May 2016

Two years have passed…

Two years ago, on this day, I wore a lot of white pouffy veil and D wore the lightest coloured suit in his closet, and we both were younger and fatter!

So here’s the deal, to end the confusion, two years ago we had our religious ceremony, but, as a matter of fact, we signed the marriage license a year before (we’ll do an anniversary post on that too when the day comes). You’re probably wondering if I was pregnant or if we needed the benefit of being married… Well, none of those versions is right! We really wanted to have the date we met written in our marriage license (july) and ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a May bride. The only way that could happen, was if we had the two ceremonies a year apart. Today, we are celebrating the 2014 big wedding party, hence the white dress and the yellow bow-tie.

The past two years (all seven of them actually) have been the best anyone could ever ask for. I’m certain there will be many more to come, filled with joy, love, harmony and new adventures. Never in my life could I have imagined a better life partner to share with all my happiness and my sorrow. D always supports every idea I have, no matter how stupid it sounds and he always puts up with my crankyness and my moods. He never put down any of my ideas and always encouraged me and helped me to pursue every little dream.

The same went for our wedding party. Not once did he tell me that something I wanted wasn’t doable, on the contrary, he always did everything in his power to make sure that my exact vision would become reality. It is thanks to him and his constant support that I was able to have my dream wedding and I really hope that it fulfilled his expectations as well.

The entire party took us almost a year of planning because there were a lot of custom made details that usually implied a lot of handwork. A big help we had was our wedding planner that Marriott allocated for our event. She was really a miracle worker as a lot of the stuff I wanted was really specific. I had a very clear image in my mind on everything about the event, starting with the theme and ending with the napkin ribbons. Thanks to hubby dearest and our wedding planner, everything was in accordance to our ‘lemon-lime’ theme.
As opposed to the crystal clear picture I had in my mind regarding the decorations, the wedding dress was a real blur and three months before the event, I had no idea what I liked. That is until I went to Anca Maxim, that designed the dresses I wore for my civil ceremony, and she totally enlightened me and helped me find inspiration in one of Elie Saab‘s collections. I needed a custom made dress because I wanted it to perfectly match our theme, therefore, we had a yellow bow attached on the corset. I will be forever thankful to mrs. Maxim for making my dream dress a reality! The craftmanship and the tailoring were superb and I was sad to realize that I was only going to wear the dress for that one event. D got his suit custom made at Ego. We chose them simply because they’re the best at customizing suits. Since our theme required a certain colour combo, we needed the best and, honestly, working with them, we really felt like they are the best at what they do!

The obvious shoe choice for me was Christian Louboutin. The only problem with that was that he had nothing green in the current collection, but I had my eye on the Rosazissimo sandal for a long time. Finding the only green pair online, and in my size alone, made me think that those shoes were meant for me! As with all my Loubs, these sandals being 100mm heels were perfect for dancing an partying for more than 12 hours. D had his shoes custom made at Mihaela Glavan because finding the perfect combo of shape, colour and comfort was virtually impossible. Since my shoes were green, his had to have at least a little yellow in them, so we opted for a grey-yellow combo.
Since it was our wedding, we needed to have Converse sneakers in it no matter what! Custom made Converse, that is! Luckily, at the time we were planning the wedding, my best friend was in New York and we were able to have her send them to me as Converse doesn’t ship to Romania.

The photos you see here were take by our favourite wedding photographer, Constantin Butuc, in Balcik for our ‘Trash the Dress’ photoshoot. Maybe next year, I’ll upload some photos from the actual wedding party and we’ll discuss a bit about caterers, decorators and florists.
I will stop rambling now as today we have a lot of celebrating to do, so we’ll probably be rather busy toasting for amazing years to come!
L.

May 31, 2016May 31, 2016

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A day to remember!

Saturday was the perfect late spring day. When we woke up, the sun was shining, and for the first time this year, I was happy half of our Saturday was filled with errands that required us to be outside. The other half of the day was all about D‘s birthday party. We both couldn’t wait to feel the warm air and the hot rays on our faces, so right before we started our to-do list, we decided to have a photoshoot in the park. Obviously, since the weather is this nice, we are determined to have as many photoshoots as possible.

I decided to embrace the bare shoulders trend coupled with espadrilles. The dress is from ZARA and I love it as I feel it is a combo between two very popular trends: the shirt dress and the peasant bohemian dress. I felt very comfortable while wearing it even though, from time to time, I did feel like I was dressed in a paper bag. I went for the espadrilles because I knew we had a lot of running around to do and wedges or heels simply would not have been practical. True, I could’ve opted for ballerinas, but right now I love everything with a rope sole.

On me:
Dress – ZARA; Shoes – Vidoretta; Bag – Furla; Bling – Swarovski (ring and bracelet), Tomorrowland and Pandora; Watch – Longines; Shades – Ray-Ban

I found these wonderful multicoloured espadrilles in Madrid at Vidoretta and simply loved the fact that they’re extremely versatile and comfortable. The bag is from Furla and right now, the only thing that bugs me about it is that it doesn’t have a shoulder strap. I have to wear it on my left arm constantly until my tattoo heals and I hate that because most of the time my left arm is useless. As blings, I wore my Longines watch, my usual Tomorrowland and Pandora rings and my Swarovski bracelet and ring.

On D:
T-shirt – Massimo Dutti; Pants – ZARA; Shoes – Pull and Bear; Watch – Longines; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics

I kept my hair as casual as possible as I decided in the morning that I don’t feel like doing anything to it. To finish the look, I wore my flowery Ray-Ban sunglasses, which feel like I have summer on my face.
As opposed to me, D chose a darker blue combo, but he also chose espadrilles. He wore a pair of printed chinos from ZARA, paired with a t-shirt from Massimo Dutti. What I love about this t-shirt is the fact that it doesn’t have the traditional polo collar, but rather a non-collar. He got his espadrilles from Pull and Bear a few years ago, but since this trend is here to stay, you can find loads of options online and in stores right now.

D also wore his Longines watch and as usual paired it with his Fossil bracelet and his Constantin Nautics necklace. Since he’s our personal photographer, he rarely has the chance to wear sunglasses.

That stop on the park, on our way to the market really gave us the energy to complete all our tasks for the day and also helped us enjoy the party that came afterwards (not that we needed anything to help us enjoy a party). Literally, thanks to our friends and the lovely weather, Saturday the 28th is a day to remember for us.
L.

May 30, 2016

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Daydreaming Rooftop Party…

The last couple of days have been hectic and filled with all sorts of activities that required our full attention… I really wanted to be able to post this yesterday as this is the first of many festival fashion posts to come this summer. Since the Daydreaming Rooftop Party is the intro to Untold festival, we just had to be there, especially since Satoshi Tomiie was mixing.

Luckily, the weather turned out to be ok in the evening, as opposed to Friday morning when the weather was horrible. Despite this being a party on the rooftop of a shopping centre, both D and I decided on a relaxed festival look. I chose a peasant dress and gladiator sandals while he chose chinos and a v-neck t-shirt. Unfortunately, you can’t find these Rachel Zoe beauties that I’m wearing online anymore, but there are literally hundreds of options as gladiator sandals are quite big this summer. The same goes for the Michael Kors bag, but I found a pretty close alternative online.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Shoes – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Michael Kors; Bling – Tomorrowland, Pandora and Swarovski; Watch – Daniel Wellington; Shades – Woodfellas

We took these pictures right before the party, and D was very excited about them as he just loved the sunset light and said that this is the perfect light for creative photos. Once there, we both enjoyed the party so much that we really forgot to take any pics of the event, but hey, it really opened our appetite for this summer’s festivals.

On D:

Pants – ZARA; T-shirt – Tommy Hilfiger; Shoes – Polo Ralph Lauren; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Watch – Daniel Wellington; Shades – Ray-Ban

As today is Sunday, and therefore, it is ‘barely-any-text-day’ I will shut-up now, and let you enjoy D‘s creative photos!

May 29, 2016May 29, 2016

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Austrian wonder!

I’ve thought long and hard about what to write about this wine, I’ve done my research and to be quite honest, I’m afraid this post might turn out like one of those Sunday posts with barely any text, but only a bunch of photos and some shopping information.

D found this gem of a wine a few months back and the guy at the wine shop warned him that this is really a very special Riesling, so we dicided to save it for a very special occasion. What better occasion is there other than your man’s birthday? None, I tell you, none! Once back from our late luch at Norma on Monday, we opened the ‘unicorn’ wine and our wine chart was changed forever. This is definately the best white wine we’ve ever drank. You absolutely have to try this one, especially if you are a wine lover!

