Kindness is the new black.

"The world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil, 

but because of those who look on and do nothing." 

                                                                          Albert Einstein 

  This week, as many other I found inspiration for my blog post in regular people's every day acts of kindness which are multiplying as economies around the world tumble down with rapid speed and those at power fail to think of us, little people and continue to think of profit, self gain and failing regulations and processes claim they must follow. 

So while church in Croatia is spending money on advertising to stop basic sex-ed in schools and not allowing homeless people to find shelter in "God's house" so they sleep under the ATM's and on cold park benches; government officials are debating on who's fault it is that snow hasn't been cleaned so disabled neighbor in a wheelchairs with no glows cleans the slow with a shovel, every day people started to pay more attention and take action for their fellow humans in need.

In many  interviews I did journalist asked me to classify this page, my blog as fashion or lifestyle/personal blog and my answer has always been the same, for me, fashion is a lifestyle and my lifestyle includes all life experiences that I go through, my observations of the current environmental, social and political situation as well as love lessons and lyrics that I write thereafter. 

For me, fashion is a form of activism and it should never fail to raise it's powerful, fabulous and creative voice, their following and the power of social media to bring attention to important matters and CALL TO ACTION in order to mobilize and motivate the masses to help those in need. 

“If you wait until you can do everything for everybody, instead of something for somebody,

 you’ll end up not doing nothing for nobody.”  

Malcom Bane

More specifically...here is the most recent case to illustrate my point:

SHOES SIZE 46

 last week in Croatia man who was disabled in war and was short after forgotten by the same country he helped to defend wrote a short note on a little piece of paper and left it on the buss stop in his neighborhood: "I am disabled and poor, if somebody has used shoes size 46, please let me know." One lady who saw his message shared it on Facebook, I as many others shared the same photo. A friend of my boyfriend asked me to call this man so he can donate one of his shoes, so I did. The men seemed a bit shy, he thanked me at least five times and he joked on his own expense, saying how he doesn't feel like Cinderella any more as he got three pairs already.e Facebook page was soon created by the lady who took the photo to help others in similar need of clothing, home appliances and shoes.

Most of the people who are in a desperate need of help like this don't have Facebook or Internet for that matter so the best thing would be to look around you, just look around every day and if you can - help. 

By help I don't mean that you give cash or coins to every single person who begs for it at the corner but take extra clothes from home or other things you don't need, expecially now during Winter cold, look that person in their eyes rather then looking away and passing by them, smile and hand them as a gift what you don't need anyways. Trust me, giving will feel like the gift to you as well!

Did you already help or join any of the organizations to volunteer your time our donate your used clothes or household items ladies? 

Vukovar - Croatian word for freedom.

It was five a clock in the winter afternoon and it was already dark. We were not allowed to turn on the lights in our apartment. The city was under air attacks again, attacks were happening couple of times a day.

I was 5 years old, sitting behind the curtain with my nose touching the cold glass balcony doors yelling out to my mum the names of the neighbours in our building in whose apartments I could still see some light, I was scared that bomb will hit our building if they don't turn all of the lights off.

When we heard the siren, many times in the middle of the night, we would take our blankets, some water, my doll and rushed down the stairs together with the rest of the people from our building to the concrete shelter positioned in the middle of the building's yard, under the ground. The shelter was stalked with iron bunk beds without mattresses. Our mums would just fold the blankets and lift up several of us kids to one bed and tried to keep us calm and quite. There were mostly women, kids and old people there.

 We didn't hear from my dad for a long time now, he was somewhere close to grandparents house wearing military uniform and hunting rifles (as they didn't have any real weapons yet) together with his brother trying to break through the thick woods on foot, get my grandparents out of the harms way and try to defend the house they were born in from Serbs who marched into Croatia trying to win over, rob and burn as much as they could while killing the people who tried to stop them.

They managed to get the grandparents out but the house was burned to the ground. Next few years we didn't see much of my dad, he was coming and going every few months with some other soldiers to pick up military candles, boots and equipment which my uncle bought and shipped from Chicago.

Our apartment was always full of people and shipping boxes, my uncles family lived with us for some time - aunt, niece and nephew who were refuges from their city as it was to dangerous to live in at the time. My mum traveled daily and worked close to Zagreb at the town which was heavily attacked and bombarded every day, she was pregnant at the time, after work she would go to get some food, powder milk and military cookies in order to make somewhat decent meal for all of us at home.

Sometimes there was not much food, but my mum being as creative as she is was able to make sweets for us only from egg yolk and some sugar, she tried hard to make our life as normal as possible. My sister and I were still to little to understand much but we asked lots of questions, one question I remember never getting the answer to neither from my parents nor from dad's military friends was : 'Why are they throwing bombs at us, why do they want to kill us?'

