Wednesday 28 September 2011

One Year Later ...

Hello!

Following photo was taken 1 year ago, during the tombola at the opening of theVienna Design Week. I found this photo among others on the VDW website.
But still it's still very mild - contrary to last year, where fall and cool nights had hit the town - I might choose something lighter for tomorrow's opening. I will leave the stripes behind and reach out for ...
Polka dots!

Since I've started blogging, I notice how I notice small changes with an eagle's eye. One year back the flower bed in the street had been designed with different flowers. This year, the salvia plants outgrew any other plant, it's funny, like a flower jungle.
I am not sure, if the managers of the garden district had this picture in mind when chossing 2011's flowers.
The sign to the left used to be 2 feet above the plants, now it hides which entertains me.

Without blog, I probably would not care. I like to care.

Last year I posted about Brigitte's boutique for the first time. After posting about the construction site I should show you the final results. When I got there last week, it was raining, a day where you would rather go straight home after work.
Rush our in the suburbs of Vienna
You can see Brigitte, the lady in grey with the above-the-knee-long shirt.
The perfect bag for a what-if-gal like me!

Meanwhile the weather has changed, blue skies and temperatures between 20°C and 25°C. Tonight I jogged at 22°C. We are lucky after the cold, rainy summer everyone enjoys this exceptional autumn weather.
A quiet corner in the city centre. What a blue sky!

One thing I noticed is that I enjoy quite a number of blogs who share their house with dogs. These two dogs await me when I go to the place where I rebuy The Laundress detergents. They are cute because they are so un-doggy: rarely moving, quiet and relaxed.

This has been a very conceptless posting, maybe it's because I am showing my face, which excites me, maybe it's because I am so focused on tomorrow's opening of the VDW ...

I should not end without asking one question I had on my mind - about half a year I posted on the subject of the pap smear test. Yikes. Some read the posting back then and commented they would schedule a doctor's appointment.
Did you go?

Meanwhile I am growing older and my doctor handed me my first referral to a mammographic screening. I think it's a good idea, if get those results now, in a healthy state (keeping my fingers crossed), one will be able to compare future, maybe abnormal results to these earlier results from today. I asked my doctor what it is, that makes people refuse mammographic screening. Does the breast tissue tear due to the heavy squeezing? No, the tissue stays intact. It's the radiation. A long-distance flight stresses your body with more radiation than this screening. My favourite plush toy-bear answers to the name of Marie Curie, I think am going to make use of that referral.

These three kids don't care for plush-toy-bears, not anymore: my two nieces and my nephew,in the countryside on a tractor-ride last weekend, visiting our relatives in Lower Austria. The father still earns his money as a farmer. Corn, wheat, barley, pumpkins ...
You don't find a lot of farmers in the small villages, their kids start careers as scientists, teachers, firefighters, nurses ...
My younger niece was really brave, she sat on top of the tractor's weel.And later on she followed her father's and Mr Paula's steps ...
My younger niece told me she likes my name. She likes it so much - she whispered in my ear she named one of her Barbies after me.

Her words in my ear and the view of these handsome three family-men where just two pleasant aspects of the family-trip. Our family - including great-great-cousins don't fancy small men. Not that all the women are so tall that they would actually have to go for a tall(er) man. Oh, what an oldfashioned family we are, where men are taller than women ...

Ok, enough already with the conceptless posting, have a Good Night!

Thursday 22 September 2011

Party Feet

I have no idea, how my feet will feel 5 hours from now. This is what I am going to wear:
The glossy leather matches the glossy G-Bag by Tod's as seen in the blurry back perfectly.

This is what is going to save my feet, hopefully:
The occasion is a fancy one! The radio show I work with won an award, it's an honour! The whole crew is excited and looking forward to the award ceremony which takes place tonight in a very nice theatre with lots of patina. Mr Paula is coming and I will smile even though my feet might be killing me. I might have to look down to Mr Paula.

A wedding, a shop-opening including the construction site and an award ceremony. What a week!
Did you know that Anna Gunn aka Skyler White is exactly my height? 5'10'', without heels, tehe.


