memories of Berlin

Hi guys!

Actually I wanted to post a giveaway today, but my Photoshop decided to break down so that I can't put together a giveaway header and now I have to improvise. So instead here is a picture-heavy post where you can win nothing,  but get impressions of Berlin ;)

Maybe you remember that I took a weekend trip to Berlin two weeks ago to visit a blogger conference. Some readers asked for more photos of the city itself than only pics of the conference and I somehow forgot about that. I'm sorry! Well, here they are: some Berlin tourist bus trip photos! ;)

vintage suitcase deco at our hotel

in the bus

Humboldt University

I had already visited Berlin last year and made an extensive sightseeing tour back then, so this time I was too lazy to walk. I grabbed a coffee, hopped into one of the buses, nestled in one of the seats and only took photos through the bus windows.

By the way, if you are too thrifty for the pricey tourist bus tours (I am), then I can recommend the normal public transport bus lines 100 and 200, both starting from Alexanderplatz and going on a route along all important sights and back to Alexanderplatz in the end (or some of them only go to Bahnhof Zoo, where you can get off and take the same line into the other direction back to Alexanderplatz at least).

Unter den Linden

hot air balloon at Potsdamer Platz

Potsdamer Platz

It was such a lovely weather and the sun began to set slowly while throwing yellowish golden light onto the buildings. It was a really nice play of light and shadow between the parks, churches and skyscrapers. Also the bus was not as crowded as in the afternoon, so it was a really relaxing tour without any hullabaloo.

House of the Cultures of the World

Reichstag

Fernsehturm at Alexanderplatz

Actually I like Berlin, but somehow I always have the impression of this city being way too big for me to live in. It's fantastic that there is so much to discover, so much great food, lovely shops, sights, interesting people.... but the other side of the coin are too many tourists, dirty streets and places, funny smells, long distances etc.

I think if I lived there, it would annoy me to know that I never ever had the time to explore more than just the corner I lived in. I love me my cozy "little" Düsseldorf with about 600.000 citizens ;) I know almost all the districts here and it's not as fast moving and dirty as Berlin.

Anyway, apart from the sightseeing, here are three more snapshots I took in Kreuzberg:

cocktail time at hour hotel's bar

lama street art :)

bookshop in Kreuzberg (a German literature heaven!)

Alright, that's it for today.

Hopefully I can get my Photoshop running again, so I can post the mentioned giveaway for you guys tomorrow!

Oh and btw, Bad Taste Toast is on Facebook now - feel free to head over and give me a like! ;)

Happy Wednesday!

now playing: a wilhelm scream - the horse

Vedette Shapewear day to night look

Hi guys!

How are you? I hope everyone had a good start into the week?!

It's a national holiday here in Germany, so I used my free morning to finally edit the photos for this post, that I had shooted in the last days.

You might remember that I have cooperated with Vedette Shapewear in the past, I styled one of their shaping items for a Christmas look here.

They were so kind to offer me another piece of choice from their amazing range of products and asked me to style a "day to night" look with it. I was so happy! I was already very happy with my first item, so it was even better to get another one. I browsed the website for so long... and finally I decided to go for a classic basic: a black waist- and hips-shaping body suit with bra top - the "AIMÈE" body suit.

I lost some pounds recently, so I was able to take a size L and it fortunately fits like a glove and shapes my love handles just so that I look nicely slim around the waist.

Day look

This is how I styled the body suit for a stroll through the forest. I normally try to avoid having my belly area peeking out under shirts, but with the body suit it was the perfect way of layering my light cropped sweater. The whole thing got casual with the shorts and flats, but as the sweater is a little see-through, the silhouette of the body underneith added a bit of, let's say, "low key sexiness". ;) 

♥ body suit: vedette ♥ sweater: forever 21 ♥ shorts: pimkie ♥ belt + flats: primark ♥ necklace: ebay ♥ tote bag: kleiderkreisel ♥

It felt a bit like wearing a bathing suit without going swimming ;)

But despite the stronger fabric in the shaping area around the waist, it still was comfortable to wear and didn't make me sweat too much under the anyway breezy sweater.

