Michelle in a Nutshell

Aloha!

For my snapshot of the day, I thought I'd share one of my cutie pie puppy, Bentley.

On Thursday, June 27th, my love turned 30! So we went out to dinner for our own private celebration before having fun with friends on Saturday at his birthday party.

We went to the restaurant Thai Garden which is in Lucerne. I've heard many great things about this place but never visited myself. I had received a gift certificate so I thought I'd treat my boyfriend to a birthday dinner.

The restaurant is so gorgeous, the food was delicious and the whole ambience was so lovely! It's quite expensive but I'd definitely go again if we have another reason to celebrate :)

As usual with Thai cuisine, the decorations on the plates were so pretty! I'm always so impressed with them, especially knowing that they're fresh from that day and handmade!

Hello guys!

Unfortunately, I don't have a snapshot for day 26 of the #30daysnap challenge, BUT I thought I'd share some tunes since I didn't post my Tuesday's Tunes post this week :)

 I've loved Mumford & Sons for a while now and I've loved this song for so long - it just doesn't get old! Their style of music is so unique and interesting and I love how they made the banjo kinda cool haha :)

 Of course, I could mention "And We Danced", "Can't Hold Us", "Same Love" and "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore, cause I love them ALL, but I'm going to feature "A Wake" because I just love the melody and the woman's voice who sings the chorus. Macklemore is just freakin awesome - nuff said. The lyric "Apps this good, whose got time to make friends?" is just pure genius, haha!

I thought I'd share both these songs by Ed Sheeran because I'm so in love with them. They make me sing really loud in the car and they make me want to learn guitar and play/sing them! I actually do own an acoustic guitar which sits in the corner of our guest bedroom so maybe these songs can finally motivate me to learn how to play? We'll see...

Hope you enjoyed my tunes for this week! What songs have you been loving lately?

xo, Michelle

Heeeeey guuuuuys :)

Voilà, my snapshot for day number 25.

Hi guys!

Here's my 24th snapshot in the #30daysnap photo challenge :)

This is a very touristy photo of the city I work in - Lucerne (Luzern in German).

I love, love, love this city. It's absolutely gorgeous, not too big, and closer to my home than where my last job was. A short walk in the city at over my lunch break results in a pretty photo like this. Perfection!

xo, Michelle

Aloha :) Here's my snapshot for day 23!

Last Sunday, my boyfriend and I and 9 others from his family went to a very well-known amusement park in Germany - Europa Park. Huge rollercoasters, hotdogs, cotton candy and family - can't get much better than that ;) We had a blast!

xo, Michelle

Hey everyone :)

I'm a bit behind on my #30daysnaps BUT I'm determined to finish up this photo series so here's my snapshot for day 22 :)

As an early birthday gift, I took my father to the event "Stars on Court" in Zug, Switzerland. Some well-known tennis stars played a few sets, had fun, goofed around and it was fun to watch since my father has watched all of these athletes play at their peeks in the past.

In the photo you can see, from left to right:

Henri Leconte, Steffi Graf, Mansour Bahrami and Andre Agassi

This was Graf's and Agassi's first time playing in Switzerland and Graf is the founder and chairperson of "Children for Tomorrow", a non-profit foundation for implementing and developing projects to support children who have been traumatized by war or other crises. Part of the profits from this event were donated to her charity, which was awesome.

We had a blast and as always, it was great to spend some one-on-one time with my Dad :)

xo, Michelle

xo, Michelle

Hey there, here's a snapshot of my nails at the moment :)

xo, Michelle

If you don't know what the #30DaySnap is, click here :)

xo, Michelle

I'm going to keep it short today seeing as I have to get up at 5am tomorrow and it's already 10pm...boooo....

Mint, anyone?

xo, Michelle

Ok, so I'm a teeensy bit forgetful when it comes to blog post series...forgive me. BUT the upside is, I remembered today!

Here are some tunes that I'm loving.

