Make today great

Yesterday was a bad day, therefore today will be an absolutely great day!

I will be positive. will think hard, be efficient, and keep on smiling :)

xoxo

Relaxing weekend in Riccione

I am back in Milan after a relaxing weekend in Riccione with Stefania. We were not really lucky with the weather and I would like feel irritated but I have been so lucky with all my trips away this weekend so I'll try not to complain.

We met in Riccione on Friday morning, I came from Milan and Stefii from Rome. As it was cloudy, few rain drops came down and very windy we spent the day walking around in the Riccione's fancy city center and then we had tea in a very nice cafeteria. In the evening, instead of putting the money on a night club or cocktails we went to a very fine fish restaurant where we ate very well...

Tea time

Saturday morning, still cloudy and only 19 degrees. Went for a two hour power walk on the beach to warm up ourselves.

For lunch we took the bus to Rimini where we ate at a very popular piadina place and luckily enough the sun came out.

Spend Saturday afternoon reading, walking and just relaxing on the beach in Rimini....

In the late afternoon we visited Rimini's old city center and walked around for a while. Had a very nice yogurt icecream but didn't find anything nice to buy...

Sunset in Riccione

Another fishy dinner in a place close to our hotel. It was nice but not as nice as the one the first night...

After dinner we went dancing at the clubs/bars down the beach. Spend most of the time in Opera which had lots of fun music. Danced a lot, talked to nice people and didn't drink even one cocktail. Typical Stefii-Marii evenings :)

Sunday, 24 degrees and sunshine. Still cold for a Swede like me...

Last piadina lunch before heading back home...

Even if the weekend didn't offer that beach activities I am used to when going to the sea side we had a very good weekend. We have eaten lots and very well, walked a lot and went out dancing once. In conclusion a great but different weekend!

xoxo

Great evening at the gym after a very long and bad day

Today was one of those days....... You know those days when everything goes wrong and you feel crap. Today was exactly one of those days for me....

I did my best at work but even there, I didn't feel satisfied with myself leaving the office today. I wasn't my usual overly efficient self and I didn't even finish all the things I had on my to do list of the day. Blah.

After work I was, again, supposed to go to capoeira with two friends but exactly like last week it got cancelled. For a while I thought of just go straight home and put my head under a pillow but I am glad I didn't.

As I already had my training clothes with me I went straight to my gym after work. I went running for 15 minutes on the running machine before I joined the overly hard total body class. The Monday total body class is the one I normally call military training and I normally don't like it because it's to hard. But today it was just what I needed. Pump out my negativity! After the total body I stayed and enjoyed one hour of fitness dancing. The "usual" teacher was finally back today and just felt how I slowly forgot about the bad day, how a smile turned out on my face and I just followed the rhythm. What would I do without training? It really makes me feel bad.

Now I am having dinner while I gonna skype with my mum and add som pics from the weekend.

xoxo

...and one more weekend away ;)

Stefii and I September 2011 in Riccione :)

Many of you are in chock of all my trips I have done this summer and now I am off again... It is time for long girl weekend with my best Italian friend Stefania. Like last year we're going to Riccione for some relax and dancing at the beach.

So why Riccione? It is absolutely not one of the nicest beach areas in Italy.... It is very touristic and commercially. The seawater, to be in Italy, is not overly nice either. However, last year we had such a good time there so when we this year sat down to decide where to go it was obvious Riccione would be on the list of places we choose from. In the end it won because it was the cheapest and after all weekends away I have done I felt I have to cut down the price as much as possible.

However Riccione got all we need. A long pedestrian street with nice Italian sea food restaurants, bars and tiny shops. A small town center with nice fashion stores. Long beaches perfect for long walks. Very nice bars down the beach that night time transforms into night clubs where to dance on the beach (love it). A massive range of hotels of all star levels with low prices in comparison to many other seaside areas in Italy.

The unlucky part of the story is that Milan will go on with its nice summer weather while down in Riccione today it rains... I really hope it gonna get nice at least tomorrow and Sunday!

I wish you all a great weekend :)

xoxo

Very efficient evening and morning

Me down the Navigli in Milan Sep 2011

This whole week has been very hectic, both at work and outside. It has been (it still is) so many things to keep in my head and that I have to make sure to finish within a certain time period. This morning when I was on my way to work I suddenly thought of what I had done, instead of just thinking of what I have to do like I normally done and I was quite impressed of myself.

Yesterday evening when arriving home after the zumba at 21:15 in the evening I...:
- Put on a washing machine
- Grilled lots of vegetables and ate them together toasted dark bread
- Updated the blog
- Searched and found quite economic tickets to go home to Stockholm over Christmas
- Hanged up the clean laundry
- Showered and washed my hair
- Searched like mad for economic tickets to go to London in mid-October, didn't really found them but in the end I bough tickets anyway.
- Talked on the phone with my dad
- Called to say good night to my boyfriend
- In bed at 23.30! - slightly too late but satisfied with my day and evening anyway.