Night look

After concealing the inviting cleavage for the day look, I thought it would be okay to show it as it is in the night look. I chose to combine a skirt and belt with the body suit to make it look like a cocktail dress and also added a see-through lace jacket to keep me look dressed (and to conceal my chubby upper arms, ha!).

 ♥ body suit: vedette  ♥  jacket: forever 21  ♥  belt: topshop  ♥  skirt: camaieu  ♥ necklace: accessorize  ♥  wedges: seven seconds  ♥

I think the cleavage really is a bit daring and I actually planned to wear a black lace shirt underneath, but I couldn't find one, so it had to work without. However I would probably try to find one if I planned to wear this outfit for a girl's night out or something because otherwise I would seriously be afraid of a second Nipplegate all night!

Apart from that, again the whole outfit was very comfortable to wear and I didn't have the feeling of looking like a dolled-up whale because my waist was shaped nicely and made a very nice silhouette together with the a-line skirt.

Oh and by the way, to see more pictures of the "AIMÉE" body suit and to get details about it, you can click here.

So, what do you say? Do you guys like this day to night transformation? Would you wear shapewear? And if yes, would you wear it as outer wear? Any other suggestions or opinions about it? Talk to me! :)

Happy Monday!

now playing: the naked and the famous - punching in a dream

Bad Taste Toast goes Facebook

Hi guys!

Bad Taste Toast has its own Facebook page now!

I thought it was high time for this step and I'm looking forward to share not only my posts, but also inspiration, photos and lots of other nice things with you there in the future! :)

It would be really nice if you could head over and give me a like.

I wish you all a lovely Sunday!

26

Hi guys!

Oh my goodness, at the moment my days can't have enough hours, I stay up much too late because Patrick is not here to drag me away from the computer at 11 o'clock to go to bed and watch Tv until we fall asleep. So instead I stay up longer, bustle about, do thousand little things and just can't manage to calm down a bit before bedtime. I've been having such a bad sleeping rhythm the last days, this seriously has to stop next week.

Anyway... yesterday was my birthday! I turned 26. Wow, time flies, it's unbelievable...

My birthday was pretty uneventful because Patrick is away, my dad is on vacation, so after work my mum came over and we went downtown to grab some burgers and ice-cream. It was the perfect relaxed "hanging out with mum" evening. :) 

♥ dress: vero moda ♥ cardi: promod ♥ hair bow + fox ring: h&m ♥ necklace: diy via kleiderkreisel ♥ shoes: sun & shadow ♥

This dress, I looove it! I purchased it via Zalando last month, it was on sale for 24,95€ so I really couldn't resist. I've been wishing for a cute (if possible black) dress with such a collar for over a year now but couldn't find "the one" - now I found it.

The cut, the print, the collar, everything is so darling - definitely one of my new favourites! Nevertheless I'm still trying out different outfits with it because I find it quite hard to style (and I don't even know why because I own a lot of patterned dresses).

Whatsoever, my birthday seemed to be the right occasion to wear it out for the first time. :)

Oh and my mum gave me the sweetest thing for my birthday (literally): a chocolate camera! :D Aww my mum is the best, such a cute idea! Of course that's not the only thing I got, I told everyone I'm saving up for a new handbag - a rather expensive and high quality one of Fossil or Liebeskind - so I also got money.

I'll show you the bags I fancy in a post soon, but first here are the pics of the chocolate cam and of our burger feast! :)

Just to make you even more jealous: we went to Häagen-Dasz afterwards... ;)

Hope everyone had a good day!

now playing: alex clare - too close

The Hive day two

Hi guys!

