Jumping around, shaking the water off and then heading back in. You can literally see it in her face that she is having a blas of a time. I so love that. I just love her so much!

Hope you all had a awesome day yesterday!!

life lately....

Hello Lovelies!

The last week has been equally exciting and devastating. We finally got the flyers in for bluebird PHOTOGRAPHY and started spreading them around Dortmund, Bochum and Essen. We basically visited every store that had anything to do with weddings or families. The first day went great. We left flyers at basically every store we went in. They were all super friendly and at the end of the first day we were SO motivated. 

It's crazy though how some shop owners treat their costumers. We had a bunch of wedding dress shops where we entered and the lady gave us such a rude and horrible stare down. Looking us, totally obviously, up and down. Not moving, just staring until we said hello. If I would have been there to buy a dress, I would have left right away again. It was horrible. 

The first store we were in was a child's clothing store. They told us that they were actually just looking for a photographer to take pictures of their store and of the outfits for their online store. They basically wanted  a whole catalog shot. Of course we jumped at the opportunity immediately. We met up the next day to talk about the job and fares. Well, turns out it didn't even cross their mind to pay us anything. I don't really know what they were thinking actually. But they basically wanted to pay us 50€ for a job that easily cost way over 1000. We basically went from over excited about a maybe job, to totally depressed because people can be real bastards. WTF? 

It's a real problems that nobody want's to pay for photography anymore. It's like they all think they could do it themselves and that they don't understand why the hell they were supposed to pay at all for it. Drives one nuts really. I guess that is also a big problem in the home made industry. It sucks that people don't recognize ones work and always treat you like some dumb idiot that's worth nothing. 

Well, that meeting basically tells the whole story of our week. We've been running around, organizing and planning and it's been exciting. But we had some real downers too. 

I'm so giddy because of all that's been going on. I so want this to happen. Like, please LET IT HAPPEN. I'm so willing to work HARD and I know it will take a long time till anything really happens, but I still just feel the down part at the moment.

I could really use one, just one positive something that gives me just a little sense of achievement. Ya know? 

How were your last days? Hope you guys had sunshine and wonderfulness. It's raining here since days with some sunshine peeking through ones in a while. That doesn't help my mood at all. 

In other news, I've won an awesome giveaway! Michelle has had one awesome giveaway going on for a while and I'm so stoked to be one of the winners. Michelle is one wonderful lady and I so love to read her thoughts on her blog. You should definitely go over and check her shops out too. That lady is just awesome!

xoxoxo
Melanie

Music Monday - Alex Clare

Hello my friends! How was your weekend? Mine was pretty rad and I hope yours was awesome too :)
This song has been running on a microsoft comorial here in Germany for a while and I actually really love the song. It's a pretty cool mix of lyrics, singing and dub step. Could get used to it :)

hope you have a great start to your week!!



xoxoxo
Melanie

Silent Sunday W13

xoxoxo
Melanie

Saturday Night Randomness and drunk people

(just discovered the wonderful paintings of Splodgepodge on etsy. So beautiful!)

I'm sitting here at 10 o'clock pm and am highly (HIGHLY) procrastinating being on my way to a party. I like parties, I really do. I like sitting around and chatting with people and all the fun stuff that you do when at a party. BUT, what I don't like is people getting extremely drunk and extremely annoying. And this is a party where people will be EXTREMELY drunk and probably EXTREMELY annoying. I guess I'm a bit biased since I don't drink and I'm always sober between a bunch of drunks......but over the years I've developed a huge dislike against drunk people. I've been sober for so so long that I just can't remember how it is to be drunk, but I know how it is to be sober between a bunch of grown ups acting like they've never owned a brain. It's just no fun. Well, maybe for about 30 minutes....but then it really goes on ones nerves. The worst part of all is that they ALWAYS try desperately to get me to drink something. I had a friend ones that was going to school to become a doctor.... every time we met at a party he tried to think of a way to get me drunk. He even thought about bringing an inhaler filled with alcohol to a party, just to get me drunk. It really bothers me that I'm surrounded by people like that. And I don't really know how to handle it, to be honest. I have no problem with people drinking. They can drink and puke and pass out as much as they want. But I don't want to. For some reason the words "I don't drink" seem to spark something inside of anybody with a drink in hand to convince me that I'm missing out on something. Or worse, they think I'm such a poor girl and actually feel sorry for me. I really don't know anybody who doesn't drink. Nobody. Lately I've come to think that this might be the reason for my growing introvertness. After a certain amount of time at a party I just can't handle it anymore. I literally want to run out of the room and just leave. They smell it when you are in that mood though, so at around that time they usually swarm around me going "hey, what's the matter, anything wrong? why in such a bad mood?" All the while slobbering their words and knocking me around while trying to stay on their feet.

