Veganism

Ok, so I'm planning on starting a little experiment very soon..
After having integrated the vegetarian lifestyle for about 6 years now I actually think it is time to conquer new frontiers. I feel like after all these years of eating veggie, I've just become too convenient in my eating habits - and admittedly they are still not always healthy - that it's time for a change. 
I decided to go vegan because, well, vegan food is very healthy and sooo delicious! 
– also a little out of curiosity..  
I don't know how hard it will be for me to eat vegan only and for how long I will be able to keep up with a vegan diet - I also wanna watch the effects it will have on my health so I'm intending on starting a little experiment of only eating vegan for the whole month of August. 
By the end of August I will then post another follow-up post on my experiences with veganism. 
My expectations however so far are pretty positive. I know it won't be easy for me though, especially since I tend to be quite a yoghurt- and chocolate-addict so I think dairy products will definitely be the hardest to cut out of my daily diet but I will have to find the soya replacements and honestly some of them aren't even that bad.
For information, tips and food for thought I visited vegansociety.com , a website all about veganism. I especially liked their page to why go vegan? where they are stating some interesting information about the benefits of going vegan, so check it out if you're also interested in trying out the vegan lifestyle!
I think this is going to be very interesting and I'm actually intending on including some of my favorite vegan recipes by the end of August, too.
I'm glad I now have something to look forward to for the beginning of next month. :)

Are you vegan or have you ever tried being vegan for a while? 

What were your experiences? 

P.S. I'm going to be in Switzerland from tomorrow until the 2nd or 3rd of August so I'm uploading this a little early but I'm still trying to stay as active as I can on here during this time. 

xx ♡ Micky

#DontJudgeMeChallenge

Ok, so I've just recently encountered this new trend on the internet called "Don't judge a book by it's cover" or "Don't Judge Challenge" and for all those of you who haven't heard of it yet - it's basically teenagers recording short clips of themselves where they've modified their looks to purposefully make themselves appear 'ugly' with painted-on mono brows, pimples and wearing big, nerdy glasses for instance (who even told them that these things are what makes a person ugly??), they then cover the camera with their hand and when they remove the hand they are shown all styled up looking their absolute (and of course natural, ahem..) 'best'.
Now the seeming 'goal' of this was originally to promote tolerance for people who look different form the norm, hence are perceived less attractive and to ditch the dogmatic beauty ideals - but to be REALLY honest with you and to say it with quite blatant words (excuses for my language) this has really turned into nothing but bullshit! 
Do these kids really think they are helping people that can't help or change the way they look by shaming them for not matching society's (sometimes ridiculous) beauty standards and into believing they're ugly??
In my opinion, this challenge is just taking body shaming to a whole new level and all the shallow, superficial teenagers participating in this are just doing it to impress their crush and get attention really. 
There's no way to fight mobbing with even more mobbing.
Seeing nonsense like this I sort of wish I could just exit the planet to be honest.. 
To me personally beauty is about so much more than just appearance-

This was my opinion on the matter but what do you think?  

 (please excuse me if this sounded too much like a rant) 

xx ♡ Micky

My personal top 5 apps for Instagram on the iPhone!

Soooo this could be an interesting post for all the instagram users reading this!

Since I'm a person with a relatively big Instagram audience the social network has become really important to me hence I care a lot about what I post on there.
The quality of my photos is just as important as posting regularly and engaging with my followers.
It, however, happens very often that I am rather busy so I usually don't have the time to sit on my macbook editing photos to post on instagram for hours. I therefore have a list of apps on my iPhone that I use, whenever my photos just need a quick fix.
Here are my personal all-time-favorites:

#5 Alisa
Alisa is always a good app if you wanna frame your photos or add a special, unique touch to them. It offers a wide variety of colorful frames/backgrounds for your photos and 3 filters to match the tone of your photos better to the tone of the frame. :)
I used to use this app a lot but now since the trend of instagram has gone into a more 'natural' edit I don't really use it anymore, at least not for my IG photos.


     

Before

After

  

#4 Phhhoto
Phhhoto isn't exactly a photo editing app, it's more of an app to record very short GIFs - so, moving photos. This app as well lets you choose between natural light or black and white filter and the results definitely convinced me! I love using this and experimenting with it whenever I'm bored now, the results are usually really great! :)

#3 VSCO cam
VSCO cam is already quite popular and well-known as a photo editing tool amongst many IG users. It offers a lot of retro inspired filters and the popular 'fade' effect.