The reason I was having second thoughts about writing a detailed description about it, is that you simply can’t put into words the great quality and the superb taste it has. And I am also afraid you are going to miss my point about having to try out this wine!
I’m talking about an Austrian wine and as much as we love Romanian wines, our top three wines are all Austrian. For some reason we both feel that this country gives to the world some of the best wines out there. However, this Rudi Pichler Riesling is out of this world good. True it is a wine from 2012 and currently you can barely find it anywhere, and true, it is a bit more expensive than other wines we’ve reviewed here, but it is worth both the search and the money!

We have come to the moment I was torn about in the begining of this post… Should I brag about all the research I’ve done on this Riesling or should I just URGE you to try it for youtself to get my point?
Not being in a hurry to finish this post, I am going to give a swift description about my experience with it. I’m not going to talk about the winery or the winemaker, just about the three essential consumer issues: colour, smell and taste. First thing I noticed about this wine when D pored it into the glass is the clear pale green-yellow colour that immediately tells you about its crispness and character. The frangarnce is also very impressive, at first you feel a mandarin smell which is uncharacteristic for a Riesling. Once I took a second sniff I was astounded that the mandarin fragrance was joined by peach notes and a faint floral bouquet. At this point, I couldn’t wait to have a sip. But you should never take that first sip in a hurry, you should let it linger and release all its flavours. From the first moment, I felt this was a full-bodied wine with a pronounced acidity that had subtle citrus notes. The aftertaste is fruity, making this wine one of the most complex Rieslings I’ve ever tried.

In order to not bore you and get my point across, I’m going to stop writing now and leave you with this:
THIS IS A MUST-TRY WHITE WINE! IT WILL CHANGE YOUR PERCEPTION ON RIESLING WINES AND WHITE WINES IN GENERAL!

May 27, 2016

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Norma…

This Monday, for D‘s birthday, we both received the gift of finding another one of those few amazing places to eat in Bucharest. Don’t get me wrong, this city hosts a lot of ‘above-the-average’ restaurants, but only a few really good ones. Well, we found a good one and as much as I dislike writing restaurant reviews (because I’m only a food lover with no special schooling in the matter), this place deserves all the praising it can get.
First thing’s first, though, it was actually D who found the place as he finds all the great restaurants no matter where in the world we are. The same goes for wines! I’m just the consumer.

Back on topic… The place I’m talking about is called Norma and I’m not going to give you all the boring details about location as you can find that online just by clicking the bolded name. All I’m going to tell you about location is that it’s situated in a quiet, central area, in an old house, remarkably brought back to life thanks to the skills of architect Ioana Viziteu who also sketched the interior design keeping as much of the old house as possible. The result is a warm and calming place where the old is perfectly balanced by the new.

That is exactly what’s going on with the food as well. The kitchen is run by chef Sidia Sissoko (who also owns the place) and for foodies out there, this name should be familiar as he was one of the contenders at the MasterChef title a few years back. I mentioned a fusion between the old and the new where food is concerned because it’s obvious at the first glance on the menu that every dish is based on classic french cuisine but with a very actual twist. Neither of us is really a big fan of the french cuisine, but this fusion with new and exciting cooking techniques definately brought it back into our top 3 favorites. We both liked the fact that, unlike other fine dining restaurants we’ve been to, so far, this one has a wide variety of dishes in the menu. From appetizers to all sorts of meat-based foods, you really have a lot of thinking to do before ordering. Like true foodies that we are, we couldn’t resist and had three courses each. Seeing the menu, I was very thankful that I hadn’t had much to eat that day, because I really wanted to try as many things as possible (seroius drooling going on!).

As a first course, D chose the eggplant appetizer while I went for the tomato soup. What impressed me most about D‘s eggplant salad was not the way it looked (though the plating was amazing), but the fact that it tasted just like my mother’s eggplant salad that she makes out of her own garden grown eggplants following an old recipe that implies them being cooked over wood fire. That way of cooking is like an unicorn where restaurants are concerned, and to be quite honest, I’ve never had eggplant salad cooked this way at any other restaurant we’ve ever been to. All my close friends know that tomato soup is my favourite soup in the world, therefore choosing my first course was easy. Usually, this type of soup is served with mozzarella cheese and basil leaves. What is really unfortunate about most places is the fact that you can actually feel that the tomatoes (or most of them) came out of a can. Well, this one was different! I think that most of the tomatoes used for this recipe are plum tomatoes that were slowly cooked to perfection. Another interesting thing thing about this place is that it serves the tomato soup with goat cream cheese and basil caviar. Yes, I was a bit scared of the whole caviar thing as I wasn’t sure what that meant, but when the soup came I realised that it actually containd small balls filled with basil oil and fresh basil, which gave the soup amazing texture.

