happy couple

A year ago…

A year ago, today, we started this blog with a review on one of our travel experiences in Romania. That was the first blog post and our first attempt at putting together a blog/diary of our life. This blog has become so much more than that for us in this past year, it is our go-to place when we want to look back on our experiences, on the way we (gracefully) age and it is a good reminder that life is wonderful, especially in those ‘down’ moments – everyone has those. It also motivates us to stay in shape, eat healthy and it forces us to actively review places and write down memories from our trips while also pinpointing some of our best experiences both abroad as well as in Romania.

Nowadays, looking back on our old posts, I realized that if we did not have this blog, there was no chance in hell we would’ve took so many photos throughout the pregnancy, nor would I have written down in such detail my personal feelings that I experienced during this amazing time.
Today we decided to celebrate by not putting together a slideshow of our past year, but by sharing with you (and also marking on our calendar) the first swimming experience (in our bath tub) baby-Leia had this Friday (the 17th of March). Since I am on active mommy watch, I will not spend more time writing about it but I will just let you enjoy our home-made video of Leia.

Yes, life changes a lot during one year, this blog helped us fully appreciate just how much, and we have come to the conclusion that our lives really evolved for the better and there is only going up from this point on. I truly hope that you enjoyed this past year with us and we hope that there will be many more years to come for our little blog!
Happy Birthday evenlymatched.eu!!!
L.

March 19, 2017

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#Lucky

Note: These photos are two weeks old…. Hope to post newer ones soon!

Besides the obvious reason why I’m feeling lucky these days, the particular subject of this post is why I’m feeling lucky fashion-wise this past year… throughout my pregnancy, loose dresses and over the knee boots were the norm in fashion and right now there is a new trend arising: the mom fit jeans! I can’t emphasize how much I love this cut right now! They are way more comfortable than super skinny jeans – which were my basic – and they are very forgiving with my post-pregnancy body shape! I totally love them and I think I already have 4 pairs in my closet. I seriously wear them all the time. Now these pics were taken two weeks ago – yeah, it takes me this much time to actually edit them and put together a post – so, right now I can say that they fit a whole lot better since my tummy has gotten smaller, my hips are starting to get back to their original shape (lots of walking and baby-handling, but no real workouts yet). I see the light shape-wise!

Since I am writing these post while actively watching baby-Leia, not much text will be found here as she is quite a handful, more active than most babies, but she still sleeps well throughout the night, from around 23:00 until 9:00 most days so we are quite happy with that as we get a lot done during the early mornings. Other than that, she is quite a happy kiddo, with episodes of colics from 19:00 until 21:00, but they have gotten a lot better these past few weeks, which actually means that we can enjoy our evenings more and more… True, she still has her wild moments from time to time, but nothing too notable or too often for us to not be able to happily handle. Right now, despite the sleep deprivation, we can’t imagine how we ever felt complete without her in our lives.
Our dog also fully-feels the effects of a small baby in the house as she seems very tired and snores all the time when she actually gets to sleep, but when baby-Leia is awake, she is always in the room with her and always watches her every move. I think that our girls will be best friends as soon as baby-Leia starts walking!

On me:

Jeans – ZARA; Sweater – Mango; Shoes – Vans; Sunglasses – Dior; Bag – Furla; Bling – Tous (ring and bracelet); Watch – Apple

Thus far I can’t say that I feel the effects of the baby-blues, nor do I feel or ever felt depressed in the past two months. I did have two or three days when I felt a bit anxious, but that passes quickly as soon as I lay my eyes on Leia’s face. As time passes, it appears that she resembles D more and more, but she definitely took my blue eyes. Naturally, we take pics of her almost every day and soon we will post them – like I said, time is a luxury we do not have right now.

On D:

Jeans – ZARA; Jacket – SuperDry; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Tous; Watch – Apple

Back to the fashion bit… obviously I love the Mom Fit jeans and I hope it stays fashionable until I am fully back in shape and beyond because these jeans are so, so comfortable! I found this particular pair at ZARA (and three other pairs as well) and for someone that loved Replay and Diesel jeans, I have to say that lately ZARA seriously upped their game in the denim department. I ventured in buying quite a few pairs mainly because my pre-pregnancy size fits and I just know that I will wear them for a long time to come. Since they are high-waisted jeans, I found the courage to actually wear a cropped sweater and proudly show you my (still) expanded belly. This lovely sweater is from Mango from last year’s winter collection, but there are quite a few options online right now. I went full-mom and wore my Vans white sneakers to complete the comfy outfit. The lovely bag I am wearing all the time right now was a gift from D for my birthday, and you can find it at Furla. I just love how versatile it is thanks to the brown-black-white combo that just goes with everything. The sunnies are my beloved Dior and the big ring you’ve been seeing lately on my finger is a push-present from my parents. My mom got one from my grandmother when she gave birth to me (or so she says) that has rubies and the one my parents gave me has sapphires and diamonds. I will keep this tradition alive and when Leia decides to give us our first granchild we’ll probably choose emeralds. The lovely bangle and ring set that I am also wearing is from Tous (just love them!) and I can’t seem to be able to part with my Apple Watch these days.

D also decided to go for casual jeans and chose a pair of ZARA ripped jeans (told you they upped their denim game a lot lately) and his leather Superdry jacket. As you will see soon (don’t really know how soon) this was probably the last time he got to wear long sleeved anything as he almost finished his full-arm tattoo sleeve and I can’t wait to show you just how amazing it looks. He wore my favorite Converse x John Vavatos sneakers and even though you can’t see it, he also opted for his Apple Watch and the Tous bracelet I gave him a while ago.

As you can see, we are surviving this new-baby period and, to be completely honest, despite it being very hard, we simply love taking care of our little bundle of joy. She really fills our hearts with happiness every single minute.
L.

March 17, 2017

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Stroll, stroll, stroll in the park – Anex Sport

Wow! Two blog posts in one week…we are really getting the hang of this baby/us balance! It is about time to start reviewing all the baby stuff we bought pre-Leia and give you some insight on what was important for both of us upon buying everything. Today I want to talk about our stroller, the Anex Sport. Naturally, since the lovely spring weather started, we have been testing this stroller every day and on Sunday we actually decided to take some photos for old times sake. Nope, this will not be a review where we show you all the ways this stroller pulls apart and all the very practical gizmos it has. For those types of reviews I suggest you do as we did and watch some YouTube videos. Nope, we did not do a video either mainly because I find video editing to be some sort of alien activity for me right now. This review covers our own personal experience with the Anex Sport stroller and why we chose it as we both had some pretty strong boxes to tick and if you’ll continue reading you’ll soon realize just how different we are when it comes to this matter. Of course, none of us wanted to compromise on quality and safety, but other than that we both went in totally different directions when it came to making a list of our ‘musts’. I have to also mention that this stroller ticked all the boxes on the below lists and that it was actually the only one that managed to do that, or at least that was the situation last autumn when we bought it.

We both wanted the following things from the stroller:
– Coconut mattress
– Height adjusting mattress as we noticed baby-Leia likes her head a bit higher than the rest of her body-though we did not know that at the time, but we thought that it was a great feature.
– UV resistant materials.
– Waterproof bag in the lower part of the stroller – this allows us to safely store stuff without having to carry an extra bag everywhere. It is unbelievable how few strollers have this amazing feature as most of them just have a basket and in my opinion everything you store down there gets covered with a thick layer of dust – MAJOR NO-NO!
– Antibacterial and non-allergic materials all over.
– Light and easy folding system.
– Waterproofing all over.
What I wanted in a stroller:
– No velcro anywhere – I think that velcro is the worst for hands and nails as it just scratches everything. Again, you have no idea how many companies use this type of material for their stroller. On top of it all, I dread the thought of baby-Leia’s skin coming into contact with velcro.
– A comfortable breaking system – for most strollers, in order to unbreak the damn thing, you have to put your foot underneath the break which usually means that your shoes get dirty and scratched and I love my shoes too much to put them through that.
– Big, easy to push buttons for all the pieces that come apart – I have to think about my manicure because with a small baby there is virtually no time to fix chipped nails!
– Light and small frame as it has to be able to fit into my Mini – this was actually the only one we found that matched this criteria, but this was not mandatory as I have a lot of space to walk around our apartment complex without having to actually drive anywhere with the stroller, but it is nice to know that it fits.
– Detachable bedding for obvious sanitary reasons.

On me:

Jeans – Replay (yup, pre-pregnancy); Sweater – ZARA; Boots – Ugg; Jacket – Mango; Scarf – Hermes; Bag – Furla; Hat – Mango; Sunglasses – Dior; Watch – Apple

What D wanted:
– Big, rubber wheels because a) they look cool and b) for those moments when we want to go off-road.
– Great suspension because his little princess can’t be disturbed while we walk on the horrible pavements of Bucharest
– Easy access to the front wheels blocking system – with most strolles you have a button in the middle of the wheel which means that your hands get really dirty when you need to block the wheels while this stroller has this button on top of the wheels and far away from the growd or the dirty parts.
– Light aluminum frame.

On D:

Jeans – ZARA; Sweater – O’Neill; Vest – ZARA; Shoes – ZARA; Sunglasses – Ray-Ban; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Apple

The Anex Sport stroller was the only one that ticked all the boxes, but there was no way of saying that we will love it or that baby-Leia was going to love it until we tried it-though I did try to convince D that we can test it with our dog inside but he just thought that I was under the influence of pregnancy hormones and ignored me. Come warmer weather, we couldn’t wait to actually get the little pincess and go out to test it! After a few weeks of testing it, we decided to take some photos and post this review here. This stroller is just great!!!! It is very easy to fold and unfold, easy to assemble and great for long walks thanks to those suspensions and the big wheels. I find the bag underneath it especially great since, being spring, there is no actual way of knowing how warm or cold it will be in 15 minutes and I can just toss a blanket there knowing that it will not get dirty and nor do I need an extra bag to protect it. It ‘drives’ wonderfully both in a straight line as well as on a curvy alley. All the usual bumps and kerbs are virtually non-existent for the sleeping baby-Leia so those suspensions really serve their purpose. She seems to enjoy her walks quite a lot and we have actually used the stroller inside our apartment to help her ease those horrible colic episodes. We both love the zip closing system as well as the way all the exterior materials feel. We are beyond happy with our choice and we sincerely recommend this stroller! As a price point, this is not the cheapest, nor is it the most expensive option out there, but it does feel and look like those really expensive strollers that you can find, but as we have discovered, it is more practical that most of them!

Stroller – Anex Sport

When it came to buying baby stuff we approached things with a ‘divide and conquer’ state of mind meaning that D took it upon himself to buy most of the tech-y stuff (stroller included) while I chose everything else (feeding stuff, matress, furniture, carpet etc). This does not in any way mean that we did not talk about each option and we always took the other ones wishes very serious. Since he was the one that had to watch/read 1000 reviews on strolles he got to choose the colour and he decided on this lovely elegant brown and black combo. Obviously for this photoshoot we had to match with it. With the new 2017 collection, Anex offers a very wide variety of new and exciting colours, so if you are in the stroller-buying stage check them out!

That about covers the princess’s means of transport and our first baby stuff review. We will try and post as many reviews as possible, but time is something we don’t really have so bear with us until we really get into a routine with baby-Leia.
L.

March 3, 2017

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The first six weeks…

Note : I tried to post the photos in chronological order so that you can notice Leia’s transformation over time…

We made it! We survived the first six weeks on our own! But boy, were they hard… Nobody really prepares you for this first few weeks with a newborn and no matter what everyone tells you, you can not imagine the amount of work, sleep deprivation and worrying you will experience. I honestly have a feeling that we will not sleep soundly again for the next 18 years at least… Baby Leia is the most important being in the house right now, this meaning that we are both very tired, because a baby needs constant attention and care and for the first part, we both wanted to be 100% involved in all the duper changes, feedings and everything else, but this is NOT the way to go!

Starting from the beginning…when we first got home with baby Leia we had our first shock – she just would not stop crying and we even thought that we got the wrong baby from the maternity as she seemed quite the little angel in her first four days of life, but now she was slowly changing into a small devil. We had no idea if she was hungry (but she had just eaten right before we left the hospital), if she needed her diaper changed (no) or what was bordering her. After desperate calls to our friends with kids (it is extremely important to have a support system consisting of friends that had recently gone through what you are going through now) we concluded that her fussiness was due to the fact that she changed the scenery once again in only a few days. Needless to say that we were clueless when it came to using the steriliser for the bottles and to actually making a bottle of formula milk – there was no way of nursing her in the amount of distress she was in. Quite frankly, for the first time in our lives we were both completely clueless and desperate which did not help baby Leia at all, as a matter of fact it made her more and more fussy as time went by. At some point, when we were at the edge of our patience, she just fell asleep on a big pillow and apparently that was the only thing that calmed her. Because I was just released from the hospital and needed to heal, D sent me to bed while he decided to sleep on the floor fearing that the little princess will suffocate on the big pillow, but not really wanting to take our chances and move her. This in short was the first day and night at home with the little one.