* * * EDIT * * *

Jill from New York asked if I can post a photo of the shoes and me, well, here are two glimpses, the microphone-pole was a bit in the way. But you will recognize them anyway - they shine with full lustre. A red carpet would have made a nice contrast, don't you think?
btw: the yellow cowboy boots to my right are ... ridiculous!

Legs of the best journalists our country has to offer.
Well, at least in the (eyes and) ears of the jury.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

VDW – Heart Warming Warm Up

Those who know me know I am a big fan of the VDW, short for VIENNA DESIGN WEEK that will take place in Vienna for the 5th time this autumn. Today I stumbled over an article and had to show you the collage of all the ateliers where artists develop new designs that will be presented during the VDW:
(click to enlarge)

When you take a look you might understand why this week-long-event thrills me and you get to know me a little more. To me, all those people shown in the pictures are heart-warming. The elder owners of the stores, being experts in their field and the young and fabulous designers, mostly broke ;-), listening to them and all the craft ... heart warming!

Yesterday evening Brigitte's boutique re-opened and by now I know: her brother, her daughter, her son-in-law, her son, her daughter-in-law, literally her whole family! I like familiy affairs. Especially when the daughter did not appear to be starched at all (copyright: Vix)
The fashion: $$$. Cashmere sweaters for 500 EUR. Coats for 900 EUR. No gold bars included or in-seamed.

Saturday 17 September 2011

Off to Church - a Wedding!


Mr Paula, his parents and I will attend a wedding this afternoon. His godfathers only daughter marries today.

Even though the event just takes place in the afternoon, the whole morning is under the sign of excitement. Signing the card, picking up the flowers from the florist ...
Pictures to come soon!

Soundtrack: Dido
Dress: Pink, vintage, thank you mommy!
Weather: overcast
Mood: in high spirits

Have a nice weekend, with or without weddings.


EDIT:
We are back from the wedding, here is a first glance:

Thursday 15 September 2011

Sigh

My dear readers,

la rentrée is done: business is back to normal which means I am back with my 2 jobs and miss posting tons of photos late night.

You might remember this posting. Right now I am portraying the owner for a radio feature. She is 70 years old and decided to re-design and re-open the shop. At a age where other retire, she restarts. Yesterday the carpenters where all over the place. Such a mess and such a stress because the interior was not ready like scheduled and the clothes had already been delivered.
The carpenter's tools were ought to be gone three days prior!
The carpenters improvised some racks for the clothes.

Brigitta is so strong! I would have loved to take a photo but she did not feel comfortable. But I was allowed to take a photos of the mess.
From a radio-reporter's point of view the situation was perfect: noisy, busy, lots going on! Still I felt sorry for her troubles.
The clothes are superior goods, Italian cashmere sweaters, Strenesse-coats (to the left), Missoni sets etc.
The opening will be next tuesday, keeping my fingers crossed! This is something I really like about my second job: assignments that allow me to do what I am interested in. I have known this boutique for 34 years (that's how long Brigitte has been selling her clothes). I never thought I would have the chance to get to know her. By now I probably know more about her than most of her long-time-customers. How she hated being a SAHM and always loved to work and meet people at work. People like her have a good energy, when you meet people like her, you feel better after the meeting compared to you state before the meeting. She also has perfect manners. And a great smile that comes from her eyes. Ouch, it will be difficult to return to an objective mode, because as a reporter I rather be objective and not in love with the person I portray. Call me a pro!

A few hours later, laying in bed and trying to fall asleep I did the mistake and started thinking of our vacation ahead. Mr Paula will spend two weeks with my in the south of Austria, our favourite place to relax and experience nature in the fall season. If it's warm, we will hike in T-shirts, if it snows, we leave the house with our skis. I could tell how the adrenaline flushed my blood from the excitement, just thinking about the vacation made my heart jump and it was hard to fall asleep. The province we are going to visit is next to Italy, the house is a two-and-a-half hours drive from Venice. If Mr Paula is really sweet, he might want to stay in Italy overnight and I can visit the Pomellato store in Venice. Ah, Venice in early November, with a quite misty lido might provide some special motives for my lense.
In Vienna we go almost everywhere by bike.

