PATIENCE OH PATIENCE...

Hello there! Today I want to talk to you guys about a topics that's been on my mind for quite some time now... Patience. 

My mom always tells me to never say 'I'm so impatient' at a job interview when they ask me about my weaknesses. Well I won't but ... I AM impatient at times. We all are, I think. It's probably sort of a thing for this generation to be impatient. Did you know that on average people my age get nervous or angry when a web pages takes more than 11 seconds to load? How crazy is that? 

I told you about the thunderstorm that had struck into our internet aerial (talk to me if you have any problems finding the right terms for any electrical devises - I'm a pro.). Our Wifi had broken down for a few days and I had to use my mobile internet ... which is sorta slow. Well while I wasn't finding it too hard to wait for a page to load for a few seconds, some of my friends actually went kinda crazy about it. Some even switched phone with other friends whose internet hadn't been slowed down by the phone company yet... 

Got me thinking... what are we waiting for so eagerly when we surf the web with limited speed? Why are we getting mad at our phones (and yepp I caught myself doing that) when we're just waiting for our Facebook feed to load? I've talked about the whole phone issue before here, but I just found it weird that something we think is so indispensable in our life actually brings out such bad traits and makes us unhappy, you know?

There's another issue though that's been on my mind connected to this. How much patience do we need to have with people? Is there a magic limit of how many chances you can give a person before it's time to leave? And is it possible to change a person or is trying this just a waste of time? Questions over questions. Sorry friends I don't have an answer and but wanted to throw this out there... Does anyone have the ultimate answer?
Personally I'm not very patient with people unless we're really close which isn't that often. But taken the case it is, I tend to hold on to people for a long time. Obviously I get mad, I want to leave, I know that I derserve better. But for some reason I always pick myself up and stay with the person. Does anyone feel the same as I do?
Okay ... as long as we are waiting for our relationship coach / most patience experienced person: Here's the first photo of my face ever in a blogpost. I love this blue dress from Topshop! I wore it to a Jazz concert given by the Blue Lake Jazz ensemble from Michigan, USA. The little girl on the right was super duper cute and I think her face (even from the side you can see her impressed stare) says what we all thought of this concert. It was beautiful. And I think it's really admirable how much patience these young musicians put into playing their instruments! Had to make that connection haha!

 Lots of Love, Tabea ♥

LAKE SUMMERS

Did you ever love anything so much you could just run in circles and scream out of happiness? I hope so for you! Right now I could be doing the 'hands over my head' and yelling 'I LOVE THIS' all the time! Summer is so great! Today I had the chance to hang out at a lake / canyon close by with some pretty sweet people. Isn't this what we're waiting for since like january? 

Lying on my back with the sun on my belly I thought about summers that have been gone by over the years. My favorite summer memories were all made around lakes. Last year I spent this amazing day down in Canal Park, Duluth MN with one of my friends. We had Caribou's Coffee, walked along the beach and sat on rocks for hours to talk. Go visit if you ever get the chance - and I'm not just saying this 'cause Duluth is my second home, it's just so fun there!

Also I remember the many days I spent paddling around the water close to the beaches of different lakes around my region - I couldn't swim until  I was about eight, so ya.. I was easy to watch as a kid I guess. Always tried to stay out of trouble and life threatening situations hehe! Living on the edge was never my thing .. except living on the edge of the water. Ha. Ha. Sorry...

Oh and one of my very, very favorite memories from about three years ago (say whaaat?!): My parents and I spent a week in southern France at a lake called 'St. de la Croix' I think. Sooo Saint of the cross? Mhhh.. anyway it was pure magic down there. I have never seen water so turqouise! Beau-ti-ful! Take a trip to France at least once in your life - it's truly a blessed spot of land.

Well this was my post for today. I'm sorry but the thouht of eating watermelon and getting tan while reading a good book out in the sun is just really promising right now. Just to keep you updated, I have been crafting over the last days so there are more fun posts coming your way! Stay tuned friends!

Does anyone else have favorite summer or lake memories? I'd love to hear!

Lots of Love, Tabea ♥

ON HABITS AND JOHN GREEN BOOKS

Hello there! I hope you all had a great first day of this week  and that those of you out there being on vacation like me enjoyed their time off! 

So yesterday I started reading ' Will Grayson, Will Grayson' by John Green. It's the forth book by him that I read. I already went through 'An Abundance Of Katherines' (I read the german translation), 'Looking For Alaska' and 'Papertowns' (that one I also read in german). I'm not the kind of girl that reads multiple books by the same author, unless they are part of a series. So coming back to Mr. Green for the forth (and probably not last) time made my think about habits and consistency. 

I think habits are the greatest and worst things in life at the same time. During daily life I'm often annoyed by habits since they make me feel like I'm stuck in this routine that is just totally dull and not inspiring at all. Like when I can't get myself to wake up early in the morning to work-out. Or when I come home and check literally all social networks possible (talked about that here). All those things are really just a matter of habit. And that is why they are so hard to get rid of. On the upside though, this is the great thing about habits. You can build them by training yourself. I think that it's such a great thought to actually be able to control your behaviour in such a way.

