Once in a Blue Moon

Hello all you lovely souls!
The weather is warming up nicely. It is quite hot here, and all the trees are finally green and lush.

These photos were taken in the beginning of May when it was just starting to get warmer and the trees were still bare.

I wore this when I was holding a speech for a group of biomedicine students (I studied biomedicine myself), talking about what they can expect of life as a PhD-student and giving some advice. I prepared, and was pumped up, but was met by a small group of uninterested students. Some international students that sat way back in the lecture hall even pointed at me and laughed for themselves, thinking I won't notice.

The whole experience made me realise what a hard job teachers have, that have to stand in front of students every single day!

Funny thing, this outfit was actually unintentionally inspired by a fictional teacher. As soon as I put on the blue cardi over the dress I felt like I recognised the outfit, but it wasn't until afterwards that it struck me! Jess Day from New Girl, wore a lovely green dress with a blue cardigan in the episode Fancyman Part 1 (1x17). Like I told you previously, Zooey Deschanel is a big style inspiration for me.

Dress: Swinging Chicks Shop (here)

Cardigan: La Redoute (old)

Flats: ModCloth (old)

Anyway, my experience with holding an inspirational speech for the students didn't quite go as I had hoped or planned. The whole thing was a bit disappointing, but there was one super interested student that came and talked to me after, so even if I only reached the one person, at least I did that!

Any teachers out there? How on earth do you amazing people do it day after day?

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I had a very rough week at work, so I am doing some major relaxing.

Also a quick reminder, there are still some days left on the giveaway that I am hosting together with Book of Deer. For more info check this post here.

Much love,

Roman Holiday

Hello lovelies!

Hope you are having a fantastic weekend.

Roman Holiday from 1953 with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck is one of my favourite films. Two of my favourite actors are in it (Hepburn and Peck) and the story is lovely, happy, sad and perfect all at the same time. I always wish it would end differently, still after seeing it countless of times.

It's about a royal princess named Ann (Hepburn), that sort of elopes and goes around Rome by herself, while pretending to be someone else. A journalist (Peck) ends up helping her without knowing who she is, but later on figures it out. Naturally the pair go on to have exciting and funny adventures in the beautiful city of Rome. I really don't want to give anything away, so I'm going to end there, but it really is a lovely film and I most definitely suggest it.

Today's look is inspired by Ann while she is incognito. The film is black and white so I've tried for years to figure out what colour Ann's skirt was, finally settling on it probably being sand/beige, but I went for a full red skirt from Vivien of Holloway.

I've been a fan of Vivien of Holloway since I was in high school. I remember finding their web store and falling in love with their dresses. Well, 10 years later I finally got some items from Vivien of Holloway and I could not be happier with them. The skirt is fantastic in every way. I love the bright red colour (and Audrey wears a red skirt on the poster of Roman Holiday, so it was meant to be!), the volume and the twirlability of it!

Top: Vivien of Holloway (here)

Skirt: Vivien of Holloway (here)

Scarf: Vivien of Holloway (here)

Gloves: Vivien of Holloway (here)

Flats: Asos (here)

The top is also from Vivien of Holloway, and even though Ann wears a short sleeve (or actually it appears to be a long sleeve rolled up) I felt like the top had the same vibe to it. I added a pair of white gloves and black ballerina flats to give the outfit the right Audrey Hepburn feeling!

I felt ridiculously elegant in this outfit, and almost didn't want to take it off. I tired to channel the elegance and poise of Audrey. I've mentioned previously (here) how she is one of my number one style icons, and also one of my idols and heroes. So a belated Happy Birthday to the wonderful, elegant, excellent and amazing woman, Audrey Hepburn. You inspire me!

Much love,

#MHAW16

Hello all you wonderful people!
I don't say anything for a week and then I update my blog twice in less than one hour, but it's a special occasion!

It's Mental Health Awareness Week 2016!!

