She has a power to move the mountains, she has a power to be the heroine of her life, the power to lead others and the power to create, to create love, to create life. I want my daughter to know it and I want her to live it. This is why I try to walk the walk and talk the talk on importance of human rights, human right of women to be treated by society as equal human beings to men.
It is absolutely incredible to me that in today's day and age we have to walk the streets to ask the governments for legal protection from domestic violence and abuse to ask to stop discrimination on workplace just because our bodies are different or because we are the gender who have the possibility and the choice to bring children to life which should be protected and rewarded by the society and not discriminated against.
WOMEN'S DAY.
International Women's Day is a global celebration of women's social, political, and cultural achievements from the past and present, while pushing for progress for future generations and gender equality.
"When SHE raises, we all raise."
WHO IS A FEMINIST?
Feminist is not an angry women with mustache who hates man as those who are dismissing feminism would like you to think. A feminist IS a good human being, male or female who understands the importance of equality of women and men in society, home and workplace and aims to achieve it by modeling this equality in own everyday life and by standing up and speaking up to fight for this equality.WHAT DOES (S)HE WANT?
Feminist want's equality among genders and protection of women's rights until all human beings are educated enough to know how important it is for women to have the opportunity to strive, equally as men do today and until human kind progresses to the point of respecting all human beings equally.
It absolutely baffles me how many developed countries are facing the problem of low birth rates, yet they are not addressing women's rights enough to allow women to plan their pregnancies and earn enough to feed their children.
Here are some opportunities to improve women's rights:
- For each 100 managers worldwide there are only 34 women
- Women currently earn $74 for every $100 men make
- 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime
- Less than 30% of the world's researchers are women
- Women hold only 4.8% of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies
- 1 in 5 women on U.S. college campuses have experienced sexual assault
- Around the world only 32 % of all national parliamentarians are female
- Women around the world aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents, war and malaria
- American women serving in Iraq or Afghanistan are more likely to be raped by a comrade then killed by an enemy
- Female genital mutilation (FGM) affects more than 200 million girls and women alive today in 30 countries
- 4 out of 5 victims of human trafficking are girls
- 62 million girls are denied an education all over the world
- African-American women earn 64 cents and Latina women earn 56 cents for every dollar earned by a Caucasian man
- In culture and sports women's salaries and more then quadruple less then their men's counterparts
- Only 23% of politicians are women
- $10 trillion is the estimated value of unpaid work performed by women every year across the world - twice as much the men do
- Less then 13% of agricultural land holders are women
POWER OF SPANISH WOMEN
I haven't been so impressed in a long time as I was when I felt and seen the power, the positive vibe, the sisterhood energy March 8th among enormous number of loud and proud spanish women, girls, kids and men marching the streets of Barcelona in celebration of Women's day and in fight for equal rights and opportunities men have in today's society.
I am beyond proud and happy my daughter is born in Spain and gets to grow up in community of women who speak up and extend their hand to other women every day, no matter what. Especially I am proud of this new generation of girls who very clearly dismiss the discrimination and are entering the work force and daily life expecting of their partners to respect and match their work ethic in the offices and their efforts at home.
PERSONAL EXAMPLE
So far in my life I have experienced some discrimination due to my gender. When I was little I was told playing sports for women doesn't do any good, it earned me a scholarship to great business school, leadership skills, healthy lifestyle and lots of connections worldwide.
When I started interviewing for work I was asked on a job interview if I am married and if I plan to have kids and if so, when, I reported the company asking me this question to authorities for discrimination.
I haven't experiences sexual harassment at work but many of my girlfriends did, to the point that they had to quit the job. I also have a very dear friend who was drugged and raped at the job related meeting and still has to deal with this horrible trauma for a very long time along with her partner, family and friends.
For all of those who are dismissing feminism and ongoing fight for women's rights and equality among genders just because they haven't felt it on their own skin or because they see it as trendy new age movement I have one thing to say....You don't have to actively participate in this fight and you don't have to sympathize, but as a decent human being, just based on cold hard facts of every day struggle and inequality women face worldwide you can be kind enough to empathize for those who are hurting daily just based on the gender they are born with.