From that point on, things only got better, we got better at doing stuff for her, we did get a visit form a maternity consultant in the next few days that eased our worries and helped us learn how to care for her needs – this was included in the birth plan – that helped us tremendously, but things weren’t just right yet as our schedule was chaotic both when it came to feeding as well as sleeping. As I said earlier, we both wanted to be 100% involved in everything which meant that a week later we were both so sleep deprived that we couldn’t walk straight. Things had to change at that point otherwise we both would’ve grown extremely frustrated extremely quick. D decided that we should take turns, especially at night so that we both got at least 4 hours of sleep straight. This was a very hard and frustrating decision to make as the meant that each night one of us would sleep on the couch so that the other could get a sound sleep without any worries or baby monitors in the bedroom. This lasted for about two weeks and for me that was very hard as I was so used to sleeping next to him and I honestly missed him and at some point I was thinking that this is exactly how couples grow apart after having a baby. There was no way I was letting that happen!

This got resolved during the third week, when our paediatrician suggested we get her on a schedule of feeding her every three hours, no sooner nor later. Did I mention that baby Leia suffers from a condition called tongue-tie which prevents her from latching to my breast thus making it impossible for me to nurse her. At first I was affected by this, but later on I realised that this was a blessing in disguise, because it meant that I knew exactly how much milk she was getting and this allowed us to really put her on a feeding schedule and most importantly, it allowed D to feed her and really connect with her while I got some time to myself. So yes, I am pumping and I am loving it (I am using the Philips Avent pump and thus far I had no problems and as a matter of fact I love it but that is to be discussed in another post) and no, I do not think that I am missing out on anything!
There have been some adjustments needed because apparently baby Leia needs to be fed at four hours instead of three and with a larger quantity of milk, but that only means that we have more time between feeding and that our nights are much more manageable – she has a meal at 1 a.m and another one at 6 a.m. and thus far it worked wonderfully, but I have to say that I can’t wait for that moment when she will not need to be fed at night. Other than that, another issue that I can’t wait for her to outgrow it are colics. It is heartbreaking when we see her little face in so much pain and there is literally not much we can do about it. We were lucky enough thus far to not have such episodes during the night, apparently she prefers to have them between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. and that is ok-ish or at least as ok-ish as colics can be.

D stayed at home for most of the first five weeks and that helped a lot and right now we have found the most amazing nanny, which allowed us to go about our lives (hence this blog post) and really focus on the important things about having a baby – education, learning through play, talking to her, taking care of ourselves etc. I am telling you – help is extremely important with a newborn it’s like we actually have a life again since we found her. She was recommended to us by the nanny agency called Synchronize Family. They are amazing as the managed to find her for us from the first try – she was our first interview!
Other than that, things have really been going perfectly and we couldn’t be happier despite the sleep deprivation (our nanny is not here 24 hours per day thus we still have to get up at night) and the fact that we still haven’t gone out with our friends yet, but I have a feeling that soon we will get there as well, it is just a matter of time. Being a parent is the hardest and the most beautiful job in the world and I think that we have never been happier in our lives. Baby Leia simply completes our little family and I have to be honest, I didn’t really understand the energy that children give us until I had one. She just fills our heart with joy and love every single second of every single day, despite the non-stop hard work we have to do.
L.

P.S: Even our dog gets involved as often as she can (she even woke me up one night because baby Leia was having a tantrum and we both were soundly sleeping) and yes, she is also sleep deprived and snores every time she gets the chance to take a nap!

February 28, 2017

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Blair Witch Project…

So we are having a loooong weekend in Romania – like 5 days long and this means that despite having lots of time to snap photos, we are also very busy so text will be scarce until we get back to our usual routine. We do have lots to do these days like: buying Christmas presents – yes, I know it’s only the beginning of December, but at the rate my belly is growing, who knows if I’ll be able to move in the next few weeks; decorate the entire house plus the Christmas tree – we usually do this on the 24th, but this year I feel the Christmas spirit more and more each day and I can’t wait to have the whole house mimicking what I feel inside; and lots of other errands to run that we usually do every weekend plus we have to watch the Gilmore Girls like asap!

With all that on our bucket list for this long weekend, picture us trying to squeeze in some photoshoots because we do not want to miss any week of pregnancy and we have managed to take pics for every week so far. Because we have so many things to do I always have to think a bit about what I will wear especially since some of the tasks we are trying to complete this weekend require lots of standing and walking time and I have to say that is becoming more and more complicated on 10 cm heels especially when the walking and standing takes more than 4 hours (Christmas shopping!). I have come to the conclusion that no matter how well prepared you come for the present hunt (lists and everything) you still have to spend at least four hours in a shopping centre to (maybe) tick all the boxes on the list.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Vest – H&M; Bag – Chloe; Boots – UGG; Hat – ZARA; Bling – Swarovski (ring and bracelet); Watch – Apple

This was the outfit I chose for the task of getting presents for everyone. Yes, I know this is not Christmas-y but rather on the Witch-y side, hence the post title, but it was comfy as hell and kept my body temp constant. This lovely embrodied dress is yet anther find from ZARA that D bought for me a few weeks ago – I knida’ like having him do my clothes shopping for me plus he is very efficient. I just love the reddish embroidery and the way it contrasts the black. Naturally I felt that I should not cover it with a long sleeved jacket and opted for my knitted vest from H&M which was a good thing as I wasn’t cold when I spent time outside, nor was I feeling hot inside the shopping centre. A hat was also needed as I confess that I wasn’t having a great hair day and that seemed to be the best course of action. I opted for my black ‘not that kind of girl’ felt hat from ZARA which I’m finding out to be a great investment so far as it works with most of my autumn/winter outfits.

On D:

Jeans – ZARA; T-shirt – Pull and Bear; Jacket – SuperDry; Shoes – Nike; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Apple

I decided to wear my most comfy UGG boots, the over the knee knit cardy in black that you currently can not find online – I got them a few years ago – so I just linked the classic black cardy. But seriously now, if you do find them online anywhere please leave me a link below as I’d love to get another pair, maybe in a different colour as these boots are versatile af! Since we are talking about a fully black outfit, I decided to wear my only black bag (no big surprise there) – the Chloe one! This bag is so neutral and has such a perfect shape that I literally can not find another one to please me as much and actually decide to invest in it as I just know that I’ll always come back to this one.

D also embraced the black theme of the photoshoot and opted for his ZARA black slim fit jeans and a black t-shirt from Pull and Bear as he is well aware that he needs something short sleeved for the shopping ‘championship’. But because we did have a few days of close to 0 temps (and that was one of them) he decided to keep himself warm with his lovely SuperDry leather jacket. Shoe wise he also chose something very comfortable as we are both well aware of the fact that present shopping day usually means we will reach out move-goal in no-time therefore he opted for his oldies but goodies Nike sneaks.

As for the accessorising part of the outfits the only main difference is that D finally received his Apple Watch series 2 and now we can say that all our watches are bought in pairs. Besides his new gizmo, he also wore his Fossil bracelet and that was about it as he did not really want to get tangled in accessories while shopping. I also went a bit on the down-low where bling was concerned though I did opt for a big sparkly Swarovski ring besides my usual Crystaldust bracelet besides my Apple watch. Like I said we both were practical rather than bling-y that day.

December 2, 2016

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The second trimester – in pictures

This is the picture-post that sums up the last three months of carrying a very special load in my belly. As you know, a ‘feelings’ post is right around the corner, so I’m not going to write anything about how I’ve felt this second trimester here. Also, as opposed to the last similar post (click here for the first trimester), I’ve also selected some photos of only myself, as I feel that my fattening needs a bit of pic-detailing just to help you really see the evolution. Hope you’ll love this post as much as you like the first trimester one.

The Forth Month

My evolution during the forth month

The Fifth Month

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My evolution during the fifth month

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The Sixth Month

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My evolution during the sixth month

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October 29, 2016

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Grey Matter!

As you know, we rarely ever find ourselves in the centre of Bucharest, but this weekend I really needed to buy a few pairs of maternity jeans and the only H&M that has the maternity line is in the city centre. Yes, I know, online shopping is a must in this situation, but to be honest, these past two weeks I have been feeling better and more energetic than ever during this pregnancy so I thought a shopping day with D would be perfect. And it was! Once again I received the confirmation that I have not yet changed sizes in pants, the only difference being the fact that I need the maternity belt as I can’t stand anything pressing on my belly and all of a sudden the shopping spirit came back to me.

It’s amazing what sizes can do to ones’ morale. Especially when that someone is almost in the third trimester of pregnancy. Do not get me wrong, I have gained a healthy amount of weight thus far, but apparently it is mostly on my belly and on my butt, which, in my opinion is ok – I will do a post on what I am eating during this pregnancy, nutritional info and all, but I have to say that the main difference is I’ve added an extra day of cheating in my diet simply because I will have lots of time to be a diet-natzi after the little princess arrives.

On me:

Dress – Amisu (impossible to find online but you can shop it in all NewYorker stores); Shoes – Carvela; Bag – DKNY; Jacket – Pull and Bear (only found an alternative); Bling – Swarovski (bracelet and ring); Sunglasses – Dior; Watch – Tissot

Back to this weekend’s photoshoot…we were lucky enough to have a few wonderful day last week and we took full advantage of them. The thing about pregnant women is that they hardly feel any cold, hence I did not feel the need to wear tights at 15 degrees C and actually felt quite hot at some point (weird, right? – more details on that in the upcoming ‘pregnancy feelings’ post). For the first time I did not feel the need to cover up my expanding booty with a long cardigan or jacket and chose a short faux leather jacket instead. We both opted for a grey theme as that is one neutral colour that is both forgiving and appropriate for the cold season.

On D:

T-shirt – Tommy Hilfiger; Jeans – Scotch and Soda; Vest – Bershka (alternative here); Shoes – Converse; Bling – Fossil; Sunglasses – Ray-Ban; Watch – Tissot

The dress… this dress was a very big surprise to me as when I first saw it it didn’t seem like a very good option to me. It is from Amisu and you can shop it in any New Yorker store (can’t find it online) and it is the most comfortable knit dress ever! You know how some knit dresses tend to irritate your skin? Well not this one! This one is so soft and comfortable that I can spend forever dressed in it, plus it hugs my expanding curves just right and the length is to-die-for! This is part of the reason I felt confident enough to top it with my short jacket from Pull and Bear that I’ve had for ages and that I never thought I’d wear during this period.

My shoes are from Carvela and I got them the year I was away in London to get my MA degree therefore I was really surprised to still find them online (this was more than four years ago, after all!) but I guess the two main trends that characterises them are hot right now: platform and wood! They are very comfortable, but not to the point where you can wear them all day long as they are quite high (13 cm) which can be a little dangerous especially because my centre of gravity is changing all the time. Being a sunny day out, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to wear my beloved Dior sunglasses. I also opted for the grey DKNY bucket bag as that was the obvious option for a day filled with shopping because I need both of my hands to be free.

D also played along with grey hues and opted for his Scotch and Soda grey jeans with a grey v-neck t-shirt from Tommy Hilfiger. Because he seems to feel the cold a bit more than me, he wore his vest from Bershka to keep him warm. His grey classic Converse shoes could not be left at home – as you can see he has quite the variety of grey Converse shoes. Naturally he decided on finally wearing sunglasses for this photoshoot and chose his Ray-Ban Aviators to complete the look. Bling-wise we were both quite scarce as he only wore his Fossil bracelet while I wore a Swarovski bracelet and ring. We both decided to wear our Tissot watches.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for as many sunny lovely days like this one this autumn and I can’t wait to show you what we ended up buying during our shopping weekend!

October 19, 2016

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Autumn has no plans of getting warmer and/or nicer!

If you see D in a jacket than it’s settled: it is cold outside! He usually wears a t-shirt and not much else until the temps get as sown as 15 degrees C, so despite the apparent flimsy warm autumn clothes we are wearing in this photoshoot, let me tell you, it is getting colder every day outside. Which mostly sucks but not really if you consider the fact that I can now wear all my lovely autumn dresses (for a short period of time) and my lovely pumps and boots. That being said, had I not been pregnant, I would’ve whine about this weather in every single post as I have been known to be a spring-summer king of girl that actually hates both autumn and winter. To be honest, this autumn has come way too fast and way too wet for my taste (we only had a few hours to shoot last week in total).

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Mostly I am over the top because my Herve Leger bandage dress is still fitting nicely over the growing bump. This is a time when the tiny human being inside me grows so fast that I am not really sure in the morning what will still fit me so it is mostly a game of trial and error every single day. I am trying to shoot as many outfits as I can but that bitchy weather is not really helping much (it has been pouring since yesterday afternoon in Bucharest and apparently until Thursday that is the way things are going to stay – here you have it, a weather forecast update). Honestly, by Thursday, I have no idea what in the world will still fit me.

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On me:

Dress – Herve Leger; Shoes – Guess; Bag – Atelier Lemnia; Coat – H&M; Bling – Swarovski, Constantin Nautics, Pandora and Tomorrowland; Watch – Daniel Wellington

For this photoshoot we both agreed on red, I combined it with black, while D used grey. All in all, I am quite happy with the way things turned out, but it has become more clear now that the man needs a serious autumn shopping trip as his go-to things are t-shirts, jeans and sneakers. Enough about him in this paragraph… As stated earlier, my lovely Herve Leger bandage dress fits and feels wonderfully over my bump (thank you elastic!) therefore I really wanted to take advantage of the matter and shoot some pics in it. I paired it with my red patent Guess pumps that D got for me about 5 or 6 years ago (when Loubs were way out of our budget) and until this day, they are definitely my most comfortable red shoes.

