My 2013 - Part II

August

In August, I... spent a wonderful 5 days in London with my family, eating amazing food, shopping and already falling in love with the country I moved to a month later - ...spent a week in Belgium near the sea with my family, but I went back to Luxembourg earlier than expected which led to me driving to Luxembourg with my dad's car, what an experience, haha!

September

In September, I... celebrated one my best friend's 18th birthday with tons of great people and danced through the night - ...finally moved to the UK and slowly started to fall in love with Brighton.

October

In October, I... celebrated my flatmate Cian's 19th birthday with Uni friends, eating homebaked cake and muffins - ...properly celebrated Halloween for the very first time! I'm still completely in love with my Cleopatra outfit and I can't wait to wear it again when the next occasion comes along.

November

In November, I... went to London for the second time this year, with two lovely ladies. I ate way too much food (again) and finally got to see London covered in Christmas lights at night - beautiful!

December

In December, I... started to become a Youtube addict, which led to my increasing interest in vegan eating-, and lifestyle, which I'm still very interested in an keen to try out more in the new year! - ...finally came back to Luxembourg after 3 whole months of being away. I caught up with a bunch of friends, celebrated Christmas with my family and tonight I'll celebrate the end of this fabulous year with lots of friends!

I am wishing all of you a ton of fun tonight and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thank you all so much for following, commenting etc, let's make 2014 even better! xo

My 2013 - Part I

Even though it is technically already the 31st of December and probably way too late with this kind of post anyway, I really felt like making a re-cap of the year 2013, as it was quite a big year for me with a lot of different, lovely things happening in my life! I divided the post in two parts, the second part will be up tomorrow (well, on the 31st but during the day instead of the middle of the night)

January

In January, I... properly celebrated into the new year with lots of friends for the first time - ...had a shopping trip to a city in Germany nearby, spending my Christmas money in Primark - ...finally got myself a camera remote after having received a tripod for Christmas!

February

In February, I... went to Berlin for the first time with my class (and loved it so much, I'll be going back there in a couple of days!) - ...finally turned 18 and got a huge balloon from my friend which I carried around school with me the entire day (never felt so mature, eh) - ...started watching Friends, which ended in me being so upset when I finished watching its 10 seasons. I'm actually considering to start rewatching it again, hmm...

March

In March, I... celebrated my 18th birthday with a bunch of friends at home and received lovely presents - ...went to my second Europarty, which also led to my first visit of Antwerp which I really liked, definitely have to go back there soon!

April

In April, I... went on holiday to beautiful Spain with my family. I visited several cities like Marbella, Malaga, Ronda and even Gibraltar!

May

In May, I... went to my first ever foam party which was absolutely amazing and I'm really hoping to be able to go to another one again soon, I don't think a party can get any more fun than when the rooms are filled with foam - it's a childhood dream come true! - ...had my last schooldays - ever - which included wonderful last moments in lessons, theme dressing up days and lastly; camping with the entire year and having a massive food fight the day after in front of our school.

June

In June, I... mainly studied (often in outside in the sunshine, so nice!) for my written and oral exams. - ...finally got my driver's license after having failed the test the first time - one step closer to independency!

July

In July, I... received my European Baccalaureate Diploma with a personally very satisfying average as result - ... had tons of fun at my Bal du BAC (prom) with the sweetest friends ever - ...spent a week in Barcelona with three lovely ladies, going sightseeing, sunbathing and of course, partying! - ...started working at my dad's work place and earning back the money that I spent on food and clothes in Barcelona.

Arabella

 jeggings: dr denim top: everything5pounds shoes: nike coat: zara lipstick: sephora

When I went to Trier (city in Germany near by) with my mum and brother yesterday, I finally got to wear my new lovely shoes that I got for Christmas, I'm so in love! They're incredibly comfortable and work with just about every look. I only bought one thing, which I'm very happy about though, that day, but more about that tomorrow. I can't believe that in a week, I'll already be payking to go back to England.. I don't know if I should be happy about that or not!

Christmas gifts

I'm always up for filling up my wardrobe with pretty and soft socks, so these were a very convenient but lovely little gift!

