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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Day 6 #TheGreatRomanianAdventure

Day 6


I crawled around today, since for no apparent reason I couldn't sleep last night. Maybe pre-party jitters.
Woke up not at all bright but very early and set out to get the cake. And a big cup of blacker than black tea. 
I've been thinking if I should say anything about this topic since arriving but I guess it's my blog and I'll write if I want to...write if I want to...🎶
Subway. People on the subway. Every single individual under the age of 45, with frequent exceptions over, are on their phone. Constantly. I haven't lived in a big city in the past couple of years but I am not sure it was this serious in Rome and I've just come back from spending some days in Milan and I know for a fact it wasn't this serious there. This is wild. I managed to count 36 people on their phones out of 39 available seats. And I'm counting at a traffic low. I'm actually truly enjoying this wild thing by eyeballing everybody with adequate calm since I know they won't even notice. A social experiment would be an interesting thing to do in such conditions. What could possibly happen if you'd black out their signal? Would they implode, explode or go berserk? 
I know, I'm being terribly mean.

Coming back to Day 6, it has been spent eating a lot (this is a clear and coward understatement) of Romanian cuisine, sufficient in fact to satisfy my year long saturated fats, fried and sugary foods intake for the rest of 2015. And I didn't taste everything. I took no photos since they would have just showed my disturbed appetite on Romanian soil.
But I had an awesome time with my grandma and grandpa, took some wonderful pics to put up on walls, had two pieces of cake and reminisced.

And now I'm just coming back from seeing my friend Bianca, having a final organic lemonade (ah, doesn't that sound nice? So they can serve organic lemonade but can't be bothered with matcha tea? Hmpf) and kissing and hugging her good bye for another few months or maybe less if she takes me up on my offer to come visit me.


Tomorrow will be the last day on #TheGreatRomanianAdventure and I have to say it has been a wonderful yet particular experience as always. 
I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Kiss and Peace 
Miss Sinister 

Monday, June 29, 2015

Day 5 #TheGreatRomanianAdventure

Day 5

How can one feel terribly hung over when one has had nothing to drink?
:)
I used to be able to endure a whole night of club crawling or two or three per week, while Day 4's wonderful reunion has left me feeling awfully tired and in dire need of a cup of matcha. Apparently it hasn't become a thing here yet, so no matcha for me.

I was coming back from my friend's house yesterday morning and while on route to go back home , I made a detour and had Bucuresti chocolate covered biscuits from Capsa Pastry Shop for breakfast.
Capsa is a pre-war hotel/pastry shop (the first war) on Calea Victoriei, one of the oldest streets in Bucharest to have withstood the age of communism and it's tearing down and building frenzy. It stands as a proud, romantic, Italian-inspired little building with a small dome and elegant windows, defying the hustle and bustle of Bucharest.
It is famous for all things sweet and the creme de la creme is the Bucuresti biscuits I had yesterday (ignoring my gluten intolerance for just 5 minutes) and the Amandine cake (which I would have had but it's the cake I ordered for my grandma so I'm going to have it anyway. :) 🎂
I'll edit this post with some pics! 

I'm off to Day 6!

Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister 

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Day 4 #TheGreatRomanianAdventure

Day 4

Bucharest never ceases to astonish me. On advice from a girl who works in a holistic shop I went to visit the famous and quite old Obor Market. For those of you unfamiliar with Romanian, Obor in per se means "place where dealings take place and stuff is sold and bought".
I was expecting a big indoor market with a certain degree of diversity and more or less a solution to my problem.
What I found was a gargantuan market with a diversity far exceeding my wildest expectations. It stands as a loose complex of 4 separated clusters. There are 2 wholly indoor markets: one to deal with the material world around us and one to deal with the internal necessities of energy combustion. There are 2 more, one wholly outside and one a weird mix of in and out. And they both deal with food&Co. I was blown away. It was at least double than any market I've ever seen. I took some pics but the bustle  was difficult to capture, especially when you're wearing a half open handbag and focusing on your camera (MiuMiu would it have been so difficult to put a zipper on your bags instead of a magnetic lock?!?).
I bought turkish delight. Real, soft, squishy, flavored, delicious turkish delight. About 3 pounds of it to be precise. And I found the berries I was looking for. And I bought cherries. I know cherries are a delicious fruit that tastes that way more or less everywhere, but I have to say these ones (which used to made into delicious jam by grandma and shipped to me) are a cut above the rest. 
Now going for cherries to cherished friends. I went out with my gang from uni, all thanks to Bianca who put it all together. We had drinks, shared our past 3 years, reminisced about the days when our lives were all about our next exam/next club crawl (I'm pretty surre we could have patented the notion), and had a great time together. 



