Author: Lenah
insta inspo
Herizen Guardiola, or herizen_fawn, is my absolute favorite on Instagram. You know how you follow some accounts and you send a little heart every now and then, and you keep them in your feed but in a jealous or frustrating or even bored kind of way? This is not one of those…this is a pure, beautiful and inspiring account. It’s close to magical. One of few accounts I truly enjoy, with its 1970’s kind of blurry summer vibe feel to it.
Herizen Guardiola is the star of Netflix show “The Get Down“, which I also enjoy.
Some Herizen inspired items I put together;
stay hydrated
Stay hydrated with one of these pretty tumblers 
From the left:
Lilly Pulitzer Acrylic Tumbler 
with Straw, Kate Spade Lemon Tumbler With Straw,
Women’s Ban.do Sip Sip Accept
This Rose Travel Tumbler, Ban.do travel tumbler blue,
Ban.do Sip Sip Tumbler
spring feelings
Normally around this time of year my spring feelings are in full bloom, this year…not so much. Apparently it’s the coldest April in Sweden since many many years. Yup. That’s when I, the sun lover, decides to move here.
I still wanted to create a board with lots of pretty stuff to inspire and alleviate the cold weather. Makes me wanna go shopping
Nyttigt mellanmål
Jag vill egentligen inte visa innehållet i skålen, det vill säga laktosfri mango/hallon-yogurt med musli och banan, utan jag vill visa den fina skålen från Indiska Älskade Indiska. Det är ett annat plus med att flytta tillbaka till Sverige haha. Ärligt talat, jag försöker hitta massa fint och positivt omkring mig nu eftersom bara ca 5 dagar har gått sedan terrorattacken här i Stockholm och även fast vi är trygga, och alla vi känner, så känns det ändå som ett obehag som ligger kvar och gror i kroppen. Försöker hitta en bättre vibe helt enkelt. Hur som helst, en musli bowl är kanske en liten detalj men ändå en fin sådan x
The Body Shop Ethiopian Honey Nourishing Mask
Vädret är ju så fruktansvärt kallt och otrevligt här i Stockholm idag, det är inte lätt att ställa om vädermässigt när man spenderat senaste 16 åren på Malta men jag försöker genom att ta vara på alla bra saker som jag kunde sakna på Malta. Det som är allra skönast är ju att det är så varmt och mysigt inomhus. Ingen fukt, inga kalla golv osv. Idag testade jag därför en ansiktsmask som heter The Body Shop Ethiopian Honey Nourishing
My Barbados vacation was all about the hotel
Sun, ocean, open roof buses with music… This was my idea of Barbados. Trying to forget about a long winter and get some of that oh so necessary vitamin D, I packed my bags and ended up on an island that hadn’t changed all that much since last time I was there. But this time I was in a new hotel and I was hooked, I could have stayed by the pool the whole week because strange things were happening right there, things that kept many of us glued to the hotel premises…
It was not charter but…
How odd to end up experiencing a spontaneous charter vacation. The hotel was pretty simple, small units surrounding a little pool. Good pricing for people set on discovering the island east of the West Indies. The very first night it turned out that a really cool crowd had chosen this very same hotel for the same week and friendships develop as we ended up chatting by the pool sipping tropical drinks. In fact, we spontaneously started a bingo game and people left their preferred casino online on their smartphones to join the “old timers” game.
You read it right, first night was bingo and the adventure continued the next day when instead of renting a car to go check out the historical sugar cane plantations with a friend I decided to simply stay by the pool for poetry morning. This was hilarious and it was surprising to see how some really good weather and relaxed atmosphere got the creativity going. A guy named John was still busy playing on an online site called Cloud casino and I came up with a cool verse on clouds and no clouds which afterwards I thought it better to keep in my head! Later that day at the beach we were still reading the bits out loud and laughing at the humor of it all.
Driving on the left side is crazy
The next day we did make it out on the road and while I thought that I pretty much have a grip on driving now (remember that I got my license before the Marbella trip) I was not ready for left side driving at all. It was a total freak out and I soon asked one of our new friends to grab the wheel so that I could keep an eye on all the sites. I don’t understand how they do it, sorry guys, but driving on the left side is not, well, right.
