.SOMETIMES RAW.

Hello! 

This week was busy and full of events. Running around, getting things done, meeting people, mediation, Reiki, long conversations, writing, interview, reading and blog maintenance. Now I am sitting in my parent’s kitchen, next to my husband who is also working on his computer while we enjoy a cup of tea. Our son is asleep and most likely dreaming of our walk in the snow this afternoon. It was cold and peaceful out there and felt amazing to warm up when we came back in. It’s the little things, as usual. What can you do on these cold winter days in the evening when you don’t feel like reading or watching TV? How about learning a new skill. Have you heard about Skillshare? If you are into online classes and interested to broaden your horizon you can sign up and take any of these courses for free. Writing, photography, cooking, fashion, design, business, music, writing and many more. Continue reading to find out what else I have been up to this week. Enjoy! 

Reading: It seems that I have a lot more time to read these days. I am usually in bed at a decent time with a good book. I have finished Henning Mankell’s Treibsand which was amazing. Hands-down one of the best books I have read recently. I also finished Bianca Sparacino’s Seeds planted in Concrete which is available for  Kindle. It’s a nice little collection of poems. I loved this excerpt from LXXXVI:

“You aren’t going to find someone who completes you, and you shouldn’t strive for that. Instead, strive to find someone who inspires you to complete yourself. Strive to find someone who pushes you, and breaks into you in ways that allow of you to see all of the potential that exists within your bones.” 

Currently I am reading Nick Hornby’s “How to be Good” which I got at the last BookCrossing Stammtisch in Coburg. I like it so far. I picked up “H is for Hawks” by Helen Macdonald today at Riemann Bookstore. 

Watching: A couple of years ago my husband and I saw the movie Pina by Pina Bausch and we enjoyed it. It is just something different and amazing to see what can be expressed through dancing. I was happy to find a documentary on YouTube on Pina Bausch. Check it out here. I re-watched one of my favorite movies by far. The Human Stain. Click on the trailer if you like

Challenging: To label and register a bunch of my books that fill-up my shelves and that I would love to send on a little BookCrossing journey. It is actually quite some work; especially to think about which ones I would like to release. Then again, as long as I am surrounded by books, I am fine. 

Wanderlust: I am on TripAdvisor a lot to post articles and reviews. TripAdvisor is great to get new ideas on new travel destinations, new hotels or just things to visit and explore. I read about the Chauvet Cave in France recently and would love to go there to see these amazing cave paintings. My friend Judith told me about the Catacombs in Paris and I so want to see them as well now. How fantastic this must be, no? I also want to fly to Arizona. Grand Canyon, Skywalk... you name it. Arizona has been on my bucket list for a long time. 

Enjoying: That my husband is here in Germany with us these days. He is still not feeling too well but as long as he is here to rest and get back on his feet I am fine. The German newspaper Neue Presse published the article about my life and blog on Tuesday this week and it turned out so well. I enjoyed how my friends, family and even people on the street talked to me about the article and how they loved it. The Coburger Tageblatt wants to write a story soon, too. I had an interview today. Pretty sweet I would say. Have a nice weekend! 

What have you been up to? What is on your mind? 

Thank you for reading my blog. 

Hello!

I love nature and I also learned that it is best not to work again it but with it. My hair is very healthy, strong and shiny and I don’t do much to achieve that. Read my hair routine here. When I do get a hair cut every six to seven months or so, I make an appointment with Nicole Reiter who is a Naturfrisör (Natural Hair Dresser) in Coburg. See her website here. I keep my daily hair routine very simple. Actually, I do wash my hair once a week only. I have come a long way I have to say. I used to wash my hair daily with Shampoo and Conditioner (Panthene usually) but I was never happy. My hair became greasy after one day and felt so dry and brittle even though I did use conditioner. Then I stopped using Conditioner. I switched to different Shampoos – believe me, I tried everything that is out there. The only thing I did not try was anything natural. I always though that this stuff would never clean my hair. It does not smell as good as my regular shampoo and my hair is not shiny enough.  

