design

Christmas Tree Series – 2016: Enchanted Forest!

Just imagine walking through an enchanted forest this winter. All you see are green pine branches and white, glittery creatures that constantly amaze you with their beauty. Nothing makes sense but somehow everything seems to be natural: white pearly butterflies in the winter air, big, glittery white flowers in almost every pine tree you encounter and a white hat that seems to have been lost for ages. Just imagine walking through a such a forest and being surrounded by white rabbits, owls and glistening branches all around. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever but it seems to work so well together and feels so natural.

Well this was the back-story of this year’s Christmas Tree: all-white! Despite this year being the only Christmas that I really enjoy as I did not have to deal with the annoying Bucharest traffic (about three hours daily spent in the car each December), each year I try and think of a back-story for my Christmas Tree because I just love to decorate it. As a matter of fact I already know what theme I will chose next year as well as what colour. Naturally, every year I try and match my present wrapping and present boxes to the theme hence the reindeer on this year’s boxes. This year, almost everything had to be white and evoke so sort of enchanted forest feeling into the house. I enjoy decorating the tree each year with D – no, this is not a one-person activity in our household – while listening to Disney carols and having some sort of sweet treat in the oven.

Our Christmas tradition ever since we had our first Christmas together is to buy one special tree decoration each year and hang it in the tree. This is quite tricky as not all our special decoration match the chosen theme and even though I hate doing this, we do have to hide some of our old special decorations at the back of the tree so that it doesn’t totally ruin the theme. This year, our special tree decoration came from Disneyland Paris. Yes we bough out Christmas decoration in July! That is because mainly we like to get the special decoration from a place we visit each year and we usually take an Autumn trip, but this year we knew by July that we were not going to take anymore Autumn trips this year (9 months preggo, over here!) thus having to buy our Christmas decoration in July from Disneyland Paris.

Next year we will have to do something really special as it will be our daughter’s first Christmas.I cannot wait to buy that special decoration with her name and date engraved on it so that we will remember it forever. But until then, we really hope you like our first episode of the Christmas Tree Series, as well as the theme we chose this year. Have a lovely Christmas Day tomorrow and stay close as we are going to post some more Holiday Series posts soon!

December 24, 2016

evenlymatchedLeave a comment

Inky Ink! part 3

Continuing D‘s tattoo-saga, we have arrived to episode 3 (click here for episode 1 and here for episode 2). Nope, this is not the last episode – as we all thought – as D decided to have a full sleeve after all, so instead of a trilogy, this will be more like a ‘Young and the Restless’ series. Taking into consideration the huge amount of work John Maxx has lined up, D will most probably get his full sleeve done by this time next year. Luckily he is one of those annoying types that has infinite patience – this trait will come in handy once the little one joins our household. Not much to say in this post, besides the fact that the tattoo turned out amazing and seeing it heal so far, I can honestly say that it looks better and better every day.

The place: Radical Ink – as always!

The tattoo artist: John Maxx

If you need additional info on the place/ tattoo artist/ design, please feel free to read again Episode 1 and Episode 2 previously posted. All in all, I can’t really wait to see this entire masterpiece completed and I am sure that D is even more anxious about it, but I am sure that by the end we will be amazed by both the composition and the concept. We will keep you updated as the tattoo progresses and I hope we will not reach Episode 100 until the end. On the other hand I am anxiously waiting to be able to finish my arm tattoo (post-baby delivery) and finally finish my ‘family’ back tattoo. As you can see, next year we will get a lot of ink done and I can’t wait!

November 4, 2016

evenlymatchedLeave a comment

Blackout…

Black is not just for sad days, to be honest, the minute the sun stops shining I turn to my dark clothes so you will probably see lots of dark clothes during this winter. I admit, I love black nowadays because it is such a forgiving colour. I haven’t met anyone that doesn’t look good in black and for me, especially during this period, it just feels right. We will try and do some more colourful shoots but given the fact that my body is only going one way (bigger and bigger) black is officially my comfort colour. This does not mean that navies or burgundies are out of the question because those, to me, are autumn/winter neutrals, as I have already made my case in earlier posts. Trust me, come a sunny day and I will bring back brighter colours, but for now, dark is my go-to.

Processed with Snapseed.

On the day of the shoot I was in a great mood mainly because I worked out the courage that morning to actually try out most of my autumn clothes and I was surprised that everything that had a bit of elasticity to it still fit me. For now at least… Thank God for bandage dresses and skirts! I realised that I had a ton of options for exactly this period so as long as it doesn’t rain, I am going to take full advantage and shoot as many pieces as possible as I have no idea if my clothes will still fit me nicely in a week or two. Unfortunately, D is rather busy these days so we are going to have to take photos according to both his schedule and autumn’s showers. Keeping my fingers crossed for as many opportunities as possible!

Processed with Snapseed.

On me:

Dress – Concepto; Boots – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Chloe; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet1, bracelet2 and ring); Watch – Ingersoll

Moving along to today’s outfits… I really wanted to shoot this lovely dress from Concepto ever since I bought it at Untold Festival in August, but I just didn’t find the time and weather to take it for a stroll, plus the fact that ever since I bought it, I thought it worked wonderfully with a chunky pair of boots. Since the said boots are not yet in my closed, I decided to try it with my Rachel Zoe over-the-knee boots and surprise: it looks great and I really feel less elephant-y and more model-y than ever during this pregnancy. It’s actually a pity that my hair did not look like a Victoria’s Secret model, but hey, the side pony worked out well enough.

Processed with Snapseed.

On D:

Pants – Replay; T-shirt – Replay; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Aviator

I was also excited about wearing my Chloe black bag which I haven’t worn in a few months – again, because black is not really my summer colour. I realised that I love most of the cold season items I have and now I am quite excited to actually wear them. Since the chunkiness of the boots was missing I decided to compensate by wearing my chunky Ingersoll Limited Edition watch that D bought for me last winter. Yes, I am well aware that this is a men’s watch, but I always loved men’s watches more than those flimsy feminine watches. Naturally I needed some more feminine accents so I opted for two white Swarovski bracelets (simply put, I do not have a black one) and a black ring, also form Swarovski.

Processed with Snapseed.

Taking all that into consideration, D also opted for black and therefore ended up wearing those lovely Replay pants that you know I adore so much. To be honest, now that I am writing this, I realised that his entire outfit is from Replay : t-shirt as well. That doesn’t bother me at all as I think that Replay does some of the most amazing items when it comes to men’s casual wear. He wore his trusty and versatile Converse x John Varvatos shoes but he could’ve easily go for a pair of similar ones from Replay. He kept his accessorising light, only wearing his Fossil bracelet and his Aviator watch.

Processed with Snapseed.

Now that I think about it, this whole pregnancy thing is a really nice period to actually go through and my morale is at a max these days. Yes, clothes are that important and I really was hoping to skip the whole wardrobe change and save some money for the after-birth items that I will spoil myself with. I just hope that I will continue to feel great and will be able to take as many photos of this amazing period as possible.

October 7, 2016

evenlymatchedLeave a comment

Into the woods…

It seems that every single time we decide to take photos on this forest road we are wearing some sort of yellow shade (see this post here as well). None the less, it seems more and more like I am slowly but surely turning into the ‘elephant-element’ of these photoshoots. Yes, I am aware by now that I will not be one of those pregnant-model-like types, but rather on the rhino-side of the issue. I will admit that I do have days when I do not feel as good about my pregnant body as I should, but then I think about all the posts about my recovery that will be featured here, on my online diary, and suddenly it doesn’t feel that bad.

Processed with Snapseed.

As stated in an earlier post, I do not plan on investing in new and expensive clothes during this period therefore I am yet again wearing a full H&M ensemble. I did succumb to my first maternity piece – the jeans. I realised that I needed a pair of pants for those errand-packed days and even though my old jeans fit me (with a bit of struggle) they are very uncomfortable over my growing bump, so a maternity pair was necessary. I decided to chose H&M simply because I loved the fabric – it feels a bit like the Hyperflex jeans from Replay and you know I love them so much! I have to say that 100 new outfit opportunities have risen once I realised that I can wear a pair of pants and not feel like crap during this pregnancy.

Processed with Snapseed.

On me:

Jeans – H&M; Sweater – H&M; Shoes – Puma; Bag – Michael Kors; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet and ring); Watch – Tissot T-Race

For yesterday’s errands I decided to pair the jeans with yet another H&M piece that D selected especially for me – this sweater – but I strongly suspect that he got it because it matches his shirt perfectly and he really wanted to snap some photos of it. The reality is that I love it (as I love all the stuff D choses for me) and I think that the shade of mustard-yellow is just to die for. Somehow I think this is one shade that goes well no matter what season it is. I wore my very comfortable and fun Puma sneakers and decided on completing the outfit with my navy Michael Kors bag. What was rather unusual about yesterday was the fact that we did not wear matching watches as I decided to wear my Tissot T-Race simply because I love the way it compliments my Jawbone and Swarovski bracelets.

Processed with Snapseed.

