I'M TURNING 35!!!

It seemed like a whole other world some time ago, but it is true, I am turning 35 tomorrow!!! Isn't it crazy?!? Different to many would think about becoming older, I love to add a year's baggage to the person I've become. You couldn't pay me enough money to be 25 again.

At 35 I know myself so much better and am much more certain of my choices. Also, I notice a switch on the way I prefer to spend my money. Loving experiences and great quality stuff. Quantity not only doesn't make me happy anymore, it actually gives me anxiety. A lot of it.

Having a great night in with a book a wanted to read for ages, a cup of my favourite tea and the best rose champagne truffles on the side it's the absolute dream for me right now. Uh and a day at the spa... or a great lunch at my favourite chateau which is about one hour drive from our home, for me, that's totally worth the trip.

I gathered a couple of items on my wishlist this last year and I wanted to share them with you:

Diptyque Candle Paris - Diptyque is already a very well known brand around the world for their home fragrance collection. To make sure we want to have everything they make - at least I do - they created a line of candles with city names that are only available in the boutiques. As you wouldn't suspect, I really want to have the Paris one. So bad I'll have to travel to the city of lights for it ;)

Dior scarf - I have the winter scarf that I got a couple years ago and I still use it whenever the temperature drops to under 15 degrees. This year I've been playing around with some other accessories as my dressing style is so basic. I think this neck scarf will give the "Je ne sais quoi" my t-shirt and jeans-uniform needs.

Jo Malone Velvet Rose & Oud - It's an update. Peony & Blush Suede during spring/summer and Velvet Rose & Oud during winter. You know, I love a rose scent because of its femininity but I could miss some punch of sexiness and both this fragrance give me just what I need for the different times of the year.

Fashion Icons - Another fashion book. What is it with them that I feel I need to read so many! Well, history. As I am returning to the basics and doing my best to have less stuff, the history of fashion, especially in Europe, will tell me we come from a time where people didn't have much because there wasn't much. I want to choose to have less and am very deeply influenced by the way people would choose the best quality about 100 years ago and know the history of fashion helps me to create a life a love to live, fashion-wise.

You might think I named quite expensive items for a somewhat minimalist. Well, making my choices carefully allows me to splurge on my favourite things and also, I've been saving for, let's say, the whole year for it. I'd love to tell you about my saving techniques, but that's a whole other post.

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3 NAIL POLISH SHADES YOU NEED IN YOUR COLLECTION

Being always on the hunt for the effortlessly chic look, like the French - this deserves a blog post of its own -, I like to find the products that will give me the look without spending that much time. See, I prefer to use higher quality products and have less of them but be sure I just need to worry about it once.

In Brazil, where I come from, women will go to the nail and hair salon every week. My mom had a set day and time on Friday mornings. Living in Europe it would cost me a lot of money to have a manicure every week so I do it myself and that's when I need the quality. 

I've had the opportunity to know and try Dior polishes years ago and have to say that for me they are the absolute best. The colours have great coverage and the shape of the brushes is very handy to apply the polish easily. Dior will always come out with new shades within new collections, but I'm talking investment and for that reason, I choose to stick to classics like nudes and reds. Really, it's all I have.

The nude - After the challenge to find your perfect nude, Dior made me happy with this shade. Greige is a not too warm, not too cool beige/grey colour. It's perfect for the whole year and the best part: Chips camouflage into your skin tone so you can go a little bit longer without having to repaint the nails.

The red - It's a classic and I think everyone should have one red to call your own. I chose this one because I think it suits my skin tone better. Not to loud but still red. I think I could go bolder though...

The berries shade -  That's the thing with me and the shades, this is probably the most fun I will get out of a polish. No yellows and greens for me. A pinky red shade like this is what I love to make sure I get some fun into the collection.

There you have it, I must have 3. Going into a minimalist adventure like I am? Then start by throwing/ giving away the rest and keeping only the polishes you love and use all the time.

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KNOWING YOUR SELF-WORTH

I've been struggling with this little thing: Why is it that I've met so many women around facing depression at such a young age and getting into abusive relationships as a consequence of that?

As a Christian, I believe that I serve a God who loves me and I understand love like this all changing power that influences me to move forward. I also believe that the wrong sense of self is put into our heads through heartache and bad situations from the past. That stops us from moving forward and that's the start of everything.

What I believe will help you see yourself as the amazing being that you are, is to make sure you get the right thoughts into your head and that's why I decided to create these screensavers for you to download into your phone so that you'll see it every day and at some point it can help you to believe in yourself again. This is actually an idea of a friend of mine that's been in the position before where she wrote notes around the house to help her to believe in her self-worth and guess what, it really helped!

