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? 

Year 2013. is the start of something beautiful!

This is my first post in 2013. and with this post I would like to first and foremost thank you, my lovely followers for an amazing year for my blog. In 2012.

I got many creative messages, comments, supportive emails, criticism and great questions from you which helped my blog grow and prosper making it even more fun for me to write and cover the topics you like to read about while still keeping it in line with who I am and what I would like my blog to be. So again, THANK YOU for support and following me, I learned quite a lot from you and had a chance to even meet with some of you in person or digitally and become great friends with.

Also, I would love to thank my Glam publishing team, not only these girls rock at what they do, but they are also super funny and gorgeous from what I could see from their original video holiday card :) Fiona, Ally and Izan - you ladies rock!

PARTNERS.
Finally, I would like to thank the partners and sponsors of my blog with whom I collaborated with on some great campaigns this year like: Swarovski Elements, Red Bull, Fiat, Butterfly Twist, Ženski rokovnik etc.

INTERVIEWS.
In 2012 I was honored to interview some of the already established fashion and jewelry designers but also some very talented young designers and fashion industry professionals like fashion designers: Teo Perić, Ada Zanditon, Sonja Lamut, La Luna London, Aba Drvar Tomičić and Dominika Mandić; make up artist Tom Pecheux; fashion illustrator Lora Vran; musician Carl Bailey; closet organizer Erin Mack and photographer Daša Gajić.

IN PRESS.
In addition I was also interviewed by other wonderful bloggers and fashion portals some of which are Krpa.hr amazing portal with which I am collaborating whenever there is a chance, Cromoda.hr, Stilueta blog and other print and online press appearances which you can see here. Last year I was also given an amazing opportunity to write my own print column for monthly edition of Croatian lifestyle magazine - BudiIn which comes out in distribution of one million every second Wednesday of the month.

LINES OF LIFE.
On a more personal note, from lines of life, this year I grew quite a lot. I learned how to forgive (Double face love , What would you do for love?)  , how to love more, I learned how to adapt quickly to new things life throws at me now when I am living in between Spain and Hungary (Balancing it all, Living in between to countries, Running in new heels) I learned to give without thinking absolutely anything in return, I learned who are my true friends and gained many new friends.

With this post and a big THANK YOU I am closing last year and opening exciting 2013. posting season! :)

"The only person you need to compare yourself to is who you have been.

The only person you need to be better than is who you are now." 

Christmas in Barcelona.

Happy holidays lovelies! I hope you enjoyed quality time with your family and friends, ate some amazing food, got some fabulous gifts and had lots of rest during days of Christmas celebration. 

Last couple of days I haven't been posting as much as I could content wise as I was busy preparing my first Christmas dinner, cakes, sweets and decorating the house. Since this was our first Christmas in Barcelona and actually first Christmas together for my boyfriend and I, we kind of had to start from scratch, buy all decorations, figure our our own traditions and apply some we learned growing up from our families. 

It was actually quite nice to cook on my own and enjoy Christmas in vanilla scented candle smelling house, with this gorgeous Christmas tree, my dog Papi and boyfriend by my side.

We spent most of the Christmas day at home, eating, playing games and opening presents. I got my boyfriend a cozy, warm and soft bathrobe, some funny and sexy stocking stuffer and a new generation electric shaver and he got me latest version of iPad with pink covers of course! I am absolutely obsessed with it already! Papi also got some dog treats and toys for being good and not eating to much of the house decor.

Day after Christmas we spent again with mostly lounging at home and in the evening we went for a walk and dinner here in gorgeously decorated Barcelona.

How was your Christmas darlings? 

"Christmas, my child, is love in action. 

Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas."

Dale Evans 

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! ;)

Balancing it all.

“I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.”  

Anaïs Nin

Even though I just came from a business trip, and I am quite tired after answering emails for a couple of hours now, I still did some house choirs and now, past midnight still felt a need to write this post and I am hoping to get some feedback and comments from you ladies. I really want to know, how do you do it? How do we balance it all?

No matter what your current life situation is, by being a women, somehow you are forced by the society, but also by yourself and your own expectations to balance it all: career, school, work out, make sure you always look good (yes, this takes time),your household, quality time with your boyfriend/husband (while looking good) and maybe kids if you have them. That is A LOT and yes, it can get exhausting.

“No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it.” 

 Elizabeth Peters

Recently, I had a situation where a lot of things just piled up, I was very physically and emotionally tired, there were big changes happening for me on both professional and personal side as I now moved to a new country and during this transition period I still persuaded myself that I am strong enough to cater to my boyfriend, to get his apartment in order, cook for him twice a day and continue on with my 9-forever pm work schedule which includes my job, my blog and my print column since recently, as well as some smaller tasks which I very much enjoy doing but which still take time.

Even though my boyfriend offered to help me in different ways, multiple times, I refused him without thinking because I can do it all on my own. I honestly though I could. While at the same time building up, slowly but surely resentment towards him for not being more persistent with offering to help me. This is what I realised just when I lashed out at him, saying how he doesn't try hard enough to be a good boyfriend and a gentleman, or to protect me and take care of me sometimes. The truth is, as usual, somewhere in the middle.

To a certain point in relationship, while we were still getting to know each other it was important for me that he knows that I can take care of myself in all possible ways, but that I choose to be a part of the couple, because everything is more fun, easier, more comforting and rewarding when done together. Just as he probably, really, if he loves me, needs to be more vocal about it and show me with not only words but also actions how he feels. Like he said, I should let him help me once in a while. 

Most of the times, I think him offering to help would be good enough for me, just to offer, but its not, in my busy work-life schedule, I do need him helping hand and his understanding, in better and worse.

