End of what

How did February creep up on me like that?
How scary is getting old?
I can't help but think back to my parents when they (and with three children that's not a surprise) casually forgot my age and then turned to me in terror and went "What, you are already twelve? That means I am XY years old!!!"

I'm getting there, and while I am still happy and childless there are other factors that remind me of my own age (see: physical decay).

January was cool.
I am trying to remember right now what I did without looking through this blog but it's kind of hard (Isn't that sad?). I think one of the most exciting things was flying up to Mackay on business. It's just one of those things that are still new and different and omg I get to be on a plane once a month for free! I can finally act like one of those people that don't get excited at all anymore when they're on a plane and read magazines on finance and economy. High five, everyone!!!
But to be honest, what I really enjoyed this months was socializing with friends. It was the best! We drank unhealthy drinks, ate unhealthy food and talked shit until the sun rose. Thank god Christmas is over and I actually get to spend time with people whose company I enjoy. Thank god I can finally spend some actual quality time with Dan, without 3 million terrorizing thoughts going on in my head.
And finally I am calm enough again to spend hours on skype again, talking to my awesome family and friends back home. I have just picked up a writing job again for my friends' festival so will get onto that too. A little bit of creative work on the side will do me pretty well. I have started selling and throwing out some of my old clutter and it feels amazing. I got back into Pilates and am really eager to try other things this month. And I have finally (finally! after 4 months) overcome a pretty dreadful habit (stress eating) that I started when I first got this job. It feels pretty good to get a grip on your life again. I know stuff like that sometimes appears when massive changes happen in your life, but January definitely feels like the month I got back to being myself again. The year can only get better, everyone!

And to finish off this little gratitude post I'll give you (myself!) a quick instagram summary of the lovely first month of 2013. (@astrid-apfelkern for anyone who is interested in seeing bad quality photos of anything kawaii, pink and adventure time)

i.) I received a massive cat candle and several kgs of extremely delicious food of the highly caloric sort.
ii.) Dan held a baby and thought "it was weird". (Wiping sweat off my forehead as we speak)
iii.) Date night: Stuck to a clean eating plan. Best old school diner ever!
iiii.) Couldn't resist buying these kawaii ice cream cups and spoons. Honestly, best mind trick ever. iiiii.) Put fruit salad in it and you think it's ice cream.
iiiiii.) Drank Rekorderlig for the very first time.
iiiiiii.) Was confronted with what we can easily call a fair floss disaster when I left the packet out over night
iiiiiiii.) Had a staring contest with my kawaii little trinket holder and rocketship pen holder (Yes, I divided the paper clips by colour just to be a weirdo)
iiiiiiiii.) Found this cupcake waiting for me after coming home from a two day business trip. Husband of the year all the way.

Trippy as galaxy stuff

It never occurred to me to actually study photographs of galaxies. I never went beyond the black milk website in regards to this amazing imagery.

But man it's some trippy stuff hey. I feel sad for all these people who are completely against the evolutionary theory and think we are the highest life form in the whole universe. Well...according to them there is no universe. I say: Have a look at this stuff suckers.

 

I am currently selling a whole heap of shoes and stuff on eBay, not for the sake of making lots of dollars, but just for clearing some space in my life.
I have developed a strong aversion to cluttering, but feel it's a waste to just throw everything out. Nothing wrong with getting back some of the money I spent on the things. It quite frankly amazes me that I can just go through my closet and find 23 (23!!!) pairs of shoes I have not worn or considered wearing more than once, that I have absolutely no attachment to (I guess this is a good thing. Getting attached to things is weird...), that I don't even like at all (AT ALL!)  and can just throw on eBay for someone else to have.

Note to self: If I whinge again about lacking financial resources I hope my hand develops a reflex and just punches me in the face.

Noppen Air

While I don't expect most of my readers to understand any of what is said in the following video, you should at least check out all these amazing and talented musicians that are introduced.




Especially these guys:



Or these:

Revive or die

Yeah, since neons are on their way out we have to make way for another marvelous trend that was meant to stay in the past but went on to live on forever:

The crazy 80ies sweater

I am talking wide arms, wide body and super short length, so as to make you look like you are either super short or super fat or, in my case, both.

The only thing that can really save you from looking like a fat hobbit is if you have stick-legs pocking out the bottom, covered in Lycra. Yeah...humanity really doesn't learn from the past, do they? Has noone ever seen fucking Flashdance???

Anyway...here are a few of my 'favorites' off notorious romwe.com




Now my question is: Is it so good it's shit or so shit it's good? Did the 80ies call to get their sweater back? Or your childhood? What's with all the cat faces? And the religious themes? I don't get it. Man. I don't.

