review

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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Holiday Series: Christmas Sweater Card 2016!

Another Holiday Series post, this time we introduce you our official 2016 Christmas Family Card – yup, the one featured at the top and bottom of this post. All our close friends and family received one alongside their Christmas present and we can’t be more excited to shoot next year with out bundle of joy in it as well. Yes, I know Christmas sweaters are considered to be a fashion faux-pas, but hey, they are fun, they keep you warm and this is the only time of the year when you can actually wear them and not feel completely stupid. Plus, call me hormonal/emotional/whatever, but I love, love, love mine! D got it for me as a surprise for no actual reason and it perfectly depicts how I feel these days: like a fluffy polar bear, but I guess that is normal considering that in approximately 2 and a half weeks I will be delivering the very important cupcake that has been baking inside my belly for almost 9 months now.

That said, we hope you had a lovely time yesterday because we know we had with all our family. Let me tell you a bit about our traditional Christmas lunch-turned-dinner… Usually we get together at noon (1-ish) and eat for about 7 hours non-stop. One might say that Christmas dinner is a marathon for us and that would be very true. Sadly though, being so close to term, we could not spend more than 2 hours with our family mainly because I constantly feel the need to lay on my couch and relax these days.

On me:

Sweater – Pull and Bear; Jeans – H&M; Boots – Ugg; Bling – Swarovski; Watch – Apple Watch

On D:

Sweater – Pull and Bear; Jeans – Review; Socks – Happy Socks; Watch – Apple

On Nauca:

Sweater – Camon

Anyways, we hope you like our Christmas Sweaters and promise that we will post annually silly pics for the Holiday Series posts with our expanding family!

December 26, 2016

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Civic Duties: DONE!

Yesterday we voted! I do not want to spend more time on the subject as I think that politics is just like religion: everyone is entitled to their own opinion. We did however, use that as an excuse to snap some more pics of the 34th week of pregnancy and fully took advantage of the 14 degrees C and the perfectly clear skies – yes, apparently the weather is a bit nuts these days in Bucharest. Since both of us have our ID dress at our parents’ this called for a full Bucharest tour to be able to vote. First it was D who voted and right after that it was my turn. When all our civic duties were done we decided to snap some pics near my parents house thus changing the usual scenery a bit.

As you can see, D is wearing a t-shirt and I am wearing a dress with no coat on as it was just that warm outside and needless to say lovely. The dress is yet another XS find from ZARA that currently fits nicely but I have a feeling that in about two-three weeks I will have to wear it as a tunic over jeans because my belly is growing at a very fast rate and this dress is on the short side. But I love it anyway because it has a very fun print, it needs no ironing and it works with a lot of things in my closet, plus the lovely black and yellow combo. I just can’t wait to try it on when I am back to my old shape again and see how it fits. To be honest I can’t wait to try all my newly bought dresses once I loose all the baby weight. Maybe I will do a series called ‘Double Take: during and after pregnancy dresses’. I strongly urge all future mothers to not give into the temptation of buying maternity clothes, just be careful with your diet and you’ll fit in most of your usual sized dresses – the cut is the only thing that really changes but at least you’ll be left wth clothes that you can actually wear post-pregnancy.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Boots – Rachel Zoe; Bag – Christhelen B by Musette; Hat – ZARA; Sunglasses – Dior; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet and ring); Watch – Apple

Whenever I have a dress that is a bit on the short side of the spectrum I like to pair it with over the knee boots, as you might have noticed, especially since these boots are current obsessions of mine mainly because they tend to make legs seem longer and slimmer than they actually are – trust me on that one. Plus they are super-sexy and comfortable provided you do accept the fact that every once in a while (often!) you gave to re-position them on your thighs as they do tend to run down as you walk (some double tape might help with that). Aside from the mini-dress-over-the-knee boots combo, I must point out that I found another black bag! This is not new, I’ve actually had it for 3 years but only recently found it and therefore I decided to switch from my usual Chloe black bag. Plus I just love the golden details that go perfectly with my Rachel Zoe boots as well as my ZARA hat. You can find lots of similar options at Musette.

On D:

T-shirt – Replay; Jeans – Review; Vest – ZARA; Shoes – Replay; Sunglasses – Ray-Ban; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Watch – Apple

D didn’t really feel like wearing black, so he opted for the softer version of grey and dark khaki. He proudly wore his newly acquired ZARA vest that he first spotted a few years ago (different colour, though) and I suspect he prayed a lot to the ZARA Gods to remake that model. He is the type of shopper that sees something that he likes but only wants desperately to have it at least a year later. Well, this is one of those few things that he actually found two years later in store and thus had to have it. He also wore his lovely Review jeans and a Replay t-shirt that he bought especially as he wanted something to match his Replay orange-soled sneaks. All in all, everything he wore matched wonderfully: the dark khaki of the vest with the khaki t-shirt, the orange sole of his sneaks with the orange print on his t-shirt that also sort of matched the orange-brown part of the vest. I just love it when everything goes well together and not necessarily matches perfectly!

Bling-wise, we did not really put too much thought into it as we were only going out to vote, but we did however manage to look decent. I wore my Swarovski bracelet and ring while D wore his usual Fossil bracelet alongside a Constantin Nautics bracelet. We both wore out Apple Watches, as usual and it turns out we are both fans of these smartwatches despite not really thinking that might happen. Since it was really sunny out, we both wore sunglasses, I, my Dior SoReal while D wore his Ray-Ban black sunnies.

December 12, 2016

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Cold Steel!!!

Well, the day has come where a barely-there-text post is here! This Sunday is a bit mad, so I’m just going to keep it simple and tell you that winter is upon us even though it does not seem like it – cold af but sunny, which means that it is not really appropriate to get the furry UGGs out yet but a long wool coat is definitely needed even at lunch.

Yes, the colour theme is grey and we both managed to pull it off, unfortunately, despite buying this lovely dress a few weeks ago it is nowhere to be found online right now, so I’ve linked an alternative. Other than that, most of the pieces we’ve worn, you’ve already seen and mainly this photoshoot is supposed to mark the 33rd week of pregnancy and the fact that it is cold af outside, but no sign of snow in the next couple of weeks.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Boots – ZARA; Coat – ZARA; Bag – DKNY; Sunglasses – Dior; Bling – Swarovski and Tous; Watch – Apple

On D:

Sweater – ZARA; Jeans – Review; Coat – ZARA; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Apple

Hopefully by next week we will have some nursery pics for you – yes, it is completed! And we are very proud of the way it turned out.

December 4, 2016

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Hair greatness – L’Oreal Pro Fiber

You know how when you are pregnant you are supposed to have dream hair, skin and nails? But you are also supposed to feel nauseated 90% of the time and your rings are not supposed to fit you anymore and nor are your shoes? Well none of that happened to me thus far… nor the good or the bad! The jury is still out on whether I should be happy or not about all that, but I guess that feeling normal is a good thing, and by normal I mean brassy hair, a few zits, weak nails but topped by an overall good feeling about myself with rings and shoes that still fit despite being 32 weeks pregnant.That said, during my pregnancy I did not feel the need to ignore all my hair treatments and even tried a few new ones. You know how hair treatments work: you feel a slight improvement but not really that much – and right now I am talking about the really expensive ones as the ones that are mid-ranged from a price point of view do no more than a quick fix of your issues that usually lasts five minutes into the late autumn humidity. Well, not the one I am going to talk about in this post! This one, despite being a medium priced salon treatment was very impressive and three days later it still is very impressive despite the humidity levels hitting 85% in the past few days!

I am talking about the L’Oreal Professionel Pro Fiber Reconstruct treatment. While I always avoided L’Oreal because of the high silicone content, I thought I’d give this one a try because it is receiving quite the rave online. As I stated this one is a reasonably priced salon treatment (about 35 $) but it promises big results. And it does just that! Now, I have no idea if the other treatments in the line work, I can say that this one did miracles on my blonde-damaged hair despite me being quite the skeptic at first and hence not thinking about taking any before of after pics of my hair. You are just going to have to take my word for it and go ahead and try it yourself. My hair before the actual treatment was a mess. By mess I mean 90% of my top crown was brassy and it lacked shine, especially when it was not styled properly – yes, throughout the years I learned a few tips and tricks on how to style it so that it does not look like a hay stack. Going in with the mindset that I should not expect much, I totally skipped the photo/video phase of the treatment but did take a few snaps of the actual products, mainly so that I know what to buy for home if I thought the products were ok-ish (I recently ran out of shampoo and hair mask) – so this post will have to work solely on those pics.