What I really needed to realize is that I do not need to do it all by myself in order to be this great, perfect girlfriend. We could do most of the things together, or he could help me and I should take time for myself to do what I like to do, without a regret or sense of guilt, as this will make me and US happier together.

“When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier.” 

Diane Von Furstenberg

Running in new heels.

"Another Sunrise, Another New Beginning."

 Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Tomorrow is my move out day. I am lying on the bed with Papi's head on my knees, he looks a bit sad as if he know that everything is about to change for us. I have laptop in my lap and tasteless oatmeal are cooling off on my nightstand, I ran out of sugar and who buys brand new pack of sugar a day before moving out of the apartment. In the background there is an old episode of Sex & the City on TV, the one where Carrie is breaking up with Aidane because she is not ready to get married.

I didn't have a feeling of moving out until I started taking of the pictures of the walls, looking at the empty walls made me realize that I am actually leaving this place. Without my New York street art photos and my friends and boyfriend photos this place turned from being a home to just some apartment I am moving out of.

For the last couple of days my friends have been calling me to make sure we still see each other at least for a coffee before I leave, they were asking me mostly the same couple of question in regards to my move to a new country: “How did I decide to take such a big step?”, “Am I scared?” and “How do I feel about it?”

In order to please their sincere curiosity and excitement of my girls I tried to tell them about as many technical details of my move while I was at the same time repeating their questions in my head, unsure myself of what to respond. The only word that was coming to my mind was – ready. I feel ready.

I am really not worried about not being able to adapt and function in a new environment, I feel like I graduated with various survival techniques while I was studying, working and living in NYC where nobody really cares to much about how you feel....so...“since I made it here I can make it anywhere.“

Do you know that feeling when after a long night of clubbing in high heels and tight dress somewhere around 4-5 am in the morning you step into a cab or car and you take of these shoes and wiggle your toes a bit, what a great feeling right? But once the car stops you need to put those same shoes back on to walk up to the apartment and now they are to tight for your swollen feet and then it hurts, it hurts a whole lot.

This is how I feel now, I feel like it's time for me to move on, it was fun, but these shoes have become to tight. It's now time for me to get a new pair, maybe with higher thinner heel. I am sure that at the very beginning they might hurt a bit, I may have to learn to balance in them, but I am sure that soon, I will learn how to run in my new heels.

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Birthday week in a review...

This week was my birthday but due to my move to Budapest next week and trip to Barcelona I really didn't have time to celebrate as I had a lot of meetings and tasks to complete at work while later at home I had a bunch of imigration paperwork to fill and lots of packing to do. My boyfriend called me a minute after mindnight on Wednesday to cogratulate me by singing happy birthday song in Spanish, my mum made two cheesecakes and fresh pastries for my work collegues and I got some amazing surprise flowers delivered to my office.

My posts this week were the backstage view at Ralph Lauren's gorgeous SS 2013. show inspired by Spanish culture, colors and sounds. Later in the week I posted about trend I really like which is wearing a paper thin, soft leather t-shirt with pencil skirts and work pants, in Croatia I suggested such t-shirts from MoodyTwin brand which you can also order online.

Yesterday, I wrote about Red Bull Catwalk Studio - a project supporting young, urban but also extravagant designers such as Lady Gaga's favorite Fred Butler who colaborated with music producer Two Inch Punch for her SS 2013. presentation film staying true to Red Bull's combination of urban music and fashion style.

Understanding the schedule of young, successful urban man and women Red Bull also offered me a giveaway (Zagreb, Croatia exclusive) where they you can win cold Red Bull Sugarfree delivered for you and your collegues next week & give you wings and energy to survive next working week. ENTER RED BULL GIVEAWAY HERE.

- Ralph Lauren's señoritas SS 2013.

- Moody tees.

- Red Bull Catwalk Studio gives you wings! {giveaway}

As colaborator of www.femina.hr portal I have prepared Fall wellcoming Weekend Stylebook for your inspiration with leather t-shirt as a key item.

I also redesigned my inspirational Tumblr blog this week, so give it a peek if you will ;)

Last night my friend Antonija and I closed the week with attending workshop on athletes nutrition at a very stylish venue in Zagreb. I was quite interested in attending as I really want to learn how to cook and eat healthy, and I also have an ahtlete boyfriend so I wanted to learn how to cook for him as well.

How did you spend your week lovelies?

Week in a review...

This was quite a hectic week for me as this month marks a turning point for me in private and business life, not only this month is my birthday (18th of course ;) ) but I am also moving to a new country where I will be jumping in head first into a new work role in my company which I am very much looking forward to.

While filling a whole a lot of immigration paperwork for my move next month I also had quite a lot of work and blog related meetings on my hand, together with apartment search trip to Budapest ( yes, all in one week while working normal work hours and drinking a whole a lot of coffee to stay awake).

I was also vigorously following all of the NYFW shows and did a couple of long awaited interviews with my New York based dear friend, model and a musician Carl Bailey and amazing Estée Lauder creative make up director Mr. Tom Pecheux who's interview I was posting as part of my series of posts covering Derek Lam SS 2013. show at NYFW. Other then Derek Lam show this week I also reviewed amazingly talented Zac Posen's SS 2013. show which featured a number of amazing red-carpet ready dresses which I wouldn't mind wearing every single day!

In terms of my blog related meetings and calls I was working with my new and old blog partners on some upcoming projects. I agreed on a new print cooperation which I am very much looking forward to, wrote a couple of guest posts for lifestyle and fashion portals and I was interviewed by Cromoda fashion portal.

- Fall 2012. key pieces selection for Push it moda fashion portal
- Interview on Cromoda fashion portal
- My Weekend Stylebook on Femina.hr lifestyle portal

This week on my Facebook fan page you liked a lot this amazing Fall maxi dress from Huxton debute collection.

How was your week darlings? :)