The wonderful Nora from NoraFinds informed me about it. And my first thought was "How did I miss this?". My second thought however was that I have to write a blog post about mental health.

I have previously mentioned my struggles with mental illness on the blog (here, here and here). I suffer from OCD, anxiety and depression, so for me mental health awareness is super important. For the sake of this special week, I wanted to try and put into words why mental health awareness is so crucial to talk about.

Mental health is extremely important, and very underrated. If you are mentally healthy, then it might be difficult to understand what the big deal is. But here's the thing, you can't really imagine being mentally ill until you become mentally ill. It is easy to imagine having a broken bone in the body. But an unhealthy mental condition is very hard to imagine.

So for that reason alone, it is super important that the people that experience mental health problems talk about it, to increase the understanding in the people who are lucky enough not to suffer.

But for people to start talking about mental health issues it has to become okay to talk about it. The stigma needs to be removed, and it needs to be accepted. For that to happen we need more understanding which comes from talking about it. So you see, it's a catch-22.

Some brave people (and I suppose that also includes me) are talking about mental health and illness, even though there is still a lot a stigma attached to it. But this needs to be done, because mental illness affects a big proportion of the world!

We need to stop viewing mental illnesses as something that can be turned off by the flick of a switch. Mental illnesses are legitimate illnesses! They are just as real as cancer, diabetes and the flu. Take it from me, I'm a cancer researcher.

But seriously, if we're going to change the way we look at mental illnesses and mental health we have to become more open about it as a community. We have to stop silencing people that need to talk about it, we have to stop attaching guilt and shame to it. Once we've done that it'll become just as easy to say "I had the flu last week" as "I suffer from depression".

I think my rant is done.
So I want to finish up this post by saying this...
If you are suffering from mental health issues, don't be afraid to ask for help. There is no shame in it. If you break a bone you go to the doctor, if you suffer from mental illness (or think you do) then you should also see a doctor. Talk about it if you can. With anyone!
And I want anyone reading this to know that you can always contact me (you'll find my email address under 'Contact') if you need to.

Be well!
Much love,

Le Meow

Hello everyone! I'm back!!
I haven't been very good at updating the blog recently, but that will change starting... Now!

I had a (big-ish) presentation at my department about my research project, and I had been preparing for it forever! I felt like I learned how to breathe again after I finished the presentation. My nerves were all over the place, and for months I had it at the back of my mind, so it is definitely a load off my shoulders!

Do you guys get nervous when having a big presentation? How do you "attack" it?

I personally had to almost pretend another persona for myself. I'm not the kind of person that want attention, and I don't take much space. I'm a fairly small person by personality, not physically (although I'm only 1,57m so I'm not very big...) and I think I'm rather mellow.

So when all eyes are on me, I feel like I'm not loud and big enough to carry it. It is definitely something I have to work on though, because in my field we have to present our research and results regularly.

Beret: Larmoni (here)

Dress: Larmoni (old)

Cardigan: ModCloth (old)

Flats: ModCloth (old)

A word about my outfit. I decided to call it "Le Meow" because I always feel like a beret gives an outfit a French feel. And the meow is obvious. This lovely dress from Larmoni was an instant buy for me. I just had to have it when I saw the cute print!

Much love,

Style Icon: Zooey Deschanel

Hiya!
Hope you are all doing well today!
This is the third instalment of my series "Style Icon" where I introduce you to my own style icons. Zooey Deschanel has been a style icon for me since I first saw her in (500) Days of Summer back in the late 2000's. She wears a beautiful mixture of old and new, vintage and fresh and is like myself interested in the style of 50's and 60's.

Since Zooey got the part of Jess Day in New Girl she has been a constant inspiration to me. Every week she wears at least one outfit that I want, and sometimes she even wears things that are already in my wardrobe.

I will always be excited to see what she wears because she's not afraid to look cute and sweet. She rocks a lot of polka dots, and she adds bows to her hair. Zooey has a retro, fun and girly sense of style that really appeals to me.

Much love,