Great Gift Ideas: Books That Aren’t Books

by Mary-Sue

*It’s the season to be jolly, falalalalalalalala.* Isn’t it too early to be singing Christmas… GIRRRLL it is NEVER to early to start singing Christmas songs. I think November is actually the perfect time to bring out the cozy Christmas PJs and put Pentatonix’s “That’s Chistmas To Me” album on repeat. For real y’all, this album will give you ALL the Christmas feels!

Anywho, with Christmas preparations also come the less enjoyable responsibilities of buying all your loved ones incredibly thoughtful presents to show you actually paid attention this year to their newfound hobbies and likings. So, let the Christmas stress commence. Or not. Because I’ve got two great gift ideas that I personally would love to receive. I recommend these “books” to people who are list-nerds and whose hearts start beating faster when hearing the word ‘stationary.’

IKEA Lamp “Samtid” Make-Over

By Mary-Sue

After the IKEA coffee table make-over I still had half a roll of the adhesive foil left and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. The coffee table was namely not the only thing that endured rough damage during my moving houses. My IKEA lamp “Samtid” had a few rips in the lampshade and looked straight up pathetic.

This make-over pretty much speaks for itself: apply adhesive foil to the lampshade and you’re done. However, there are some problems I encountered and instead of doing a blog post on “ooh look how pretty the end result is” I wanted to show you what went on behind the foil. Because to be honest, that part is not pretty and actually badly constructed. Had I known what would happen upfront, I would have been more careful handling the shade. It’s not that I planned the shade to break, so this is just me, making the best of a bad situation and a heads-up for when y’all try this yourselves.

IKEA Coffee Table Make-Over

by Mary-Sue

My IKEA coffee table from the LACK series has been with me for… almost a decade. Wait, what? Am I calculating that correctly? Wow time flies… and apparently I’m pretty thrifty with my stuff. So thrifty that I didn’t want to get rid of the table eventhough it had scratches, dents and water rings all over. Nope, I wanted to keep it because it still does its job perfectly. Though I also felt that it needed a make-over, because during my moving houses it incurred some pretty rough damage. Looking at the ‘before’ pictures, I now realize this make-over was actually looong overdue.

Three Evening Looks

by Mary-Sue

“My closet is exploding from the amount of clothes, yet I’ve got nothing to wear.” This is me on a daily basis. In order to solve this dilemma, I’ll go shopping and buy one or two more clothing items. Those clothing items will be worn twice, after which I’ll get bored again and end up where I started: “I literally have no clothes to wear, aaahhh.”

But then I heard someone say “before you buy anything new, first go shopping in your own closet.” We are not aware of all the things we have in there and it is completely ridiculous to think you do not have enough clothes. The thing for me is that I just need to pair items together differently, because I always wear the same top with the same bottom.

My Fit & Health Apps

by Jirrine

With the age of the smartphone information is at the tip of your fingers at all times. In some situations this has negative consequences (think of all those people in restaurants texting and checking Facebook!). On the other hand my iPhone has proven to be a super handy companion when it comes to my fitness. I am not a super active fit girl, although I hope to be in the future lol. I do, however, use several apps to kick my butt now and again!

Observing People’s Behaviors: Connecting With Pigeons

by Mary-Sue

* Brace yourself for a very random post*

As a psychologist and researcher I’ve become pretty skilled at observing people’s behaviors. I like secretly spying on unsuspecting pedestrians from my balcony. Nobody notices I’m there so there is no “experimenter bias,” meaning that people behave differently because they know someone is watching them. Therefore the observed behaviors can be thought of as genuine actions stemming from the “participants” only.

So what is it then, this particular behavior that I have been observing the last two months? Well, I’ve become aware of the large amounts of birds in my new neighborhood. The animal kind, not the British equivalent for hot girls. Especially pigeons are very prominent in my area and there are three different ways people handle this inhabitant.

First of all, there are The Pigeon People (TPP) who are obsessed with the flying creatures. They say dog owners look like their dogs, well, the TPP descended from the same ancestor as the pigeons. You know how pigeons bob their heads when they walk? So do the TPP, especially when reunited with their third cousin. The two walk around each other in some kind of mating dance, whilst the human is loving this “connection” with the animal, the bird is only trying to get to its food thinking, get out of my fucking way human. (FYI: this actually happened!)

Musical Therapy: India Arie Inspired

by Mary-Sue

“I was always too concerned about what everybody would think. But I can’t live for everybody, I gotta live my life for me.”

Whenever I am in need of  some encouragement to uplift my mood, I turn to music. Especially India Arie’s music has a positive, inspirational power. She sings about life’s struggles that everyone goes through and gives new ways to look at them. Her lyrics are honest, genuine and heartfelt, and resonate with me throughout my whole being. I think the overall message of her music is that you can choose happiness. “Paradise is in your mind.” I’ve written an extinsive blogpost about mindfulness, that goes a bit further into detail about how you can choose happiness by choosing your thoughts. To read it click HERE.

I advice you to play the numbers below and really listen to what she’s singing. Guaranteed you will be forced to think and reconsider the “truth” to your thoughts.

The Nicest Brunch

by Mary-Sue

I have a boyfriend ergo, I have a whole family in law that comes with it. As they do not live around the corner, we visit them only once every few weeks or so. Because we don’t come around very often, my  mother in law likes to go all-out when it comes to cooking. The meats only come from quality butchers and the vegetables are always fresh. Moreover, she makes sure the food is presented neatly and nicely.

Recently, I met up with the in-laws for a brunch and the food was abundant. Three different kinds of cheese, three different kinds of meat, three different kinds of marmalade, four different kinds of bread, salmon salad, crab salad, egg omelet; enough to choose from and too much to fully finish. I just had to take pictures and share it with you guys. I hope to inspire you when you want to make your own brunch. Nom away!

The Joys of a Furry Friend

by Jirrine

Growing up I was never allowed to have a pet. I never really minded: I did not like the hassle of walking a dog and I did not like cats at all. Then I met my current boyfriend. He came with a companion that I just needed to accept as they were inseparable. His name: Noodles. His species: cat. Noodles and I were not really ready to share. He had enjoyed all the attention for so long and now there was this human invading his space. I did not particularly like Noodles: he always tried to nip my heels when I walked by and he had the tendency to scratch me and then pretend nothing happened. Both of us could not have foreseen that things would ever change. That we would actually like each other.

My Lipstick Brings All The Boys To The Yard

by Mary-Sue

I legit had to think for a moment if the title of this article was the actual Kelis song lyric, but no. It’s milkshake. Fail. Let’s have another cup of coffee shall we?

Okay, so *surprise, surprise* this post will be about lipsticks. To be a bit more specific, I will review the Miss Sporty ones. A new range called “My BFF lipstick” was recently launched. The packaging looked really high-end so I was curious whether they would also look high-end on! Here is some quick information on the product: