inspiration

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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Christmas Tree Series – 2016: Enchanted Forest!

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

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

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

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

December 24, 2016

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Baby Preparations: Going BRONDE!

With about five weeks to go until the bundle of joy will join our household, I decided to make a change in my appearance that hopefully will make both my life and D‘s life easier in terms of leaving the house. I strongly believe that everyone on this planet has a soft spot for long blonde locks and I make no exception from that rule. That said, having blonde hair – even though mine is not the lightest shade, I’m more of a 9A lover – is a pain in the ass as you need to re-do your roots every four weeks tops otherwise you just look terrible no matter what your natural hair colour is. Yes, I am well aware of the fact that today dark roots are ok, however, not grown-in dark roots but rather perfectly calculated darker roots.

My hair before the colour process

With a new baby on the way, I’ve come to the conclusion that going religiously to the salon every four weeks for root touch-ups will be impossible in the beginning at least until we get into a routine, so I decided to try the much-coveted bronde-colour melt hair colour. This is kinda the compromise between having long blonde locks, bun not really having to go to the salon quicker than six-eight weeks (for me at least). My good friend and colour-guru, Maria and I decided on 7A roots because that matches my natural colour almost perfectly and that means that if I manage to squeeze in another colour appointment until the baby comes, the colour will actually catch on nicely – note: on chemically processed blonde, darker colours tend to require more than one try for the shade to actually last.

Tools used in the process

This whole bronde trend is quite lovely in a sense that it allows blonde-lovers like myself to still have lovely light locks while also having naturally coloured roots and therefore if you are a low-maintainance kinda gal and hate going to the salon monthly for about two-three hours for you colour service this is the way to go! I must admit that at first I was very skeptical as I am a blonde-all-the-way kinda gal and I was afraid that going darker plus being hormonal will result in a catastrophe, but, to be completely honest with you, I have never left Maria’s Hair Studio sad or unsatisfied. Plus, I do love a change from time to time! Here’s what my colour-master used to get this amazing, natural, trendy colour:

Joico K-Pak Color in 7A (Dark Ash Blonde) and 7N (Dark Blonde)
Joico K-Pak Chrome in V9 (Platinum)
Joico Vero K-Pak Peroxide in 6% (this is what we usually use for my roots)
Joico Vero K-Pak Chrome Activator
Olaplex Complex

Technique

Now, do not ask me how much of each she put into the magic mix that got me this amazing colour, all I can say is that she used nothing on the tips and only blended the colouring cream for about a minute before rinsing it all out. Not really touching the tips is one of my obsessions as I try and protect them as much as possible. And no, pregnancy has not helped with my hair nor with my skin and as I’ve stated in an earlier post I am not complaining as I have not experimented the bad side of pregnancy either. The process has a bit out of the box in my opinion as she knew she did not necessarily need to colour my tips in order to get this perfect bronde shade so she used foil for this natural sun kissed-highlights effect which I must confess I had serious doubts at the beginning.

The result

I now regret all those moments of doubt as I am way beyond in love with my new hair colour and if you really want to try this or any other colour trend with minimal damage to your hair you have to visit Maria’s Hair Studio as Maria’s first concern always is for the health of your natural hair and trying to do as little damage as possible while still giving you the desired result. The reason I am writing about this is because I was simply stunned yet again at how she managed to protect my natural fine hair while still giving me the desired result that most hairstylists give you with a full-length chemical colour. She amazes me and my hair with every single visit! I hope you love the end-result as much as I do!

December 16, 2016

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Sunny Afternoon

Sunny Afternoon is a very good musical we saw the last time we were in London and I must admit this has absolutely nothing to do with today’s post except for the fact that it was sunny outside and we took these pics in the afternoon. Also, I confess…I miss London! A lot! I do not know if I miss London specifically or I just miss travelling and discovering new places and great hotels – we have some catching-up to do on that department and I think our first trip will probably be at Untold Festival in August, if everything goes according to plan (breastfeeding and everything baby related).

I just somehow love the way this autumn and now the beginning of winter looked so far. We were really lucky to have sunny and stable weather for the most part but I have to admit it was cold so far. We are currently in our third (I think) week of close to 0 degrees C temps, but as long as it does not rain I do not really care that much. I have to point out the fact that I am anxiously waiting for snow, but, to be honest, snow in Bucharest is probably the worst nightmare for everyone and just to be on the safe side, I hope that we will have some snow after I give birth as I am terrified of the thought that the roads will be closed right at the exact moment I will have to deliver. So keeping my fingers crossed on that despite knowing that we will probably not get the chance to take pics if it snows after out little princess joins us.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Boots – UGG; Bag – Michael Kors; Hat – Mango; sunglasses – WoodFellas; Bling – Swarovski and Tous; Watch – Apple

Yes, this is a fashion post and not a pregnancy-feeling/weather forecast post so let’s move along to the actual fashion bit about it. I am back to chunky sweaters, and the one I am wearing here is the sister of the one in this post here but in white. Obviously, it is from ZARA as they seem to be my favourites this autumn/winter and I just love the way it feels (no itchiness!). I honestly feel that it will look a lot better with my pre-pregnancy figure but I will just have to hold on to it until next year and shoot it again. Since it was cold af outside (like 2 degrees C) and we were on our way to the shopping centre I needed something both cozy and comfortable and therefore I opted for my UGG Maylin boots. I just love them despite being two years old and almost impossible to find online. I feel that the chunky knit works wonderfully with the furry detail especially since the colours match perfectly.

