Spring Nail Picks

I'm not a beauty blogger by any means, nor am I particularly experienced when it comes to all things beauty or nail related. I do however really enjoy doing my nails, especially during spring time as I love the colour varieties and brights and pastels and all that. I have recently bought a few too many spring nail polishes and some of them are definitely perfect for this time of the year so I thought I'd share them with you in case you are still looking for some spring nails.

The polish names can be found in the descriptions, also I used the Orly Bonder Basecoat and the Rimmel Ultra Shine Topcoat. Also, this post is not sponsored by any brand I just happen to have placed a Model's Own order a few weeks ago so I'm currently trying out all these spring-y shades.

Speckled Egg Nails
this is a polish that Model's Own have recently brought out and since I currently love nail polish and it seemed perfect for easter I couldn't help but get it (it's the speckled eggs polish in Magpie Green). I tried it for the first time shortly before we went away to Croatia, that's why there are stones in the pictures as I took them while I was by the seaside.

Eggs & Pinzen With Friends

Happy Easter everyone!

This is going to be a picture heavy post, I'll warn you now, althought most people (me) like posts with a lot of pictures anyway so if you are one of those people then this is exactly the right thing for you.

Visiting my hometown and seeing my friends is always lovely, but it's especially nice when we get to do something really fun together. With it being easter two of my friends suggested to meet up and do some easter preparations together. So the other day we met up at one of my friends' place and got some serious baking and egg dyeing done.

Easter Holiday To Croatia (& Italy)

If you follow us on Twitter (which you should really do as we all post fun and silly things on there and you can stalk our private conversations sometimes, very interesting!) you might know that I am currently home over the Easter break. My home is in the south(ish) of Austria which means that it is not far at all from countries like Slovenia and Croatia which means we go there a lot to get a little sea time. My mum suggested to go away to Croatia for a two day break and I thought that this was the perfect thing to do, I needed a bit of a break after uni and just being by the sea really calms me down.
Also, I'll warn you now, this is gonna be slightly on the longer side so if you just want to look at all the pretty pictures that's absolutely fine too.

We left on the Wednesday and drove down south to a town called Novigrad which we'd been to before a few times. I really love it there as it's just the right size and during this time of year it's lovely and quiet too. I'm not a touristy person as much as I love traveling, but I'm sure many of you can relate to that. We got there for around 1 in the afternoon after a 3 to 4 hour drive which didn't feel that long at all (not for me anyway, probably felt longer for my mum, yep, I need to learn how to drive...). Shortly after we made our way to one of our favourite eating places in town which is right by the sea and super lovely in general (it's called Bonazza in case you're in the area and want some awesome octopus salad). We sat outside being really brave (note: it is April, April in mainland Europe may be warmer than in the UK but most certainly unpredictable temperature wise). We had a delicious meal and then made our way to find somewhere to stay.

I don't like being spontaneous usually, I'm a planning person, but I think it's ok when I'm with my mum becuase I know she's gonna find something, she has a talent for things like that. We ended up staying in a lovely hotel we'd stayed at before which is called Hotel Cittar it's really cool because it's kind of integrated into the town walls, fancy!
The room was pretty nice too, a bit too much but it's hard to get it right for everyone's taste. However I did enjoy being in a cool hotel room so I took some pictures for you to look at.

 

In the evening we were originally going to go out for more food but oddly enough we both felt like we'd eaten enough for that day. Instead we went for some Cider and Aperol Spritz (I had the cider, my mum the spritz) to our favourite Cafe/Bar which is also right by the sea and owned by the most lovely lady in the whole of Novigrad (I think anyway) it's called Vitriol and you should definitely give it a visit if you're ever there. Afterwards we went to look for a place which would be showing the football as it was Champions League night and I would not be missing a game even if I was on holiday, not a chance. We ended up having an entertaining night in a bar with several croatian men and spent most of the time trying to figure out what team they were supporting, I'm still not quite sure. The evening ended with a disappointment but my experience with supporting the losing team (read: Austrian teams) kept me from shedding too many tears, I'm still upset though, let's not talk about this.

enjoying the evening by the sea

someone was watching us while we were having some drinks by the sea

It was a beautiful morning the next day and after a quick breakfast at the hotel (nothing too special, the egg was nice though) we went to have a hot chocolate and a coffee at Vitriol again. We then packed our stuff and went to the other side of the bay where Novigrad is located which is where they have a lovely promenade along the sea and also nice places where you can go in to swim. We'd brought our bathing suits and stuff and my mum brave as she is went for it, I didn't. I enjoyed being by the sea and taking pictures of all sorts of fish and things I could find swimming around.

Novigrad from the other side of the bay

that little guy (can you see him?) couldn't stop posing for the camera

After all that being by the sea and fresh air we really needed something to eat so we went to a lovely place called Tri Palme which I believe translates as Three Palmtrees(?). After a very satisfying meal which included gnocchi with wild asparagus (delicious stuff!) and mussles in white wine sauce, we were ready for the journey homewards.

We didn't drive home straight away because we are adventurers and we like to make the most of a two day break so we decided to take a little detour to Italy. My boyfriend always makes fun of me when I say things like that, as if I'm trying to sound really fancy like "Oh I went for a weekend in New York" or whatever. I always used to think that when people said "I'm going to London for the weekend". But hey I could do that now so I guess it all depends on the location.
Aaaanyways, we stopped by a little town called Muggia which is just opposite of Triest. We kind of just walked around for a bit and then had a coffee, I don't usually drink coffee anymore but you know when you're in Italy you kind of can't order an Earl Grey can you? We then found a lovely restaurant/ostaria/cafe kind of place called Pane Vino e San Daniele which basically serves drinks and some nice antipasti type dishes, I love antipasti. I had huge amounts of San Daniele and watched children play football. A very lovely last evening in the south.

view of Triest from Muggia

We finally got home rather late and feeling insanely tired but it was totally worth it and the two days definitely felt like at least three. I'd totally recommend visiting istria and also that part of Italy, definitely a lovely area with loads to see.

