Zara Women Feb 2013

Is it jut me or the model on the new Zara Women Collection is not as skinny as runway models?! She looks more like size M rather than XS.

I really like her healthy, masculine, rough look.

Pictures from Zara.com

On finding my voice

Let's run away

I read a great article over on A Cup of Jo yesterday, where the mom and full time blogger, Joanna, speaks about a blogging as a career. I am reading her blog for years and it has always been a great source of inspiration. I mean interesting links, cool people, funny stories, cute babies, the latest trends in fashion, beauty, design and the list could go on. She has all my appreciation and admiration for what she does, for begging successful, for delivering a great content and of course for sharing her experiences with us.

Here is Joanna's advice for growing a blog. I copied it in bold below and wrote some notes to myself and to whomever landed here by chance.

People will like reading your blog—and you'll enjoy writing it—if you're true to yourself and your posts come from the heart. When you write a post, imagine your mom or best friend reading it. Does it sound like your voice?
No it's not exactly my voice as English is not my mother tongue. I am Romanian, start learning English when I was 12 (never had a passion for it) but I always loved Latin languages. I am fluent in French, perfectly understand Spanish and Italian. And above all, two years ago I moved to Germany and start learning German from zero. No wonder I am sometimes confused :)

Does the topic fascinate or inspire you?
Yes, of course. I am deeply interested in the things I share, or better said, I want to share. I want the blog to be a place of reflection, where I put down the thinks that go through my mind, where I collect things I like, things I want to remember and also to use it to improved my skills: writing, English, photography, photo editing, to build my self esteem, to let go of some old prejudices and so on...I am writing this very quickly without to much thinking otherwise I wont post it, I know myself .

Is the post clear and enticing and visual?
Visually I could work it out, but for being clear I writing I need more practice, I know :) I remember my friends telling me when I was trying to elaborate whatever "You know we love you, but get to the point!"

And because I am not a native English speaker, I had to look up enticing(there's no shame, learning is a lifelong experience). Mirriam nicely explained the meaning: to attract artfully or by arousing hope or desire. This is really something I should think about more often. Why others should read my blog? For now it's not an interactive experience for me (I put the questions, I answer). It's more having my own, little corner on the internet :) If there's some here just say hello. I would be happy to hear from you.

Do you have a point of view that's different from other bloggers? Write about what you love. I wrote a short interview about blogging here. As I've said before, I think everyone has an amazing blog inside them, or a story to tell, and I really encourage people to go for it. If you're starting out, best of luck! :)

Joanna Goddard from A Cup of Jo

You can find the entire article here. I know for sure I will come over and over back to it. Thank you, Joanna

Fun trip

I'm super excited about tomorrow. I am going to visit CREATIVA fair in Dortmund - Europe's largest exhibition devoted to creative design, with more than 500 participants. I was there also last year but during the weekend and it was very crowded and tiring. I hope this time I can participate to some workshops and for sure I will find lots of little pretty things. Hihihi...

(5/10)

Home office

In 2010 I moved together with my boyfriend in Düsseldorf - a lovely city in the West of Germany. We are  still living in the same tinny apartment but I hope we can move this summer to a bigger place were we could also host our guest. My number demand is to have a bathtub (apparently not so common in Germany) and to be big enough so that I can organize a working space :D

I would like something like that: high ceiling, natural light, not so ordinary walls...Actually the picture below was taken in the house of Trine Andersen, the co-founder of ferm living, the company which made the peacock feather wallpaper! Really, really lovely!

Photo from Design*Sponge