As a main, I chose the duck breast salad, while D went for the boneless beef ribs. My salad was perfection on a plate as it contained a lovely mix of greens, grapefruit and orange slices, dried figs and a lot of pieces of duck breast (A LOT!). What I didn’t expect, but was a lovely surprise, were the two mini-toasts on the side with goat camembert which deeply satisfied the cheese lover in me. D‘s ribs were a masterpiece. Everything from the meat quality to the way they were cooked, simply cannot be put into words. As D put it, they topped his number 1 ribs from Bistro Viena in Cluj.

Moving on to dessert. I was really thankful Norma serves only three types of desserts as at that point I really wanted to make an easy choice and start planning our next visit here. We chose the apple tart and the lemon tart. Every time we order dessert, the silent agreement between us is that we share them, that way we both get the best of the menu. The lemon tart was delicious and I honestly have no idea what the green cream on top of it is. Now, about the apple tart… It was heaven in my mouth! And I’m not really a fan of apple tarts, but this one was out of this world! Anyone going to Norma should really give this dessert a try.

Since it was basically late lunch time and D was driving and we had a fine bottle of wine prepared in the wine-freezer (details tomorrow), none of us had any alcohol to go with our meal. However, what anyone crossing Norma‘s doorstep should try is their Refresh lemonade! I’m not even going to put in the effort of describing this drink, I’m just going to say that it’s one of those MUST-TRY non-alcoholic drinks!

To conclude, this place has definately become one of our favorite places to eat in Bucharest right now, if not our number one already… As a price point, I’d say it is on the expensive side, but not very expensive. Our entire meal plus drinks and tips cost about 80€. In my personal opinion this place deserves every cent! We know we’ll come back at Norma as often as possible!
L.

May 26, 2016May 26, 2016

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I changed my mind…

Tomorrow you’re going to hear all about the new restaurant we found on Monday, because today we decided to share the recipe for the best veal steak we’ve cooked so far. This whole cooking experience occured on Sunday morning and the end result was a very satisfying lunch for two. I think we’re really starting to get a grip on all this buying food for two thing.

The entire cooking process took us about 1 1/2 hours, so I’d say this is a quick and delicious lunch option. Just like the last time we cooked, we totally forgot to weight everything, so this is, yet again, a recipe based on the photos we took. As with every cooking experience, the first and most important step is to carefully arrange all the ingredients and snap those perfect instagram/blog food photos.

Here’s what you need to buy for this recipe if you are cooking for two:
– 1 chuck of black angus veal
– 10 medium sized mushrooms (you’ll use 7 of them for the grilled side and 3 of them for the sauce)
– 1 pack of light Philadelphia cream cheese (we usually never use cream cheese for anything, but on the rare occasions when we do, we choose the lighter versions)
– 1/2 cup (4 tbsp) grated parmesan
– 250 gr cherry tomatoes (for grilling only and only if you like them, I hate grilled tomatoes, but D loves them)
– 1 medium onion
– 1/2 garlic clove
– 1/2 medium sized sweet red pepper
– 30 gr fresh dill
– 15 gr fresh chives

What you need to do to get the perfect steak lunch:
1. Preheat the oven at 175 degrees C
2. Chop 3 mushrooms as small as you can because you are going to use them for the sauce
3. Chop the onion and the sweet red pepper and slice the garlic
4. Finely chop all the greens, chop them as fine as you can, then arrange all the chopped ingredients in matching pots and take at least 6 photos to use in that moment when you mother doesn’t believe you are able to chop vegetables without ruining your manicure (as a matter of fact, D cut all the ingredients)
5. Put a small dash of butter in a teflon pan (you are currently preparing the sauce)
6. After the butter has melted, put the onion, the garlic and the sweet red pepper in the pan and fry them until the onion turns golden
7. Add all the chopped mushrooms and stir well for about 15 minutes
8. Carefully cut the surface of the meat (not all the way down)
9. Put the fried vegetable combo into a bowl, add the cream cheese, the greens and 2 tablespoons of parmesan and stir well until you have a chuncky sauce
10. Put about half of the quantity of the sauce over the meat and carefully place it in a cast iron pan (yes, that pan!)
11. Fry it for about 3-4 minutes and then put the pan in the oven for 15 minutes, but not before grating the meat with the remaining parmesan
12. Grill the whole mushrooms and the cherry tomatoes. As a serving suggestion, put the remaining sauce over the grilled mushrooms.

