3 BEST PURCHASES.

That I made in April.

Even this month is coming to an end soon, and a lot has happened for me! But instead of focusing on what I’ve been up to, which I constantly keep you a part of, I’m going to talk about the 3 things I bought, that I fell in love with.

#1 Too Faced – Sweet Peach (Eyeshadow Palette).

I saw a video from my friend Bunny a few weeks back, and I remember having to pause almost immediately after clicking because I just knew I needed this in my makeup bag. It has ALL the colours I search for into a single palette, which means this is my absolute favourite at the moment. I ordered it on eBay, since anywhere else was sold out, and it arrived a few weeks later. Now it’s in my hands, and I’ve been loving using it. It’s mostly warm tones, lots of orangey/rusty ones as well as gold, pink and darker shades… as I said, it has everything, at least for me. Having dark hair and eyes, and an olive skin tone, this is just perfect, and I love it. I was also pleasantly surprised by the lovely peach scent it has; I own their chocolate palette, which I’m not going to lie, I licked a few times because it smells too delicious, but those colours appears to be cooler, so I’m very glad they came out with this palette!

I apologise for the swatches, I realise they are terrible but with so many colours I didn’t know where to fit them all. I went from line to line, horizontally, and probably my favourite is the second one: the pigmentation seems to be higher, and the shades are gorgeous.

#2 Leon – Fast Vegetarian (Recipe Book).

Now, I’m not going to lie. I used to think recipe books only made a nice decor when displayed in the kitchen. I never felt the need to reach out to one and follow a recipe, but things started to change at the end of last year: I started to be interested in baking, and so I found myself having to look up more and more recipes online, in order to make proper desserts. Overtime I became pretty good at baking, and I do want to get myself a good cookbook full of sweet recipes, but for now, this vegetarian one was needed.

In fact, I’m vegetarian. Lots of people always wondered if I was, because both in my videos and Instagram pictures, my love for veggies is clear. It wasn’t until recently that I finally made the decision to go vegetarian: my main concern was how my parents would react, having been brought up by a family that would cook meat given to us by farmers in our family, as well as other animal products. I feel like, especially for Italians, being vegetarian is madness. So my fear was that people around me wouldn’t understand my choice.

Luckily, I was wrong: I told some of my friends, which totally understood, and most importantly, I told my family, who was actually really supportive!

So now that I made this choice (and I feel so much happier) I can go crazy and experiment with lots of different recipes. I find it quite fun and creative having to come up with my meals now, and this book has been helpful.

Also, it still looks really great displayed in the kitchen, which is a bonus!

On a side note, I would like to just ask people to behave in the comments. I’m sure you, the people reading my blog regularly, will support my choice, but I’m aware that the internet is a very opinionated place and any time somebody makes a statement, inevitably gets attacked. I have been wanting to be vegetarian for a while now, and I’m very happy with my choice, so please don’t try to tell me to go back to eat meat or even push me to go vegan. I would really appreciate that.

#3 A Joyful New Year – Postcard. 

This is the star of this post, and the main reason why I decided to write it. I know it might seem weird, but let me explain what’s so special about this…

As you know, not only my parents, but even some of my relatives came to visit me during the weekend. I decided to bring them all to Snoopers Paradise, a shop I’ve talked about plenty of times before: this is the place where I find amazing old items and vintage clothing.

While I was looking through old photos, I saw this postcard. I turned it and read it: the first thing that got my attention was the beautiful calligraphy, but then what really interested me was the message itself.

I found it to be so warm. I couldn’t let it down.

My aunt saw that I liked it, so she offered to buy it for me – grazie Resi!

So when I got home, I had it all for myself. I wanted to know more about it, and the first thing I did was to figure out the year it was from: I found an helpful website (oldpostcards.com) that explained how postcards changed through the years. This clearly is from the “divided back era”, which goes from 1907-1915. I was glad I identified the period, but I wanted to know the exact year: I noticed it was printed in Bavaria, Germany, and the series number is 1053. I looked it up, which resulted in finding the exact same postcard from an eBay seller stating is from 1914. This postcard was sent from Germany to England, the 24th of December 1914 (the day and month are stamped on), which meant it was during the war between the two. I was intrigued by this, wondering why two good friends would be in enemy countries, and how they could be writing each other.

I learnt about the Christmas truce, which was the week before the holidays which allowed soldiers to cross trenches and exchange greetings. I believe this postcard was allowed to be sent because of it, but I was still wondering about the two people appearing in the message.