Word of my expertise came out
Thinking the whole charter feeling was just a first two days thing in the hotel, I was a bit baffled when I was asked to give some beauty tips. People who can play games on their mobiles can also check out blogs and so we had a little beauty get together discussing make up, fashion and other interesting things. We had an interesting debate on sunblock and whether it is overrated or not. I think I managed to convince them to put some on the for the next morning, after all there is a reason that BB cream is such a hit all over the planet.
Sing along evening
The coolest thing during my hotel Barbados stay was definitely the sing along evening. This was an event worthy of any Gran Canarias hotel experience. The night before going back home the whole gang had gathered by the pool and someone had brought a guitar. We started with some calmer tunes that most seemed to know and then it got a bit funny as some guy brought out a boom box and started playing the type of music you hear on the buses on Barbados.
We ended up circling the pool in the most geeky and hysterical way. I hope no one filmed it, I would deny being there if anyone saw someone that looked like me! It was so goofy and funny. I can honestly say that the best memories from my Barbados vacation came from the hotel where I met such cool people not looking for a charter trip but ending up having one.
Bershka gymwear
Just giving you some gym/sports wear
Top €17,99 Leggings
Clean eating
Some healthy food inspo for today!
Breakfast – Oatmeal with a small spoon of honey + apple and cinnamon. Top with some pecan nuts. Very easy to prepare and keeps you alert for quite some time.
Lunch – Salad with whatever you find available in the fridge and cupboard
I like to add cashew nuts, dried cranberries, avocado, beets and sweet potato cubes.
Drizzle some lemon olive oil on top and sprinkle some sea salt to add flavor.
Hashtags for dummies
When will people understand the purpose of hashtags? I was quietly hoping someone would add ‘learn how to use hashtags’ to their list of New Year’s resolutions. But no. It’s February and it still looks the same. Probably because they don’t realize the issue in the first place. Fair enough, it’s not a worldly problem, but it hurts my eyes every time I go through a social media feed and I see those separated #hashtags. Please!
First of all, hashtags are there for a reason. Whenever you post a text or photo to any form of social media, take a second to think about what you want others to see or read. Does this add value to someone who doesn’t know me? Sometimes, for example, when you post pictures on Instagram that you know deep down will only be appreciated by family members or close friends, like a blurry picture of your friends having dinner, you know, pictures that no one cares about except those close to you, in those cases there is no need for hashtags! Why? Because, hashtags are there to let other people find your post/picture. In other words: Unless you think random people would like to see a close up of your mosquito bite, don’t hashtag. Because why would you want anyone to see that?
Second of all, do not separate the tags. For God’s sake. Why would you do that?! The one and only reason you use #hashtags is because you want others to find your post, because you think they might like it or find it useful for one reason or another, for people to click on the hashtag and find similar stories/pictures, or simply search for a topic.
I.e when you post a photo of your cup of coffee or a view from your morning walk in the forest, you want people out there searching for a particular photo to find yours, by searching whatever actually relates to your post, so when you hashtag this way; #walk #in #the #forest or #cup #of #coffee, what do you think will happen?!
Do you think someone will search for #the or #of and oh oh voilà – there’s your picture from the forest? Ehm. No.
The hashtags should relate to the picture, even if the hashtag becomes super long (although 3-4 words are enough) So, #walk #in #the #forest would therefore become #walkintheforest. If you want to be more clear, simply use capitals – #WalkInTheForest. Upper cases will not make a difference when searching for a topic. Just don’t separate the words, no one ever searches for #this or #when etc.
Sometimes though, people add hashtags that no one will search for, but the intention is simply to add some humor or sarcasm, for example: I love scary movies #WillNotSleepTonight.
Same goes for Twitter and Facebook posts, you only hashtag the essential part letting people find the topic by adding hashtags like #BeyoncePregnant and not #beyonce #is #pregnant. Yeah OK you get it.
Is it clear enough? Hope so!
Yeah I know, but I honestly don’t know if people separate them on purpose or if they just don’t know…?