Blogging slump, self care & 30 Days of Yoga Challenge!

Hello there!

I've been dealing with a blogging slump for quite a while, essentially for a few months since my laptop had a break down and stopped working for a week, and then came my vacation time and BEA and now I feel that I'm finally getting over it and starting feeling more motivated to write posts and reviews again!

Before my vacation time I had been feeling really tired and with work and the apartment work (it's been a year already since I'm a home owner wooohooo!!), I had pushed blogging to the corner, using what little motivation I had to do house work and assemble furniture and the like.

But now after my vacation I'm back and feeling much more motivated and energized! I wake up feeling rested and I've realized that if I oversleep and wake up late in the morning, I end up feeling more tired.

I think that not only the vacation time rest has done wonders, but also I finally decided to take a step onto self care and I've finally started doing some exercise. You might not know this but since I stopped doing ballet & swimming in high school, I've been the most unathletic person EVER! I hate working out, I hate the thought of going to the gym... just NO.

But, I'm a really flexible person (hello, years of ballet) and I've noticed that my posture was slouching, and as a nurse, my back sometimes complains, so I thought I really needed to DO something, so... my first thought was to give yoga a try.

Again, not a gym person so I thought "if I learnt how to wrap a saree in 6 different ways with YouTube tutorials, I'm sure I can find a Yoga For Beginners video to try" so I did my search and came upon Yoga With Adriene!



The moment I started watching her videos I knew I had found the right videos for me! She's funny, she always gives you options for the asanas depending on how advanced or not you are on your yoga practice, and she's not overly mystical (sorry, really NOT a mystical person here...).

I've been practicing her beginners videos now for a month and surprise surprise, I wake up in the morning WANTING to do my yoga! And that is seriously BIG for me!

I'm so happy about my yoga practice that I've decided to work on the 30 Days of Yoga Challenge playlist that she has, and I start tomorrow! Wish me luck guys!

What did I miss?!?

Hello there!!

You might have noticed that the blog had been rather quiet this past few days and it's not that I took an unexpected hiatus, it was more a case of a forced one! I updated my laptop to Windows 10 the Friday before last and boom... all of a sudden my lappy was freezing and uncooperative and not even opening the internet...

I know some of my friends do work on their blog posts on their tablets and I do bow to them for being able to do that... but my tablet is rather glitchy too, so I decided to ignore the damned laptop, take a break and try my luck again at some later point...

And in the meantime I've spent a LOT of time reading! I've re-read The Others series and Marked in Flesh and had a blast allowing myself reading without updates or checking the web... I missed chatting with my Twitter friends but...

Yesterday I gave the laptop another try and it started and it's running more or less okay, so I can be back onto blogging, but I'm gonna take it slowly for now... I think the hiatus and the time off was also a lil needed here!

What have you guys been up as of late?? Any books or bookish news I might have missed??

BEA and All the Books I Never Knew I HAD to Have!!

Going to BEA is one of those dreams for any book blogger and book lover, but we can't always make it true. A lot of us have been living BEA 2014 vicariously through tweets and posts from fellow bloggers that were in NYC.

One thing Kristen from My Friends Are Fiction, Crystal from Crystal in Bookland and myself noticed, is that by looking at the book hauls from our fellow bloggers in BEA, we've discovered books we now have been added to our TBR list that we hadn't heard of before, or hadn't paid attention to before!

And this is what this post is all about! Kristen, Crystal and myself are gonna be showing what books we discovered we must have after seeing them in BEA book hauls! Check Kristen's post HERE and Crystal's post HERE!


My list is not very long cause I have tried to control myself, too many books and too little time, but here are 5 books that I saw and knew I wanted!

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

Zodiac by Romina Russell

The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O'Brien

Jackaby by William Ritter

The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

Are there any books that you've discovered in BEA if you attended, or like Kristen, Crystal & me, through BEA book hauls?

Wearing Handmade Wednesday: ReLovePlan.et!!

Wednesday is here once again, and since I had last weekend off, and my laptop sort of behaved, I managed to process a bunch of pics for various blog entries, including this one. Since I intend to keep my 3 blog entries per week, I'll be alternating Traveling Thursdays & Wearing Handmade Wednesdays.