If you want to participate in debate for women's right and help improve it you can check out: International Women's Day website, Me to movement, Women's network for change etc.
During last couple of weeks I have been wearing boots a lot, just not this kind of boots as pictured in this post but rather rubber boots, indoors.
RUBBER BOOTS WEEK
We had a flood in our apartment this past week which is why I spent most of my time clearing out apartment from water in my red rubber boots after most of the emergency services refused to come including firefighters as 300 liters of water was not urgent enough for them to get out and help us. I spent most of the week drying floors and trying to salvage as much effected furniture and hardwood floors rather then working on new blog posts and my other freelance projects.
Week before the flood, my friend photographer Andrina and I shot this pink and red look in the old part of one of the most charming neighborhoods in Barcelona - Sarria.
PINK & RED
Light, blush pink is my go to color when it comes to make up and nail polish, most of the times I am drawn to light pink to raspberry shades when it comes to adding colors to my daily outfits however I have not experiment much with wearing pink with red, let alone wearing all one color outfit. I have to say red truly lifts up the mood, it's one of the most powerful colors which is not easy to wear, it demands attention and once attention it on you, you need to be able to handle it.
Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure.In classic Rome, the most powerful men were called the coccinati, meaning the "ones who wear red".
For this look I chose cropped multicolor sweater from & Other Stories, red pleated skirt from & Other Stories, red tight high suede boots from Nordstrom and mini red handbag by Homanz from Trendcy.
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Quiche is my go to dish for dinner very often, I make some kind of quiche every week and serve it with cream soup and salad. I kind of consider quiche french version of pizza :) as pizza was actually a poor men's meal where they preety much made a dough and used the fridge leftovers as toppings as many or as little they had.
HOME MADE QUICHE DOUGH
I often make my own dough for quiche (bigger quantity) and then I freeze it and use it when I want to make a quick and healthy 30 min meal but store bought quiche dough or puff pastry can work good as well. The beauty of quiche is that you can tweak it to be richer in ingredients or as simple as you want. Depending on your food preferences you can make it with or without meat, with eggs or egg substitute, heavy cream (milk/coco/soy) or regular milk to make it light and fluffy.
Here is the quick, healthy and easy recipe:
INGREDIENTS
4 eggs1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp chopped green onion
4 oz chopped smoked salmon
1/4 cup (60g) crumbled goat cheese
1 cup (236 ml) cooking cream or whole milk (I use soy cream as alternative)
2 tbsp fresh dill (I also used dry spice when didn't have fresh)
1 pack frozen puff pastry or quiche dough (or use this recipe to make it on your own)
Optional:
2 shakes of Tabasco hot sauce
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven on 375F / 180C.2. Spread the dough in silicon quiche dish and poke it with a fork. Use aluminum foil and raw beens as a weight and bake the dough like this for 15 min. (Don't throw away beans you can reuse it next time you bake quiche).
3. Whisk together in a bowl eggs, cream, salt and Tabasco (optionally).
4. When dough baked, take it out of the oven but leave the oven on, remove the foil with beans, poor the egg mixture into a baked dough and dot with salmon pieces and goat cheese crumbs, add fresh dill and green onion on top.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes on 375F/180C. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve.
This is one of my favorite salmon recipes! If you try it, let me know how you liked it in comments.
Cold wind, early night fall, city workers high up on the leathers setting up Christmas lights and people in the windows of cafe's hugging their tea cups with both hands are announcing festive Christmas season in Barcelona. This city has different kind of charm during holidays then snow covered cities in Croatia.
For this post I built my inspiration for the 'French look' around beautiful wool red beret 'Pardon my French' from Remake Home shop. I paired the beret with a couple of more red accents, my favorite every day mini bag from Homanz, red bandana from Nasty Gal & Mac red lip polish.
We started shooting in the early evening to capture the gold touches of light and busy street life in Barcelona.
CHRISTMAS IN BARCELONA
Christmas in Barcelona is somewhat different for our family then in Croatia. There is no snow here (which I like) and some celebration customs are much different. Here in Spain Three Kings celebrated on January 6th are more important holiday then Christmas Eve (Nochebuena/ Navidad).Also, interesting figure in nativity scene in Catalunya (but also parts of Italy and France) is Caganer (a figurine of a peasant literary pooping with his naked butt showing).