You Remember - Gentleman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q_rAGOt780

I saw Gentleman live in concert at an open-air event in 2005 and since then I've absolutely loved his music, his voice, the melodies - everything. This song's lyrics are also wonderful - talking about... "the future is so great we can't forget the past..."

This Is What It Feels Like - Armin van Buuren feat. Trevor Guthrie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR_DFMUzX4E

Awesome party, house, feel-good song. Picks my mood right up off the floor :)

 Lila Wolken - Marteria, Yasha & Miss Platnum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrYYg_atdtk

Since I included a German song last time, I thought I'd add another favorite today. This song also puts me in such a good mood and reminds me of driving with the windows down in the sunshine...perfection.

xo, Michelle

Happy Monday ya'll!

It's sunny and hot, hot, hot here in Switzerland today (at least relatively speaking...).

Yesterday was such a fantastic, beautiful, warm Sunday - very rare this year so far! So we had to make an outing out of it (as mentioned in yesterday's #30DaySnap post). And of course, being the "Chinese tourist" that I am, I had to take a few photo's along the way :) Enjoy!

My beautiful Mama :)

Bentley having a sip of water from the stream 

Taking a breather...

 Saying hi to the Swiss cows...

We made it!

Did I overload you with Swiss nature pics? Maybe... But I still can't believe that I live in this town where my apartment is 5 minutes away from all this beauty!

I would definitely recommend putting Switzerland on your list of places to visit, she's a beaut...

Hope you enjoyed today's photos :)

xo, Michelle

I hope you guys are having a fantastic weekend :)

The weather is treating us really well today so we decided to step out into the sunshine. My mom, Bentley our puppy and I went on a 10km walk in the town I live in. My boyfriend, my dad, my boyfriend's brother-in-law and his son went on a bike ride in the mountains. Afterwards we had BBQ at our place. A very successful Sunday if you ask me!

Here's a photo I snapped of our puppy Bentley while we were taking a break from our walk. He had just drank from the river and looked so dang cute!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post - I'll post more beautiful photos from our walk :)

Have a great night everyone!

xo, Michelle

Hello lovelies!

Today was a very active day and I'm exhausted! We cleaned, did laundry and worked on our balcony - very successful Saturday :)

We also went on a little walk with our puppy and our neighbor's dog around the man-made lake here in Engelberg. The views are just breathtaking. So I just needed to take a photo ;) It's from my iPhone but I hope the quality is OK. Here you go :)

xo, Michelle

Hello everyone! Happy weekend :)

Today I'd love to share with you my snapshot of the day for June 14th. It was my sister's birthday so I stopped by a local flower shop to pick up a cactus for her. Of course, I had to leave with something for myself as well. Oh man... They had so many pretty flower arrangements and vases! Since I just started my new job I feel like I need to spruce up my new desk so I brought home this lovely piece :)

Do you enjoy this type of decor? Do you also have a desk at work which you're allowed to decorate?

By the way, if you're not following me on Instagram (michelle_inanutshell), here's my snapshot for Day 13:

xo, Michelle

Hi guys!

We've survived half the week, woohoo!

The weather here has really been looking up lately. It's gotten really warm and sunny - just as it's supposed to be in JUNE. Weather here was total crap for the last month, hence the title of this post (see what I did there? see?).

Anyways, I wanted to share some photos I shot on my walk with our puppy Bentley yesterday. I think it's really nice to just go for a walk with my camera hanging on my shoulder and photograph basically anything I fancy. Of course, you get the odd look or two when you're crouching on the ground a few inches away from a flower trying to get a pretty shot, but who cares! :)

Hope you guys enjoyed this post & you may kindly count this as my #30DaySnap for day 12 :)

Do any of you guys enjoy photography? Do you post your photos to a blog or website? If so, leave your link below, I'd love to see your work!

xo Michelle

Hope you guys are having a great week so far :) I had a horrible headache today, not too fun. Was glad to get home at 5pm, I'm feeling much better now.

Here is today's photo for the #30DaySnap!

