fun

103

Note: The pics are taken from week six until yesterday. For the first six weeks of the potato- looking princess click here.

103 days since our lives changed… 103 days since our priority list got an overhaul… 103 days since we started a new chapter… 103 days since our lives got meaning – it feels now that before baby Leia entered our lives we were living without a purpose… 103 days since everything got better! Way better!

No we are not celebrating her anniversary every day, but we are celebrating this new and amazing new life every single day AND I have an app on my phone that lets me know how much time has passed since Leia came into our lives (thank God for smartphones!). Truth be told, I missed the 3 months mark on posting this because a) I was lazy and b) I wanted to relax for a bit… Yes, when we passed the six weeks mark, everything started to be absolutely amazing… Leia got a break from those nasty colics and our household got a break from her inconsolable cries from 7-9 p.m. Once that episode was over, she turned into this amazingly happy and eager to learn child so we needed to up our game a bit. The good thing about her passing to the next stage (non-colic era, as we call it) is the fact that she started sleeping the entire night from 10 p.m. until 9 a.m. with only a short and sleepy feeding at 6 a.m. Now this was the best change we got so far from her as we are currently getting about 6 full hour of sleep every night. Sure, there are some nights when she fusses around in bed and we do need to go to her, but usually this gets resolved in about 2 minutes thanks to the wonderful invention called a pacifier. Seriously, pacifiers are LIFE! The person that invented it deserves a statue!

So, the current situation with Leia is:

She sleeps all night long
She eats every four hours during the day
She naps twice per day in the morning and in the evening (40 minute naps)
She sleeps for 2 hours during lunch
She plays a lot
She smiles almost all day long
She started trying to turn around on her belly
She can hold her own head
She grown according to plan (height and weight)
She swims every day
She started grabbing toys on her own
She poops every day at the same time – once you become a parent, pooping becomes very important

The current situation with us is:

We sleep every night
We play every day
We are back to our habit of drinking a glass of wine every evening (YES, there is life after having a baby and this usually starts after two months)
We take long walks every day which ultimately helps our health a bit
We realistically plan for future vacations

Overall, we are back to normal living, the only things that I have to start doing more often are posting on the blog and restarting my gym membership.

What I’ve learned so far:

There is no way in hell I can be on a diet while breastfeeding (pumping) which is at times frustrating because I still have about 5 kg to shed, but that’s not too dramatic…
Dr. Google is something to avoid at all costs because a) every baby is different and b) dr. Google does not have a medical degree and virtually any retard can write shit online
The award for the most stupid advice I’ve received/read is ‘Sleep when the baby sleeps’. I mean, am I supposed to eat when the baby eats, do laundry when the baby does her laundry, walk the dog when Leia walks the dog? I am telling you, that is the shittiest advice ever! Mainly because Leia is not big enough to do the laundry! (We are planning on teaching her that asap!) Like I said, the internet is full of crap!
If you are new parents (up until one month old baby) than let me tell you something: Hold on because the best times are soon coming! Yes, the first month is very hard, but as soon as that passes, your baby will start sleeping during the night, you will be able to enjoy a two-hour movie, you will start to relax while drinking a glass of wine knowing that the little one will not wake up and overall, your life will start to get back to normal, a more beautiful and satisfying normal than ever!
You will experience new levels of love for someone every single day! Just when you thought that you can’t love your kid more, a new day comes and you discover that you can… this is one of the best feeling ever!
Always, and I mean ALWAYS listen to the one in the house that managed to get more rest! I can’t tell you how many bad decisions one can make when they are tired. Just make sure that one of you is rested at all times as your baby needs you rested – after about two and a half months, you will both be rested all the time as life gets back to normal!
There is this rumor that if you eat certain types of food your breastmilk will not give your baby colics and also it will increase the amount of milk you have… for me, that was a pile of crap as Leia was colicky while I was on this crazy diet that involved me eating everything fully coocked, with no sugar or salt and basically tasteless… both me and Leia were feeling horrible, so, for me, that advice goes under the ‘stupid advice’ column!

Obviously, I wanted to post this at ‘100 days of baby Leia’, since I missed the 3-months mark, but as it turnes out, in the past seven weeks we took more than 1000 pics of her and choosing the best ones took me two days, not to mention writing this, which took me three more days… so here you finally have it, an update on how parenthood is going for us, as well as more than 100 pics of our little princess. Notice how she turned from potato to an actually cute baby?

We are still way behind on all the reviews I have in mind for baby stuff, but what I can say right now is that Huggies diapers rule! So there you have it, an update as well as a review on baby stuff! This motherhood phase makes me so good at multitasking (NOT!).

April 26, 2017

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Blue Velvet!!!

Well this is becoming a repetitive post this autumn… D already sees a pattern: it’s either over the knee boots or UGGs, but what can I do? I just love them both and I am trying to take advantage of the still ‘not snow-y’ weather and wear velvet over the knee boots as often as possible. Truth be told, they are very comfortable with their chunky heel and I feel like I need a bit of hight these days just to balance to my proportions (read: big, big belly). And, did I mention how much I simply adore velvet??? I think I did a couple of times, but I can’t help myself, I am over-the-top happy that this amazing fabric is trendy again.

Another repetitive item is the chunky knit sweater/dress and that has nothing to do with my belly – though it helps to minimise it – as I enjoyed wearing chunky knits even before being pregnant. It’s just something that looks so amazing in the cold-weather-big-knits combo don’t you agree? Obviously, the best combo for short knitted items is those amazing long boots with a heel to match thus making your legs seem supermodel-long. I do have to confess that as autumn progresses and the temps keep lowering it is harder and harder to wear only a sweater and long boots and I will have to get creative with my coats, or at least the ones that still cover my belly, as despite the heat-waves that pregnant women get, let’s be honest, we had a few days of one digit temps and it was COLD!

On me:

Knit – ZARA; Boots – Public Desire; Bag – Michael Kors; Bling – Swarovski (ring and bracelet); Watch – Apple

No, this is not D‘s sweater that I am wearing – I still fit into my own clothes, thank you very much! This is a size S (the smallest size) oversized sweater that I got from ZARA a few weeks back and that is currently sold out, but they do have lots of similar items online. Really, I just love this deep blue and what better match for it than my velvet Public Desire Annie boots? Yes, we are a bit blue in this post, but we are loving it, plus it’s a nice change from our usual black and grey. Obviously, since I could not ruin the whole-blue theme I opted for my navy Michael Kors mini Hamilton bag and an old-school velvet blue hair scrunchie (yes, I was amazed to find it in my 90s accessories box).

On D:

Sweater – Massimo Dutti; Jeans – Tommy Hilfiger; Shoes – Condor; Bling – Tous; Watch – Longines

D just wore his office outfit as he came home late (someone has to earn the $$$ in this household), but luckily we matched in the colour theme department. Plus, I strongly feel that he is always better dressed for the office than for our photoshoots. I’m annoyed that you can not see the lovely Massimo Dutti shirt he had underneath his sweater, but it was way to cold to even attempt at trying to convince him to get the sweater off for a few shots… Maybe next time… Anyway, his lovely blue sweater is also from Massimo Dutti (despite it being from this autumn, you can only find an alternative online) and his jeans are a classic slim fit dark blue pair from Tommy Hilfiger. His shoes are custom made by Condor Shoes and that is a great place to get your office-shoes from as they are affordable, great quality and you can make them in hundreds of leather combos.

Since we were really trying to catch the last minutes of light, we did not bother much with accessorising our outfits. I do however want to thank the gene-goddess as I am two moths and a week away from giving birth and all my rings still fit – keeping my fingers crossed to be able to wear them for Christmas and New Years. So, I opted for my Crystaldust bracelet and Nirvana ring both from Swarovski, while D wore his new gift from your truly – the black leather bracelet from Tous – told you they are my new favourite jewellery brand! I, as per usual, wore my Apple Watch while D payed more attention to details and wore his lovely Longines Hydroconquest watch (also from yours truly).

Despite the blue ensemble, we are still expecting a baby girl, but that has nothing to do with our choice of clothes. As a matter of fact, I must confess that we haven’t yet bought one single pink thing for our little bundle of joy and by the way she kicks and moves all day long, she will probably prefer less-feminine colours. I am really excited to show you all the stuff we chose for her, but I want to show you the complete nursery first and thus far the furniture hasn’t arrived. Keeping our fingers crossed that we will have it by next week when we will have a small baby-shower.

November 18, 2016

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Rollin, rollin, rollin…

Remember that old Limp Bizkit tune? Rollin’? Yeah, that was the soundtrack of my teenage years and it suddenly started playing in my head again the moment I started rolling this puff pastry perfection. This again is not an everyday food as this is nowhere near healthy. This is rather a weekend treat, or more say a monthly treat as the only healthy ingredient here is the parsley and, to be honest, there is not much of that either. But just as all teenage pleasures are, this is something amazing and not at all healthy. However, this is extremely easy to make and it can be really filling and satisfying during a cold rainy autumn day.

I can honestly say that this has all my favourite ingredients in it, including the puff pastry and, as with all the great food inventions, I have not had something similar in ages – like ever since my metabolism decided to give me a kick in the ass and make me adopt a more healthy lifestyle. Now that I am pregnant, I do try and keep it healthy and I am rather careful about the quantity of food I ingest, but from time to time (‘a weekly or more often’ time to time) I indulge in all of my favourite foods because hey, I am going to get fat anyways so I might as well enjoy life a bit. That being said, I try and indulge in mostly homemade fat-bombs as I have some sort of control where the ingredients are concerned. Which brings us to today’s recipe… as the temps lower, I tend to crave more fatty, not-necessarily-healthy foods that give me that much needed mental sanity during pregnancy.

Here’s the ingredients we used, but you can actually use whatever makes your tummy and brain feel happy:

1 layer puff pastry – you can buy this in virtually any supermarket and if you want to make a sweet roll try the slightly sweetened version though I prefer to use the unsweetened variety for sweet treats as well
1 cup of olive Philadelphia cream cheese – I use this variety for the earthy olive taste and because it is light and easy to spread
100 g diced bacon
1 red onion – medium sized
80 g graded emmentaler
80 g grated mozzarella
50 g parmesan flakes
20 g fresh parsley – the healthy ingredient (notice the ratio between the one healthy ingredient and all the rest)

The mechanics behind this amazing roll:

Mince the onion and the parsley and place all the ingredients in (preferably) clear bowls for the photos.
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees C.
The fun part begins… Gently unfold the puff pastry layer and spread the Philadelphia cream cheese first – this way all the ingredients will stick to the pastry.
This is where it becomes interesting. No matter which order you close to add the ingredients, the important thing is to always add a layer of cheese in between the other stuff thus making everything stick together because everyone knows that cheese is the glue to life!
This is my ingredients order: cream cheese, onion, grated emmentaler, parsley, grated mozzarella, bacon and parmesan flakes.
This is the step where that Limp Bizkit mega-hit kept playing in my brain – now you gotta roll that thing up making sure you do not a)spill the contents, b)rip the pastry.
Once you safely roll the ‘thing’ you gotta cut it – again a BE CAREFUL! moment – I cut in into 2 cm thick loaves.
Place the rolls on a tray and into the oven they go for about 20 minutes – make sure you check on them after 15 minutes as the buggers tend to burn quickly.
That’s about it!

Since this is a very unhealthy and amazing dish, packed full of fats (the unhealthy type) and calories, you should consume it with caution. It does not look extremely unhealthy if you decide to only have one serving, but let’s be honest, can you really stop after only one roll? I couldn’t and hence this is definitely a dish that I will make as rarely as possible.

It is however extremely tasty and filling and you will probably stop after two or three servings. The nutritional info is curtesy of MyNetDiary and since they rated it as a class D food it only goes to prove my theory – this is not a healthy food! But it is great for those long weekend chilly afternoons so give it a try!

November 6, 2016

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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

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Not so scary second trimester!

We just came home from the doctor this morning and I am happy to officially tell you that the second trimester is under wraps and everything is going smoothly and perfect with our little bundle of joy. I really do not want to turn this blog/diary into a pregnancy page, so I am trying to keep everything about babies to a minimum, but now the time has come to talk a bit about the bittersweet second trimester.As you know by now, I have been really fortunate in the ‘baking baby’ department and did not really feel sick for one day during the first trimester (see here), and the overall great feeling stayed throughout my second trimester as well. I was fortunate enough to not have any medical complications and apart from my prenatal pill I do not take any other medication. Now that we sorted all that out, there are a few things and feelings that deserve a bit of attention and I plan on discussing them here.

First of all, remember how I said that I felt tired during the first trimester? Well that feeling magically vanished from the 14th week and I was lucky enough to feel as energetic as I used to in my pre-pregnancy days. This does not mean that I slept less or exercised more, but I did put that energy to good use where the baby-stuff is concerned. These are the three months of big decisions in my opinion, as, to be frank about the whole situation, there is no guarantee that you’ll feel 100% during the last trimester and it is better to make all the baby decisions when you are feeling great both about yourself as well as about the pregnancy. This meant that we went in full-renovation mode despite only wanting to do the nursery at first. I must confess that we had not done a proper renovation of our house for the past 7 years and I do not regret for one moment the decision to feel horrible in our home for two weeks. While the work is not done yet, all the construction work is over and from this point on it is up to us to finish everything – we are currently waiting on some furniture pieces.

This was the period when we decided on the furniture for our little princess, the decor, most of the miscellaneous (baby bottles, stroller, baby bath, etc) and I am very glad we did that as I have to say this is no easy task. It took us about 3 weeks to decide on the stroller as there seem to be so many different options out there and I have a feeling that first-time parents tend to be over-thinkers – I know we are overthinking every single thing. At some point, being the rational adults that we are, we decided to divide the stuff between us but still making the ultimate decisions together. Therefore D got to choose the stroller and all the electrical hi-tech equipment (nanny cam, baby monitor, sleep monitor) while I was left with the rest of the stuff (baby furniture and decorations, baby bottles, steriliser etc). When each of us got down to two or three choices we involved the other, but not before and so far it went smoothly for us. All of these choices are incredibly hard to make (2 weeks on the crib alone) so I feel that the second trimester is the best time to make them mainly because that is when you start feeling human again and naturally we had to think about the winter ahead and what if we did not feel/ could not get out of the house to buy all these things because of the snow.

Those are about all the big decisions we made during this period, now a bit about the feelings and sensations that come in this second trimester… First of all, in my opinion, this is the time where a pregnant woman blooms, literally, she expands on all spatial axes. Or at least that was what happened to me. But make no mistake, this is a good thing! True, I had two days (not in a row) of panic attacks while looking at my closet as I felt like I looked like crap in everything I owned, but both of those moments where right at the beginning of the forth month and I blamed that on the last ‘first trimester hormones’. After my belly started to really look pregnant as opposed to full of beer and pizza, I immediately started feeling a lot (A LOT!) better about myself. The fact that I went shopping and discovered that I did not go up a size did help a lot (A LOT!) and made me less nervous about my monthly weight-in at the doctors’.

A bit about the weight gain… It does tend to be nerve-wrecking, but healthily gaining weight is the best thing for you and your baby right now. I would like to emphasise a bit on the HEALTHY part of the matter and I want to be honest with you. Thus far, I have gained 10 kg (got weighted this morning) and I’ve got another two months and three weeks to go. While I did not gain any weight during the last three weeks I am still in the healthy-range for my age and height. The fact that my weight gain stopped for a bit must be due to the fact that I have started taking long walks with our dog every evening while not adding extra-calories to my diet. I am however listening very carefully to what my body desires and do not plan on depriving it of anything. Thus far, I always had certain weird cravings at the beginning of each trimester, when I gained a lot of weight but that weight gain usually stops by the last month of the trimester. I assume this will happen in the third trimester as well though, by now, I did not have any huger moments in this third trimester. Hopefully I will not gain too much weight, but honestly, that is my last concern right now. My major concern is being healthy and getting all the nutrients my baby needs daily.

Also, my skin cleared up a bit more and I am now able to put on make-up and feel great without worrying about zits and greasy patches (though that might be thanks to my new beauty routine – here). So far I did not experience any swelling in my legs nor in my hands, no cramps, to be honest, I did not experience anything nasty. I did have a few (3) days of heartburn in the evening but that sorted itself out after about an hour and I was told that is totally normal and it usually lasts way more that that. I also had two episodes of cramping but as my doctor reassured me, that was due to gas and again, after a bit of walking around the house and taking two pills that was over. Other than that, on most days I did not feel like I was pregnant, I do not feel like I am pregnant now and the big belly growing is there to remind me of how lucky I am thus far.

The most important feeling of the second trimester in my opinion is the first baby kick. I felt my bundle of joy at about week 20 and it was the best feeling in the world. I aways thought that this had to be the weirdest, most alien-like feeling ever and was very scared of that moment, but when it happened it felt like the most natural and normal thing out there. If at the beginning I was feeling her once or twice per day, now I feel her all the time and from time to time she even wakes me up at 5 in the morning just to let me know she is up. So far I have not experienced any painful kicks, only some nice soothing ones that feel lovely, but I will keep you updated. But, I am telling you, there is nothing more amazing than feeling you own little baby kick and D has to agree as he felt her through my belly and loved it.

Also, during the second trimester it is best to think of a birth plan, just to get that sorted especially if you are leaning toward the private sector (like we did) as there is quite a consistent discount for ‘early booking’. So far, I have not decided on wether I’d like a natural birth or a C-section, though I am leaning toward the latter, but ultimately it is up to the little lady inside because if she decides she can come out naturally without a big fuss that’s the way I am going to go, otherwise C-section it is!

This is also the time to start buying pregnancy adjuvants (as I call them). As you know, I found it hard to wear normal pants so I felt the need to go for maternity ones and the best and most comfortable I could find are the ones from H&M. They totally changed my mood when it came to dressing daily. I love these four pairs here for the comfort and the way they hug your curves: 1, 2, 3, 4. Another big help during the second trimester are the Belly Bandit products, specifically the thighs disguise and the flawless belly. Whenever I wear a dress, I wear one of those miracle makers and I instantly feel and look better. They both offer great support for your back and belly and they keep the stretch mark oil off of my clothes. Obviously I am going to opt for their post-pregnancy stuff as well as I love these two items.

I’d say that is about it on the second trimester. I am very glad that I did not have any incidents thus far and I hope that everything will go smoothly from now on as well and we will welcome our healthy princess in January. As far as this post goes, I hope that it will help mamas-to-be both morally and with planning their decisions. Naturally, at some point, we will show you everything we deemed worthy of our princess terms of baby-stuff, but I really want to get the products first so we can avoid the internet-perfected-photos and use our own. Hope this post was helpful!

October 31, 2016

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It’s getting chillier and chillier!

As you can see, D is not in a t-shirt, so the items must be going down! As a a matter of fact, the sweater he is wearing is brand new and he bought it on the day of the photoshoot the moment he realised that he forgot his jacket at home. Yes, it’s starting to feel more and more like winter is coming – no pun intended as the show I am quoting from is months away, while we are left here to endure a cool October. I was really going for a badass motor theme with this photoshoot, but D here simply forgot (or did not get the memo) his leather jacket – maybe next time.

You know what I’ve noticed when we got home and I took a quick look at these pics? The fact that aside from black coloured items and a very low camera angle, another really curve-forgiving strategy is to just find a bench and sit down! That way, none of the extra kilograms will show and I’ll end up with some really nice pics. That said, I will not pose without a bench nearby ever again – or at least until I loose all the baby-weight. Other than that, we obviously had a great time shooting (hence the large amount of photos) and we are going to keep on taking pictures at dawn, because hay, the day is getting shorter and it seems like we have loads of stuff to do every single day – will this be the way parenthood is going to go?

On me:

Pants – H&M; T-shirt – Atmosphere; Jacket – ZARA; Boots – ZARA; Bag – Chloe; Bling – Swarovski; Watch – Apple

Moving along to the black-badass-themed photoshoot… This is another pair of pregnancy pants also from H&M and I can not believe they make such comfy but badass clothes for pregnant women, I mean, moto-inspired black pants for the baby-bump? Yes please! I felt like pairing them with this badass silver t-shirt that has a huge butterfly skull on it and is one of those blouses that keeps surviving all the wardrobe hauls from the last four years and still sees the light of day regularly. I got it from Atmosphere (so, no, it is not a designer piece) while in London ages ago and I will try and find an appropriate alternative online.

On D:

Jeans – Replay; Sweater – Bershka; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Tissot

Also, the big skull demanded some black leather chunky boots that I’ve also had from ages from ZARA. The thing with these boots is, that I have a love-hate relationship with them. One year I love them and another I absolutely hate them and they do not see the light of day. This year it would appear they are on my good side and despite having them for quite a large number of years, you can still find similar ones at Mihaela Glavan or ZARA. The bag is meat again my black Chloe as I still can’t seem to find a good alternative currently – hoping for some pointers from you guys! The jacket is yet again an old staple piece and I feel like everyone should own a moto-jacket and right now you can find loads of options.

D really wanted to be badass himself and carefully chose his clothes specifically for that, but then he realised he forgot his leather jacket at home and was forced to buy this lovely, lovely Bershka sweater. Naturally this plum hue is one of my favourite for fall and I will try and match it for a future photoshoot. For the badass part of the outfit he wore his lovely Replay Hyperflex jeans and his Converse x John Varvatos hi-tops. As for accessorising, he kept things simple with his Tissot watch and Fossil bracelet while I wore my Apple Watch and a Swarovski bracelet. For some reason we are becoming slackers in the bling department as soon as the temps drop.

You will see more and more photos of me on a bench and from impossibly low angles as well as during the evening as that’s how things are going to stay from now on, but we will try and keep things fun in the clothes department as much as we can.

October 25, 2016

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Morning Sun…

I love early morning sunshine, but it can be a real bitch where photos are concerned. We managed to shoot on a perfect autumn day: clear skies, breezy temps and lots of wonderful colours in the trees. I just hope we’ll be able to have at least one day per week of this perfect weather so we can shoot the growing baby bump and keep track of my expanding body. By now the little princess seems to be very, very active and sometimes I just want to sit still and enjoy her little movements and that can sometime be a deferral from taking photos or any other activities.

What can I say about today’s fashion choices. Obviously I love the way I feel in my thigh high boots and I have to say, these are really comfortable and give me bit o height to counterbalance the extra kgs I’ve acquired during the last 6 months. It seems that I am more and more prone to wearing heeled shoes just so I can seem just a bit taller and leaner that I actually do. I am quite sure that by the end of this trimester I will care less and less about that and more and more about being comfortable and luckily for me, UGG season is approaching fast and there’s nothing more comfortable than a cozy pair of UGGs!

On me:

Skirt – Herve Leger; Blouse – Mango; Vest – H&M; Boots – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Michael Kors; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet 1, bracelet 2 and ring); Watch – Tissot

I know that we should dress in pink as often as possible, since we are having a girl, but as long as we did not buy anything pink for her or her nursery thus far I think we can safely say that we are not going to turn into pink bundles of joy all together. This time the combo of choice was black (for obvious reasons) and blue. I love wearing this combo and I though I’d take advantage of the fact that my Herve Leger mini is still fitting (I’ve had it for a few years now) – FYI this is an actual office appropriate knee length pencil skirt but taking into consideration the baby bump, it has turned into a mini and will probably become too indecent for public exposure in a few weeks. I paired the newly mini skirt with my Rachel Zoe boots and I have to say that I kinda felt a bit like Julia Robert in Pretty Woman, minus the latex.

On D:

T-shirt – Calvin Klein; Jeans – Review; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Watch – Tissot

In order for my outfit to not be too revealing, I topped everything with my H&M vest that you will see a lot of this autumn. It covers just the right places in order for me to feel confident! I opted for a calf hair mini box cloth from Michael Kors as this seems to be my go-to black clutch during autumn and winter months. Bling wise I went a bit overboard wearing two Swarovski bracelets plus a ginormous cocktail ring also by Swarovski.

D wore those amazing jeans from Review that I swore I was going to make him buy a few more pairs, just to be sure he has them in all the available colours and paired them with his lovely blue polo shirt from Calvin Klein. He did wear a grey and blue combo and our blues are not really matching but as long as both of us were happy, who really cares? As usual lately, he wore his Converse x John Varvatose sneaks simply because he seems to have a hard time transitioning from his summer shoes to his autumn ones. Bling wise he was a bit more reserved than me and wore his Constantin Nautics bracelet alongside his Fossil one. For some reason, our go-to watches lately are out Tissot T-Race ones and that might be because of the very comfortable strap and the fact that they are quite light in comparison to most of our other watches.

I just love it when we manage to get out of the house and actually have time for a fun photoshoot as we always seem to have a real bias doing them. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for at least one nice day per week so we do not have to resort to taking photos in our garage as that will be a real shame.

October 17, 2016

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Craving potatoes…Again…

We haven’t posted a recipe in a while now… Not necessarily because we have lacked in the cooking department – in fact we kinda did, with all the construction works going on – most of our cooking has been about D cooking wonderful breakfast recipes as surprises for me during weekends, therefore, no photos were taken to document that. Since some (all) of his dishes turned out AMAZING we will re-do them and post them here. Today is all about yesterday’s dinner and me craving potatoes again.

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This is a very easy to make dish, basically you can add anything in it, but I have to warn you, it needs 1.5 hours to be ready from the point when you only have the ingredients until you can actually enjoy it, so start before you are hungry. The ingredients are basics and to be honest, we had most of them in our house. This is yet again a no-meat dish because I still seem to have an adversity towards meat these days.

What you will need for about 30 potato patties:

1kg of white potatoes (but you can use whichever type you like)
2 eggs (we use free-range eggs that my mother brings me from the countryside every week)
1 garlic head (not too big as you still want to feel all the other ingredients and potatoes tend to absorb the garlic flavour better than anything else)
about 8 young green onions
300 gr of cheddar (we used both white and red cheddar – about 150 gr each)
50 gr of butter (use full fat butter as it is better)
15 gr of fresh oregano (you can use whatever fresh greens you like)
salt
pepper

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What you need to do:

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius.
Grate the potatoes and put them in freezing water as you do not want them to turn brown. I was lucky enough to have D help me with this step as he knows how important my manicure is to me and I always seem to grate my fingers whenever I attempt to grate anything.
Cut the onions, mince the garlic and the oregano and grate the cheese.
Whisk the eggs and melt the butter (we used the microwave for the butter for about 30″)
Get a big bowl as you are going to mix all the ingredients together. It doesn’t really matter what order you put them in, but it is really important to mix them really well.
Start making patties from the mixture and arrange them on a tray (use some baking paper otherwise they will stick to the tray and that is very messy).
Put them in the oven for about 40 minutes after which time you should add some cheddar on top of them and leave them in the oven for another 5 minutes.
That’s it! Enjoy!

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This is not the healthiest meal out there, but it is an ok one according to my UP app. Yes it is packed with saturated fat, but it is also almost equally packed with unsaturated fats and fibres. Now all the data you see here is for the entire quantity – that is about 30 patties – yes, we used two trays to bake the entire composition, but you can use half of the ingredients. That means that one patty provide about 70 kcal which, in the grand scheme of things, is not that much. Naturally, nobody can only eat one, so I’d say that one serving consists of three-four patties, so it is rather ok for dinner.

September 29, 2016

evenlymatched2 Comments

Autumn is here!

