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Friday, 27 February 2015

OUTFIT | Do you want to build a snowman?


It's Friday everyone, perk up! No university for two days but there's still a very big workload to go through, It feels like assignments just pile up and it's hard to keep up.

I know nobody wants to hear about snow right now when it's so sunny in Lisbon but bear with me! I was so excited on this day, my boyfriend drove a bit north so we could see some "real snow" in his own words and it was such an amazing experience. I had never seen snow before so I was beyond excited. I don't know why people complain about snow, it's so lovely!

The sweater is so comfortable and baggy, and I love the muted pink colour that makes it very wearable and doesn't look childish. I didn't build a snow man on this day, maybe next year =)

Sweater: LaRedoute (50)
Infinity scarf: Primark
Jeans: C&A (48)


I wish you a great weekend, whether you go out or just chill in your house like I'll be doing.

Wednesday, 25 February 2015

New In | Forever21 & others

This post features an order I made on Forever21 and some other things I got in Sweden. I cannot express how much I like Forever21, I'm constantly checking for newly added items on their plus size range. I'm also very impressed with how fast I received the order - I ordered it on a Wednesday night and got it on the Friday, how fast is that! Not even Portugal's domestic shipping is this fast, and Portugal is a very tiny country, can't be hard to drive some packages around. I had seen this dress before, two months ago or so, and it stayed in the back of my mind. So when I saw the shirt and decided to make an order I knew the dress had to come too.

The shirt from Forever21 fits really well, it's just not very well manufactured unfortunately - the button holes have a lot of loose threads so it's hard to unbutton the shirt without pulling on threads. Other than that I'm happy with it, the back is really cute.


The dress is gorgeous and the fabric is very flowy, I believe this is from their winter collection but it feels more like a summer dress. I wanted to do an outfit of the day featuring this dress but it feels very summery so I'll hold onto it until the warmer weather.


The next two items are for my mother, her birthday is coming up. I hope she's not reading this, I don't think she reads my blog, she's a bit technologically challenged so I believe I'm safe. I originally meant to buy something else but then I saw this skirt and my mother actually tried to make a skirt like this but the seamstress didn't get the brief and it didn't turn out as she hoped. It has two mesh panels across the legs but since it's so long it doesn't look trashy like others I've seen. Both the top and the skirt are sold out, you can find a similar style to the top at Forever 21. 

I bought some coconut oil, I'm a true coconut oil fan. In Portugal it's quite pricey but here it was at an affordable price. I use it for a lot of things, from hair treatments to shaving. I've been using it for a while but never payed attention to the quality of it, just bought it on iherb, the cheapest I could find. I guess it's important to get the good quality, organic cold pressed one, because this one I bought actually smells like coconuts. The previous ones from iherb didn't smell like anything at all so I guess that's not good. There are many uses for it, I can make a post on it later.


This smells divine! It reminds me of the Porridge soap by Lush (lovely by the way) and I would eat it if I wasn't afraid of stomach repercussions. It feels exactly the same as the popular body butters from The Body Shop but at a fraction of the price (it was around 2€).


Shaving cream - pretty self explanatory. This brand is Geminy (I've never heard about it before) but I'm curious to try it. It's for sensitive skin and it's supposed to not cause irritation, but they all say that as a marketing trick so I'll believe it when I see it. I'm very late to the game with dry shampoos, I've never tried one and never had much use for it either. This one is by Batiste, a very well known brand, and it's the Original version. Although my hair is oily and I know you shouldn't wash your hair every single day I still do it (and will probably always do it) so dry shampoo isn't really a necessity. I bought it out of curiosity and also because it helps creating texture in the hair to hold some hairstyles so I'll have use for it.

Sunday, 22 February 2015

Week 9 weight loss journal

Being back in Lisbon and going back to school is so depressing. The difference in temperature is massive, it has been around 15ºC here in Lisbon and while this temperature is fine for me, it's only the start of a very slow climb to the summer weather of 30ºC where I feel like I might die from the heat. I really dislike summer and heat. It's odd having such an exciting month and then coming back home to notice nothing has changed, the world is exactly the same. It's the exact same landscape I've seen thousands if not millions of times, I catch the exact same buses to school where I see the same people every day. It feels a bit like an alternate universe. What keeps me going is knowing that after this semester of school, I'll be back in Sweden for the whole summer and I couldn't be more excited. I was so happy in Sweden and it was so much fun. So fun I even gained 2kg from all the chocolate. I do eat a lot better when I'm home since I know exactly what food to make and I get into a routine, being on holiday makes me super excited to try new food and I end up making bad decisions.

