throwback thursday?

Hi there!

Student life has been crazy the last couple of weeks, seriously!

I started to study for my exams and tried to tackle all the other assignments and responsibilities you have to deal with in everyday life. 

I know I kind of neglected this blog during this time and I'm sure it will be hard to get back on track any time soon.

This is why I've been thinking about what I can include into my posts which covers my usual topics but requires maybe a little less time than for example my clothing-DIYs. 

I really like the "What I ate Wednesday" or rather the idea of a regular thing I can add to my blog, maybe not every week but at least several times.

I did a couple of "throwback thursday"s and "flashback friday"s on my Instagram and thought maybe you'd like to see them on here, too. For those of you who don't know these so called tags:

You basically post about things you did in the past, either because you feel nostalgic or because you want to remind people that you might have uploaded something they didn't see yet and might be interested in. 

I started this blog over a year ago and posted something everyday at times, so I'm sure that there might be something interesting on here. 

Now, it's up to you again:

Would you like me to include some flashbacks and throwbacks? I might dig up something interesting, maybe even something I didn't post before and I could include a personal background story. What do you think?

See you soon!

farmer's market

Hi there!

Each sunday, there's a farmer's market close to Porte de Hal. I heard about it a couple of times so I went there today with some friends. 
You can get there anything from fruits and vegetables over flowers to clothing and the prizes range from super cheap to "yah, okay". 

There's also a place where you can get tea and crêpes stuffed with cheese and olives. We didn't go there today because we had tea before we left but I definitely want to try it sometime! Especially since it smelled deliciously. 
Although I got some pretty good deals, it was super exhausting because there were just so many people, mainly old ones and toddlers. Plus, every couple of steps you passed someone screaming out their offer. But I guess that's just what you have to expect when you go to a market. 

I tried to take some pictures for you, but honestly, that was not that easy. Because of the crowd it was kinda hard to get my phone out of my bag and in addition to that, I didn't want to risk getting it stolen. The market takes place in a neighborhood that's an entire Bermuda Triangle. Everything disappears, except for garbage ;)

See you soon!

belgian fleamarket

 

As I mentioned yesterday, I went to a fleamarket on sunday. In Brussels, there's a fleakmarket everyday until about 2pm in "les Maroles". It's kind of a cheap neighborhood, which does not reflect on the quality of what you get for your money.
The fleamarket itself is not huge, but one marketeer has a giant offer. I got the impression as if you could get there anything. There were toilet bowls, urinals, water-taps, sinks, pictures, frames and canvasses in any size, kitchen utensils, dishes, tobacco boxes, mintage, books, clothes, photo albums, clothes, toys, vintage cameras, chairs, everything! I guess I don't have to point out that I loved it ;)

I've been to fleamarkets before in Germany, but I find it really hard to find something you can actually use and would buy at a fleamarket. Especially not at a price that's fleamarket and second hand appropriate.

Please let me know if you would like me to give you some tips on how to shop on a fleamarket :)

quick Hi! from Brussels

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to give you a quick update on what has been going on here. I'm not going into too much detail, because this is not supposed to be a daily-life blog, but I thought some of you might be curious.

I finally found a nice room in Brussels. It's quite expensive, but it's nice and the people I'm going to be living with are really sweet.
I don't think that I'm going to live there forever, since it's not what I imagine when I think of living in a big city, but now that I have a place to stay, I have time to find the perfect, affordable appartment in the heart of the city.

Plus, I have to apologize for any mistakes I might make, my head is filled with four different languages and sometimes I get them mixed up. That's definitely something I will have to get used to.

That's it for now. I'll be back these days with some fleamarket finds and maybe a little DIY on one of them.

Hope you're all doing fine. See you soon

Michelle

I'm about to move!

Hi there everyone!

As I told you before, I'm moving to Brussels to attend university.
Up to now, pretty much everything is organised and taken care of, except for my appartment. Due to false information I thought I had a room on campus but last week I found out that I didn't.
So now I'm appartment-hunting which is really not that simple on the verge of semester starting.

That's also the reason why I have not been blogging frequently lately and I'm really sorry for that. Also, I'm not sure how blogging is going to fit in my everyday life when I finally am in Brussels. I'll probably need sometime to adapt, plus I've got classes and will have to study.
In addition to that, I don't even know whether I will have a camera except for my phone. 

I will try to keep blogging whenever I can and we all may have to live with bad quality pictures for a while.
I really hope you understand and I promise I will do my best to keep the posts coming.

Bye for now!

