Art market

Before summer has started there was an art market in our City (for three days). One day I went there with my dad and the other day I visited this place with my good friend, Hanna. The weather was very hot, but we enjoyed being there. It felt like a Festival because there were so many people and the music was like at a music festival...
At the market there were many designers from whole Austria with their products, I just bought a gold necklace which i wear so much since then.
One day I had a Couscous-veggie-salad and the next day I tried a Curry with lentils. Both of these dishes were very good.
When I was there with Hanna, we sat into a pop up cafe which was on a bus (the bus didn't move sadly hahah). The atmosphere was great and we drank a cold ice tea (something with apple, citron..) in our loved mason jars. Have you ever been to markets like this?When yes, do you like them as much as I do?

vegan couscous

vegan lentils

xoxo, Valerie Brooks

Granny's magical Garden

Hello my dear friends,
maybe you are prying and want to know what this post is about, especially because of the title. Am I right? If not, that's also okay haha. Granny's magical Garden. That sounds so mysterious. Don't you think so? Okay maybe it's just me haha.
Actually, I'm not a big fantasy-fan. However, I love fairy tales with princesses and enchanted forests. All this is so magical, not? For this reason, I believe that I have such a love for excellence and light colors. From clothes I have not even written yet. Glitter, bright colors, lace, sweet details. Somehow it all fits into a fairy tale. Okay, I digress. I'm sorry. Actually I wanted to talk about the garden of my grandmother. I love her garden. Especially in summer. It's a dream, like really. it is very large, it is full with a bunch of flowers, trees and cute decoration (thanks to my mother at this point). I spend most of my time in my hammock when I'm there. Then I draw, read or write something. This is so beautiful. Pure relaxation. I don't know what I really wanted to say with this post haha. However, her garden remains me of a fantasy world where I can dive into if I want to. Shortly back to fashion. I love long prom dresses, but I still did not have the opportunity to wear one. Sorry for this weird post, but I thought I have to share this with you and I wanted to show you that it is okay to dream. It doesn't matter whether you have small or big dreams, just keep on dreaming.One day you will reach your aim.
I wish you a wonderful and magical day.

xx Valerie

PS: "Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things escape which those who dream only by night."

Granny's vineyard

local market 

What you should have in your closet

                 

Today i want to share some of my favourites Items which i can basically pair and wear with everyhing.
Sure, there are so much more clothing Items which i think belong to your closet, but today i will show you just some of them and if you want a part two, just leave me a comment.



Jeans: I like to have at least three pair of jeans, because I can wear them with everything. You can look classy, if you wear it with some high heels and a pretty blouse, but you can also make a casual kind a look with a basic one-colour t-shirt. You should at least have three: a light one, a dark one and a 'normal' one. (Maybe you are wondering, why I do not mention the classic black Jeans/trousers. It's just because i barely wear it, but there are many people who see this as a basic item...)

The white Blouse and the Blazer: I don't have to say much to this items. The Blouse is important because you can wear it to many occasions and the Blazer is just a classic item. There are so many Variations with a Blazer, you just have to try which one you prefer and suits you the best. I like it, when it is made out of Cotton...

Shorts: A short is great in summer, but you can wear it at any time of the year. I like to have simple shorts made out of Jeans. I prefer to buy light colours in summer because other wise i feel so hot haha (like in black ones)..

              The basic Shirt (this one is a grey v-Shirt from Massimo dutti)

                                              The basic Cardigan (this one is from H&M)

The (very smooth) casual Cardigan

                                              The evening Dress (or a black one)

                                               Skirts (good for all seasons)

                                              The evening clutch (bag)

                                       The White Shirt you can wear in different variations

 The flower (summery) jumpsuit/Dress for hot days (this one is from lookbookstore)

                   The tanktop you can wear with everything (i have this one in different colours)

Thanks for reading! If you want a part two, let me know down in the comments.


 xoxo Valerie Brooks

50 things and more to be happy about

It is fridayyy. I wish you a great weekend. If you might know, there is a book called 14 000 things to be happy about. I thought I could write down 50 of mine. Feel free to add your things to be happy about. I am not pretty sure whether I wrote something twice....

