Archives for September 2013

September Favorites

September 30, 2013 filed under: love, monthly favorites, yes!

1.) In case you haven’t noticed – haha! – I have a slight obsession with the Red Sox right now. This is not new, it just comes out every year during baseball season. I am so excited that they made it to the Play Offs. Will you be watching?

2.) I’ve mentioned it before, I’ve really loved Trader Joe’s Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate this month. I usually don’t make coffee at home in the mornings before I go to work, because we make a big pot at work and it’s too much work to make a single cup at home, because we only have a grind & brew coffee maker, but it’s been so easy to have a cup with this concentrate in the morning when I felt like I needed something to get me up and going!

3.) “Orange is the new black“. I got hooked this month. I still haven’t finished season 1 yet, but I have started reading the book alongside the Netflix series and it’s been quite addicting.

4.) Batiste Dry Shampoo. You guys, this is the best dry shampoo I’ve ever used (and believe me, I tried quite a few in the past). I love that it comes with hints of color for different hair types (the white stuff always, always leaves residue on my scalp) and it smells really nice. Also, my bonus tip: don’t use it in the morning on your 2nd (or 3rd day hair, if you’re so lucky – I am usually not), but spray a little bit on the areas of your scalp that get greasy the night before. You wake up with (almost) freshly washed hair. I am not even kidding.

5.) This love is also not new, but I’ve really enjoyed the September issue of “Real Simple” magazine. Did you see the adorable cover photo with the black cat and the pumpkin? Whenever I see the new issue at the checkout of our local grocery store, I get really giddy and excited to receive it in the mail. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a magazine as much as this one.

6.) I don’t need any fancy flavors, Chocolate Chip ice-cream is just fine with me. Actually, not just a September-, but all-year-round-favorite.

2013 in pictures: week 39

September 29, 2013 filed under: a year in pictures

my new office • Magnum Mini • Red Sox win •
our view • at the gym • Sactown •
my cuties • end of the season • breakfast •

Friday Facts

September 27, 2013 filed under: Friday Facts

This week completely wiped me out. The last few days were filled with setting up our new office, unpacking, more purging and trying to make things work in our smaller space. The last few days have left me physically and emotionally exhausted and I practically collapsed and fell asleep on the couch every night when I got home. I am so glad the weekend is here.

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If you felt neglected or ignored this week, I apologize. I was hardly able to keep up with any social media, email or text messages. I am trying to be better next week.

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I got my first Birchbox this week. That was a good mail day (don’t you agree that nice surprises like that in your mailbox make everything better?!), especially because I also got a letter from my former piano teacher this week. I was lucky enough to see her last Christmas when I was back home for the holidays. We had Kaffee and Kuchen and reminisced about the good old times. I stopped taking lessons with her over 12 years ago when I moved to the US, but we’ve kept in touch all these years through letters and the occasional visit when I was in Germany. In August, you might not believe your eyes, she turned 100 years old.
As always – I wrote her a card to let her know that I was thinking about her and all the years that we spent together in front of the piano. Good times. I miss my piano.

* * *

This weekend I will indulge in the last baseball weekend of the regular season with three Red Sox games in a row. Cannot wait for the Play Offs! :)

TGIF!

2013 in pictures: week 38

September 22, 2013 filed under: a year in pictures

mail • moving • dinner •
coffee • Real Simple • last view •
Klinsi • fresh bread • morning •

Friday Facts

September 20, 2013 filed under: Friday Facts, this and that

This must have been the strangest of strange weeks in my office thus far. Everybody was in a really weird mood, almost on the edge this week and motivation was on an all time low. We’ll be starting fresh at our new work space on Monday.

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On Monday was my Dad’s birthday. Another birthday that I missed being there for in person. It plainly sucks. I know a lot of you don’t see their families for every birthday either, but for me it’s usually not even a remote option. Christmas can’t be here fast enough.

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My cousin returned to Germany after a 6-month stint in Australia on Wednesday. I can only imagine the mixed feelings he must be going through. I remember returning from my 6 months exchange semester and thinking I was going home – the place that I knew best – and realized that I came back a different person. Reverse Culture Shock, anyone?

