Have a look at the struggle of this cute horse. It is frightened and a glutton at the same time: It is very much interested in eating that carrot but it also is very much frightened of me (we didn't know each other yet, ya know ;-)). It took ages for the horse to work up the courage to get closer to me and grab the carrot. When it had the carrot, it jumped away immediately to chew it in safety. :-)
One year ago, I started to do horseback riding mainly because of my back. Good orthopedic specialists often recommend horseback riding as a good way to improve back and posture problems. For my back it has paid off indeed. Especially my lower back is now both stronger and more mobile at the same time. Additionally, I get the best pelvic floor training available and have a lot of fun. Horses are so fascinating. It's impossible to resist their beauty and cuteness. What I love most about them is that they are so predictable. They are easily frightened scaredy-pants and food is their weakness - with apples and carrots you can charm the pants off any horse. ;-)
Later today, I'll go horseback riding and this is how I want to charm my horse's pants off ;-)
In theory, you can also feed sugar and sweets to horses and a lot of people
do so. Horses eat everything that you give them and sweets are highly
addictive, unfortunately - not only for us humans. But would you like to be seduced by sweets and sugar yourself? I
personally wouldn't and this is why I prefer to feed them healthy stuff
like fruits and vegetables. Since I started to do horseback riding I always have
some apples around for horses. This is why I snack on apples myself more often now too. Apples and carrots are also great ingrediences for my favourite breakfast cake.
Here is some eye candy for all other horse lovers out there:
My Pink Box July arrived today and this is what was inside: Below you can see the pink box and the Brigitte Balance magazine.
Opening the box reveals a pink bow and the description of the content:
Advertisement and coupons that were shipped with the pink box: I really don't understand why the 20 Euro Coupon is also mentioned on the products list as shown below. It's just a coupon.
A group picture of all products and the magazine that were in my pink box:
The following products have been in my pink box (see a picture below):
an Astor mascara (Big and Beautiful False Lashes) together with an eye makeup remover sample by Astor.
2 lip balms by Labello in the pink box: Labello Repair & Beauty which seems to be a new one
a nail polish by Catherine (have look below at my swatch)
2 hair products
Garnier Fructis Wunder-Öl
C:EHKO Style jewel hair spray Diamond
A closer look to the description of the products:
Here is a swatch of the nail polish
My conclusion: I don't like my pink box this time at all. There is no product where I think: that's it and I am looking forward to trying it. In the June pink box it was the Bioturm body butter which I was looking forward to using. I already emptied it by the way. :-)
Only uninteresting products come with the pink box this time. The nail polish is a bit interesting though but I don't like the colour. I don't like red nail polishes and worst of all: I already bought 2 of them this month. If I knew that I'd get a third one I would not have bought them. I never use any hair spray and won't change that just because I got one with this Pink Box. The hair oil is interesting but I don't like the company Fructis and usually don't buy any products by them at all. Labello is also a company I usually avoid. I don't have any opinion about the mascara and the eye makeup remover. I guess I'll just try them but I have to admit that I am not that curious about them. The magazine is ok this time and I might even read it. But this is the single item of this box I am looking a little bit forward to.
I think I'll wait for the next pink box and if the next one won't convince me either, I'll end my subscription.
I would like to experiment with a new
post category: link love. You might have seen this category on other blogs already. For me it's always fun to read what articles and posts other bloggers enjoyed reading. I hope you enjoy reading my link favorites, too.
Have a look at my potpourri of links I enjoyed reading in May & June:
Tips and opinions on how to tell if an appartment has adequate soundproofing before moving in by the readers of apartment therapy. Obviously this is a very important question when you are looking for a new apartment. I myself remember living in several flats
where I couldn't sleep because my neighbors have been partying and inviting people over all the time. Hence, choose your neighborhood
and neighbors well. If you move in next to a drummer
who enjoys drumming on the balcony, you won't have a lot of fun in your
new apartment. This is a real life story since I once was viewing an apartment for rent while a drummer was drumming on the balcony of the neighboring flat. Of course I didn't rent that specific apartment. ;-)
Yes and yes have published tips on how to broadcast body confidence.