I kept on searching and tried new treatment, conditioners and whatnot but was never really happy with my hair. Until I stopped using anything. Yep, water only. I did this for a while and initially it is really tough. For a week or so my hair was so greasy and dull that I wanted to stop this little project and go back to my Panthene ProV. For whatever reason I stuck with the water-method and my hair improved. Then I discovered my hair dresser and she opened my horizon to new methods. Nicole Reiter uses CulumNatura Products that I have never heard of before. She also told me about the benefits of brushing my hair the right way with a good brush – A Boar Bristle Brush. 

Have you ever tried it? A Boar Bristle Brush by Culumnatura is unique, handmade out of wood and 100% pure natural hog bristles. These brushes can be used right or left-handed. As soon as I used the brush my hair became healthy and shiny again with the huge benefit that I did not use any styling products anymore. So awesome! I bought hair serum for split ends, a leave-in conditioner and sometimes even a spray so my hair would smell good. Think about all this money spent on chemicals that the hair most certainly does not need! I use my brush daily for almost 1 1/2  years and I will tell you more about the benefits. You don’t need conditioner or styling products anymore because the brush naturally conditions you hair. Your scalp produces its own oil, called sebum and with the boar bristles it is the easiest way to evenly spread sebum to the ends of your hair. The saying Brush your hair with 100 strokes every day is true. The best time to do this is in the morning. When brushing your hair with this brush you will reduce frizz and your hair texture will improve. If you brush the right way, your scalp will be stimulated and it feels so good. It feels even better when someone else brushes your hair for you 🙂 (see instructions pictures below) It is important to brush you hair when it is dry! 

These brushes are a little pricey but you will have them for a long time if you take care of them. You need to clean your brush regularly. I use another comb to remove hair from my brush. Sometimes you might notice some white powder on the brush which is the rest of the bad products you used to wash your hair. Crazy, right? Sometimes it is also dandruff that will stop completely when you brush regularly. To clean your brush put some organic shampoo (I use the one by CulumNatura pictured above) on it and scrub it hard with your hand under warm water. Then put brush on a towel to dry; bristles down! 

Give yourself a little head massage in the morning and at night. You will love it and get hooked as I did. 

Are you familiar with Boar Bristle Brushes? Do you have one? Do you like it? What are your hair methods? I would love to hear from you. 

Thank you for reading my blog. 

Hello! 

I am obsessed with books and reading. And when I hear about something new book-related I am all ears. I first heard about BookCrossing and that a group of people meets every month on the second Friday usually at a bar/restaurant in Coburg, when the librarian in Rödental told me about it. I knew about these meetings for quite a while but for some reason I was never able to attend a meeting but thankfully I could do so in December as well as yesterday. The BookCrossing group usually meets at 6pm at the Hungry Highlander Restaurant in Coburg.   

What is BookCrossing? 

It is a social networking website for books that you don’t want to keep anymore or read again to get a new identity or a new life in a way. The great part about it is, that these books are registered, passed on to other readers and can be tracked which is a good way to connect to many other book-lovers. The United States and Germany are the two top BookCrossing countries. See their website for more information on other countries who participate. The mission is simply to connect people through books. All this is done by registering on the website and joining BookCrossing. It is free. You will all the instructions and can now print out a label and stick it in the books you want to share and “set-free”. Now you register the book and put a number in it. With these numbers you are able to follow where your book is, who read it and sometimes even read comments about the book from other readers or from the person who found it. Pretty sweet, right? 

As a book-lover you most likely have a nice collection of books and several shelves at home. Many books just collect dust however. BookCrossing is a way to clean up your library and give some of your books a new life. I used to donate many to my local library before but BookCrossing is such a good alternative. The great part is that it is sort of “reading and releasing” the books. Some books you will never find again – maybe someone loves it so much, they keep them. Sometimes you find your book in Australia. I love it and find it exciting. 

The BookCrossing team in Coburg is great. Below you see the picture from last night. A long wooden table with a plethora of books to browse, read, talk about and keep. Coburg’s BookCrossing Stammtisch helps to spread the word around and answers all your questions regarding how to join. It feels great to be among people who do share my passion of reading, buying books and talking about them. Like BookCrossing on Facebook to follow along. 

Are you invested in signing up at BookCrossing? Or would you like to go to one of the meetings in Coburg? The next meeting is on 12 February 2016 at The Hungry Highlander Restaurant at 6pm! Stop by and say Hi. Let me know if you have more questions. 

Thank you for reading my blog.