Instagramming…

Tags

Instagram, Just living

Hey! Long time no post.

I know, I know… I have been terrible with the blog.

But, hey, juggling pregnancy, loads of work and redecorating a flat (which, in my case, has been a far, far more stressful experience than the pregnancy itself) is not easy and something had to be compromised. It appears that, at least temporarily, the blog is the weakest link.

In the meantime, and until I find time & energy for a decent update, I’ll be sharing bits of my life here. (please say hi if you happen to drop by!)

 

Sardegna

Tags

Italy, Sardegna

Maybe it is because it is rainy and dark today, but I felt the need to revisit my pictures from this summer.

I went to Sardegna with a group of friends in the beginning of July. We stayed with our friend’s P parents, close to Santa Teresa di Gallura in the north tip of the island. It was 7 days of sea, sun, food (including several kg of pane guttiau) and friends. All that is needed for a perfect holiday.

Quick update

Tags

London, Sardinia

hey! I’m back from lovely Sardinia and seriously enjoying super-sunny London .

I’ll show you more from my holidays soon, but for the time being here is a handful of recent pictures straight from my mobile…

Views from our (or better, our friend P’s) lovely villa in northern Sardinia
(you can even see Corsica on the left)

more views…

and beautiful late afternoon light

First day back in London – on my way to Sunday farmers’ market
(coming back from holidays is so much easier when there’s sun in London!)

The market at Queen’s Park

New addition to the list of favourite boutiques in London: Iris boutique on Salusbury Road / Victoria Road.
Full of delightful pieces from my favourite brands: Vanessa Bruno Athe, Jerome Dreyfuss, Isabel Marant, Acne, Bash, Eberjey, Carven…

I couldn’t resist buying myself a little gift.

Holidays!

Tags

Essie, Estee Lauder, Etoile Isabel Marant, Gap, Holidays, OPI, Roche-Posay, Sardinia, South Beach Swimwear, Summer 2013

Finally, the day arrived: I’m off to Sardinia tomorrow (yahoo!).

We will be travelling with a few friends from London and I am quite excited. I haven’t spent holidays with friends for many years. I am hoping for a lot of sea, sun, food (gelati!!!) and laughter!

I’ve spent the last couple of hours preparing my suitcase. I’ll be carrying roughly the same I took to Sicily last year (you can see it all here), plus a few new items such as…

Etoile Isabel Marant top and jeans – I’ve been coveting these two since February (especially the top) and I finally got them in the sales.

Red (dark orange?) jersey dress from Gap

Pink & striped t-shirt from Gap (got these today. They were super-cheap and will look great with denim shorts). (And, yes, they need to be ironed.)

New bikini! I am very happy with this purchase from Asos. It looks great (well, it works for my body type) and it cost only a little bit more than £20. The brand is South Beach.

I’ll be carrying very little make up. Estee Lauder Daywear is almost finished and I’ve just got this BB cream by La Roche-Posay to replace it. I decided to give it a try because it’s from a reliable brand (my skin never complained when I used Roche Posay products), plus it is cheaper than the EL one and has got SPF20. I hope I will like it.

And, finally, At First Sight by OPI for fingernails (actually this was the colour I wore at my wedding), Foot Loose or Fair Game by Essie for toenails.

And off I go… I still have 2,564 things to do before the trip!

Have a great weekend.
I will be back soon with beautiful (I hope) photos of the Mediterranean Sea. Ciaoooo!

Weekend in Rome

Tags

Family, Rome, Wedding

I spent a long weekend in Rome earlier this month. It’s always a pleasure to visit my husband’s family, meet our Roman friends and enjoy this beautiful, sunny city (while eating as much ice cream as humanly possible!).

Here are a few snapshots of our time there….

Flowers upon arrival from my parents-in-law. How sweet are they?

Pink or blue?

A visit to a gem of a store: the “Old factory hat” (Antica Manifattura Cappelli), with my sister-in-law Giulia (on the photo, trying on a summer hat)

Sunny wake-ups

And strolls in the nearby park (here in Villa Ada finally wearing a skirt I bought in February!)

Buying more flowers

and preparing dinner for friends

Dinner on the terrace… (or the beauty of living in a warm country)

The highlight of the weekend (an main reason for our trip): the wedding of our good friends Rosa and Giacomo!

Such a beautiful wedding! Can you see how happy they were?
I must confess I even shed a tear or two…

Movie-like first kiss :)

Rosa’s beautiful dress

and bouquet

Sonia & Rosa

The party…

Wonderful wedding. Even though I literally only knew the bride and the groom (and my husband :) I had a lot of fun. This may sound horrible to say but my experience with weddings is either very tedious (when I don’t know the couple very well or… mmmh… the whole party is really formal and boring) or truly wonderful. This wedding was certainly in the last category. You could feel how much care and love they had put in all the details. And their happiness was palpable!

Congratulations Rosa & Giacomo. Wish you the very, very best!

