Flatlay Skills and Birthday Thoughts

because of the lack of outfit pictures and the fact that this still is supposed to be a fashion blog first, i decided to share some of my instagram pictures and flatlays with you.

i LOVE flatlays, lately i'm quite obsessed with them, so what could be more reasonable than to learn how to do them myself. first it was quite tricky to find the right place with the best lighting etc, but then i found out that i have the perfect light on my bed in the afternoon. and cause i'm working from home as a freelancer i can make some free time every now and then and practice.

i have so many beautiful stuff, fashion and accessories, that i want to share with you! but i still have the problem that i have no one to take pictures of me, so this is the best way. there will still be outfit posts, this is just another way to embrace my love for fashion and photography.
some of the pictures are taken by my (crappy old) phone, some with my nikon SLR camera.

here you see some of the items i got for my birthday last week. i turned 29 on tuesday and had a wonderful day with my family. now it's just one year till the big 30.
but hey, i have no problem with getting older. as 40 is the new 30 and growing up with sex and the city, i always looked forward and enjoyed looking back and laughing about the silly mistakes i made when i was younger. 
i grew up the last couple of years, and i would never ever want to be 18 again.
i love the advantages of being mature, i've grown through my experiences and yes, also through my mistakes. i learned to forgive, to love myself and go for the things i want. and the most important, i know who i am and what i want. at least most of the time^^

and what i really wanted were this prada sunnies! (haha, jaja, nice bridge, i know^^)
my mum got them for me for my birthday and they arrived some weeks ago. we ordered them online cause it was quite impossible to get them in store. even the prada store was out of stock, and after some research we found them with a good discount online.

since i'm looking for a new wallet for quite a while now i was really happy to find this jobis wallet on sale at tkmaxx, which my father got for me, just like the bag that was a sale find at mango.

the other presents were a lovely sisley sweater i got from my brother and a DKNY bra from my sister.  
oh and my favorite chocolate which just came out in germany, lindt intense with strawberry. i first tried it in paris and was on the hunt ever since! my lovely sister found it at karstadt. if you see it give it a try!

how do you feel about getting older? is it just me who gets excited about it?