I just recently finished reading "Blog, Inc." by Joy Deangdeelert Cho (whose blog is wonderful, may I add). Can I just say that this book is freakin' AWESOME! It's a wonderful read for any new bloggers as well as for bloggers who aren't quite there yet with their stats but blogging regularly. The tips are really great, it's easy to read and I love the layout and design of the book. It really inspired and motivated me - I even broke out my highlighter and marked the tips and tricks which I can use for my blog.

This is why I ordered the other three books from this "collection" called "Mom, Inc.", "Creative, Inc." and "Craft, Inc." (not pictured here as I haven't received it yet). These books are basically all about running a successful business from home, freelancing and building up your brand. Definitely check these out! I think they're worth it.

Are any of you reading any good books?

Are you participating in the 30 Day Snap? If so, leave your link below! I'd love to see your pics :)

xo, Michelle

Here is my photo for Day 10 of the #30Daysnap :)

I absolutely love this oldie of my sister & I. At this time we were living in either Canada or Washington State. I just love the vibe of the photo: the antique feel, the colorful children's table, our matching JEAN outfits... Too cute.

xo, Michelle

Hope you're all having a great and sunny weekend! Today is Sunday and all I've done so far is do the laundry and gave myself a mani/pedi. Still in my PJs - but that's exactly how it's supposed to be on a Sunday :)

This is an antique-looking lantern I received from my Mom. She bought this at a very reasonable price and she thought I'd like it. And I really do! It looks so beautiful in our lounge area on the balcony.

xo, Michelle

Oh no, total FAIL! I didn't get to posting my #30daysnap photo yesterday, ahh!

We had beauuutiful weather in Switzerland so my bf and I went to Lucerne to eat lunch with his cousin and then the 3 of us came back to where we live to celebrate my bf's sister's birthday. We had a great afternoon/evening/night and I captured something so pretty :)

The sun was shining and this pretty tree had the cutest purple blossoms - made me smile :)

xo Michelle

It's been a while since I've posted a "Mini Mani Update" but I'm BACK and going ahead full throttle! Or trying, at least.

On Thursday I tried out some new Essie Sleek Stick nail stickers in "02 croc 'n chic" which I picked up. Unfortunately, here in Switzerland, I haven't seen a large selection of Essie's nail stickers. Most stores have 2 or 3 of the stickers to choose from. But I really like these :)

I applied one sticker on each of my ring fingers as my "accent nail". On the rest of my nails I applied the shade "Bottle Service" from Essie's "Neons 2013" collection. This is a BRIGHT pink shade described as scorching neon fuchsia - love it. I actually don't own any bright pink nail polish shades so I welcomed this one to my collection with open arms.

I started out with one layer of OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener. I proceeded with 2 layers of "Bottle Service" and 2 layers of OPI "I Juggle...Men" on top of the nail sticker on my accent nail, to jazz it up a wee bit. I topped off every nail with my new Dry Fast Top Coat from Seche Vite. My nails dry so unbelievably fast with this top coat - it's a definite must if you don't have the patience. I read on someone's blog (can't remember for the life of me) that they aren't a huge fan of the Seche Vite top coat because they find that it pulls together while drying and that you then notice streaks in your nail polish color. On my nails, the top coat works perfectly on normal nail polish, BUT it does pull together when used on the nail stickers! After using the top coat, the nail stickers don't look as smooth - but that doesn't really bother me.

I did some must-needed maintenance on my cuticles since they can get so dry. After making sure my nail polish dried completely, I added some regular cuticle oil around each nail and rubbed it in. I then used some Almond Oil Daily Hand & Nail Cream from The Body Shop. This has been my favorite hand cream for years. The scent is not overbearing and I feel it's very nurturing for my skin. The one I'm holding here is in the old packaging - if you click the link you'll see the new packaging.

Here's a little extra bit for you guys:

When I first applied the nail sticks on my ring finger nails Thursday night, I applied Essie's "Miss Fancy Pants" to the rest of my nails. In real life, this shade matches the little squares on the nail stickers perfectly. Looked really chic and not in-your-face at all. BUT since it's Saturday and such nice weather, I thought that grey-ish shade was way too boring so I slapped on some neon pink - duh ;)

Have a wonderful day & stay tuned for today's #30daysnap photo!

xo Michelle

Our lil monster - 'nuff said...