The procedure in itself is very easy and quick and right now, given my current situation I was happy with that because I can not sit in one place for more than two hours and I dreaded the thought of having a long and complicated treatment done. Basically, the stylist washed my hair twice with the shampoo, applied a full vial of the treatment (I currently have a lot of hair with my extensions and all – otherwise you only need half) and on top of the vial applied the activation mask and all I had to do was wait 15 minutes before she gave me a good rinse and the treatment was over – all in all, about 20-25 minutes. This is so easy to do at home and the thing that impressed me the most thus far is the smell – this is perfect for the winter months – spiced vanilla, but a very intense and comforting spiced vanilla! That alone helped me decide on my next at-home haircare!Then it was off to drying but not before applying the line’s serum on wet hair (no pic unfortunately!). This is when I really started to believe that this treatment actually works wonders as you know when your hair is in a bad place it’s always complicated to style it because the brush keeps getting tangled in the damaged parts of the hair no matter how much oil or serums you put into it? Well that never happened during the drying part after this treatment and by the end my hair looked and felt healthier and stronger than ever. I was hooked! especially since, even today, three days later my hair feel amazing, looks amazing despite wearing a beanie twice a day – for the dog walks – and still smells divine!

Obviously that made me buy the at-home products instantly and I even bought the vials just to see if I can fully re-create the results at home. I will keep you posted on that in a later post as I really feel that this new treatment line deserves all the praising it can get especially since it is on the cheaper side and actually delivers the promised results. I really hope that all you ladies out there that, like me, have damaged hair and a skeptical approach to hair treatment will be convinced to give this treatment a try as it really and unexpectedly delivers great results for half the price compared to other ‘luxury’ in-salon treatments.

November 28, 2016

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Keeping promises…

As you know we promised to shoot these lovely velvet boots in the clear light of day so that you can fully comprehend their amazing colour. We were lucky enough to get just a few minutes of sunshine this week and we took full advantage of them as I really did want to keep my promise. UGG season is right around the corner so I’m desperately trying to wear over the knee boots as often as possible these days before the temps decide to go negative.

For this photoshoot we both agreed on red – and various shades – and black as we do love this combo, especially since the Christmas spirit is starting grow in both of us – just think about gingerbread and cinnamon everything! Now, as you are well aware, tomorrow is our baby shower so this will not be a long post, but rather on the short side, but I will make up on that next week when we’ll talk about what the party was like and the nursery for our baby princess.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Coat – H&M; Boots – ZARA; Bag – Atelier Lemnia; Bling – Pandora, Swarovski and Tous; Watch – Apple

As stated, I mostly chose red for these photos and yes, this is yet again a non-maternity XS ZARA dress that feels just amazing on. The fabric is so soft and nice and the cut is just perfect for an 8th month pregnant woman. It does provide a lot of room for the bump and I will probably try and wear it a few more times throughout December – naturally with red UGG boots. I also love the frilly details, I mean, how cool are those sleeves??? And do not even get me started on the print, because I’m all hormonal and everything childish impresses me – this dress is no exception. Naturally, when I bought this dress, I could only think about how lovely it will work with my ZARA velvet burgundy long boots and seeing these pics convinced me of that.

On D:

T-shirt – Funky Buddha; Jeans – Review; Sweater – ZARA; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil and Tous; Sunglasses – Ray-Ban; Watch – Longines

To be honest with you, I can’t wait to wear this exact outfit next year, this time with a flat stomach and a few kgs less. Because the temps are quite low these days I decided to top everything with my red-oxblood trench that I bought at the beginning of autumn from H&M. Despite this being a complicated colour to match, all you really need is either a bag or a pair of boots to pull it off as the colour underneath doesn’t really matter because you can’t really see it when it it closed, so be brave, buy the red coat! As for the bag, I opted for my Atelier Lemnia red bag simply because there is nothing else better than this bag for autumn – the shade, the shape, everything is just perfect!