The thing was, I'm a different person altogether. I didn't have a drop of alcohol after my unusually late dinner and have been feeling hung over all through Day 5 of #TheGreatRomanianAdventure (which is right now), I loved seeing these guys and partying but I might need a whole other year to get over it. Oh well, I imagine one should embrace growing up and losing the ability to party all night long sans aftermath.

I will now proceed to crawl my way through Day 5.

Kiss and Peace 
Miss Sinister 



Friday, June 26, 2015

Day 3 #TheGreatRomanianAdventure

Day 3

Yesterday was wholly  saved by best friend Bianca and a cheese pie. In that order.


I have to say I am head over heels about her traditional Romanian blouse that was a gift her father gave her mother when they got engaged and apparently goes back to a great-aunt of his. Can you say a-w-e-s-o-m-e?
I will now obsess over this for a few months. You have been warned.

Day 3 saw yours truly walk half across Bucharest, order a b-day cake for my grandma, walk back, get to Old Town and duck inside Carturaresti Carusel to get away from the pesky rain.
Now, for those of you who might have no idea what Carturaresti Carusel is, and with good reason for that since a) it's in Bucharest and b) it's relatively new and unknown, this is a bookshop with atwist housed by an ex private turn-of-the-century mansion that belonged to a great Romanian banker family that had to fled the country after WW II because of communism.
The importance, elegance and flat out wonderfulness of this place is hard to put down on paper, sorry, blog. It was magical. With every sort of book you might imagine, and some more if I think about it, with handcrafted knick knacks and quirky things galore, I have to say it was an amazing experience. I've got some really nice pics to show you but they're on my camera so the panorama I snapped with my phone will have to do for now. 
I promise to come back and edit.

Finally, I'm outside of Starbucks, stalking their internet and pondering if I should get yet another green jasmine tea.
Can't wait for tomorrow. 
I've got an awesome day planned but you'll just have to wait to find out.

Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister


Thursday, June 25, 2015

Day 2 #TheGreatRomanianAdventure


Day 2

I have to say I've rarely loathed people's attitudes more than I do here in the beautiful land of Romania. They live in a breathtakingly beautiful country, with marvelous traditions worthy of worldwide envy, with a land as fertile as the volcanic Serengeti, yet they systematically and without faltering wallow in despair.
They despise the government's corrupt ways yet it is impossible to even get a cab in Bucharest without first agreeing on the price and later leaving a tip on top. The fault for this charming nation's current state is either the Americans' (ahem?!?) or the Russians' (insert me with an even more raised eyebrow) or a conbination of the two give or take an Angela Merkel. 
The language has been butchered with neo-modernistic aberrations spoken with a pseudo-cool calm that results in an eternally annoying attitude. The "I'm too cool for you" kind of attitude. 
I have no idea where and when it started but I've noticed it's getting worse and worse every time I come here. I assume it will grow and grow and grow until someone's head will explode and maybe that will put a stop to it. Can you imagine hearing about that on the news CNN style?
"Now moving onto Eastern Europe we bring you the shoking story of an overly full of himself Romanian citizen whose most upward extremity caved today and exploded leaving the man standing there headless wondering what had happened. George, over to you for the details of the event."
(Insert a sinisterly laughing alone on the subway little old me)
The point is however much I try to get it, I don't. I know my unromanianness(yay! I invented a word) is responsible for me speaking proper Romanian, saying hello and thank you, merrily enjoy this country and the 1001 wonderful things, respect people despite their aforementioned foul attitude and most of all, still think there is a chance for it to raise out from within this terrible negativity.

I just went vegetable shopping in a local farmers' market that I used to go to all the time during uni and I have to say I much appreciated being around real people that really like what they do, smile back and use proper Romanian.
This too is becoming as rare as finding a rough diamond smack in the middle of NYC, Boston, London, Tokyo etc. Get it? 
Attitude. 
You need the freakin' right attitude in life.
This helps make everything better or at  least bearable.
I need some bearable right now.

Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister

P.S. Bear with me. Tomorrow is another day.



Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Day 1 #TheGreatRomanianAdventure


Day 1

- I've discovered how difficult it is to navigate Bucharest with luggage in tow.
- I've seen a horse drawn carriage carrying plastic bottles. Recycling at it's greenest.
- I've bought fresh raspberries in front of the subway station from an old lady for 1€. Nice breakfast. Should be immediately implemented in Western Europe.
- I'm using internet from Starbucks. Ah. Starbucks. Should definitely be immediately implemented in Italy.

Kiss and Peace
The Exhausted Miss Sinister

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

#TheGreatRomanianAdventure begins

Well...my #TheGreatRomanianAdventure started out in the most wonderful of ways. I had a great day with my mom packing, sunbathing, Duduing along. 
I'm now sitting in Fiumicino International Airport aka Cindertown. If you are unaware and unItalian, the whole place lost a whole terminal about a month ago because of a deranged fridge that decided to spark and generated the mother of all fires on the aforementioned International Airport and with a firefighters station sitting just at the outskirts of it. Weird right?
Well...I shuddered at the thought of traveling by plane from Fiumicino, but I had already bought the much too expensive ticket so it couldn't be helped. Now imagine my surprise when what usually was a foot race through Fiumicino to reach the ingloriously long lines for the passport check (damn my normal non-diplomatic passport), followed by sitting on the floor of the farthest reaching end of terminal 1, cramped up with about a billion people...all of this became a smooth bus ride followed by no line for passport control followed by finding a seat and being able to write this charming post. I am beyond myself.
I will keep you posted as #TheGreatRomanianAdventure continues.

P.S. I will be using that hashtag on my Instagram so be sure to follow me!

Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Dinner Oufit - my new self-drawn pantsuit

I just spent two wonderful days with my family by the sea.
I actually got some tan lines to show for that.
We went to dinner the other evening and my mom's good friend Pia, a wonderful photographer that I've always been to embarrassed to ask to take photos for my blog. But over dinner, I told her how exciting The Haute Pursuit search for a blogger for an H&M mentorship seemed and how I'd have loved to participate. She got more excited than I was, so straight after dinner she said "Let's go to my studio and take some pics!!!" I couldn't say no. I was also wearing my H&M denim jacket. It is the only denim jacket I have, need and care for. It's about 5 years old, it's starting to look faded hiccup just makes me love it even more and I have to say it has been everywhere with me and I can show a billion pics with this jacket. It was perfect.
I was also wearing my brand new two-piece that I had made by my friend tailor. It took a while to ruffle all the ruffles and get the pants just right, but I am beyond happy with the result. I got stopped five times that evening to be asked where I got it from. :P
So despite not being eligible to participate, I did have a blast taking these pics.









Denim Jacket H&M
Two piece pantsuit - I drew, my friend made it
Blue Suede Shoes Loriblu
Red MiuMiu bag
Little monster

Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister


P.S. Thanks Pia once again for the wonderful pics!


Thursday, June 18, 2015

A whole lot of frenchie love


I'm going to the beach. 
On a train.
With the little sinister monster. 
Nuff' said.

Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister

Monday, June 15, 2015

Raw hems outfit

How do you feel about hems?
I thought they were a consistent part of wearing clothes, but fashion proved me wrong yet again. Apparently wearing raw hems is a must and although I can visualise my grandma's jaw dropping if she would see me wearing a pair of jeans with drooping threads, I have to say I like it. I'm enjoying this new (and only apparent) freedom to rock raw hemmed jeans and T-shirts and shirts and whatnots.

I was by all means intending to buy my own pair of overly expensive unfinished jeans to terrorise my tailor with, but I got very defensive when faced with very finished prices that would leave me a little raw.
So I dug through my pile of unworn jeans, found the perfect skinnies that had been left unworn because of their length and chopped them. This happened about 4 months ago and today, my raw jeans got a little companion. I had my Mystery's white cotton shirt hanging in my closet for the past year with no idea of how to wear it. It got chopped today and turned into a wonderfully rebel little garment that I will now wear much more often.

Here's my outfit of the day!







Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister

Sunday, June 14, 2015

PRADA presents "CASTELLO CAVALCANTI" by Wes Anderson

If you haven't seen this. You should immediately. 
Wes, you are a genius!


Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Pitch perfect day at the beach



Hey little Sinisters! (this might become a thing with me, I kinda like it)

I did go to the beach just like I told you. 
Portonovo Bay. Absolutely magical.
Found a little place in the shade of some sea blue sheds and camped there with the little monster. You can see him here with me.
Mystery took the pics (and I'm very proud of him since he has little to no experience with photography but he's learning) and we had a really really great day.
Ended up going to lunch at Il Molo, and might I say, if you are in the area, please pay it a visit for the sensational sea fruits and the "Sea Carbonara" (it's a spin on the classic&delicious egg-bacon Carbonara that just amps the delicious like...tenfold) 









I've got pics of the delicious food, but they're on my phone. :P Will post later!

P.S. Those are my new MiuMiu obsession sunglasses that I got from Milan. I am very much in love with them! Round, light tinted lens, tortoise rimmed. What do you think?

Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister

Saturday Throwback

Good morning Sinisters!

Woke up to a perfectly cloudy morning that won't convince me not to go to the beach. So today  is beach time. Will take pics!

There's something else I want to share with you.


This is last year in Leipzig on vacation. One of those "hey, turn around!" pics that I hang on my walls. 
There are 2 throwback moments in there. 
1. I want to go on vacation. To a big city. Ah, museums, galleries, theatres, street art, quirky shops, SUSHI!, Starbucks, brunch... this list can go on and on.

2. I really miss my long hair. I had it cut in September, just when I got back from this vacation, and it looked really good for about 4-5 months, but I'm now growing it back and it's at  that weird length that just looks ... um...weird all the time. Argh.

There is also the added problem of my hair having decided to become dull. Lacklustre, dull, lifeless hair.
I've never really been too fussy about my hair since genetically, my family has been pretty lucky. Pitch black, strong and healthy and usually shinny. I don't blow-dry it and I don't flat-iron it. 
(Please don't hate me - I got it from my momma).
But, now, my hair is dull. I've changed 3 shampoos and have stopped using a conditioner since it just added to the problem making my hair look greasy (Ewww).
I'm using L'Oreal Sensi Balance right now and it seems to be slightly better but it's still a long way from my hair looks like normally.
So I was wondering what to do.
I remember I met a really nice person at the Cosmoprof Bologna that talked to me about Eco.kid, a revolutionary haircare line from Australia that helps your hair both from a cosmetic point of view and from a internal one. It started as a kids line and has now grown into a full line. But it doesn't ship to Italy. (insert me with an upside down smile).
Then, there are websites like Ecco-Verde which have lots of really nice brands like: Lavera, TEA Natura, Benecos, Bjobj. But I've honestly never tried an organic shampoo (damn my little knowledge about hair care).
And then there's my absolute fav organic company here in Italy, Fitocose. I have been using ONLY their facial care products for the past 2 years and it has changed my skin. Now, I'm considering buying one of their shampoos. I will let you know how that goes.

Do you have any suggestions? I could really use a hand. :P

Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister




Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Sign up to the new Green Vogue and Glam Mailing List

Hey little sinisters,

Just wanted to let you know I've set up a mailing list. It's on the right side under my +Google badge.
It's a nice way to keep in touch and I promise I will be sending you some really nice content!

Sign up! Sign up! Sign up!

Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Summer Blues

Summer Blues

Summer Blues by greenvogueglam featuring pop art


Cynthia Rowley blue dress, €350 / Lilly Pulitzer clothing / Chiara Ferragni platform shoes, €265 / Cynthia Rowley backpacks bag, €175 / Oscar de la Renta flower necklace, €320 / Dangle charm / Borsalino summer hat, €300 / Tech accessory, €31 / Oliver Gal Artist Co pop art, €175 / SmilingShoes.com / SmilingShoes.com

Good morning everybody!
The warm weather and my ever-growing wish for a seaside escape inspired me to create this set.
I've just discovered a bunch of Romanian designers I never knew existed and in light of my travelling there next week for some family celebrations (yup, I'm going to be eating my weight in sweets for a week straight), I was considering paying them a visit and buying a few things.
The red sandals that are just peeping under the heading and the white fringed bag are just an example of the awesomeness of SmilingShoes.com (Romanian brand that delivers everywhere! Yay!) Their sandals are beautifully crafted and in a wide array of colors, not to mention that no more than a couple go for more than 100€.
I will keep you posted about anything I buy from them.

