Monday Moodboard

Hello and happy Monday! Have you thought about what to get for Father's Day this year? Check out these gift ideas I found on Etsy :)

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Vatertag, zumindest in USA, fällt dieses Jahr auf den 19. Juni. Hier habe ich ein paar Geschenkideen, die auch für Männergeburtstage geeignet sind.  Alle bei Etsy gefunden. Schönen Montag!

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Japan Day [ Duesseldorf ]

Duesseldorf, the city I used to live and work in, is home to around 7000 Japanese nationals. The city has cultivated business ties to Tokyo since the 1950s. The Japanese Gardens are a pleasant place to visit in spring, and whenever I'm in the city I make sure to stop by the Japanese supermarket to stock up on snacks and miso. This past weekend the Japan Day took place on the river Rhine promenade, drawing approximately 750.000 visitors from all over Germany as well as neighboring countries. I have to mention that I felt sorry for the unhappy babies and dogs that people with obviously no common sense brought along. It was unusually warm that weekend and with hundreds of thousands of people in a confined area...need I say more? Aside from that it was a pretty cool, if exhausting event, although I had wished for more "culture" less "pop" ;-)

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Der Japantag, ein beliebtes Kultur- und Begegnungsfest hat erneut 750.000 Besucher an die Düsseldorfer Rheinuferpromenade gelockt. In rund 90 Zelten entlang der Promenade vom Schlossufer im Norden bis zur Wiese am Landtag im Süden begegneten sich die rheinische und japanische Kultur. Auch aus dem europäischen Ausland sind viele Besucher angereist, um in die Kultur Japans einzutauchen. Bei solchen Menschenmassen auf begrenztem Raum sind mir gleich zu Beginn ein paar negative Aspekte aufgefallen. Die Sicherheitskräfte waren dünn gesät. Außerdem taten mir die unglücklichen Babys und Hunde leid, die wider alle Vernunft mitgeschleppt wurden. Nicht zuletzt störten mich die Pöbelei der vielen Betrunkenen, die auf dieser Veranstaltung nichts zu suchen hatten...Mittlerweile weiß ich, dass viele Besucher der gleichen Meinung sind und offiziell beim Veranstalter Beschwerde eingelegt haben. Ich hoffe, dass sie diese ernst nehmen. Abgesehen davon war es ein lustiges, wenn auch anstrengendes Event und zum Glück spielte das Wetter mit!

This festival-style event offers a wide-ranging programme, including traditional Japanese music, dance, martial arts, Japanese food, pop culture, manga and  anime, Japanese calligraphy, gift shops and the ever popular cosplayers. Japan Day 2016 culminated in a spectacular flower-and-animal-themed professional fireworks display, drawing even more visitors! When I arrived it was already packed. Plenty of people had brought blankets to spread out on the grassy area along the boardwalk.

Das breit gefächerte Programm umfasst traditionelle japanische Musik, Tanz, Kampfkunst, Japanisches Essen, Manga und Anime, Kalligraphie, Souvenirläden und die immer beliebten Cosplayer. Den Abschluss des Japan Tages 2016 bildete das grandiose japanische Feuerwerk, das in diesem Jahr "Bäume, Blumen, Tiere – die Welt der Natur" abbildete, und zu welchem noch einige hundert Besucher mehr angereist kamen.

The following photos are mostly candid shots taken with a 35mm prime lens. The cosplayers were out in force, some of them offering free hugs :) There's everything from Lolita fashion, fluffy Pokemon characters, geishas and various manga costumes. I really appreciate the effort made with some of the costumes and big thanks to everyone who indulged me by having their photo taken and to those who weren't aware. Being in the middle of the action taking street shots like these are always a bit iffy over here - you never know how people are going to react. Thankfully nobody complained. Anyway, I hope you enjoy them!

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Die folgenden Momenaufnahmen sind alle mit 35mm Festbrennweite aufgenommen. Die Cosplayer waren zahlreich vertreten. Bewundernswert mit wieviel Aufwand einige der Kostüme angefertigen wurden! An dieser Stelle ein großes Dankeschön an alle, die sich freiwillig haben fotografieren lassen und natürlich auch an alle anderen ;-) Ich weiß zwar, dass hierzulande nicht so locker damit umgegangen wird wie z.B. in USA...aber wer zu solch einer Veranstaltung ein auffälliges Kostüm in der Öffentlichkeit trägt, dem sollte klar sein, dass er/sie von Besuchern abgelichtet wird. Dennoch, falls jemand sich hier wiedererkennt (und das nicht möchte), kurze Mail an mich und ich lösche das Foto.

