tattoo

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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Rome wasn’t built in a day…

…and apparently it will take a lot longer to get rid of my post-pregnancy tummy…or ass! I am not complaining in any way as getting back in my pre-pregnancy size this fast after giving birth was a big and welcome surprise, but that doesn’t mean that I do not want my abs to get back to where they were asap! I am well aware that this will take time as it took nine months of expanding to deliver the miracle that soundly sleeps in her bed as I am writing this, but I am willing to start working hard to get back to where I was in March last year. I am also well aware that this will be a long and hard road especially since I plan to continue to feed Leia with breast milk and the moment I start dieting (not some sort of crazy diet, but rather a light one) my milk starts to decrease in quantity so I have to be careful with that. So, on that note, my tummy and ass will have to wait a bit because…priorities!

As I mentioned before, I feel quite lucky that mom jeans and high waisted anything is fashionable right now as I have an extra layer to cover up and keep everything in place. These jeans I was wearing last Saturday when we took these photos are not the coveted mom cut, but rather a relaxed crop cut, but I love them nonetheless for the fact that they are crazy comfortable, a light wash (perfect for spring) and because of the cool catus embroidery that immediately got me thinking about summer. Yes, they are also a size 34, which means that I am still not wasting money on clothes that I will not wear once I’ll be back in shape and surprisingly they are from Bershka. I say ‘surprisingly’ because I can’t remember the last time I shopped from them mainly because I think that I am over their age-target (read that : ‘I feel too old for their stuff’).

On me:
Jeans – Bershka; Sweater – Bershka; Sneakers – MTNG; Bag – Atelier Lemnia; Bling – Tous (bracelet and ring); Watch – Apple

Since I worked up the courage to go into their store, I also bought this lovely spring sweater (that does absolutely nothing to keep me warm), specifically choosing this colour to match my rope sneakers that I bought in Madrid last spring. This lovely bag that I am sporting is my second addition from Atelier Lemnia (I just LOVE them!) and was a gift from close friends. It is the perfect size to fit my upmost necessities: phone, lipliner, lipstick, keys and gum and it is the perfect size to allow me to have my hands free and care for princess Leia.

On D:
Jeans – ZARA; T-shirt – Replay; Sneakers – Replay; Vest – ZARA; Bling – Fossil and Tous; Watch – Apple

D also went for the same color scheme : khaki and blue. He chose his distressed khaki pants from ZARA – yes, like I said, ZARA makes some amazing pants these days – and paired them with a Replay t-shirt. He added a little twist to his attire by adding a splash of orange with his belt and sneakers (also from Replay). Since last Saturday was a bit chilly and he still is in the healing process of his (almost) finished sleeve, he decided to keep warm with his trusted vest from ZARA. Btw, notice how cool his tattos are? I can’t wait to see the finished sleeve in about a week or so… and I also can’t wait to share it with you! Accessory-wise, beside the all-present Anex Sport stroller, we both wore our Apple Watches, D chose both his Fossil and Tous bracelet while I opted for my now-omnipresent Tous bracelet and ring set as well as my sapphire ring.

Since yet again I am on active mommy-watch (as I probably will be for the next few years) I will have to conclude this post right now, but, as a sneak-peak into our next post, I have to say that it will probably be about princess Leia if she decides to give me enough time to put together a post worthy of her (text and photos). There are also a few things that I want to share with you about what we’ve learned during these first 10 weeks of having a kid as there are some lessons that I would’ve gladly not learn the hard way. Until then, I’ll just leave you with these pics!
L.

March 23, 2017March 23, 2017

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The first six weeks…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 28, 2017

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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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Blackout…

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

Processed with Snapseed.

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

Processed with Snapseed.

On me:

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

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

Processed with Snapseed.

On D:

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

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

Processed with Snapseed.

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

Processed with Snapseed.

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

October 7, 2016

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Legs out!

I just love it when the weather is warm enough and I can switch from my regular office pants to high-waisted shorts. For some reason I’ve always loved this silhouette partly because it does miracles for people on the shorter side such as myself. It is true, legs do tend to look longer with any high-waisted pants or skirts, but if you choose a mini length and pair it with high heels, then you’ve got yourself both an hourglass silhouette and Victoria’s Secret model legs.

Officially this is my go-to attire for summer in the city. And not just starting this year, my love for these type of shorts started a few years back hence I have them in loads of colours and prints but that’s not to stop me from buying new ones. You can pair these shots with any blouse or t-shirt and converse sneakers if you’re looking for a casual outfit.

For the outfit here I chose to combine teal-green with a bit of orange. I’m happier than ever as I got to wear my Sophia Webster pumps that I got last winter from The Outnet. To match the orange tip of thse beauties, I chose my orange Furla mini bucket bag, that despite the fact that it’s small, it can fit a lot of stuff inside thanks to its shape. As accessories I only wore a Constantin Nautics bracelet alongsite my Tomorrowland and Pandora rings. Watch-wise, we both wore our Longines.

