Creativity & Inspiration: How to develop them...

Being creative and feeling inspired are the key to happiness, success and personal fulfillment for any artist or person with a right brain dominance. There are also people, who like me, have a more balanced left and right brain combination and enjoy doing both creative things as well as more logical and analytical activities which involve more thinking and reasoning. I think this is a perfect combo especially in today's world where even artists need to manage themselves in order to reach their audience. Plus let's face it, artists too need to think a lot and be logical about their decisions. They might not need to use numbers as much as an accountant or mathematician would, and they might not need to be as linguistically flexible as a lawyer would. But they too need to use their left brains. So in my opinion, it is important for whoever is more into arts to train their left brain and, vice versa, for those who have a left brain dominance to find ways to trigger their creativity. Only with a little bit of both one can really achieve his/her full potential.

I have always had a bit of both. I have always been into school, books and studying. But at the same time I always had the need to be creative. Drawing, writing, creating ornaments, making personalized cards, coming up with choreographies and plays, playing with fabrics....you name it I did it. Somehow, however, some of this creativity got blocked while I was at University. I guess it got stuck between books, assigments and presentations. In fact at that time I was using my creativity only for my academic work but not as much in the other aspects of my life. Staring my blog is what triggered my creativity to come back to its full. And now I am at a point where I have never felt this inspired. And while I still love and need planning, organizing time and budget managing in my life, I feel that this big cloud of creativity I am surrounded by makes me perform better, achieve unique results and most importantly feel happier.

If you are a grown up, and want to develop more your creative side, above are my tips to you. They are the same tips I followed to rediscover that creativity I had buried during my university years.  I want to conclude by saying that one should be creative in everything from work to dressing up and everything in between. Being creative is what makes life interesting; it spices it up. Imagine your food without seasoning. Wouldn't it be bland? The same holds for a life without creativity.....

STAY FAB

Pre-SPRING: Fitness & Diet Update

With Summer approaching - and hence bikinis, shorts and dresses - everyone is now thinking about getting fit. While I am hoping that like me, you take fitness and eating healthy seriously all the year long, I do understand the extra worries we all get around this time of the year. Is my derriere toned enough? Are my love handles too big? Do I need to start focusing more on my arms? Yes, I ask myself those questions too. I think the most important thing is to accept yourself and know your limits. If you tend to carry weight on your lower body, that is not going to change easily. However, you can still reach your dream body while keeping few curves here and there. After all, who wants to be completely flat? Eating healthy most days of the year and exercising as many times as you can each week is the key to achieving that point where you feel good and start loving your body for what it is, while still keeping in mind the things you want to improve. Below is a short update on what I am currently doing in terms of fitness and healthy eating.

Lately I have restarted counting my calories. And I think this is helping me keeping track of what I eat + how much I eat. And is making it easier for me to pin point the bad and the good eating habits I have. I am amazed at how much more varied my diet is now. I have introduced nutella and I eat it without any guilt. The secret is to limit yourself to a teaspoon each time (only 40 calories). My Ipad has been amazing for counting my calories. I keep a list of the calories I eat each day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I also take note of the total; and I write the calories of each ingredient I use while making my meals, so that next time I don't need to recalculate the calories (if I am having the exact thing in the same quantity). I haven't lost weight but my goal is to tone and maintain my current weight, maybe trim my love handles and my hips (although this seems mission impossible). If you are looking for healthy but tasty meals with a calorie tag, check my 30 Days Healthy Meal Plan.

In terms of fitness, I have been loving doing aerobics with Kendell Hogan. It's fun and makes me move a lot and sweat. It helps with the circulation, makes the heart pump fast and improves the mood. I have been alternating it with strength training as well as toning exercises targeted to the abs, arms and derriere.

At the moment I am not really thinking about the bikini season, since I only swim in August. Usually around May or June I will start eating more salads and less carbohydrates and increase my cardio both indoors and outdoors through fast walks. That usually helps me getting fit for the bikini season. What about you? What do you do to get fit for Summer time?