Of tornados and leather sweatshirts

I can't quite get my head around this just yet:

via fashion156

Maybe it's because this first model looks a lot like this guy, or maybe it's because I can only imagine the floods of sweat and body fluids that are captured, no, more trapped inside of these peculiar clothing items. I have to admit I don't own a lot of real leather, but the amount I own is STILL extremely unforgiving in terms of sweat collection.

via doctor google

I could do leather T-shirts for sure, but the generously sized armholes are about the only reason why. No odor and moisture collection there. It can all just vaporize.

On a lighter note (uhm, what's lighter than clothing?) we are expecting floods, tornadoes and other great surprises of the extreme climatic catastrophic sort. We are also supposed to attend a party. This could really turn into one of those crazy 80ies movies were a lot of young, drunk people fornicate in the pool and then get electrocuted by lighting, all while their friends get taken away by a massive tornado. Of course there will be a lot of boobs. I mean, you can't have an 80ies movie without boobs everywhere, am I right?

Sometimes it tingles in my brain when I write.....

LBD inspiration

amazing outfit. this type of dress is something I wouldn't even look at in the shops. Now I am a convert. And looks like I have to invest in a pair of mega round sun glasses after all (Dan's comment when I tried on a pair in Sportsgirl: "They make you look weird") Weird in a good way, right? via foureyes blog

Something old, something new...

Planning a wedding totally sucks and to be honest, if I would do it again, I would do it in a tiny little cottage somewhere away from everyone with family and closest friends only. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed my wedding days (yeah I had two, but with the same man. Score.) but the planning beforehand was a bit of a nightmare. Thankfully I have some pretty precious family members and friends (Mum and Dad basically organised the whole wedding including band, drinks, food, midnight snacks, venue)  my sister did my nails, my friend and parents' employee did my hair, my brother and his then (and still beautiful) girlfriend organised the cake, all I did was order the rings and buy my wedding dress here. (Just so you know it was always that price, even three years ago it said "80 % off" which made me feel ratty and smart at the same time. Good to know now that it was just a sneaky marketing strategy)To be honest, the times I wasn't a psycho bride I actually found it a great way to bond with a lot of people, not just my groom. So hey, thanks everyone who contributed! It was amazing.

Anyway the reason I am doing this whole nostalgic wedding talk is because, well, if I could change one thing, just one little detail, it would be the footwear choice for my special day. I wore pink mermaid stiletto killer heels I chucked into a corner once the official part was over (that was also when I ripped my dress, spilled shit all over it and generally didn't treat it with a lot of respect - 80 % off does that to you...).


Now that Jeffrey Campbell brought out this amazing range of white shoes, I wish I could have travelled through time and space to snatch a pair of these babies up in 2010.

But ah well....we can always renew our vows.

"not a wedding shoe" - my arse. All of these would've done a great job. Save the spike one for the wedding night. via Jeffrey Campbell's facebook page, all available for purchase here

I'm here on business

So I successfully completed my first ever business trip over the last two days and while movies portray "the business trip" as glamorous and swanky, they always seem to miss that part where you actually have to work.

The whole concept of stepping foot on a plane to do something else than spending lots of money and enjoying yourself (aka holidays) needs to find its way into my head first.

I have also still not overcome that traumatizing landing I had to experience in Singapore last September, still tensing up completely when we are about to touch ground, thinking it would make a difference if I just sat back and relaxed.

But since I will be doing this basically once a month, I should better get used to it and you know what, in a way it's pretty exciting to fly to a different town (and climate zone, oh humidity!!!) on a regular basis. And getting paid for it is pretty sweet too...


I am still trying to post daily, but I kind of missed out at the very beginning of January and am now trying to catch up.

I might leave this five day gap, but I have this urge to fill it with stuff....it's just not a blog if I don't post daily, am I right?

Like a necklace is just not a necklace if it's not a gigantic dinosaur....

dinosaur necklace via asos.com $ 189.75 (lol)

New stuff and stuff...

I haven't ordered anything off bb.com.au for almost a year now but 30 % off and a nice little witch dress were to good to say no to.

I also finally got around to ordering the only Limecrime lipstick my heart ached for - Airborne Unicorn (yeah I kind of fell for the name first, then the colour but who could blame me?)

 

I have been pretty modest with my spending the last three weeks and I think spending little bits and pieces here and there on stuff I actually really want is much more satisfactory than going out on a Saturday arvo, throwing cash at everything I kind of like/I saw on someone else and it looked good, to then come home and leave all the stuff rotting in their bags until one day I rediscover it and wonder what I was thinking at the time... aaaaaaannd breath.

Long sentences are fun.

Maybe reading Freud's "Psychology of love" is having an impact.

Paperboy

Yeah. Go watch this. It's really good.
And you know what, I think I can finally accept Zac Efron as a proper actor. Not just because of the muscular arms. But they helped...