But isn't he a cutie?! :)

I wasn't feeling too inspired today so a photo of a cute puppy can cheer anyone up, right?

If you're wondering what all this "30 day snap" business is about, check out this post where I introduce the series :)

Have a wonderful Friday guys!

xo Michelle

Hello my loves!

Welcome to my 30 Day Snap numero six-o!

The weather has finally changed for the better the last few days - thank goodness.

I took today's snapshot at 7pm - the sun was slowly setting and the sky was a beautiful blue with some random clouds. Perfection.

Happy Hump Day!

The weekend is so close, we can almost taste it...smell it....feel it? ANYWAYS, the sun is shining and that's been rare lately here in Switzerland! The weather has been crazy and depressing the past 2 months so here's hoping this keeps up.

Today's snapshot shows you my ultimate weakness...

JEWELRY - *heart skips a beat*. The brand Thomas Sabo in particular, may I add. Because of all their stupidly beautiful charms and necklaces and bracelets I continue to fork over my moolah again and again and again. This obsession has been going on now for about 5 years (please don't ask me to add up my Thomas Sabo receipts...)

Leave me a comment telling about your ultimate weakness :) Makeup, handbags, clothes, shoes, jewelry...? (I'm going to pretend for a second that I only have ONE weakness....)

xo Michelle

Hello again guys, I'm back with a second post for today :)

As promised in my "I'm BACK!" post a few days ago, I'm starting a new series called "Tuesday's Tunes". I really like when bloggers mention their current favorite songs so I thought I'd make this a regular weekly post.

Looooving this song lately. I like it better than the original, I must admit. Their voices, the guitar, the beautiful melody...sigh....

I used to listen to Fall Out Boy back in the day and kind of forgot about them. Then, Karissa from Saturdaynightsalrite mentioned (on Instagram?) that their newest album is amazing so I right away hopped on You Tube and checked out all the newest songs. This is def my favorite of the bunch!

Thought I'd throw a German song in there, just for fun ;) I've been listening to this tune for a while now and I don't think I'll ever get sick of it.

Hope you enjoyed the first instalment of "Tuesday's Tunes" and check back in next Tuesday for more of my favorite beats!

xo Michelle

Well hey there ya'll!

I'm feeling very snazzy right now cause I'm blogging from the TRAIN! So cool...I know.

I present to you - my photo of the day:

Today I started my new job after working for almost 6 years at my old job - so refreshing! The the new job is in a city which is closer to where I live and since I work really close to the train station I decided to start taking the train to work. Haven't done that in 3 years! It was so relaxing to sit back and read a book.

And this was my view this morning :)

Happy Sunday everyone!

It's already 9pm here and after a rather busy day I remembered I still need to post my second photo of the #30daysnap series :)

I received these orchids from my loving parents for my 25th birthday which was on May 13th. They sit on top of a small cupboard in my living room and I really love seeing them every day. The purple color really pops agains the white petals and they just look so sweet. Sometimes it's all about the little things ;)

xo Michelle

Hola guys!

If you don't know what the "30 Day Snap" is, check out yesterday's post here. It is originally Louise's idea: check out her blog Sprinkle of Glitter.

I'll also be posting my snaps in June on my Instagram (michelle_inanutshell) with the hashtag #30daysnap. Feel free to take part and post a pic with this hashtag every day in June :)

Our Mr. Bentley.... He's our chocolate Yorkie and he turned 1 year old in March 2013. Sometimes he can be a bit much, I admit... Especially when I feel like enjoying some lunch on the couch, he just HAS to be a part of it and steal my food! He's too cute to stay mad at for long, though. He got lucky ;)

xo Michelle

Happy weekend everyone! It's finally Saturday - feels so nice. On Monday I start a new job after staying at my last job for 5 years so I'm relaxing and mentally preparing for the new challenge. I'm excited! I'll be taking the train every morning and evening starting Monday so that means I'll have time to blog, which I'm really happy about.