I also have to upload some pics of my new shades. :) I'll keep mum for the moment.

Last but not least, are you just as obsessed with straw hats as I am? I saw this awesome Borsalino one that had a decent price and I know they tend to last a lifetime. But unfortunately, I forgot about it for the rest of my trip to Milan and now I don't know if I should order it online since I haven't tried it on. Hmmm.

Anyway, will come back with some extra pics from Milan shortly.


Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Summer Outfit

I absolutely love summer. Especially when I can get out of the shower, get dressed and go out. No fuss. No hair dryer. No coats and jackets and hunch inducing knitted sweaters.

I'm off for my aperitivo!




 
Edit:It's moments like this that make me love living in Italy and having a patient, adorable boyfriend willing to take pics.


Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister


Saturday, June 6, 2015

Call me old fashioned



I will grow up a very poor woman. I unfortunately have a spending problem that spirals ever more out of control because of all of those big and small companies out there that produce lovely stuff, package them even lovelier and then have this or that stylish, fashionable, beautiful, inspiring woman or man present it to the world.

Don't get me wrong, if I was richer I would still be poor since this would entail just more money to spend on everything from lotions and creams to shoes and designer pillows.

We have become fetishist, each and every one of us. We all want the best organic skincare money can buy, and by that I mean a lot of money can buy. I will spare you big names that could drag my little Sinister behind for bad-mouthing them, but any example that comes to mind right now....yeah, that's it. Those ones.
Then we have shoes. Oh, the shoes. Living in shoeland as I am, I have arrived at a sad conclusion. Albeit being masterpieces, shoes are rarely sold at a fair price. Their prices are inflated, steroid-pumped, out of this world kind of prices. The production of some of the worlds most coveted shoes right now, and again I ask you to think of an example and I know you'll get it right, would buy a nice lunch in a normal trattoria in Italy. That's it. Everything on top is the shops, the magazines, the models, the celebrities and my fellow bloggers.  And that's fine. But it's not honest.

I love designer everything. Just like I said, I will be a perennially poor individual because I buy that stuff. But somehow, today, seeing the 1 millionth blog post showing a "Outfit of the Day" which from top to bottom would cost more than 5000€ and seeing all the comments at the bottom, somehow, it all felt wrong.
I have designer pieces, I also have H&M and Zara. I recycle. I think everybody does. I love to wear my clothes more than once. That's why I buy them for. Because I like them. So much that I want them to be part of my closet, something I could leave to my hypothetical daughter or granddaughter someday like my own grandma did with me.

I am not wearing stuff for anybody else than for myself. That's why I write here. Because I want to inspire and get inspired.
5000€ to frolic in the park is ridiculous and unrealistic and not inspirational.
And I'm getting resentful towards all the people who don't appreciate fashion for what it is. Art. Hard work. Personal. Revolutionary.
Not a bunch of high end labels stacked on top of each other meant to make us, the financially unstable fashion lovers, feel unworthy to be so.

But hey, that's just me.
I'll go back to my cave now.

Kiss and Peace
Old Fashioned Miss Sinister

The Exam & The Expo

It's over!
My big exam, my one-year long study plan, the thing that kept me away from blogging, Mystery and the little monster is over!
I am beyond excited for this summer and all the things I want to do.
The exam went well, could have done better but the time was just too short.

But...I mixed business and pleasure and went to the Expo Milan while I was there.
I have to say it is an impressive place and worth a visit if you will be in Italy in the next few months. It will be in place until the end of October and I strongly recommend it.
I saw a considerable number of pavilions and am going back with my mom in October and still felt I could have seen more. :P
The Thailand pavilion is by far the most organised/impressive one, the UAE pavilion was disorganised (hello, 45 minutes in the sun) but totally worth it, the French pavilion was a very creative, artistically inspiring one. Azerbaijan was absolutely beautiful, USA dissapointing (:((), Japan had the longest line, the Russian one had a delicious bar, the Italian pavilion didn't come through how I believe the organising country should have. It was dull.

Here are some photos. I'll post soon with some Milan photos as well.









Kiss and Peace
Miss Sinister