Monthly round-up 1 (What I’ve been doing)

christmas decoration / leather trousers / sock boots / winter outfit / london / monthly round up / miss casual

I don’t often sit down and open up completely over here. On one hand it’s because I’m very bad at talking about myself when it comes to serious stuff and second, I never know if anybody would be interested in reading anything that personal. However, this month I realized that the Youtubers I watch are the very honest kind of people who do talk about products, but about what goes on in their lives as well.

So I thought this might be something I’d enjoy writing about as well, and you hopefully, you reading about. I plan on doing this as a monthly round up of everything major or just majorly funny that happened in my life. You just bring your coffee, possibly wine – although, if you’re more of a beer person, I don’t mind that either.

This month that is ending soon, November, was like a ballet class. It started slow and easy to control and then we got to the piruetes (turns) and jumps and partnering and it all started feeling like a storm of so many things happening at the same time. Needless to say that I was tempted to look at it cross-eyes to make some sense…oups that must be from too many piruetes.

Daniela talked me into Vlogging

Well, she tried.

Just before she flew for her next job, Daniela came and visited us for a week. We often know that these periods that she spends with us are slightly life changing. I did ask myself actually, what is going to happen now? Between glasses of wine and cheek-cramping laughter, we always talk about what we do and how we can improve it. We are all content creators so you can imagine what kind of debates we are having.

What she tries to talk me into though, is vlogging. The elephant in the room was addressed, and I don’t mean a cute, stuffed one, and we got to the point of asking ourselves if people do still read blogs. I do, she and Paul don’t…(beeep, not even mine!). I still said I’d give vlogging a go and only a few hours before going to the airport we went to the most Christmassy part of London: Piccaddilly and Regent Street. Daniela took pictures for her Shift in Perspective project, I attempted vlogging.

What I can say is that I did not feel as uncomfortable as when we did our Punta Cana vlog, but my spoken English is still not where I would want it to be. However, I am promising you now, it is coming…at some point.

Funniest trip we could have had at the Hospital

Sunday evening, before going to the airport with Daniela and before going to central London, we went to the Hospital. If you ever went to a walk-in Hospital or Emergency in the UK, you know you can expect gray hairs before you’ll actually be seen by a doctor.

It seems it was our lucky day, because it only took us an hour. What a weird place to be lucky at…The reason we went to the Hospital makes me cringe still, and it’s because Paul had blood in his urine. Now before you click “X” thinking that this is becoming to serious for your taste, do keep reading, I promise you something unexpected.

After he was seen by a nurse, and another nurse, he was seen by the GP. They got to the point of discussing the possibility of an STD or even prostate cancer which they counted out, and in the end, it turned out he ate beetroot! Very pigmented beetroot! You can’t imagine how we couldn’t stop laughing after all that tension…what a month!

Our first magazine appearance

Yesterday, a very dear project to us was published in Bridal Musings. It was our first time modelling together (Paul and I), but we had an amazing team of photograhers, videoraphers, HMUA, florists, special stationary, cake bakers, and needless to say, the most beautiful gown I ever wore (thank you, Shikoba Bride), and a nice suit for Paul (Zebel Bespoke). Needless to say, if we needed support, we had plenty! What left me without words, and even now looking at the pictures I’m still crushing on, is the venue: Patrick’s Barn, where the most whimsical decor was created. I dare you to look at these pictures and not dream of having your wedding in this barn.

A few months back when we had the shooting, we thought it will be a good idea to surprise my parents and send them pictures from behind the scenes without telling them what was actually going on. We only told them that we have something special coming up. So we sent them the pictures…and nothing. I had so many scenarios of how they’d react, but a lack of reaction, I did not expect.

So in the evening I call my parents to get their feedback on the pictures and it turns out, the surprise was ours. They totally bit the bate…only a bit too hard. They thought we got married without them being present. OOf, how silly of us all!

All in all, I don’t expect December to be a breather either so you’ll probably see a monthly round up for the next month also. Do let me know how you like these posts. Do you prefer more outfit posts and less personal ones? I love doing both and more than that, I know I haven’t posted about beauty in a very long time, but I have something special, with something affordable for the holidays.

Wine-stained kisses!

November 29, 2018 4

What I wanted to be when I grew up

pink missguided dress / tower bridge / party dress / dance photo / london at night / miss casual

When was the last time you thought about what you wanted to become when you were a child. I always find it so interesting when I ask friends this question, because sometimes you really hear the most random things. Probably most of us are at the age that our child self imagined us to be this or that. I am wondering how many of us are actually what our child self wanted us to be?