On me:
Shorts – ZARA; Blouse – Mango; Shoes – Sophia Webster; Bag – Furla; Bling – Constantin Nautics, Pandora and Tomorrowland; Watch – Longines

D also went for a teal-green outfit, without the orange, but paid with his office Tommy Hilfiger jeans. I think you’ve seen this shirt in most of our old office posts, and yes, this is the one shirt that he has in six or seven colours. You can find this incredibly soft and easy to iron shirt at H&M for an amazing price. Like me, he didn’t bother with lots of accessories either and only wore his Fossil bracelet alongside his Longines watch. The lovely shoes that he’s wearing are from Bigotti and he had to wait for them to be shipped for over a week. Do not get this the wrong way, a few weeks ago you could find these shoes in any of their stores, but it takes my man a while to decide on whether to buy something for himself or not. By the time he decided that he had to have them, there was only one store in the country that still had them in his size. I, on the other hand, am the exact opposite with more than half the things in my wardrobe bought on the spur of the moment. Do not get me wrong! I REGRET NOTHING!

On D:
Jeans – Tommy Hilfiger; Shirt – H&M; Shoes – Bigotti; Bling – Fossil; Watch – Longines

Ever since I dyed my hair blue, I tend to want to match my outfit to my locks, but this time I managed to only mildly do it with teal green. Naturally, my first instinct was to wear my blue Loubs, but I’m so glad I chose these Sophia Webster pumps as they are extremely comfortable despite the 100 mm heel.

I loved the fact that D matched my outfit and I hope we’ll be able to do this matchy-matchy game for many times to come!

June 6, 2016June 6, 2016

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Countryside chic!

Lately, I found myself loving shirt dresses, especially when combined with gladiator sandals.for some reason, this combo just screams festival-relax-fun. I especially love a shirt dress that has a masculine feel to it, if it’s light blue, than it’s a must-have in my closet. The only downside for rather short people like me (I’m 1,65 m) is that they can drown you so the obvious solution is a belt.

For this outfit I chose a ZARA shirt dress which is a) very cheap and b) very versatile. As with any trendy purchase, if it’s not a classic piece that will withstand the test of time, then just go for a cheaper version from that you can find in most shops right now. As for the versatility of this shirt dress, you see it here in a festival environment, but pair it with Loubs and you get an dinner-ready outfit and if you un-button it and combine it with a neon swimsuit you’ve got a very trendy cover-up. I will at some point shoot this exact shirt dress in the above mentioned combos.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Belt – Massimo Dutti; Shoes – Gioseppo; Bag – Furla; Bling – Tomorroland, Pandora and Swarovski; Watch – Daniel Wellington

Today my choice were these wonderful gladiator sandals from Gioseppo that I got in Madrid. These sandals were pretty popular in Madrid, as I had to run all over the city to find them because they were sold out everywhere except for one store. Obviously a braided brown belt was the best choice to perfectly match the hippie feel of the sandals. I decided to wear my Furla mini Metropolis and my usual Pandora and Tomorrowland rings paired with a Swarovski cocktail ring, because I felt like I needed a little bling. Both D and I wore our Daniel Wellington watches with matching straps, as we bought at least a dozen straps for our very versatile watches.

On D:

T-shirt – Calvin Klein; Pants – ZARA; Shoes – Vas; Bling – Constantin Nautics and Fossil; Watch – Daniel Wellington

D also chose a blue festival look. He paired his ‘Frodo’ pants from ZARA with a polo t-shirt from Calvin Klein, which in my opinion, is the perfect age-appropriate combo for summer festivals. To match my outfit all the way, he wore his brown leather flip-flops that he also got from Madrid, but fortunately, we didn’t have to run all over Madrid to find them. Naturally, he wore his bracelets from Fossil and Constantin Nautics. For some reason, we just love Constantin Nautics bracelets because they’re beautifully crafted, you can find them in hundreds of colour combos and therefore you can match them to any outfit and they are seriously affordable.

We had a great time shooting these outfits and even though I didn’t really like the setting, in the end I loved the way the photos turned out. I can’t wait for all those summer festivals but I also can’t wait to shoot this shirt dress with stilettos.

June 2, 2016

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Relax…

This is yet another blog post with barely any text in it, first of all because my arm still hurts a bit, and second of all, this Sunday is getting crazier by the minute…

All these photos were taken yesterday, when we realised that we didn’t have any food in our fridge and we were literally fed up with take away pizza as that’s the only thing we ate all of last week. D decided he’s had enough and announced first thing in the morning that we were having a decent lunch in the park.Luckily the weather was ok-ish and I didn’t need to wear something with long sleeves. We both chose the most comfortable clothes we had (clean!) and off we went.

On me:

Jeans – Replay; Top – Lefties; Shoes – Puma; Bling – Constantin Nautics, Pandora and Tomorrowland; Bag – Michael Kors; Watch – Longines

After about half an hour of snapping photos, our tummies decided that we desperately needed food. We ate at Isoletta and I have to say that it’s an amazing place to eat. True, it’s on the very expensive side, but the food, the service and the location are all excellent.