23

So here's the deal. I am turning 23 in less than two months and I am having and identity crisis. I have been trying to google "23 year old stars" but all I get is this photo:


Drug fucked and mouth wide open in some crack heads borrowed Kmart hoodie. Not a major ambition of mine so moving on from this...
Maybe measuring my own success with North American youngsters in prestigious jobs isn't the way to go. (Who could've guessed?)

So it is that I am travelling back to when I was 15, and 23 seemed like a crazy number, a number where babies and house with garden and mortgage went hand in hand, where "hotness" and general physical decay become apparent (wrinkles what the fuck?) and the threat of being alone seemed like a bigger one than that of having a deadly disease..
The teenage brain is a weird and clueless one.

23 is incredibly, scarily close to 25. I am on the brink of "early twenties" and "mid-twenties". And, pardon my French, but it creeped the fuck up on me. It didn't take it's time or knock on the door. It knocked the door down Jason Statham style. Three short years ago (wait, 3 and a half OMG) I was a clueless little Austrian backpacker in St Kilda without direction or a mobile phone (I know, right?) and now I am an adult in Brisbane, getting fried alive by hell fire temperatures (now involuntarily carrying around two mobile phones. Dunno if I traded up or not on that one...), having a blast with a major hero of a husband, a crazily challenging career, my cyber family (hey skype, I love you!), planning on conquering the world, one flight at a time. Doesn't seem so bad after all, right?

Ok mid-twenties
here I come

Unwerth

Strangely enough it has never before become apparent to me to follow an actual photographer on instagram. Kind of odd to think this wouldn't be the first thing anyone would look for, being a photograph sharing platform and all. I guess I much prefer following people I know nothing about, but who wear rad clothes and footwear... Oh social media, what only have you done to me?


Any way, if you are wasting your time on  instagram your very self, visit this talented woman's account. Ellen von Unwerth. No introduction needed, am I right? Wiki her if you are unsure. She is great. And I am still baffled as to why her account has not yet been deleted, showing all that boobage and stuff...

Funny men

It's official.
Jason Segel isn't actually an actor. He's just naturally weird. In a good way.
insert penis joke here


Also Canadian late night talk shows are SOOO much better and the hosts aren't actually egotistic douche bags with face lifts and Gucci suits.

Sand grain gallery

One could think that a human being finding ultimate joy and pleasure in photographing sand must be a peculiar specimen, but I can totally understand where this guy is coming from. Have a look at this beautiful stuff and check out some more on sandgrainsgallery.com



 

On Ghibli and the seaside

It's not a big secret that I am a passionate Studio Ghibli fan. I am looking at a plush toy of the Catbus in this very moment, so there you go...

There is something very soothing about Ghibli movies. Something very down-to-earth and spiritual.
I am especially intrigued by the implicitness of supernatural existence. Take for example "Howl's moving castle", or "Kiki's delivery service". In all these movies, humans, wizards, witches, demons...they are all aware of each other but don't make a big deal out of it. Or in "My neighbour Totoro", where children aren't afraid of the forest spirit, but rather embrace him with childlike naivety and without any unjustified prejudice.
Isn't this the definition of a child's pure, open mind? Would a child know someone is "different", if society wouldn't tell them they were?

Ghibli movies always seem to get to the very core of things. Even the bad guys get portrayed in a positive way somewhere along the line, ensuring the audience understands the reasoning behind the villain's actions. Usually a broken heart, a friends' betrayal or simply society's cruel judgement on him/her are justifying, in a way, the bad guy's behaviour. And while these movies are obviously fictional, the above just sounds all too familiar and can easily be applied to today's society. I mean, loosing the plot over a broken heart - pretty relevant in our day and age, am I right?
The thing I find very remarkable, because it's so different to European fairy tales, is that the villain always gets a second chance. Usually the hero (or, in Ghibli movies usually a heroine) tries to find the villain's weakness and stumbles across above mentioned traumatizing experience. Then, instead of using this knowledge to destroy the villain, (s)he tries to fix that poor fucker up. Psychological rehabilitation. (Where I come from our villains either get shoved into an oven to burn, they drown, die of hunger, get their eyes picked out by ravens, go up in flames and so on. You get the idea) And the message right there? Arseholes don't get born as such, there is a reason to act like an arsehole and while not all of them technically deserve our compassion, we should still try to feel at least a little sorry for them. (Note: Does not apply to major arseholes (read: mentally challenged 'leaders' of the past, present and future))

I could go on and on about my fascination and passion for Ghibli movies, but there is really one imagery that repeats itself and that makes my heart dance particularly wild. The town at the seaside. A warm familiar feeling in my chest, as well as the architecture suggest Myazaki's inspiration are European towns. Whenever I watch a movie and the heroine wanders through the streets of her home town, my thoughts take me back to when I explored the Cote d'Azur, the South of Spain, Monaco and Italy, Brighton beach and little cute French towns in New Zealand.