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The Boston Red Sox clinched the American League East title tonight with a 6-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. I couldn’t be more thrilled. However, in case you don’t know, if you’re an East Coast Team fan and you live on the West Coast, you’re basically screwed, because none of the remaining games (of the regular season) are shown on regular TV. Fancy that! But we’re good – I just purchased MLB.TV for the rest of the year (a steal for only $9.99) so that we can see ALL of the remaining games online. Now I can’t wait for the postseason/World Series! Could the Red Sox win again for the first time since 2007? I’d say, this year everything is possible!

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Whoever mentioned “Orange is the new black” to me first… thank you. I don’t usually jump on TV shows/series that everybody is talking about, but I did start watching the first few episodes on Netflix (and now I even started reading the book) and I have to say, I am quite intrigued by the whole thing (and the episodes have been quite entertaining so far). Are you watching?

TGIF!

Clarisonic Update: After one week

September 19, 2013 filed under: beauty, gadgets

So, here we are: it’s one week since I started using the Clarisonic Mia 2 and as promised, I am going to give you a quick first impression update.

First confession: I think I am a little bit too excited about this thing. How I can tell? J keeps asking me about my new ‘love’ aka the facial brush and wants to know why I keep talking about it. Ahem. Well, you see, I just get easily excited about stuff. I see that as one of my good qualities. I’d rather be too excited about maybe-not-so-exciting things than not be excited at all. That’s no way to live!

I read a lot of reviews before I bought the Clarisonic Mia 2, so I knew to start off gentle, to not press the brush into my skin, but let the sonic vibrations work their magic and to not change my skincare products at the same time. Therefore, I didn’t use the cleanser that came with it, but continued to use my Simple Moisturizing facial wash, which I have been using for a few months and with which I’ve been quite happy, because it’s really gentle to the skin and doesn’t dry it out.

First impression: the Mia 2 is really easy to use, it’s water-proof (so you can use it in the shower, which I do in the mornings!) and I personally like the “beep alerts” that this thing makes to tell me to move on to another part of my face. That, however, could just be because I am a geek and I enjoy little knickknacks like that. I am sure you can do perfectly fine with the regular Mia and just count down the seconds in your head.

I love, love, love that this whole routine only takes a single minute of your day (ok, two if you do it twice a day – which I am still debating on) and, you guys, my skin has never been so soft. I seriously can’t stop touching it. This alone makes it already totally worth it to me, but … hold your horses … I’ll just wait and see what happens.

To be real honest, I did have a breakout in my chin area on day 2 or 3, but I’d like to think that this could have totally occurred if I hadn’t started using the Mia 2 (because the chin/jaw line is my usual problem area). I have read many reviews that talked about a purging phase marked by breakouts caused by all the “dirt” that is coming to the surface, before your skin becomes miraculously blemish-free. I don’t attribute this breakout to a “purging phase” quite yet, but I am curious to see, and will let you know, what my skin is going to do in the next few weeks.

I think I am going to do a full, more in-depth review (including skincare routine) after I use the brush for a month or so. I don’t think I have gathered enough experience to really talk beyond my first impression, but so far: I am really HAPPY with the purchase.

How about some swag?

September 18, 2013 filed under: this and that

Have you heard of Swagbucks? No?

It’s a reward program website where you can earn “virtual currency” (mostly gift cards and discounts) by shopping, searching, redeeming special offers and mostly by participating in surveys.
Thanks to Kerri (and Katelin), who both recently mentioned that they had joined the Swagbucks site, I got reacquainted with my Swagbucks account. I signed up ages ago and then never really did anything with it… until the two girls reminded me that ‘oh yeah, you can earn some pretty awesome rewards through this site”.

It takes a little bit of time and patience initially to set up your account and answer some profile questions, so that they can filter the surveys that you most likely qualify for, but after that, points can add up really quickly. Since I jumped back on the bandwagon maybe about a month ago, I’ve already earned $35 in gift cards. I chose Amazon (because you can pretty much get anything on Amazon, plus their $5 gift cards give you the biggest bang for your swagbucks – you ‘pay’ 450 points vs. 500 points for all the other $5 gift cards), but you can also choose gift cards for other stores like Target, Paypal, CVS, and Starbucks, to name a few. I mean, who doesn’t want some extra bucks every month, am I right?

If you have a few minutes every day to fill out an online survey, watch some short videos or do your online searches through this website, you can earn swagbucks too! Here are some tips and here’s a referral link if you want to sign up.

Swagbucks didn’t contact me and I am not getting any compensation for posting about this. I just thought I’d let you in on this sweet deal.

