Thursday, July 25

finished~the round up



as i mentioned in finished~20, these posts get more and more repetitive because i keep using the same products. this little basket contains almost all the things that i use every day. not very exciting, is it. so, to round things up, these are the facts and figures: i reviewed ninety-seven different products from thirty different brands. top brand is lush with eighteen different products, followed by biotherm and weleda, each with eight different products. the items that i re-bought most are biotherm aquasource moisturizer and weleda almond oil (five times each).

i will continue the small empties posts for a while, because the samples i use are much more varied.

Wednesday, July 24

the woman who went to bed for a year



this year's easy holiday read. funny and sad at the same time.

Monday, July 22

sunshine and roses



yesterday, we returned home from a week in france. we stayed in a cottage in the countryside, surrounded by the most beautiful gardens. the weather was perfect, so we did not need much else. all i did was sit outside, eat raspberries and macarons, read fat books and dream away while visiting castles. after such a week, what more can you wish for but enjoying your own home again when you return. it was wonderful to be away and it is good to be back.

Wednesday, July 10

a view of summer



look at that curious and pretty rose. i like to watch him when i'm sitting at the dinner table. i love the ivy too by the way. it seems to be on a quest to take over the wall.

Monday, July 8

summer knits



how weird am i... summer comes around and i catch the knitting bug again. the plan is for this to become my first cardigan one day.

Sunday, July 7

summer shirts



little imp needed t-shirts. the weather is taking a turn for the better and he has grown a size. it would have been easy to take a nice walk to the nearest department store and spend a bit of money. but no. there must be something better than once again buying something new. i realised there are too many long-sleeves in his closet for him to wear (still maternity presents). so i chose one and cut off the sleeves, sewed the hems and voilĂ . a new t-shirt. and a more satisfied feeling than yet another a store-bought one would have given me.

Thursday, July 4

storm



i am re-reading a novella about a fictitious hebridean island called scarpa. i'm not re-areading it because it is particularly well-written or gripping or because the characters are so wonderful. the only reason why i am loving it is the way it brings me straight back to the two hebridean islands i have visited: skye and raasay. i'm secretly wishing for a little house in which i will wake up in the mornings to go exploring. i'd be outside all day and everything would be so, so simple.

Wednesday, July 3

finished~20



this will be my final regular finished post, but more about that another day. here you can already see my reason for deciding to stop keeping track of my finished products though: it's all getting quite repetitive. besides, i am leaning more and more towards very simple and clean products. so, here they are: a few oldies and a few new ones.

~ etos hand cream ~ a very cheap hand cream that smells really nice. a great product at such a low price, but ideally it should be a bit richer.
~ biotherm aquasource superserum ~ not much to say about this except that i still like it.
~ biotherm aquasource moisturizer ~ same thing here: a product that i like a lot, which shows from the fact that this is the fifth time i finish a jar since starting to keep track!
~ hurraw almond lip balm ~ i got this from a colleague, it's all organic, vegan and raw. you can't go wrong there. i had to get used to the almond-scent and i finished it quite fast, but that may also have been due to the fact that i liked using it a lot.

~ lush angels on bare skin fresh facial cleanser ~ it was a long time since the last time i used this product. unfortunately, i didn't like it as much as i did a few years ago. my skin has changed since pregnancy and so have my beauty rituals: next time i think i will choose something that's easier and faster to use.
~ anatomicals the showering inferno hot and fiery b-movie body cleanser ~ this reminded me of lush the olive branch shower gel: the same somewhat watery consistency and the same special, lovely scent.

Monday, July 1

decluttered



i find it much easier to get things done if i set myself a very specific goal. for example, i had been thinking about an easy way to get rid of unused and unnecessary stuff. then i came up with the idea of taking just a few minutes every day for one month, and to pick out something each day that i would either throw away or give away. so that is what i did in june. it worked like a charm. and it was quite easy and much fun as well, because we have made so many people happy with the stuff we did not need anymore. now isn't that a win-win situation.