This is my gift for you or for anyone you know who could use some motivation. You can save the images yourself and you can share it with anyone you think could be helped/motivated/pushed by this. Let's make the world around us even brighter.

   

4 BOOKS FOR A LIFE CHANGE

A couple years ago people would see self improvement books as something for the weak ones that need help, but I actually love to know what other people's idea of the world is. For that reason I never read novels. It's just not my cup of tea. Normally I'll navigate towards a book someone wrote that could really just turn into a lecture. Do you get what I mean?

Therefore, I have set goal to myself that I want to have read twelve books by the end of every year, so one book every month. I started doing this last year and what I've noticed is that my world has become so much wider. I can converse to stragers - something I love doing - much easier because I can simply speak about various subjects. Love it.

Hereby I'd love to show you some of the books I've read, only this year, that changed my aproach to their subjects:

Eat That Frog - Hey you procrastinator, yes, I'm speaking to you! I know, all of us can have a bit of a problem when it comes to completing tasks and crossing things off of our to do lists. Brian Tracy helps you to set your goals and manage yourself to start at the most daugting task so that everything afterwords will be easy to acomplish.

Stuffocation - Minimalism. How often have you heard that word this year only? What I like the most about the author's aproach to minimalism is that he focuses on what you should do and not on what you shouldn't. James Wallman focuses on the fact that the most valuable things in life are moments filled with people we love. It's about the experience and yes, that can cost money as well. He runs off of that image of the new hippies and that's what made me take another look into the idea of minimalism.

The French Beauty Solution - This book is written bij the founder of French skincare brand Caudalie, Mathilde Thomas. You would think she's speaking about beauty all the way through the book but au contrair. She is a french woman leaving in America, so she's tracing parallels between the french and the american women and giving us a great time showing the differences and contrasts. And yes, you'll find a couple beauty recipes to satisfy your beauty cravings including THE recipe to their most famous scrub!

The Bible, Proverbs - Maybe you're a christian like me or maybe you're not but if you would like to know more about the bibble you should start in Provebs. I love Proverbs and was reading this again this year. It's a bible book full of great life advice and only has 31 chapters so it can make well into a month read program. I always recomend you find a bible translation that will better suit you.

Hope I can give you some inspiration for self improvement. You wont be found too often outside of the home anyways so you might as well work on yourself in the meanwhile.

KEEPING THE WORKOUT ROUTINE

 Since our trip to France in may, where I learnt a lot about the French lifestyle, I have been having a great difficulty to go back to my usual workout routine of 3 times a week. This is connected to the fact that I love to move and love classes but I actually don't really like the gym or fitness routines.

After a period of being in the greatest search for my own self I've ever been on, I learned that I actually really enjoy a more quiet space and fewer people around me. When it comes to sports, I would always go to the boot camp, cycling and steps classes but now I wanted to try something different.

Working out at my local Basic Fit gym, they don't offer many live classes but I was just very curious to try Pilates. Again. Yes, I've tried it once before maybe 6 to 7 years ago and really didn't like it. It was to slow and I needed something to pump me up. This is how I found a new love called Pilates.

Most of you heard of pilates before and even I have gone once before and just didn't like it. But now, as I am in such another place in my life, I found so much peace during and after the class. I always thought this kind of lessons were for weak people - sorry but it's just the truth. Believe me, I was so sore after the first class it took me 3 days to fully recover.

I now alternate Pilates with a cardio - HIIT program put together by my beloved PT. Whatever workout you choose, make sure you love it and you're consistent. Sometimes new workout gear can help ;).

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LESS STUFF, MORE EXPERIENCES

Since a couple years, the idea of minimalism has been surrouding my mind and the only thing that kept me from diving into it was that minimalism focuses on what you shouldn't do and shouldn't have but I wanted to go touwards the person I want to be, what I should do and choose for.

Reading a book called STUFFOCATION, I finally found an aproach to the idea of minimalism that matches my intention and that is to focus on experiences and not on stuff.

I used to be the person wanting to BUY every beauty product existing on the planet and a couple years ago the fun of it wasn't there anymore. Especially when I would buy all of that stuff and have no chance to use it because many products just don't suit my lifestyle.

Switching the focus and thinking about experiences and not stuff, I made this plan of investing in one beauty tratment every month. Instead of getting that new lipstick and eyeshadow pallet, I decided to put that money into nice experiences I can look forward to.

My goal is as simple as every other month something hair related and every other month a facial of some soort.