Buying handmade mostly means buying online for me, and by a jest comment of the bf, and my own realization, I've noticed I barely find anything to buy offline that I really like, and sometimes when I do, I compare it to something I own, or I've seen in an online shop, and even if it might be cheaper, I just don't buy it. Last weekend I went shopping with a friend, and I only bought conditioner (one of the few things I still buy offline, along with hair mask, trousers, jeans & most shoes, and groceries, of course). Going through the shop I kept finding things she liked, and she went to try on like 6 or 7 items, I kept on looking at this loose tunic and thinking that I had one at home that was way more lovely, and made of habutai silk, so I paid more for it, but really, the feel of the fabric said it all!


After this digression of mine, let's go back to our Wearing Handmade Wednesday entry of the week!

My awesome & super comfy LOVE AlterEco Clothing top

Let me introduce you to the very awesome and inspiring, Bianca, the Canadian lady being the AlterEco Clothing brand and the ReLovePlan.et brand & dare I say, even movement?. She's an amazingly positive person, vegan, animal lover and a lover of our poor mistreated planet. And she's not one just to talk, but also one to take action, so she reuses fabric & old clothes, uses mainly organic cotton & bamboo for her creations, and in her blog she has all sort of motivational posts, yummy vegan recipes and causes she believes & fights for.

So, aside from checking her Etsy shop for her awesome clothing, do check her blog and her website, and if you want, you can like her on Facebook!

The Road Goes Ever On And On...

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

Life does take us down very winding paths, even if some of them are only in our mind, and even if sometimes we just amble along and others drag ourselves on, there's always a time to pick ourselves up and continue on our path, hopefully not forgetting that the important thing is the journey and not the destination.


Finally, after an hiatus due to lack of motivation, probably a mix of being burnt out with work, the loss of my precious puppy Canela and the agony of being apart from the love of my life, I'm back to blogging. To avoid being overwhelmed, you push back strong emotions to go on with your life, with going to work, with spending time with your friends, cause I you let them take you, you just can't function right... but that takes a toll on you, and that toll is usually that spring in your step and that will to write, to share and to capture the beauty of life. I needed some time off, and my vacation to spend time with the bf was exactly what I needed. Plenty of time to think, to relax, to read, to cry, to look in the eyes of love... in short, time to pick myself up, and get myself on the road, back to writing, back to shooting and back to facing the world and my own chosen journey.




Laugh, Love and above all, Live.

Ebee Paperie!

Hello from India everyone!


This is still one of my scheduled entries, since with the whole trip, unpacking and getting into the whole routine at G's house, I thought it better to have all blog entries planned, and then start next week afresh, though I may have to schedule some entries too, since we'll be going to Darjeeling for a few days!


Today, I wanted to show off the cutest set of note cards for any photographer to have! As soon as I saw these cuties at Ebee Paperie's Etsy shop I fell in love! These cards are really cute and not cluttered and really to the point, with the super cute camera image in there. They're blank, so they can be used for any and all purposes! And you'll have to agree with me, the grocery bag/kraft envelopes do round up the whole set great!.










Erin was super generous to send me a set of her Camera note cards when I asked her if she did ship internationally in her Ebee Paperie shop, and I do know for sure I must get me a few more sets of them! If I finally manage to get my act together and work on selling my photography, I fully intend to use them as thank you cards for my (future & hypothetical) customers!








Ebee Paperie is one of the three ventures of Erin, along with Erin Bradley Designs and Ink Obsession Designs! She's a designer, and if you add to that her love for paper & ink, you can understand how she juggles all three shops! In her Erin Bradley Designs Etsy shop you can find premade sets of banner, avatar and even logos for your Etsy shop, at her Ink Obsession Designs shop you can find all sort of invitations and cards for all occasions, premade & printable, with even more variety at her website. And Ebee Paperie is the shop for all sort of printed cards!


I found Erin on blogger, and started following her Ink Obsession blog, and really loved her graphic design style, and as she started adding blogs, one for Ebee Paperie and one as a more personal one, I followed them too. She's quite fun to read, and she sometimes shares some important lessons with her fellow bloggers, like "always back up your files on an external HDD or you'll cry!" and "Do not use your laptop or HDD as a coaster for your coffee/tea!" (and I have to say, I am guilty of the last one, or should I say, I was?).


