theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for March 2014

March Favorites

filed under: love, monthly favorites

MarchFavorites

1.) Barbara’s Morning Oat Crunch is my go-to cereal right now when it has to go quick in the morning. I usually try to stay away from packaged cereal these days, but this one is GMO-certified and has a fairly short ingredient list, which makes me feel better about it. Also: it’s yummy!

2.) My friend Susi was wearing this super-cute Target Merona Cardigan for our girl date at the beginning of the month and I asked her if it was ok if I’d get the same one for myself… because I love it. It’s soft and has cropped sleeves and will fit perfectly over any summer tank or tee.

3.) I was picking out some yarn for two new projects that I’ll be working on and I came across the Berroco Ultra Alcapa Fine yarn which is a blend between 50% wool, 20% alpaca (you know, the small llama look-alikes) and 30% nylon. It’s supereasy to work with and it feels great.

4.) One of the samples in my March Birchbox was the Michael Todd Pumpkin Face Mask. I had heard good things about the Michael Todd products before and was very happy I was finally able to try one of them. At first, the pumpkin mask (which smells … wait for it… like pumpkin and which is orange!) tingled a little bit (which I usually don’t enjoy on my face very much), but that went away quickly and I really like how soft and clean my skin felt after the 10 minutes of application. I really want to try some of the other products  asap.

5.) Pentel R.S.V.P. Fine ball point pens are my faaaavorite.

6.) I went to this local supermarket & deli last weekend and I performed a happy dance in the middle of the aisle when I spotted Schaller & Weber Teawurst in the refrigerated section. It’s my favorite meat spread and I was convinced for a very long time that there was no way to get it here in the US as the deli meat variety is really nothing compared to Germany’s, but this was a very pleasant surprise! Majorly overpriced, of course, but the hell with that.

Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome

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This is a regular feature post on my blog. See the archives here.

AWKWARD
  • My Mom sent me a package for my birthday and it’s still not here. It’s been almost 4 weeks since she sent it. A friend sent me birthday card and included a little gift which was missing upon arrival. Seriously, I am so over the postal service losing/stealing my stuff all the time.
  • Sending someone an email and asking questions and then getting a reply with only half the questions answered. I get it, sometimes, a questions ‘slips through the cracks’ and sometimes, you might not want to answer a question, but it’s really frustrating to keep a conversation going when more than half of my questions go unanswered. It’s awkward. Just sayin’.
  • Unresolved misunderstandings.
     

AWESOME

  • Very small purchases that make my heart so very happy. Yesterday I picked up some teal chevron packing paper at the local dollar store and I couldn’t keep smiling about it all night. 
  • My sister (who moved into a new house with her family, hooray!) finally has a landline and Internet again. So happy!
  • New knitting inspiration and new knitting needles. I tend to be long-term invested in a lot of things, but get temporarily obsessed with any one particular area of interest. Right now, it’s knitting and there is so much inspiration out there. It’s kind of ridiculous. I need a clone.
  • I found ‘teawurst‘ at a local grocery store. Do you even know what that means???
  • Sleep. Simple as that. I love to sleep and I love to lie in bed and right now I feel like I can’t have enough of it. I’ve had a lot of early bed-time this week and I don’t care if you judge me for it.
  • Netflix binge watching. Do I need to say any more?
  • NKOTB are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. ♥  Take that, haters!

Photo of the week: Spring has sprung

filed under: my so-called life

Foto der Woche

Happy spring, my dear photography friends! How is the new season treating you in your neck of the woods?

It’s time for the  ‘Foto der Woche‘ again and here is my Glücklichmacher #12.

Photo of the week: Spring has sprung

Spring (taken March 23, 2014)

It’s been a beautiful spring here in California and the blooming trees and bushes are making my heart happy. We went on a nice walk around our neighborhood on Sunday, because it was warm and sunny and just nice all around. I snapped this picture along the way. The color of these tiny flowers just popped in the bright sun light and I thought they were so pretty.

P.S. Funny that after a beautiful week of warm temperatures and sun, it’s raining today.

March Birchbox

filed under: beauty

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I got my Birchbox last week and I got box #58 this time.

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Here’s what I received this month (*calculated value of the samples in parenthesis):

Havvn Night Cream ($4) I am very intrigued with this, because it’s a 100% natural (free of parabens, petrochemicals, sulfates, or dyes) night cream with anti-aging properties. Sounds good to me!

Illume Go be lovely lavish hand creme ($1.93) I am a little picky when it comes to hand cremes, because I don’t like to walk around with “sticky hands” for too long. So quick-absorbing hand cremes (with a pleasant scent) are high on my priority list. This one is an infusion of cassis, pink sea salt, and wild geranium accented by avocado which smells really nice. I have yet to see how I feel about the absorption  qualities.

