I hope you are doing very well, because I certainly do. As most of you are probably, I am enjoying my holidays to the most.



Four days ago I came home from my holidays. I was in Bali for three weeks which had been an absolute dream. I will write different blog posts on some topics during the next days, so be excited for those. Some of them I already wrote, some still need to be written but I can't wait to show you some parts of Bali.


When I came home I was happy to meet a new family member: Our cat Jules.



She is 12 weeks old, a british-shorthair-mix and so extremely cute.
Since she is so young she is sleeping a lot, is very needy and needs to learn a lot. She is not yet allowed to go outside on her own, but we carry her through the garden every day at least twice.
Sometimes she has, what we call, her "Five Minutes" in which she is running around, playing with her toys, climbing up the curtains et cetera... basically she is very energetic all of a sudden. After that she usually goes back to sleep.

We also had quite a terrifying start with her. The first day she was home she just vanished. From one moment to another she was just gone and we honestly thought she had found a way through the door to go outside. We searched through the entire house, walked through the neighborhood and looked under every plant in our garden. My mum was crying, my brother was extremely pissed. After six hours of searching frantically my father and I went to grab some dinner. On our way back my mum came running in our direction, waving and showing a thumbs up- they found her.
She was sleeping under a heater, hidden behind a small box. Wooow really!?!

Obviously, now everybody is so afraid of loosing her that at least one person is constantly guarding her to make sure she stays home.


Yesterday I uploaded my first YouTube video. I had the idea for a very long time and now during my summer holidays I thought "Well, just do it.", so I did yesterday. I am very excited to do more.

THE BACKSTORY: http://paulacharlotte.blogspot.de/2016/07/my-first-youtube.html
THE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Gf-tMkqVILM

This morning I started learning Here comes the sun until my fingers were hurting. Maybe this will be uploaded to my channel some day as well, so keep an open eye for that (cheeky hint).


That is it from my life at the moment. In the next couple of days I will be writing the Bali-posts, study for my driver-licence thing and meet some friends.

What are you up to during your holidays? 


I am going to go in the garden now and eat ice-cream. I am also sweating because I wrote this and the other blogpost on my balcony with the sun heating up my legs. But I need to get that sun and oxygen amiright? Okay, I'm gonna go now.

(i promise i am not naked in this picture, the sunlight is just too bright!)

Hello you lovely bunch.

Yesterday evening I uploaded my very first video on YouTube- a cover version of Can't help falling in love by Elvis Presley (or Twenty One Pilots, they made a famous cover of it which went viral) on my ukulele.

I bought this ukulele about two months ago.

my twitter is @paulacharlottes *cough* *cough*

During that time I was on holiday for three weeks, I had to take my exams, I met friends, made some trips and basically did not practice everyday or regularly at all. Long story short: I am not the best at playing the ukulele. Bare this in mind if you are interested in watching the video.
Can't help falling in love was one of the first songs I learned to play and I was very proud when I got it completely right in one go.
After watching many Youtubers (like Dodie for example) having a channel contributed to music and playing different instruments, I was like "I can play some instruments, I love music, I enjoy making music- why shouldn't I try it out?"

Well, simply because I was afraid of friends and family to find out. That they would laugh at me, make jokes, destroy it for me. I still am, to be honest. They don't even know about this blog, so a YouTube Channel seemed way more scary.

What made me do it anyway?
The pure passion for music and for living my own life. I told myself that if they would find this blog, my channel or my twitter account (so many "secret" online things about me yeeeez) and make fun of it I would simply defend it. Because these things are fun to me and I enjoy writing and sharing. But if they fancy wasting their time looking at what I am doing online I won't stop them.

Still, when I actually hit the upload button my heart was racing and I was so afraid. Because after all the cover was not that good and people on the internet can be mean.
What would I do if I would get a negative comment or a bad rating?
Would it affect me?
.... well hell yes it would. 


I shared the video on my twitter and continued my day, or rather my evening, as normal as possible. I didn't check the video for ratings or comments.

When I woke up this morning however my phone sent me two notifications from the video, as two people decided to watch the video and comment underneath.



I was SO relieved you have no idea! It really made me excited to post new stuff and I really wanted to become better asap.
I felt insured in the decision I made.

I think it will take a while until I feel comfortable enough to speak, because, as you know, English is not my mother tongue and I will probably make mistakes. I just want to be able to embrace them.
So there you have it, the backstory of my first ever YouTube video. If you still fancy watching it, it is here:

Hello everyone!

