Vintage store in Budapest.

Today during my lunch break instead of picking up lunch and eating it while working at my desk I messaged my friend Katarina (yes we have the same name) and we went to explore small vintage store called simply "Vintage" located right in front of our office building near Corvin tower at Kisfaludy street.

The store gets vintage clothes and accessories in bulk from UK and it just got a shipment of faux fur and real fur coats as we arrived, the ladies were unpacking them so the store was totally packed and it was a mess.

As many other vintage places these days this one was also packed with vintage and contemporary second hand pieces and not to organized but if you look closely and spend some time there you can find real gems!

So I did!

I found a real cute, well preserved faux fur, soft coat in chocolate brown waist lenght with surprise, surprise sleeves long enough for my long arms! Since I am 6'1'' I am often having trouble finding jackets which are size 36 with long enough sleeves but this one although vintage fit me like a glow. The coat cost me only about 30 Euros which is a great price for such a fabulous warm vintage coat.

Also, I bought three chic vintage pins to bedazzle my new fur coat with.

How do you like it lovelies? Please don't hesitate to share with me a list of your favorite vintage shops all over the world as I am traveling quite a lot for work and for my blog I might as well check them out during some of my future trips!

p.s. I want to thank Lucija from Osijek Croatia who shared with me some AMAZING photos of her vintage finds, I can't wait to share these photos with you tommorrow! Keep them coming lovelies! Sharing is caring!

“Vintage Clothing is not only glorious and stylish, it’s also the way forward in terms of recycling. 

Whenever I go into great vintage stores, I wonder why we ever buy new things.”  

British actress Thandie Newton

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 

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.

I SPY: Dubrovnik.

Like all the other events in our relationship, meeting my boyfriend parents was no ordinary event.

One of my boyfriend’s best friends invited us to his wedding which was taking place in Dubrovnik where my boyfriend is from, naturally we were to stay at his parents’ house – so this was a premature meet-the-parents event.

Now, since I was arriving from Zagreb and my boyfriend was flying in from Madrid, I was cutting my attendance at Zagreb’s fashion week one day short to be able to attend this wedding and naturally had to have my hair done as well, so I arrived to Dubrovnik few hours before my boyfriend and his dad picked me up from the airport and I had to met his parents on my own.

When I was still in Zagreb I played it cool, no issue, wasn’t nervous…I purchased small gifts for his parents, I felt ready…but…when I landed to Dubrovnik I was nervous as hell.  Thankfully, the moment I saw his dad (looking just like my boyfriend but with gray hair and older) we went for a coffee, he took me to hairdressers and I was at ease.  His parents are very casual, warm hearted and kind – they made me feel like I was at home right away, I was actually a bit sorry to leave so quickly hehe J

Wedding also went well; my boyfriend was very affectionate and considerate towards me the whole night, knowing I don’t know many people there. Overall I felt comfortable; I met all of his childhood friends and had a lot of fun. We even met two little kids, one was a major fan of my boyfriend and a little girl couldn’t stop playing with my ring and my earrings.

The next morning, again, my boyfriend flew to Madrid early in the day and I stayed until later in the evening alone with his parents. Part of the time I spent with them, as I wanted to get to know them better and part of the time I used to meet a friend in the city and walk around Dubrovnik’s historic old town. 

I bought some sugared almonds, took my camera and went exploring.

 During the walk through the narrow stone covered streets an older guy (the city’s oldest barber) invited me to his barber shop in which he was sitting in and smoking with his two friends and told me the story about his barber shop which is more than 50 years old and about destructions it suffered during the war.

His shop is full of client photos, photos of celebrities who visited, naked girl’s pictures, vintage barber equipment and there were also 4 birdcages with various birds in there. His newest bird was a baby pigeon which fell from the nest. Baby pigeon didn’t have a name, so I named him Koko (the guy refused to name him Papito as I originally suggested, he already has Carlos so he said one Spanish named bird is enough).

Did you do meet – the –parents thing already lovelies? Any cool stories to share? J

Pink paparazzi in Madrid.

Since I got a small pink Fuji film camera for Christmas from my boyfriend to always wear in my purse, I took the opportunity to try it out during our afternoon walk around Madrid.  I am totally in love with this small but mighty camera! I don’t have to be careful and look after my big pro camera every single minute cause this one actually fits in every single purse I have J

We used the sunny afternoon to visit some of the Madrid’s best vintage stores and shops like: El Corte Ingles, vintage stores like Lotta, Holala and Templo de Susu where I got the amazing purse, vintage frames and a sweater which you can see bellow on my boyfriend and on its own. We also had some great Rose wine, bought some sexy shower curtains and had some delicious food.

Kisses from Madrid!