December 24

Time flies. It's already the 24th of december again and - less exitedly than many children, of course - I'm waiting for the celebrations to begin. This evening will be spent very traditionally with the family gathering at my parents' flat and having a feast (Raclette). After that, some small presents will be handed around and hopefully amongst them there will be some kind of parlour game that can be tried out afterwards.

Since it is still quite warm for this time of the year (adieu white christmas - dreams) I chose to wear a red dress combined with cream-coloured tights and some of my favourite jewellery. Additionally, I felt it was a good occasion to put up my hair for a change.

To those who like and celebrate Christmas, I wish you all a very merry and peaceful time

Advent brings rain instead of snow

2012 nears its end...december already. But judging from the weather one could as well believe we are just facing autumn's first days. No silently trickeling snowflakes or frostiness around. Instead, rain is falling from the gray clouds crowding the sky and if it was only a little warmer, you could leave the house without a coat or jacket (I only put mine off for the photos, however).

As my best friend's husband celebrated his birthday this evening in form of a quite sit-in 'party', I chose to wear a casual but not too understated outfit. Main part of it was a pullover I recently bought secondhand on ebay as "a dress". Although I doubt it is wearable without an additonal skirt or trousers, with the many little white knobs stiched on the black fabric it has managed to become one of my favourite piece during the few days I own it. As for the birthday 'party' today I also was in the mood to give my overknee socks a comeback.

Lazy Autumn Day

Summer has left the stage to autumn in the meanwhile. And I'm prepared for colder, shorter days in its wake. Altough I know that I will be missing warmth and sunshine very soon, I am now looking forward to illuminating the dark afternoons and evenings with the new latern I bought on ebay very recently (you can see it in the background of the photos) while having some warm, cozy cups of tea. Ebay is also where I got the long, navy dress, I wore today and on which I still have to decide whether it really matches with my style...The corresponding blazer was a complete disappointment, so I'm planning to resell it.

Love-in' a 'hopeless' place

These photos again were taken at a place I seldomly visit but really like: it embodies the charme of what most oftenly evokes negative associations about the area I live in: post-industrial landscapes. Everytime I get here, new spots are waiting to be discovered in their very special, rough beauty. Not neat, maybe not even idyllic, yet definitely fascinating, eye-catching and atmospheric.

In a vintage mood

And here it is: finally a sign of me still being out there and keeping my blog in mind (just let me get away with the optimistic assumption that someone actually cares :-P...). I'm not yet done with my flat: many of my possessions are still stored in the cellar, slowly becoming forgotten. I long for the moment, when they will finally see the daylight again - because that'll mean I have managed to do something else than job-work and postponing job-work.

Currently, I at least use some of my short breaks for getting rid of clothes only stealing space in my shelves (be it shelves in the cellar or shelves in my room) because, for various reasons, I never wear them. Most of them are in good condition and quite beautiful, though, so I hope they will find happy new owners via ebay, who owe them the attention they deserve. And who help me mend the constant whole in my pocket...

The photos in this entry are a result of this idea. They show me in a dress that I sold last week. At first, I only intended to take some pictures for the auction but while slipping into the dress I suddenly became bent on wearing it 'for real' one last time. So I styled my hair and my make up in a kind of vintage way I had always associated with that dress and took it out to our last collective date - not before taking the photos for ebay, of course...

Making my room..erm..flat inhabitable again takes much longer than I first thought. The floor and the walls are done, my furniture is back in place but there's still something to do: now it means to sort things in and sort things out; each of the small little pieces helping me manage daily life wants to be put back in its place, most of them just stealing space...Hope I'll be done with that soon.

Absence

Dear (non-existent) readers, I apologize for my absence from this blog. I'm renovating my flat (consisting of  only one room) at the moment and neither got the time nor the constant internet access to post here..I'll be back soon and might give you some insights into the results of this week's hard work then.

Summerhow Sad

I got this summertime-, summertime sadness for some special reason. The weather is not to blame, though, for once. Sun is sending his provoking smile through my window, transforming my intention to sit in front of the PC and feed my blog with some new input into a hard challenge. If it weren't for the fun of learning bits about html-codes (- no, no sarcasm in here-) I'd be long gone...somewhere outside, drowning my evil mood in self-made ice-tea.