Great article. I like it a lot and highly recommend reading! In addition, my experience is that doing a lot of sports
is also a great way to broadcast body confidence since it helps you with building up the muscles you need for
keeping up a good posture. Doings sports properly yields a great posture and straightens the body - you literally can't have a bad posture anymore. Furthermore, you start to feel great and love your body because sports makes you feel every inch of it. Hence, you not only broadcast body confidence but literally have it. :-)
Leo Babauta the guru of time management describes in his blog zenhabits 20 small actions to create a fit environment. He has some really great advice and got me into registering at Fitocracy myself as well. I am testing it at the moment.
BBC2 has broadcasted the show The Men who made us fat and the Guardian wrote an excellent article on food addiction and why our society is endangered by obesity (yes, sugar and junk food is highly addictive and this is why it causes obesity). Very interesting and highly recommended in this context is the blog of Sarah Wilson who has quit sugar.
At My Life All in One Place a really nice travelling journal print out for personal sized and pocket sized Filofaxes is available. Enjoy and organize your holidays! :-) Btw: it doesn't have to be a Filofax, there are plenty of customizable calendars where Filofax refills fit as well. See the German sizing and hole spacing guide of Filofax (in German) and compare it with your customizable calendar.
This is an interesting blog on daily routines of writers, artists and other interesting people. Ever wanted to know how they organized their days? Have a look here. ;-)
Adulting is a cute blog giving advice on how to become a grown up person.
E-Book lovers and digital librarians, here is the perfume for you: Paper passion. ;-)
Smart people are especially prone to stupid mistakes and stupid. Considering the huge amount of stupid mistakes I am making all the time, I must be incredibly smart. ;-) By the way, "Thinking, fast an slow"
by the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahnemann seems to be a really great
book and is already on my To-Read list for some time. Now it moved a bit
up in the queue.
While surfing, we all come accross the 404 http error code from time to time. There are also plenty of other http error codes. In June, a new one has been proposed by the XML creator Tim Bray: error code 451 for "Legally restricted".
This might be useful for detecting whether a site has been censored by a
court or government. Especially when you are a hacker. ;-) Don't mind
the joke, I agree with the fact that increasing transparency is always a good
thing. Have also a look at the announcement at boingboing.
Quirky has just relased a new modular storage system. Isn't it incredibly cute and lovely? I wish products from Quirky would be available in Europe as well, look at how cute their other products are.
Here is a very interesting article on trolling or just being rude by the Guardian.
I love Real Techniques Brushes and have a couple of them as well. Now there are new ones available as shown by Getting Cheeky and Essiebutton. The Expert Face Brush, the Setting Brush, the Blush Brush and the Shading Brush are now on my brush wishlist. However, since I own around 100 to 200 brushes, I am currently not allowing myself to buy any brushes soon again. But I keep a wishlist and dream of these brushes at night. ;-)
Another thing on my beauty wishlist is this eyeshadow palette by Soap & Glory: raves by Essiebutton and Getting Cheeky. Some day ... ;-)
At Squeaky Swing I stumbled upon a really a cute knitted laptop bag. It's a design by the blogger herself. What an inspiration! I should really knit more myself, too.
Orgasms due to abs workouts? Really? Although I have never experienced orgasms while doing workouts myself, this was not the first time I came across this topic. In a book by Benita Cantieni, I already read about orgasms while doing pelvic floor workouts. The author associated this phenomenon with the pudendal nerve (Pudendus Nerv in german) which apparently some people can stimulate by proper pelvic floor training. Interesting. :-)
End of June, there was a Bobbi Brown blogger event in Munich. See reports by Magi and hearttobreathe. This is the only blogger event, I had fun reading about. The guys from Bobbi Brown even offered a Yoga session in order to show the bloggers that the makeup stays during sports. By the way, in my aqua running course I am attending each week, I also wear the Bobbi Brown Gel eyeliner. The one by Bobbi Brown and the waterproof gel eyeliners by Essence and Zoeva are the only ones that don't disappear or smudge all over the face while doing sports in water. :-)
A mentor-led accelerator program for start-ups called Springboard currently takes place at Google Campus London. Springboard is a 13 week programme where the founders receive intense mentoring and business support. TNW publishes a video series following three startups taking part in the Springboard accelerator. Have a look at the videos here. I found them interesting and motivating. :-)
3 forum recommendations for the bad times when your computer is not working as it should e.g. because it has got infected.
