Empties: Skincare Products I've Used Up

In the beginning of the year, right after I became jobless, I vowed myself not to buy any more new skin care or make up products until I used up the ones I already have stacked up. In the previous years, due to my shopping addiction and because I thought I could shop myself happy, I had accumulated so much beauty products that could easily last me at least a couple of years (well, my lipstick collection could last me the rest of my life, and I plan to live a long long life, but really, that's a totally different addiction.). Most of the year I have been sticking to the plan. Truth be told, I did buy a couple of necessary items that I had already run out (such as deodorants, shower gels, dry shampoo, etc.), and I could not resist ordering a couple of Pixiboxes in the spring.

Low-Carb Spicy and Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the items on my autumn/hygge bucket list was making pumpkin cookies. I have really been into baking lately, in the last couple of months I baked something every single week. These days I am experimenting with low-carb, sugar free, low calorie treats, and I still enjoy backing just as much as I did years ago. And then I am having even more fun photographing the pretty treats. 

Best of the Week

Yet another week gone by so fast. It's been a shorter work week, as I only had to work for four days, had the Friday off, which meant a long and relaxing weekend for me. It wasn't such an eventful one as the previous had been, still there were quite a few highlights.

November Bucket List

A few soul-nourishing things I am planning to do this month. Obviously, I should have published it a couple of weeks ago, still, better late than never, I guess. Some of the items on the list I have already completed, some others I am doing in the next couple of weeks.

November To Be Read Pile

As usual, I have quite a few books stacked up on my nightstand, all eagerly waiting to be read in the next few weeks. Honestly, seeing how busy I have been in the last couple of weeks and how much I am planning to do in the coming months, I highly doubt I will be able to read all of them, especially since it's practically the middle of November. Still I will give all of them a go. Now let's see the stack.

The Highlights of The Week

This week has been a long and eventful one, I have managed to fill my days with loads of joyous and memorable moments. Monday was the very first day of my new job. It has been a pleasant surprise, and I have been catching myself enjoying this new position of mine throughout the week.

October Haul: Some Stuff I Purchased Lately

From now on I am planning to do a monthly haul of some of the items I have purchased in the proceeding weeks. Here's the first installment with mostly pink clothes, a couple of books and some skincare products. 

The Highlights of October

Considering that I have spent the last eight months with reading, swimming, some scribbling and a lot of general hanging out, October was quite eventful for me. This is one of my favorite months of the year, as the days are still quite sunny and light, the weather mostly warm and autumn is the most beautiful in its full bloom.

October Reads

October was quite a good month reading wise. The days have gotten shorter, quiet, solitary evenings longer, and I have been spending more time bundled up among fluffy pillows and cosy blankets, curled up on the sofa with my nose in a book. Let's see the volumes I devoured in October.

The Prodigal Daughter Returns, Yet Again

Guess what, after almost six years, I have decided to return to blogging in English and try to breath life into this very blog. (In the last six years I hardly ever practiced my English, especially not my writing skills, so excuse my lack of diverse vocab or the grammar mistakes I might make. Although I am not sure whom I addressed in the previous sentence, as even at its height of popularity, Scriboholic had the total number of only four followers, and even they wandered off for the obvious reasons.)

A whole lot has changed in the online community since I went AWOL back in 2013. It feels like the days of good ol' blogging - especially simple, free blogger and wordpress blogs are long gone, hardly anyone produces written content anymore, since it requires waaay too much effort, and comes with less than enough pay off. Sometime in the last few years, video killed the radio blogger stars, and Youtube and Instagram has taken over our lives. These days vloggers (or shall I say influencers?) are in charge of entertaining us and influencing - ever so subtly - our consuming habits, while becoming extremely well-known and wealthy by selling out their precious and ever so fun personalities online (a.k.a. building their self-brand), without actually producing too much of a valuable content. 

Anyway, I have spent way too many hours mindlessly scrolling through insta feeds and half-paying attention to vlogs while getting ready to go out or tidying up the kitchen, only to become sick of them and miss terribly the good old fashioned, simple days of blogging. I have spent the last eight months at home, jobless, mostly doing nothing but loads of reading, very little writing, some journaling, quite a lot of swimming, and wasting way too much time on social media (And watching a shitload of tv shows.) I was so burnt out and such a nervous wreck in the beginning of the year, that it took me more than six months to gather my creativity and find my desire to create. It's been one hell of a long and winding road since I stopped blogging in 2012, but my mojo is finally back and my fingertips are itching for the keyboard.