Dora, the sender, spoke perfect English, so she could have been British, but we know she was in Germany at the time. Then again, this isn’t so strange, considering that before the war started, Germany and UK weren’t in a bad relationship. So maybe she moved for work? Or maybe the two women met on holiday?

Unfortunately she doesn’t state her surname, and I looked up if this correspondence could have been between suffragettes, but only 2 Doras are reported to be part of the movement and both were from or moved to Australia, no mention to England. So I’m pretty sure this friendship was much stronger than just that (as the “xxxx” suggests) and I’m not too sure how I could find more about her, if not by figuring out who Edith is.

Now, we know a lot more about Edith herself. Her surname is Cordery, and she is from Hampshire (Lyndhurst is a large village situated there). I looked up her name on Google and found out many matched, both by name, year and location: because of this, I have a chance to find out who this woman is exactly, but at the same time, having even too many options, it might still be very difficult.

So I have decided to end it there, happy to know that these two women had a great friendship, although I was a bit sad being aware of the fact that the war was just at the beginning when this postcard was sent out, and things only got worse from there. I would love to know that they met again, or kept this correspondence alive, but what I really am happy about, is that I at least know that Edith most likely received this letter, because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to find it here, in Brighton. And now I got to be a part of this, even if for just an afternoon, and I get to keep it safe for them both.

I BET YOU DIDN’T EXPECT THIS POST TO TURN THIS WAY, DID YOU? Okay sorry, haha.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this, I probably get waaaaay too into these things, but that’s the way I am, and now that I have a blog, I can write about it and hopefully somebody finds it as interesting as I do.

I want to write some letters to my friends now. There is something so special about it, that a simple text will never be able to capture.

Marzia.

5th DAY HAIR.

Let’s talk about hair!

MY OUTFIT // Top: OLIVE  CLOTHING

Lots of people on Youtube and Instagram compliment my “healthy” hair, but it’s about time I let you all know my hair is far from being healthy.

In this post, I’m going to talk a bit about the products I use, the way I style my hair and the wash process. I’ve also decided to take pictures of my hair today being the 5th day I haven’t washed it or styled it, so that you see how it would look like without trying… as you can tell, it’s pretty dry!

The first thing I’m going to talk about is how often I wash my hair: as a teenager, I would wash it daily, without realising how much damage that would cause. Not only because of using heat to dry it, but because applying so much product caused me to have to use more and more in order for it to feel clean, and at the same time my hair wasn’t “breathing” as I was removing all the natural oils from it.

When I hit my twenties, I discovered dry shampoos, and that changed everything!

I would be able to wash my hair every other day… but soon enough, I got tired of having to dry so much hair, so I decided to try and go as long as I could without washing it.

I should also mention, for people who don’t know, that I wear hair extensions, the keratin kind (in which small strands of hair are glued at the base to your own). My natural hair is quite long, it reaches – if not passes – my chest, but it’s extremely thin. That means that no matter what, my hair would never look full on it’s on, and because of it, many years ago, I’ve decided to have extensions added in. Even if I ever decided to cut my hair short, I would still add extensions for volume, because otherwise my hair would just stick to my face… and that wouldn’t be a very nice look for me. I’ve seen girls with thin hair and rocking it, but in my opinion, fuller hair makes my features look softer, which I prefer.

Anyway, over time, desperate to understand how I could possibly get slightly healthier hair, I looked up a bunch of videos on YT: eventually I saw one about a girl claiming you could wash your hair even just once a week, because if you “train” it to be washed so little, it would adjust and not look too oily by the end of the week. And so I tried, and to this day I can confidently keep my hair unwashed for 5 days. I have gone for more, and sometimes less if needed, but generally 5 days is great for me.

This way I don’t put too much heat on my hair, I don’t waste time drying it, and it doesn’t need to be look after as much.

Unfortunately, because my hair is so thin and I do have extensions, it still breaks at a certain point, and it is also very dry and overall damaged. This is why I keep it my natural shade most of the time, staying away from dyes, at least at the base. My hair wouldn’t be able to take it, but luckily enough, I’m pretty happy with my colour as long as I have some highlights to add some dimensions to it.

So these are some of the products I always go back to. I try to change every time I finish a tube of these, but I somehow end up buying them again because they are the only products I know will make my hair feel soft and look nicer, although they don’t really fix the damage.

I use the Ultimate Blends line by Garnier, and I do know that the conditioner is for blonde hair, but the fact that there is chamomile in it just makes me want to buy it; plus, it stills works nicely. The mask is probably the best I’ve ever put on my hair so far, and I feel like even the shampoo is pretty great.

I used to do lots of homemade hair masks, but not seeing great results, I pretty much gave up. If you know of any that really does work for you, let me know!