My oldest wish that I can remember is that I wanted to be an archaeologist and more specifically, an egyptologist. Needless to say that I was so fascinated with the Pyramids and absolutely everybody knew. I even remember receiving books about Egypt for a few of my birthdays and I used to cherish and devour them. This for some reason sounds so wrong, but that is exactly what I used to do with the books.

It’s strange that I don’t even remember how this whole Egypt thing has started. I don’t remember seeing a cartoon or a movie first, but there is something that could have influenced me to go towards archaeology. Let me rephrase that: I know for sure that I wanted to be an archaeologist because of the Tomb Raider games.

We used to play them a lot: Dad and I. This was our favourite game. Then you still did not have means to cheat or research if you got stuck so I remember us using our brains a lot. Dad was the one actually playing, I was the extra mind….and the swimmer. That is the only thing I did better than him. Easy to say that for sure Lara Croft was the idol of my childhood.

At some point I even received a plastic hand gun so I would tie a few things to my hair for it to look longer and braided, and I would play around the house with my gun, searching highly valuable artifacts. What do you think, did I find anything? All of this happened at my Grandma’s so I did start finding “artifacts” later when I started being into fashion and I would go into her first, jewellery and then clothing collection.

Funny thing is that in my mind I was Lara Croft, but in reality I was going to ballet classes and I learned being more like a fragile swan, less like a gun-holding-Lara. After this, I remember wanting to be a few more things: a vet at our local zoo (in Targu Mures, which is gorgeous btw), a judge, a poet and writer (ahm! by this time I was around 15), a model…did I want to be anything else? Probably the first half of my life I wanted to be an archaeologist and the second half, except the few mishaps, I wanted to be a dancer.

How funny it is what our child self expectations are of ourselves and sometimes how far from the reality of today they are. Please do dare to share in the comments what you wanted to be when you were a child -I’m pretty sure we’d get some really interesting ones.

Melancholic kisses!

Dress – MISSGUIDED

November 22, 2018 0

(Photo) Shooting at night: adventure and fun?

bbc london / autumn outfit / shooting at night / london / leather trousers / velvet top / miss casual

I find it quite funny how I started writing this post right before we are going shooting at night again. We’ve been doing this for a few weeks now and I can’t wait to tell you all the pros and cons of doing this. Plus they say creative minds are awake at night! I can’t subscribe to this, sometimes my creativity is hibernating and I have to temp it with honey for the mind. For example, all these very early Christmas decoration displays all around London are inspiring me so much. There is something so childlike joyful about flickering lights, don;t you think?

Pros

I will start with the pros, and continue with the pros and probably three quarters of the post will be about the advantages of shooting at night in London. I believe all of this will apply to any big, overcrowded city so even if you re not from London, read on. Now the reason both Paul and I love shooting at night is because the streets are emptier so we can get to any location really fast…as fast as you can in London where everything is far. More than that, there will be considerably less people in our pictures so less people distracting you from our well chosen or not always so well chosen background and from my outfit.

I should have gotten over people stopping and watching us really quickly when we were still shooting mostly under daylight, but I must be very honest and tell you that it took me almost a year to get used to this. “What are they shooting?”, “Do you know her?”, but nothing compared to when I have my pointe shoes on – those are like candy for children. Sorry, Mums and Dads when you had to stop because of me 🙂 So another advantage about shooting at night, there’s hardly anybody around to stop and stare.

Although, today happened the cutest thing. We already shot two outfits around midday and at some point a couple is approaching us from behind my back. I can’t see them, but I see Paul pointing to the woman’s feet and smiling and at this point I couldn’t feel any blonder. He never stops like this when we are shooting. Then the couple gets in my view and I see that we were wearing a very similar vinyl pair of trousers and the girl has cheekily said :”We’re matching trousers”. Hihi, cute! And when I remember how shy I used to be when people approached me on the street.

Back to our shooting at night…now I feel like I write as my grandpa used to speak. He started with a subject and when you thought you knew what you were talking about, he already changed the subject several times and you could not remember where it started to save your life.

A huge pro when shooting at night are lights. From working at the theatre, I got such a big fascination for creating the atmosphere with different colour lights coming from different directions. That was slightly different because everything was controlled and “scripted”, but when shooting at night, you will find these games of light spontaneously.

My favourite light that we had so far was in my recent dancey picture with a pink dress. We were on Tower Bridge, at night and the traffic was minimal so the traffic lights were always green. The bridge is blue so it actually reflected a turquoise light which if you know me at all, you know it’s my favourite colour, and on top of that, I was wearing a dusty pink dress. Yumm combo!

