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Cerasela Bortos-glamthug, the perks of living in zurich

Hey! I hope you are having a great start into the week and I hope you have been waiting impatiently to bring back to life my blog.

When I started writing on this blog 6 years ago, I wanted to have it as a diary, where I can reveal special moments, even though there was the risk to become very vulnerable. Whenever something less pleasant happens or you are having a bad mood,you have to choose wisely where your energy goes: to the positive or negative side because in the end you attract what you think.

Living in one of the most expensive cities in the world isn’t that pink as it seems from my Instastories (@glamthug where I am the most active and I am overwhelmed by your positive feedback), but I can’t complain either.  There are sacrifices you have to face. For example, we live in one of the best neighborhoods, but we share a studio of 25 square meters . I can’t buy many clothes , because of the little place and very tight budget. However, it’s hard to stop myself because I am so active by participating to as many events as I have energy and every time I need to.. stand out, but most important feel confident. I don’t want to get distracted by all this apparently perfect environment where we clink glasses of Prosecco like we have something special to celebrate. To be clear, I don’t mind drinking Prosecco, but what I learnt in Denmark is to enjoy the little things and I think that helps me a lot in getting through the hard times.

Despite all these facts, I  am extremely grateful for having the chance of moving to Switzerland, to a big city life after living in Denmark for 5 years.  In less than a year, I managed very fast to expand my network, where I have met wonderful people ( for example the one who took these photos – thezurichdiaries )

 

ideal of sweden discount code

By the way, don’t forget to use my code: GLAMTHUG for -20% DISCOUNT. I know it might be abusive advertising, but I truly love the IDEAL OF SWEDEN brand as they empower bloggers and  when you order such a product, you  get a product that not only protects your phone, but also makes it fashionable and stylish.

Outfit: Liquor’N’pocket skirt, H&M sweater, Call it spring boots

what to bake for christmas

Christmas is knocking at the door and we are all searching for easy baking ideas, so we can impress our guests, but also have fun.  Grab your friend or mother and get in the mood to start baking for Christmas, while being creative in the kitchen. Nothing can replace the scent of something baked in the oven, meanwhile you are having great moments with your dear ones. I have 2 recipes for you, an easy one and one more advanced done at John Baker ltd.
This first one involves a lot of flour so the cookies can keep their shape.

You can use Christmas shaped cookie cutters to cut out shapes from the dough or DIY by drawing your desired shape on a paper.
Mix the following ingredients:

♥ 150 gr melted butter
♥ 150 gr powdersugar
♥ 3 eggs ( 2 eggs for dough, one for decorating)
♥ 2 tablespoons honey
♥ 2 teaspoons baking soda
♥ For an intense flavor you can add winter mix ( e.g the one for mulled wine) or marzipan

♥Decorating sugar, for topping, optional

♥ Sprinkles, for topping, optional

PS: first whisk white eggs with sugar, then add the yolk and the rest of them.
When the mixture is homogeneous, add 500 g flour. Before decorating, you need to put a bit of yolk on each cookie, so that the decoration doesn’t fall.

Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 175°C. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.Bake until the cookies become golden brown on the bottom,  about 10 to 12 minutes and then let them cool down.

I’d love to hear in the comments: what cookie recipe do you enjoy the most during Christmas season??

christmas tree cookies recipeLast but not least, my Santa (Katarina Review Blog ) came earlier and surprised me with an Essie Advent Calendar about which I was super excited. Essie Polish is one of the best nail polishes for my long, natural nails, which comes in amazing vibrant colors.  Check my Instagram Stories every day, so you can discover what’s hidden behind the other doors.

I know it might be a bit late for this autumn photo-shooting done by Spirit of Denmark as everybody is rushing to celebrate Christmas already.  By the way, don’t you feel we are losing the Christmas spirit?

Out of habit, we have made Christmas all about presents, delicious food, parties and holidays, but it is normal. How else can we feel the spirituality of Christmas with all that background noise of war, commercialism and political corruption? Like Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas is a big money maker and that’s why stores start selling Christmas decorations right after Halloween, so that the buying process will keep on going. Most people go with the flow as they are enthusiastic about the new stuff in shops, Black Friday offers because they start way too early, turning what should feel holly & out of the ordinary into a competition. We might argue that it’s never too early to be humble and holy, but are we really succeeding in that?

Black Friday is an incredible demonstration of how powerful is the market, where anything you wish is suddenly for sale and obviously you go for it, even if there is a contradiction with Thanksgiving when you pretended to be THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE.