I am looking forward to driving to places with Mr Paula at my side by car, valleys where we have never been before, returning home while the night falls in.

One reason why we don't leave sooner is the Vienna Design Week. The VDW will start Sep.30.
Another reason is a charity run that takes place October 16 in Vienna, a co-worker organises the charity and I love to support it by running 3 or 6km, still undecided.

Did any of you read Bergdorf Blondes? Is it fun to read? After 3 seasons of Breaking Bad I need a happy-break!

Good night!

Thursday 8 September 2011

Obsession

In case you are looking for information about the Calvin Klein parfume called 'Obsession', this is not the right page for this kind of information. This page is about personal obsessions, my everyday obsessions, yes you are reading right: everyday. I don't know myself freed from any kind of obsessions.

During my run today I let my thoughts wander and realised how I had lost interest in so many of my former obsessions: fashion and make-up products and jewelery. I used to burn for the perfect brush, the right eye brow pencil and the perfect white Tee and the perfect pair of diamonds for my ears.

These days - and those "these days" have been around for some months by now it has been all about my shape. It seems as if I had to get other things right (the make up, the fasion, the hair color, the jewellery) before I could jump into the new project that might be the biggest and most important project of all. By project I really mean project. In the past I have been searching for the perfect eyeliner-brush a lot, as did the project for the perfect concealer challenge me in the past. Over the last year I got lucky and as of today all those essentials happily rest in my dressing table and since the sweaty summer days are history, most of the stuff returns on my cheeks and eyes where it actually belongs! Not so long ago, all I could think about was where to find the right concealer in the right shade. Then Lisa Eldridge came into my life (some of you might remember, the gorgeous make up-artist and her youtube-channel) and most of my "problems" where solved in no time. I ordered via lookfantastic and other UK-online stores, asked close friends to return from their London-stay with Suqqu products and I even stocked up with AVEDA shampoos litre-wise (yes, the search for the perfect shampoo selection (one is never enough) has the potential to become a demanding project,too). So far, so good. Next to make up I was obsessed with my wardrobe: the perfect cashmere sweater, the perfect white Tee. (oh no, not another woman who read the 100 things a stylish woman must own).

A few months ago I let half of the closet space to Mr Paula which lead straight to a stuffed closet for my wardrobe. As if this weren't enough, I wanted to quit summer and winter wardobes (I keep either of them in two boxes in the top of the closed while the other is in use) and store everything in use, no boxing anymore which equales like a 200% decrease of closet space! Obsessive is all I can say.
I wear a lot of clothes I have not been wearing for a long time and whatever does not make me feel comfortable has to leave. As long as my closet space is stuffed I see no sense in going shopping for clothes. Maybe my hidden wish was to stop shopping for clothes and that's why I let Mr Paula half of the space? Before he used to get 25%, max.! The loss of space might explain my loss in interest for any new clothes. I had been hunting for the perfect white Tee last fall and finally found it at Benetton's gents-department. There are black shoes which are perfectly fine that wait to be taken out, jeans that will perfectly fit again and cashmere v-necks in camel and navy that I bought last winter that will comfort me in the winter months. So maybe I am just "done" with fashion.

Freed from fashion and make-up issues, I was free to focus on a brand new project and weight-loss plus gaining a decent fitness was the plan. And for the last months I have stayed on track. Tracked my exercises on livestrong.com, made my first 5K run and lost 6 pounds and improved my health state (no cold, no virus, no sore throat since january! horray!). All the fitness would be worth nothing if I was to get sick every other month due to overexercising.

When I return from my run, I go straight to the red mat that hides behind the chest of drawers and do my sit-ups on the floor. The physician made it clear: I need abdominal muscles. Period. Ever since I started running, I do those sit-ups as part of my running-routine. So to say a win-win situation. No lumbago since last September (keeping my fingers crossed, September with its warm sun and chilly breeze is always an acid test for my back).