This morning...:
- Got up at 7 am
- Fix and got dressed
- 15 min breakfast in front of the morning news and meteo
- Packed my handbag and my gym clothes bag
- Pedicure (!)
- Manicure (!)
- Started packing the things I need for the weekend
- Walked 20 min to the train station and got on the train at 8,19 am and at 08,45 I arrived at work.

xoxo

Body sculpty + Zumba fitness

Hard training evening at the gym tonight but what shall I do when they have put two of my favorites work out classes one after the other?

The first one (Body burn & sculpty) is like I said last week a workout/tonification class using weight throughout the whole hour copying the exercises the energic little instructor does in front of us.

The second class (zumba fitness) for me was a new experience... I am not very sure of what we did tonight was the real kind of zumba fitness. However we did lots of dancing movements one after the other but it never got put together like a normal dance.. It was just lots of dancing steps together with Africa, Indian and Latino music. Quite interesting but I am not 100% sure I actually liked it... Have to try it at least a couple of times more...

xoxo

Lost dogs and lonely hearts by Lucy Dillon

 

A book about women and dogs.

The main character in the book is Rachel, a girl that one day changes everything in her life. For more than one reason she goes from a high city life in London to a totally different life out in the countryside. At the same time we read about two other female characters and we follow these three girl's every day lives focusing on financial issues, relationship thoughts, stress about bigger future decisions and their dogs. The author seamlessly moves from one character's life to another, bringing the storylines together in a very well written way. It is a charming story with a sense of realism about the love of a pet, about female life in general and obviously about love.
The dogs as part of the plot is what ultimately made this such a special book -very heartwarming for a dog lover like me.

It is something more than just the average chick li and I would like all my friends to read it so they can fall in love with this book like I did.

I am glad I found this new British author Lucy Dillon, I really enjoyed her way of writing and now I gonna search for more books by her.

xoxo

H Club Diana bar

I love that lamp!

H Club Diana Bar is the real name of the hotel bar in Sharaton Diana Majestic hotel. I learned it today as I have always just called it "Diana Majestic" before...

Today, maybe the last time for this year, Steppy and I enjoyed a nice cocktail in their garden. I just love their garden with all the exotic plants, beautiful fountain and cosy lights but obviously it is only open summer time. It is also nice looking at all the super well dressed people hanging in there...

The thing I like less is that if you order the cocktails from the waiter you pay 12 euro for the aperitivo but if you go to the bar to order your drink you only pay 10 euro. I find it very ridiculous but I normally order from the waiter anyway.

However it is always to spend an evening at Diana.

xoxo

Good morning beauty

This was my morning kit before heading to work this morning. I love changing and trying new cosmetic products and all these are new in my cosmetic collection.

The perfume; Un Jardin sur le Nil by Hermes

A fruity, floral and sparklingly fresh fragrance from Hermes. It is marked as a unisex fragrance and it is actually true that it is a gender natural perfume. It fits perfectly onto both the feminine and the masculine skin and leave a lasting freshness.

It is different from all other perfumes I got. Unfortunately I normally fall in love with the fresh commercial perfumes on the market but this one sticks out from the rest.

Un Jardin sur le Nil was created in 2005 but I bet that many of you have never even tried it. The notes includes green mango, lotus flower, aromatic rushes and sycamore woods.

This was a present from a good friend about two years ago and as you can see I am about to finish it in these days. Don't think I gonna get it again as I like changing but it was been a good one for these two years :)

Estee Lauder DayWear Plus  - day cream

I love this day cream and even if it is the first time I use it I am sure I gonna buy it again. It is not overly expensive and it leaves a very soft skin.
As you can see from the picture I got the one for normal/combination skin which is wrong and I don't really know why I bought that one. Next time I gonna get the right one which would be for DRY skin. However, during the summer the one for normal skin has been perfect. Not too fat/too heavy for warm sunny days and a plus is that it contains SPF 15 (something I make sure all creams I use in the sun does).

This is not an expensive anti age cream that they recommend for all 30+ people, but it is a protective moisturizer that help prevent lines and make the skin look and feel smooth and healthy. It also says that it protects your skin from the bad city air....

I like this cream and I would recommend it for whoever wants a good cream but don´t wanna spend too much.

Serum - Clinique Repairwear Laser Forcus - Wrinkle & UV damage corrector

As my face cream is kind of a simple moisturizer underneath I put few drops of Clinique repairwear serum.

This was another present that I think I gonna buy myself next time I pass an airport.

It says it is a potent serum focusing reducing lines, wrinkles and most of all sun damage.

I have used it since June and I don't know if it has helped or not.... But I do know that I like the feeling it leaves on the skin. My face drinks it quickly and leaves a smooth effect ready for the cream. I am out in the sun more than many other people and so far I haven't got that much sun damage on my face so maybe it helps.

Eye cream - Givenchy power youth Eye

This eye cream doesn't even exist on the market any more so no need to try to buy it. I got three of them while working for Givenchy and I am still using them. It is an eye gel that smoothes fine lines, reducing puffiness and dark circles around the eye area. For long I was against eye creams as I felt the area around my eyes got addicted to it too quickly but then I started using eye creams regulay and seeing the difference I won't stop- There are lots of eye creams for the same purposes as the power youth eye. Two of my favorite ones is from clinique and another one from Lancome, and I will add them on the blog another time.

That was some recommendations of body products that I use that some of you has been curious about.

xoxo