Now, I am not a nationalist, I don't hate anyone, I didn't see the worst of it during the war like kids in Vukovar or Bosnia did. I am blessed because I didn't loose anyone from my immediate family and I was way to little to understand what was going on.

 The fact is, there are certainly no kids from Serbia who can tell you the story of Croatian army throwing bombs in their back yard or taking their dad to concentration camp - because Croatian land was invaded and Croatian people were attacked and that is the simple fact which has now been officially recognised and proved by international court of justice with recent liberation of our military generals who lead our countries defense to victory. Now, our nation and it's war victims got their dignity back and with this their sacrifices were not made in vain.

Today, 22 years later, we are remembering Vukovar and it's victims, the city and the people who's homes and bodies were front line of Croatian defense,Vukovar was our shield which protected the country from falling under aggressors hands and Vukovar and thousands of people who lost their lives for us to be able to call this country our own, to speak our language and live our culture, which many people take as given or for granted. Vukovar should NEVER EVER be forgotten.

The world needs to know the truth about Vukovar and never let it happen again nowhere else, not in Gaza, not in Syria.

Living in between two countries.

"Missing someone gets easier everyday because even though you are one day further from the last time you saw them,  you are one day closer to the next time you will." 

It's been a while since I wrote 'lines of life' post, mainly due to ironically, being busy with life. Last couple of days I have been trying to complete my move and all of the vast documentation which comes with it and hopefully finally settle here in Budapest, Hungary.

Recently I have taken upon a new, international assignment in my company, working in communications department and covering the whole region for particular product category which now brought me to Budapest. From here, I continue to travel each month to Barcelona, Spain where I work from in order to be able to spend some time with my boyfriend who lives and works - plays basketball there.

Both of us have a quit busy working and traveling schedule, especially him who practices twice a day and travels at least two up to four days a week, during the whole season, having only about 10 days vacation a year - not as glamorous as many might think professional athletes life to be.

 I am also traveling for work quite frequently to countries in Central Europe, but also, after my work day ends which is quite often late in the evening, I am working on my blog posts and blog's Facebook page my monthly print column and my weekly weekend Stylebooks and trying to spend as much time as possible with my dog Papi, who is quite spoiled and demanding for a one and a half year old dog.

So, how does this arrangement work and how long it will go along?

        Well, will see. So far, it works quite well. Distance has been one of the sacrifices we, as a couple, decided to make in order for us both to do what we love and this is the way we manage to have both at the same time, each our own careers and our relationship.

Another reason why it works is that we are very similar, as people, we are both young, driven and we easily adapt to new country, sports club and lifestyle, neither of us wouldn't want it any other way currently, my boyfriend would not want to be with a girl who is always by his side and living of him, with no personal goals, life, work or career.

Photo: Vogue Hellas

"For anything worth having one must pay the price, 

and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice"

 John Burroughs 

On the other hand, as hard as it is, and it gets hard, I spend a lot of time at the airports, I need to be extremely organized with my work and travel, manage two homes at the same time, cook, clean and still do something for myself occasionally....and I get tired, I get very tired and want to have a deadline, the end of this constant travel and being in a long distance relationship which is emotionally, physically and financially draining and wish for it to be more of a 'normal couple' life.

So what I do, at the times when it is the hardest, I try to listen to my heart and what it really tells me is not to give up...not to give up because it feels right and because it is worth of it.

Until we decide to settle at one location together and live more of an ordinary life, I will continue to collect my frequent flayer miles and hope that my heart won't fail me.

Conversating.

"I wear my Chucks with any uniform I need to wear be it a team uniform for travel or a dress up suite for formal occasions. They are one part of my look which I always keep true to who I am."

Ante

This post has been long into making. Every time I am picking up my boyfriends sneakers around the house I tell him -"I really need to write a post about your sneaker collection sometimes soon, you have more shoes then most women I know!" So tonight,  finally this "sometimes soon" time happened.

Other then our love for each other (duhh), playing PlayStation 3 and eating peanut-noodles we also share our love for James Dean t-shirts and Converse sneakers, although my boyfriend definitely has more Chucks then I do, overall my heels pick up the total score to my advantage.

„Only the gentle are ever really strong.“ 

James Dean 

So today we pulled out his favorite sneakers from one of his shoe cabinets and realized that more then eighty percent of his sneakers are Converse. This must be worth of a blog post I thought :)

When we first started dating I noticed that he is wearing Chucks for..well..every occasion. He wore them for clubbing, for going to the beach, I was only surprised he didn't play basketball in them, which he probably would, if he could, so he told me the story of his oldest pair of slip-on Chucks and on how he got hooked for life to wearing Converse sneakers daily.

These red leather John Varvatos limited edition ones are my favorite pair

Ante got his first pair of cream color slip-on All Star Converse sneakers in Summer 2008. in New York where he went to participate on NBA draft. He paid them almost $100 at the time and wore them so much since that they broke at couple of places so his dad fixed them with superglue.

Although Ante keeps buying new pairs and various designer limited edition Converse sneakers, he remains quite emotional about his first pair of Chucks so he still slips them on occasionally. As you can see from the photo bellow - these really earned their retirement ;)

Few days ago we got Ante walked through the door coming from practice and he said: "They arrived!" with his face stretched in a big kid smile showing me the newest edition to his vast shoe collection - high top gray leather Converse shoes. I really like the round stamp logo on their inner sides and dark shoe laces. 

Knowing how hard it is for Ante to find cool casual clothes and shoes in his size I found the story he told me about his first pair of Chucks really heart-warming. I was surprised to find that he remembers all of the details so vividly and still has this emotional connection to his first pair of Converse sneakers which he bought on his own. 

Seems like not only us girls get emotional when talking about shoes! ;)

From Barcelona with love...

Leaving Barcelona yesterday felt like leaving home to go somewhere new and in a way, it was. As my boyfriend drove into airport to drop me off on his way to practice a sudden wave of emotions just rushed over my body and I couldn't stop myself from crying. We kissed, hugged and I shoved my face into his chest and cried like a child when you drop him off at the kindergarten for the first time and he is begging you not to leave him at this strange new place. He squeezed me tightly and took a deep deep breath.

An hour later, drowning my sorrow in the venti-cup of cafe late and September issue of British Vogue I could not help but wonder why are we putting ourselves through all this. We are both young, capable and successful. Could there be an easier way to all this?

At about page 115 reading about Sicilian baroque trend I got a bit more optimistic and realistic, so I took a break from Vogue and browsed through my last several photos from days spent together and realised how strong and how much we grew as a couple in last couple of weeks. That has to count for something. All at its own time I concluded.

Bellow I am sharing photos from our last couple of days spent together, my short shopping visit for some make up and cosmetics basics at El Corte Ingles where I got lovely Bobbi Brown oil free foundation - natural 4 and sheer finish powder - warm natural 6. I also got some Effaclar face wash and renovating serum.

Later in the day, few hours before departure, I carefully packed my valued jewelry and delicate garment pieces and "death-march" walked to the car.

What would you do for love?

Somewhat rhetorical and somewhat shabby question now isn’t it? Just like the claim: “I would never do …. this or that”and then you end up doing just that ad remember the exact moment when you said you would never.

The fact is, you just don’t know, but after you liked someone a lot or even loved (or you thought you did), you gain a certain experience and knowledge of yourself, not the other person, not the “love” as a romanticized can’t live without feeling, but you - you as a person, your own morals, your own limits and your own ability to forgive or not to forgive.

The other day, I got hurt, a lot a whole lot. I was sitting in a hotel room in a foreign country, staying in a city I don’t know with a person who I thought I knew and I was falling apart into pieces, one by one... I felt that catastrophically overwhelming pain all over my body. I was hyperventilating, my heart was beating as if it will explode any second, I was crying and shaking at the same time and I couldn’t take a deep breath from the pain in my chest. I felt as if I will faint in any second and die. In that moment it felt like dying would be a relief. This day, at that very moment, I felt like my whole world fell apart and I felt extremely lonely.

I called the same two people I always call when I feel like the only person in the whole wide world…my mum and my best friend Anita. Why them? Because my mum has experienced the world enough to know it is gray and not black or white, she has the patience, love and wisdom to advise me without imposing her own opinion or final solution for my problem.    

 While Anita is probably the most realistic and blunt person on the face of the earth who ALWAYS saids it how it is no matter how much it hurts. Also, she knows what I did before, what I will probably do and knows what to say to control my drama. Anita advised me to write down how I feel today and how much it hurts to serve me as a reminder for the future, so I did…

After couple of hours of drama, screaming, yelling, throwing stuff, crying and talking, the same question kept running through my head: “What would I do for love?” then I rewind my love life backwards trying to remember big things which I did but don’t regret doing…

-  I worked 40 hours a week for a month and saved every cent eating from vending machine to buy my first boyfriend brand new palm pilot for his graduation
- I quit my dream job in fashion and flew overseas without a plan to try to save my relationship
-  I am flying every month to stay for a week in another country to keep my long distance relationship going
-  I forgave and gave him a second chance?????

