Absolut cool.

Absolut always hits the spot with their advertising. For decades now they haven't changed much about their campaigns and still manage to turn heads with them. Now, the downside to this might be that it still does advertise alcohol, but let's face it, most ads from companies that sell stuff which can make you do bad things (alcohol, cigarettes, condoms) are just plain awesome and will always be remembered. Or who do you remember best: The man that wanted you to buy veggies from the farm on the other side of town, or THE MARLBORO MAN? That's what I thought.

So here's Absolut's new media campaign, brought straight to you by TBWA Chiat Day

 

 

Pinteresting.

I am now on Pinterest and it's already becoming an addiction of mine. Maybe it'll replace Facebook as the all time addictive website that I only check back with every half hour because the rest of my life is so boring! At least Pinterest is productive, inspiring and creative :)

This is how it works: you sign up and start virtually pinning stuff you find on the internet and want to keep on a virtual to-do-list to virtual boards which you can organize by different aspects. What sounds like your average social network experience is actually really fun and simple. You can find my page at pinterest.com/merrychris/ and see what I've pinned within the last hour.

If you want to sign up you need an invitation or you sign up on Pinterest's waiting list. You can write me a mail if you want me to send you an invitation :)

Sometimes it's so easy to make everything ok.

Wow, what a simple and intriguing idea! A plain ol' button that you have to press in order to make everthing ok. This website just made my day, and I'm not being ironic here! People worry all the time about everything: "Did I turn off

Screenshot from make-everything-ok.com

the oven? Did I leave the light on? Does my boss hate me? Does my boyfriend love me? Are we being attacked by terrorists? Bla bla bla bla?" Most of these worries are, of course, obsolete. We complicate our lives by worrying all the time because we don't have any time left to enjoy the good stuff. This little gadget makes you realize instantly that worrying is a waste of time (mostly).

So please do me a favor, go to make-everything-ok.com press the button and be ok, at least for today. You can press it again tomorrow :)

Underestimated Stuttgart

Last weekend I visited Stuttgart, where I stayed with a good friend of mine for two days and attended a wedding of a classmate. Since I love taking pictures with the Hipstamatic app (as about a gazillion other people do) I do snapshots of random things like compositions of furniture and other objects and just basically everything pretty or strange. They come out so much more artsy with this app. I almost feel bad because I let my Canon rot in a drawer at home most of the time...

So here are a few impressions of my friend's cute apartment. She lives in the attic of an old house, which you can only access by climbing a stair that doesn't deserve the name stair because it is almost vertical. Here are her kitchen cupboards.

She got this clock from a thrift store and changed the background by putting wrapping paper in it. She also substituted the original pendulum with a bird she made herself.
The vases on the left are a present that I brought her for her birthday. They are just plain Sanbitter bottles (a non-alcoholic aperitivo italiano) that I wrapped with differend bows. Since my man drinks them a lot I have made them my favorite gift idea of the summer.

This little pendant hangs on her bathroom door and was also handmade by a friend of hers. They're all so crafty down in Stuttgart!

We took a trip to Ludwigsburg, which is not far from Stuttgart and has one of the biggest baroque castles in the WORLD - or at least in Germany. And Germany has many, many baroque castles. For the two of us, as almost former students of art history, it was a must-see.

In the courtyard there was a huge exhibition of old and new Maybachs and old coach buses.

See here the stylish dashboard of an old Maybach. I wish there were still cars around with a decor like this! So classy.

The chairs that I could have taken home right away, were it not for their unhandy shape and the watchful guide. And probably the alarm.

And last but not least: Have you ever seen a real flowering meadow like this one anywhere else than in children's books or your grandma's photo album? It just makes me want to lie in it all day looking at the clouds and going home with a big bunch of these beauties in my arms. Ah, dreams.

The List

They key to building up a blog network is to write your own, read and comment other blogs regularly. Well, I haven't done any of these things in the past week! But for my own sake, I will do my very best in the near future.
I have been reading a couple of blogs though, and maybe that has something to do with the lack of any posts from my side... I find it incredibly tough to see myself as a person with something interesting to say when I see others who are so much more creative and individual. It makes my self esteem shrink like Alice after drinking the DRINK ME-potion. How sad is that.

A little ritual that I have in situations like these is to make a list - either on paper or in your head, or in this case, on your blog - of things that you are grateful for. This might sound like something you would do with your grandma at your bedside on Thanksgiving when you were little, but believe you me, it actually helps. It makes me change my perspective from a gloomy to a brighter one.

So, here it goes:

• the handsome man playing Call of Duty in my livingroom right now
• the view from my desk that is luckily a nice one because it's all the diversity I have at the moment
• my friends, that are scattered about in different places now, but that are still there when I need them
• this lovely DIY bracelet from Honestly...WTF that I have bought all the supplies for today and that I am about to make (and I have ordered a bunch of things to make some of the other gorgeous stuff on their website - they are geniuses!)
• the prospect of seeing my best friend this weekend! She lives in London and we don't get to see each other much, but now she is in Germany to check out locations for her wedding next summer and I get to accompany her! Woohoo! That might just be my highlight of this whole month to come!
• ...and that was it. 

Me (left) and her (right) on my last trip to London in front of St Paul's

Was that it? Yep. That was it.

It doesn't seem like that much but it'll help me get through friday.

In the meantime I will try and get back to work on my thesis. Yay. And also the reason for my idea of starting a blog. You see, I am a huge procrastinator and anything that has not the least thing to do with the task I actually have to fulfill gets my attention in no time. Like writing a blog about nothing in particular. Or making bracelets. Or cleaning the apartment. Which reminds me... I haven't cleaned in a week!

Google search

I'm pretty pleased about the search results you get when typing "change angle" into the Google search bar. Because with search results you never know. It could have been dirty stuff! But luckily, it's all about getting better results: in mathematic calculations, in digital photography, surfing, there's even a tutorial about how to adjust your bike seat so as not to get a sore butt. If this is not a positive take on life's challenges, then I don't know what is!

First post. New angle?

Changing the angle means adjusting something in the hope that it will work better afterwards. We do that every day, and it's not only confined to technical stuff. Sometimes you have to change your angle in order to get along better with your close ones, to understand their point of view. More than often, if you're open to a change in perspective, it can really improve your way of looking at life. 

For me, changing the angle of looking at things is a big part of understanding the world we live in and the people we interact with. It's about experience, curiosity and being open minded. It is necessary for travel experiences and beautiful views. It is fundamental in photography, art and design. It opens up new possibilities in everything. That is why, when I was thinking about starting a blog and was looking for a title, it came to me that changing the angle is what it all comes down to. 

I'm not a creative artist, I'm not a stylish fashionista, not a socialite with gossip at hand every day. I live your average life and I sure don't think many people will be interested in what is not happening in it. But I love life and everything that goes along with it and when it gets me down or I can't remember what to do with mine, I simply change the angle. And I look again.