Food

As usual, salad as a side dish + meat. I prefer meat in the winter and fish in the summer, the fish that's in season in the summer is more to my liking than what's in season in the winter. What I normally use to make a salad depends, but usually consists of a base of lettuce or a mix of lettuce with something else like arugula, tomatoes, grated carrot and onion. To this base I will add whatever I have on hand or prefer in that particular day, like apple, feta cheese, cucumber, red bell pepper, etc. As a dressing I like to switch it up because I get bored so easily. This week I've been having the salads with a honey, mustard and lime dressing that I made, or guacamole.

This week I've been eating pork fillets, ground turkey patties and chicken, grilled. I bring my lunch to school so I can know exactly what I'm eating and it's also cheaper so what I do is I make a big batch of something, divide it into portions and freeze the ones I don't need right away. This way I always have a box of homemade school lunch to bring every morning with me. So my school lunches this week, which haven't been many because I only had two classes so far, were a sweet potato and carrot stew with some pork fillets.


My mom doesn't cook very often but when she does I know it's going to be something that isn't particularly healthy but that's okay, she only cooks once or twice a week. So she made a mushroom meat loaf with fries on the side and a salad. 

For breakfast I haven't been having my green smoothies as normal because I returned home on Sunday and haven't had the chance to go to the supermarket yet so I don't have a smoothie stock at the moment. That being, for breakfast I've been having yogurt with banana, or tea with some crackers. As snacks I've been eating crackers or a dark bread sandwich with ham. I love bread with seeds on it. I don't have a habit of drinking sodas or other packaged drinks, I drink mostly water or freshly squeezed orange juice or lemonade. I think it goes without saying, but there's so many hidden calories and sugars in packaged drinks, even when they say low sugar always be weary of artificial sweeteners that are so unhealthy.

Exercise

So far so good. I exercised 4 times this week, mostly dance videos. I'm going to do a post on what videos I like very soon so you know what I mean when I say dance videos. I also walked the dog a few times, I doubt my lazy brother walked her at all while I was gone. My poor baby girl.


Friday, 20 February 2015

OUTFIT | Something burgundy

You'll be seeing outfit posts I took in Sweden for quite sometime. When in Lisbon I don't have anyone kind enough to take a bunch of pictures of me in different angles, so I wanted to stock up on outfit pictures before returning to Lisbon. This outfit features my most loved jacket (you've seen it before in this outfit post) from H&M+. The sweater is beautiful but unfortunately it's not the perfect fit. I can't really wear it with jeans because it's very short since it's from the regular line at Forever21 instead of the plus size range. This skirt is so old and it's my favorite, everytime I wear it I'm reminded that one day it will cease to exist and I'll have to wander the world without my favorite skirt. It's plain black and pleated but it's just perfect in every way possible from the fit to the lenght. The boots aren't new to you either, I didn't bring a lot of shoes with me to Sweden and in fact I don't own a lot of shoes, I'm just not a shoe kind of gal. I also tried belting the skirt (I love wearing skirts with a belt at the waist) so you see how the sweater would look like (last picture).

Jacket: H&M+ (18)
Infinity scarf: Primark
Sweater: Forever21 (L)
Skirt: Primark (18)
Tights: Primark (XL)
Over the knee socks: Stradivarius
Boots: La Redoute
Bag: Primark


Wednesday, 18 February 2015

The valentine's day thread

Hey everyone

I'm so excited to share with you how my valentine's day was. Now, I know valentine's is tricky and everyone has their own opinion on it and some advocate that there shouldn't be a day specific for it because love must be shown every day, yada yada. For me that's like saying mother's day shouldn't exist because you should cherish your mom every day. So my perspective on it is that sure, love is something you show every day, but it's also nice to have a day where you can sit down and celebrate it.

