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Photos: fashion editorials
Do you feel like you need a vacation to recover from your vacation? :)
After switching jobs and handing over my old job responsibilities in large global corporation I took much needed one week long vacation. Now when vacation is over I need to tune in full time into a new full time work from home job in wonderful new fashion startup Trendcy which I will be doing on top of my blog work in two different time zones.
This change and new work environment made me feel a bit anxious but also motivated and super excited. So many exciting and positive changes coming up for me! In light of easing in into a new work role and recovering from post vacation blues I put together this post to help you overcome yours and also learn from you if you have any tips of your own to share!
Outsource and automate your work before & during vacation.
Ok, I have to admit I wasn't totally offline during my vacation in Dubrovnik. I had my work email coming to my iPhone (on the beach as well, yes) but in comparison to my regular work schedule where I worked late nights and weekends, at least I got a full eight hours of sleep daily and ate healthy home grown food.
Before going to vacation I completed all of my old job handover and also booked most of my social media pages posts and some of my blog posts in advance to keep somewhat of a timely posting schedule. This definitely helped me be fully relaxed during my short vacation.
Change where you work from.
Even when I worked in large corporations like Rugby Ralph Lauren, A&F or P&G I managed to take an hour (usually 8-9 am or 12-1pm) and go somewhere outside of the office, to park or to Starbucks have a cup of coffee or a lunch while working on planing new project or brainstorming. This helped me get away from usually nervous office environment, be more creative, breed different air and see things from another perspective. Strangely enough, I feel most creative when working during flights. :)
Organize your desk.
My best friends and family would tell you that I am anyways organization freak, my desk is always organized and clean but to get and extra kick of motivation after vacation in my home office in Barcelona which can get a bit dark late in afternoon I add fresh flowers to my desk in the morning or light a scented candle in the late afternoon and turn on some music (if I am not working on number crunching :)). Also, I like to have my desk clean with only one pencil handy and my TO DO list for the day.
Keep a first couple of days open from meetings and conference calls.
First couple of days coming back from vacation tend to be the worse (starting from getting up early in the morning and dressing up). What I do is that I free my first two days after vacation from conference calls and face to face meetings and I try to focus on first running through my emails and answering them in order received and as per urgency, then I set my goals and to do list for the week and jump on it one by one, not to get to overwhelmed. I drink a lot of water and every 3 hours I take my dog to a 15min walk to also get some air and walk around a bit.
Block out all distractions.
With being totally ADD myself I learned to turn off all social media notifications while working, empty my desk, set a daily and weekly time tracker and consciously force and remind myself to follow my 'to do' list. I also put my cellphone on mute for the first 4 hours of the day and only take SMS messages so I ensure all emails at least for my time zone are answered quickly.
Do your favorite things first.
Even though we all might adore our job there are things in every business which you enjoy doing as much like for example paperwork, taxes etc. however, we all must do them anyways. To get motivated and start my day with a lot of energy, after delicious breakfast I first do things I like to do the most and this is project planing and creative brainstorming. I found that early in the morning or late at night are the best times for me to do this as this is when my house is most quite and I feel at peace.
Work shorter first day back so you don't get overwhelmed.
One of the most important things I learned working in a few large corporations is never to get to emotional and never to panic but be actionable and focus on problem solving, this process also included not being to harsh on yourself and not overkilling yourself with workload every day, all day.
First two days after vacation I get up a bit later - in between 9-10 and take longer breaks more often until i am fully back in my work rhythm.
Get your routine back.
Getting your daily routine back doesn't just mean catching up with your emails. This means getting back in your routing of going to sleep and waking up earlier, eating your meals at the same time and working out. I found that is really important for both my family (boyfriend and dog) and I to have our daily routine back to avoid stress and get our work done.
Resume your usual diet and fitness as soon as possible.
Not many of us continue to work out daily during vacation. Although I brought my work out mat and fabulous bright Victorias Secret and Nike work out gear with me to Dubrovnik, I haven't used it once. Instead of beating myself about it I now try to ease my body back into workout routine by gradually increasing the time of working out from half an hour to hour and a half to two.
On top, I am back to making my veggie and fruit morning and post workout smoothies.
Ensure plenty of time for good night sleep.
I was one of the idiots saying "I'll get some sleep when I'm dead" type of things. Boy was I wrong! Working day and night doesn't make you better employee or more hardworking then others, it makes you sleep deprived, less productive and eventually - sick. Famous Arianna Huffington is one of the biggest advocates of good night sleep after she collapsed from exhaustion.