That’s it! You’ve completed the perfect lunch.

As you can notice from the nutritional analysis, one serving provides 500 kcal (that is, if you limit yourself to only half of the entire quantity). It does have rather high levels of saturated fat and cholesterol (remember to divide all the numbers by 2). It does however have a healthy amount of unsaturated fat and also a considerable amount of fibre. Overall, this ranks 8.1/10 so this is definately a very satisfying cheat-meal, a lot healthier than potato chips or pizza!
L.

May 25, 2016

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Birthday afternoon…

As you’ve figured out by now, yesterday was D‘s birthday, and quite frankly that was the first Monday of 2016 that was actually nice. After work, I decided to use this as an excuse for a lovely afternoon. Since we take photos most days, I was determined to do a birthday photoshoot, so when we’ll be old and wrinkly and nobody will belive how stylish and good looking we used to be, we’ll have these pics to prove it.

Since Mondays are usually unbearably busy, I only had time to do a top-bum in order to look decent in pics. We did however take the time to do a little matchy-matchy in light blue and white. This is yet another combo I’ve started to love and it seems to be quite fashionable these days. I did go a bit out of trend with my lilac Metropolis bag from Furla. Even though it was D‘s birthday, he still made time in his busy schedule to stop on the way home and buy me the lovely white tulips bouquet you can spot in the photos.

On me:
Blouse – Mango; Pants – ZARA; Shoes – Christian Louboutin; Bag – Furla; Bling – Swarovski, Pandora and Tomorrowland; Watch – Longines

Even though it was a mad day, I decided to make my feet suffer even more with this lovely pair of 120 mm white python Louboutins (killer heels!). Although I love these shoes a lot, whenever I wear them I have to constantly repeat to myself ‘small steps, you’re not in a hurry!’ just to keep myself from falling down. Like I said at some point in an earlier post, this year I’m determined to learn how to walk casually in skyscraper heels (I’m usually feeling most comfortable in 100 mm heels). The top is from Mango (real shocker! It’s not from ZARA!) and although the embroidery and the overall light feeling of it is lovely, I had to constantly arrange it so that people wouldn’t see my (yes, lovely!) lace LaPerla bra. I think I’m going to make the most of this top during our seaside vacations with a swimsuit top underneath it.

On D:
Shirt – H&M; Pants – ZARA; Shoes – Tommy Hilfiger; Bling – Constantin Nautics and Fossil; Watch – Longines

D opted for his light blue striped pants from ZARA and a white shirt from H&M. Though it might seem that you have seen this shirt again, it’s actually new, but my man decided to start buying doubles. His condition is starting to be worst than mine actually, as, at least, I tend to buy doubles in different colours, whether he started buying identical doubles. He does have a point, however, where this shirt is concerned, as it is very comfortable, extremely affordable, the tailoring is rather good and you can never have too many white shirts. Still, as many arguments (good ones) as he might have, I’m still going to use this against him when I’ll buy a new pair of Pigalles.

We both wore our Longines Hydroconquest watches as D doesn’t seem to want to take his off. I don’t really blame him, as it is one of my birthday presents for him and we can now proudly say that we managed to pair our Longines (I got mine for my birthday, so I really wanted to be able to get his asap). Normally we buy all our watches in pairs, but for my birthday he decided to surprise me, so I returned the favour and he really wasn’t expecting it.

I wore my Swarovski cocktail ring paired with my two daily rings from Pandora an Tomorrowland, while D wore his Constantin Nautics and fossil bracelets. I’m never mentioning our wedding rings mainly because we always have them on and I don’t really consider tham fashion accessories.
We ate a late lunch/early dinner at a lovely, lovely place that deserves an entire post, so I’m not going to tell you here about it, but I hope to have it done by tomorrow or Thursday, but I can say that it’s a must-try in Bucharest!
We ended D‘s birthday with a glass (bottle) of amazing (AMAZING!) wine, but more on that on Friday. I was delighted to see that D had a lovely time on his birthday, even though it was on a Monday.
L.