I descovered PAYOT still in Brazil but I really didn't find much more about it when I arrive in The Netherlands. After a visit to france, I was reminded how much of a great brand it is so I searched for it around the town and I found out my favourite salon offers most products fromt he line. Today I had my first facial after about 8 years, yes YEARS! It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes and  it was just AMAZING!!! I'll list the products used bellow and am planning on, slowly bu surely, add some PAYOT products to my beauty regimen!

Said all that to say this: I believe experiences really do make me happier that things! I had such a relaxed day after the treatment, I didn't even want to put on make-up the whole day. What are your favourite experiences to invest in?

MY BIRTHDAY WISHLIST

A prepared woman makes lists, right?... hihi On the 18th of october is my birthday! I can't bealieve I'm turning 34 already!!! To be honnest my life looks a little different than what I expected it to be at almost 35 and believe me, I still haven't figured out the rest of my life yet. What I really found out is that I don't need to. I can just understand stuff as I go and be ok with it.

With time I learned to give more value to people and experiences than things and that's why I never celebrate my birthday with a traditional party anymore. I prefer to have some drinks with good friends and do something nice with the husband. Have been doing it for years and don't see any change coming to this tradition of my own any time soon.

Click the images to shop my wishlist!

IT'S FALL AND I WANT THEM ALL

The coziest time of the year has arrived! Time for hot drinks, apple pie and the nicest blankets. I love the change of weather and enjoy every opportunity to welcome the new season. I'm not quite ready for the tall boots yet, so ankleboots with a dress or skirt paired with a soft jumper will make most of my outfits. Once at home, a worm shower followed by a treat of a body cream and cozy socks will make my night.  I love adding little things to make every season special. What do you do to stay cozy?

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HOW I ORGANIZE MY FINANCES

If you know me personally or follow me for a while on social media, you've probably noticed my weakness for high-end goods. But how do I get the money to pay for all of this? Have you heard of the method "Leaving with about 70% of your means"?

MEAL PLANNING - MY WAY

 There's always that time of the week when we have to go to the supermarket and figure out what we'll be eating for the week. I even know people that go everyday (!) to the store for fresher ingredients. We only go once a week and pretty much know what we'll be eating all week and here I'll tell you how we plan our meals.

I HAVE A ADDICTION NAMED JO MALONE

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Jo Malone is one of my favourite brands in general and here is why: They care for all the details of luxury scent making, packing and gifting and can never resist a visit and this are my favourites.

HOW TO LOVE AUTUMN / WINTER

At this time of year when clocks, go back, I hear a lot of people complaning about that it gets dark so eraly and how much they hate all this. But I am one to actually enjoy the darker and colder days and I'll tell you why.

softer feet - Is the best time of the year to restore that dryed out even sometimes cracked heals. Feet will be hiding in socks whilst being protected from the cold and dry weather. I love using my gel socks about once a week to keep my feet soft and moisturized. A little exfoliation in the shower, a bit of a foot cream and into the socks my feet go for 10 to 15 minutes. Your feet will thank you. You're welcome.

candles - I am definetly one to light scented candles the whole year 'round but in autumn/winter they'll not only give me a great scent but also make every room of the house feel that much more cozy. Jo Malone candles are my guilty plesure! As I can light them in the living room and smell it all through the house, I really think they'r worth the investment.

gloves - Not a luxury but a necessity. However, I came to realize that a good pair of leather gloves are a great investment maybe for life. Somewhere inside me there's this minimalist that believes in investing on that special item that I'll have for the rest of my life. I've had my leather gloves for about 5 years and they're still going strong. Also a great thing after using hand dream. Soft hands to the win!

knee-high boots - A couple years ago the knee-highs were already on trend but I just didn't think it'd look good on me. Fast forward 2015 and all I want to make my outfit compleet is a pair of very high boots. Can you imagine to be able to wear my favorite shorter dresses in the cold and not feel cold? That's the best of both worlds right there.

long relaxing baths/showers - If there's one thing that I'd love to have in my bathroom that would for sure be a bathtub. The evening I'd spend endulging in a hot bath agh... I can only imagine! In the meantime, I just use my shower for the same purpose. I love takinf a hot shower before going to bed. Sometimes with a longer pamper routine, sometimes with just a body oil at the end. However you may be abble to do it, use the longer evening to relax

hot beverages - Ah, from simple old tea to my favorite Chai Latte. When I lived in Brazil, I didn't have many opportunities to enjoy a hot drink. When it's 40 degrees outside that's not what you long for. Living in a country that's so far from your own and with a lot of different customes can make you feel like an outsider but this is just my way of embracing the weather. I even have my own personal at home Chai Latte that I get every couple months to reward myself after a tipycal dutch bike ride.

Do you have any autumn/winter favourites? What are they?

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