Moving in Barcelona apartment.

As announced in my last post my boyfriend and I found a lovely furnished apartment in Barcelona to move into and we finally moved out of the hotel. After his practice game last Saturday at noon we moved in and since apartment is huge and we didn't have a lot of stuff we just dropped our stuff talked to the cleaning lady and ran to Ikea and food store to get some basics for first week or so.

Although the apartment was more or less clean when we entered it, like any other women I could find stuff I would clean and arrange differently so I spent most of first couple of weeks rearranging,cleaning and beautifying things around the house. Saturday night we returned from shopping around midnight, I made chicken fajitas and we past out in bed, dead tired from running around all day.

Monday (yesterday) was also my first work day so I had to do all of the laundry and pack my boyfriend for his short preseason trip before Monday morning "first day after vacation" craziness. 

Bellow you can see a number of photos I managed to take in my breaks last couple of days, it is weird how in conversation our pronouns are changing more and more daily...we are having more and more "we's" and a bit less "I's".

Ufff..just looking at these photos makes me realize how fast last 2 weeks went through. Feels like a completely new chapter in both of our lives. I would be happy to hear from you ladies who also had an experience of moving to another country.

Goodbye Princesa Sofia!

This has been a long vacation week for my boyfriend and I in Barcelona - well vacation for me and painful pre-seasons work our week for him. We have been living in lovely Gran Hotel Princesa Sofia which is really a great and luxurious hotel but we couldn't wait to finally stop living out of our suitcases and start settling in an amazing apartment which we chose.

Seems like the move is happening tonight as they told us apartment should be ready for us later today. Obviously, it's his apartment, I was just helping him pick one and we will try to clean it and decorate it through next couple of days to make it a home for him and I when I visit each month.

Since we are just moving in later this evening, I will be posting photos of our progress with settling in during next week, make sure you stop by to see the walk-in closet photos which I am particularly excited about.

With this post I am reminding you on the series of post I wrote since I arrived in Barcelona, most of them experiential "Lines of life" , some useful tips for fashion travelers but also a lovely post from "Lines of passion for fashion" category about pants trend for upcoming Fall season, check them out if you haven't already, I would love to read your comments and thoughts on them.

• Embalaje para Espana: 5 traveling tips.
• Getting lost in Barcelona.
• What would you do for love? 
• She wears pants this season! 
• Don't you know who I am? 

You can also check out my Weekend Stylebook suggestion for this weekend which I am posting every Friday on Femina.hr  lifestyle portal.

Hastaluego with this njumy desert lovelies! Stay tuned for lovely photos, reports from Barcelona & finally a cool Spanish giveaway I will be doing prior to my trip back to Croatia!

Summer mode: 5 ways to recharge

Finally, the countdown is over! My full two weeks long Summer vacation has officially started at 6am this morning with a flight to Dubrovnik. The grand plan is to stay in Dubrovnik for six days with my boyfriend and then we are leaving to Barcelona for another 20 days (last week doesn't count as I will be working from Barcelona) where he is joining his new bball club, we are very excited about it :) 

Since both my boyfriend and I are about to move to a new city and country in my case, within one month from now, we really need to charge out batteries well for these big career and personal endeavors which are ahead of us.

Motivated by these big changes in my life, I have put together a list of 5 ways how to charge batteries which might help those of you ladies and gents who are like me having trouble unwinding first few days of vacation.

1. EAT HEALTHY

Last night (night before start of my vacation) I entered my apartment, dropped all of my work stuff at my desk and took couple of deep breaths trying to breed all of the weeks stress and tension. After taking a bath with coconut bath oil and body scrub I browsed through my kitchen where I usually keep everything but food and thought of a creative but simple snack I can make before going to bed early to be able to get up for my early flight for Dubrovnik.

 I found some berries from my mum's garden and a fat free yogurt which made a lovely snack. The point is not to spend the whole day in the kitchen during your vacation, but to take a conscious effort to help your body revitalize and rest inside and out with healthy and cheap fresh foods you already have in your fridge. 

2. SLEEP AT LEAST 8 HOURS

This is not to say you should spend your entire vacation in bed, don't go out and party but rather again to think about negative sleep patterns you might be experiencing during busy work days and consequences they bring to your eating habits, your look and work focus. Summer vacation is a good time to teach your body when to go to sleep and wake up. During my vacation I try not to set an alarm clock but to try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time. Also, I try not to have my mobile phone close to my bed. On top, I also allow myself to take an afternoon naps during weekends.