Jimmy Wales (co-founder of Wikipedia & Wikia) has launched an online campaign against the extradition of Richard O'Dwyer to the US for his search engine for streaming and downloading tv shows (typically programmes not yet available outside the US). See also this article by the Guardian. Julian Assange has recently lost his extradition case, but he is not a UK citizen and with Richard O'Dwyer it is pretty clear that he has not violated the copyright law since he has not made any copyrighted content available himself but only provided the links to such content through his search engine. Linking content actually shouldn't be prosecuted as long as the links are deleted upon request which Richard O'Dwyer seems to have done. Here is also another article by the Guardian on Richard O'Dwyer.
Stepping out of our comfort zones keeps us youthful, flexible and happy. Stepcase Lifehack provides inspiration on how to step out of our comfort zones. Since stepping out of our comfort zones often involves more social interaction, these tips on remembering people's names might be useful, too. :-)
The European Union has launched a "Women in Science" campaign last Thursday and one of the videos uploaded to Youtube is highly controversial. Actually, since the video aimed at getting attention which it obviously managed to do, maybe we should not take it that seriously. The profiles on women in science are really very well made and inspiring, hence, it's obvious that the EU isn't that shallow minded as it comes across in this specific video. I had a good laugh while watching it and believe it or not, somehow I do like it alltogether. It's light, it's fun. Come on, it's not that bad (considering the context). ;-)
Watch an emotionally arousing talk by Jamie Oliver on food and unhealthy eating habits especially in the United States of America. This talk has been held in the US in conjunction with him being a TED Prize winner of 2010 and is linked below. Healthy food is not only important in the US, it is an important topic all over the world! Everyone should take care of what they eat and everyone has to get to know how to cook healthy food!
I haven't learned how to cook as a child either. My mother cooks amazing and very healthy, so I grew up very healthy. But unfortunately, I somehow have not been taught how to cook myself and have not helped my mother with cooking at all as a child. So, I struggled with food and cooking when I moved out and also gained some weight. Only recently, I had a major breakthrough with cooking when I moved together with my boyfriend. He cooks amazing and he taught me a lot and helped me to get a feeling for cooking and dealing with spices and ingredients. Now I really enjoy experimenting with recipes and ingredients and also have developed some feeling for cooking. Currently, I also read Jamie's Dinners by Jamie Oliver which is a very inspiring every day cooking book. (This is why I had a look at his TED talk in the first place.)
Here is a dish we cooked according to a recipe included in Jamie's Dinners last weekend. It's roast chicken with lemon and rosemary roast potatoes (have a look at the recipe online). Yummie - I am not exaggerating by telling you that this was the very best chicken with potatoes I ever had in my whole life.
Cooking is an essential skill for a healthy and thought-ful life. But it is a long way until feeling comfortable with cooking when you haven't got any access to it as a child. Interestingly, a lot of my friends do cook but in the end of the day, it's obvious that they don't have that kind of feeling for ingredients and cooking that I admire and aim for myself (but I am totally not there yet either ;-)), namely to be able to set up a meal in mind while walking through a (super)market or while looking through the fridge and trying to consume leftovers or products near date of expiry. As Jamie says: being a good cook means juggling with ingredients and spontaneously assemble parts of a meal yielding tasty combinations. Here, practice is essential. However, for most people I know (except of my mother and my boyfriend and very few friends) cooking is something special you just do strictly according to a recipe and rather seldomly, e.g. on weekends or for special occasions. Of course, it's no wonder that they don't have much experience with cooking and might also not be able to help their children gaining some.
In the above mentioned book by Jamie Oliver, he manages very well to support the reader with gaining confidence for every day cooking activities. Here is the link to the german version of Jamie's Dinners (german title: Essen ist fertig) at Amazon:
