Join me on my journey through the worlds of perfumes and books
In no particular order:
Lisi-M
Kafka – your name came out so chocolate it is 🙂
And Undina
Since Kafka skipped the perfumed part of the draw, a bonus name name came out – Tara!
Congratulations everyone and please send your addresses, I promise to get the packages out as soon as I can. 🙂
I only learned about them today (this morning actually) and I love the idea, especially as I love walking in sensible footwear (if I’m going to be walking for more than 20 minutes which is basically every day).
Turns out they are really popular for weddings (brides wear them so they can dance the night away).
It’s great that it all started as a hobby and now, well, it’s a business. 🙂 I’m always glad to hear of a story like that in Croatia because life is not easy here and finding work that fulfills you is even harder.
I’m going to give you links where you can learn more about the collection and follow their lovely work (not much can be found online about the originators, but if I got it correctly, two girls are behind these).
Their site Shuz design. And they are both on Facebook and Instagram.
And here are some of my favorites, they come from Lavish Lace, Cruz Shuz and Stripey Stripes categories:
Pics taken from their site.
P.S. The blog birthday give-away closes tomorrow 5 P.M. Croatian time. 🙂
My post yesterday got me thinking how I feel guilty for not writing more. I keep saying (almost promising) to myself and my readers I’ll write more but then life takes over and I’m busy, or tired, or don’t feel any inspiration to write, sometimes what I want to say feels stupid so it never gets published and times just passes.
And I keep making myself feel guilty for not living up to self-imposed obligations that really have no reason to be there in the first place. Making myself feel guilty over things I love doing will only do the opposite, create a negative reaction to them.
So today I decided I will not make myself feel guilty over anything. 🙂 And I’m not going to say failure is not an option here because that would again imply that I have to do it otherwise I would feel guilty. See how easy it is for me to get into that vicious circle?!
And this guilt doesn’t only cover writing. It covers many things I’d like to do in my regular life, run more, get out more, read more, do more. But, a day only has 24 hours, and what with sleeping and working, free time is limited.
So feeling guilty for not being able to put it all into that little time slot I have is basically ridiculous. The stuff you do for yourself, in your free time, should make you feel good all the time.
Therefore, I refuse to feel guilty over  things that make me happy just because I can’t find the time or energy to do them as often as I’d like. I should be happy I can do them.
I AM happy there is time in my life to do them, however rare or often it happens.
Do you ever feel guilty for not doing everything you think you should?
One would think it wouldn’t be so hard to remember the date you started blogging but so far, I only managed to remember it’s sometime in March. 🙂 And this is my sixth anniversary!
Anyway, it’s become a tradition for me to celebrate my blog birthday with a little giveaway so lucky three people will receive some Croatian chocolate and a decant or two of my choice (haven’t yet decided which).
One will also get a sample of Puredistance White because it needs a better home than I can give – it pushes all of my clean, synthetic musk buttons. I can just add to that that I think it will be a huge success. 🙂
Wishing everyone a happy spring (that would have been completely appropriate if I had done this on my actual blog birthday – March 20) and hopefully you’re enjoying it with sunny weather and among just blooming plants and flowers. 🙂
Told you I would talk about bags again. Well, this time it’s not only bags. 😉 I love these bracelets/watches as well.
I follow Herman site on Facebook and these are just a little  of the amazingly wonderful and creative things you can find there. (so go check it out, the designs are really cool)
Interestingly enough, it’s one of those days that are no longer celebrated in Croatia, ever since we came out of socialism at the end of 80s.
I wonder what that says about capitalism we live in today…
But that’s not a topic for a day like today.
I didn’t talk much about the strange year I had last year but one thing was very obvious – all the female support I received. Women are great!
I’m very happy to be one and I do feel that female  strength and solidarity need to be celebrated so I’m wishing you all a very happy day today!
May it be filled with sunshine and flowers! (carnations used to be the symbol of that day way back when I was a child)
I say finally because I’ve been in love with this perfume ever since I first smelled it. and I first smelled it when it came out. 🙂
The Puredistance people are a lovely bunch and I am always happy to receive their new releases – albeit this is far from a new release (it’s just that I am slow when it comes to writing).