During the last couple of weeks school had been the most stressful it ever was.
I wrote 10 exams in 4 weeks, teachers gave us a ton of homework and I still wanted to have my life on track, like working out regularly, eat healthily and get enough sleep.

Working out has only been an organization thing and eating healthily had been possible with the support of my mum (I usually cook my own food but she helped me so I could cook it quicker).

But sleeping had been the major issue. 
I noticed that with less than six hours of sleep my day already started abysmal and no amount of coffee could fix it.
So when I sat on my desk till 12 p.m I knew the next day would be ruined.

Over the weeks I discovered some things which made me sleep quicker and deeper, so I would not wake up during the night. And now I am sharing these things with you.



1. Be active during the day.

The first advice I am giving you is actually beginning way before you are going to bed:
Do something active because otherwise you wont feel tired and can't sleep quickly.
Just take a walk, go to the gym, play with your pet or have a quick work out at home. I don't know, just be active so in the evening you'll feel more exhausted and tired.


2. Calm down.

Before you decide it is time to go to bed you should not start working out or study. You need to calm down. I do that by tiding up my room, pack my bag for school, prepare food or watch some TV. I also found out that drinking tea is very relaxing and I usually take a cup with me in my bed.
When in bed it's best to read a book to relax.


3. Phone.

PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY!!!
I know it is very tempting to check twitter, snapchat, tumblr and youtube in the evening to catch up on everything. But just don't.
The light on your phone has a lot of blue in it which is similar to the sunlight and makes you more awake. So when your like "Quickly checking something on ma phone" your brain is like "Sunlight need to wake up asap.". Apple now got the option to make the screen more yellow during the night and I do use it every evening.
It is best though to just leave your phone by the side and to not touch it until it wakes you up in the morning.


4. Lights.
Ban every light coming into your room or inside. Starting by your phone, then the annoying flashing light on your TV or Laptop, close every blind and lastly switch your bedside lamp off as soon as you're not needing it anymore.


5. Preparation.
I get lazy when it gets later. So I like to put on my PJ's, remove my make-up and brush my teeth before it is actually time to go to bed. Then if you're doing something like watching TV and feel like you are tired enough to go to bed you don't have to spend another twenty minutes in the bathroom.


6. Bedtime.
The last one is kind of obvious but I still wanted to mention it.
Set yourself a time when it is time for you to go to bed.  For me it is 10 p.m so I get around 8 hours of sleep. It is actually a realistic time, but still hard for me to keep, because for some reason I feel like time passes faster in the evening.
Still, 10 p.m is a good time for me and if it gets later it is still okay, as long as I'm getting at least around 6 to 7 hours of sleep.


So that was it!
These were my six tips on how to get a better night sleep.
I hope these were helpful for you and that you can adapt some of them.

Do you have any other tips or advice for me or for others?
Leave them if you want in the comments underneath this post.

I hope you are having a lovely day!

Hello people. 

Nobody asked for this. I know that.
But yesterday I went to a drugstore and was like "I'm gonna buy new make-up." but after good thirty minutes of looking around I couldn't find anything I liked or needed and was frustrated for a bit.
Then I thought: "Well, this is actually awesome, because that means I have the perfect make-up at the moment and I don't need anything else." 




So today I'm going to show you my make-up I'm using every morning. It is a very quick routine, easy and definitely affordable. Let's go!

Brushes: Ebelin Bronzer: Catrice Sun Glow for Darker Skin Powder: Manhatten Soft Compact Powder Natural Look Number 3 Beige

I start by applying powder to my face to create a base. I never really had problems with my skin, so I am not using any concealer or foundation. Powder is for me the perfect thing to use to make my skin look more even without feeling like I am actually wearing make-up.
I am using the big fluffy brush and put the powder all over my face. It is a bit lighter than my skin tone, but this way I can also use it as a highlighter (kind of...). 
Then I am either using the long brush or the same brush as I used before, put it in the bronzer and contour my face. I am only drawing a line under my cheekbones I don't fully sculpt my face. Then I am using the fluffy brush again and add a bit of the bronzer on my forehead, my nose, my cheeks and on my v-line. 

Eyebrow kit: Essence- Hello Autumn eyebrow set a random brow brush

Eyeshadow Pallet: Maybelline New York The Nudes Brush: Ebelin Blending Brush

Mascara: Maybelline New York Lash Sensational Volume Mascara

Lip Balm: Bee Natural w/ the flavour Pomegranate

Good morning friends.