Ever since I started informing myself about vegan eating, (about 6-7 weeks ago) I've had my eye on the Vegan for fit book, which isn't only filled with delicious recipes but a lot of great knowledge about the eating style as well. I'll be doing the 30 day challenge with a friend in January, actually! The other book I got was a surprise from my mum. I don't think I would usually have picked it up myself, but I'll definitely read it in the near future.

Even though I expressed my wish of a pair of nike running shoes a couple of times on the blog lately, I ended up picking these trainers. They were a lot cheaper and I actually like them even better than the shoes I had my eyes on first! I can't wait to wear these, I've got my head full of ideas on how to wear them.

The picture shows the colour of this turtleneck, cropped (well, it's cropped in the front and longer in the back) sweater wrongly, as it's a dark, electric blue which I love! When I saw it on asos, I had to ask for it as I've desperately been looking for a cozy, pretty turtleneck sweater for months now and this one is simply perfect! It's really cozy and warm and the colour is simply gorgeous.

Along with the things in the pictures, I got money, a small vase, (which I forgot to take pictures of) matcha (green) tea powder (I might make a seperate post about what exactly this is etc.) and another book (It by Alexa Chung) is still on its way to my place. I had a very nice Christmas, ate way too much (the way it's supposed to be, am I right?) and am more than pleased with my presents.

PS: Oh yes and I sneakily bought myself a pair of shoes I've had my eyes on since April and a cute sweater which are on their way to my place right now.. A little Christmas present for me, from me hehe!

Christmas Outfit

dress: primark shoes: h&m bracelet: /

Hello everyone! I hope yoiu all had a very Merry Christmas :) I sure did, stuffing my face with too much turkey and dessert and getting lovely presents which I'll be showing you guys tomorrow. 

Ever since I bought this dress in Primark back in September, I knew that I had to wear it on Christmas day, as the pattern and cut are simply so beautiful and elegant! I kept everything else rather simple, very little make-up and only small accessories. I'm currently sitting on the couch with my brother, drinking tea and watching Monsters University (for the third time). Enjoy the rest of the day and see you tomorrow! xo

Merry Christmas Eve!

Depending on where you're from and when you celebrate, I'm wishing all of you lovely people a Meryy Christmas Eve! As we mainly celebrate Christmas on during the day of the 25th in my family, I will spend my Christmas Eve with my parents and brother, stuffying myself with way too much smoked salmon. Even though I've got a proper outfit planned for tomorrow, I still felt the urge to somewhat dress up at least a little bit and decided to play around with my hair a little. As very often, I always come up with the nicest hairstyles late at night but never manage to recreate the look the day after, but I succeeded this time! In case you're following me on instagram, you've probably already seen me wearing my hair this way yesterday, but I felt like sharing it nevertheless! Now I'll leave you all to enjoy your evening and I'll go finish up some cooking and wrapping, xo

Monday Outfit

dress: primark socks: h&m boots: bertie via topshop bracelet: asos

I just quickly wanted to swing by and share today's outfit! I'm off to a friend's place soon where we'll be a couple of people from my old class, talking and laughing and making fajitas, I can't wait! I chose something simple and comfortable to wear and you just can't go wrong with one of the primark skater dresses, I love them! I'll stop here and wish you all a nice start of the week as this post will otherwise end in useless blabbering! xo

Instagram Diary

 left: on the official last day of Uni, two friends and I celebrated the end of term with delicious food (on campus!) after I had handed in my last essay right: and at night, we paid one last visit to Wagamama and Kenia and I simply couldn't resist their cakes mmhmh

 left: outfit from the last day that I spent in Brighton right: who else here loves airport food? I had lunch at Apostrophe with my friend, I ate there for the first time and it was loovely

 left: on my first day back home, I cooked lunch for my family and had my first Christmas baking session of this winter! right: details of my outfit from Tuesday

left: on Friday, I went to France with my mum and we included a quick visit to Ikea as well and of course I couldn't walk past their cinnamon buns, tooo good! right: I snuggled up in my big jumper yesterday and put on boots to go Christmas tree shopping with my dad and brother yesterday and today we put it up and decorated it