Gosh....I'm so dreading it.

I've promised to stop by though and Chris really wanted me to come...soooooo I guess I have to go. 

luxury problems eh? ;)

I hope  you all have a wonderful, wonderful saturday :)

xoxoxo
Melanie

Blogger thoughts

(me, four years ago, in my old room, with purple hair, and far skinnier then today)

I'm sure you all realized the rut that is going on around the blogger world. Almost all bloggers that I highly admire wrote a post about how they just don't know why they actually blog and that they just don't know if they want to go on. That they are basically burned out and don't know where they belong.

I have to admit that I still don't know where I'm heading with this blog. And although I'm full of creative energy and I would love to have a craft blog, I just don't have the money or the time to really pursue that lane. Some people may also find it weird that I'm starting a photography business and that I study photography, but that this is a very rare subject on my blog.

At the moment, this is my personal blog. A blog where I can write down my thoughts. I do not really organize anything for this blog. I have a journal where I write down thoughts, inspiration and music that I just heard and maybe want to make a music monday out of. But my usual blogger routine is sitting down on the computer and just writing about what is on my mind on that day or in that moment. 

The one tip you always here when bloggers give blogging tips, is to only post about what you are truly passionate about and also to stick to a theme. Honestly, I am passionate about many things, but I like it when my ideas can run freely and when I don't have to stress myself about being inspired. I like to think of this blog as a personal journal or friend that I am sitting down and having a cup of tee with. I like to write about what is truly on my mind and what is going on in my life and mind at that moment. Maybe most people who visit this blog are a little irritated by the randomness of my posts? That there isn't a real theme that I stick to? 

I do have a theme though. I'm the theme. All you see on this blog is me....my thoughts, my life and just pure old me. I like it that way and I really enjoy posting about things that are happening in my life. 

I will admit that when I started blogging I wanted this blog to be big and to gain a lot of followers fast. And yes, I'm often quite jealous when I see blogs that are younger then mine and that have about 1000 followers already. I'm jealous when I see how other bloggers make friends so fast and that they have this community behind them. But when I really sit down and think about this blog I don't want to change it up just to gain more followers. I don't want to lie to people about who I am or what I think about just to gain more followers. I think it's awesome that I have followers that care about this little me space. 

I cherish each and everybody who reads my posts and that is interested in my little thoughts and life. I think it's awesome that you guys stop by and take time out of your day to read what is going on around here. I love my little space here. I like to keep it real and it makes me sad to think that so many bloggers out there feel the need to show only a certain side from them or that they are afraid to write about certain topics. 

xoxoxo

Melanie

People and Dogs

Yesterday night Simon and Alena had some people over while I was sitting in my room watching TV. Boots was with me in my room and except for her usual the-doorball-rang-I-have-to-bark-alot, bark...she didn't really care about the visitors. At around 11:30pm I went outside so she could do her thing before bedtime.  All was fine. We came home, she plopped in her bed and we both proceeded to go to sleep. As I was laying in bed, snoozing and watching TV. I hear the people come out of the kitchen to get their coats on and head in to town. Then.....I hear a dark menacing growl. Ok,I guess Boots doesn't like the visitors. As long as she is only growling and is still in her bed, everything is fine. Just leave her be and she will watch you leave. What do I hear then? I hear the girl starting to provoke her....hissing at her....making shitty remarks at the dog in a hissing, stupid, far to loud voice. I could just imagine her probably fumbling around big time with her hands and arms too. Boots growl got darker and far more menacing. The girl didn't stop. I was just about to jump out of bed and ask the girl what the hell she is thinking. When I heard Simon say something. I figure he'll stop the girl, but no, he turns around and makes it a joke to provoke Boots even more.....W....T....F....??