On D:

T-shirt – Scotch and Soda; Sweater – O’Neill; Jeans – Diesel; Boots – ZARA; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Apple

This time I did not go for an all-white winter look as I feel that works best with a snowy scenery, but I have an all-white outfit on stand-by. I decided to add brown accents instead, through my tights and bag. This Michael Kors bag is one of those perfectly crafted bags for people that carry lots of shit with them daily as it is big enough but not too big and it is wonderfully compartmentalised. All I really needed was a hat because my hair looked horrendous on that specific day – I swear IT feels whenever we want to take some pictures and decided to just look horrible, so a Mango hat it was! Not to forget my lovely wood sunglasses from WoodFellas that kept me from getting some wrinkles that day!

D also opted for a brownish outfit but he spiced it up a bit more with mustard shades and worn-out jeans (not destructed) and ended up looking amazing. He chose his O’Neill sweater that he got last year – so no chance of finding it online but I did link an alternative – to keep him warm and a mustard Scotch and Soda t-shirt underneath it. He perfectly matched his brown ZARA booties and a pair of classic Diesel slim jeans in a worn blue shade. I always thought these jeans work wonderfully with brown boots! Accessories-wise, we matched out watches (Apple) and he wore his brown Fossil bracelet while I wore just my Crystaldust Swarovski bracelet and my Tous ring.

I just love the light in these pics and they way they turned out. Honestly little to none editing was involved as we were blesses with a perfectly clear sky that day and great light. We did shoot in this exact same spot a couple of times before but these pics turned out the best thus far and I am really hoping that we will catch that exact moment when this place will be all white and filled with snow as a winter forest photoshoot is on my bucket list.

December 8, 2016

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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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Starting the third trimester!

I love, love, love velvet!!!! And it finally made its comeback this autumn! I am beyond happy about this therefore lots of pics this autumn will include some sort of velvet item… Mostly over the knee boots! I mean, how lovely are the over the knee velvet boots that you can now find in lots of shapes and colours! I can not stop buying them! Maybe I can’t stop buying these boots because of the fact that I can hardly buy anything else. And I love pairing over the knew boots with big chunky sweaters – as you probably noticed from the last couple of autumnal posts. I must confess that I developed an obsession with this look and therefore most of the autumn will probably look like that.

These are the first photos from the third trimester and I am really trying as much as possible to have at least two photo sessions per week as this is the time when my body will suffer most of the transformations and I do not want to miss a one centimetre of the growing bump.Hopefully the weather will help our pace as well and I must confess that thus far we have had a lovely autumn – minus a few days of pouring rain in September. For some reason (hormones, maybe?) I am starting to love, love, love this season with all its amazing colours and sometimes I find myself drifting away in admiration of the lovely leaf carpet that covers most of the streets these days. This is serious hormone stuff as never did I like autumn nor did I expect Christmas as much as I do this year.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Boots – ZARA; Bag – Michael Kors; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet ,ring and pendant); Sunglasses – Dior; Watch – Apple

A bit about today’s featured outfit: full ZARA! They have the loveliest autumn collection to date in my opinion, and I can not buy most of it, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that next year it will be even more lovely! I just love all their stuff but I do have to stick with items that I know will fit me post-baby, like this chunky knit dress that is the smallest size available and still has lots of room for my expanding belly – I will probably wear this dress when I go to the hospital as well and yes, naturally I bought it in white too because that’s how much I love the way it feels and looks. Because my current obsession are long boots and velvet, I could not avoid buying these amazing boots, also from ZARA. I discovered that the chucky heel is extremely comfortable despite it being 10,5 cm high and therefore I will wear these boots quite a lot. Plus, have you seen the great steel colour? Only velvet can mimic that amazing colour and texture!

On D:

Sweater – ZARA; Jeans – Review; Scarf – Celio; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Ingersoll

Besides these lovely pieces from ZARA, I also wore my pony hair clutch from Michael Kors as I feel that is the closest texture to velvet and I really wanted to mimic velvet in another item. There is always something so nice about being able to wear sunglasses during autumn and I could not miss the opportunity to wear my favourites again: the Dior SoReal. As for the bling section of this outfit, I opted for my Erik (discontinued a couple of years ago) pendant and Crystaldust bracelet both from Swarovski as well as a cocktail ring also from the just-mentioned brand because I like having a bit of sparkle in an otherwise casual outfit.

D is also becoming a big fan of knits as the temps lower, and as you can see, we are both unhealthily obsessed with different shades of grey. For some reason we always come back to this neutral shade for the cold season and you will probably see us in mostly grey with maybe (!) some touches of colour from time to time. As I said, D is really starting to love knits and opted for a grey ZARA sweater, his grey Review jeans and a grey scarf from Celio. Unlike mine, all of his clothes are from last year so I just linked some alternatives. Naturally, being a grey outfit, he could not miss the opportunity to yet again wear his Converse x John Varvatos shoes. Bling-wise he is way more conservative than me and only opted for his Fossil bracelet. As for the watches, I am still obsessed with my AppleWatch while D switched things up with his Ingersoll watch.

November 2, 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.