This is where I lay down every other evening after my run.

I wonder when I will come up with a new project. I know myself as a person literally burning for something new, every other months. Maybe all the things that mattered before are solved by now: the perfect hair-colour (after leaving the beauty salon where I got my hair dyed initially, I found the right beauty salon which provides the perfect blonde).

Right now there is nothing I need to do/get/find besides my shape. Maybe the endorphines I emit quench even the tiniest thirst for a new project? Some languages wait to be mastered, but I don't fancy the idea of sitting in a classroom after work, besides, you hardly make any progress attending those classes.

My projects were seldom beneficially for my health , because they had always turned into some sort of obsession. The recent project (shape) has the potential to be the first healthy obsession if an obsession can be healthy at all. Yes, I turn down friends who call me and want to go out for a dring the same evening when I have already planned a run that evening.

In case you wonder if I might become too skinny if I continue counting kcals: not at all! Right now I am a US Size 12, sometimes 14, depending on the cut.

I fear it might sound cynical and maybe it really is cynical and I am a coldhearted egocentric woman, but I am thankful - for the overweight my mother and my sister carry around, the weight that makes them feel unhealthy, unfit, sometimes even unhappy (since they need to buy new clothes every other year simply because the old clothes don't fit any more). I am thankful because I see them and I know I never want to become overweight and be as unhappy or frustrated as they are.
I was already really frustrated earlier this year, when I pulled my beloved navy capri-pants out of the box. I had gotten the capris fitted last year because they had been too loose. I could not zip them anymore, the fat on my hips was in the way. I had paid 40 EUR to fit them and now I would have to throw them away?
No way! This was my turning point. I knew I had to do something and I began running plus counting kcals. And it worked. You have to believe me, those capri pants are the best!

When I ran to my parents house the other weekend, my youngest niece came my way in the stairway and smiled at me. I was wearing my running shorts, sneakers and a sweaty running shirt. She smiled at me and said "You are cool!" Active women do not show up as role-models in my family. My brother in law and Mr Paula - both not our blood - are the active chaps. It was not my mothers decision to live an life: her parents forbid her to learn how to ride a bike after her two cousins had hurt themselves when falling from a bike in the 1940's. What can you do when you are the only child of overprotective parents?

I know that one day it will be too late to change my habits. For example when the overweight I would carry around would hinder me from running without ruining my knees. Last winter my physician even told me not to run because my abdominals muscles were too weak. I am so glad I did not listen to her but started running. I also watched the video of an obese man who lost 120 pounds through running. If he can do it, I can do it, too!

I would love to see myself running in my 50's and 60's, you know, ut are the older age classes at races which are to fear. I still have the biggest respect for those kids who run for the sake of running. The open my heart every time I see them. And they would always laugh while running. And second to the kids come the huge trees in the Schlosspark Schönbrunn I see every other evening when running my miles. During my runs outside I meet people, some run, many walk, some bike ... after 8 hours at the office with the same people every day, it feels good to meet people you have never seen before, even better when they share the same interest: running and cross your way. I might call it refreshing.

I like to tell you why I like running above other kinds of sports or even a membership in the gym:
When you run you don't need a lot of things. Most of the days you are ready to go for a run. And since I don't push myself too hard during my runs (I mean it takes me more than 40 mins to run 5K), I can even run when I feel a little hungry after work. It is just basic and this is probably what satisfies me no end.

I was lucky to find some inspiration trough blogs, above all The Stylish Shoe Girl in Brisbane, Australia who made the Couch 2 5 programme really tempting.

And tonight I ran with a cap for the first time ever - Mrs Stranded in Cleveland also loves to run with a cap - I did not know how well they absorb the sweat that used to pour down all over my face.

Sorry for my obsessive speech! ... and for spelling/typing mistakes. I re-read this long posting a second time for mistakes but by that time I rewrote many passages, so new mistakes might have found their way in.

Good night!