When we can’t control a situation, I believe the best thing that we can do, is to control our mindset – if we adapt our cognitive interpretation of the event we can receive the best possible outcome of an event. Most of the time this means thinking with a more optimistic perspective. But how do we actually do that? It’s easy enough for someone to tell you to be more cheerful, be more optimistic, look for the silver lining, but it’s easier said than done. In this post, I’m going to take you through what it means to have an optimistic outlook and how to cultivate one.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit New York quite a few times, but I don’t think I had ever experienced it to the full extent that I did during this trip. I LOVED it. As I’ve said, I love being around nature, but I’m also a city girl. I’ve grown up in two large and bustling cities: London and Dubai.

I hope you’re all having an amazing summer so far! Since you guys enjoyed my last photography guide so much, I decided to write another one specific to flay-lays. People are always asking me how I take my flat-lay photos, and, in my opinion, they are the hardest photos to get right. There are so many aspects that go into making a good flat-lay shot, and I’m going to take you through them today as well as my specific tips and tricks.

I’ve always loved photography, I find it so interesting how you can snap a moment, and have that photo to look back and remember that exact point in time. For a long time before starting my blog I had been taking photos and capturing moments, but I just didn’t have anywhere to put them. That’s why when I started my blog, one of the things I was the most excited about, was finally being able to take photos for this blog and having somewhere to share them.

I made the switch to using clean beauty products this year, and being more aware of what I’m putting on my skin and my body. I realised that I make such an effort to fill my body with nutritious and healthy food, when I cover it with products full of toxins and all kinds of chemicals, which is kind of hypocritical. And I know, clean beauty seems like it’s all the rage right now, with more and more brands claiming to be ‘organic’ or ‘natural’, but if you find real clean beauty products, you will soon realise this whole clean beauty regime is not a fad, it really truly does work.

So, if you’re one of my regular readers you’ll know that over winter break I visited Vienna, which means that I ate lots of yummy Christmassy treats and snacks. One of the things I really wanted to do on this trip was to visit Christmas markets, instead of going to the big tourist attractions. And because I LOVE FOOD, I got to try lots of different fresh and delicious street food snacks at the markets.