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On D:

T-shirt – Scotch and Soda; Jacket – ZARA; Jeans – Scotch and Soda; Shoes – Converse; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Daniel Wellington

To keep my promise where layering is concerned and to keep any cold away, I finished the outfit with my H&M wool jacket that is way warmer that I had expected and will probably hep me get through this winter as well. Moving along to the bag…This bag is yet another item I got at Untold Festival last August (lots of shopping going on there) and it is Romanian made by Lemnia Atelier. You should really check them out as you get great quality for your money. I think that from now on I am going to get most of my clutches from them! Bling wise I wore my Swarovski bracelet, my Constantin Nautics bracelet and both my Pandora and Tomorrowland rings.

Processed with Snapseed.

D, for some reason really wanted to wear grey, and he did so wonderfully and he managed to match everything in his outfit even better than me. His pinstripe t-shirt is from Scotch and Soda and the thins red lines match his grey Converse sneaks perfectly as they also have a thin red line on the sole. His jeans are also from Scotch and Soda (more matching points!) and his grey leather jacket is from Zara and I think it is just as old as my Guess pumps. He kept his accessorising to a minimum and only opted for his Fossil bracelet. We both wore our matching (well, the nato straps are identical) Daniel Wellington watches.

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I can’t really say that I normally hate autumn as that is a very harsh word to describe it, but I do hate the weather we have had so far during this autumn. Like seriously, how much more rain can we get here? It is really messing with my shooting schedule and I think we need to find a place to shoot inside from now on.

October 11, 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.

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!

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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.

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

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The Lash Room…or how to get perfect brows!

Strike two at writing this beauty post – hopefully there will be no more glitches from WordPress and YES, I am writing this on the Notepad first just to be sure that it will not get deleted again. I just hate doing things twice!

Anyway… Today’s post, as the title suggests is all about getting those perfectly shaped eyebrows, and not having to re-do them every single morning, like I had to for almost a decade of my life. In order to get you accommodated with the subject I have to tell you first about my life with my natural eyebrows. First of all, I was born with bushy wild eyebrows (yes, no sign of that in my recent years), but was unlucky enough to reach my critical age (adolescence) in the 90s when thing eyebrows were the thing. Naturally, being 13 and quite stupid, I over-plucked them – NEVER EVER DO THAT – and some of the hairs did not grow back, most of the hairs actually. As opposed to most other female body parts that don’t necessarily need hair but where hair grows like you give it fertiliser every day, the important hair of the brows is very stubborn when it comes to growing back. This left me with no other choice than to pencil and powder my eyebrows until 2013 when it came to me: I should get them tattooed (semi-permanent make-up). Since back then I was younger, stupider and had fewer financial resources (I was actually lacking in the brain cells department rather than financial come to think of it), I looked online for the cheapest option available and booked it right away. Yes this was two or three months before our wedding day. I figured that I will just tell the lady doing them what I wanted and give her points every step of the way because in my head I knew better than anybody what was aesthetically correct. I have to say that a diploma in Architecture gave me that confidence, but to be honest, that has nothing to do with human aesthetics. My confidence combined with the fact that the lady doing my eyebrows was not the most talented in the world left me with having to put on more make-up every morning than before. Please keep in mind that when it comes to someone tattooing your face, there is absolutely no way of you actually seeing live what she/he is doing and therefore you have no control of the result. I did not take this into consideration then and I did not do my research where her talent was concerned.

These were my ‘before’ – brows (aka my wedding brows – first tattoo)

A year later, still not at my wisest, but getting there, I discovered THE LASH ROOM. I think this is the first place that actually had the wonderful technique of micro-blading in Romania, if I am wrong than this is definitely the best place where you can get your eyebrows micro-bladed – just take a look at their portfolio as opposed to others. Why did I say that I wasn’t at my wisest? Because I still had this fixed idea in my mind that I knew best and did not let the very talented Cristina Delcaru to do her job properly, still wanting thinner brows than she suggested. They did turn out a lot better than my first attempt at getting my brows done and in my head, back then they were perfect and I was hooked on the place. I tend to be the type of person that is very loyal to beauty places if they make me feel good and safe.