Caga Tio (tio means uncle) is a wooden log with a smiley face painted onto one end. Caga Tio also wears a traditional Catalan red hat and is basically the Catalan equivalent of Santa Clause. Tradition is for Caga Tio to be 'cared for' by kids from 8th December until Christmas Eve. The kids need to cover the back of Caga Tio with a blanket to keep him warm, they feed him with orange peel and depending how well they care for him that is how many gifts Caga Tio poops out for them. On the Christmas Eve they beat the log with the stick and sing a song to persuade him to 'poop out' their presents.
Our Family traditions include long preparation and cookie baking. We start decorating and playing Christmas songs beginning of December, also we kept some Croatian traditions so we buy or make an advent reef with 4 candles, we light one every Sunday until Christmas.
Also, we buy Christmas bouquet from local florist early December and then we dry it (contains eucalyptus) and eat lots of Panettone with dry orange peel and black chocolate. Ante, my boyfriend is in charge of building nativity scene in Betlehem under the tree and we all decorate the Christmas tree together a couple of days before Christmas.
This year my whole family is coming to stay with us for holidays so we will have a full house!
OUTFIT DETAILS
In the post I am also wearing J.Crew striped turtleneck, pearl embellished mom jeans from Uterque and black suede pearl booties from & Other Stories. I shop a lot from J.Crew because they have tall sizes so I can order denim, tops and especially jackets with sleeves long enough for me but with skinny fit.
All photos, as always by the fabulous Andrina Peric.
Some underwear brands researches say that up to 80% of women are wearing wrong bra size! This is quite shocking but looking back at my own years long search of finding a perfect bra in terms of fit and comfort I actually think this statistic might be true.
My cup size has changed during last two years since I had a baby but generally I can say I am a 85 B. Usually I wear wired bra's with minimal padding. I own a lot of bras including popular bralettes and padded push ups but I daily wear something in the middle of the two which is wired but soft organic cotton seamless bra in neutral colors (black, nude or white). Generally I have been avoiding wearing more structured pushups on a daily basics as my chest felt sore once I would take the pushup bra off after wearing it them for more then just a few hours.
NEW KIND OF PUSH UP BRA
Last several weeks I have been testing new kind of push up bra - Upbra®. Upbra® Cleavage Enhancing bras use the new patented ActiveLift® technology to give more cleavage to smaller cup sizes and more lift to women with larger cup sizes than any other bra.
CONTROLLED LIFT
Upbra is designed to give women with smaller breasts the cleavage which they would hardly get with usual push up bras. Also, the Upbra provides women with larger breasts lift they always wanted. Upbra has a special cleavage control straps in the bottom inner front side of the bra which allows you to control your lift, this is the heart of their ActiveLift® technology.
At the bottom of each Upbra bra/swim tops is the locking system that let you lock in the cleavage look you want. You just need to hook the cleavage control straps into the slot position you prefer. To get more cleavage, you just need to move the Cleavage Control Strap hooks into a locking slot farther from the center. The farther away the loops are from the center, the greater your cleavage.
STAY UP STRAPLESS
What surprised me the most about Upbra is how well it holds and lifts breasts when worn strapless. the Upbra® Miraculous Stay-Up Strapless Bras have a specialty formulated grip around the band of the bra that will keep your girls up, even when going strapless. This strapless lift up bra also comes with bra straps for when you it's not a strapless kind of day.
The grippy hearts on the inside of the bra and swim cups have been added to the Upbra bras & swim tops to ensure that your cleavage will stay up throughout the day.
BEFORE & AFTER
In comparison to all the other bras I wore through the years I can say that the Upbra provided me with the most accurate cup fit, comfort level, lift and hold that I need. I like that they even have the mobile app which helps you determine your bra size. If you decide to order Upbra through their online shop and for some reason you don't like it, you can return it no questions asked.
If you like the idea of Upbra, check out their sister site: Tanthrough , too.
In one of my recent blog posts I featured one part of Unique Travel Set - jumpsuit which can also be worn as pants which I styled with chunky sweater and a hat.
