December 30, 2012

Goodbye 2012!

Well, I'm gonna do two super cliché things now: write a 2012 recap post and saying "I can't believe how fast this year has gone by!" :D I just love seeing and remembering all the fun things I've done in 2012 again - and you'll just have to stick through it! This is my last post of 2012, but I'll be back in 2013 with even more fashion, photos and my usual ramblings. I'm spending NYE with some friends, first dinner and then maybe pop by a party around Midnight - not too long because I have to study again on New Year's :( anyway, let's not think about that yet and see what I've done the past year!





I travelled to Morocco (click for all posts) in February and had some wonderful experiences,

I celebrated my boyfriend and I's first anniversary, and he got me this vintage camera as a gift:












I turned 20! Finally over the teenager years ;)


And I got my Nikon D90 camera as a present to myself! I couldn't live without it anymore.


I travelled to Turkey (click for all posts) with my family and had a great time!

I learned to sew and made my very own dress! I've done some other DIY stuff lately that I'll show you soon.

I went to Antwery Fashion Night with Hanna and Steffi and had an amazing day,

I started my coffee bar job and still love it! (free coffee and cake ftw)

I wore this outfit that I'm still very proud of on a concert with my orchestra,

My photo got published in the Vintage Pattern Selector book,





And wore some of my favourite outfits yet!

2012, you have been amazing. Here's to 2013 being even better!
Of course, there's no new year without new year's resolutions! Here are some of mine:
- take more outfit photos,
- finish my bachelor's degree with good results,
- continue to work out again,
- cook more (and healthy!),
- get a new blog design,
- wear more heels (really),
- take more photos and improve my photography skills,
- keep that awesome boyfriend <3 font="font">
- ... and be as happy as I've been the past year!

Happy New Year to all of you! Thank you for reading my blog all year long, you make my day!
Love,




December 26, 2012

So this is Christmas


Hi peeps, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Mine already started on Saturday the 22th at my boyfriend's: he has a large family and stepfamily which made it quite difficult to get everyone together on Christmas Eve. So we just decided to celebrate two days earlier! As always, celebrations included loads of food, cute kids and funny presents. A great time was had by all ;)

December 23, 2012

Fluffy

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to my new fur coat! Actually it's not new at all: I found it in a closet on the attic, it was handmade by my mum when I was little! I don't think I've worn it very often: I can't seem to find a picture of me wearing it in my old photo albums, and it probably didn't fit very well back then considering I still manage to fit in it! Well, the sleeves are too short but aside from that this is almost the perfect faux fur coat. And so FLUFFY

December 16, 2012

Five Favourite Things

Well, I must say it was hard to choose only five favourites (thirteen favourites doesn't sound as good, does it?) but I can safely say studying and uni work did NOT make the list. Seriously, it's like professors are finally realizing the end of the semester is near (only 3 days of classes left before I go home!) and they want to finish the entire book by next week. And in addition to that, I have to do a book presentation on Wednesday, on which I've been working all weekend! So no outfit photos were taken during the past few days - I assure you that I wasn't wearing anything interesting beside leggings, oversized sweaters and my fluffy slippers. I'm so cool.
Anyway, these are some of the things that I did love when I had some time off:





1. The Secrid Slimwallet that was sent to me by the incredibly kind Julie of Yapado (thank you!) - A great solution for someone like me who collects cards but always manages to lose them. As you can see, the Slimwallet that I got to pick out (don't you just love the business-like cognac leather? I feel so professional carrying this around!) has room for your cards, banknotes or spare coins: no more looking for a piece of 50 cents that got lost in the depths of your cluttered handbag or panicking when you can't find the right loyalty card at the cash desk! (always happens to me. And always when there's 20 people waiting behind me...) And forget about those ugly plastic card holders: the Slimwallet, Miniwallet and Twinwallet  all come in a range of designs and colours. A perfect Christmas gift if you ask me! My boyfriend has begging me to use it for his business cards, but no way he's getting it :) I'm thinking of getting some business cards myself too, so I already know how to carry them around. 

2. I haven't decided on my Christmas outfit yet, but I already know what the accesories will be like: Big and golden! The earrings with diamonds (yeah, real ones of course!) and gold cuffs are from H&M, ring is from eBay and the hoop earrings I found in the back in my jewellery drawer old shoe box, I think I got them when I was 13 or something, 7 years ago! Does this count as vintage yet?

3. Playing around with my Christmas lights and bokeh/slow shutter effects!


oh hi, xmas lights...

4. Making my own latte! Perfect for those days when you're just hanging around in your pyjama's but really want some fancy cappuccino or macchiato: all you need is coffee (fresh, Senseo or the student way: filter coffee), milk, a microwave, a mini-mixer (I got mine at Casa..) and this tutorial by Laurein. Easy as hell!