Before

After

 

#2 Photos
This might sound weird since 'Photos' is already an apple intern application every iPhone user has on their phones but I personally couldn't imagine uploading photos without the 'fade' filter on my IG anymore. I think it's great and adds to the 'artistic' touch. haha.

Before

After

#1 Afterlight
This is by far my all time favorite for photo editing on the iPhone.
It offers an incredible amount of different, very beautiful filters and I will guarantee you will find at least one or two filters that will match your feed just perfectly. It also offers basic photo editing like adjustments in lighting, contrast, saturation, hue, etc. and users can also choose from an amount of frames or use the 'layering' effect on their photos.

 

I loved this app a lot, not only for Instagram but also for my general photo editing on the iPhone. Only minus here is that it's not completely free but I can promise you those 0,99 cents are definitely more than worth it!

Before

After

Another very useful app, probably not useful in terms of photography but definitely useful for instagram that I use is the 'followers'-app!

it allows you to keep an overview of your follower stats and enables you to unfollow those cheeky unfaithful ones in only just a click!
If you purchase the premium packs (which are like 0,99$ I believe) it also gives you a list of your followers from best to worst and also shows people who are not following you but like your photos on a regular basis so you can ideally give back some love!

 What is your favorite app for photo editing on your phone? :)

xx ♡ Micky

Letting go of negative relationships

Since this vacation started I've just surprisingly noticed how good and balanced I finally feel again. 
For a while I thought it was just the fact that there is much less stress in my life at the moment and surely that will have been one factor but another, more interesting point I've noticed is that I stopped worrying about the negative people in my life so much. I'm not gonna lie about it, I've spent the past months surrounded by some really egocentric and narcissistic people and I'm pretty sure them being out of my life is one of the reason for me feeling so much better. . .

"Human beings are social creatures. We are social not just in the trivial sense that we like company and not just in the obvious sense that we each depend on others. We are social in a more elemental way: simply to exist as a normal human being requires interaction with other people." - Atul Gawande

Like you just have read in the quote above from Atul Gawande we all know we are social creatures and we need each other. We need relationships. Unfortunately no matter how much you want them to work, some relationships just don’t... Relationships can be real obstacles to a happy life. I've found some people I've encountered in the past (especially ones that turned into friends) to be surprisingly bad for me and my self confidence. I'm sure we've all known this one person that secretly hated us for no apparent reason at all and constantly tried to make us feel self-conscious by talking us down. 

Is a relationship of any kind filled with negativity or does it trigger you in some way? 
If, then you should consider to let this relationship go.

In a romantic relationship you can come to a point at which you have to think about whether you should continue or end the relationship. But ending non-romantic relationships isn’t something we think about that often.

There’s nothing easy about letting go of a relationship. However, getting rid of negative or triggering influences is crucial for living a happy life.

Here are some tips if you might find yourself facing an unhealthy relationship to someone:

#1 Create some space

By distancing yourself from a negative person in your life you can easily find out if they are really the reason for your unhappiness. If you notice you feel a lot better whenever a specific person isn't around, you can be pretty safe so say that this person is impacting your life negatively! 

#2 Be honest but realistic 
Try, if possible, to be honest with the other person. If there is something that really bothers you about them but you suspect they might be doing it unintentionally, just tell them about it.

#3 Celebrate the positive
Positive influences can make it easier to let go of the negative ones. So if you have just decided to distance yourself from a friend who had a negative impact on an area of your life, try spending more time with people that make you feel better.

#4 Focus on yourself 

 I've found this pretty important; The more you love, care and respect yourself the easier it will be to cope with letting go of someone. If you don't respect yourself, how do you expect other people to do so? 

I believe life is a journey and we are going to encounter all sorts of people on our way but in order to be perfectly happy we need to ensure that only the positive ones stay in our lives!

 I hope this entry was helpful for some of you :)

xx ♡ Micky

Feminism

Since this is SUCH a heated debate recently, with twitter wars with #killallmen extremist hashtags and #killallfeminists replies of (understandibly) angry and frustrated men, I thought I might as well be just one more person talking about this online and write a post on it to let you know some of my thoughts on the matter. 
Being a feminist, I spent a lot of time masking the term of how I felt about simply supporting women’s rights and opportunities. I wouldn’t tell people I’m a feminist.  The connotation of the word has grown into something ugly – something I needed to stop being afraid of and bring back the good of why I’m glad to actually be a feminist in the first place.
So I found a blog post a great opportunity to actually do away with some of the stereotypes me and all the other 'non-extrimist' feminists face, so here is what I am not:

• A man-hater.  I love men and have fantastic male friends and family. I have also encountered some really inspiring, decent men who think the way I do without labels.  To simply hate a man because he’s a man is no more outrageous than being a racist or a homophobic. That's just not my style.