How are you? I hope it's just as lovely and sunny outside where you are as it is here. :)

Today is my birthday (eeek 26.....), so I'm just dropping in to post part two of my The Hive report and afterwards I'm going to grab some ice-cream with my mum .;)

So about Sunday, the second and last day of the conference: here is what I wore first.

♥ cardi + flats: primark ♥ dress: vila swapped via kleiderkreisel ♥ belt + bracelets: h&m ♥ necklace: jewelmint ♥ bangle: accessorize ♥ watch: new yorker  ♥

The second conference day again offered some really interesting and cool keynotes (if you're interested in the topics you can check them here). I took home some great inspiration and there are a lot of things in my mind concerning the blog, that I will or will not apply on it in the future, we'll see... ;)

Anyway, in general although all keynotes were great, my two very favourites were "The business of blogging" by Designmom (I didn't know her blog before, it's amazing!) and I also really liked the keynote by Zilverblauw because of her likeable and strong way of presentation.

In between the keynotes there were little breaks with yummy lemonade and some of the most delicious muffins I ever had. Oh and then in the afternoon some photography workshops took place, they were categorized in food photography, how to make a home studio and so on. I was able to get some good advice and got to know the image editing software Lightroom for the first time.

Unfortunately Farah and I missed out the last words of the hosts because we had to catch our train back home, but even without the farewell keynote I really enjoyed being part of this conference with all the other bloggers! Kudos to the hosts, speakers and catering for organizing such a cool event! I'd love to visit The Hive 2, 3, 4 and so on in the future and I hope there'll be the chance to do so.

Also a BIG THANK YOU again to Sophie of Kleiderkreisel, who made it possible for us to go on this trip and take part in the event (and also thank you for the great idea of founding Kleiderkreisel, I'm totally back into swapping business since I've returned from Berlin)!

Happy Wednesday to everyone!

now playing: boysetsfire - last year's nest

"The Hive" day one

Hi guys!

Let me tell and show you a bit of my fabulous weekend in Berlin today. To give some background info again: I won a trip to the first European blogger conference "The Hive" in Berlin at a contest at Kleiderkreisel. In the last post I showed you a bit of what Farah (my "plus one") and I did on the day of arrival, this post is about the conference.

First of all, here is what I wore:

♥ cardi: zara ♥ dress: primark ♥ belt: pieces ♥ shoes: h&m swapped via kleiderkreisel ♥ necklace: new yorker ♥ watch: casio ♥

By the way, this red wall was a very popular photo backdrop among the conference visitors ;)

So, on Saturday I unfortunately missed the opening speech and first programme point because I took the wrong subway and tram and whatnot. Anyway, I managed to arrive just in time for the following topics about new and traditional media and the business of blogging.

At first I felt a bit strange sitting there like in university, with the only difference that somebody is speaking about my favourite hobby instead of philosophical problems or American literature, but actually it's great to learn something about blogging with so many other people in the room sharing your love for it.

The Hive took place at a location called betahaus Berlin.

At noon there was a lunch buffet down in the café with some yummy couscous dish. This was the first real chance to mingle with the other bloggers, chat and look forward to the upcoming programme.

A very interesting keynote for me was the one about German laws and legal problems where I learned that posting photos from other sites and linking back is not as legal and okay as I had thought...

There were a lot more different keynotes that afternoon, but I don't want to go into detail too much, so if you're interested, the programme is still online here.

One more thing about Saturday: in the evening there was a The Hive party at the Cosmo hotel. I assume it's a rather exclusive hotel because the prices for drinks were a bit steep. Also there was the important Chelsea-Munich football match on TV, after which unfortunately most of the guests left. However you couldn't blame them, after all it had been an exhausting day with lots of new input. ;)

Farah and I brought the evening to an end at our hotel's bar afterwards.

Oh and here is my party outfit:

So that was day one. You can drop in for the post about day two tomorrow if you like! ;)

Until then I wish you all a lovely day!

now playing: mumford and sons - little lion man