3. DON'T BRING YOUR WORK LAPTOP & MOBILE TO VACATION

Ok, this is one of the rules I myself have trouble with obeying. I think I have FOMO syndrome (Fear of missing out) so I keep making up reasons and justifications to myself of why I need to check my email real, real quick. The fact is (as my boss always said) things will get done with you away, company will not fall apart during your vacation period, most things can wait that long. Although, obviously one shouldn't leave things half done when going for a vacation but the fact is that there will always be new things to do, so one needs to be able to completely disconnect for a few days at least. Let's face it, nobody is that important that world will not go on without them.

4. PAMPER YOURSELF

Although we should all be able to find one day a week to take a nice relaxing bath at least or to lie down to watch a movie or read a book, take a spa day or something like that, for me, being on vacation doesn't mean dressing casually all day, wearing only flats etc. Just the opposite, during my vacation I try to take time to try to make myself a new hairdo every day, I change 2-3 outfits, brows the stores for some special creams and perfumes and just take time to enjoy and experiment with colorful fashion and beauty products. Summer is part of the year when I feel the most confident about my looks. Bellow is the colorful mani & padi I had done for this vacation. 

5. ENJOY THE SILENCE 

At work I am often surrounded with many people and noise, while on vacation I am trying to spend some quality time alone, then alone with my boyfriend and some time with my family (which can be overwhelming at times as well :) ). When spending time alone I like to do different things but when close to the sea I spend this time reading, running or walking down the beach, collecting sea shells and unique looking stones and playing cards with my boyfriend. 

What are the ways you charge your batteries when on Summer vacation lovelies? Does any of the ways I described in this post work for you?

  

Madrid week in review....

It seems like every time I come to Madrid to work and spend quality time with my boyfriend at the same time I neglect posting a little bit cause I try to use every second of our time together wisely as these moments to do simple things like walking around the city together or watching a movie are scarce. We both work and travel a lot so this seems to be the best possible deal for the time being.

 After work and while my boyfriend was at practice or napping I used time to read and get some tan  in front of our building.

For a couple of months now I am promising to bring Monopoly from Croatia and this time I finally did, we played couple of times - first time he totally left me money-less but next couple of times I showed him who's the boss. ;)  

I had the opportunity to watch two of the quarterfinal games after which every time we traditionally go to Mimi's - the best craperia and ice-cream place in Madrid owned and managed by our charming Serbian friend Zoran and his lovely wife Soraya. You can read my post about Mimi's here.

I got this James Dean coffee cup to my boyfriend in Zagreb recently when I was getting some small presents for his parents, it reminded me of him cause he has very similar swag that James Dean had and he has his photo on D&G T-shirts he often wears. The sign on the cup said: A rebel without a cause. - this sentence also nicely describes my boyfriend ;)

Although Zoki and Sona at Mimi's have the most delicious cakes, croissants, ice-cream and salty and sweet Nutella crapes I resisted in the light of my "preparation for bikini shape" and only had a lovely ice-coffee late on the photo higher up.

While at Mimi's where we already feel and behave like at home, we call it our cafe "Cheers", the place everyone knows our name, we peaked at the daily newspaper article about my boyfriend and his best friend from the team Novica.   

Later in the week we finally went to get a tailored made jacket for my boyfriend at Scalpers which one could describe as a Rugby Ralph Lauren meets Abercrombie & Fitch hybrid. They are the only ones who were making and shipping internationally the cotton casual jacket my boyfriend wanted. If you are curious to see how this hybrid looks like you can check it out here.

Seems like this brand is in high demand as Spanish people of upper class definitely strive to look as prep as possible, you know: khakis, button up shirt, navy blazer or a cardigan thrown over the shoulders with some loafers on their feet.

Their women on the other hand look a bit like a desperate housewife's club while daughters are dressed to match mothers and boys identically like fathers - all in all, the scene looks like some Stepford horror movie.

Our friend Zoran from Mimi's took this photo, he said: "I wish my iPhone battery wasn't dead, I would take a photo of you two now!" and Ante passed his iPhone to take this picture. I remember having a short flash back of last year of travel back and forward to Madrid and all we went through in such a short time period and couldn't help noticing that we are slowly making a step progress in our relationship where I's are ever so often replaced with WE's.

I SPY: Vintage Barcelona

I already wrote a post about part of my trip to Barcelona. Right after business trip to Prague I traveled to Barcelona to support my boyfriend at basketball tournament, as he was obviously only practicing and playing most of the day I spent with my friend Nina (who took these photograph for me - so thank you Nina!).

Most of the day we spent walking around, shopping and exploring Barcelona’s vintage district and this is where we found 2 super cute vintage store La Swing – where the lady was quite knowledgeable about the carefully selected clothes and second one was a small second hand shop which was at the same time the workshop for remaking your old clothes.

I bought one pair of high wasted cropped pants in pale blue (I will post the photo when it will be warm enough in Zagreb to wear them).

Bellow you can see the rest of the photos J

Ahh I love Barcelona weather!

p.s. Do you know of any good vintage stores in your town?