Anyone who has smelled this will probably say it is hard to describe this perfume. I mean, you can actually smell all the notes but hell, that doesn’t come close to describing what it smells like in real life.
To my mind, it’s a perfume that share a genetic code with Shalimar. Where Shalimar is its female predecessor from a distant past, this is a perfume that has all the perfect bone structure of his famous ancestor, only it’s not a female descendant, it’s a really great looking male one. You see, it’s the bone structure he inherited, it didn’t come with the accumulated wealth and modern education. And he smells like all of it.
I can’t help it. In that first instant I smell Puredistance M, I smell the lemons and the underlying warmth of spices and vanilla and I instantly think, oh, Shalimar. That said, this doesn’t smell anything like Shalimar, it’s only the initial blast and just so you know, the lemony-spicy notes smell like candy a bit and give me the idea that our rich guy has a prankster side to him.
I can completely understand the smoky part of this picture
There is a slight sharpness to this initial blast and I blame it all on the rose (and when I say blame I actually mean thank).
This is just such a wonderfully full perfume that makes you want to burrow your nose into whatever part of the body it’s on and stay there. At least it does when it’s dabbed on.
Anyway, the leather makes its presence known quite quickly and it has that lovely irisy feel to it (that’s how I differentiate leather). Supple and smooth and oh so seductive. (honestly, men should not be aware this perfume exists)
The official notes are:Â Bergamot, Lemon, Rose, Jasmine, Cinnamon, Patchouli, Mosses, Cistus, Vetiver, Patchouli, Vanilla, Leather, Musk
What I smelled before I saw the notes is leather, spices, flowers, patchouli, woody notes, sandalwood (missed the mark with that one) and vanilla as that is what always comes with Shalimar associations. The thing is, I should have recognized cistus, I love that smell and once I saw the notes I could smell it (as well as vetiver – shame on me for missing that!).
If it hasn’t been obvious, I am a huge Puredistance fangirl. 🙂 And even though I love the their feminine perfumes, I have no problem wearing this. Well, that’s an understatement. I love wearing this.
Yes, I am aware most of my spotlight posts revolve around bags. (And I used to think I wasn’t a bag/shoe type of woman…) 🙂
I am very happy to be able to select bags from such a great pool of beautiful designs (there will be more bag posts).
Anyway, Mucca has a site in English so you can read about them more. Their bags are all about simplicity and there aren’t that many colors and designs to choose from but as I enjoy simple lines, I really like them.
Here are some pictures of bags I like, taken from their Facebook profile:
The only thing I don’t like that much – the price. But can’t say it was a surprise.
Time flies and I have no good excuses for why I am not writing. I could come up with excuses but really, when you want to write, you find the time. So, yes, no good excuses (as I do want to write). 
I do promise though to try and manage my time more efficiently and therefore find the time to write when I am not dead on my feet (that ought to help).
In the meantime I almost passed my driver’s exam yesterday. 🙂 Hopefully that means I’ll do it the next time round. Honestly, getting a driver’s license in Croatia is a rather long and a bit difficult process (just to warn you if it ever crosses your mind) so I’m hoping in my case it will be all over soon.
Perfume-wise, I discovered an old decant of Donna Karan’s Chaos and sprayed it one day to remember what it smelled like and completely fell in love. That said, the decant is empty so if anyone has any they’d like to share, please think of me. 🙂
(I’m pretty sure it’s the “new” version as I sincerely doubt I got my hands on the “old” one)
P.S. You can imagine how strange my life is at the moment when I can’t find the time to read?!
Now that holidays are over, I can try and get back with some kind of regular posts. 😉
As I decided on spotlighting some Croatian designers, I actually found many more with interesting ideas and products that are both wearable and look great.
Today I want to feature Borboleta friendship bracelets (they have necklaces as well). Borboleta is Portuguese for butterfly (that’s what they say on their site) and the butterfly is the signature symbol of the brand. The bracelets come in a variety of colors and are internationally available through their site.
I think they really look lovely and plan on getting one (or possibly two, they look good when combined).
All I am - a redhead 