I grew up with a different kind of Christmas, decorating, helping parents to cook few days ahead and passing by every neighbor’s door to sing carols in exchange for fruits, sweets or money. Where are those good gold old days?

Let me know your opinion about this matter, how could we prevent that or… my outfit.

Processed with VSCO with preset

 

Don’t have much to say about this look, just that it suits my personality and I found it funny to match the pearls on my blouse with those applied on my freshly bought jeans from H&M.

All credits goes to Spirit of Denmark .


We did it! It takes a dose of spontaneity, strong friendship and some money to organize such a city break. When I think about it, I realize it’s more than that: trying to plan days ahead but not succeeding because you turn out gossiping.

My second time in Berlin was far from the first one when I was with dad and his friends. I got to know a different slant of Berlin: very colorful, apparently unsafe and very diverse.

I had hard time packing, that’s why when I got there I realized I didn’t like any of my clothes but luckily my girls borrowed me some. I mean.. that’s what friends are for, right? Not really I’d say..they are there for you when:

-you sleep in an Airbnb flat and they make you paranoid that you might wake up next morning left with nothing

-you get exhausted, frustrated of not being able to find a place to eat

-you start crying because your hair get stuck in the hair dryer and you can’t save much

-you take 3 hours to get ready and get lost in an industrial neighborhood with Mercedes and other kind of dealers around because you wanted to party  ( NOT ANYMORE) in the most famous techno club, Berghain

-you want some silence and you find no better way to tell than being direct, but the other person gets hurt and cries

–  you all travel few stops without a ticket  even if you were asked before leaving the house about it ( NOT ME )

– you convince them to go shopping, you all fill the shopping cart but then you give up because you are too tired to try on everything, but they end up emptying their wallets and next day they need to wait for you and find new jeans.

– you WEAR UNFASHIONABLE PINK SOCKS ( YES, that’s me) and they think you might not be able to go through security because of them.

-you are willing to wait for the one who needs 2 hours to get ready (NOT ME)

-there are 4 hours left to sleep but you have 3 in the morning talks about a corny joke for the 3rd time that day

BUT of course we had a blast while discovering more than enough of Berlin as you can see in the photos.

 


 


Where to EAT:

This summer we weren’t lucky enough to find a holiday package abroad that matches both of us, so we applied plan B of going to Romanian seaside, in Mamaia- considered crème de la crème, but which always gives us a bitter taste due to the high prices and low services.

We stayed  Hotel Imago  for 4 nights, even if it was a bit pricey, we knew it will compensate with the location, breakfast included and good services . Not only we enjoyed the sunset over the lake while sitting on sunbeds and drinking a cocktail, but also had delicious breakfast with amazing view.

Also, we celebrated 3 years of relationship, 3 years of growing together and that could only take place in a pleasant and romantic environment as you can see in the following photos.

The color crash dress is from a special H&M collection, platform sandals from Mango and ruffled bag from Zara. I felt very chic especially when people’s admiring eyes were gazing at me.

h&m flower dress, mango sandals, zara bag

orange cocktail dress

mamaia 2017, imago hotel boutique

sunset in mamaia

litoralul romanesc, romanian seaside

H&M touriste dress

UNESCO World Heritage Site Bern

I thought it’s time for a new post, because some complained about my silence on the blog, especially that I have awaiting material.  So, let’s get a taste of Bern, which is the federal capital of Switzerland since 1848.  The old town of Bern is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city worths a stroll  due to the medieval treasure.

Bern is surrounded by Switzerland’s longest river, the Aare, which has a beautiful turquoise color and  is taking you on a scenic float trip from the medieval city of Thun to Bern.  I expected Bern to be more more full of life, considering that is the capital, but rather Zurich or Basel is like that, but of course it is always nice to explore new places.

what to to in bern blog        what to do in bern blog


When you get an invitation to an event, the first thought is ‘ What am I going to wear?’ That was my reaction too, especially that I came to Zurich with ONLY one big luggage for 3 months. Of course I had to catch up and that’s why I was daily checking online and physical shops.

You don’t need to wear all wardrobe, fancy brands or latest trends as long as you feel comfortable and it looks effortlessly chic.I chose to keep it simple. I mean it is both hard and easy to go wrong , because I saw many bad examples of  being ‘TOO MUCH’. Yet I was not that satisfied with my boots, but I didn’t any other footwear with heel and not to mention that outside was raining like crazy  (especially when I took the following photos).