I got stuck with the last one thinking what it would take for me to do it: I would need to swallow my pride, turn the other cheek, continue to love, forgive, take a risk to fall apart again…be a bigger person then him – trust again. Since this is a new experience for me I am still not sure of what I will do and I feel like a hypocrite when I pray in these kind of situations but I did, I prayed yesterday, because I felt like no human can be so unselfish to give me an advice which will be – forgive, give a second chance.

“Often, it’s not about becoming a new person, but becoming the person you were meant to be, and already are, but don’t know how to be.”

 Heath L. Buckmaster, Box of Hair: A Fairy Tale

Embalaje para España: 5 traveling tips.

After spending last five days here in Dubrovnik with my boyfriend at his parents house, our Summer holiday is slowly coming to an end. Tonight we are traveling to Barcelona where we need to find an apartment, furnish it a bit and make it a home for him/us for next couple of seasons. For both of us next month or so will be quite stressful, important and tiresome transitional period with moving to new countries, settling in new apartments and a new working environment. 

Since I am a quite an experienced traveller, traveling abroad in average 1-2x a month or more depending on business needs and having lived in more then 3 countries in last ten years, I decided to post 5 easy traveling tips for all of your frequent fashion travelers. 

1. Carry on luggage. 

Carry on luggage can weigh up to 10kg with most airlines but it is always useful to check on your flight carrier website before the trip. Since my daily Lei Lou purse is quite big I can fit all of my carry on items in it. I usually carry my laptop in it, passport, valet, phones, camera, books, business cards, planner, toothbrush and toothpaste and more valuable jewelry. Also - when I have a transfer flight I always bring a spar outfit in carry on for the cases when my transfers are cutting close and there is a chance my luggage can be lost. If you are flying with discount carriers like easy-yet or Ryan-air bring some Euros in cash since they charge food and water in the plane separately. 

2. Dressing for the trip.

What you wear for the trip will obviously depend on the time of the year and nature of your trip. When I go to business trips and I need to go straight to the office from airport I travel in heels, shirt and pencil skirt with a cardigan, however when I travel on private arrangement like today, when its warm I travel in flats - chucks or ballet flats with jean shorts and button up or I just put on a t-shirt and bring cardigan or a soft scarf like the scull McQueen one on the photo bellow.

3. Key fashion pieces. 

What you bring at any trip again will depend on the nature of your trip but there might be some staples which are always useful. This is what I discovered to be the safest things to pack as a base: dark skinny jeans, white chucks, denim shorts, one pair of tights and one pair of light sweats. Little black dress, floral dress, one blue or white cotton button up, navy 3/4 pants, blue and white striped t-shirt, gray t-shirt and white and black tanks tops, 2 bikinis (black and one in color), leather jacket, 4 pairs of heels, flip-flops, 2 cardigans, 2 purses black and brown, black cotton pencil skirt and on top of all this couple of additional items which add personality to your look like jewelry, scarves, hats etc.

4. Packing luggage. 

I think after all these years I can say that I have became a pro in packing. I always bring one big red suitcase when staying somewhere for 5 days or more. I pack each of my shoes in a separate cotton bag, my underwear, bikinis and bra in its own cotton bags. First I fold the clothes (leaving a chunk of space for my cosmetic bag which is huge) and then I fill the spaces in between with wrapped shoes. I put purses and belts in  the big compartment in closing of the suitcase. 

5. Unpacking at destination. 

It is important to immediately unpack at destination, obviously not all of the suitcase but at least those pieces which wrinkle easily. Most of the hotels have spacey closets, iron available in the room, little net stand to lift up your suitcase and a clothing stand which helps keep your clothes which you plan to wear for the next day wrinkle free.

EXTRA TIP! 

Traveling with your pet.

Since I am moving to a new country where nobody will be able to babysit my dog while I am traveling, Papi will need to fly with me each month to Barcelona. Papi is a 14kg mid size dog so I am not able to bring him up with me in the cabin, he rather needs to travel in his cage as a luggage. I don't give Papi any food on the day of the flight, just water, I also don't give him any medicine to calm him down as I am not sure how the medicine would affect him during flight. It is important not to put any toys or any other items in his cage ( I suggest the one with plastic screws not the one with clips).

 If you plan to fly with your dog he needs to have a valid passport, update vaccinations and he needs to have a vet check (signed and stamped in his passport) done no longer then 7 days from the flight date. Here is where you can get all of the detailed guidelines for traveling with your pet. 

I hope you found these tips useful lovelies! :)