Clinging at Straws

I have a feeling that every year on December 31, I write a post along the lines of the year in question having been a tough one (moan, moan) and me hoping that the following one is going to be nicer to me, occasionally making a reference to the yearly horoscope of some kind of glossy mag. Well, here we go again. Until quite recently, I really only ever used to read yearly horoscopes for fun, trying to figure out which part of the year I was supposed to meet the love of my life. At some stage this autumn I began to fall into the pattern of religiously checking first one, then 3 horoscopes daily on my mobile phone. Desperate much? What triggered it was a certain person who drove me to near despair. Or rather, I mainly blamed that person to make me feel so utterly horrible and worthless that I became a world champion grasper-at-straws and resorted to this not exactly exact science to get my hopes up that a good day was ahead, or possibly even week. It takes two of course, one person to make you miserable, and another to let herself be treated that way and not walk away when her gut feeling tells her to do so (and all of her friends, too). The roller-coaster metaphor is a cliché, but very fitting, the only problem having been that descends definitely prevailed. I am trying to wean myself off the horoscope habit, but Elle.com's definitely has its literary merits and "my" horoscope of Christmas Eve was eerily accurate:

So, New Year's resolution number one: give the "rebels and badass types" a wide berth and try and sniff out boring farts with vestiges of social skills instead. Any referrals?

#snowporn

I have already been spamming my G+ circles and Instagram followers with pictures of snow and mountain views. So why not my dear blog readers too? My enthusiasm probably stems from my delight in getting to ski more than I had hoped for. The highlight, snow and weather wise was definitely my ski day on Mölltal Glacier. I could not get enough of the breathtaking views and experiencing sunrise from a snow-covered mountain top definitely was a first for me. Thanks to new skis and (since Saturday) a new ski suit, skiing is all the more fun. Now let me share these 2 wallpaper-worthy shots made with my mobile phone:

Carinthian Economy: SAVED!

Long time, no haul here? Fear you not! After a retail-absence of several days I ventured into town this morning and was more than successful. As always, bargains seemed to find me and I did not actually need any of the things I bought. Surprise, surprise. 

So, let's look at the lovely new wardrobe-fillers clockwise. What I did not pay for with my own money, but got as an advance birthday present from my parents was a new ski suit. As you might remember, I am eccentric enough to have everything ski-related twice (skis, poles, helmet, goggles, clothes, boots...), once in Vienna and once at my parents' place. When I remarked to my Mum that I was so in love with my new skies that I tested earlier this week that I considered getting a second pair in the sale, she hinted that I should rather consider replacing my Carinthian ski outfit which was pretty ancient. It is a rare thing for my Mum to say something like that so you can imagine that it really is old. Of course when I fell in love with the first combination I tried on (end ended up getting) she back-pedalled and suggested I consider travelling with my Viennese gear that I got last season as everybody else does. As you can guess, I paid her no attention and it is mine mine mine now... What I needed even less than a second (read: third) ski suit is another down jacket, but this Geox beauty is in MY colour and I love the style with thin belt (plus 50% off price-tag) so it didn't take me long to decide.
I'll readily admit I was definitely in the market for a sequinned dress for New Year's Eve and really like the one I found for €50 (Jake's brand) at Peek & Cloppenburgh. It has a nice viscose stretchy lining and I am looking forward to wearing it.
Despite the fact that I own A LOT of shoes, I definitely splurge more on bags and don't go for expensive designer brands that often. My love for (suede, because comofortable) heels (even if  of comparatively modest height) is a fairly recent phenomenon, so let's pause to marvel that I ended up getting a pair of Salvatore Ferragamo heels. Yes, me! I spied them at Stiefelkönig first thing in the morning but wanted to avoid making as hasty decision with cold feet (literally, since I already made that mistake once when evening shoes turned out to be bloody uncomfortable with warm, i.e. normal-sized feet) so asked the shop-assistant to hold them for 2 hours. They were still remarkably comfortable and I ended up getting them since the reduction was pretty nice (€149 instead of € 399).
I am not planning to make any more major purchases this year...

Stats

I am working from my parents' today and will be in "chill mode" from tomorrow until the end of this year. Once more, it has been a year with a lot of (business) travels. In fact, in the past 2 years I flew more than 100,000 kilometres with Star Alliance flights alone as my Miles&More statistics inform me. Not bad.
Many people find air travel stressful. Not me. Even after a lot of quality time with nice and not so nice airports, I still love it and prefer to be at the airport super early (much to the amusement of some of my colleagues who prefer to arrive just as boarding is announced) to be able to browse around duty free shops or hoard magazines from the lounge. I have already booked 5 flights for the next few months, some of them private trips and am indeed looking forward to all new adventures. In January, I am travelling to Almaty, Kazakhstan for business and am very excited. I hope to be able to share some good pictures and impressions here, so stay tuned!

Speaking of Bags...

...someone (let's not call names here) got sucked in by all those Black Friday sale newsletters and purchased a nice medium-sized Marc by Marc Jacobs bag from Yoox.com. Ooops. The picture doesn't show the true colour which is a dusty beige ("dove grey" according to the website). I really like it and was quite happy with the € 190 price tag. I like the size which is quite roomy, but will hopefully keep me from overstuffing it and carrying too much sh** with me. Here's to the last bag (pretty sure here) of 2014. 

The Answer to my (Bag) Prayers

I have finally found the lightweight leather rucksack that a) comfortably fits my laptop and b) can also be worn as a bag. I bought it for a reasonable price at Yoox, a website that the PP loves and I had successfully avoided until recently. While I was at it, I also bought the cute wool top by Paul Smith (on Sale). Back to the bag. I like the "bucket" style even though I wouldn't mind a proper closure rather than the drawstring to be honest. Still, loving it:

It fits a lot of stuff and has successfully survived its first business trip outing. It's practical and not sporty, which I like, since do own really sporty backpacks as well.

What initially got me lusting after nice leather rucksacks is Mulberry's Cara bag. I had spotted this one in burgundy red in the Mulberry store dangerously close to the office. I went there twice, the second time with my Macbook, but it is super heavy even empty and the lid barely closes when you put the laptop in, which (on top of the hefty price-tag) doesn't really make it a feasible option. The black bag from Yoox is from a brand called "8" and cost less than 200 EUR, so a fraction of the Mulberry bag. I'm very happy with my choice, which does not mean that if - merely hypothetically speaking, of course - there happened to be a mega sale at Mulberry I would not give the Cara bag a second look...

That's How I Roll (and Bake)

I am already in the midst of my annual Christmas cookie bakeathon and being a very organised person (one has to have at least some qualities, eh?) I have already finished half of my planned "quota" despite all my travelling. Not bad, My kitchen is tiny, but above you see my typical work set-up. Oh, and also a tiny peek of my PJs as I was cutting out matcha trees right after getting up on Saturday morning. One of the most important accessories is my tablet (a Nexus 7; random piece of information) that is sitting on top of my toaster and on which I watch YouTube videos while baking. Occasionally, I also read recipes on it if I haven't printed them out. Very convenient. The yellow baking mat is from Tchibo and quite good for sticky doughs.