D embraced my red theme but went for a more masculine burgundy shade and a bit more black than I did. He wore his Funky Buddha t-shirt – remember I talked a bit about this new brand here. They are just lovely and have amazing fabrics and prints – just take a look at this t-shirt. He also wore a ripped sweater that he found at ZARA that did not really help him with the chilly temps but looked cool af! To match the distressed feel of the sweater he wore his ripped Review jeans. Yes, the ones I love so much! He finished his look with his grey Converse x John Varvatos sneakers and in my opinion he looks perfect!

As for the accessories… I wore the Pandora bracelet that D filled completely with different charms before we got married. I love this bracelet so much and I can pin point the exact moment he gave me each and every one of the charms on it – this is one of the amazing things about Pandora. I also wore my Swarovski Crystaldust bracelet and my Tous ring. D wore both his Fossil and Tous bracelet alongside his Longines watch while I opted for my Apple Watch – no surprise there!

Here I go, I promised you a short post and ended up writing a full post. I can’t wait to show you the nursery and let you know how the baby-shower went, what caterers we used and whether or not we recommend them. Until then, have a lovely weekend!

November 26, 2016

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Apple Watch

(Note: All Screen-shots are from my iPhone in regards to the Apple Watch. If you would like to see screen-shots of the UP App see the full post on Jawbone UP3 here)

It has been more than three weeks since I’ve switched from my Jawbone Up3 to Apple Watch and I think a review is needed as there are a lot of things to say and weight-in when a change like this emerges. I do not want to influence your fit band/smartwatch choices, but I do want to talk a bit about the advantages and disadvantages of having one or the other as well as show you how I use mine and truthfully what I think a smartwatch is most used for – let’s be honest, while it is nice to see who’s calling you on your watch, we’re not the FBI talking to our wrists therefore people talking on the ‘phone’ on their watch look stupid (to say the least) in my humble opinion. But hey, who am I to judge?

First I’ll start off by saying that I got the Apple Watch Series 1 in pink (obviously!). I did not get the Series 2 because besides it being waterproof – which in my case is completely useless as I am afraid of water and therefore stay clear of it as much as I can (daily shower not included in this category) all it has as an extra is a better (better illuminated) display and as D puts it, soon we will have white displays to look at. Since I got it right after the launch of the second series, I found it at a special price and it made no sense to me to miss the opportunity. That said, D will get the series 2 as he is the type that is mostly in the water whenever we are on vacation and waterproofing is something that he and anyone that is not afraid of the water needs in a smartwatch. Therefore, I do feel that this feature is needed for normal people and it definitely is worth the money.

Since most of our stuff is from Apple, I did not even look at other smartwatches as the OCD side in me likes everything to match and thinks that everything works better if it’s from the same brand, so no, I did not even show a bit of interest in other smartwatches. As with any Apple product, the installation is easy and fast and, unless you did not came in contact with another Apple product before, you’ll find the menu to be intuitive and very easy to use. Getting started was fairly easy, my iPhone detected the watch immediately and I was set.

Jawbone UP3 vs Apple Watch experience – health tracker

Activity Log

For the first few days, I kept both my Jawbone and my Apple Watch on just to compare the two. The nice thing about the watch is that you can see all your notifications on your watch so, if you are like me and always leave your phone somewhere in the house, you will not miss any notifications/phone calls/messages/Instagram or Facebook notifications ever again so this is a big plus on my Jawbone band. Also the screen helps a lot in keeping up with your activity. However, let’s not forget that the Apple Watch costs double than the Jawbone UP3 but it also does a lot more than track your activity. As step trackers they have the same accuracy, however the Jawbone band detects when you are exercising more easily than the Apple Watch and that is a big plus especially if you do not want to constantly log every walk you take beforehand so that the Apple Watch can measure it (both in time and length). This is one thing that I did not like as much about the Apple Watch – it fails to detect exercise on its own while the Jawbone UP3 does that impeccably.

Sleep Log

Another feature that the Jawbone UP3 has and the Apple Watch does not have is the ability to track your sleep on its own. Again, for the Apple Watch you have to manually log in when you go to bed and set an alarm to wake up – I hate alarms, but that is the only way I can track my sleep. I suspect this is because the Apple Watch uses a third party app, called Pillow to do that. Do not get me wrong, I think that the sleep tracking on the Apple Watch is a million times better than the analysis I used to get from my Jawbone UP3 and therefore, alarm or no alarm and as much as it bugs me to manually log when I am getting into bed, I think that in this category the Apple Watch is by far better. Now it all depends on how much you value a good sleep analysis. For me this is very important and that’s why I started loving the Apple Watch quickly.

Nutrition

This, in my opinion is where the Apple Watch won me over for good. Again we are talking about using a third party app and to my best knowledge the best one out there so far is MyNetDiary. This app is so complete and so easy to use! I just love it. As opposed to the Up App, I can find most of my daily food choices without having to add them myself (I hated having to add all the nutritional info to most of my food), so one can say that the database is way larger and that makes the whole logging experience a lot better. Another cool feature that this app has is the ability for the user to make their own recipe and divide it either by serving or weight. This is very helpful when you want to cook stuff and also keep things as healthy as possible. I also love the fact that this app is easy to use but I hate the fact that it does not sync with the activity tracker on my watch and therefore it does not give me a throughly ready-calculated calorie count and I have to do that by myself. It does however sync with the step-numbers on my watch and it makes no sense to me why they didn’t manage to sync it to the Activity app.

Mindfulness

This is a feature that the Jawbone UP3 does not have, or at least not to this level. The Apple Watch can track your heartbeat live and when it gets too high it usually makes you take a 1 minute break. The Jawbone UP3 only tracked your resting heart rate which, again might or might not be important to you. It is to me, especially during my pregnancy and it will probably be important post-pregnancy when I will restart going to the gym regularly.

All this data is nicely stored in the Health App that the iPhone has pre-intalled and that most people do not use until they get an Apple Watch – or at least that was my case. This is a very good nutrition analyst in my opinion and not much else. I mean, yeah, it does put everything together and all but it does not tell you anything. It does however do a great (and I mean GREAT) job at analysing your food (vitamins, minerals, etc), which no other app does. This again is very important to me right now, and to be honest it always was important, but the Up App did not provide that. This is something that I loved from the very beginning and really made me change my mind and go from the Jawbone UP3 to the Apple Watch.

This is where the comparison between the Jawbone Up3 and the Apple Watch stops as the Jawbone is just a fitness tracker while the Apple Watch does so much more. If you are only interested in a fitness tracker, then go for any of the tracking bracelets out there (I loved the Jawbone UP3) and save your money. However if you want more than that, keep on reading.

Like I said earlier, this watch is like your mini iPhone on your wrist. It basically has every app on your phone and it has most of the abilities you phone has. That being said, you must keep it connected to your phone for it to actually work and having your phone in the near vicinity usually makes you use it as opposed to using the watch. There are a few situations where I used the watch to answer and talk on the phone – when I was too lazy to actually get off the couch or when my phone battery was almost over – but overall, I use my phone. Also, it is nice to have the ability to reply to messages but scribbling every single letter on your watch tends to be time-consuming but helps in the earlier mentions situations.You can also check Instagram, use Shazam and lot more apps that are compatible with the watch. The interface, as I said at the beginning of the post, is very user-friendly, and, especially at the beginning, you are tempted to over-use it.

The Watch app on your phone allows you to customise virtually anything about your watch (see the print-screens) and also gives you a full insight on your device (apps, notifications, setting, font size, sounds, app layout, etc). The battery life is decent, and because I want to wear it all day and night, I usually charge it before I go to sleep for about 20 minutes and again in the morning for about 20 minutes, but if you do not want to wear it during the night you could get away with only charging it once.

Overall I am very happy with my watch and I have been using it non-stop for the past three weeks which means that I have been ignoring my other beloved watches, but I did also keep my Jawbone bracelet at arm’s reach as whenever I want to wear another watch I need something to track my activity (yes, I am crazy like that and that craziness only got worse one the doctor forbade me to got to the gym during the pregnancy). So, is the watch worth the money? Hell yeah! Not saying the same thing about the watch bracelets that Apple are selling and are waaaay overpriced – if you know a good third party bracelet seller for my watch please leave a comment below as I am really bored by my Sport band that the watch came with.

November 14, 2016

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Autumn Carpet!

Yup, the belly is growing, the leaves are falling and soon our home will be filled with diapers and rash cream… but until then we are determined to enjoy every single moment we have with each other and concentrate on our life as a family of two. Remember how I recently told you that due to the hormonal storm happening inside me I actually enjoy this autumn and all the lovely colours it comes along with? Well, a few days ago I spotted this lovely trail in the woods near our home and desperately called D to let him know that we must take some pics there as there is a lovely brownish-yellow leaf carpet covering the path and that is something that cannot be missed!

At first I was (very) tempted to go for fall-hues on our outfits but quickly realised that we will get lost in the scenery, hence yet again, we have opted for black and grey – we are starting to be really boring colour-wise, unlike spring and summer when we usually can’t get enough of different vibrant colours. But bear with us, as I can’t comfortably shop for clothes right now as you never know how I will transform during these last weeks of pregnancy and therefore we have to work with what I already have and still covers my expanding belly. Yes, the expanding belly is an issue due to the fact that most of the tops I own stop right under my belly button hence leaving me exposed, so long stuff I already own is a must!

On me:

Sweater – H&M; Jeans – H&M; Boots – UGG; Bag – ZARA; Hat – ZARA; Bling – Swarovski (bracelet and ring); Watch – Apple

Another aspect about November that I love is the fact that officially one can wear UGGs. Yes, I know, I’ve heard it all – they’re ugly, they’re out of style, they’re not age appropriate, etc – and honestly, I do not give a f*#k! I just love them and think that they are the most comfortable late autumn/winter boots out there. Like seriously, nothing compares to the feeling you have when you wear UGGs! On that note, prepare for an entire UGG-feast this winter as throughout the years I did invest quite a lot of money in a wide variety of UGGs and they do tend to stand the test of time, plus, it’s not like o-t-k boots are ok when there is either ice or snow or both on the pavements.

On D:

T-shirt – Review; Jeans – ZARA; Vest – Bershka; Shoes – Converse x John Varvatos; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Ingersoll

Finally getting to today’s outfit, I decided on wearing the very comfortable H&M maternity black jeans and honestly I think I will get quite a few wears out of this pair even after I give birth as they are extremely comfortable and look quite nice as well. As stated earlier, since we did not want to get lost in the scenery, I opted for an old H&M grey sweater that at some point I used to wear as a long tunic but right now it just about covers all my belly. I love the way this sweater feels as I love angora wool but I hate, hate, hate the rampage it leaves behind (read: my jeans looked like I just cuddled a cat). To balance the whole thing out I wore my most loved grey Cardy boots which I think were actually my first UGGs and a black classic hat from ZARA. The bag is also from ZARA and I think it is 10-12 years old and at some point I am going to have to part with it but I just couldn’t do it – I get extremely attached to most of my clothes/accessories and do not even get me started on my shoes!

D is aways happy to wear grey and black so the choice was quite easy for him. We were lucky enough thus far to not have freezing temps and actually have a lovely warm day when we shot these photos so all he really needed was a t-shirt from Review and a vest from Bershka to keep him warm. The black ZARA jeans are actually a new and unlikely addition to his closet as they are very slim on the lower leg, but I love the way he styled them with his hi-top black Converse x John Varvatos sneaks. When it came to accessorising our outfits, D went for his Fossil bracelet and his brown Ingersoll watch, while I opted for my Swarovski bracelet and ring and my never-absent Apple Watch.

Since shopping for clothes is futile for me right now, I am concentrating on boots and actually have a few on the way that I can not wait to shoot so more and more pics of us are coming, naturally taking into consideration the fact that the weather and the little bundle of joy will allow us to move freely and take many snaps.

November 8, 2016

evenlymatched1 Comment

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

evenlymatched1 Comment

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!