Now onto styling, I first spray a heat protecting product all over my hair (I don’t know if the one I use is good or not, I can’t tell) before starting to dry it, and then go on and dry about 70% of it and then let it dry on its own. I wash my hair at night, which means that sometimes I use a “doughnut” to make a bun (or simply twist my hair and secure it with a hair tie) and in the morning I wake up with beautifully waved hair… but that doesn’t happen often, so I do take out a curling wand and that does the trick. I would rather not apply so much heat, but having extremely straight hair, that’s the only option, most of the time.

Before curling it, I always apply an oil to the ends, just to make them look glossier. I also find that this way the curl holds a bit better and looks more defined.

The only hairbrush I ever use, and this is been for years, is the Tangle Teezer – it does everything I want: I can brush my whole head without getting caught on the extensions; it’s a very gentle brush, so it doesn’t rip my hair off; and more importantly, I can easily tease big areas of my head very quickly (to get that extra volume).

Then I will go on and set everything with a strong hairspray (usually by Tresemmé), but even that won’t last for long with the wind here in Brighton…

So if I’ve curled my hair in the first or second day, instead of touching up with more heat, I usually try to either do an up-do, or use a texturising spray, so that I just scrunch my hair a bit and the waves look fuller, as if they are freshly done. And in the same way, if I find that it’s losing volume, I may spray a bit of dry shampoo. The best one I’ve ever tried is the Batiste one, I will probably always stick with this!

But that’s about it. That’s how I “fake” healthy, voluminous hair. Unfortunately this is the best I can do, but if you do have any suggestions for me, please let me know!

Is there a product you absolutely love for your hair?

Marzia.

MY PARENTS ARE COMING.

And so are my relatives and family friends.

It’s not the first time my parents come to visit, but they never brought anyone else before. This means: pressure. And also, madness!

When you move out of your parents’ house and find your own place, it’s critical to have their approval and show them that you can take care of yourself and your living space, so any time they come around, I try my best to make the flat feel extra nice.

This time, as I stated, other people are coming as well, which means I not only want the place to look great, but I want my parents to be proud of me.

Well, this morning I realised how much work I had to do to! The flat was a mess, which usually doesn’t happen often, but because both Felix and I have been running around everywhere lately, the time to keep it tidy was little.

And so I rolled up my sleeves, and spent the entire day, up until a few hours ago, re-painting, cleaning and decorating everything.

Now I’m finally done, and since I went through all of that effort, I thought I would show you some pictures of the place! You always request me to do a house tour, which honestly I don’t know if I ever will do it… but for now, you get to look into my home, which is still better than nothing.

Here is kitchen, almost squeaky clean! In fact, I still have to do some dishes because I’m baking a cake. It’s okay, it’s worth it, because now the scent of lemon and coconut is in each room. I absolutely love coming back home and being able to smell the delicious dessert I had been making hours earlier!

Even the living room is not 100% ready yet, because as you can tell that mirror is on the floor and not up on the wall. But that’s actually perfect, because tomorrow morning my dad will take care of it, and finally, even this room, will be completed!

I wish I took a “before shot” of my office, because it was seriously a mess. It may still look messy, but this is such an improvement! It’s nice to see it somewhat tidy for once, although I know it won’t last for long…

And here is the bedroom! As you can tell, this got a lot cleaner. I actually changed bedsheets even if I put the last ones on just a few days ago; I needed everything to look perfect for the guests.

I feel like this post makes me look like a crazy person. I’m usually not a neat freak, I’m pretty messy (Felix will confirm) but I always like to make everything nice when I have people over.

SO. How did I do?

I’m so incredibly tired that I might just go to sleep now. The main reason why I made this post was to chat a bit with you as I’m going to be busy during the weekend. But don’t worry, I will be back next week!

Have a lovely weekend, Marzia.

TOY MUSEUM.

Discovering another hidden treasure, in Brighton.

Another goal I for set myself in April, is to explore somewhere new, something I haven’t seen before. And so I asked Google about it, and the answer was clear: I needed to check out this tiny Toy Museum!

It’s located under the bridge of Brighton Station – an area I’m not too familiar with if not only because I bought my bike in the shop right in front of the museum. It’s a cool place, which eventually connects to the North Lanes.

When you enter the shop, you immediately see a reproduction of the majestic Royal Pavilion, the most stunning building in the city. The tickets to advance to the museum section are a little pricey – £6.50 – considering that it isn’t a big space, but that didn’t stop me!