ANYWAYS - I just got ready for the day / night and this is what I look like right now :) I never wear fake lashes on a normal work day and I only curl my hair for "special occasions" since it takes a while. But, long lashes and curls are my favorite look!

ON THE FACE

Firstly, I did my usual skincare regimen using Michael Todd products (more on that soon). Then, I used the Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer in "Light" which makes oily skin matte and helps fixate your foundation. I applied some Maybelline Dream Lumi Highlighting Concealer under my eyes and moved on to applying my Clarins Ever Matte Skin Balancing Foundation with my fingers. This foundation is oil-free and has an SPF 15. It feels very light and has medium coverage - very good for oily skin. To mattify and fixate my foundation, I dusted on some Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer Powder. This is a new purchase, a splurge of course, but I really like it so far! It's a very light powder with a bit of color and also has SPF 15. I contoured under my cheekbones with the Benefit Hoola bronzer and used my new NARS Deep Throat blush on the apples of my cheeks and pulled it back upwards. On the upper part of my cheekbones I used the beautiful Estée Lauder Heat Wave Illuminating Powder. I added some brown eyebrow gel by MAC on my eyebrows and voila!

ON THE EYES

Beginning with the Urban Decay eye primer potion I then added some Estée Lauder Double Wear ShadowCreme in "Ivory Lace" on my eye lids. This cream eyeshadow is a great base to keep your powder eyeshadow in place and helps make the color pop. On the lid, I added "Sin" from the Urban Decay NAKED palette. I used "Satin Taupe" by MAC in my crease, using a blending brush. Taking some "Vanilla" shadow by MAC on my pinkie, I applied it under my eyebrows and in my inner corners. On the lid I used my Smashbox Limitless Liquid Liner Pen in "dark brown". I really like the color of this eyeliner and how easy it is to apply thanks to the felt tip. On my lower lash line I used MAC's "Lord It Up" Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner. After curling my lashes, I applied Ardell's "Sweeties" lashes in black. Since my lashes are basically invisible and very thin, these fakes add a lot of length and a nice amount of volume. Enough to notice but not look very fake. I finished my eye makeup by using Covergirl Lash Blast Volume mascara in "very black" on my upper and lower lashes.

ON THE LIPS

With this eye makeup I wanted to keep my lips quite simple and natural. I used the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector gloss in shade "05". I'm a BIG fan of this lipgloss. It has a great applicator, smells delicious, feels very soft, not sticky at all and doesn't dry out my lips like some other glosses do.

Had to of course share my nails, as always ;) I'm wearing OPI's "Can't Find My Czechbook" and on my accent nail I added OPI's "Which is Witch?". LOVE.

Hope you liked this post! Let me know if you like wearing fake lashes and what kinds you like wearing? I'd love to know!

*** Be ready for another post today: the #30daysnap! ***

Well hey there, I've missed you!

I've neglected this blog for two months and that's just not acceptable. That's why I'm back for good - woo woo!

So, here are some things you can get excited for starting tomorrow:

#30DAYSNAP 

Louise from the blog Sprinkle of Glitter had the marvellous idea of starting the "30 Day Snap" tomorrow, June 1st. She'll be taking one photo a day for all of June to document her life. The challenge is open to everyone so I thought it could be fun! I enjoy taking pictures and I think this can be a fun way to enjoy the little things in life, every single day.

I'll be uploading a photo to this blog and to my Instagram each day of June. And I'll be using the hashtags #glittersnap (Louise's hashtag) and #30daysnap.

I challenge you to also take part! It's really all about the little things that bring you joy each day - doesn't have to be anything spectacular.

"There is something good in every day - don't let the negatives blur the positives."

TUESDAY'S TUNES

I'm starting a new series which I will upload every Tuesday called "Tuesday's Tunes". I really love when bloggers post their favorite songs/music at the moment since these posts show me songs which I've maybe never heard before. So I thought I'd also post a few songs each week which I'm loving at the time. Could be fun?

xo Michelle