Michelle

make-up organizer ideas

Since I'm moving to Brussels in the foreseeable future and probably won't have as much space in my room as I do now, I've been thinking a lot about how to store my stuff in a space-saving way. 
For instance, I now have a slim rack where I put all my make-up, lotions, jewelry, perfumes, nailpolishes and hair utensils. They are spread over three shelves and my earrings and necklaces are all hanging around this rack. It is somewhat organized, but not everything is really visible and easily accessable. 
I have been meaning to buy a small make-up table but now that I'm moving I won't be able to take a table nor the rack with me. That's why I've been looking around to get some ideas on how you can store your makeup and jewelry.
I really like the Tabletop Spinning Cosmetic Organizer by Lori Greiner that you can buy on QVC. My favorite Youtube-Girl Kaley from Lets Make it Up! did sort of a review for it and I thought it would just be perfect for me. The problem is, that QVC doesn't ship to Germany and I couldn't find anyone on ebay or anywhere else who would. Plus the "German alternatives" for a make-up organizer weren't convincing at all to me.

That's why I started to look for DIYs on how to store your make-up and jewelry and actually found some pretty nice ideas on the internet.

Here's a magnetic make-up board that jhousetawk.blogspot.de made. It seems to be kind of a trend right now among the blogger-community. I like that it's really space-saving since it's hanging on your wall and not taking up any space on your desk or bathroom-shelf. Plus you can see everything you have on first sight, you can categorize what you have and you can adapt it to your personal taste by switching up colors, the size and the style of the frame. I'm only a little scared that something might fall off the board and maybe break, but I guess when you use really strong magnets, that should not be an issue.

Here's another magnetic way to make sure you never use your bobby pins again. I like the simplicity and the monochrome look of it. And the magnetic band is also strong enough to hold your tweezers and nailclippers. I'm always looking for them! (Both pictures are via sprwmn.blogspot.de)

 

 

This might be something for the wood-lovers beneath you. An utensils holder or letter case can be adapted to a jewelry organizer. The different sizes of the compartments make it easily possible to store different sized earring, bracelets and necklaces, ring or even nailpolishes and liptsticks. (picture via blog.botkier.com and www.mrkate.com)

A more vintage-y or romantic feel give these two jewelry organizers. They look a little less "clean" but you can still see and find everything quickly and some of you might prefer the more girly look. (both pictures via www.mrkate.com)

A little less space-saving but just as practical alternative can be a jewelry-tree. You can get and make them in very different sizes and styles and you can place them on your desk/table/shelf or hang it up, too. (picture via shadesoftangerine.blogspot.com)

I hope that was helpful and might facilitate your search!

Comment below and let me know how you store your cosmetics and jewelry!

little beauty tip for hot summer days

During these really hot summer days, I find it the most refreshing to cool either your head or your feet down.
Since I'm still a little girly, at least in some ways, I usually have make-up on and my hair done in some way. Obviously, I don't want to keep touching them up all day long. So dunking my head into a bucket of ice-cold water a couple times a day is not really an option for me.
That's why I like to do it with my feet. Just fill up a bowl or a bucket with cold water, add some ice cubes and put your feet in there. It's going to be freaking cold during the first secons but after that, it's so refreshing! Cooling down your feet will cool down your entire body temperature! 
You can do it while you're sitting outside in the sun, while you're eating, while you're watching TV,...doing anything that doesn't require feet action!
Plus, after a while your feet will get all wrinkly and the skin softens. That's the perfect timing for a foot-rub :) Take a pumice stone or a body brush and start scrubbing. After that, your feet will feel and look so nice and like new!

Now go back outside and enjoy the weather! :)

update!

Hey there!

As I mentioned before, I was working on some stuff and one of it is available for you now!
I set up a page on facebook for you guys. It's main focus is on DIYs and selling these, so it's an online shop I guess. You can either ask me to do something special for you or buy things that I'm already offering. Plus you can stay updated on what I do, just like on Instagram. I know a lot of people don't have a smartphone or Instagram so here's another option for you! :)
So far, I'm only delivering in Germany, but hopefully I'll be able to expand that some time!

Well, here it is: https://www.facebook.com/themichelleburton?hc_location=stream

Hope you're as excited as I am and am looking forward to seeing you on my page!

My Dutch Experience

As promised, here's the video from my Amsterdam trip.
I edited and uploaded it as soon as I could. Hope you like it :) 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=askeVDBSjy4 



Update:
The video above is blocked in some countries because of the music I've used. So for those of you who are concerned, here's another version of the video using royalty free music. I think it has lost some of its quality or character or however you want to call it, but well...I can't help it. Sad face. 
I hope you still like what I did.