STAY FAB

Pre-SPRING: Beauty Products Shop list

I don't know whether it's a coincidence or a habit, but it seems to me that every new season brings with it the need to buy new beauty products. Some of them might be coming to an end, while others were just on top of your mind and you never got the chance to get them. During the past few days I have been thinking about the beauty products I need to get, and the list seems never ending. In this post I have decided to share the beauty products which are on my Spring shopping list. I limited myself to 10 as I do not like to buy too many things at once.

As you can read in the lost above, Sun cream is my top beauty product to buy. I have actually been super bad this Winter and have not applied sun cream at all. I usually always apply sun cream before putting on my make up, but because my sun cream has passes its used date, I have not applied it but at the same time I haven't been wanting to buy a new one with the excuse that it was Winter. So now I really need one, otherwise my nose pigmentation will get worst and worst.

If you have read my Vichy foundation review you know I have purchased my last foundation last Summer. I have used less than half but I feel like I need a new foundation since I have had a love hate relationship with this product from the beginning. Lately I have actually found out that this foundation works great if mixed with another one and I am contemplating buying this latter, since my favourite foundation (the HD Foundation by Makeup Forever) is not available where I live.

Another beauty stable I need to buy is my under eye concealer. After raving about the Maybelline Affinitone Concealer for at least one year, I decided to try something new. And I went for the L'Oreal Paris Infallible Concealer which I mentioned here. Because I didn't fall in love with this product I haven't reviewed it. And since I only used it few times during the first weeks after buying it, I was very surprised when I went to use it last time and I realized the product had finished. So it was expensive, not great and had almost no product in it. Bad, bad, bad!

As for the face cleanser, eye cream and mascara I will definitely be trying new products so I can test and review them for you.

Translucent powder and a cream eye liner for my water line are products I have been wanting to buy for a long time but since I never give them the priority, I end up never buying them.

Finally, the most exciting beauty products for me are lip products and nail polishes (together with blushes). And when a season starts I look forward to having at least a new nail polish and lip product. A light pale green is the must have for me this Spring in terms of nail colour. And for the lips I will definitely go for something bright!

What about you, which beauty products are on your Spring shopping list?

STAY FAB

SPRING SUMMER 2013 BAGS TRENDS......Totes (Part 1)

Bags are one of my passions. I could spend hours and hours staring at them in shops. I am always good at controlling my instincts when shopping. But if I think about it, each time I have engaged in impulse purchases,  I almost always ended up home with a new bag. I love purchasing one bag each season, and since I do not buy designer bags it's not like I am breaking the bank. I would obviously love to own all of the bags below. Who wouldn't? But they are definitely over my budget. For those of you who can afford buying them here is a collection of my favourite large bags/totes for the coming seasons. I am sure you can agree with me that they are stunning. And for those of you who do not buy designer bags, you can always take the inspiration and try to shop the trends by finding similar bags at bargain prices.

As you can see above, pastels are very in this Summer. The IT coulour seems to be mint and pistachio green. Light dusty pinks and cream as well as nudes were also everywhere on the runway. Givenchy on the other hand played with brighter colours. So whether you are looking for a modern and bright large bag or a more ladylike romantic one, I am sure you can find your favourite among the above 10 totes.

If I had to choose one among the above, it would be either the Valentino or the Fendi tote. What about you? Which of the above handbag would you choose if you could get one for free?

STAY FAB

Pre- SPRING: Sunday OOTD

In this post I am going to share the outfit I wore to celebrate my sister's birthday. We went out for breakfast/brunch. Since it was Sunday I wanted to look put together and chic while still being comfortable. I opted for a lose top since I knew I was going to eat a lot. I followed my March: Transitioning into Spring Polyvore set which I posted yesterday. You should have a look at it if you want to better understand the concept behind this pairing. I really liked this outfit and I felt comfortable, even after all the food I ate. This was my first light outfit since today was finally warm. I am really excited about Spring. You can read more about this in my post Waiting for Spring. Keeping with the same theme in my inspiration board, I went for a black and cream colour scheme with gold accessories and warm peachy makeup. I think black and cream is a chic and edgy combination. I opted for warm toned accessories and makeup to inject some colour into my outfit and make it more Spring appropriate (-not that I don't wear silver in Spring).

I am wearing....