The training method is relativly easy. Get off your butt and do it. Over and over again - until you get off your butt automatically. Wow, I'm sure I just enlightend somebody. Hahah no, I'm kidding. But seriously, doing something over a longer time will turn into something you do without thinking. My tipps for making this method a bit easier are: 

Use a calendar and check off each day you did the thing you want to become a habit. Share what you do with friends, it's great to have someone else ask how you do or maybe even join you. I did write in my journal for years and it wasn't until last Christmas when I gave my best friend a journal that she started loving it, too, which encourages me even more to keep on going. Reward yourself. the first three to seven days are the hardst when starting something new I find, so I like to get myself a treat when having kept on track for that time. Especially when 'working-out more' is what you want to do, this is a true helper because the actual achievement of a dream body probably won't come until some time later. So eat that ice-cream cone! You deserve it! 

I already said, sometimes I just feel stuck with my life (who doesn't??), so over the course of the last 6 months I changed quite a bit about my habits. I became more serious about journaling again. Not only do I do it on a daily basis, but I also want to focus on emotions more. I was sick of writing the same things every week like 'Today in math we did this..', 'For lunch we had .. and after school the bus was late..' etc. You get the jist. So I really make an effort now to write about how I felt in certain situations. Sometimes it is hard being honest about these things when talking to people, but want to be honest with myself at least. 
Also I spent the month of january developing a work-out routine and for some reason - I'm still working out to this day without some coach kicking my butt. The magic of habits! 

I'm not saying this will work always and for everything. I was gonna get into the habit of art journaling with my 30 day art challenge. Technically I failed on that one already. I don't want to say I didn't have the time (worst excuse ever...) but for me there were thing to be done that had a higher priority. Also I feel like this 'do it on a daily basis' kinda kills my ideas from coming. Usually I work well under pressure but this time.. naah. I will still keep you updated on my journaling this month though. I hope to still get about 30 pages done. 

So yeah, to make a long story short, I love creating new habits and I think everybody should do so as well! It's your life, it's in your hands! Get that new routine going you imagened for so long! Work-out, write on a daily basis or start taking the time to fix yourself a healthy lunch every night to get you through the next day (BEST habit I ever started! I love food...)

Lots of love, Tabea ♥

P.S. Out of the four books I read, Will Grayson is the best - I haven't gotten to the end though and unfortunately those aren't always the best part about John Green books - sorry Mr. Green, love your characters but your ends are always a bit .. flat? Anyway, I just wanted to recommend this band mentioned in Will Grayson to you. They're called Neutral Milk Hotel  and their album In An Airplane Over The Sea is pure genius
! You should all go and check them out and dance and sing crazy to it like I did. I love it. 
If this whole post did not make any sense to you because you have no idea who John Green is... go check him (and his brother) out here!

I HAVE ISSUES: MY PHONE IS KILLING ME!

Well hello again! After a painful encouter with my super-glue this afternoon - this stuff is some serious glue, still cannot get it off of my fingertips, eek - I'm back with some thoughts on this modern, fast and always-changing world. Yeah, sometimes I like to be dramatic like that... Haha no, but this is an issue that has been bugging me for a while now and I thought I'd throw my thoughts out there. 

Multitasking and a decreasing ability to stay concentrated on one thing over a longer period of time. To me this sounds like out of a newspaper article. I feel like these days there are tons of articles written about this topic - or is that just me? Anyway, what inspired me to write this was in fact a newspaper article but more about that later.

Concentrating is hard, but for me is has become muuuch harder since last october -that's when I got my iPhone. I love my phone,  I truly do - but sometimes I curse it just as much as I love it. My phone is the reason why I can't watch TV anymore. For the last ten years or so twice a week my family would gather in front of the TV to watch 'Who wants to be a millionaire'. And as much as I enjoy that show, after 15 minutes of watching I catch myself being on my phone. Well watching TV or being on the phone, doesn't make much of a difference one might say. For me it actually does! While watching TV might not be a very stimulating activity, it is something I used to enjoy with my mom and dad. Family time becomes more rare the older I get and I get mad at myself when I'm wasting it online. 

The worst thing about the whole thing is that most of time I'm not even facebooking or whatsapping or what not - I'm looking at funny pictures on Pinterest. I can literally spend hours looking at funny cat pictures.. Pinning has become my new 'crafty' hobby. "Today I was creative because I pinned 30 new DIYs" - Oh really? No, but I mean that is my reality. Instead of sitting down to acually do something crafty, I jump from one app to the next collecting picture sof other people's crafts ... Gahh! 

But my saviour is on his way - well not really but I found an article about him in the newspaper and immediatly thought: That guy just solved all my problems! Kinda at least. I'm talking about Paolo Cardini. He's a product designer with a pretty impressive moustache. And he makes pretty rad things. Like the MONOtask Project (Check it out!). He came up with those blaze orange iPhone faces which cover up all 'unused' areas - you are only using your phone for thing at a time with them. No more Pinterest, no more Facebook - Just checking the time or checking where north is (doing that all the time, don't you?). I love the concept behind it. Not quite practical, but still a great invention. 

I could not come up with any revolutionary ideas on how to completely overcome this constant influence of media and social-networking. But hey - who cares? We love social media. Sometimes though there are really more important things like family and hobbies that happen offline. I'm really having a hard time doing this, but turning off my phone at least once a week for a couple hours would probabely be a step in the right direction. Also when being online I want to make an effort in the future to not waste my time jumping apps, pins and / or Youtube videos just to kill time. 

Wooof! Now that I got this off of my chest I feel better. Hope you could follw along and maybe I could inspire a little bit. I'm off now to watch some TV with my parents - without my phone. 

Until next time, lots of love, Tabea ♥