Energy Fashion Night is the biggest fashion show in Switzerland and the most important I had ever been to.  The Samsung Hall venue hosted over 4,000 music and fashion enthusiasts. Not everyone can attend the event, because you need special invitations as my friend, Diana and I won tickets from one of the main sponsor, Ochsner Shoes . There were many well dressed people, probably some celebrities too about whom I didn’t have a clue, but also overdressed ones like they would go to a wedding.  I am wondering what is worse? To be overdressed or underdressed?

I am used to be on the catwalk, not fully enjoy the atmosphere entertained by famous models such as Karolina Kurkova and Maria Borges while wearing genuine summer 2017 clothes from EspritCalzedoniaIntimissimi, Mourjjan and as well as designs from Swiss Textile School. Mery’s Couture dresses made me realise how fast I would like to become a bride or be invited to a fancy wedding.  The new collection of Ochsner Shoes  was a burst of colour and relied on individuality.

Melanie C( ex SpiceGirls),  OfenbachMartin Jensen and Beardyman provided the right musical highlights.

Energy Fashion Night was sponsored by Ochsner Shoes and Mercedes, who launched the new GLA on the  stage with the dotted look of the Energy Fashion Night, accompanied by all models and dancers.

At the end, attendants received some goodies from Lindt and Sally Hansen .

mery's couture dresses

Mourjjan

ochsner shoes summer 2017

A walk to Viadukt calls for an urban-grunge outfit. The whole outfit was created in less than 10 minutes, as I have only 2 luggage of clothing and it was easy to take decisions. I like the colour combination, where the Zara bag plays the main role due to it’s shape and colour.  The grunge look is a style based around the grunge music scene–it’s comfortable and that’s why the right pair of boots from ALDO and heavily steeped in flannel. To get the grunge look you need an ‘ I don’t care’ attitude and I suppose I have that.

 

im viadukt photo

Now, let me tell you more about Viadukt, the railway bridge built in Life has returned to the area under the arches of the railway viaduct built in 1894 in Zurich-West and is a pretty ingenious use of space.  Im Viaduct hosts quite a number of boutiques, restaurants and bars located underneath the railway arches and designed Also, there are many events happening in the neighbourhood,  networking or business related.

Viadukt might not be for everyone as it’s an unique industrial setting with stone ceilings and walls, where you find clothing, furniture, kitchen goods, sporting goods, jewellery etc from unknown, unusual brands placed in pop up shops. However, it’s not a typical tourist place but I recommend you to have a look and experience an authentic Swiss lifestyle.

streetstyle zurich


 
aldo grey boots  

Embroidery is this year’s best asset as you can find anything designed like that: embroidered bags, embroidered shirts, embroidered dresses, embroidered jackets, embroidered leather jackets and one of my most loved one -embroidered boots.

It is simple why I like embroidery trend so much, but let’s spell it out why:

-once you have the right attitude, embroidery trend brings an outfit to life

-there is no need to put makeup on as long as people will stare at your embroidered piece of clothing ( e.g.my jeans)

-handmade art which comes from the Chinese, who were using it in clothing in a way that each symbol had a meaning

-you get noticed. A funny thing happened when I was wearing these embroidered jeans from here . I was walking around Zurich and out of 396,027 people, a friend of my boyfriend recognised me just because of these jeans.

 


 
how to wear embroidered jeans


how to wear embroidered jeans

why i like embroidery blog

  how to wear embroidered jeans  how to wear embroidered jeans

Why wearing mom jeans is sexy?

The answer is simple: You won’t have a Copy-Paste outfit from Pinterest anymore and being different is the new sexy! There’s a lot of variety and even more creativity happening in the denim industry: patchwork, embroidery, unconventional cuts, high/medium/low rise and many colours. You can be creative and yet so sexy!

Do you remember those straight jeans that made your childhood hard? I can’t believe I went back to them without being forced by mother.  I was struggling for a while to find the perfect mom jeans. There are days when you are tired of super skinny jeans, so tight to your skin that are leaving wounds and you would prefer something more relaxed.

My friends couldn’t understand why, but it’s because vintage, straight cut jeans looks so fresh and continue to be popular amongst both the street style set and celebrities.

And…YES! Loose jeans can be nonchalant and sexy too with ankle boot eventually with heel or stilettos or loafers,  crisp shirting, roll-neck sweaters or tops in precious fabrics layered under sharp tailoring.

I am that lucky baster who can wear mostly ANYTHING. Hourglass shapes should draw attention to the smallest part of their bodies, their waist, with a high-rise jean with minimal stretch.

I choose to wear 3 pieces of my outfit from Zara’s 80’s inspired collection, Mango earrings and shoes from Skoringen.

  how to wear mom jeans blog  how to wear ruffles  what to do in zurich