On D:

Jeans – G-Star Raw; T-shirt – Scotch and Soda; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Aviator

D was extremely happy when he saw the colour scheme I chose because, as I told you a bit earlier, he really wanted to wear this gorgeous t-shirt form Scoth and Soda that he got a week or so ago. I also got pretty excited when he decided on wearing his G-Star Raw pants because I think that this pair is among my top three favourites form his closet and they match my (only) jeans perfectly. For comfort reasons he wore his Converse x John Varvatos sneakers and decided to keep his accessorising to a minimum with his Fossil bracelet. He also made the decision to not match my watch choices and went for his Aviator watch that he hasn’t worn in a while now.

Processed with Snapseed.

Despite my growing baby bump and my obvious body issues, I am determined to keep on taking photos and be honest with you about everything as I find it liberating to talk (write) a bit about the down-days. I strongly believe everybody has them, but I am very thankful that mine are very rare and the nasty feelings just pass quickly. In the end, all that maters is that the lovely baby is growing healthily, I feel physically great and D supports me every single minute. So not much to complain!

Processed with Snapseed.

October 3, 2016

evenlymatchedLeave a comment

Inspiration Board…

Just to give you a quick Sunday update on what is going on in our house… I have put together an inspiration board to help you get a quick sneak peak on the end result. We decided to go with a mix of grey and yellow just to spice thing up a bit design wise… Most of the stuff we bought is from Mobexpert, Vivre, Fleximo and Ikea. Hope we will finish soon and share with you our newly decorated home (or at least pieces of it).

September 25, 2016

evenlymatchedLeave a comment

Current Blogging Situation!

I wanted to write a different blog post today – a beauty one, but apparently WordPress has a few saving issues and it completely deleted the one I wanted to publish today (note to self – write on the notepad first!). Since their customer support is closed until the 23rd of September I can’t find a solution until then. Just keeping my posts short and clean. Yes, I am a bit upset than two hours of work are gone forever!

The thing is, I also find myself in a nearly impossible writing environment as you can see from the pics I’ve published. We are in full renovations and I am writing from the kitchen where my office has been moved – at least now I can say that I use the kitchen on a daily basis for more time than it takes our Nespresso to deliver the perfect coffee in the morning. We are hoping to finish the actual renovations by Monday, but after that is when the hard part comes – us having to actually go through all our shit and throwing away most of it. Hopefully we will finish everything by the end of October (that is when the last pieces of furniture arrive) and we will be able to post detailed ‘after’ photos.

That is it for today, and I sincerely hope that WordPress will get its shit together soon!

September 21, 2016

evenlymatchedLeave a comment

Inky Ink! Part 1

Yes, we have tattoos and we are proud of them! Yesterday morning I woke up anxious because D was getting his third tattoo. While that number may seem small, I have to tell you that my man goes all the way where tattoos are concerned and only gets huge ones. This one is going to be a half sleeve for now, but maybe in a few years he’ll do a full one. We both get very excited when one of us gets new ink, therefore we both were up and full of energy at 4 a.m. Unfortunately I had to go to work so I couldn’t assist him from the beginning but he made sure I was updated regularly via Whatsapp.

We each have very different views when it comes to tattoos. While for me it’s more important the meaning and the moment I’m getting my new ink, for D the appearance of the work of art is very important, that’s not to say that his tatts are meaningless as they do have a lot of meaning. The difference is that I basically view my skin as my own personal diary which means that all my tatts (six) mark a special event in my life, while his are more timeless and refer more to him and the people in his life (me included, but more on our un-matching tats later). Neither of us follows any trend when it comes to permanently ink something on us simply because trends come and go, and really, I don’t think anyone should follow the trend.

Back to Tuesday… By lunchtime (that’s the moment he actually got to the studio) I was as restless as a caged animal, but unfortunately I still had a couple more hours of work left. As a result, I started nagging him about not forgetting to take some pics of the whole process, until I got there at least.

While I found it harder and harder to concentrate at work, D kept sending me sketches, basically distracting me from work. At some point we will have a post exclusively about our tats and their meaning. Meanwhile, I managed to finish work and started my journey through Bucharest traffic towards D. Of course that all the snail-drivers decided to be on my route, which drives me nuts on a normal day, but today they literally got on my nerves! I was getting more and more excited with each traffic light and…I was finally there! The inking had started for about one hour and there was a long way to go plus another session next week, but the design and placement looked fantastic. I can’t tell you at this point which one of us is more excited to see it done, me or D. As for the pain factor usually involved with getting a tat, since D had his entire foot and ankle done last year, the upper arm seemed relaxing by comparison.

We always get our tatts done at Radical Ink in Bucharest mainly because, after a lot of research, we’ve concluded that the best artists in Bucharest are here. I usually get my ink done by Andrei Chirita (check him out!) and D’s artist of choice is John Maxx. The reason I haven’t got a piece done by him is because when I decide on new ink I want it done yesterday and John’s waiting list is about one year-long. D made his appointment last September…