My blogging is being awfully boring, but I've been busy catching up with friends over sushi and drinks the last two days and I'm already filling up my agenda with lots of other get togethers with old classmates over the next couple of days, I'm so excited! I will however try to get some outfit pictures taken to keep the blog running :) I thought about doing the vegan post in January or so, as I'm so lazy right now (it's not even funny anymore) and back to eating almost everything again, as I mostly eat the food that my dad cooks. Oh and it's Christmas in 3 days! Who's excited? I sure am!

B/W/G

dress, sweater: primark boots: bertie via topshop

Hey guys! I spent my day running errands, going grocery shopping with my mum and doing a bit of studying. My next couple of days will probably look very similar as many of my friends from home are only coming back towards the end of this week. I did, however, make outfit pictures for the blog. Unfortunately, my camera remote is not properly working so I had to make use of the timer, but the results are quite alright anyways! I hope you all had a nice start of the week x

Music

I've been back home for two days now and I'm really enjoying it! I spent my weekend sleeping, eating, watching youtube videos and ordering Christmas present, so I didn't really create anything worth blogging about. I decided to share some of my current favourite songs as these kinds of posts seem to be ones that you like! I'm always open to new suggestions for music :)

Guestpost

Hey sweeties, today I’m taking over Nora’s blog! Wondering who I am?

I’m Jo from Golden Bohemian (click) and in this post I will show you what I would wear for Christmas depending on what I have planned.

Christmas is right around the corner and one should maybe already start thinking about what to wear  for that special night! That’s why I put together three different looks which might inspire you for your own outfit. The three outfits consist of a comfy, a sort of cute and sweet , and a as I like to call it, sassier look which you could wear to a party with your family, a dinner or if you’re going out.

Rocking around the Christmas tree

glitter knit jumper: zara leggings: h&m shoes: primark (3 euros! whaaaaat) hat: primark

Who says you can’t wear leggings for Christmas? If you want to wear a comfy, yet nice oufit, why not wear some basic leggings along with a sparkly knit jumper and flats. I would wear this outfit if I wanted to stay at home with my family or friends for instance. You also don’t need to wear heels for Christmas, flats can totally work with a dress  or something more sophisticated looking.

Santa Baby

glitter knit jumper: zara velvet skirt: american apparel necklace: h&m tights: primark quilted bag: asos

This outfit is very comfortable but it looks cute and chic at the sam time in my opinion. I think the velvet skirt makes the outfit look a lot more luxurious and I personally feel like velvet reminds me of Santa Claus haha. The sparkle in the jumper also has a festive feel to it. Mixing two different textures during the winter time always makes an outfit appear interesting and if you wear velvet and knit, it’s cozy as well. I added jewellery to get some gold accents and make it look more playful. I would actually wear this outfit to a dinner at a restaurant or to an event.

Jingle Bell Rock

sequin shirt: h&m hat: primark black jeans: primark blazer: h&m shoes: primadonna

Yes, I’m still into that black and white all over look! Black and white will never go out of fashion and is always a classy combination. I wore this sequin top to make it a bit more interesting ; we ladies need a little bit of glitter around Christmas time, don’t we? Along with that I wore my Primark hat because I just love how sassy I feel when wearing it haha. I also added my Mary Jane heels because they look lovely, only downside to these is that I can’t even stand in them for 10 minutes, it’s just unbearable. I’m sure you will be able to find a more comfortable pair of Mary Janes.

That’s it sweeties, I hope you liked this little guest post and if you’re new to Nora’s blog then go ahead and follow! For more of my posts check out my blog : Golden Bohmian.

Leave comments below telling us which outfit you liked best ! Also tell us what you have planned to do on Christmas eve!

Big kisses, Jo  

Primark buys

As I'm flying back to Luxembourg tomorrow, I went to Brighton for the day one last time with two girl friends and we had an obligatory stroll through Primark. It's safe to say that I'm absolutely broke now, but I really love the few things that I picked up!