One thing you may not know about me, is that I am a very sentimental person.
I found out when I went through some really old photos of my brothers and my childhood.
Just little thing like "How did the living room back then looked like?" or "Mum, is that you oh my god, you have changed." or "Oh my god, the guinea pigs!" or "What am I wearing, it is so tiny." completely blew my mind and I could not stop looking and wondering.

Then I thought: "Well, what is about now? What if in a few years, when I am 25, I want to look back on my teenage years and I just won't have any footage of it."
Of course my parents kind of lost interest in photographing everything, since neither me nor my brothers change as much as we did back when we were 3 or 4.

So I figured the one best thing to do is to take photos. Many, many photos. On order to remember my task I always have my camera within reach. When I am going on a walk or meet someone, I surely have it somewhere in my bag. In my room it is laying right in the center so I can grab it quickly and don't have to look for it for too long.
There is just something about taking a photo with a proper camera I don't feel while snapping a photo with my phone.

In April I started capturing the first signs of spring.



When I had a friend around I took pictures of her and how I rearranged my room to make it cozier.

she is literally a sunshine so this is legitimate

I also really enjoyed taking photos of the sky. Clouds are so temporary and they sometimes just look too beautiful not to capture and remember them.




Sometimes there was just a beautiful contrast of sun and shadow that instantly made me grab my camera and capture it.




So as you can tell, these pictures are really random and don't have a theme or took too much effort. But I love looking back on these little moments.
Memories from your everyday life are so valueable and in a few years or even month you'll be extremely happy you made that little photograph. It is a lot quicker than writing a diary every evening, but can already tell you just as much about your day.

Hello people.


Today is the last day of vacation. And this time the idea of returning to school feels worse than usual.


Before I go into detail about that I'll quickly tell you about today:
This morning I got up at about 8 a.m. and after a small breakfast (green tea and kiwi) I started tidying up my room. After coming back from Amsterdam I have been too lazy to put the stuff in my room away and the piles were destracting and ugly so I had been organizing and folding clothes. While doing that I also listened to my happy playlist on spotify. Seriously, listening to music in the morning is the best thing ever, it wakes you up and instantly lifts up your mood.
After that my parents woke up and I started doing some left-overs from my homework I had to do during the holidays.
When my mum finished breakfast we drove to the gym and I had a really good work out. The gym wasn't too full, it was a little bit too hot in there so I have been quite sweaty, not gonna lie, but I had leg day today which I usually enjoy more than any other work out.
We then drove home again, took a shower and after that we drove to a food festival in a city near us.


I had a kind of wrap/ sandwich thing from spain (I am sorry, I forgot what it was actually called), filled with tomato, morzarella, basil and pesto. Oh my god, it has been so delicious. The city was really crowded which I can't stand for that long, but I met some people from school and also my brother and a friend of his and we had a coffee together which had been lovely as well.




During spring break I spend a lot of time doing stuff, like working out, taking photos, painting, writing, reading, traveling, meeting friends et cetera. So I haven't been bored at all, as I usually am during any kind of holiday. Usually I end up missing school because I get bored.
This year I had my days scheduled, I had plans and goals I had to achieve in a day and I nailed it everytime. I learned to properly plan my days to make them useful and not to waste them completely. I feel like I changed during that short period of time a lot. Not only mentally, but also physically, since I had so much time to work out regularly and even more often.
Now just the idea of going back to school makes me feel sick and just feels weird to me: I had a life completely independent from school. I even forgot sometimes that I had to go back! 
I think my mind ousted every thought of school because the last three weeks of school had just been the worst for me. As you know, I had to hand in the very important essay on the last monday before the holidays, so the weeks before that dead-line had been most stressful and there had been evening where I just wanted to quit and not do anything anymore, but I knew I had to and there was no way around it. Good for the mental health hahahahhaha fml 

Now I am here, enjoying the last hours of freedom before I go to bed and start the stressful normal course of life. In the next week I need to prepare two presentations, one of them is related to the essay, write an analysis and interpretation about an excerpt from a Kafka book and make some kind of project for art. I would have actually prefered to start those things during my holidays, but the teachers forgot to give me more details about it and nobody answered my emails. Nice one teachers. Thanks. 

So I am really looking forward to school, doing homework again, getting up at 6 a.m., getting home at 4 p.m. or later and of course still trying to have the rest of my life in order, meaning to work out regularly, practise piano and singing and give private lessons. And additionally still get enough sleep, eat regularly and healthy and sometime allow myself to some fun.

Hello people on the internet.

I AM BACK. FINALLY.
I am very sorry for my long long absence, but I have a reasonable explanation.

