LET'S TALK ABOUT DATE NIGHT

Being married for 13 years (!!!!! I know!!!!) I have to confess that often we forget we are a couple. Always together en holding hands, yes, but sometimes that's just the normal thing we always do.

One of my goals for this year was to plan a date night every month with something fun to do. Great idea, right?! However, just as it would be with many other great ideas, you start with a lot of enthousiasm and then life gets in the way.

Summer, for example, is a great time of year for fun dates but it's a time when we tend to do more things with larger groups. Bbq's, game nights, park chilling and all of that good stuff. As the weather gets a bit colder again (YES!) and we start to approach the end of 2019 - Yes, I'm dramatic like that...-  it's time to regroup and look back to those plans and just make them happen.

Preparing for a date night is already half the fun! At least I love it. My rituals will consist of:

Face masks - Looove a face mask! Could use them every day and this is my go to face mask at the moment. I like to invest more in face masks over everyday products. Masks are the best boosters and will prep your skin just right for tonight.

Manicure - I know many people that never use polish but I think it finishes off the look. I have learnt to do my own nails at an early age and I'm glad I can look taken care of even when I have no time to go to the salon. Essie is my favourite brand and this shade is my fall shade of choice!

Body care - It's date night people and I don't have to tell you where this can go (inserts naughty face emoji). This body scrub is just my favourite and I have repurchased it so many times I can't even count.  After a scrub your body with absorbing hydration much better so I save my best body creams for this. Body creams are not the everyday product for me but more of a special occasion thing.

Make sure to be creative with the dates also. Movies and dinner are always great but what about lunch? And high tea? The aquarium or a concert. A musical!!! We love musicals!

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21 DAYS OF SELF-CARE CHALLENGE

With the whole of our daily to-do lists is easy to focus on all the tasks and forget about ourselves.

A couple weeks ago a did a week on self-care tips on my Instagram and after speaking with my friend Rio, we saw that there was room for more and decided to launch a 21-day self-care challenge.

On our Instagram stories @marcia_vd_werf and @rio.watanabe you'll find what we are doing to follow the challenge and get some inspiration! 

Here you can download the #21dayselfcare challenge calendar for free and join us! We also help you from the get-go with some ideas on acts of love towards yourself.

I'M TURNING 35!!!

It seemed like a whole other world some time ago, but it is true, I am turning 35 tomorrow!!! Isn't it crazy?!? Different to many would think about becoming older, I love to add a year's baggage to the person I've become. You couldn't pay me enough money to be 25 again.

At 35 I know myself so much better and am much more certain of my choices. Also, I notice a switch on the way I prefer to spend my money. Loving experiences and great quality stuff. Quantity not only doesn't make me happy anymore, it actually gives me anxiety. A lot of it.

Having a great night in with a book a wanted to read for ages, a cup of my favourite tea and the best rose champagne truffles on the side it's the absolute dream for me right now. Uh and a day at the spa... or a great lunch at my favourite chateau which is about one hour drive from our home, for me, that's totally worth the trip.

I gathered a couple of items on my wishlist this last year and I wanted to share them with you:

Diptyque Candle Paris - Diptyque is already a very well known brand around the world for their home fragrance collection. To make sure we want to have everything they make - at least I do - they created a line of candles with city names that are only available in the boutiques. As you wouldn't suspect, I really want to have the Paris one. So bad I'll have to travel to the city of lights for it ;)

Dior scarf - I have the winter scarf that I got a couple years ago and I still use it whenever the temperature drops to under 15 degrees. This year I've been playing around with some other accessories as my dressing style is so basic. I think this neck scarf will give the "Je ne sais quoi" my t-shirt and jeans-uniform needs.

Jo Malone Velvet Rose & Oud - It's an update. Peony & Blush Suede during spring/summer and Velvet Rose & Oud during winter. You know, I love a rose scent because of its femininity but I could miss some punch of sexiness and both this fragrance give me just what I need for the different times of the year.

Fashion Icons - Another fashion book. What is it with them that I feel I need to read so many! Well, history. As I am returning to the basics and doing my best to have less stuff, the history of fashion, especially in Europe, will tell me we come from a time where people didn't have much because there wasn't much. I want to choose to have less and am very deeply influenced by the way people would choose the best quality about 100 years ago and know the history of fashion helps me to create a life a love to live, fashion-wise.

You might think I named quite expensive items for a somewhat minimalist. Well, making my choices carefully allows me to splurge on my favourite things and also, I've been saving for, let's say, the whole year for it. I'd love to tell you about my saving techniques, but that's a whole other post.

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3 NAIL POLISH SHADES YOU NEED IN YOUR COLLECTION

Being always on the hunt for the effortlessly chic look, like the French - this deserves a blog post of its own -, I like to find the products that will give me the look without spending that much time. See, I prefer to use higher quality products and have less of them but be sure I just need to worry about it once.

In Brazil, where I come from, women will go to the nail and hair salon every week. My mom had a set day and time on Friday mornings. Living in Europe it would cost me a lot of money to have a manicure every week so I do it myself and that's when I need the quality. 

I've had the opportunity to know and try Dior polishes years ago and have to say that for me they are the absolute best. The colours have great coverage and the shape of the brushes is very handy to apply the polish easily. Dior will always come out with new shades within new collections, but I'm talking investment and for that reason, I choose to stick to classics like nudes and reds. Really, it's all I have.

The nude - After the challenge to find your perfect nude, Dior made me happy with this shade. Greige is a not too warm, not too cool beige/grey colour. It's perfect for the whole year and the best part: Chips camouflage into your skin tone so you can go a little bit longer without having to repaint the nails.

The red - It's a classic and I think everyone should have one red to call your own. I chose this one because I think it suits my skin tone better. Not to loud but still red. I think I could go bolder though...

The berries shade -  That's the thing with me and the shades, this is probably the most fun I will get out of a polish. No yellows and greens for me. A pinky red shade like this is what I love to make sure I get some fun into the collection.

There you have it, I must have 3. Going into a minimalist adventure like I am? Then start by throwing/ giving away the rest and keeping only the polishes you love and use all the time.

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KNOWING YOUR SELF-WORTH

I've been struggling with this little thing: Why is it that I've met so many women around facing depression at such a young age and getting into abusive relationships as a consequence of that?

As a Christian, I believe that I serve a God who loves me and I understand love like this all changing power that influences me to move forward. I also believe that the wrong sense of self is put into our heads through heartache and bad situations from the past. That stops us from moving forward and that's the start of everything.

What I believe will help you see yourself as the amazing being that you are, is to make sure you get the right thoughts into your head and that's why I decided to create these screensavers for you to download into your phone so that you'll see it every day and at some point it can help you to believe in yourself again. This is actually an idea of a friend of mine that's been in the position before where she wrote notes around the house to help her to believe in her self-worth and guess what, it really helped!

This is my gift for you or for anyone you know who could use some motivation. You can save the images yourself and you can share it with anyone you think could be helped/motivated/pushed by this. Let's make the world around us even brighter.