Room tour: my office

When we moved to our current apartment, I was excited to finally have my own office. Back in Caracas my office was in the middle of the hallway (remember this post?) and in our last apartment I had a microscopic one. Well… I think I have upgraded myself to a more office-like space and I love the natural light that this room has. We are renting and that is why I don’t have anything hanging on the walls.

This room is my office and my «beauty room»; I have a working space and a vanity table. I also store my bags, shoes and jewelry so this brings more color to the room. Should I point out that Nina always is by my side? She keeps me company every time I am in here. ❤

My bags were thrown inside my closet and they kept losing its form. So my mom gave me the idea of buying a hat/coat rack and hanging them instead. I bought mine in Ikea.

What do guys think? 🙂

DIY: cactus in a cup

Recently I bought a very ugly cup in thrift store out of pure oh-this-costs-only-a-euro euphoria. The color was terrible but I saw some potential in it. So with a coat of white and two coats of baby blue I have now a very cute cactus in a cup.

After you spray it, be sure to let it dry (I say this since I am an anxious person and didn’t let my cup sit overnight) what happened is that the soil stuck in different parts of the cup. Not cute at all.)

This can definitely be a nice idea for a gift too 🙂

What’s inside my makeup travel bag

I don’t know about you, but I love seeing posts of what people carry on their bag (little creepy right?). In my defense it is just kind of fun to take a peak and see if they are organized, what products do they carry around, what can’t they live without. It is fun.

I have shared the «what’s in my bag» post and «what’s inside my travel carry-on» post and after taking a look at those two posts I need to add some similar posts with more appealing pictures. Let us called them the «updated» ones.

Next week I am going to be out-of-town for a small business/pleasure trip and (obviously) I am going to share it the week after with you guys so you can see how lovely the place I am going to is. It is a short trip so I try to fit as little makeup as possible in my toiletries bag.

1. Smashbox photo finish primer water
2. Duo lash glue
3. L’oreal Infallible 24 h-mat (20 sand)
4. Make up Forever full cover (waterproof)
5. Too Faced «Better than sex» mascara
6. Tarte «The sculptor» contouring crayon
7. Brow brush from E.l.f
8. Concealer and eyeliner brush from M.A.C
9. Morphe M433 Brush
10. Collistar black kohl pencil
11.  Stila «Stay all day» waterproof liquid eye liner
12. Maybelline lip liner (20 nude)
13. Face brush by E.l.f
14. L’oreal color riche matte in 640 (all time favorite)
15. Catrice matt bronzing powder
16. Ardell demi wispies (you know I can’t live without lashes)
17. Make up Forever Step 1 primer
18. The beauty blender
19. Make up Forever Pro sculpting palette
20. Revolution ultra contour palette (I used it as eye shadow too)
21. Dead Skin Origins under-the-eye patches

This makeup bag is fantastic because it’s small, practical and has plastic coverage so is something spills, it won’t ruin my things (let’s add that is cute too). I bought it from Forever 21 two years ago.

I would love to know, what’s do you guys put inside your make up travel bag?

How I prepare for Christmas

I normally get in the Holiday spirit around the end of November but this year it took me a while to feel the vibe. I started decorating my home on December 5th and after that I added one or two accents every week. In our last home I couldn’t decorate much because it was so small that I really didn’t want to saturate the place.

I used our mini tree from last year but this time I added a small stool so it now looks bigger. I also bought some pillows and added a little fun to our fridge door.

Today I’m still working (from home) and I am feeling Christmas more than before. It is a lovely cozy feeling…

 

Let’s organize: accessories

I miss my walk-in closet. I really do.

There was a magical girly feeling while stepping into my closet because I had all my jewelry and accessories nicely displayed. Now I find myself with no space and I have to manage to make it look nice, clean and tidy.

So after taking a look at some ideas on the internet I found that I could save space by using my empty walls. Some hooks and there you go: my fashion trinkets have a place to rest.

Before and after: mini balcony make-over

The weather is starting to get a little warmer and I can’t be more excited about it!

When we were looking for an apartment back in September, I hoped it would have a balcony. So to my surprise, we found that this place had three mini balconies and one of them was big enough for me to put a small table and two chairs. I also added some colorful lights that I bought from Tiger (this store is going to be the end of me) and a bamboo rug.

Lately we’ve been blessed with beautiful sunny days and I can’t wait to have my morning coffee in the balcony when it gets a little warmer.