If you have an Etsy shop and want to get your shop a bit more festive but are tight on budget to get one of Erin's premade sets, you're lucky, cause she's offering a free Holiday set of banner & avatar for your Etsy shop in her blog! http://erinbradleydesigns.blogspot.com/2010/11/holiday-freebie.html


Have a great Friday & weekend everyone! I know I will, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows part 1, here we go! ;)

One Hundred Rambles later... Thank you!

Here it is! My 100th blog entry! =D


Who would have thought that my lil bloggie should reach such a milestone? Not me, that for sure!


I have to say I had lots of doubts when I started writing this blog in 2008, even if I started it just as a way of talking about what I love, and showing it off to the world, but my main doubt was: is there anybody going to read anything? & do I really care if they do?


Truth be told, there have been times when I have thought that it was a worthless effort, and why would anyone bother reading what I wrote, but both my very supportive boyfriend (who thinks that I'm a crazy shopper but supports my handmade interest and my blogging about it) and my increasing number of followers (81 already!) and of course, all the supportive and positive comments from fellow bloggers have helped me to decide to keep on going.





Regardless of the comments (which always make me smile and I'm always thankful for) and the people that might read but not comment, I like blogging, though work, life, the universe & everything don't always allow me to blog as often as I'd like sometimes. So my choice has been to keep on writing about what I love, to keep on showing off to any & all that care to look the handmade goodies I buy for myself or others, to share with other my lil efforts at photography (another love of mine) and to rant & ramble about myself on occasion.





This blog entry is not only a reflection on my blogging but a big THANK YOU to all my followers, readers and fellow bloggers who encourage me to keep on going, and of course, also a big thank you to all the sellers that put so much talent & love on their creations, cause they're the ones that inspired me to start writing this blog! I just want to return the love via my lil blog entries!





I had been thinking about what my 100th blog entry should be, and I just thought that saying thank you again was a good idea, but today while doing some grocery shopping an idea popped in my head, I've just decided to add a weekly feature to my blog, just like Sunday Shots are (I know, they aren't really all that weekly as they should be, and not always on Sunday... but you get my drift) and that would reflect another of my big loves: reading! I'm still trying to find a catchy name, and wondering what day should I reserve for it, so if you guys have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! I intend to talk weekly about one book or series that I've recently read (that very week) or one of my all time favourites. I've just thought that along with my Shopping Handmade entries that show off how much I love gifting handmade to my friends & family, I love recommending books and gifting them, so I'd do the same in my blog!





I'm also thinking of getting my very good friend Lexie from Headless Tess to work on a button for my blog, but I'm not awfully inspired as of late, so I have no idea how do I want it to look... Any ideas? I was thinking about something featuring cupcakes, books & a camera? Would probably portray pretty well what I am, but I was also thinking that it should probably be made off one my shots, so now I need to start working on that!





In you're still awake after such a long rambling, I thank you, and hope you decide to not stop reading my blog from now on! I plan to update more often, call it a New Year resolution, let's see how good I am at keeping it!


So long and thanks for all the fish!

Just for the heck of it...

Aaaahhh, the weekend is finally here!

I've just been so unmotivated as of late... unmotivated and uninspired for both taking photographs and blogging. Coming back home, leaving G behind in the US, and going back to work not just full force but overdoing it sounds like a good excuse, but still, what time off I've had this past weeks I've dedicated to reading (or to be more accurate, devouring books, this week I've read 3 books, one per day, I think Charlaine Harris' style makes for a really fast read for me!).

So today, after the morning bath after work to relax all the tensions from the rather bad night and a lil morning nap (and failing at trying to work on this week's self-portrait), I'm sitting here in my sofa, chillin' at last and thinking that I will update my blog with mindless babbling and a reminder of what this blog is about.

G suggested this while we were on holiday, given the amount of reviews and how all of them are such glowing and positive ones, I just again remind all the followers (and occasional readers) of my blog (75 of them, WOW! I'm so flattered! Thank you guys for thinking I'm worth following) that this is NOT a reviews blog, what is this blog, then? Aside from the weekly place where I post our lil ongoing photographic learning challenge, is a place where I share my love of the handmade products that I purchase, which means, everything that is featured in this blog has been bought by yours truly, I don't get things sent to be reviewed.