-snowflakes

-warm homemade soups

-friends

-family

-bonfire

-sea

-beach walks

-late night swims

-dancing

-girl’s sleepover

-good mark

-sunshine

-moon

-a smile

-a good talk with someone

-to catch up with your family / friends

-travelling

-your favourite song / music

-long nights

-good weather

-to workout

-concert

-homemade cookies

-wifi
-avocado
-weekend
-if you buy something you wanted for a long time

-holidays

-watching your fav show / movie

-a good book

-rainy days

-cooking with friends

-justin bieber's new song, life is worth living

-mango

-the perfect nice cream

-when you take a perfect picture

-when you have a good hair day

-piano songs

-having a crush on someone

-no homework

-childhood pictures

-free weekend

-fridays

-day trips

-going to restaurants

-to print out pics

-realizing that you actually can dance

-cinemaa

-be surrounded by funny people

-exploring a new place

-getting a compliment

-giving a compliment

-an incredibly good dream

-havin laugh outbursts

-doing something well

-helping people

Enjoy your weekend!!!
xx Valerie

My vegan staples

I have been eating vegan since 5 months I think. I realized that I need to have cetain things at home to be able to eat this way. Today I will talk about my stamples and what I always have at home. 

Fruits / Veggie's: 

I mostly have saisonal fruits at home but sometimes if I crave something I buy other stuff too. In Winter I always have mandarins, apples, bananas and frozen berries at home. In summer I have a bigger selection of course.Avocados of course. Frozen veggie's in winter, potatoes, pumpkins, sweet potatoes... and in summer lots of fresh stuff.Greens are also very important for me.

Grains:

• Brown rice
• Jasmin / basmati rice..
• Buckwheat and brown rice pasta
• Brown rice, oats, almond, pumpkin flour
• Chia, Oats
• Buckwheat
• Quinoa
• Wild rice

Snacks:

• homemade almond or cashew butter
• dates
• rice waffles
• dried fruits and goji berries
• raw vegan bars 
• oat & dates squares or balls ( I always make them on sundays and they last me for a few days) 

Nuts:

(Macadamia)

Almonds

Pecans

Walnuts

Cashews

seeds (sunflower, pumpkin..)

Beans / Lentils:

• Kidney beans
• Black Beluga Lentils
• Chickpeas
• Red Lentils
• Black Beans
• Green Lentils

Spices:

• cinnamon (fav)
• chilli
• cumin
• curry
• coconut flakes
• indian lime
• lemons
• provence
• seasalt, pepper
• GINGER is life
• nutritional yeast
• vanilla
• ....

I also have coconut oil, spirulina, hemp and acai powder, raw cacao powder, homemade tomatoe sauces, tahini, tamari at home.

I am pretty sure I forgot something but I think we can live with that.

What are your stamples?Let me know.

xx Valerie 

Winter Wonderland

It has been a long time since I wrote the last time.. Do not get me wrong, I always wanted to and actually wrote so many posts, but I never released them, so why? I do not really know. Maybe because I had the anxiety that if I would start blogging, I would have to blog every day (yeah haha don't know why) and maybe I would not have so much time... But today I realized that I am missing something in my life, something with what I can express myself and be myself. So I thought that I should start out again and see how this works out.

I am sitting here and there is so much going on in my head and I want to share everything with you. I want to write about my thoughts, about eating vegan and of course about fashion. This is my real passion. I can not describe how much I am into it.

I will write about it another time. Let's talk about the weather. You have to know that I am such a christmas fan. I think there are two kinds of people. The ones who hate Christmas and the ones who love it. I belong to the second ones. The lights, the lights in the city, Maroni, the smell of cinnamon, the beautiful colors. These are things that I love so much. Going for long walks in the snow, ahh I just love that. Since a few days it is snowing, and I can not tell you how excited I am about this. Unfortunately the sun is so strong that the snow is melting sadly...Especially drinking tea at the fireplace is absolutely my thing (although we do not have one, but if we would have a fireplace i would spend every second there hahah). Are you also such a Winterfan? 

lots of hugs, xx Valerie

Beautiful fall leaves, love

Long walks here (actually I took this picture last year, we don't have so much snow right now)