Never in my life did I think that I will actually be excited about autumn… I was so sick and tired of the nasty heat we got this summer and to be honest it has gotten worst during the last few weeks – it might be due to my advancing pregnancy, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. And hey, tis the season for lovely rich shades of burgundy, navy and brows, plus if you also add the lovely fabrics we get to wear during autumn, you’ll start actually enjoying this season.

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I, for one, couldn’t wait to actually get to wear some of the things that I got from H&M‘s autumn collection, and the weather on Saturday was perfect just for that. Not too chilly – notice D is in a t-shirt – it didn’t rain, I am telling you, sheer autumnal perfection. Yes, it would’ve been a bit better had we posed on a leaf carpet, but we have three whole months to do just that! True, the calendar keeps telling me that it is not yet the time for opaque tights but pants are completely out of the question for now and it’s way too chilly to go out without them. A cold during pregnancy is not exactly something blissful or romantic…

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Shopping info at the end of the post

So, about the outfit… Ever since I actually developed a real pregnancy belly I have been proudly wearing tight dresses and felt great doing that. I do feel a lot better when I am wearing the said dresses with a nice pair of heels and lucky for me I still keep shoes that are more than six years old, like these booties from Manas Lea Foscati in the photos. I think I have them from before D and I met so, they are more than seven years old but they still look great. Naturally, there is no way I could find them online so I’ve linked an alternative. What can I say about these booties besides the fact that even though I did not think about that at the time, they turned out to be a great investment for autumn thanks to the multitude of autumnal colours that have on them. They are also surprisingly comfortable considering the 11 cm heel. That actually helped me make up my mind about buying another pair of chunky heeled ones – I am more of a stiletto heel type.

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Shopping info at the end of the post

On to the H&M dress… Besides this one still being size xs, it is extremely comfortable over my growing bump and this quite possibly might take me to the last months of pregnancy. I love the colours as well, actually any oxblood item is just prefect for me during autumn. Yes, I am one for the greys and burgundies during autumn as opposed to browns and beiges, though I have been known to enjoy a chocolaty outfit from time to time. Because the dress has a bit of navy in it, I decided to go for navy tights and my navy Michael Kors bag, while going for a completely different palette for the shoes, but it all goes well together thanks to the burgundy in both the shoes and the dress. This dress can also be worn – and I will probably wear it – with shades of grey and black, completely ignoring the colourful side of it.

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As usual, lately, I topped the entire outfit with a very nice long knitted vest from H&M that carefully hides my growing butt and also keeps me warm. The fact that it is black means that I will probably wear it all autumn long and you will probably see it tons of times. I kept my accessorises to a minimum and only wore the new Swarovski bracelet that D bought me last week. These Crystaldust bracelets are just dreamy! They look amazing and are very comfortable to wear every day – I wear mine in the house as well, because hey, who knows who might come and visit me and I can’t not be put together now can I?

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D also went for darker hues, choosing his dark denim pants from Replay. I miss my own similar jeans as they were by far the most comfortable jeans ever. Yes I am talking about their Hyperfelex collection, we both love it and I can’t wait to be able to fit into mine again! He also wore his black Tomorrowland t-shirt that matches the darker richer hues I chose thanks to the copper feather print. D finished his outfit with his denim and orange slip-on shoes from Replay. He almost did a full Replay outfit as his navy leather belt is also from Replay. He wore his usual Fossil and Constantin Nautics bracelets and we both decided on our Longines watches. Even though it was sunny outside, he did not need to wear his Ray-Ban glasses so he just pretended they were accessories as he forgot his case at home.

All in all, I am glad that autumn is here, even though I know that by December I will be so fed up with the cold and I will be anxious for spring again. Actually I think that spring is the best season ever: the temps are perfect, nature starts waking up to life, the trees are in bloom…Yup, I love spring! But I will have to be contempt with autumn for now.

On me:

Dress – H&M; Vest – H&M; Shoes – Manas Lea Foscati; Bag – Michael Kors; Bling – Swarovski; Watch – Longines

On D:

Pants – Replay; T-shirt – Tomorrowland; Shoes – Replay; Belt – Replay; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Sunglasses – Ray-Ban; Watch – Longines