Summer favorites
Summer is in full progress and I have been taking some time off. My internship is over and I went for a week-long vacation in Czech Republic. One of the best week I’ve had but it left me in a need of another one. I planned my every day full with activities and the temperature was well above 30⁰C (about 90⁰F) for all of them. It doesn’t sound that bad, but because Czech Republic has a lot of history to offer with its endless amounts of castles, I didn’t quite think of one small detail – castles and cities were all built on top of hills. Not just regular hills, they were built there strategically to scare of any enemies and make it difficult to come up. Add the heat to it and you have a pretty challenging vacation. I visited three castles, meaning I climbed three hills.
Anyways, I made it through and in order to enjoy my summer holiday even more, I have decided to do a summer favorite collection. Need advice on summer songs, how to cool down or which nail polish to buy next? Keep on reading to find what I am currently in love with.
Do I even need to mention – the weather?
I am pretty sure that I mentioned this in my June favorites as well but nothing beats the feeling when you can just walk out of your house and not have to put on several layers of extra clothes. Being able to just put on shorts and flip flops is great. I faced the struggle of having no summer clothes for a while because of my love for cloudy rainy weather but I do enjoy most aspects of it. The extreme heat wave is another story, but just a nice regular summer is appreciated. Subtract the humidity, sweat and hot pavement, add some dresses, cocktails and tan, and that is a good time.
Gardening
This is not something that I would have done on my own as I have never been able to keep a plant alive. After several plants and one cactus that I killed, even my mom started to give me plastic plants instead. And those fell apart too. After a couple years of not having any plants, I finally have a small back yard that gets plenty of sun and shadow – a perfect environment for plants. My girlfriend and I started with just simple flower plants (that I don’t know that names of) and eventually progressed into something more useful and rewarding. I planted a potato that grew into a giant tree (pictured on the left). We have three different kinds of mint – one regular, Moroccan mint (pictures on the right) and grape mint. There is a strawberry plant and many other herbs as well. The latest addition to the garden is cat grass. 
Everything in the garden is low maintenance which means I can keep it alive. Especially the mint; it is basically just weed (as in the unwanted plants) – it multiplies on its own by the minute. We got the Moroccan mint last year. It dried out during winter so we threw it away but then it magically came back to life on its own in spring. The potato (the only plant that I planted myself) is low maintenance as well – it just needs a really big pot, earth with a lot of nutrients, and a lot of water. I honestly think that mine grew so tall only because the pot isn’t big enough. Therefore all of the nutrients go to the leaves rather than in the potatoes. But I will have to wait a couple more weeks to see if there is any harvest. Maybe next year I will plant a smaller kind of potatoes and put it in a bigger pot.Summer songs
The weather, sun, gardening and late nights (may or may not include a few drinks) call for some music. Everyone has a different taste so I don’t expect you to enjoy my music. But instead of listing my favorite songs, I decided to put together a short Spotify playlist of my current favorite songs. You can find the playlist here. I started with only ten songs but who knows, maybe I will add a couple more later so Save it to your library for more. Oh and follow me for more playlists if you like my taste in music.
Frozen berries
This has been my favorite for many years. I initially started with frozen veggies like peas and corn. But who can resist a blueberry and raspberry mix? Not only is it tasty and healthy, but also refreshing and much cheaper than buying fresh berries. I usually eat them just as they are but there are many other options – smoothies, yoghurt, cocktails etc.
Tip for sensitive teeth: quickly rinse them with warm water to bring them to a higher temperature.
Lemon & mint water
Mint is multiplying itself in my garden, I have my frozen berries and wanted a bit of a detox after working 9 to 6 for six months (metabolism slowing down and a sit down job is not a good combination). The easiest and most accessible way for me is lemon water, and to my liking I add a few leaves of mint. I let it chill in the fridge for a few hours and voi la, I have a refreshing drink. I personally enjoy the taste and it feels a bit more refreshing than just normal water. And let’s not forget, there are many health benefits to drinking lemon water such as digestion, vitamin C, clear skins and weight loss aid (source: https://wellnessmama.com/35192/lemon-water/).
OPI nail polish
Summer is full of colors – nature is blooming and people on the streets are finally shifting away from their everyday black on black outfits. Ladies are most definitely including nail polish to complete their whole summer look on both their hands and toesies. I am not what you would call a girly girl, but I do enjoy some pampering once in a while. My struggle with cheap polishes was always that they never lasted more than one day. Until I discovered OPI. They have a huge selection of colors and can be found almost anywhere these days (in the Netherlands, you can find it in Douglas and Etos and more). They last me three days completely undamaged so they are well worth the slightly higher price (about €15). But thanks to discounts, I always just wait till they have an offer and take the advantage. You can see my collection pictured (I have more polishes, just not all OPI). My favorite was a bright red one that unfortunately fell and broke so currently I only have four.Fa Hawaii Love
I feel like I need to say that nothing on my website is a paid promotion or sponsored, so these are my genuine favorites. Next is Fa’s Hawaii Love shower gel. I was a bit skeptical because normally I don’t fancy pineapple flavors that much, but this one has changed my showers. Doesn’t matter how many times I used it, every single time it would just feel and smell amazing. I work in marketing; I watch commercials so if you are not sure where you can find it, just watch some TV. They were running a commercial for it. Fa also is not my favorite brand but they have really outdone themselves on this one! Normally I also like to have many different shower gels and rarely stick to the same one twice in a row, but this one has me wanting more.
More than 1000 words later and we are at the end. In the comments below, what are your favorite songs and showers gels? (Seriously, I am looking for more; one never has enough.)