This clutch was a rather spontaneous buy but I found it so pretty and sparkly, yet not over the top, so I went for it. It was only £10 - you can never go wrong with a clutch for that price! It also has a chain, so it can be worn as cross-body/shoulder bag, which is a plus for when I get tired of carrying it in my hand!

Fluffy jumpers have been everywhere this fall and even though I always really liked the idea of wearing something that feels as if you were wearing clouds, I never actually got to find a jumper that I really liked and wasn't too expensive. When I found this beauty for £12 and it fitted perfectly, I couldn't say no! I'll be wearing it on my journey home tomorrow, so I'll be super cozy on the plane, hehe!

In case you've been reading my blog for a couple of months now, you've noticed that I already own two £5 skater dresses from Primark and this is my third that I added to my collection today! I love the simplicity of these dresses (and the price, hello?!) and the pattern on this dress is just too cute. The fact that it's black and white makes it a lot easier to wear throughout the entire year, either paired with denim jackets and sandals or cropped sweaters and ankle boots.

Lastly, I also picked up this cropped, mixed grey sweater. It's incredibly light and perfect to wear with skirts or over dresses (it looks great together with the dress shown above!) and it was only £5 as well, so I went for it.

Tomorrow, there'll be a guest post from a fellow luxemburgish blogger online, which I'm really excited about as I've never had anyone guest post on my blog before! It's also the perfect timing as I'll be on the road the entire day of tomorrow and probably too busy catching up with my family to update. Until then, I'll already wish you all a nice Friday and talk to you when I'm back in Luxembourg! xo

Christmas Wishlist

Now that we are slowly approaching mid-december, I thought it would finally be appropriate to make a good old Christmas Wishlist post. As I have learned from my past experiences regarding Christmas present lists and I started collecting ideas of what I wanted during Autumn already last year, I did the same this year and scribbled every little or bigger wish down on a piece of paper and man am I happy I did that! I now have nice wishlist with things that I not only want but also need. Enough with the rambling now though, let's get started!

Black Platform Boots from My Mum Made It As you might already have noticed in case that you’ve been reading my blog for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been lusting after a pair of chunkier, heavier black boots for a while now, including the simpler, lower-heeled Vagabond version. After unsuccessfully ordering a similar pair to the Vagabond ones, with a heel that was a tad higher on Amazon, my hope vanished and I buried the thought of the boots in the back of my head. Not long after, I stumbled upon this online shop called My Mum Made It and it has the most gorgeous clothes, shoes and accessories! When I first found these boots, I wasn’t sure if they weren’t too heavy for me, but I decided to simply ask for them for Christmas and see what the postman brings me!

It by Alexa Chung You would think that I had enough to read as a partly English literature student, but this book is one that I’ve been reading about a bit here and there recently and I really feel like it would be a nice present as it’s a good change from the usual books I have to read for my classes. I don’t know too much about the book, other than that people loved it everywhere, so I’d love to give it a try myself!

Vegan for Fit by Attila Hildmann As already mentioned a couple of times on the blog, I’ve been looking into vegan lifestyle and cuisine quite a lot recently, this book being one of the main reasons that I even got interested in the subject. Attila Hildmann is a German-Turkish guy from Berlin who completely changed his lifestyle (google pictures with his name and look for before and after pictures, you’ll be stunned!) by switching from omnivore to vegan eating lifestyle. He published this book a little while ago (about 1 year ago I’d say?), which basically consists of a 30 day challenge to eat vegan and follow specific eating patterns, including the most fantastic and delicious recipes. If you would like to learn more about it, I’d recommend you to watch the “trailer” to his book here. I’ll probably give the challenge a go in mid-January as it’s supposed to make you feel incredibly good, lose some weight, build up muscle and it’s super tasty too!

Nike Free Run 5.0s As many other people, I’ve completely fallen in love with the whole sneaker-during-the-day style and I’ve decided to ask for a pair that I’d mostly wear during the day for Christmas. I’ve been thinking about getting colourful ones as they can really spice up an outfit, but as my mum already said, I already own a pair of pink Reebok sneakers which I could wear if I really feel like adding a splash of colour to my outfit, so I’ll probably go for the simple black/grey/white version.

Vegan Chocolate As you have already been able to read about, I've been eating vegan 95% of the time lately, chocolate being one of the few exceptions of food that I eat that is not fully vegan. As I really am a huge chocaholic, I told my parents (ehem I mean Santa) not to buy any chocolate stuff yet as I really want to go chocolate hunting myself and try the vegan version! The chocolate in the picture is from a german website called alles-vegetarisch.de in case any of you want to go have a look! (and yes, they have white chocolate too there, mmh!)

Yoga pants / running pants from H&M As I'm currently working out several times a week, even almost daily if I can fit it into my schedule, I'm always happy about a new pair of pants to wear to my workouts. I especially want a properly long pair of running pants as the longest ones I own only cover my knees and I always have to wear a pair of jogging pants on top of them so that I don't freeze to death when walking back to my flat. I have a few workout clothes from H&M already and I'm really really satisfied with them! They're not too expensive and the quality is more than good, so another pair or two of such pants would be of great use for me.

A blender This is something I’ve been wanting even back when I was still living at home, as we only have a very basic blender there, nothing fancy to make smoothies in. Before I came to Uni, I already mentioned the wish of a blender but I decided to wait for Christmas to ask for one. I don’t have any particular brand in mind as I’m not too well informed on the subject, so any suggestions are highly welcome! My friend who I’ll also be living with next year will probably get a blender to make cakes with, so that way we have all the equipment we need to make everything from cakes and cupcakes to smoothies or homemade falafel!

Silver (boyfriend) watch I already added this kind of watch to quite a few Polyvore outfit combinations and I'm quite sure that it has appeared on a few monthly wishlists as well. I don't have any particular model of preference in mind right now, but this one is one I found on Asos which I really like.

Money Even though money often seems quite unpersonal as present, I'm always happy if I get a little money here or there, simply because you can never have enough back um money for those trips to Primark and Topshop! I'm also currently organising a 5 day trip to a great city in January with a friend right now, so a little money would definitely come in handy, but more about that in another post..!

What are your wishes for Christmas? Is there anything that you think that I forgot to put on my wishlist?

Simplicity

jeggings: dr denim denim shirt: romwe trainers: reebok bag: zara

As I already mentioned when I got my mint green coat from Romwe, I ordered something else as well which arrived at the beginning of this week. I've been looking out for a slightly darker and especially shorter denim shirt for years now, as the one I own is light blue and is long enough to be worn with leggings. This shirt wasn't exactly the cheapest (I'm not saying it was expensive, but it could've been cheaper!) but I decided that it's worth to spend more than £20 on as it's a staple piece that I've been wanting to add to my wardrobe for so long. I decided to pair it with basic black pants, a black bag and my black coat and added my pink reebok running shoes to spice it up just a little bit. I was mainly looking to wear something comfortable today as I spent a couple of hours in the library after having been to pilates and the gym earlier in the morning. I'm now back in my room and waiting for my friend to come over to try out a recipe we found to make vegan and sweet potato curry mmmh!

Quick & tasty vegan pizza!

I feel like this 'recipe' is almost too obvious to post on the blog, but since I really really love this meal and I've already made it for the second time within a couple of days, I thought it would still be nice to share this very basic but very delicious meal!

To make pizza for 2 people, you need: 2 or 3 pita breads (depending on how hungry you are and also I use whole wheat pita bread to make it a bit healthier), 1/4 to 1/2 onion, 1 to 2 garlic cloves, half a can of chopped tomatoes, dried and fresh basil, toppings of your choice (in this case I used mushrooms, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes and black olives), salt, pepper and olive oil (which is not in the picture). Oregano would be a great spice to add to the recipe, but that's something I yet have to buy. Depending on your taste, you can also add some chili or dried tomatoes.

