new year approaching

photos from tumblr. collage and edits by me

i hope everyone had an amazing holiday season! oh and thanks to everyone for the tv suggestions. i have started watching how i met your mother and find it both hilarious and endearing. my family is not christian, so there was no sense in flying home since we do not celebrate christmas as a family, but i really enjoy the holiday season personally, so i celebrated christmas with one of my best guy friends this year here in germany. we travelled an hour outside of berlin to the east of germany to celebrate at his grandmother's house. i was happy to be in the company of a family for the holiday season, because family is what the holiday season is all about. it's also really comforting to spend it with someone who has become like a brother to me. unfortunately i was still nursing my cold the entire time, which i am still dealing with this evening. really one of the longest colds i have had for a long time! norman's grandmother was just so sweet though and kept recommending remedies and making sure i drank enough hot lemon with honey. there is just something to comforting about all grandmothers - they just take on this role of worrying about everyone's well being, which s really heartwarming.

although christmas has passed, i still cannot bring myself to take down my tree just yet. i am also itching to get on my plane to sweden! so excited to be reunited with friends and visit a new country. after new years is when people tend to start hating winter - no more holidays to look forward to, just the cold. but i think winter is really beautiful, and it is the only time of year where drinking a warm cup of cocoa or tea feels like the most luxurious and cozy thing on earth.
what is your favorite cozy winter drink?

lg, Rae

a proper breakfast

sometimes when i have time in the morning to make breakfast it is nice to be able to do so. i am usually a skip-breakfast-and-run-out-the-door-and-grab-a-pretzel-on-the-go kind of university student, but it is really refreshing sometimes to eat a homey-style breakfast. last week on one of my non-university days i made myself a proper breakfast for a change. it was delicious. i don't think i would be able to eat like this every morning, since i usually am not the breakfast type, but it's a nice treat once in a while. oh, and i am finally on break but have come down with a really bad cold. i haven't had a sore throat like this in such a long time. serves me right i suppose, since i haven't had a terrible coat in such a long time! luckily since i am now on break i can work on getting healthy again for the next few days. today after school i just came home and slept for hours. i have been drinking lots of tea and hot lemon water and have been spending the time on the sofa watching my one of my favorite movies, Charade, with audrey hepburn. possibly thinking of running the bath and drinking another mug of hot lemon water with honey.
what are your best home remedies when sick?

lg, Rae

visual stimulation 009

just some interior eye candy for you all tonight.

lg, Rae

tree trimming and "final" goodbyes

on saturday night, adelinn, maja, and linnea came over to drink glögg, hang out, and help me decorate my christmas tree. i was happy to be able to get us all together for a cozy night, since adelinn, maja, and linnea are all moving back to sweden - leaving mere here all alone! well that isn't quite true. i have many other friends in berlin as well whom i love and cherish, but i have a special place in my heart for the swedes. ;) it was nice to have a relaxed night in between all of the studying i have been doing for university. things have been quite stressful but with the holiday break coming up, i can finally sit back and breathe a bit - although not too much because i will also be using the time to work on one of my papers.

i will be spending chistmas with one of my best friends, norman. i am really looking forward to seeing him, because it has been forever and a day since we were able to hang out last. he lives in dortmund, so we only get to hang out when he is back in berlin. i will also actually be going to sweden for holiday on the 29th and will be staying with adelinn until the 7th which is extremely exciting because i have been wanting to go to sweden - specifically stockholm since forever. adelinn and linnea will most likely be moving back to berlin in the summer in any case, so it is only goodbye for a little while. maja's move will be more permanent, but luckily there is always Skype. the sad part about berlin, is that many of the people who move here from other countries tend to only stay for short periods of time. a lot of traffic passes in and out of berlin. i am one of the more unusual foreigners who have really made it a point to make a life for myself here, so i tend to stay, as everyone else comes and goes. friends will always stay friends, but having to say goodbye is never easy.

sorry for the absence from the blogging world, i have been so busy with school. but i really hope everyone is doing well and preparing for the holidays!
Happy Channukah, Merry Xmas, and Happy Kwanzaa!

lg, Rae

polyvore favorites

polyvore has been around for a while, so there is really new news to be found there. i never really got into using polyvore myself, but every now and then an image from polyovore catches my eye as i scroll through my tumblr dashboard. i have been collecting my favorites overtime and wanted to share them. i think that each outfit here represents my taste extremely well. i would definitely wear every single outfit here. if it were only possible and affordable to track down all these items and add them to my wardrobe. i am also aware that all these outfits are extremely summery, but i really haven't seen any wintry polyvore creations and in any case these looks can be used as inspiration and it it isn't too hard to think about adapting them for winter. for example, the last outfit would look amazing with opaque tights, a black circle scarf, and a leather jacket with a black beanie. i hope these looks can be inspiriting to you as well. (unfortunately i am not sure of their original sources.)

lg, Rae