And you know what? I am an old fashioned girl and I'm gonna pretend it's still 2012, it's still the golden days of good ol' blogging, and not just because I don't know the first thing about making videos. Because I'm not in it for the fame or the fortune, heck, the last thing I want to do is to influence anyone. I'm in it for the writing, for the joy of creating, for the joy of sharing the blissful moments of my life, and having a place where I can keep all my precious digital memories for posterity. I just need a little corner of the world where I can write and put up my photos on the endless walls of the internet, because it's so much fun to scroll through the years of archives, reread my posts from years ago, and realize how much I went through since the last days of October 2009 - when I decided to start this blog - and how far I have come. But I did not come this far to only come this far. A new chapter of my life is about to start, there is still a long way to go, and I still need a place where I can hold on to my memories. And this is just the place for that.

sunday evening

mood: cheerful & creative. i've been fairly productive today.
weather: cold and windy, after all, it's winter. no snow though, unfortunately.

shut up. just write the damn thing already.

 oh, boy. have i been lazy this past week. i am trying to focus on writing, writing something every single day, scribbling down at least a couple of lines filled with some random thoughts of mine. mostly it's been some hungarian scribblings here, a couple of emails finally answered, long overdue.

shameless self-promotion

hey guys, i'm trying to breath life into this other blog of mine, so if you are up for some hungarian scribblings, click here, and visit regularly.

under the influence (of SZJG)

the word of the week ( the past two weeks? the whole month?) must be mubblefubbles.

three days of christmas

 i have been meaning to blog, and post a dozen different end-of-the-year, let's-wrap-it-up fun posts. but i have been putting off writing for days, since the 26th at least.

thank you * happy holidays

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dear very few people who come here on a regular basis,

i would like to take this opportunity to say thank you and wish you a merry little christmas.

friday favs: the christmas wishlist edition

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 i know it's waaay past the last minute, but i thought i would put together my christmas wishlist.

so, instead of a belated, monday morning edition of the usual friday favorites, let me present you all the many things i don't need at all, but want anyway. and, as an extra super-duper gift, let me give you a piece of my mind about christmas presents.

you probably know by now that i love winter, snow, christmas, and all things festive in general. however, there's one thing i really don't care about when it comes to christmas: buying presents, getting presents, and giving presents. i think it's absolutely unnecessary fuss. spending all that money (and the time to hunt them down) on products that the gifted person might not even like is just plain pointless, isn't it? so instead i like to make some presents myself, but only for those whom i really feel close to and about whom i know that they'll appreciate my efforts. if i can't come up with the perfect (or close to perfect) gift idea, i won't even bother making or buying it.

random friday thoughts

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it's friday evening, and i should be doing a thousand other things, most of them utterly festive, like kneading gingerbread batter, baking carrot cake, making eggnog, wrapping the presents i haven't even bought yet, writing last-minute christmas cards and listening to the cheesiest, cheeriest christmas music.

but instead i am feeling exhausted, and i am wondering where has all this time gone? when did the pages of the calendar turn to the 21st, and how come there are only two days left until christmas eve? how come i haven't written any of the numerous silly holiday blog posts i've been planning to do for weeks? how come i haven't bought any presents yet (except for the single bottle of perfume i got for my mom; truth be told i never buy them earlier than the 23rd or even 24th of december.), haven't baked the gingerbread cookies yet, taken photos of all the festive prettiness filling the high street of miskolc, or done anything the slightest bit christmasy in the past two weeks? but to be honest, right now i don't care about all of this, any of this. because it doesn't really feel like christmas at all. (so, this song is back, huh?)

25 going on 15

 have you ever loved a book so much that you just wanted to give it enormous bear hugs and hold it close and never let it go?

sunday evening

 

mood: cheerful and festive. i caught a cold though a few days ago, so i have a sore throat, runny nose and caugh a bit.
weather:  foggy, rainy, wet, yuck. hopefully there'll be some fresh snow before/during christmas.