Black skinny pants from Zara

Black basic top from Zara

Cream high low top from Stradivarius

Black coat from Stradivarius

Studded flats from Stradivarius

Bag from Dorothy Perkins

Necklace from Accessorize

Earrings from H&M

Michael Kors Watch

Have you started wearing lighter outfits? Is the weather getting warmer where you live?

STAY FAB

Dove Intensive Cream for Extra Dry Hands......A Review

The second post of my PRE-SPRING series is going to be a hand cream review. If you read my blog regularly, you'll know I like to post reviews on Mondays. After all the cold you might have endured this Winter if you live in a very cold country, you need to get your hands in shape before Spring starts especially since we can no longer cover them with gloves. And once our hands are soft and smooth nail polish and arm candy will look even better.

As I told you in my last hand cream review post, I found a new hand cream which works great and it's the cheapest one I have purchased so far. I found it totally by coincidence. I was shopping at a new supermarket and since I noticed the prices were cheaper than in other places I shop I went around and around to try to spot some good deals. And when I found this Dove hand cream I was immediately attracted to it.

First of all the clean and simple white packaging makes it look as something more natural and less complicated in terms of ingredients. And although I am sure this is actually my perception of this product, I am fine with it because this first perception turned to be a positive one. The second thing which attracted me to this product was the fact that Dove is my favourite brand for body washes, so I was intrigued to try a different product from this brand. The third thing which pushed me to put this item in my trolley was the fact that it is marketed as an intensive cream for extra dry hands, which is exactly what I have. When I first smelt this cream, the scent was there, and if you know this is something I don't really like in a hand cream. In fact I prefer non fragrance ones. And this happens to have a pretty evident non natural scent, and by non natural I mean that is not fruity or flowery. Anyway, all the above were the reasons why I placed this item into my trolley. At that time, however,  still didn't know its price since it wasn't marked on the shelf. So I wasn't sure whether I would end buying it or not. It all depended on the price. And when the cashier told me it was only 2.13 euros I was amazed and I knew I definitely needed to try it. 

From the first time I applied it I fell in love with its consistency, the way it blends but not with the scent. I can however live with how it smells, especially if it makes my hands feel so good. The hand creams I have tried before were either too watery, too greasy, too sticky or just not that good apart for few exceptions including the Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula with Vitamin E Concentrated Cream. 

The Dove Intensive hand cream has a combination of moisturizing, hydrating and nourishing properties. I think what makes it so great is the nourishing oil which combined with the hydrating ingredients give my hands that balance they so much needed. And although it has oil in it, it is not greasy at all. It applies quickly and blends easily into my hands without need of rubbing for too long. My hands feel soft and no longer dry and stay smooth for a good amount of time. Once I apply this cream I no longer feel my skin stretching and this effect stays for many hours, even after washing my hands.

All these positive aspects combined with the cheapest price I have ever paid for a hand cream and the fact that this is easily available in supermarkets and drugstores make this product a great one. So if you have extra dry hands, or if you are simply looking for a richer hand cream I suggest you to try this out. After all you have nothing to lose.

STAY FAB

Waiting for Spring....

I don't know about you but I am extremely excited about Spring. I can't believe Spring will start in 10 days. This is definitely my favourite period of the year. The weather is starting to warm up and the days are sunny, brighter and longer. I am already day dreaming about all the outfits pairings I can come up with, now that the weather allows light layering. I can't wait to start going for long strolls along the coast or visit small villages and their local markets. 

Around this time of the year my husband and I love going out early, especially during the weekend, buying a sweet pastry for breakfast and eat it somewhere nice before we go for a walk. This is also the perfect time of the year for picnics, jogging, family outings, shopping and dining outdoors. And it's also Easter time which is the perfect holiday for all those of us who love chocolate and figolli. I also believe that Spring is the perfect season for getting inspired and being creative. 

While I am waiting for Spring, I decided to share few PRE-SPRING posts with you. These will range from outfits inspiration boards, outfit of the day pictures, recipes, fashion trends and much more. I hope you enjoy these months which are going to follow and make the most out of them, especially if you like me live in a country where Winters are cold and Summers are extremely hot.

STAY FAB