I don't know what it is but lately I've been having a bunch of problems with people provoking my dog. I don't know what these people think. It makes me so mad to see how people treat her (and any animal for that matter). I am so afraid that Boots will someday bite somebody in situations like this. She is a very very sweet dog but also very very careful with strangers. If you leave her be, she is totally fine with you being around her. Then she will warm quickly and cuddle with you. If you are a stranger and you stare at her, talk to her or proceed to approach or touch her, she will show you that she is not comfortable with it. She wont bark or growl but will retreat. If you still don't stop, she will growl and retreat further. She would never ever bite, but I honestly don't know how she would act in certain situations if you don't leave her be. I mean, how would you react if somebody corners you and you believe you are in danger or the person i threatening you?

All her signals are totally easy to understand and I just don't understand why people always treat her with so little respect. I hate the fact that people think they can touch or treat a dog, especially a dog thats a stranger, with no respect and how ever the hell they feel like.

It makes me mad that animals and their owners have no right and that animals always have to obey, even in situations where no human being would stay calm. It makes me even more mad to know that animals are always the ones that have to suffer. I always wonder where this disrespect and especially this terrible ignorance comes from. Really people, this freaks me out!! I Love Boots so much. She is my family and it just breaks my heart to see people treating her so stupidly.

Did any of you ever make an experience like this? Is there a certain way you handle the situation? I'm never sure how to react and I'm afraid I'm always kind of (read:very) rude in those situations.

xoxoxo

Melanie

Tomato cream soup recipe

I've been seriously lacking inspiration in the kitchen. I don't know where it came from but I've never had such a long period of cooking block (yes, there is such a thing as cooking block). Due to this terrible desease I have been eating far to much junk in the last weeks. Sweet Frappes, sweets, processed stuff....plain old ick. It has to quit. So, today I went shopping and I still had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do with food. I forced my mind to think of something reaaally simple. This soup is the only thing my mind could come up with (after staring at everything for ages). This is a real a la Mel recipe. It's fast, it's simple and it's yummy :)

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You need:

one small can of diced tomatos

half a onion

one clove garlic

1/2 cup heavy cream

salt+pepper to taste

tsp sugar

chilly flakes

2 tbsp basmati rice

1 tbsp dried oregano

olive oil

cheese (use what you like)

How to:

Heat some olive oil in a pot. Add chopped onions and garlic and saute for about 1 minute. Add the entire can of tomato and stir. Fill your empty can with water and add it to the tomatoes. Sprinkle in the rice, cover and let it cook for about 20 minutes. Add oregano, chillie and cream and and let cook for another 10 minutes. Fill in your favorite bowl and top it with some grated cheese. Yum!

This is a pretty thick soup. If you have the feeling it's too thick though, you can always delude it with some water. This is a savory, rich soup that will warm you up on a rainy day. The rice gives it some body and I love the chunks of tomatoes. If you like your soup without tomato chunks then you should zap it with a blender before adding rice and herbs. 

Voila, thats it ^^

2 servings / 35 minutes till done

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Hope you enjoyed this recipe. And as always, I'd love to hear if you tried it :)

Have a great day


xoxoxo
Melanie

Childhood Soundtrack - Don Mclean

The other day when I was driving Home from running some errands in town, this song came in the radio. There are a lot of songs that remind me of something or other of my past. But this is one of the songs that catapult me back to when I was just a tiny little girl. I know the lyrics by heart and I can never stop myself from singing a long. This song is absolutely the soundtrack of my childhood.  

Growing up, it was a usual ritual to drive to my grandmas on the weekends. The trip took a little over an hour and ran across the most beautiful landscape. My parents owned a wonderful old Toyota bus back then. I loved that Bus. To this day I love it and have the biggest affection I will ever have for a car with that bus. My mom always jokes with me that I loved the car so much because I was almost born in it ;) I remember so many trips to my grandma and especially, so many trips back. I remember sitting in the back seat looking out of the window and at the stars, such an incredible amout of stars. I remember that I used to sneak out of my little seat and sit on the floor. I sat cross legged on the floor and put my arm on the seat. I would lay my head on my elbow and fall asleep in seconds. It's crazy how vividly I can remember sitting in that back seat, looking to the front, out of the window and on to that little patch of street that was illuminated by the car lights. The radio gave off this very faint orange light and had two turning dials on the right and the left. There was one cassette in this bus that we always listened to when we drove home. This song was on that cassette and I remember us girls always singing along and goofing around. I can't even remember what else was on that cassette but this song will forever be in my heart just because of those trips. I felt so happy back then. My parents were always chit-chattin away in quite voices while I looked at the stars and listened to the music. It really is one of my most favorite memories. 

I hope you all have a great start to your week!

xoxoxo

Melanie