MIA MIA MIA...so sooowey!

Hi there everyone!

First of all, I'm really sorry I've been missing in action a little the last couple of days. There was a lot going on here and I didn't feel like posting anything just to post something. I don't think that's the right way to maintain this blog and show you the best I can. 
The bad news is, I'm leaving for Amsterdam tomorrow morning, so that's why I probably won't be posting anything the following week either :( 
Big 'awwwwww :(' for that please! Thank you.
But I will shoot a 'My Dutch Experience' video and upload that as soon as I get back and DailyAnni is coming with me who will shoot a follow-me-around video, so you can go check that out, too.

The good news is, while I was MIA I've been working on a couple DIYs (3 actually) and there are at least two more planned AND I've been working additionally on another idea that I hope you all will be pretty excited for :) I'm not gonna tell you what it is yet because the whole thing is still in the process but you can look forward to a whole bunch of new videos and posts when I come back! Yiha!

Of course you can also follow me on Instagram (my name there is also themichelleburton), I'm pretty active over there and you can always check out what I'm working on, keep up-to-date with my crafts and DIYs and get sneeky peekys :)

That's it for today, hope you're as excited as I am :) Bye!

a post for my German readers...halloooo!

Ich habe vor einer ganzen Weile mal eine Videoumfrage zum Thema Glück durch Unglück gemacht und dafür ein paar Freunde von mir interviewt. 
Dafür habe ich durchweg positives Feedback bekommen und wurde 4732901732678 Mal gefragt, warum ich's denn nicht in Youtube stelle. So...da habt'er!
 

Ich hoffe es gefällt euch :) Hinterlasst mir einen Kommentar, ob ihr sowas auch gerne öfter sehen würdet oder ob ich doch lieber bei meinen alten DIYs bleiben soll.
Tschuuuuuuuuss!

how I get inspired

Friday I went shopping with one of my best girlfriends and she showed me a new - at least to me it's new haha - store where you can buy some pretty cool things. I just noticed that some of them were really expensive partially because they were fair-trade. 
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind paying more when I know that the fabric is organic or was produced under fair conditions. I even bought a cute tshirt for 29,95€ which is usually not a price I pay for a simple shirt.
So, what I was going to say is that I don't have the money to buy all the things and clothes I like. That's why I like to use shopping trips to get some inspiration. There are actually a lot of things you can do yourself and save a lot of money doing so.
Thus I took some pictures of things that I liked or thought you might like and which are absolutely DIY-able.

 

So sorry for the low resolution, I just took some snapshots with my phone and the lighting wasn't the greatest either.

Let me know what you think and if you'd like me to do some tutorials on some of these.

my "diet" and FYI

Hey there!

Today I decided to share some personal facts with you plus what I'm planning on incorporating or expanding on my blog.
Thanks to mother nature I am prone to getting a low iron value in my blood. This causes a low erythrocytes number which can lead to above-average tiredness, inactivity, weariness and more. Before I got diagnosed, I had times when I slept around 16 hours a day and was still tired the whole time and could not do a single thing.
This situation was also a little influenced by my diet back then. I was a kind-of-vegetarian. To put it plainly: I was a vegetarian for 6 days a week, I gave myself a break for one day.
I did that because I'm not a huge fan of meat and it's possible effects on the body, especially when consumed in great quantities. I gave myself this one day break, because frankly, I crave a steak sometimes. It's just like that. In addition to that, I'm not really convinced that eating no meat at all, is really the healthiest thing to do. I'm just not. I know people can go vegetarian or vegan for a whole bunch of years without issues but I have a really bad feeling with that. But that's not really the point here.
When I got diagnosed, I stopped that diet since I wanted to get better as quickly as possible. By now I've been feeling fine for about a year now I think...I'm not really sure. And I get frequently a blood check up so everything actually IS fine. 
Anyhooow, I decided to go back on my diet again. I talked to my doctor and now I know how I have to eat to even out the lack of iron that the barely-eating-any-meat diet will cause.
And here's how this is gonna be incorporated in my blog. I'm planning on sharing some information about different foods and their nutrient content, like iron, protein and maybe vitamins (I'm gonna talk about the link between that in following posts). Like what I did in this post about quinoa.
Plus my recipes will mainly be vegan/vegetarian, but I think it's really easy to just add meat somehow, for all of you who can't be without it :D

Please leave a comment and tell me what you think about my plans :)

other products by avène

To complete this little series I'd like to show you some more products by Avène I like to use. 
These are all moisturizing products I use occasionally. I don't use them on a daily basis since there are, as well as the other products I mentioned before, more on the expensive side. Plus I don't really need to use them daily since the other products take such good care of my skin and a simple drugstore moisturizer does its work here too. 