5. Cleaning up my room and rearranging everything - I have one of those big Ikea bookcases that I use for pretty much everything: books, of course, but also nail polish, decoration, tea mugs, shoes, photographs etc. I love changing things around from time to time, variation is good! The only thing I don't like is the dust: seriously, you can't go two days without dusting every single shelf. Something I, of course, do every day. Ahem.
I was thinking, would you be interested in a post about my room and my decoration? Just let me know in the comments! I'm always curious to see how other people decorate their homes, so I would love to virtually show you around in mine too if you're interested!

December 12, 2012

12.12.12

So yeah, most cliché title for a blog post today or what? At least it's more creative than the usual 'stuff I'm wearing in this post' title I normally do! Did you do something memorable to remember this special date by? I had an oral Arabic exam on which I forgot almost all words I ever learned, hurt my finger all day (I cut myself yesterday with a breadknife - auwtch!), went for a nice coffee and bought a new notebook and pencils, all in neon pink - I convince myself that studying for those exams that are coming close way too soon will go so much better when I have flashy equipment. Not gonna happen.

December 8, 2012

The Vintage Pattern Selector


A few months ago, I was contacted by Lindy of RotoVision Books , who told me about a book they were working on called The Vintage Pattern Selector: a sewing book on how to use retro styles and fashion and how to work them in a modern way. They had found my photo through chictopia and they were interested to use it in the book. Of course I was super exciting about this, I e-mailed them the photo they wanted with my details, and they answered me they would let me know if my photo made it to the book. So a few months passed and I didn't hear anything from them anymore, so I'd sort of given up my hope, thinking they didn't use my picture after all. Until yesterday, when I came home to found this waiting for me:


And guess who's on the first page:


Me! I literally jumped from excitement, my photo got published in a book!!! Ok, it's only one photo, but I'm still super proud I made it into the book. Especially when you see who's also featured:



Carie from Wish Wish Wish and Audrey from Frassy, two blogging ladies I admire very much and who gained quite some respect in the blogging world. I'm really honoured to find myself next to these ladies!
The book looks really cool in my opinion: lovely retro inspiration and loads of patterns to make your own pleated skirt, wide-leg trousers, collar dresses and even pillbox hats! I'm definitely trying out one of the pieces soon, they look really nice and not too difficult.







Looks good, right? The book isn't available to buy just yet but you can pre-order via amazon here. Too bad it won't be released before Christmas, this would make an awesome Christmas gift for someone who's interested in sewing! I wasn't paid to say all this btw, I just think this is a pretty awesome retro style sewing book. And I'm in it, so you should totally buy it just to see me, haha! 
Have a nice weekend!

December 5, 2012

Fur and leggings

Say hello to my new 50mm lens! I got it as an early Christmas present from my boyfriend (he's the best) and I couldn't be happier! Everyone knows this is the ultimate blogger lens, perfect for outfit and detail photos. I still need to practice a bit, but so far I'm pretty impressed by the quality! So for my first outfit shots taken by my portret lens, I just had to wear my vintage faux fur hat that I got for only 3 euros at my favourite thrift store, combined with favourite garment at the moment: these leggings. Seriously, I think the people in my class see me at least once a week in these: they're just so easy to throw on and they match with everything black, so no wardrobe crises for me anymore! I'm kidding, I do wear other clothes besides those leggings. Sometimes. Ahem

November 29, 2012

Not So Retro

A few weeks ago, when someone asked what my style was, I believe it was Nikki who said that I was 'so retro'. While I've been describing my style as retro too, I can't say that it's still that way these days. I'm really not into the pleated skirts (aka grandma skirts :D), collars and cute dresses anymore. I want to be more edgy, sophisticated; I don't want to look like the sweet girl next door like I used to look like before. Probably also because in the past few months several people have a) told me I look younger than I am or b) guessed I was 18 years old or something. I love being called 'cute', but I'm not a teenager anymore so I don't want to look like one! Anyway, here's what I wore yesterday! I hate it when people comment on my shorts, asking if I'm not cold in my tights. I've recently bought some 120 den tights and a pair of fleece tights too, and I really think they are WAY warmer than the regular pair of jeans those people are wearing in winter. And ok, when it gets really cold, I wear two pairs of tights over each other, haha!

November 24, 2012

Press days S/S 2013 pt. 2

The second part of my press day report! Next on the list was Media Mania, who represent brands as Adidas, Pinko, Esprit, NafNaf, Fred Perry and many, many more. Seriously, their showroom looked like a huge (and very dangerous creditcard-wise!) store:




Shoe heaven!

November 15, 2012

Press days S/S2013 pt. 1

Last week I was invited to discover the 2013 Spring/Summer collection at the Antwerp press agencies. It's always weird to be surrounded by beachwear, neon coloured dresses and summery sandals when it's almost freezing outside! Makes me long for Spring even more (yes, already!). I met up with Renée around noon to visit Marnix and Ally, a brand new PR agency (since October 1st!), where we discovered some pretty amazing new brands. Wanna have a look?