May 24, 2016

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Birthday boy!

32 years ago, the person that was meant to change my life and make me a better human being altogether was born. It took me 23 years to find him (because I’m two years younger than him), but the very first moment I laid eyes on him, I knew deep inside myself that he was my solemate.
He is the best human being in the world, he is the love of my life, he is my best friend, he is the person that impacted my life in a way that no one could and no one will ever be able to.
We clicked instantly, and for the first time I felt that I could be myself and open up to someone in ways I never thought I was able to. He always accepted me for who I am and I’m by no means an easy person to digest. He always respects my opinions and he always makes time to listen to me no matter how busy he is. He is the one person I can trust with every stupid thing that goes through my mind. He is the only person that I can trust to always give me a straight, honest opinion, and to be honest, his opinion matters the most for me. Ever since we met, he was always beside me, helping me get through any unpleasant situation I might find myself in. He is the one person that makes me want to better myself everyday, to try and be the best version of myself, to reach my maximum potential. He always encourages me to give it my all. Even though I have failed him from time to time, he never put me down and always helps me pick myself up.
As a man, he is a rarity among his species as he always notices whenever I change anything about my exterior look, no matter how small of a change it is. He always surprises me with all sorts of activities and even after seven years spent together, I still couldn’t think of anyone else to share wine every single evening with. Actually, to share every moment for the rest of my life with! He is that one person that made me feel loved long before he told me, that one person that always chooses the best part of the fruit/pizza/food in general, and gives it to me. He always puts my needs before his and I’ve never felt more protected and loved in my life! He is the most selfless person I know, the most dedicated human being and the best life partner anyone could ever ask for.
He is the only person I want to spent the rest of my life with and to be honest, if we were the last two human beings left on Earth, I would be happiest because he would be with me and I wouldn’t need anyone else!
All I ever wish for in this life, is to never hurt him and to make sure that all his needs are met. I want to wake up next to him and I want his face to be the last thing I see before I go to sleep every night for the rest of my life. I can’t imagine my life without him and I hope I never have to spend a moment without him! All I hope is that he’ll find it in him to always love me back!
This is my open letter for the most amazing man ever born, and I hope we’ll live to celebrate his 90th bitrthday!
This entire post is my surprise to my wonderful man on his birthday (he thinks we’ll post a recipe today) and to be honest I have no idea if he’ll love of hate this post, but I’m keeping my figers crossed that he’ll love it. I couldn’t wait to post this today as I’ve written this a while ago and kept editing it in the hopes that it will turn out perfect for my perfect man!
L.

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May 23, 2016

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Relax…

This is yet another blog post with barely any text in it, first of all because my arm still hurts a bit, and second of all, this Sunday is getting crazier by the minute…

All these photos were taken yesterday, when we realised that we didn’t have any food in our fridge and we were literally fed up with take away pizza as that’s the only thing we ate all of last week. D decided he’s had enough and announced first thing in the morning that we were having a decent lunch in the park.Luckily the weather was ok-ish and I didn’t need to wear something with long sleeves. We both chose the most comfortable clothes we had (clean!) and off we went.

On me:

Jeans – Replay; Top – Lefties; Shoes – Puma; Bling – Constantin Nautics, Pandora and Tomorrowland; Bag – Michael Kors; Watch – Longines

After about half an hour of snapping photos, our tummies decided that we desperately needed food. We ate at Isoletta and I have to say that it’s an amazing place to eat. True, it’s on the very expensive side, but the food, the service and the location are all excellent.

On D:

Jeans – ZARA; T-shirt – Scotch&Soda; Bling – Constantin Nautics and Fossil; Shoes – Nike; Watch – Aviator

You can literally feel the high quality of all the ingredients used, and the waiters are very well schooled. To be honest, we’ve both been to equally expensive restaurants before and the service wasn’t in any way comparable to this place. Nor was the food! This in my opinion is a place to try out at least once. As this weekend we seem to have been on the run for 48 hours (like we were running a long marathon), we didn’t have time to try out the deserts, but we did both have appetisers and mains.

I had the cheese plate, that in my opinion is for two persons, and being a cheese lover I have to say that the variety and the quality of the cheese was extraordinary, and D had the beef tartar. Normally I hate raw meat, but I couldn’t resist and I tried it. It was definitely the best tartar I’ve ever had and D confirmed that it was the best he’d ever had. As a main, I had the mushroom soup that was spectacular and D had the four cheese pasta that he loved even though he is not really a cheese lover. All in all, this is definitely a place to try at least once.