Unique Travel Set is a set of 7 perfectly designed and harmonized pieces of clothing packed in a fashionable and multifunctional fabric bag. The set consists of pants, leggings with breathable net, a long shirt, a multifunctional dress, a cap, a belt and removable long sleeves and it all comes in its own multifunctional bag. It weights only 1.7 kilos or just under 4 pounds.
Luxury Unique Travel Set has also tule scarf and tule t-shirt pictured bellow which ads a bit of sass and a bit of sexy to your classic black outfits.
In today's post I am posting a dressy look where I have styled tunic dress from the set with black Stuart Weitzman thigh high suede boots and Gucci belt. The short sleeve tunic dress features loose fit, it can be worn off shoulder and it has a sheer tule back and sheer tule patching under arms. The tunic has elastic band which allows you to adjust it's length so it can be tunic, mini or knee length dress.
Removable sleeves can be useful addition when you wear a tunic dress without a blazer or a jacket which makes this set an appropriate year around go to outfit set for your short travels or a daily use.
What I found is that Unique Travel Set really looks best and most complete for each of us when we style it with our own personal touches and accessorize in the way that best fits our daily lives.
I personally change my outfits 2-3 times per day. In the morning I literally jump out of the bed and have just about 2-3 minutes to dress as I spend most time trying to persuade my toddler daughter to let me dress and change her for school.
I usually wear the leggings or pants from Unique Travel set in the morning with a sports top (so my sporty version of it). I run to the gym right after I drop Anabela to school. Next, I run home and change for work (yes, I dress up most days although I work from home office). This is when I combine my tunic dress with leggings and comfy cashmere sweater blazer in nude and a belt to create a waist.
If I need to run to the meeting outside of the home office I just grab my boots, coat and hat and replace my sweater with more business like blazer.
Voila! Morning through evening kind of set!
Every Winter we make orders of ten kilo at the time of organic mandarine oranges from nearby farm here in Barcelona. We eat them, juice them and make delicious desserts with them all Winter long. One of my favorite recipes taken from one of the mom & baby Facebook groups and tweaked a bit to be healthier for my baby daughter Anabela is this mandarine & coconut bundt cake.
My favorite thing about this cake is that is quick to make and it doesn't require me to do a lot of mess in the kitchen and it makes a very refreshing, fruity dessert.
To make recipe healthier I replaced white with brown sugar and butter with coconut oil in the same quantities. If you would like more zesty taste keep peel on 3 mandarine oranges and remove it from two.
I tried to make this cake with whole grain flour and it did not came out that well so I would not recommend trying it. Because I did try to make this cake keeping the peel on all mandarine oranges and it was a bit to zesty especially for a baby, for milder taste I recommend to just keep them peel on one or two.
100g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g coconut oil
3 eggs
200g white flour
100g coconut flour
1 baking powder
2. Cook mandarine oranges by cooking them in water (3 peeled and 2 with peel on) until boils (2min aprox). Rinse them and replace the water. Cook them one more time until water boils. Blend them in a blender.
3. In a seperate big bowl mix coconut oil, eggs and brown sugar with hand blender. Add mandarine mix to this mix and combine well. Slowly add coconut flower, white flower and baking powder and mix to combine.
4. Poor the batter into a greased (I greased it with coconut oil) bundt cake mold (it is supposed to be a sticky mixture) and bake it for 45 minutes on 190C/275F. Let it cool a bit and turn it upside down on a clean cloth.
I hope you try this cake and that your family loves it as much as mine does!
Bon appetite!
My favorite thing about this cake is that is quick to make and it doesn't require me to do a lot of mess in the kitchen and it makes a very refreshing, fruity dessert.
To make recipe healthier I replaced white with brown sugar and butter with coconut oil in the same quantities. If you would like more zesty taste keep peel on 3 mandarine oranges and remove it from two.
I tried to make this cake with whole grain flour and it did not came out that well so I would not recommend trying it. Because I did try to make this cake keeping the peel on all mandarine oranges and it was a bit to zesty especially for a baby, for milder taste I recommend to just keep them peel on one or two.
