.SOMETIMES RAW.

1. I love myself and listen to my body. If you are not enough for yourself you will never be enough for someone else. I live in the here and now. 
2. I am a Certified Holistic Nutritionist (CNP) and graduated from The Institute of Holistic Nutrition in Ottawa, Canada. 
3. I am very proud of my brother Thomas Weiss who has his own business. 
4. I was born and raised in Coburg/Germany. I always wanted to move somewhere else, somewhere bigger, somewhere nicer. So I moved to Würzburg, then Munich, New York City, and Ottawa/Canada. But deep inside I love the peace and quiet that a small town brings after having lived in so many big cities. So I bought a house in the countryside of Austria. I have the feeling I arrived and I do not want to move ever again. Now, I am the garden girl. 
5. My family in Germany means everything to me and comes first no matter what. 
6. I am a former German Federal Police Officer. 
7. I don’t mind getting older. I enjoy every second I am able to experience and learn something new on this planet.
8. I learned that life is too short to waste time being stuck in something that leads to nothing or just to a routine that you deep inside detest but just do for the money. 
9. I love to people-watch and observe. 
10. I love to put my hand into flour. But also into a bag of lentils. 
11. One of my favourite movies is Vie Heroique with Serge Gainsbourg. I watch it at least once a month. 
12. I live in Vienna and work for UNOV. 
13. I will never get married again or have another child. One is MORE than enough! 
14. Divorce is not the end of the world. Life goes on! 
15. I only have a handful of real friends. However, I do consider a lot of people my friends. 
16. I was in a Volleyball team, Handball team, Swimming team, and Karate team when I was a child. In 4th grade, I received an award for being the best athlete in the entire elementary school. The plaque still hangs on the wall in that school. 
17. This song makes me really happy. I can listen to this on repeat for hours. 
18. I love pasta in every variation.  
19. From the first time my son sat up on his own I had this feeling that I want to tackle him. Very strong kid! 
20. I am a huge fan of Eckart Tolle. I have a copy of his book “A New Earth” next to my bed. 
    
21. I love to read. A lot! 
22. One of my favourite ghost stories is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.  Some of my favorite authors are Allen Ginsberg, Haruki Murakami, Ernest Hemingway, and Philip Roth. 
23. I love to sleep. 
24. Studying language was always the thing I wanted to do for a living but I ended up becoming a cop and resigned years later to study linguistics and languages. 
25. Writing is my passion. 
26. I do not drink alcohol or smoke. 
27. I lived in Ottawa/Canada for three years. 
28. I love being a woman but I think that men have it easier on so many levels. Pregnancy and birth are just two!
29. I have a bunch of tattoos and I don’t regret any of them. 
30. I had a bunch of piercings and took all of them out; except one. 
31. I love to make smoothies in the morning for breakfast. Easy, fast, healthy and so yummy. 
32. I love building things with my son. We both have a pretty awesome imagination.  
33. I adore Mischa Schenkel’s artwork. I think he has a lot of talent.
34. Current obsessions: minimalism. 
35. I don’t watch regular TV. I just have Netflix. 
36. Currently, my favourite places are: Coburg (Germany), Vienna, Italy, Hawaii, and Cancun 
37. I wouldn’t want to live without my son. 
38. How I stay sane: Spending time with myself, in nature, travelling, reading, photography, art, writing or doing nothing and just listening to my breath
39. The advice I can give: Be 100% sure and listen to your gut if you want to get married to this person! 
40. I have no clue about math or statistics. Like zero. My brother requested that I add this one! 

Hello and Happy Friday!

Isn’t it amazing how some things work out in life? I am still trying to find my childhood friend Esther Schenkel and while on my journey to get in touch with her I ended up hanging out with her brother, the artist, Mischa Schenkel. Le husband, petit Joel and I spent the afternoon with him in his atelier to finish an interview, shoot a little movie and take more pictures of all his artwork. Fantastic stuff! I will share the interview and pictures most likely tomorrow if I get it all done. Here some pictures already. And read what else we have been up to if you would like. 

Reading:  I finished Maestra by L.S. Hilton and I did not like it at all. As soon as I was done, I gave the book a BookCrossing ID and left it at a local store entrance. It actually has been picked up already. I hope whoever took it likes it more than I did. Or not. I think it is pretty bad. I will write a book review regardless. Currently, I am reading The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own. It is a great book, especially if you are new to minimalism and need some tips and tricks on how to downsize and get rid of a bunch of stuff. Stuff that owns us in a way. Big spring/summer cleaning everyone! It feels awesome. 

Watching: Family Guy, Season 14! The last episode Road to India was so funny, I almost peed my pants. This show is fantastic. Cannot wait for more. 

Discovering/Learning:  I found a store in Coburg that actually sells TOMS. I love those shoes and literally live in them all summer. So comfortable! I used to order them online and have them shipped to my US address or bought some at WholeFoods in the US. Since I am in Germany and constantly wear them and to buy them right here is more convenient I have to say. Even though they are slightly more expensive.  You find those and many more at Schuhhaus Jasmin Franz! 

If you are a true New Yorker or lived there for a long time you know Pearl Paint. This place was great to find any art supply, pens, paint and so much more and I browsed around so many times to find something new. And if it was a glitter pen to write with. This place closed and I did not even know. I haven’t been in New York or Manhattan for a while now so I missed out on all the fun. 

I have only great memories when it comes to Pearl Paint.  I spent way too much time there looking at paint and secretly squeezing the tubes to mix colors. [This is probably why they needed to close the place down. Mmmmmm.] Those red walls used to be Pearl Paint, the most wonderful art supply shop where I practically lived. One of those NYC moments when old and new worlds collide. This pace at what NYC changes makes you try to catch your breath. If you are into art and art supplies and live in Germany, you can go to Boesner. I have never been there but according to their website, them seem to have it all. 