Can’t wait

Tags

Holidays, Sardegna, Sea, Summer, Sun

To go to Sardegna…

(photos from here and here)

Kent

Tags

England, Kent, Travelling

Last month I spent a long weekend in Kent with a group of good friends. We rented this wonderful XVI century cottage in the middle of the countryside and were lucky enough to have 3 days of splendid sunshine (out of a total of 5 sunny days this country has experienced this Spring so far). I am always amazed by how beautiful the British countryside is.

the house

and its gardens

my new favourite sport: croquet!

postcard-pretty

in one of the evenings we dressed up for a “murder mystery dinner party” organised by 2 of our friends. My role was to play a mysterious journalist and I’d to dress in black, head to toe. It was different and fun.

the weather was so good that we decided to make a trip to a nearby beach (Whitstable) in the last day

some of our friends even decided to wet their feet in the sea…

…while I remained snug in my cardigan

Such a great weekend…

Over the last 2 weeks…

Tags

Chanel, Christmas, Dogs, Etoile Isabel Marant, Hipanema, London, Nestum, Porto

… I re-edited a paper for the 27th time. And it’s finally done.

… I travelled to Portugal for a pre-Christmas visit to my family and to my (their) dogs, Lola & Conchita. They are very cute and energetic. We say they should work in the circus because they jump a lot and can stand up on two legs for a long time!

… I bought and wrapped many, many gifts. (Honestly, this picture is just about one-fourth of them!)

… But Christmas shopping aside, I stayed at home with my family most of the time because the weather was really miserable. 7 days of rain and cloudy skies.

… I had to replace my Shiseido multi energising cream (which I liked a lot) and decided to pick up Chanel’s Hydra beauty gel creme at the duty free. I’ve used it for over a week now and so far so good.

… Also bought a new Hipanema bracelet (from here). Can’t wait to wear it.

…My mother organised a little pre-Christmas dinner with some of my close family while I was in Porto. Giacomo wasn’t there but we brought a little bit of Italy to the dinning table having pandoro with mascarpone cream (recipe here, in Italian) for dessert.

… I got several pictures sabotaged by Conchita

… I arrived with a suitcase full of English gifts and I left with a suitcase full of Portuguese gifts, Nestum (my favourite cereals) and other delicacies (Port wine, and lots of salted codfish, obviously, which is the ‘official’ Portuguese Christmas food).

…Back to the airport

…And ready to board back to London.

… where I fell sick with labyrinthitis. Absolutely horrible.

… As soon as I recovered a bit (and I’m still not fully recovered)  I put on my new Flavia shirt. Finally, after months of lusting I got it and I love it!

… I also went to the Hollywood Costumes exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum with my husband. I really didn’t want to miss it because we booked the tickets several weeks ago and most of the dates are now sold out. Fortunately, I felt I recovered on time!

… And since we’re in the neighborhood, we took the opportunity to visit Harrods as well.

… I hardly ever go to Harrods. But I love their Food Hall! We got ‘inspired’ by it and ended up buying some fresh pasta and seafood while there…

…For a bit of home cooking!

… I sent out several Christmas cards and I’ve received a few. My favourite is this one, drawn by my 5-year-old friend Maria. (yeah, that’s me and her on the cover.)

… And I’m now ready for my very first Christmas in London. Just me and my husband. Exciting :)

Wish you all very happy holidays!

Today

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It's my birthday and I cry if I want to

I am one year older today.

It has been a cold, gray, rainy day. But I’m happy, because I’m like a kid and I’m always happy on my birthday.

Cheers to life, to family, to friends, to love and to all good things in the world (including fashion, of course ;)

This is me, around 30 years ago, stylishly driving my yellow tricycle in my grandparents’ house.

It is evident that for some people *cough* style is innate *cough*.

Roman Holiday

Tags

Roma

Ciao from Rome! A quick post to share some bits of my day yesterday…

Sun and blue sky. How amazing! A little bit of summer in late September.

My breakfast always has to include bread, butter and coffee with milk (homemade jam is very much welcome too). Otherwise, it’s not breakfast. My husband calls it the “Portuguese breakfast” because my parents have exactly this same thing every morning. But maybe this not really a Portuguese thing, just my family’s.

My outfit for the day (didn’t wear the jeans shirt in the end because it was too hot). A nice dress to meet my husband’s grandparents for lunch.

A walk in the park on the way to grandparents’ house.

At the grandparents’

The most delicious red fruits tart for dessert.

Back at ‘home’ to do some work…

The floral dress came to Rome with me.

Ready to go out for dinner. Whistles silk shirt (from 1 or 2 yrs ago) and the usual grey jeans.

Roman “street food”.

Face-to-face. Giacomo and his friend Adriano. Adriano is our ‘sartorialist’ friend (I need to post a full picture of him here. Such a good style).

(Giant) Bruschetta.

And Roman pizza.

Welcome to the Carbs Kingdom!