INGREDIENTS
5 mandarine oranges100g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g coconut oil
3 eggs
200g white flour
100g coconut flour
1 baking powder
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F.2. Cook mandarine oranges by cooking them in water (3 peeled and 2 with peel on) until boils (2min aprox). Rinse them and replace the water. Cook them one more time until water boils. Blend them in a blender.
3. In a seperate big bowl mix coconut oil, eggs and brown sugar with hand blender. Add mandarine mix to this mix and combine well. Slowly add coconut flower, white flower and baking powder and mix to combine.
4. Poor the batter into a greased (I greased it with coconut oil) bundt cake mold (it is supposed to be a sticky mixture) and bake it for 45 minutes on 190C/275F. Let it cool a bit and turn it upside down on a clean cloth.
I hope you try this cake and that your family loves it as much as mine does!
Bon appetite!
Unique Travel Set is a set of 7 perfectly designed and harmonized pieces of clothing packed in a fashionable and multifunctional fabric bag. The set consists of pants, leggings with breathable net, a long shirt, a multifunctional dress, a cap, a belt and removable long sleeves and it all comes in its own multifunctional bag. It weights only 1.7 kilos or just under 4 pounds.
The Unique Travel Set comes in four sizes (and it includes petite and tall options - YAY!) and is available in Diamond Black, Coal Gray and Golden Beige colors. The ladies behind this set are designer Katarina Dzale and business manager Raseljka Maras.
WOMEN BEHIND THE SET
First thing I noticed when I met Katarina Dzale in Croatia who is a designer part of duo who made this set is the calm and the positive energy she projects. Mind you, I am not the spiritual, yoga, positive energy, mindfulness, zen type. I am honestly more of a manically organized, can't stop, won't stop, sleep is for losers, virgo looney who used to think she can't be bothered to stop and take time to self-reflect, self reevaluate and take time to breath and be alone. Katarina is truly one of the women who got me inspired to take time to get to know me (I don't think she knows that).
Second thing I noticed is that her clothing designs, her environmentally conscious ways of thinking about designing are not always commercial, they are often ahead of our times, they never focus on the brand name nor her as a designer, she stays outside of the spotlight.
MY FIRST THOUGHTS ABOUT UNIQUE TRAVEL SET
At first, when I saw the Unique Travel Set presentation online I was skeptical about having a set of clothing pieces made out of the same material as my only a carry 'go to travel wardrobe'. I loved the design of most pieces in the set, the only items I thought I would not use were fabric belt, removable sleeves and a cap however I had a really good feeling about this set so I backed it up on Kickstarter.
Several weeks later I received it in mail in Croatia where we were on vacation and tried the leggings first. The first thing I noticed that they were long enough for me (which is usually never the case because I have long legs), also the fabric was super soft and light. I traveled in them to Barcelona and they are really, really comfortable and breezy.
THE PREMIUM COMFORT
Upon our return to Barcelona I wore the set more and more frequently, different pieces almost on daily basics. All of the pieces fit me perfectly and in black are so easy to combine with other clothing. I could have probably ordered size Small (Tall) for more snug fit as the material has enough stretch but for my lifestyle and constant running around all day looser fit will do perfectly.
My favorite features of this set are unbelievable comfort, styling versatility (you can truly wear pieces from this set as part of formal look) and quality. I wear and wash items from this set over and over again and the color and structure remained untacked.
STYLING VERSATILITY
I love that the Unique Travel Set is put together in a way that you can really style it for workout, for work, lounging at home or fancy dinner or a party. My Unique Travel Set is black and consists of leggings, jumpsuit, t-shirt, dress, bag, belt, cap, removable sleeve, sheer tule scarf and sheer tule loose fitting top.I wear leggings, dress and jumpsuit the most and I love playing with removable sleeves and tulle scarf which I just figured out how to work into my personal style once I wore them several time.
We shot this post about 10 days ago, since, I have worn at least one piece from Unique Travel Set a day and I haven't traveled further then my local park. Clothing in this set are truly the most comfortable pieces of clothing I have ever purchased (and trust me, I buy a lot of clothing) and they definitely come loaded with positive energy!
In next several posts I will show how I style my Unique Travel Set for various different occasions.
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