This is as easy as it gets: spread the chopped tomatoes on the pita breads, then mix the chopped garlic, onion and olives with olive oil, salt, pepper and spices of your choice in a cup before adding the mix onto the pita. garnish everything with your toppings (apart from the dried tomatoes and fresh basil, they might burn!) and put it in the oven. I tend to preheat the oven at the maximum heat (usually around 250°C) as this comes pretty close to the heat of the traditional italian pizza ovens. 10 to 12 minutes should be enough for your pita bread to start getting crispy on the edges and for the vegetables to be cooked through without getting burned.

All you need to do when you've taken out your pizzas out of the oven is to add the fresh basil and your chopped dried tomatoes! If you're a big cheese lover (even though I am, I skip this step because this is already incredibly tasty the way it is), you can chop or blend cashew nuts to get a 'parmesan' replacement!

Would you like me to post more vegan recipes? I've got meals like zucchini pasta or falafel that I could easily show you how to make if anyone's interested :)

Small Photobomb / Life lately

These two things are the only things that I bought in London which weren't food related (should I be happy or shocked about that?). The first item is a vegan cookbook, which I'm really excited to use! Unfortunately, it doesn't have any pictures, which is something I usually look for in cookbooks, but there's a lot of little personal stories from the author in the book and little tips and tricks for the vegan lifestyle here and there, so it's quite interesting to read, other than to just use to cook! The ELLE (UK version) magazine is something I also bought in Harrod's (I could spend days in their book/magazine department!) and I'm surprised about how much I like the articles in it. I've always liked looking through an ELLE magazine every now and then (no matter if in French, German or English) but I always ended up being a bit bored by the content. I haven't finished reading it yet, but I'll definitely consider buying that magazine more often in the future.

In Harrod's, I also bought Fiji water for the first time - simply out of curiosity on whether it tastes any different. I decided that I did not taste a difference, but the bottle is too pretty (and practical, it's made out of quitw thick plastic, so it doesn't break as easily as other water bottles) to throw away, so I'm using it as my re-fill bottle on the go at the moment.

In case you've never heard of Graze - you're missing out! They're a Swedish brand who will send you a box with 4 different little, oh-so-tasty snacks every week or twice a month (or more often if you want them to, obviously) and I always forget about the boxes until I receive one again, so it's always a little, fun surprise to find one in my post box! They cost between £3 and £4 I believe and you get to pick your preferences snack wise, choosing between different kinds of cookies, flapjacks, nut mixes, etc! I might stop the whole Graze-traffic for a little while though, as sadly most of their (especially the incredibly tasty ones) snacks aren't vegan. I really do recommend you to go check out their website though!

A little while ago while I was in Brighton and left half the content of my wallet in Poundland, one of the things I bought were these Christmas light. They don't look too Christmassy or over-the-top-glittery, but I enjoy turning them on every day as soon as it starts getting dark - so cozy! And by the way how crazy is it that it's already December? I'll be on the plane home in 11 days, oh my god!

As I already mentioned a bit earlier on the blog, I've started eating mostly vegan and today's lunch was incredible pita pizza which I simply had to share with you! I'm a very big fan of cheesy pizzas (well, cheese in general really), so I wasn't too sure about this version satisfying me but wow it was beyond delicious, full of flavour and made me full without feeling heavy and tired of having a ball of cheese in my stomach. If any of you want further directions/an ingredient list for these pizzas, let me know!

I've recently re-discovered my love for my bordeaux jeans and now really want to try to incorporate them into daily outfits more. I've been thinking about combining them with fur, patterns... any suggestions?

While I was typing, I looked outside the window and suddenly realised how pretty the sky looks right now! The quality of the picture is obviously not brilliant, but I couldn't resist adding this photo to the post.

Before I end this post, I though of a couple of ideas/questions I would like to ask you, hoping for some feedback!

1) Would any of you like to see more vegan meals, including the recipes to them? Or would any of you be interested in any kind of post related to vegan nutrition?

2) Do you have any specific requests on what you would like to see on the blog in the future? A Q&A post, more outfits, a post on a specific topic/trend?

3) Would any of you be interested in guest blogging on my blog sometime during December or even a little bit later?

Have a nice rest of your Monday! xo