As you know, I have been ill for a few days. What you don't know is, that the illness didn't leave me, no, it stayed for two weeks! So I had to stay in bed, I drank a lot of tea, went to school occasionally just to leave earlier and go to bed again. Last week I started feeling better, but I had to write my fifteen page essay. So since Friday I did nothing but write and work. Sunday night I actually stayed up until 4 am to finish it and make it perfect.
When I handed the essay in on Monday I felt the biggest relief I have ever felt. It was like a big mountain which sat on my back drifted off and I was finally able to stand up straight again. This is probably the worst comparison ever, but it was my first association.

But this is not what this post is supposed to be about. As you probably read in the title I am going to tell you about a few random favorites of mine. There was no way of putting them seperately, so here you go: A confusing mix of different things I enjoyed over the past weeks.



Starting with something normal and relatable. Lately my obsession with Harry Potter regrew which seems to be an annual thing, since I basically had the same thing last year aroung this time and re-read the complete series in January. This year I started buying the books in English, because before I obviously read the German translation.
I do not regret it. I feel like the books are a lot better with the original words.




My next favorite is kind of random, but I love it too much to not share it. It is the website deavita.com. Their description is acutally on point so I'll insert it here:

Before I start writing anything:
Thank you guys so so so much for 1000 page views! I just opened blogger and was so impressed by that number welcoming me. Seriously, I am really grateful and I hope that you enjoy my posts so far.


Okay, but now: Hello everyone.

I hope you had a good week, because I sure as hell hadn't. (nice transition, I know)
Those who follow me on twitter surely couldn't avoid me moaning about being ill. Not that kind of "Uuuh I have a a cold my nose feels weird"-ill. No, I mean full on "I can't move, don't look at me I am dying"-ill. It started Wednesday in school. In music we had to write an analysis and interpretation of a certain piece by Schumann (actually forgot which one).
For two hours I sat directly in the sun and obviously got quite hot. During work I already started feeling weird and a bit dizzy, but I thought it was just because of the sun.
After that we had German and the feeling just wouldn't disappear. I started annoying my friends and they were playing it down so I figured it was still because of the intense sun.
In biology I was absolutely sure that I did not only feel bad because of that. We spent an hour watching a less interesting movie about evolution in complete darkness. And I was literally dying.

After that nerve wrecking hour I left school, with my friends's blessing. (An actual quote here: "Yea, you should better leave, you look like shit."... thanks haha)

At home I laid myself down on the sofa and fell asleep on the sofa. When I woke up at 5 p.m I was an absolute wreck. My mother stuffed me with Paracetamol, Dobendan, Sinupret and more lovely medicine. 


Thursday morning it was sure for me to stay home. Throughout the day I read Harry Potter 3 (for the hundreds time I suppose), drank so much tea, ate soup and slept. Hasn't been necessarily productive, but I was exhausted because my body was constantly fighting the illness inside of me. It was also rainy and dark which dragged me down. Most of the time I kept my windows covered because I couldn't stand the clouds and grayness. 



Friday morning I took a shower and noticed that I had some weird red spots on my arms. I did not worry too much, because I already had those like two years ago. I went to my mum and she gave me cream. I stopped giving attention to them until I woke up from my afternoon nap and got changed. Because when I put on my boxers I noticed that my legs were red dotted and when I touched them they hurt and started itching. I freaked out a bit and ran to my mum who then gave me some more cream and a weird pill which did help the itching.
In the evening I looked at the enclosed label from every medicine I got and turns out:
The rash comes from the Paracetamol. I am the lucky person who gets the "very rare" side-effect of nettle rash. Thanks Universe!

The next morning was awful! The sickness was gone, but the allergic reaction was terrible. The rash was now spreading up my neck, my hands and my feet and I was constantly afraid that my face was gonna get injured. Luckily the rash let everything out, except for my eyes.
At about 11 a.m my eyes started itching, became red, I had to sneeze constantly and couldn't open them completely. I felt like a dying new born rabbit!
We went to the doctor and she gave me eye drops. When I used them they didn't seem to help at first but in the evening it got better and the redness on my arms and legs disappeared as well.

So here I am, Sunday afternoon, not feeling ill anymore. But because of that tragedy I couldn't do any homework and couldn't work on my 15 page essay. I hope my teachers won't decapitate me for my need to recover, but they often have no sympathy for anything like that.

I guess my lesson for today is: Better stay in school and don't wish to be ill, as I know some people sometimes do. My last four days had been terrible and I would have preferred to go to school...