The weather on the day, these photos were taken, wasn't less splendid than it is now - first real vital sign of summer actually. I spent the time hurrying from appointment to a appointment with still another friend and enjoyed reanimating my social life. A real fun day after all!  It's probably due to my current mood that this does not really show in the I  pictures chose to post: those are rather dark and shady and I don't look quite happy on them. There were loads of other ones, not taken against the sun and at moments, when I was smiling, though. I'll be giving some evidence of that later. But for now, I like these shady pictures, even if they appear a bit pale and lack some contrast. Maybe, if I can take the time, I'll post some edited versions. I'm also going to add some other pictures soon, so keep an eye on this place. In the meantime, you might want to give me your priceless advice on the picture, I'm planning to post on lookbook.nu next:

Deserted

The dress I picked from my wardrobe this morning in order to wear it for lunch with my parents and my sister is one of my favourite pieces. It's comfortable and easy to style in various ways, so it's quite a good choice for nearly every occasion. One of my best ebay bargains ever!

We went to a restaurant, having some delicious food and a good time. After that, I was so full, I just had to go for a walk - and, my neglected blog in mind, to take some photos. Since a lot of people were out in the streets to enjoy the sunny sunday afternoon, it took me a while to find a place that was deserted enough to unhurriedly take some pictures. Guess where I ended up....

Summer Walk

Shoes: Graceland
Bag: a present
Scarf: Orsay
Sweater: Orsay

On these rare days when summer is not letting us down completely, I try to spend as much time as possible outside. In contrast to many of my friends I just can't bear wasting hours full of sunshine and warmth and LIFE in front of the TV or the PC or on my sofa. Consequently, extensive solitary walks have been one of my favourite summer-activities ever since my last years of school (so for quite a while now!). Meanwhile, it's only seldomly that I find myself longing for some company to share the experiences and the impressions of these walks. Most of the time I don't mind being alone on my way to nowhere in particular. Not only have I become accustomed to it over the years but I have actually learned to enjoy the rather lonesome quality of these short escapes from my usual social environment.They are perfect occasions to try out different functions of my cam unhurriedly as well. Yeah, sometimes I'm a bit of a loner indeed. But today, with this post, I let you be a guest, at least, to parts of my last summer-walk.

I was wearing a dress I bought on sale recently combined with a scarf that was originally meant to be a birthday present for a friend (- but I fell in love with it and kept it for myself -), a long cardigan, comfortable open shoes and a bag big enough to hold an umbrella - just in case, the weather'd change its mind.

Chances are good that, during the season, this will become one of my long-term favourite outfits for everyday, because it's just so comfortable, casual and simple without being too boring. If you also like this look, you might want to hype it on lookbook.nu, an online fashion community. I've been posting looks there for a while now - with quite poor results, though XD...

Tracing summer

German version

Rußgeschwärzte Betonklötze, die sich dicht an dicht unter einer von grimmigen Industrieriesen ausgespienen Wolkendecke zusammenducken, trostlose betongraue Siedlungen, die höchstens durch lieblos dahingeschmierte Graffitis ein bisschen Farbe erhalten - das ist die Assoziation, die den meisten Menschen von außerhalb in den Sinn kommt, wenn ich ihnen erzähle, wo ich lebe: im sogenannten Ruhrgebiet, ehemaliges Zentrum der Kohleförderung,  Ballungsraum der hiesigen Bevölkerung und Herz der Industriekultur.

Aber wenn ich meine Wohnung verlasse und die nächstgelegene Hauptstraße an der Ecke überquere, dauert es keine fünf Minuten, bis der Lärm der Autos von Vogelgesang, Insektenzirpen und dem Rauschen des Windes verschluckt wird, wenngleich letzterer bei ungünstigem Stand  den unverkennbaren Geruch der Emscher (Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emscher) heranträgt. Und statt trostlosem Grau dominiert eine ganz andere Farbe das Landschaftsbild: Grün, wohin das Auge reicht. Das ist übrigens auch innerhalb der Wohnsiedlungen so: Kaum jemals passiert man drei Straßen, ohne einem Baum, Strauch oder einer Wiesenfläche zu begegnen.

'Raus ins Freie, ja, in die Natur' hieß also an meinem letzten freien Wochenende die Devise, als der Sommer - Mitte Juni nicht ganz unverhofft - seine Anwesenheit mit reichlich Sonnenschein und warmen Temperaturen verkündete.