On D:

Jeans – ZARA; T-shirt – Scotch&Soda; Bling – Constantin Nautics and Fossil; Shoes – Nike; Watch – Aviator

You can literally feel the high quality of all the ingredients used, and the waiters are very well schooled. To be honest, we’ve both been to equally expensive restaurants before and the service wasn’t in any way comparable to this place. Nor was the food! This in my opinion is a place to try out at least once. As this weekend we seem to have been on the run for 48 hours (like we were running a long marathon), we didn’t have time to try out the deserts, but we did both have appetisers and mains.

I had the cheese plate, that in my opinion is for two persons, and being a cheese lover I have to say that the variety and the quality of the cheese was extraordinary, and D had the beef tartar. Normally I hate raw meat, but I couldn’t resist and I tried it. It was definitely the best tartar I’ve ever had and D confirmed that it was the best he’d ever had. As a main, I had the mushroom soup that was spectacular and D had the four cheese pasta that he loved even though he is not really a cheese lover. All in all, this is definitely a place to try at least once.

May 22, 2016

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Almost done…

I woke up yesterday really excited as I was getting a new tattoo and this one was my first full colour. Naturally, in the morning I had to go to work, but luckily for me, I had to wake up at 7 a.m. instead of the usual 5:15, so I was a bit more rested than usual.

This new tattoo I was getting is part of our ‘family oriented tattoos’ and I thought to myself that I had chosen the area well, considering that I found it bearable to get my ribs inked. Was I wrong…

As stated in a previous post, we always get our tattoos done at Radical Ink, and I’m not going to give you anymore details about the place as you can find all the info about our personal experiences there in D‘s post. Like I always do when in Romania, I get my tattoos done by the talented (and very patient – patience was needed yesterday) tattoo artist, Andrei Chirita. Check him out here!

I got there with a pretty clear idea in my head about what I wanted to get, D‘s fingerprint. And not any fingerprint, his ring finger. I knew it was going to be hard to do that in a watercolour style, but Andrei did a marvellous job at integrating the fingerprint into a watercolour tattoo. He found some wonderful Magnolia flowers sketched online and we decided they were perfect. I was very happy that we could integrate my ‘three’ obsession into this tattoo, because I really wanted that desperately.

Now, moving on to the concept behind the tattoo. As stated earlier, it’s D‘s fingerprint and basically three fully bloomed Magnolias. The idea behind the three-concept is that right now there’s three of us in our family (D, our dog – maybe I should do a post on her – and myself) and we will celebrate three years of marriage this year. The beautiful way that Andrei placed the fingerprint under two of the flowers, symbolises the fact that he (D) touches me and our dog profoundly. The freed Magnolia, which is placed higher than the other two symbolises himself as being the head of our small family. I guess that whole meaning behind the tattoo helped me go through it until the end, and it’s not yet done, but we have to wait for it to heal before we do any more work on it.

About the pain… I honestly thought that if I went through a quite big tattoo on my ribs, without any real issues, than this one should be relaxing. I was so, so wrong! This one has to be the most painful one I’ve ever gotten so far. Mainly I think that’s due to the fact that it’s a colour tattoo and the technique is quite different than for black and white. With colour, you have to go over and over the same area numerous times and on top of it all, the coloured ink stings like hell. Literally, at some point, I couldn’t bare anyone touching my skin. The worst part of the lower arm had to be the exact middle, as it hurt a lot less when he was getting close to either my elbow or my wrist (which is totally unnatural).

During the last hour of the session, Andrei had to actually trick me into getting more ink. I don’t know exactly how he did it, but he did and we managed to get 90% of the tattoo done. The fact that he got so far proves just what a good tattoo artist he is. I mean, he really had his work cut out with me because at some point I was moving uncontrollably on the chair, but he still managed to not get any line out of place. After about two hours, my arm doubled in size, but that’s just a normal reaction of the skin, which made it even more painful. Honestly, had I known how painful the whole are would be, I probably would’ve chosen my back for this tattoo. Do not get me wrong! Right now, looking at my arm, while writing this post, I regret nothing and I am quite proud of the fact that I managed to go through this. I just hope and pray that it will heal perfectly and that all we’ll have to do next time (in about a month) is finish all the accents that I couldn’t resist for last night.

I know that the care process is going to be extremely important and it will make the difference throughout the years. Most people use Bepanthen to care for their new ink (because it’s cheap), and I’ve done that for my first three tattoos, but ever since I discovered Sorry Mom tattoo balm (I first used it on my ribs), I will not care for them with anything else. The difference is that big! True it is a bit more expensive, but you’ll have a beautiful tattoo for life, so in my opinion it’s worth every penny.

If you’re wondering why we keep tattooing bits of each other or other things that might change throughout our lives, just remember that if there’s one thing you can’t change in life, that’s the past and we both consider our skin to be our life diary! That’s where we were at that point in our life and there’s nothing that could change that and our tattoos are a reminder of that. This is basically our motto when getting new ink and this is how we always make sure that we will not regret any of the tattoos we have on our body!

I will stop writing now as it’s not very comfortable (another thing I didn’t take into consideration when I chose my right arm, especially since I can’t do anything with my left) and probably next week we’ll post a lot less text that you’re used to, but I hope we’ll still manage to post daily or almost daily.