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