Music on a monday Jessie Ware

Hey guys, 

This song has been keeping me relatively sane during exam season. I can only study while listening to music, or at least I feel that helps me. So Jessie´s upbeat sound has been on repeat for the past few days to motivate me and thanks to her exam prep is going pretty well!

Have a great week 

X

-A

pretty as a picture

Hey guys, 

Here are a couple cool pictures that i have found browsing the web these past few weeks. I am studying for my final exams these days so my posts will be shorter than usual for the next two weeks or so. 

Bare with me.

Have a great day 

X

-A

Happiness

Hey hey, 

Today, March 20th has been declared International happiness day by the United Nations. This is the world´s first international happiness day. I think this is such a wonderful idea. There are so many difficult things in life, and the world media almost exclusively brings us news of the horrible, sad things that are happening around the world. Therefor it is wonderful to be able to take a moment and even better to have a whole day to focus on the good things. The things that make us happy. 

Happiness to me is in the little things. The silver linings. You can always draw something positive out of every situation. Even if it is just something very small. I just have to believe it. 

so to honor this day, here are a few things making me happy these days....

......   The end of winter. It is such an amazing feeling being up at 8 am and the sun is already up. which leads me to the next one..

....being finally able to use sunglasses, not only do they shield my eyes from the sun but I somehow feel instantly more beautiful when I wear them.

.... floral dresses. 

......My wonderful friends. Meeting up for lunch or coffee instantly makes an ordinary day feel special. 

.......thoughts of summer. Having something to look forward to can bring you happiness. I look forward to summer. To the end of the school year. I look forward to long summer days. And I really look forward to my vacation in Greece and seeing my family in France. And that makes me happy. 

Have a very happy day

X

-A 

Happniess

Hi guys,

 I wanted to share this quote with you because for me these words ring true. It is so important to find the beauty in ordinary things, everyday life can be very dull. Therefore it is important to ones happiness to take joy from small things. 

X

-A

Resolutions

Hey guys, 

I have never been very good at following through with New years resolutions. On New Year´s Eve I get very motivated and inspired but nothing really ever happens after that. Then I spent a considerably large amount of time feeling guilty, when I realize I wont be able to cross everything off my list before the year ends. I read a blog post over at one of my favorite blogs, Cupcakes and cashmere that touches on this subject. There Emily writes about her own resolutions and how New Year´s resolutions don´t have to be huge, seemingly inachievable ones. Sometimes   it´s better to focus on the little things that count and lead you along the path to reaching the big goals. After all isn´t  beauty in the details? I think that those who truly enjoy life, are those that find happiness in the little things of everyday life. Therefore my New Year´s resolution is to enjoy the little things, be more positive and to make an effort to be truly happy.

 Here are some the things I plan on doing to enrich my life before the year´s end:

• Go to the theater more often. 
• Fill a jar with with written notes, about one good thing that happens each day of this year. 
• Read more books 
• Spend more time with my mom 
• Spend quality time with my friends and family
• Take salsa dancing lessons 
• Visit friends that live abroad
• Exercise more frequently 
• Get better at speaking french 
• Talk more often with my family in France 
• Skype with friends that live abroad
• Bake more(need to try all those recipe books I have at some point) 
• Take more photos 
• Have friends over more often
• Plan dinner parties

.....And then I will add more little things that make me happy as time goes along. I have some big resolutions as well but I will let this be a start and share them with you later. Baby steps. 

Have a great day!

X

-A

P.S. Please do check out Emily´s blog cupcakes and cashmere. You won´t be disappointed!

Music on a monday - Yael Naim

Hey guys,
So school finally started again today. Although I had a lot of fun during the holidays, I am more than thrilled to get back into my routine and to face new challenges (being on holiday for a month, kind of wrecks havoc on any kind of structure in my life). I found this beautiful rendition of the Britney Spears song Toxic the other day. In my opinion it´s even better than the original. Such a soulful performance. 

Happy Monday

X

-A

Simple things

 The change in weather between summer and winter here in Iceland can be pretty dramatic, which can affect ones mood. It can be difficult adjusting to the seemingly non stop darkness (seriously,during the winter we hardly even see the sun) after a summer of 24/7 daylight. So now that winter is upon us I feel it´s really important to focus on the little things that bring happiness, because I am only human and the winter weather can of course get to me like everyone else.
Here is my remedy for the winter blues this week:

Excitement for Iceland Airwaves

I can´t believe  Airwaves is only one week away!! good times good times

Good coffee

There are few things in this world better than starting off the day with a great cup of coffee, especially when it  is dark as night outside at 8 am. I love that I can get a great cup of take away coffee from Kaffitár, while waiting to change buses on the way to school. And it is even more lovely to sit down at bookstore/ café Eymundsson, and have time to flip through the latest magazines, for free!

Either way coffee always brightens my mood.

Photography

My camera has been on a very long vacation  up until a few weeks ago when I realised how much I miss taking photos. I really like being able to document special events and fun with friends. I used go downtown in the afternoon with my camera and snap pictures of everything and anything! I have to start doing that again ( and I might even show you the results)

My awesome camera - Nikon D60

Of Monsters and men's new album - My head is an animal 

I instantly feel good  listening to this  ( and walk around for the rest of the day with a big stupid grin on my face). It´s really amazing how music can affect your mood.

Baking and discovering new recipes.

I rarely cook or bake during the summer ( unless it´s something really really quick). So when winter comes around so does my favourite hobby. I don´t know what it is, why I only  do it during the winter, I guess it´s comforting, and I love the sense of achievement when you bake something from scratch that turns out great.

Might do a few kitchen posts this winter, will keep you posted

vegetable quiche and chocolate chip brasil nut cookies I baked yesterday. 

I took a longer break from the blog than I had planned , thank you so much for baring with me.

-A

P.S. what makes you guys happy in the winter?