Me and my boyfriend discovered that if you want a nice restaurant for valentine's day, you need to book it waaaay in advance. We thought a week's notice was enough but apparently not. The two restaurants we wanted were both fully booked, so we settled for another one but left our names in the waiting list for the one we wanted. Turns out someone cancelled their reservation at the nice restaurant so we got a spot and I'm so glad we did because the food was amazing and the place was really nice.


After the food we went to the movies, we watched 50 Shades of Grey. A lot can be said about the movie, some people hated it, but if you consider what they had to work with (the dreadful writing of E. James) I'd say they did a pretty good job and I'll wait for the second installment of the series. Also, the soundtrack was amazing.

Moving on, I wore one of the outfits I showed you in my valentine's day outfit ideas post and I felt really good about myself in it. My sweet sweet boyfriend took inspiration from a wishlist post I wrote a while ago and bought me the pink sweater featured in it and I'm so happy. After the movie we went home, had some Baileys and the rest is history.


It was a really perfect evening and I'm so grateful to him for trying to make it all it was.

How was your valentine's day like?

Monday, 16 February 2015

Week 8 weight loss journal

This was my last week in Sweden, how sad. I couldn't post it yesterday because I was on my way to Copenhagen to catch my flight to Lisbon, I'm home now. It has been an amazing month but I need to get back to school and I've heard my dog misses me and hasn't even been eating properly, whoever says dogs don't have feelings is wrong!

We've had some pretty days with a lot of sun, which are lovely for going on a walk in the nature, but the last few have been really grey and windy. This is the eight week which means it's time for measurements. I don't expect a drop in anything, in fact I expect to have gained weight since I haven't been eating well since I arrived Sweden.

Measurements

Height: 164 cm
Waist: 91 cm (+1)
Hips: 116 (+2)
Thighs: 76 (-1)
Chest: 113

Food

The meals this week have been a bit random since we're trying to finish everything we bought before I leave. So it has been a lot of salads, omelettes and tortillas stuffed with whatever we have left. We also had soup (store bought, the ones by Knorr), they're relatively low on calories and very handy when I don't feel like cooking or we don't have much time. One of the evenings my boyfriend made dinner because he lost a bet, he never cooks, EVER, so this was a first. He made pasta with a traditional Swedish sausage I don't know the name of and tomato sauce. It was quite good I must say. For lunch I roasted a full chicken, I've never roasted a full chicken before so I needed some help from Jamie Oliver and I'll leave you with the link for his instructions on roasted chicken. It was delicious and moist, everything you'd want in a roast chicken.  

One of the days my boyfriend asked me if I could bake something for fika at work (something swedes love, for us common mortals it's called coffee break) so I looked for a quick recipe online, didn't even have all the ingredients so had to improvise. Turns out I loved the cake, it was delicious. I can leave you with the recipe I used for chocolate cake but I didn't really follow the entire recipe since I'm unfamiliar with what buttermilk is and didn't have it on hand, so I replaced it with yogurt and it was delicious and moist. Had some more quorn "chicken", I'm starting to love this stuff, it's super low in calories and for me it's almost exactly like chicken. Shame it isn't sold in Portugal (as far as I know, if you know differently please let me know).

For lunch we went out to an Indian restaurant, that was a first. The food was very tasty but on the spicy side and I can't take any heat at all. Then there was valentine's day, I'll have a post about it but I ate something I can't even remember the name of, but it was some kind of meat (beef I think) with potato gratin and red wine sauce if I'm not mistaken.

As breakfast/snacks I've been either having milk (I don't know what's getting into me, I haven't had cow's milk in months but lately I've been craving it) or fruit.


Exercise

Not much exercise going on this last week, I'll be honest. I went for a walk once when it was really sunny and nice, for over an hour (around 6km) but that was it.


Friday, 13 February 2015

New experiences: geocaching

Do you know what geocaching is? I didn't until a few months ago, and I hadn't tried it until three weeks ago. It's an activity where you look for caches that other people have hidden all around (you can see which caches are near you by checking the geocaching website). It's a very cool activity for a lazy Saturday and it doubles as exercise if you go for caches on foot. When you sign in on the website you can search for caches around the area you want to check and lock a certain cache as your goal, the app will let you know when you're a few meters away from it and some even have clues.

