Stella Mare: Cranberry Tangerine soy candle

So since this is the official 'Blue Monday', I thought why not post a little review on a little candle? A little happiness in the midst of this blueness if you will.

For Christmas I received two Stella Mare candles (amongst others), and this is the first one I've tried out. I was not familiar with this brand, but the packaging looked very cute and even though at first the scent seemed strong, when it's lit up, the room just smells so nice! In no way is it overwhelming. So I can't wait to try out the other one! These candles are hand poured, it's soy wax (Somehow I'm thinking about starbucks soy latte now...) and it's lead-free. So I guess these candles aren't harmful at all, not that I ever looked at that... Maybe I should in the future? I always buy them for the scent whenever I buy scented candles. But anyway, they burn up for 50 hours (I've been burning it for 3 days on and off and there's still over 50% left, so they could be right on this one) I guess you can only get these in the USA so I'll only have these 2 to last me for now :-( 

I really love scented candles, especially during the colder days. It makes me happy and makes my place cozy. And somehow I'm more productive when burning some candles... Not sure why, guess it has to do with the happiness :) 

Wandering around Cambridge

Aaaaand another blogpost finally! I have a bit more time now to post more often as I'm back from my vacation. I recently had the opportunity to roam around Cambridge for an afternoon and even though my feet were killing me (I only had new shoes with me, which were the one's I was wearing...) I did manage to walk around quite a bit. The city is smaller than I expected, and thus I did see the most of the older buildings thankfully! Otherwise I would've hopped on one of those 'hop-on hop-off' busses, even though these are pretty expensive. Either way since this was my first time in the UK all together, I really liked it there. The people are so friendly and warm, which sadly I'm not used to anymore. Anyway, there are many adorable little shops to check out, many cafe's, the museums are all free (this is so great!) and the buildings are quite spectacular to gaze upon. I wish I had better shoes and less heavy bags on me so I could've walked around further. Something for next time if I ever get the chance again!

Here some pictures I took (other ones are on my other blog):

The street where most of the old college buildings are on. 

Because of the font of this little cafe, I read 'nerd' instead of 'Nero',  I still like 'Caffe Nerd' better :D

A great little sweets shop. They had many older styles sweets in there which all looked lovely! I didn't take any since I was feeling a bit nauseated (nothing to do with the shop!)

Being chased by criminals in Australia

Another 'wtf' type dream. A longer one this time...

I was on vacation with a group of friends in Australia and we were backpacking and going through a very rocky landscape. We came by a spot where the group could sit comfortably and so we sat. I at at the end and wondered why my ex was traveling with the group since he didn't know anyone there but me. And to my utmost annoyance, he sat across me. I tilted my head to the ground (kind of like my dogs do when they don't wanna look at you) because I just did not want to greet him. Then I figured I was being childish so I looked at him and greeted him, and he greeted back in a very condescending way. I was irritated. There was a discussion going and my mom was the centre point of it. I had no idea she was also in Australia. Anyhow my ex decided to explain his point of view to her in french. Pfff, show-off! 

We decided to look for a hostel in that town, since we needed to cross 4 more towns to reach our backpacking goals. We stayed in an apartment and I slept in the girls' room with 5 other girls. The room was messy because of the little space and we all had to go through our backpacks to fetch the stuff we needed, so clothes everywhere along with beauty products and wallets. The next morning we took off and everyone did what they wanted to. I slept in and when I woke there was a girl I didn't know going through everyone's stuff. So I told her to give it back and get the hell out of here. She hid everything she had and backed up. I had no idea what to do, so I grabbed her and yelled at her to put the stolen stuff back. She didn't, she slipped out of my grip and ran off. 

Again the same situation happened only now she had only my stuff. Again no one of the others was there to help me out. And as she ran away a group of 4 men came in to stand up for her. I had no idea what to do, so I jumped out of the window, and ran. (Sadly my dreams are to that realistic point that I wasn't running fast and I was getting tired very quickly.) I decided to cut many corners and zig zag through the town. This didn't help since my pursuers were better at running corners and zig-zagging than I was. So I kept running in a straight line through a park where now I was being pursued by a car. Thankfully it was still distant. I ended up in the city centre and stopped running but walked and somehow walked along with a family who thought they knew me. They had to catch a train so I figured, I'll travel along with them. There was no sight of my pursuers so I kept calm. 

Once in the train I was relaxed and we talked a lot about quizzes and puzzles. 

I entered a party with the girl from the family, but we were having issues finding which room it was in. The building looked like a huge gym and we needed to be in B3. So we walked through all the gym equipment and then a volleyball field and just kept walking. We eventually found B3 and the party was indeed there. She found her friends and I lagged behind. I went ahead and sat on the stairs outside of that room to get some piece of what happened that day, when I saw a car coming fast. I froze and couldn't stand up, I just sat there like a deer in the headlight. These were my pursuers. How did they know I'd be here? They got out of the car and 2 of the men were twins and very bulky. The others acted like their parents. They got up the stairs and just passed me into the party talking about finding me and killing me. I fell off the stairs into the (suddenly there) pool that was beneath me and I woke up.

I was so tired when I woke up to this one... As if I've been actually running the entire time.

Image from google. This looks exactly like the park I've been running through and happens to be in Australia as well! So perfect picture for this post!

Vague resolutions for 2014

First of all: Happy new year!! May all your dreams, wishes and hopes come true this year!!

2013 was a very interesting year for me. Of course each year you learn and have new experiences. This last year I've learned quite a bit about myself, in pretty much every aspect. What I want and what I don't want, what I really need to work on for myself, and also who my true friends are. So I'm stepping into 2014 with all the hopes that this will be the best year thus far! My life will truly change this year and I hope for the better. The biggest change will be my career, since I'm graduated and searching for a cool job. This could be anywhere in this world, so who knows where I'll end up living? In the desert? In the snow? Either way, I hope it's going to be a great position along with great colleagues! Also I'll hopefully have my own apartment this year! That or I'll be living in a box on the street since I'll have to move out of my place pretty fast. Fingers crossed I'll get my dream job soon so that won't have to happen. 

Also, and this is such a cliche, I want to get in better shape. In 2012 I used to practise sports quite often and this went down the hill almost completely in 2013, of which the effect I've noticed both mentally as physically. Therefore, this year I want to exercise more and live healthy-er. So that also means I'll have to cook instead of getting all those processed microwavable food. I'm such a lazy cook when it comes to preparing a meal for myself. If I have visitors, no problemo! But on my own... ~Mucho problemo!

The word for this year for me will be: positivity. With this I mean to say that even though I'm already an optimist, I want to keep focussing on the bright side of things and continue being a generally happy person. This has helped me so much in the past that I never want to change this part of me. So I'll continue with that :) Oh and I want to live more! 2013 has been a year of working and staying inside for me. Now I want to be a bigger part of the world. Maybe travel a bit more (weekend city trips or such) when I have a job and income of course. And also be outside more. Live the adventure! And photograph some of those moments, maybe even film some. 

I usually don't get on the new years resolution wagon, and I don't really see these as resolutions, but since my life is at a crossroads right now, it just felt right to think about how I want it to be, and what I want to achieve and work on. This is all pretty vague maybe, but I hope I'll live up to it. Maybe check back after 6 months to see what I have and haven't achieved, just to keep myself in check!

Stay positive

<3