The process here is simple, I buy something handmade, I get it, I love it, and I want to rave about it! So I take some pics and write a blog here about it! Of course all the reviews are positive ravings, cause I write about what I love, that's why the title of the blog is "In Love With Handmade"!

One of the things that buying handmade includes is a more personal touch in the whole process, where you talk more with the person you are buying things from, so that also translates with a more friendly relationship with the sellers, and after a positive experience, I usually keep in touch with sellers via twitter, etsy convos or the blogsphere itself, and being a repeat customer can mean access to discounts or special promotions, and let's face it, I'm so damned nice, sellers love me to bits! ;-)

The bottom line of this blog is just this: this is my little corner to voice my opinion, and that's just it, MY OPINION, I'm not being paid to say things one way or the other, and if I get something and feel blah about it, or didn't have a wholly positive experience about it, I won't blog about it, cause it won't be worth my time.

So, that's that, outta my system. Now I can go get me a cuppa and think about what to do about my damned self-portrait for this week...

See you tomorrow (hopefully)!!

Happiness is...

Long time no blog, huh?


And no, this is NOT the unthinkable, Sunday Shots on a Saturday! ;)


I was just tagged by the lovely Rheea of By_Rheaa to list 6 things that me smile and make me happy, so I'll do my best to cut my list to just 6!


Here goes the rules for this:

Link back to the person who tagged you.
List six little things that make you happy.
Tag six bloggers and let them know they’re “it”.


And here goes my 6 things, with pictures:

1.- This guy!



2.- Cinnamon, my puppy!




3.- My family & friends (including a few of my co-workers).




4.- Photography & finding the beauty of small things




5.- Reading




6.- Chocolate!




And now, the six bloggers I'm tagging are:

- Kyoko from Cotton & Cloud

- Jolene from Dingogirl's Den

- Li from Meekiyu's Dream

- Sharon from MorganStreetSoap

- Jussara from SpaTherapyWorks

- Kate from Where Eagles Dare

Now, off to let them know they've been tagged!

Kicking off the dust...

*cleans dust from blog*

*starts coughing*

Hello there!! Long time no see, huh? Yes indeed... I've been out and about on holidays since my last blog, spending some amazing time with my even more amazing boyfriend in India!

I had intended to write some blogs while I was over there, keeping up with the pictures taking and the like, but truth be told, all I did, internet-related, during my holidays was checking Etsy on occasion, dropping by DIYscene a pair of times and checking my mail every two days or so... I just wanted to relax, and spend as much time with my boyfriend as possible; and truth be told, taking pictures is not so much time consuming, editing them... that's another story!

So in this blog entry, I'm just gonna show off a few pics, so you can see what I've been up to these past weeks:

We spent time with baby Rudra!

We went to the beach, and spent some time taking pics around!

Visited Sariska, a tiger preserve, and did see a tiger up close!

More blog entries to come soon (I hope) including some reviews and other quirky happenings on my holidays!

Stay tuned!

The blog's First Award!

Another blog that was coming for a few days, but didn't really have the time or the will to sit down and write, but finally here it is!

Kyoko from Cotton and Cloud gave my blog an award!! I'm so HAPPY! My blog got its first award!!

There are a few rules once you get this award (as usual, with power comes responsability, doesn't it?), so here they are:

1. Put the Award on your blog - Done.

2. Put a link on your blog of the blogger that gave you the award - Done.

3. Nominate Five other bloggers: Now this will be hard, I love reading all the blogs!

Indiscretion

Mara has an amazing blog where she features great sellers from the DIYScene Street Team, so you can find some amazing talented new sellers!

Crafting, Coffee & Cookies

Sheika is not only a very talented artist & photographer, but she also has great new finds and featured sellers on her blog!

From Japan With Love

Sofia writes about her life in Japan, and how her bussiness started in this blog, full of loads of really cute stories and interesting facts about Japan!

Spa Therapy Works

I love Jussara's shop, and I love her products, so her blog talking about the behind the scenes and featuring new products is one of my favourites to read!

RockerByeBaby

I love Amber's shop, and I love her blog! Not only she talks about her shops and products, but she has recently started doing reviews & giveaways, and I love that I can find new amazing shops through her blog!

4. Leave a comment on their blog notifying them - On it!

5. List Five things that I'm addicted to: Gaurav, Etsy & shopping, reading, tea and DIYScene!

Happy reading and happy blogging!