Cons

Not many cons, but if you must I can tell you that with the camera we have now, I am not the happiest with the quality of our night pictures. On one hand, I light the roughness, almost like a painting of the grainy image, but on the other, I am a little perfectionist who wished everything was as sharp as a knife…I would use for the yummi watermelon I have in the fridge at the moment.

Fun fact about shooting at night: there are so many paparazzi in London. When we shot around The Ritz Hotel, there were at least 7 and they probably shot somebody who they shouldn’t have because the security guards were on them and the situation was quite tense…let’s just say, I do not enjoy being around them.

Another disadvantage would be the weather. If you live in a windy city like London, at night it has the “gift” of getting even colder and windier so be prepared for goosebumps or shaky knees. My trick to this is that I start jumping around while posing. So now you know, if we’re shooting at night and you see a lot of dancey, jumpy pictures, that must mean that I was at least slightly cold or that I am singing Drake and Bad Bunny’s song in my head: “Dile que tu eres mia, mia”

Now my question to you: which of our pictures do you prefer more? The daylight ones or the ones at night? Now with this many Christmas lights I must warn you that you might be seeing more night pictures than before…which was 0…but we will definitely try to shoot during the day, before it gets too crowded for the holidays.

Frozen kisses!

November 19, 2018 0

Under £100 outfit from River Island

river island outfit / london / animal print sweater / leather skirt / regent street / miss casual

Autumn is almost gone but before it’s too late, I thought I’d share another autumn outfit with you. The “under £100 outfit series” continue with River Island, a brand I did not know much about until one day I went into the Oxford Street store and the time just flew. They have a huge range of everything, from shoes to bags, to clothing…which is what I am the most interested in, anyway. I feel like soon the time will come when I’ll be talking more about shoes and bags, but for now – let’s focus on clothes.

1. The orange animal print jumper – £38

Hey, kitty, kitty! If you know me well, you have probably never seen me wearing animal print. It is just not my style. I am a huge cat lover, but I prefer petting them and not wearing them. However, this animal print rung a bell for me. To me it looks more like a remastered animal print, something closer to a tribal print. For sure the fact that the jumper is orange and not the typical brown with black combination, helps a lot.

Technicalities: this jumper is cropped so what I like to wear it with is high-waisted everything. I need to have my waist covered at all times because for some weird reason, I get cold really easily so a high-waisted skirt or a pair of trousers are my go-to to complete the outfit. Gladly, the jumper is not scratchy -this kitty does not scratch! but it does shed hairs. One thing to keep in mind is that I have not noticed any shedding on the coat, but I did notice fluffs on the tank top I was wearing underneath the jumper. Cats…

2. High-waisted leather skirt – £42

Funniest thing: we have been re-watching America’s Next Top Model partly as entertainment and inspiration and partly to educate ourselves. In one episode where they had a runway challenge, one of the girls had the tightest pencil skirt and she could barely walk, it was easier for her to jump. So she was advised to sway her hips so that she’d give herself “more space in the skirt” – as unusual as that might sound. And that is exactly what happened to me with this skirt.

It is the most figure hugging skirt that I have ever worn, high waisted, a nice thick belt to accentuate my waist and a nice little split in the front that is more for practical reasons than for “bringing sexy back”. That split and my ANTM teachings are the only reason I could actually walk in this skirt. I am obviously exaggerating, but truth is that when I walk naturally, my step is quite long so with pencil skirts, I might find myself fighting my outfit and not just wearing it.

Did I mention that this was a leather skirt? To me it seems like this River Island outfit could have gone wrong in so many ways – the animal print, then the pencil skirt and then putting these two “strong” pieces together…it could have been a train wreck. But for some reason, this outfit worked out. Do you agree with me or am I just staying here, at 8 am, writing this post and lying to myself. My coffee made me do it!

Coffee kisses!

November 15, 2018 0

Feather dress and grandpa’s cardigan

How appealing does this title sound? It almost makes me frown and think – there is no way in the world that these two will work together. I am not the most experimenting when it comes to outfit combination, but because of my eclectic style, weird things can come out. Or is it just me that I find strange even using “a dress with feathers” and “grandpa’s cardigan” in the same sentence? Do this two work together in this outfit? You tell me.

Grandpa’s cardigan

Let me just start by explaining that the grandpa we are talking about now is a very stylish one. He might have whisky when he reads those books that we’d fall asleep, have we tried to read them and he might or might not have a secret stash of Cuban cigars. This grandpa might be a fan of Gucci, but because we also wanted a cardigan like his, he suggested we try the more affordable version that River Island has. And that is exactly where the cardigan is from.