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Hanging out with my beauty blogger friends and partnering with Estee Lauder for a number of posts now got me quite interested for beauty and make up world as I realized what a bit difference good quality product and proper application of make up make. Duhhh you might say, but when it comes to make up I always kind of kept it basic for the day and when I need an evening make up done, I have a professional do it for me.
As a day-wear I use Estee Lauder BB cream, MAC blush, Clinique Chubby Stick for lips and a bit of a mascara and out I go. For traveling I use mineral spray from Avene as I spend a lot of time in airplanes so my skin gets quite dehydrated during my sometimes weekly travels.
To upgrade my knowledge of make up application I consulted a creative make up artist, young lady from Serbia - Nataša Veličković and a 'just what I needed' purse size make up manual "My Little Make Up Book" put together by a publisher of my favorite planner - Ženski Rokovnik and my friend and favorite beauty blogger and vlogger Ana Mandekić.
Now, 10 lessons I learned from "My Little Make Up Book" which contains tricks and tips for make up application, 13 full make up tutorials for different occasions and looks:
#1 How to apply liquid eyeliner
#2 Smokey eyes tutorial
#3 How to properly blend eye shadow
#4 Which brushes to use and how to angle them
#5 How to shape your eyebrows
#6 What are the must have items in cosmetic purse (on a go, make up book fits to purse as well)
#7 How to choose make up based on your face shape
#8 How to hide blemishes
#9 Best way to emphasize eyes based on their shape and make them bigger
#10 Best way to apply your lipstick to last longer
Now, since I am not a beauty expert but rather still learning I asked make up artist Nataša Veličković to top up with some of her basic make up tips she use with her clients. This is what she shared:
DAY MAKE UP
For a day wear I recommend my clients to use oil-free compact powders (ex. Shiseido) just to event out their skin tone a bit, to emphasize their eyes with a dark mascara with rubber brush (ex. Loreal golden mascara) and lipstick or gloss in neutral color (ex. Clarins Eclat Minute).
EVENING MAKE UP
Evening make up should of course be a bit more prominent so Nataša recommends liquid oil-free foundation matching your skin tone over which you should apply mat powder with a gentle brush corresponding with your blush. Ladies with darker skin tone should go with more bronze or apricot while ladies with lighter skin tone should use pink shades of blush. Nataša recommends to emphasize your eyes with volume mascara with rubber brush and liquid or pencil eyeliner (which ever you feel more comfortable using) and of course lipstick in your favorite color.
EXTRA TIPS! Many girls like golden-brown shades of eye-shadow or silver-purple mix. while if you have green or blue eyes you shouldn't use blue and green eye-shadow colors. On a wider part of your face you should never put bronzer as it further widens them.
Do you want to win "My Little Make Up Book" (written in Croatian)?
All you have to do is:
1. Like "My Little Make Up Book" Facebook page HERE.
2. Subscribe to La KatWalk Newsletter by clicking HERE (this will save your email).
3. Leave a comment below this post that you did both steps 1 & 2.
Giveaway winners will be announced on Friday 23th of August within La KatWalk newsletter and here on the blog.
Good luck lovelies! :)
As I already mentioned in some earlier posts, I really love costume jewelry. I developed this love (read: obsession) while working as an intern at probably worlds most amazing high fashion jewelry company - Erickson Beamon (Showroom Seven NY). You can read my wonderful experience of working there here.
I own a lot of jewelry and until recently I have been storing it in a number of various decorative boxes while most valuable pieces (which are also gifts and great memories) I keep securely locked.
Since I learned that I will soon be moving to another country, I have started collecting various storage boxes and even making my own DIY solutions for storing my seasonal clothing pieces, hats, other accessories and lastly jewelry. Jewelry storages I am sharing with you today are actually a great buy and not really a creative DIY solutions, but since some of you requested more DIY posts, I will be soon sharing my "traveling with style", moving and apartment storage DIY tips with you in upcoming post series.
So lets jump to the point, I got the bellow two amazing jewelry storage boxes from JYSK store in Zagreb (this is a Danish company I think, which has store locations all over Europe so you can check out their site to see if they are located near your neighborhood). Here is the list of their stores in Croatia.
I went to JYSK store to get this white metal jewelry stand (price: 89,95 hrk) which fits lovely in my shabby-chic decorated apartment but then I also got this see-through box (99 hrk) for my smaller jewelry.
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Ladies, this is not a sponsored post, I was just thrilled to finally resolve my jewelry storing problem and thought I should share it with you all. How do you store your jewelry lovelies? If you have any DIY ideas, please do share! :)
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