Michael Todd Pumpkin Nutrient Rich Facial Mask ($10) This is by far my favorite sample from this box. I’ve heard good things about Michael Todd, but had yet to buy one of his products to see for myself. I am very excited to be able to try this sample, before I spend the big bucks on some of his other products!

POP Beauty Aqua Lacquer ($14) This is a full-size (!) product and a great value to have in your monthly box. And you can’t have too much lip gloss, am I right? Infused with vitamin E and jojoba oil, this will keep lips soft and smooth. I like. (Wearing it today!)

Benefit Big Easy (estimated $0.32): This is a BE (?) cream that promises to even out skin tones and balance oil levels throughout the day to keep a shine-free, matte finish. The sample is tiny, so it was hard to even guess how much product this was. From the reviews I’ve already read, it’s going to be hard to judge this one, just because it’s not enough to really get an idea of the product. We’ll see.

Birchbox Find: Ghiradelli Intense Dark Cherry Tango ($0.45) Mmh. Chocolate. What else there is to say?

The total for this box came out to $30.70 and with a full-size product, that is a good value for the $10 spent.

I am pretty excited about all the products in this box and will definitely try them all. How did you like your Birchbox products this month?

Birthday shenanigans

filed under: birthday, family, friends

My birthday was earlier last week and I had planned ahead and worked some extra hours in advance so that I was able to take Monday off. It was a beautiful day and I started out with some coffee and birthday cake (cherry crumble cake – yum!).

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As you know, I am a twin and therefore my sister had her birthday, too. Usually we try to skype, so that I can participate in the birthday shenanigans that are usually going on with the rest of the family at her place, but the Internet wasn’t working and so a phone call had to do. Bummer. It might be hard to understand, but it was hard to not ‘see’ (let alone celebrate without) my sister.

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I still had a great day, because I got quite some birthday mail this week (thank you so much for sending cards and packages!) and many birthday wishes via Facebook, Twitter and texts.

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J and I went out for happy hour later (I had not one, but two cocktails. Who am I?), an appetizer plate …

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and then I decided on sushi for dinner later. I recognize a theme here, because I think I picked sushi for my birthday dinner a couple of years in a row now!

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Thanks again to everyone who made my birthday extra-special. ♥

Photo of the week: Biker

filed under: my so-called life

Foto der Woche

Hello photography friends, it’s Wednesday again and this means I’ll share another ‘Foto der Woche‘ with you.

Here is my Glücklichmacher #11

Photo of the week: Biker

Biker (taken on March 12, 2014)

It continues to be very spring-like here in Northern California. Actually, temperatures were up in the 80’s F (mid-20’s°C) last weekend and it pretty much felt like we had not only skipped winter, but also spring, and went right to summer. I’ve seen a lot of bikers out on the river trails this last week and wish once more I had a bike here of my own.

I always used to have a bike in Germany (and rode it all the time), but for some reason, I haven’t gotten a bike here yet. Probably because using it as an every day means of transportation is – albeit possible – not really a smart thing to do, because drivers here on city streets are really not prepared for bikers. It would be nice to go for a bike ride on the weekends, though.

March Link Love

filed under: link love

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My friend Ulli, fellow German US-expat currently residing in England, is blogging again and I highly recommend you check out her new digs. This week, she wrote about the 5 love languages and it something I find highly interesting. Have you read the book?

Have you ever wondered about any of the meanings behind the smiley emojis on your phone? Here’s your answer: The 58 yellow smiley emoji, defined.

I loved this post about how to Reduce morning stress in 11 simple steps. Coincidentally, exactly two years ago I wrote a similar post about switching up my morning routine and can attest to the effectiveness of (some of) those steps.

What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier. Everybody needs to read this.

I am sure we all know this feeling, but I definitely feel this very strongly: This is why rejection hurts (and how to cope with it).

I really loved this perspective on women, youth and “what we’re supposed to do at what time in our lives”: How I learned to stop worrying and love getting older.

Some of these are brilliant: 33 Ingeniously Designed Products You Need In Your Life.

17 things that happen when you’ve been friends with someone for, literally, ever. Do you have a person like this in your life?

I may be a highly sensitive person. 16 habits of highly sensitive people.

I am not there yet, but this article sure makes the 40’s look less scary. What you learn in your 40’s.

I could really relate to Abby’s post ‘One year later‘ about returning from a year of expat-life.

I really loved this post from Juli about what happiness is.. unfortunately, you need to be able to read in German.

And last, but not least the 9 essential habits of mentally strong people.  I aspire to be like that.