Most often a cardigan is something that we just throw on our shoulders because we are cold, it’s rarely a piece of clothing that we’d think much of. Or at least I didn’t. It was just practical, meant to keep me warm under my coat, and that was it. But slowly cardigans, and especially grandpa’s cardigan are becoming something that we are not ashamed of wearing and do more than keep us warm. I personally love the ones with contrasting stitching and the military type buttons. I must say, if it doesn’t have buttons, it might be even more versatile because then I can wear it with a belt to accentuate my waistline – ha grandpa, try that!

Feather detail dress

This outfit might have looked very preppy and behaved have we not had a cocktail dress underneath. Of course you can change the feather dress to a sequin one and it’s still an eyebrow-raising outfit, but feathers? This dress blew me away! When I first saw it I didn’t even know if I should think of a Victoria Secret Angel dress, was it a White Swan costume or did the feather boa that is never missing from a cheesy Cabaret show just escape?

This dress is the best example of how you can elevate a simple design with one detail – a very fluffy one, that is. Without the feathers at the bottom, this would have been a simple white dress. We’ve seen that before. But with the feathers I find that is has something of an Old Hollywood elegance to it.

The juxtaposition of the feather dress and grandpa’s cardigan is just such an unusual outfit. Not bad unusual, but the kind that you need to give another look to decide if you like it or not. I decided I did and surprisingly, I did not feel uncomfortable wearing it. Would you try it for a Christmas party maybe? How would you change the outfit?

Cardigan – River Island

Dress – River Island

Sock Boots – Mango

Feathery kisses! <sneeze>

November 12, 2018 0

NO BLACK OUTFIT FOR AUTUMN challenge

harrods / london / autumn outfit / religion clothing / miss casual

It is only now that I can say it hands-down, feels like autumn. I have difficulties waking up in the morning, it’s that dark, and then when it rains, it feels like it’s going to break my windows. Am I the only one who needs all those extra layers as much for warmth as for keeping me on my feet with this terribly strong wind. The entire city (London) is already decorated for Christmas so it actually feels like it’s a very early winter and I am still in the mood for pastels, no black yet.

When I plan out my outfit, of course all those burgundies and emerald greens are making their way into them, but I am consciously trying to stay away from black. I think it is a very elegant color, but it is also a very safe one and I am planning on keeping your eyes on my outfit at the end of the day:)

So I thought, why not keep myself from going with the flow and stay as far away from black as possible for my autumn outfit choices. Have a look on the tube on any of the morning rides and your eyes will get lazy from how much black, navy and grey you see. Can you imagine yourself not wearing black at all for what’s left of autumn?

Honestly, I have told you before, but one of my favorite activities ever since I moved to London, is people watching. You can get so much fashion inspo from just stopping for 5 minutes and looking around. My favourite spot is Piccadilly Circus, but Oxford Circus is not too bad either. I can almost guarantee you that you’ll get at least one idea for your next outfit.

Now, another place where you can go and get yourself inspired is Harrods, which is where we took these pictures also. If you do need inspiration with an opulent outfit, here is the place to sit in a nice cafe and while you are sipping on your coffee/ tea, watch the people outside.

If you do have another place where you like going to get yourself inspired in London, don’t hesitate to DM me. What do you think about the “no black outfit” challenge. Are you up for it?

Pumpkin Spice Latte kisses!

Shirt – RELIGION

Trousers – ASOS

Bracelet – LES GEORGETTES BY ALTESSE

Earrings – JEWELLERYBOX

November 8, 2018 0

Should we leave the nest?

pink jumper / harrods laduree / jewellerybox / coffee time / miss casual

Is this something that we really need to do because it is beneficial to us or are we leaving the nest because society tells us that around 25 we have to give mom and dad some space and start being independent? There are so many advantages to either of the roads that we could take but I was always curious what motivates us to leave the comfort of our parents’ house (hopefully not a kick in the bum) and start making a living of our own.

Being responsible and the decision maker

Leaving the nest is like having a big pizza that was eaten for you until you actually started knowing life away from the comfort that your parents created for you. But just like with any other dish, some like pizza, others leave the crust on the side, untouched, and others won’t even glance in its direction. Hihi, I hope I am not making you hungry with this analogy. I am writing this blog post Sunday morning, just after I had my coffee so I am kind of making myself hungry.

Let’s continue with the pizza: after you do start eating your own, gaining your independence, responsibilities come. Have you finished it? If no, are you putting it the remaining bit in the fridge so that you can have some later, are you wasting it and just throw it away, are you sharing it? All this things that you need to do after the main action happened – and the most enjoyable if you ask me – eating the pizza, are your responsibilities. Not to make your stomach churn now that you ate this yummi pizza, but leaving the nest puts you in the position where you are providing for yourself : food, a place to live, toiletries, clothes – everything is on you now.