There's levels of difficulty on the caches and also different sizes. Most caches (at least the ones I've searched for) are a tiny container with a list - bring a pen so you can write your name on the list as one of the people who found it. Even though I haven't found any yet since I've just started, some caches contain objects that you can find and keep, or objects you need to swap for one of your own.

It's a great way to go out, bring a friend with you and have some fun. Maybe you can even meet new people, one of the times when we were out geocaching a guy saw us walking around a pole to see if we could find the cache and he tried to help us (he said he had found it already in the past). It's also very satisfying to actually find a cache - in all honesty we've been out around 4 times geocaching and we only found one, so we were pretty excited to find it.

Did you ever go geocaching? If so, what did you find?



Wednesday, 11 February 2015

Valentine's day outfit ideas



I put together two outfit ideas for a date on valentine's day (or any other day for that matter) and I hope you like them. I chose to wear a very neutral barely-there sort of makeup for both looks, but with the second outfit you can afford to go a bit dramatic with the makeup, I just didn't feel like doing my makeup at the time. Either you are going on a date with your boyfriend/girlfriend or going out with your friends the important is that you feel comfortable with what you're wearing (and sexy too!), so don't wear something too out of your comfort zone. Take it from me, I have made the mistake of wearing something very uncomfortable just to look good (I'm looking at you, painfully tight corset) and that was all I could think about all night, how uncomfortable I was, wishing I wouldn't have worn that. I chose to do both outfits with dresses because I love dresses and skirts, but if you're more a jeans kind of girl go for it. Let's get to the looks because it's likely nobody is reading the text anyways, pictures are more attractive.

Casual day outfit

This dress is one of my favorites and I've had it for a while. It was one of those times when you're leaving the shop because you can't find anything that pleases you and then you make a full stop because you spotted something in the vast distance.

Cardigan: Primark (18)
Dress: C&A (XL)
Tights: Primark (XL)
Boots: Primark



Sassy night outfit

I knew, from the moment I saw this post by the Golden Kaleidoscope, that I needed this bodysuit in my life. It's from asos, the one she has on is sold out but they still had it in the long sleeved version (which is good because I prefer long sleeves). It's absolutely gorgeous and I'm so happy I bought it. If you're thinking of getting it, you should know it works best if you have a black bra to go with it, I don't and it shows a bit sometimes if I'm not careful.

Bodysuit: Asos (18)
Skirt: Primark (16)
Tights: Primark (XL)
Heels: Primark



I hope you have a good valentine's day. Did you decide what you're wearing yet?


Monday, 9 February 2015

Week 7 weight loss journal


Hey everyone, I'm sorry but I couldn't post this yesterday since I was very busy, we had some friends over for board game night and had a lot of food to make. The picture above is a saying to hang on the wall, I found it in a shop and thought it described my life right now. My weight has been stagnant for a while, I know it's what happens when you lose weight, you can't do it consistently every week, but it still hurts a bit. Apart from that, this week was so much fun, I got to play in the snow for the first time in my life and I wish it would snow in Lisbon because it's amazing. We also went to the cinema to watch Jupiter Ascending but I don't recommend the movie.

Food

I tried something new this week and as far as I could tell we don't sell it in Portugal. It's called Quorn and it's a brand that makes an alternative to meat and it's quite similar to chicken in texture. At only 35 calories a piece (the pieces were slightly smaller than a chicken breast) this is perfect. It doesn't taste like much on its own but when pimped up with some spices and side dishes it's great, I'm very impressed. For one of the dinners we had a pot roast that was delicious.

As snacks I've been having *cof* chocolate *cof*, nuts or yogurt with berries. It's much easier and cheaper to find berries here, I feel like in Portugal they charge you so much for a tiny little box of berries. We discovered a supermarket that has a huge fridge with berries for a very affordable price so we'll be going back for sure.

I tried making something that I wouldn't go for normally, a vegetable stew served over sweet potato, and it was quite good and vegan if I'm not mistaken (well, if you follow the recipe at least...I added a wee bit of cheese because cheese makes everything better).


Exercise

The walks this week were great, we've been having some beautiful sunny days and it's such a pleasure to go along the coast near the water. Half the river is already frozen, I'd love to go ice skating on it (my boyfriend said they do it here) but it's not frozen enough for that yet.



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