• Defender of all women despite bad behaviour.  I can dislike women, and do not co-sign their bullshit if what they do hurts others.  Woman or not, if they are mean-spirited and go out of their way to sabotage, I have no use for them in my life and will even let them know it.

• A leach to the men in my life.  Just, no.  I don’t borrow money, and I don’t live off my any man's worth neither is that what I'm intending to do in my future. I highly value a financial independence and I am determined to work for it. If I will marry in the future I will make sure to sign a legal agreement with my husband should something happen to our marriage, that we exit with the belongings we brought in to the marriage and divide what we acquired together.  

• Masculine.  I’m not. I love to bake and cook and live independently. I don't wish to be anything like a man, and that I could pee standing up. I love to dress up, follow trends and wear make-up and jewelry, do my nails, dust on perfume etc..  Make no mistake, I am truly feminine and do these things without thought or resentment.

• Unattractive. This is something many men like to imagine when they hear of someone being a feminist. They will immediately assume that person is bitter and frustrated in life because they can't get a man (despite the fact that men as well can be feminists), which then is their explanation for why this person has become a feminist. I personally don't think most former feminists are unattractive and don't think of myself as absolutely horrendous looking (but you can judge for yourself). 

There is no doubt the term feminism has been hijacked to be a platform for women who crave power and feel a sense of entitlement, using figurative demasculinization as a weapon instead of using positivity and problem solving to help women who are seriously being discriminated, hurt, or imprisoned for simply being a woman and doing things that men have traditionally had the freedoms to do (or physically have no connection to such as taking a woman's right away to have an abortion). Many people in the western world believe feminism is an absolutely unnecessary movement especially here, where women and men are already about equal but they often forget that the western world is actually such a big role model to all the developing countries in which equality and women's rights are often still a big issue! 
People are too hung up on petty social customs that etiquette has influenced in our lives that include 'chivalry', manners, and other social expectations that are seen so skewed in women’s favours. This is not what feminism is about.  Feminism isn’t about how angry a woman is that a man opened a door for her.  Feminism is about preventing and supporting the rights women, who are entitled to such things as equal pay for the same job, the right to feel safe (especially in her own home), the right to education, the right to choose what she does with her own body, the opportunity to work in a field of her choice and to work in a safe harassment-free environment.
Those who are bitter about some equality that has progressed to favouritism, citing that it has become unfair towards men with things such as women’s-only fitness centres, or how some court systems favour single mothers over single fathers, you know what? – I’m with you! I am on your side when it comes to these silly rubrics that have seeped into the system to make people believe they don’t have a say and I encourage men and women to stand up to these things, just as I would encourage a woman, who feels her rights are taken away from her, to do so for the former things I mentioned.
Truth is, real feminism isn't evil and created to shame and dominate men although that is unfortunately how many people make it look or interpret it nowadays - It is to create a gender-equality favourably on a global spectrum and I hope that one day we can actually achieve that with not only women speaking up as feminists and a slightly less amount of men who fear they are going to lose their masculinity just because women will be treated equally. 

What are your opinions about modern-day feminism? 

xx ♡ Micky 


P.S. Thank you so much to all those who wished me better! 
I think it has really worked since I'm already feeling much stronger every day <3 

A big, big sorry

Hey everyone, 
I just wanted to tell you all I'm very sorry since I haven't been very active on here lately. 
The reason is I'm stuck in hospital at the moment because after having caught a splinter from a cactus (yes, a cactus) I developed a slight blood poisoning, so now here I am getting treated with Antibiotics and looking out of my hospital window with jealousy at all the other people who can properly enjoy these hot days. But please don't worry, I'm fine since it has been noticed very early because I actually had to go to the hospital to get the splinter removed. I think it's the perfect example that not all "plants are friends" hahaha. So after having spent some time in intensive care thinking about how satisfying it would be to get revenge throwing that cactus into the fire on the next BBQ I can now finally use my macbook and phone permanently again - Yay! 
And the good thing is I've had a lot of time to think of things to blog about so I will upload a proper new post very soon :)

Look at all this bandage just for a little splinter..

The good thing is, the antibiotics are working very well on me so I have good chances to be out of here in a few days (hopefully)! 

I hope you didn't have any unfortunate incidents like this one recently and your summer is going fine? 

xx ♡ Micky