Accomplishments

This might all sound discouraging but in fact I find it quite the opposite – if you are leaving the nest and gaining the independence – you are the decision maker. Basically, you can do anything you want, in the limits of the law that is.

My parents were quite open-minded and so I don’t remember not being allowed to do anything major. Actually there was something – I was not allowed to slide with my head first, that’s where I stopped being cool. Leaving this to the side, nothing that I write comes from a place were I’ve been restricted. Even so, nothing felt as good as when I was able to do it myself – and I am not talking about finishing an entire pizza – how dare you test me on that?:)

Different generations – different mentalities

When mom was my age now, I was already 2 years old. I am pretty sure that most of us though about this – our parents and their parent even more, were much quicker to tie the knot and start building that family…horizontally. Nowadays, it’s either that we want to have a career and a stable income before having children, or more and more of us really consider the possibility of not having any. For some reason Elton John’s voice just popped into my head with “Sorry seems to be the hardest world” – and I contradicted him with “I am not having children” seems to be the hardest phrase.

Imagine telling your parents that. Imagine telling your grandparents that! How many of them will be supportive and how many will be outraged? Another advantage of leaving the nest is that we distance ourselves from the other generations and live with the mentality of our generation. We don’t need to have children to take care of us when we’re old anymore, now really is the time when we do have a choice – as I said, different generations, different mentalities.

Should we continue living with our parents as long as possible?

How many times have I not thought: how much money would I have been able to save if I still lived with my parents. I guess London rent does that to you. This is one of the situations where it would be such a huge advantage to still be able to live in the nest: when you have a business and every penny you save could go into it. This is a situation where everybody will have to compromise a lot, but I do have to mention my biggest motivator – mom’s cooking. There is just something so deliciously familiar about the food that we used to have since we were children, don’t you think?

What is your opinion on this? Are you still living with your parents, are you enjoying it? I might be seeing things all wrong so please do challenge me on that. I can only talk about my personal experience and that of my friends’. So what do you prefer: leaving the nest or staying?

Kisses!

November 5, 2018 0

How to let autumn (DENIM) blues affect you

denim jeans and jacket / pergola hampstead/ pointe shoes / ballerina / miss casual

I am fighting against the bad kind of blues that we tend to get from the lack of light and colder weather, with light denim blues. Denim is still probably the most practical and hard-wearing of all textiles…ok, maybe not the light colour that I’m wearing here. This being said, I do have a black pair of denim jeans that if you dare to ask me how long I had it, I’ll most probably start blushing.

Let’s talk distressed now. For colder weather, I admit, I can’t wrap my mind around distressed denim jeans, but I won’t shy away from a distressed denim jacket. The one that I am wearing now is even cozier because of the shearling lining so it gives you the best of both worlds: the warmth of the shearling and the coolness of denim. Distressed jeans though…I’d rather have ventilation during spring/summer and not so much when it’s colder outside

Raise your hand if when wearing distressed denim jeans, your grandma wanted to fix them for you. I feel like this is the trend that has grandma’s generation the most confused: not lip injection, not super mini dresses, but distressed denim – actually, distressed anything.

When it comes to denim jeans, I stayed away from lighter colours because we all know by now, they give us a bit more dimension than we like having. However, these stretchy ones for some reason just work. The stretchy denim is actually my favourite style because it means that I can wear all the ruffles I have in my closet as a top. To show you how flexible this style really is, we even took pictures of them on pointe shoes which have become more and more of a challenge. Back to the gym with me, I guess 🙂

What are you more likely to wear during autumn season, a denim jacket or jeans? Would you wear them together?

no autumn blues kisses!

Jacket – ZARA

Jeans – ZARA

Shirt – ZARA

Jewellery – TruFlair

November 1, 2018 1

Top 3 most Instagrammable Cafes in London

The difference between Paris and London is that in Paris everybody will have their coffee outside on a terrace, preferably watching people. Whereas in London and I do agree that the weather might have something to do with it, we have our coffees indoors. Because of this and because of the bloom of Instagram, cafes in London started to invest so much in interior decoration and it 100% works. People will travel an hour by tube just to get to a particular cafe and take pictures with their coffees. To help you spot these photogenic cafes in London, I have made my top 3, the three that you must go to.

What you are going to see next is a mix of pictures taken either by camera…and we changed two since then or pictures taken by phone so please do apologize the poorer quality. I have always wondered, if we already took pictures in such a recognizable place as any of these 3 cafes in London, is it worth going again, or would it be boring for you to see?

Now I’m leaving you with a lot of pictures from my 3 favorite cafes in London but I am curious to know which one is yours?