Magdalena.

Ratatouille: A Disney Inspired Recipe

source

If you know how much I love food then you can probably guess that Ratatouille is one of my favourite Disney films. I actually didn't watch it up until last year I believe, I don't know why, how did that happen? Well I loved it when I did watch it and Remy the rat kind of inspired me and really made me crave Ratatouille (and cheese, loads of cheese and grapes). So since this is Disney Month and I am a food blogger at heart I thought this would be perfect. I tried to reproduce this simple yet delicious dish to bring you this little recipe:

A Lovely Day Out

Whether it's a sunny february day that makes you feel like spring is finally on it's way, or a dull day that you'd rather spend in bed, this outfit would surely brighten up a day out with your loved one.

A Foodie New Beginning

Being healthy is pretty much on everyones mind in january, whether it is a new years resolution (although I'm not a big fan of those) or simply eating too much over the holidays (big fan of that!).
Now, I am not generally a person who eats a lot of rubbish, I have phases where I eat pasta almost every day which is partly because I'm probably lazy sometimes and cannot be bothered thinking about what to cook after a long day at uni. but also partly because sometimes I just fancy the same thing for a few days in a row.

Since I started university and moved out this has been getting worse, I'm still eat relatively balanced and I cook for myself which I know is something many students don't manage to do, but still I wanted to try and introduce a bit more freshness into my daily diet, you know, to gain all those vitamins you need so desperately when trying to study.
I spoke to my mum while I was home over christmas and after I told her what I usually eat, she suggested to have a salad with my meals more often, as it is easy to prepare and there are so many different varieties, Im also a big salad lover. I had though about this before but living by myself kind of made me think that making a main meal and a side dish just for myself would kind of be a waste. However, I came to realise that this really isnt true and definitely doesnt require much more time than just making one meal.

I have since started to have a salad pretty much every day which not only makes me feel better because I know that it is beneficial to my health but is also a great way to create some nice recipes. its often those simple things that make you feel a lot better about yourself and this has definitely helped me.

Some of my favourite ingredients for my salads are: lettuce (naturally), tomatoes, avocados, cucumber, goat's cheese, mushrooms

As you can see, good food was a part of my life even during revision, which I think is one of the most important times to eat healthily as your brain needs all the energy it can get.

Magdalena.

A New Life

so here goes my first post for this amazing project, I am super excited but also a tiny bit (hugely) nervous but that's one of the many things new beginnings can do to you I guess. the great thing is that they're always worth it in the end so I am ecstatic (and that's a word you don't use lightly) to begin this new journey with my blogging girls.

in this post I would like to speak about a very particular new beginning that has recently happened in my life. you might have read my little bio on our contributors page (if not you can still do so after) and know that I am originally from austria but am now living in the UK. I've wanted this for a long time so when I finally did it it was all really great and overwhelming for me and it's only now, four months after my move, that I'm starting to reflect things a little bit. now it's perfectly normal that moving to a different country can be hard, but in this post I'd like to especially talk about six things that make it more than worth it.

independence
now that's a given, obviously you cannot rely on anyone but yourself when you move to a different country by yourself. now, that might and probably will come as a shock to the system at first (unless you're already a pretty independent person before the move, which I wasn't) but that shock will soon change into something great. I feel very proud of myself for taking this step, I feel proud because I managed to find myself a place to live, I got myself into university and I am living and loving my everyday life.

people
there's two parts to this really. firstly there's obviously the many new people you meet and I'm saying that even though I'm not the most outgoing person there is, I'm by no means extremely shy but it takes me some time to trust people, but I've still found some lovely friends here and can't wait to find more.
then there's the not so obvious part, the people you leave behind, it's those people like my family and closest friends who make me realise how much I mean to them and how much they mean to me. without them this wouldn't have been possible.

experiences and activities
I've been into football for a long time and I used to play it back in school when I was the only girl playing with about 15 boys but I really enjoyed it anyway. last year I decided that when I go to university in the UK I would join the football team there and so I did. I'm part of the beginners team and everyone there is so great, I've met some amazing people and it's the best form of exercise I could ever imagine. definitely something I wouldn't have done without the move.

new places
I have always loved traveling. and even though since I've been here I've not really seen that much, I have still managed to visit some places I hadn't seen before (mainly thanks to my boyfriends family as they have a car to take us places). I also really enjoy my occasional weekend trips to wales, it's just nice to keep moving.

food
this is a controversial one as food surely wouldn't appear on most people's 'pro' list when they think about moving to the UK. for me this is a different story. not only do I love to discover the delicious bits and bobs this country has to offer, but I also love the culinary freedom I have now that I live by myself. the downside is obviously that I have to pay for it myself but I'm getting pretty good at budgeting these days so that's a challenge I'm willing to accept. especially when it means sunday lunch with my boyfriend every now and then.

university
this is probably my main thing here, after all it's the reason I made this step in the first place. It is also the thing which reminds me almost every day that taking this step was the right decision. whenever I'm in doubt (and yeah, there's days when I miss home, obviously) I look at my books are go to lectures and I feel great because this course and everything I'm learning makes me incredibly happy and excited about the future. I know not many students feel that way and my coursemates often look at me funny when I say 'I'm loving it here' but that doesn't really bother me. I do love it and it makes me happy.

Magdalena.