2013 in pictures: week 37

September 15, 2013 filed under: a year in pictures

purple toes • pasta casserole • morning •
clarisonic • coffee and baseball • beautiful day •
waiting for a phone call • more baseball • dinner •

Friday Facts

September 13, 2013 filed under: Friday Facts, this and that

This week was quite hectic as we’re packing up our office right now to move to a new location at the end of next week. I don’t even know if you can call it a move, because we’re just moving from one building on Campus to another, but it sure did involve a whole lot of purging, packing and overall stress at the office. We’ll be moving into a much smaller space, which makes me kind of sad, but I do admit that we were quite spoiled with our office space in the last few years. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

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Someone suggested Trader Joe’s Cold Brew Coffee on Twitter or Instagram last week and naturally, I had to try it out. I have to say I am quite impressed. It’s a coffee concentrate that you can mix with water/milk and then drink iced or hot. Now, I am usually not a fan of re-heated coffee, but in this case, since it’s a cold brew to begin with, the heated coffee is really delicious. It’s nice if you want to make a quick cup of coffee in the morning (or whenever) and don’t want to brew a whole pot. Yeah, I am admitting here that I don’t have one of those fancy single-cup coffee makers (and I don’t even know if I want one).

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After a very hot last weekend, temperatures have been down to the mid-80′s in the last few days and it even has cooled down to the low 60’s at night. Heavenly! We’ve been keeping the windows open and it has been cool and breezy in the evenings. So nice! I am not quite ready for fall, but if it would stay like this right now for a little while, that would be just perfect!

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This weekend we’ll be busy watching more baseball (as we have been doing all week already!). Once I am hooked, I am HOOKED! What can I say? I am not sure what else we’ll be doing, besides the usual errands… gym, shopping, laundry and the like. You know the drill.

TGIF!

Oh, look what came in the mail!

September 12, 2013 filed under: beauty, excitement, gadgets, help

I never thought I’d see that day, but finally – oh, only after coveting that thing for the better part of the last 2 years and hemming and hawing if this was really something I wanted – I took the plunge and treated myself to this – quite pricey, but hopefully absolutely worthwhile – little skincare gadget, the Clarisonic Mia 2. I’ve heard some raving reviews from other bloggers and friends and when Labor Day came around with a pretty good deal, I couldn’t really pass it up. Besides, I had basically stashed away some cash for this for a while (do you have little saving piles for different things? No? Just me?) and so I didn’t feel to guilty investing in this. I mean, we spend dollars here and there on (often) unnecessary things, so I consciously put away some dollars (that I would otherwise would have spent on nonsensical stuff) and waited to treat myself to something bigger. Tata! This is my “something bigger”.

In case you live underneath a rock and haven’t heard of the Clarisonic skincare system, here’s what Sephora says and which, I think, sums it up pretty nicely:

It’s time to think beyond the washcloth and elevate cleansing to a sonic level. Clarisonic’s patented sonic technology gently removes the impurities traditional cleaning methods leave behind, cleansing six times better than your hands alone. In just 60 seconds, its sonic action removes impurities from pores so that creams, serums, and moisturizers are more effective. And with regular daily use you’ll notice a reduction in dry patches, oily areas, and blemishes.

I really don’t have huge skin problems by any means, but I have to deal with combination skin (which can be tricky sometimes) and the occasional not-so-pleasant adult cystic acne breakout. You know, those big, red, inflamed bumps underneath the skin that never really become real pimples, but which are very painful and heal very slowly? Exactly. Those ones. I’ve heard that the Clarisonic will help with that kind of stuff and that gets me very excited. Because honestly? I’m in my 30’s and I am pretty much done with covering up breakouts on my face every so often. I thought we were done with that after puberty? I am also not opposed to the promised “smoother skin” and “fewer blemishes”. I’ll take that in return for a little sonic action every night!

Bring it!

Ok, ok, I might get a little bit too excited and ahead of myself. I have not used the Clarisonic yet (it’s currently still charging), but you can look forward to some updates on my experience in the next few months. I am excited to try it out!

Do you have a Clarisonic brush? What’s your personal experience been like? Would you recommend it to a friend? (Obviously, it’s too late to give advice to me as I already bought it, but I can hopefully contribute to the gazillion of reviews that have flooded the Internet already. I am sure you can’t wait!)