Right when you walk up the stairs, to the museum level, you can admire some old toys, with a label stating their names and year of production. That fascinates me, and so I stayed in front of this display window for some time. Not going to lie, I wish I could have brought home a few of these, they are just too cute (okay, maybe even a bit creepy).

The coolest thing was to see the little train working, going through galleries, up the hills. It was the first time I’ve ever seen an RC train moving, I believe, and it was exciting. Not to mention that the miniatures totally reminded me of the tv series Wayward Pines, or how Felix used to call it mistakenly, Pine Wood Creek – haha!

Have you seen the show? If not, check it out! It’s very short, but I liked it.

The museum was overall very tiny, and most of the toys were only working on “special days” (as a piece of paper informed us after buying the tickets) so we didn’t see much action, but I’m still really glad I went there because I love seeing old stuff, and I had a great time with my friend Emma.

After the visit, I was left with the need to find something really old to add to my creepy collection: I decided to stop by Snoopers Paradise, and that’s where I found this lovely doll head!

What do you think about old toys? Do you find them interesting or do they just creep you out?

Marzia.

A WEEK IN ASOS.

I haven’t done a lookbook here yet, so let’s fix that!

I would say that, at this time, I have 3 favourite online shops: ASOS, OLIVE CLOTHING and DAHLIA.

Right now I’m focusing on ASOS only, although there are a few items that are from other brands, and I will specify which ones. The items in each outfit were collected over time, but I will try my best to link you to everything.

SPANISH LOVE // Look 1

I saw this dress a few weeks ago on the website, so it’s fairly new, and I instantly fell in love with not only the silhouette – with a fitted top and loose peplums at the bottom – but also with the amazing print. I feel like I haven’t worn these shades often in the past, but after trying this dress on today, I realised this colour scheme actually compliments my skin tone and hair pretty well! I also saw this lovely bag, which I immediately thought would go well with the dress and complete the look, adding a bohemian touch to it.

SPRING IN SICILY // Look 2

When I saw this pretty blouse, my mind instantly connected it to Italy – Sicily, to be precise. Not sure why, maybe because of the lemons? But anyway, I love the detailing on it,  and when I came across these pants, I knew I wanted to pair them together. I don’t know if you remember, but in my very first fashion line, back in Spring last year, I designed a pair of pants very similar to the ones I’m wearing here… and now it see them in all the shops. Not going to lie, it does make me feel good knowing that I included something so similar in my designs before it was even trendy. Still, they might  look strange, but they are fun, and it’s always nice to wear something a bit different. I completed the outfit by wearing shades and a pair of sandals.

COSY IN BED // Look 3

I realised only after having Felix taking these pictures, that you couldn’t really see this outfit, but I’m wearing a lovely pyjamas, which reminds me of something Wildfox would sell. It’s very comfy, and now that the weather is warming up, I can put away my thicker pyjamas and instead bring out the lighter ones! I’m wearing my prescription glasses, and if you are curios about the bedding, I found everything at HomeSense (I blogged about it).

MIDSUMMER FAIRY // Look 4

This dress is the puffiest thing I own, I believe. It’s incredibly pretty, and I love how heavy the bottom is, contrasting the minimal top part. It has a lovely bow in the back, which adds an even more romantic feel to it, and I can totally see myself wearing this during summer events. I thought a flower crown would really complement the dress well, giving in an ethereal look.

 

BY THE SEA // Look 5

This is the kind of dress that I would just throw on in the morning and look like I put lots of time into getting ready. It’s a simple cut, with exposed shoulders and a lace hem. I like how versatile and easy it can be: right now it looks very sweet, but it could look boho if paired with boots and a belt. I will definitely get lots of use out of this, pretty soon!

DELICATE BUSINESS // Look 6

With this outfit on, I feel like a bombshell (which we all know, isn’t usually my thing) as it embraces and shows off the curves I have and shows bits of skin in such a clever way. The blouse is minimal, but with the cold shoulders cut and thin fabric, it turns out to be somewhat sexy. The wrap skirt hugs my figure without showing too much: in fact, the length is longer than what I would usually got for, but the ruffles and the slit on the side add an edge to it.

HAPPY IN THE SUN // Look 7

And here you see me, wearing my last outfit for this post – probably my favourite – while having a laugh at the mess I’ve made! The whole reason why I felt inspired to make this lookbook is because of the lovely weather we have been having, so if you are experiencing it too, you could find some pieces and ideas for your own looks. I wore this pretty sun dress with the Daisy shoes I’ve designed a few years ago, as well as a little flower purse and a floppy hat.

If you enjoyed this post, maybe I could pick other brands to focus on and create another “WEEK IN…” later on.

But for now, I better go fold all those clothes!