Soothing moisture mask for sensitive skin (I had to cut it open 'cause it's almost empty)

Rich skin recovery cream calming formula for very dry, sensitive and reactive skin

Skin recovery cream soothing and protecting for hypersensitive and irritable skin

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

I just reached 5.000 clicks! YAY! Thank you guys! Way to go!

This applause is for you! And me...haha!

See you tomorrow! xx

more cleansing products

In order to complete my make-up removal routine I like to use the "Extremly gentle cleanser lotion" and the "Gentle toner".

After I took off my eye make-up, I usually splash my face with some warm water and use the cleanser lotion to get rid off my foundation, concealer and so on. I massage it onto my skin and especially focus on those areas that I find hard to clean, like between my eyes, around my nose and my chin area (I got some kind of crease there haha). I wash it all off using warm water again, which is opening the pores for my next step.
To finish it all off, I pour some of the gentle toner onto a cotton pad and wipe it all over my entire face to make sure that the last bit of make-up and dirt from the day come off. Again, I focus on the hard-to-clean areas and the edges of my face 'cause I tend to forget those.

As I mentioned in my previous post about the eye make-up remover by Avène, these products are quite expensive so if your skin is not hyper sensitive you probably won't need those. For all the girls (and boys!) with such skin as mine who are frustrated by the results of regular drugstore products, here you go and you're welcome :P
I can just repeat myself but these products really do an amazing job and are absolutely worth their money.

my eye make-up remover

Since the time I started using make-up I've always removed it with products by Nivea and Balea. I purposely bought those who said that they were extra gentle or for sensitive eyes but I was never really happy with the results. They do an absolutely perfect job when it comes to removing the eye make-up but after that my eyes and skin in this area always burn, feel extremely tense and are reddened. 

I've been using the eye make-up remover by Avène for over 1.5 years now and I have to say I'm perfectly satisfied. It does a really good job getting rid of the make-up, even when it's waterproof. 
I put some of the product on a cotton pad and then lightly press it on my lid and lashes to break up the make-up. Afterwards I simply wipe it all off. I had some really cheap cotton pads for a while which didn't manage to absorb all the make-up but when you make sure you get some with a structured side that are maybe not the absolutely cheapest ones on earth, this should not be an issue!
Plus I never had to complain about any redness or tense feeling.
The only catch is the prize. The products by this band are all pretty expensive so you might think twice about buying these. For me, it's totally worth it. Otherwise I would just spend less on the make-up remover and even more on moisturizing products and what not.
For those of you with as sensitive eyes and skin as me, this product does its work and is absolutely worth its money. The rest of you may have to think about whether they really need it and whether they can afford it.

my experiences with biotin pills

The last couple of years I've been losing a lot of hair and I really mean A LOT. Especially when I wash my hair:
the drain is blocked with hair, it clings to my comb, it's on the floor, it's everywhere!
I can run my fingers through my hair and gather just like that a bunch of loose hair.
I am really surprised I didn't get any bald spots so far.
As my nails started breaking and ripping too, even when they were still short, I decided I'd try a treatment with biotin.
I took one every day for one month and now I only take one like every other or every third day.
I did notice a difference after the first month. I felt like I was losing less hair although the amount diverged a lot between the washes. My nails are definitely stronger. Sometimes I still notice some lines on them but they didn't rip once.
All in all I'm content with the outcome, but I was hoping the biotin would have a bigger impact on my hair, since I'm still losing quite a bit of it.

I hope this was helpful and maybe you want to share your personal experience?

My Belgian Experience

As I told you, I've been in Brussels for the weekend. The trip lastet a little shorter than expected, but I've been filming a lot.
So here's what I edited for you:

a kind of personal post...I guess?

I'm moving to Brussels in late summer/fall to study psychology and the uni I'll be attending has an open house this weekend. So I'll spend this weekend including friday and monday there to get some more information and get to know the area.
Unless there is a wifi-spot and I have something great to share I'll be MIA for these couple of days. Sorry for that :/
But I will be back next week with new posts and hopefully Brussels will give me some input and inspiration so I'll come home with even more ideas in my brain! So 'YAY' for that.




PS.: I finally got instagram!My username is TheMichelleBurton. Make sure you follow me there so you can stay updated to any projects I'm working on :)