May 22, 2016

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Almost done…

I woke up yesterday really excited as I was getting a new tattoo and this one was my first full colour. Naturally, in the morning I had to go to work, but luckily for me, I had to wake up at 7 a.m. instead of the usual 5:15, so I was a bit more rested than usual.

This new tattoo I was getting is part of our ‘family oriented tattoos’ and I thought to myself that I had chosen the area well, considering that I found it bearable to get my ribs inked. Was I wrong…

As stated in a previous post, we always get our tattoos done at Radical Ink, and I’m not going to give you anymore details about the place as you can find all the info about our personal experiences there in D‘s post. Like I always do when in Romania, I get my tattoos done by the talented (and very patient – patience was needed yesterday) tattoo artist, Andrei Chirita. Check him out here!

I got there with a pretty clear idea in my head about what I wanted to get, D‘s fingerprint. And not any fingerprint, his ring finger. I knew it was going to be hard to do that in a watercolour style, but Andrei did a marvellous job at integrating the fingerprint into a watercolour tattoo. He found some wonderful Magnolia flowers sketched online and we decided they were perfect. I was very happy that we could integrate my ‘three’ obsession into this tattoo, because I really wanted that desperately.

Now, moving on to the concept behind the tattoo. As stated earlier, it’s D‘s fingerprint and basically three fully bloomed Magnolias. The idea behind the three-concept is that right now there’s three of us in our family (D, our dog – maybe I should do a post on her – and myself) and we will celebrate three years of marriage this year. The beautiful way that Andrei placed the fingerprint under two of the flowers, symbolises the fact that he (D) touches me and our dog profoundly. The freed Magnolia, which is placed higher than the other two symbolises himself as being the head of our small family. I guess that whole meaning behind the tattoo helped me go through it until the end, and it’s not yet done, but we have to wait for it to heal before we do any more work on it.

About the pain… I honestly thought that if I went through a quite big tattoo on my ribs, without any real issues, than this one should be relaxing. I was so, so wrong! This one has to be the most painful one I’ve ever gotten so far. Mainly I think that’s due to the fact that it’s a colour tattoo and the technique is quite different than for black and white. With colour, you have to go over and over the same area numerous times and on top of it all, the coloured ink stings like hell. Literally, at some point, I couldn’t bare anyone touching my skin. The worst part of the lower arm had to be the exact middle, as it hurt a lot less when he was getting close to either my elbow or my wrist (which is totally unnatural).

During the last hour of the session, Andrei had to actually trick me into getting more ink. I don’t know exactly how he did it, but he did and we managed to get 90% of the tattoo done. The fact that he got so far proves just what a good tattoo artist he is. I mean, he really had his work cut out with me because at some point I was moving uncontrollably on the chair, but he still managed to not get any line out of place. After about two hours, my arm doubled in size, but that’s just a normal reaction of the skin, which made it even more painful. Honestly, had I known how painful the whole are would be, I probably would’ve chosen my back for this tattoo. Do not get me wrong! Right now, looking at my arm, while writing this post, I regret nothing and I am quite proud of the fact that I managed to go through this. I just hope and pray that it will heal perfectly and that all we’ll have to do next time (in about a month) is finish all the accents that I couldn’t resist for last night.

I know that the care process is going to be extremely important and it will make the difference throughout the years. Most people use Bepanthen to care for their new ink (because it’s cheap), and I’ve done that for my first three tattoos, but ever since I discovered Sorry Mom tattoo balm (I first used it on my ribs), I will not care for them with anything else. The difference is that big! True it is a bit more expensive, but you’ll have a beautiful tattoo for life, so in my opinion it’s worth every penny.

If you’re wondering why we keep tattooing bits of each other or other things that might change throughout our lives, just remember that if there’s one thing you can’t change in life, that’s the past and we both consider our skin to be our life diary! That’s where we were at that point in our life and there’s nothing that could change that and our tattoos are a reminder of that. This is basically our motto when getting new ink and this is how we always make sure that we will not regret any of the tattoos we have on our body!

I will stop writing now as it’s not very comfortable (another thing I didn’t take into consideration when I chose my right arm, especially since I can’t do anything with my left) and probably next week we’ll post a lot less text that you’re used to, but I hope we’ll still manage to post daily or almost daily.