Marzia.

PICNIC.

What a wonderful weather!

MY OUTFIT // Sweater: OLIVE CLOTHING – Pants: L’ATELIER DU SAVON – Glasses: ASOS

I have been wanting to take out my bike and go for a picnic for a while now. The last time I planned this with Felix, it decided to rain all day… but finally, today was the day!

Earlier today I went to the gym, the post office, met with a carpenter for the house, and finally, at lunch time, Felix and I were ready to go.

I made it a goal for this month’s “notes”, so expect a little vlog by the end of the month. But for now, I do have some pictures to share with you!

We decided to ride our bikes to Palmeira Square, where our favourite sandwich shop is: Tom’s. It a pretty tiny place, but we love going there because the owner is the nicest person, always remembers our orders, and his sandwiches are simply the best.

If you are ever in Brighton & Hove, make sure to get a few. You won’t regret it!

It also helps that it’s located in such a stunning area: from here, you get to look out at the ocean and the beautiful buildings. Not to mention the old Church, which adds to the atmosphere.

The pictures don’t do any justice to this place, but I think you can see what I’m talking about. Everything is just to cosy and picturesque.

In days like this I truly remember why I love Brighton so much. It’s a small city, with that old town feel but every comfort of a bigger city. It’s such a gem.

Felix and I had a great time, but because he just got back from Sweden he had to run back to work. Still, it was a lovely picnic, and I got very excited to share some photos with you!

I’m curious: where do you live and what’s one thing you absolutely love about it?

Marzia.

THIS WEEKEND.

Happy Sunday!

I had plans for this weekend, since Felix went to Sweden I wanted to get lots of work done and prepare for my parent’s visit next week… little did I know that all my plans would change.

Back on Friday night, when Felix left, a new episode of Good Morning Call came out. The temptation to watch without him was strong, but I resisted and decided, instead, to click on a suggested show on Netflix: Terrace House.

I had no idea what it was about – from the description, it seemed like Big Brother (which I don’t enjoy) BUT, but. IT’S THE GREATEST SHOW EVER.

Okay, maybe not. But I got hooked instantly.

There is 6 strangers living on this amazing house: 3 males and 3 females. They get to carry on with their lives, go to work, go on dates… and it’s so well done it almost seems like a movie, but it’s not scripted (they point that out in the beginning of each episode haha).

There were 18 episodes out, and without shame, I can say I watched them all already. This means my Saturday was spent in front of the laptop, in bed, snacking.

At one point yesterday there was a hailstorm, and it was the cosiest thing ever. I made a fire, and about 30 minutes later, the sun came out. Maya and I (Edgar was keeping company to a friend) went down to the beach to watch the sunset.

Everything was so calm. The sea was still. No wind (strangely). It was wonderful.

And at that moment I realised I wanted to share with you some more music I’ve been listening to. I’m always looking for new songs, especially now that I have a car, because I’m the kind of person that still makes CDs instead of plugging in the phone.

So here are a few titles, click on them to watch the videos. I hope you will enjoy listening to them!

1. Hollow Coves – The Woods;
2. Simen Mitlid – Vacation;
3. Cinders – Hope You Do.

Fast forwarding to the night, I’m so smart that I’ve been watching creepy videos online till late, and so when I needed to go to sleep, I decided to keep the bathroom light on, so that it could illuminate softly the bedroom.

I was about to fall asleep when I felt like it was getting darker around me (even if I had my eyes closed, if there is a change in light I can “see it”). I open my eyes and see that the light is off; I don’t let it bother me, thinking that the lightbulb probably broke.

About 5 minutes later, the light goes back on. At this point I get slightly creeped out, so I collect my blanket and sit up straight, looking at the door.

Nothing for a few minutes, until I hear a clear noise coming from the bathroom, as if someone is walking around (I have wooden floorboards that are very old). I still try to keep things rational in my head, thinking that it could be coming from upstairs, as my neighbours can be quite loud, especially during the weekend. But right after that noise, the light goes off again.

I decide to get up, using my phone as torch since I don’t even have a lamp on my bedside table to get some light out of. I reach the door and turn off the light (which was already off) just to avoid seeing it turn on again.

I go back to bed, take my laptop and put on a Good Mythical Morning playlist, aka the only thing that will never fail to make me fall asleep. Not because I find it boring, but because I’ve seen those videos so many times and find Rhett and Link’s voices very comforting. I know, it might seem weird, but it works!

Anyway, what have you been up to for the past few days? Do you have any songs you want to share with me?

Marzia.

PS. Thank you so much for the amazing support I got after writing my latest blog post, it means a lot!