Happy Friday!!!

Wordless Wednesday

How to manage your instagram account

The other day I received an email from the folks at Iconosquare. This is what the message said:

On June 1st 2016 we will launch a new version of Iconosquare. The current version will no longer be available and the public Instagram viewer will be shut down.

This new Iconosquare is not just a visual redesign, but a whole new product with new features. Some major changes will accompany this release. You can keep using the current version of Iconosquare for free until the 1st June 2016. After that day the new version will only be available to PLUS and ELITE users.

Well, bummer.

Just when I got comfortable viewing my instagram feed chronologically and, although simple, the free version lets me manage my account in an easy, straightfoward way. Also, iconosquare makes managing comments easy too (btw, I get more comments on instagram than I get on my blog). But my lovely blog readers are way more loyal than my instagram followers. It's pretty common that instagram users will eventually unfollow once they hit 5k and you don't. But I digress.

So, I did a little research.

There are a number of alternatives out there, however, some seem to violate the TOS of instagram, so it pays to read the small print carefully.

*Update - just heard back that Ink361 will change its format. The version will no longer be available

Check out Ink361, where you can conveniently log in with your instagram account. It let's you view the instagram feed chronologically (yay) and manage comments, although the format does take getting used to. Published images automatically have Pinterest / Twitter / Google+ buttons, so you may crosspost easily. There's a backup function for your images / albums. You can also create circles similar to Google+. Useful if you want to check out certain topics, i.e. jewelry, foodpics etc.  Although the statistics aren't in depth, they are suffient for my purposes. Among others you can check hashtag popularity and most liked posts. The down side is there are a lot of ads within the feed itself and also in the side bars. In any case if you do not want to pay $$$ for iconosquare's Plus or Elite versions, then I'd recommend switching to Ink361.

As mine is a relatively small instagram account I currently don't need tons of data, however, Dasheroo seems like a decent place to start. I'm specifically intersted in their small business dashboard, which is also free. Dasheroo lets you configure your dashboard to your preferences and check your stats on multiple apps, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Analytics and Instagram. Seems efficient to me. I haven't tried out all the features yet, but it doesn't look like you'd be able to manage instagram comments. Rather it's an analytic tool for managing your account(s) and perhaps to check current social media trends. Something to keep in mind for when my account grows :)

Lastly, I wanted to share whether the changes to the feed on instagram several weeks ago have affected my sales negatively. Happy to report that this is not the case! With the right hashtags and a great photo you can still reach tons of potential customers. The only thing I've noticed is my growth rate has slowed down. I used to get several new followers per day. Now it's maybe one every three days. But as I mentioned it's not the follower count that's important, it's the quality of followers :)

I still need to figure out how to add a new instagram widget, since my current one will disappear once iconosquare's free version shuts down at the end of this month.

Do you use instagram for your business? Do you know of any other tools to manage your account?

Monday Moodboard

Non-traditional brides-to-be will love that Fiesta red is trending in weddings this year, from dresses, hair accessories to invitations - this strong color will add brightness to any wedding. Here are my picks!

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Nicht traditionelle Bräute werden sich freuen, dass Fiesta Rot in diesem Jahr beliebt ist - von Brautkleidern, Haar-Accessoires bis zu Hochzeitseinladungen - diese leuchtende Farbe ist auf jeden Fall ein Hingucker! 

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Friday Favorites

It's been a while since I last posted a Friday Favorites feature so here it is, the pastel version! Enjoy and have a great weekend :)

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Höchste Zeit, dass ich mal wieder meine Favoriten am Freitag zeige! Diesmal alles in Pastell! Ich wünsche Euch allen ein wunderschönes Wochenende :)

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Wordless Wednesday

The earth laughs in flowers ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday Moodboard

Another wonderful thing about May are the gorgeous lilac trees currently in full bloom. I love their pretty blossoms in all shades from deep pink to the palest lilac and their delicate fragrance is divine. Seen any lilacs in your neck of the woods?

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Im Mai ist wieder Fliederzeit. Ich liebe die kleinen Blüten in allen Farben von Pink bis Zartlila und wie sie duften...einfach herrlich. Meine heutige Collage habe ich dem Flieder gewidmet!

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