First attempt at THE LASH ROOM – freshly done

First attempt at THE LASH ROOM – healed

Fast forward to another year later when I wanted to refresh my brows again, here I was back at THE LASH ROOM. By now, both me and Cristina realised that the first time I had them tattooed it was with permanent ink because a) it just won’t fade and b) it changed into a horrible carrot hue. Because I was a bit older, I was also a bit wiser and allowed Cristina to make them a bit thicker, but not as much as she would’ve liked for them to frame my face properly. Needless to say that I left the place walking on clouds and I just kept staring in the mirror in awe, the entire drive back home. I was simply in love with my thicker, more natural brows! Did I mention that each time Cristina custom made my brow colour just to make sure it perfectly matched both my hair colour as well as my skin tone. Yes they do that at THE LASH ROOM, you do not have to chose just between brown, black or red, the possibilities are endless!

Second time at THE LASH ROOM

And here we are… Two and a half weeks ago I needed to have them re-done because I got to the point where I feel the wisest – might be hormonal. Yes, I re-pigmented my brown in my fifth month of pregnancy and it is totally safe as THE LASH ROOM uses bio-organic fruit inks that are more natural that most of the moisturisers I use these days. As opposed to the last few times, this time it did hurt a bit, but nothing to get my heart-rate up or anything. Why I considered myself to be at my wisest? Because right form the start I told Cristina that she should do what she felt framed my face best and I only wanted to see the end result – I trusted her 100% which I rarely ever do, and I am so glad I did! My brows turned our perfectly, even better that what I remember my natural brows to be, actually a lot better than that! The shade is perfect, the thickness is perfect and overall way they look is absolutely amazing! I seriously recommend this place and Cristina, but I am sure that all the girls working there are extremely talented.

About the procedure:

First of all, your brow designer will do a mock-up of how the brows will turn out and, from my experience, they are extremely patient and considerate with your opinion as they really put your happiness first. After the shape is settled the designer will start mixing a custom colour just for you. She will then start tattooing and this can be done here in multiple ways depending on your skin: either micro-blading, powdered or plain tattooing or a mixture between the three. The first two times Cristina decided on micro-blading for me, but the last time she decided to use the tattooing machine because I do have a bit of scar tissue on my right brow (adolescence zit) and the horrible reddish hue from my first attempt is still visible and this technique is supposed to be better for these issues. After the first lines are drawn, she applies a bit of local anaesthetic and normally from this point onward you just have to sit back and relax for about an hour. Afterwards, you’ll end up with the perfect eyebrows! The aftercare is quite easy but it will take about two weeks during which time, as opposed to a normal tattoo that needs to be washed daily, you are not allowed to get this one in contact with anything apart from the cream you will receive before leaving the place. This makes make-up not really an option therefore you have to plan this procedure ahead. As I said, you have to apply the cream twice per day which will make you look a bit weird (see the healing photos attached). On top of everything, be prepared to have very dark eyebrows for those two weeks until the heal. This is no problem whatsoever if you are a brunette but it can be one if you have lighter coloured hair. Two weeks later you will guaranteed looked a lot better than before!

Before the third procedure at THE LASH ROOM

Right after the procedure

During the healing process

The healing cream

A bit about Cristina:
She is one of the nicest people I’ve met and despite her immense talent, she is very down-to-earth. The thing that shocked me most the second time I saw her is that she perfectly remembered both me and what she used on my brows the first time. This is extremely rare as she must’ve done hundreds of eyebrows during that year, but apparently she has amazing memory when it comes to her work. Despite not being in agreement with me the first two time (where brows are concerned) she still gave me her best and I left the place every time feeling amazing! I am sure that all the girls working there are very talented, but I fell very lucky to have met her and have my eyebrows done by her.

Healed result

About THE LASH ROOM:
This place is amazing, it make you feel right at home. I am very sorry that D couldn’t join me during my procedure as I would’ve liked to have more photos of both the procedure itself as well as the interior of the place, but you can find a few photos online. The staff always made my feel welcome and everything appears to be in pristine and hygienic condition therefore you feel relaxed right from the beginning. They also offer various lash treatments, that I tried at some point. That service is amazing as well, but unfortunately I am the type of person that need to throughly rub her eyes every time I take my make-up off and therefore I could not have a full set of eyelashes and feel comfortable. But those of you that can live without rubbing your eyes, should know that this is an amazing service that should be tried at least once.
As you can see from the ‘after’ photos, Cristina’s works needs no more praising and you should really trust her from the first moment as she will do what is absolutely best for your face!
L.