Instagram/update

You may have noticed that things have been a little MIA over here the last few months.  I would like to say that it was entirely because of my busy schedule but that wouldn't be completely true.  I mean, I have been busy--I have been working a lot, running all over Bavaria and have been traveling a bit for personal reasons on top of it all.  

But, I think the real reason for my absence here has been a general burnt out feeling and a lack of inspiration.  Between my working hours and the dreary (and never-ending) last days of winter, blah has been the word to describe my mood as of late.  I spent most of the months of March and April wrapped in a blanket on the couch, watching television and eating my weight in comfort foods.  What was there to blog about really?

But, since the sun came out at the beginning of May and the trees finally grew back their summery green coats, I have been feeling muuuuuuuuuuch better and more inspired again.  

That's not to say that my little hiatus didn't cause me to rethink things around here a bit.  Because, I have definitely seen the need for changes and plan to make several moving forward.  

First, I may not post as often as I had been at the end of last year. This is a hobby, not a job and it's only fun if I don't feel too much pressure to do it.  If I'd prefer to spend my evening with a glass of wine and Zooey Deschanel, then why shouldn't I?

Next, I will probably be writing many more personal posts in the future.  I realize that it's mostly my friends and family that are reading on a regular basis, so why shouldn't I be keeping them (and you) updated on my life?

Blogging is weird anyway...

Last week one of my favorite fashion bloggers answered a question on her site which was sent in by a recent college graduate.  It said: 'I'm a recent college graduate.  What advice do you have for me at this point in my life?'  The blogger then proceeded to answer the question, as though being a popular fashion blogger made her some sort of expert on life.  It made me a bit angry and really rather sad.

I realized then that in the last year or two bloggers have become 'life experts' simply because of the blogs they fill with beautiful pictures and fun-looking parties.  They have perfect clothes and perfect homes and they share all this with the world and the world thinks they've somehow found the secret to this crazy thing called life (which people have been unsuccessfully trying to figure out for centuries now).  

It is an absolutely ridiculous notion.  We take crap that we read or see on the internet waaaayyyyyy too seriously these days.  And what makes me most sick about it is that I do it, too.  I think everyone has weddings like the ones in the pictures on Pinterest and that my home is ugly compared to all the beautiful and perfectly styled ones I see on blogs every day.  Sometimes I just need to hit myself and say wake up, this is not reality. This is not life.  

Life is the nice evenings I spend with Peter sipping a beer in the fresh air.  Life is also the terrible moments when he and I fight or the days when we're too exhausted to do anything other than watch Big Bang Theory together on the couch.  Life is when I meet my girlfriends for coffee or have a taco night and watch Germany's Next Top Model.  But it's also the days when I get frustrated at work or spill coffee on myself in the morning as I am running out the door.  

It's the blisters I get from trying to wear cute shoes and the pimple that won't go away.  It is the breeze that comes through my window in the morning and the beauty of the light when I leave for work at 8 am...even though I'd really rather not be up at 8 am.  It's all of the ups and downs--the things you have figured out and the things you haven't--combined.  

I think it's kind of wrong for bloggers to pretend to have any more understood than the next guy.  So, I want to make sure that moving forward, this is not how I approach this blog.  I'm pretty good at making things look cozy, because I am obsessed with being cozy.  But, it's pretty much the only thing I have figured out in life.  Because, mostly, I'm as big a mess as you are!

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That said, here are some Instagrams from my life over the last few weeks.  

They're really only a representation of the pretty things I saw or the things that inspired me when I was feeling a little bit low.  They make me happy to look at so I thought I would share them! 

1. Doors in Groningen, the Netherlands.  Every door and every building in this town completely amazed me! 

2. A cafe against the dusk in Helsinki (where I went to attend a funeral).  

3. A tree in bloom in Nuremberg. 

4. On the way to Helsinki.

5.  Family history in Finland. 

6.  A park full of spring color in Nuremberg. 

7. Simplicity in Finland. 

8.  And a beautiful landscape in Finland. 

9.  Sunset on the railroad bridge by my house. 

10. Helsinki. 

11. Spring! FINALLY! 

12. A cool wall on an exhausted train ride back to Nuremberg. 

13.  Peter and I in Groningen.

14.  The most beautiful pub ever in Groningen.  

15.  Train Station in Helsinki. 

16.  Nuremberg on a warm Wednesday evening. 

17.  Spring blossoms. 

18.  My mother-in-law's childhood home in Finland.