Before

After

What do guys think?

Would you join me for some coffee? 🙂

 

Microscopic office

I remember having a comfortable office back in our old apartment. Remember this post? Well I am going to show you my new tiny workspace.

We bought this desk at Ikea and it was resting in our bedroom. I adopted our dining table as my office and everyday I had to move my things when we…well…dined. So I moved the desk from the bedroom to our living room (since there was an available space now that the Christmas tree was gone) and now I have a lovely view from where I am now writing this post.

I added my office supplies so it felt more like a workspace. Before you go all judgemental on me for the little uncomfortable pink chair, I am going to buy a proper sitting chair so I won’t turn into Quasimodo before the year ends.

I am also going to add some more things…but for now…here it is:

What do you guys think?

 

Holiday feeling

Our tree is tiny just like our home. It’s kind of funny how small it is. (If Nina was here it would be the perfect tree for her). It was really easy decorating this tree, not to mention very fast too. This year I wanted to add some white to the tree and my little snowmen look absolutely cute.

I have to tell you I wasn’t sure if I was going to be in the festive mood for Christmas…but who am I kidding…I am always in that mood.

Here a little tour to our Christmas impromptu decor.

 

 

Advent calendar: 24 days of kindness

My parents always told be to be kind: they showed me how with little details everyday. Nowadays, I rarely see acts of kindness but when I do, I smile because I believe that there are still some good people out there.

It takes so little effort to be kind and yet we decide not to be. I understand why, I know pretty well that specific feeling that we experience when we do something nice for someone and it goes by unnoticed. But it’s ok, we can still sing our song even if no one can hear it. Kindness is not about having an audience, it is about having you own private little happiness show. 

So the other day I was strolling down the aisles of the supermarket and I saw they were selling advent calendars. I suddenly remember how much I always wanted to make one and I had a fantastic idea (yes, I tend to have them sometimes), I should make one.

So between this lovely advent calendar I found on Pinterest and some list making, I made the «Kindness Advent Calendar». If you need some inspiration you can find ideas here and here.

Since this is going to be my first Christmas in Madrid, I wanted to make it different and special. I will let you know after I finish the calendar’s list how it went.

Do you guys use advent calendars?

 

 

 

 

Gift idea: brownie mix in a jar

When I saw this the other day I immediately knew what I would give as a homemade gift for a friend. He loves good food (well, who doesn’t?) and rarely has time to cook, so I though this would be a lovely and original idea for his birthday present. Plus I know I will be making some of these for holiday season.

I followed this recipe and I have to confess I had to test it before I handed it out: it was heaven. Jimmy loved the brownies and I am planning on making some more to store in the freezer for our future sweet cravings.

This post falls into the Culinary Tuesdays category but I am going to go ahead and post it too in the OCD Thursdays because it is also a DIY gift idea.

Layer carefully your ingredients so they look pretty (mine look kinda weird, but I made the effort)

Don’t forget to add a little tag with the instructions and the rest of the ingredients to add when making the brownies. I bought my paper and tags at Tiger. 

Our new little home

I loved this place since I entered the first time and saw the natural light coming in from the windows. The apartment owners are the sweetest people you can meet. While they explained paperwork, all I did was stand there and enjoy what would be my new home.

I started mentally organizing the apartment and getting really excited how everything was going to turn out.

The first thing I did was clean the place like three times. After that, we had to improvise a lot. We bought two pillows and a blanket. They gave us the key to the apartment at 9 pm. We had little time to buy things for the night but we managed to sleep like babies in our new home.

 

Next day was all about IKEA : my new best friend. We bought our furniture there and some decorations. I can’t wait to start my DIY projects for the house! (Yes, that peach wall is going DOWN)

What I am going to show you is just a temporary look of the apartment. We have been working like crazy and having strange hours of sleep. But I want to show you how it is coming along.

Somewhere over the…trees

There we were, climbing up the stairs of an old building. All I was thinking was «what did we get ourselves into?». But when the owner opened the big wooden door, we were relieved. A small hallway hugged us with a warm welcome. Natural light was peaking in the living room area and I immediately smiled. I didn’t have to see the rest of the flat to know this was the place.

In a near future I will paint the walls white. You guys know how much I love to redecorate! Yesterday we went furniture-shopping and found some lovely stuff.

I am so happy to start this new chapter and share it with you all!