Beauty Products: When it comes to deodorant I usually simply use baking soda. Then I found out about this product. It smells awesome and is an all-natural deodorant that is free of paragons, propylene glycol & phthalates and aluminum. Yay!  Check out Page Ashbury’s website for more products. 

I love Macarons. There is this great place in NYC that serves pretty decent ones if you don’t have the chance to eat them freshly made in France. However, to find them in Germany it’s pretty rare. So I decided to make my own. Cannot be that difficult, right? I will update on my progress on the blog of course. 

A couple of days ago, le husband, petit Joel and I have been to Tambach Wildpark. This place is great for kids! All the animals he saw; and some he even touched and fed which made him so happy. Also the amazing playground with the excavator, helicopter and so much more, he was in heaven and cried his eyes out when it was time to leave. We will be back for sure. 

Thinking about: Look at those eyes. He wakes up and looks so cute. His eyes, oh I love his eyes. So deep, dark and full of understanding. The other day he had a bad day however and looking at this picture now makes me think that I dealt with a different child. He was mean, angry and the worst – he hit and kicked me. Do you even think that this sweet child could harm anyone? I decided a while ago to never hit him. Not beating him up; I am talking about a slap on his heinie. Usually, when he is in a bad mood, I am in a bad mood. So I try to change the situation by calming down myself. He is usually fine after. Or I step out of the room for a bit, take my phone and lock myself in the bathroom. That helps to cool down. But the other day, he seriously pissed me off. Hit me again on my arms, kicked even after I told him to stop. So I hit him on his hand. Hard. His hand turned red. He looked at me puzzled because I never hit him. Then he cried. Ran away and curled up on his bed. I feel so sorry. I felt sorry for him and that I could not control myself better. But otherwise, I have to show him that he cannot hit mommy, no? I talked to him afterwards, he curled up and he said, “Sorry mommy, won’t hit again.” My heart almost burst. He was so cute. He then kissed me goodnight and I went to downstairs and cried while I told le husband the whole story. He just laughed and said that he loves me and that it is all good. Mmmmm! Also, have you read my latest post about Racism? Food for thought, people. 

Have a good weekend! Enjoy whatever you are doing. 

Hello and Happy Tuesday! 

I started reading Joshua Becker’s book The More of Less yesterday and the book  got me inspired again to clean up a bit. I am into minimalism and read a plethora of books on that topic. For me, it feels good not to have too much stuff. I cleaned my son’s room today and found my parent’s photo albums. Minimalism or not, my Mom took all of our pictures when we were kids and kept the photo albums which are damn cool. They are amazing and we need to keep those albums. My uncle took the picture above and I wore my favorite scarf mom gave me. While cleaning up, I also found a little box of un-albumed photos. This box was in a closet for a long time, not hidden away but just kept in a safe spot. When I saw these pictures for the first time I was in awe. So many pictures of my parents, when they first met, my grandparents, landscapes and so much more. For some reason, those pictures never made it into a photo album. So many photos of everything in our little life that are such great memories. 

I guess I always loved to read. Even the ADAC magazine way back when. 

I was lost and entranced in those pictures for quite some time and in a way overwhelmed with happiness and nostalgia. I haven’t really paid too much attention to many of those pictures, even though I have seen them all. Today, I really took a closer look at them and it was amazing. It also made me realize that I have hundreds maybe thousands of pictures on my computer but a photo album is just something more nostalgic to look at. These days,  we can just click on a video and watch it. Simple. Easy. But looking at all these pictures of myself today, I saw my son’s features clearly in many of them. So awesome. He makes the same face reading than I make. 

Just the other day, le husband and I browsed through the videos I made for him every single day when he was stationed in Mali. Such great moments. Browsing through those pictures today made me realize that I focused so much on the love or what happened in those moments. I looked at one more photo album over dinner and told le husband so many stories on what happened that exact day. He said, “Wow, you have a story almost for every single picture”! Great stories, great memories, good times. I had the best childhood a child could possibly ask for. Hands down! 

While looking at the photo albums I am realizing that most pictures were little snapshots of happy times. Happy times I spent with my parents, grandparents and my uncle. Most pictures I adore. Me smiling with my whole face and  laughing so hard. Looking curious, just like my son does. Those pictures have been taken because the moment was special and to have a memory. And that is that. And sometimes I think how my son will deal with all those pictures that are mostly on my computer. Well, I do have some photo albums but these days, it is not so much about that anymore unfortunately. These times will come when he will look at those pictures in my photo albums and see a happy mom and dad and baby Joel, or even better, his birth video. Yep, le husband recorded the labor and it is so precious to us. All my son will see is love. This is what he experiences every day. Of course, not every day is happy sunshine but believe it or not, 99% of the time it is. There is just no time to waste on taking sad-face pictures or living a sad life. You only have this one shot. And that is all we have to keep in mind. All that matters. 

Here, I was most likely on my way to Death Valley with a broom stick. And what’ s up with this amazing retro-wallpaper? LOVE IT! 

I think it is just amazing to capture the moment. No matter how you do it. Photographed, written down and whatnot. These days, there are way too many opportunities. Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and more. Some say I don’t focus on the moment because I am standing there with my camera but this is exactly what I am doing. Focusing on the moment and of course thinking if I could blog about this later because some things are so amazing I want to share them. Many times however, I am aware of being present in my everyday life and that sometimes the camera, phone and other gadgets need to stay at home rather than trying to capture the moment. 

Here are some recent pictures of my son. He has my eyes for sure. 

Do you have photo albums? Did you find some at your parent’s place? Or do you have all your pictures on the computer?