Published February 10, 2016

Downtown LA

This year I decided to start a new category on my blog called All Things LA where I will be sharing stories and photos about different places in LA as well as some insights from the position of someone who actually lives here, everything is of course my humble opinion and personal experience, I hope you enjoy reading it. The first post is about Downtown Los Angeles.

Unlike in many other cities across the world Downtown in LA is really not a city center, not that LA has one anyway. To find myself in DTLA, acronym most people use when talking about Downtown LA, I need to make a special trip which I did this past weekend. In almost 4 years that I’ve lived in LA, I probably visited Downtown less than 10 times but every time I do it feels like adventure. There are days when I am really loving the big city vibe which the rest of LA doesn’t really have walking by old historic buildings and skyscrapers, chilling at the roof top bars or enjoying some local museums. There are also days like this one, gloomy and gray, beautiful, artistic but also kind of depressing.

Pershing Square Subway Station Exit

The Grove

Russian/Русский

I know, I know, holiday season is already over but I was just looking through the photos on my laptop and realized I haven’t posted any pics from our holiday trip to the Grove.

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Blog Anniversary & Christmas 2015

Published December 24, 2015

Blog Anniversary & Christmas 2015

Happy one year birthday to my blog! It’s hard to believe the whole year has passed since I launched it. It’s still a work in progress but I am so happy that I did it. It has become an important part of my life and a great tool to let out my creative energy. I loved sharing some of my photography and thoughts, some recipes and useful products, I learnt some things about myself and for that alone it was worth it so far.

This blog is definitely a journey and not a destination. I understand there are many things I need to work on such as to figure out what value I can bring to people, what direction I want to go with it and what the main focus should be, and I am so excited to make it all happen. It’s been difficult at times to believe in myself and believe that the content I post here is good enough, but I keep reminding myself not to compare my chapter 1 to someone else’s chapter 10. I follow many successful bloggers, Youtubers, Instagrammers and I know what I like and what I want my blog to be like, but it doesn’t always turn out to be quite as I imagined and that’s when it is important to remember that those people have been consistently working on their projects for multiple years to make them what they are now. It’s great to be inspired but it’s important to not get discouraged because you can’t keep up. It takes time, practice, a lot of hard work and passion to build something great and as long as you are enjoying what you are doing and willing to put the effort in, the results will come.

A lot has changed in the past year and this holiday season is extra special as we’ve got our Santa’s little helper with us. It was so much fun to watch him crawl under the tree, climb on the gifts and pose for the family Christmas photos! I wish you to spend the holidays together with your loved ones, Merry Christmas!

Mine

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Christmas Tree

Published December 10, 2015

Christmas Tree

Russian/Русский

The other day we were going on our usual sunset walk around the neighborhood when we realized that now that Thanksgiving is over, the holiday season is here which means that Christmas tree markets are open! I remember seeing in the movies how the family goes to one of those markets with many fluffy Christmas trees to pick the best one.

**This is how normal people take their tree home**

Giving Thanks

Russian/Русский

Thanksgiving Day is one of those holidays that I didn’t have growing up but was more than happy to welcome. I actually started writing this post about a year ago when I was in the process of setting up this blog and this was my draft/practice post that never got published because by the time I finished the site set up the timing wasn’t right anymore, although is there really such thing as a bad timing to feel grateful?

It’s funny that for the last few years expressing gratitude has become something very essential to me, the draft from last year’s post said: “I personally don’t need one specific day to feel grateful as I do thank Universe pretty much everyday for all the great things and people that I have in my life but it’s always good to remember to do that and if having designated day for that helps us make conscious effort to be thankful, why not?”. It’s so true yet I never thought of consciously expressing gratitude before. I would be happy when good stuff happened and I always was appreciative of all the simple little things but I never thought about consciously acknowledging the things I am grateful for.

The first time I practiced expressing gratitude was about 3,5 years ago when I took my first ever yoga class. One of the suggestions made by the teacher was to think of something you are incredibly grateful for. During that moment few different things went through my head, I picked one and thought of how amazing it was that it happened. In that moment I felt everything from butterflies in my stomach to goose bumps on my skin to tears filling my eyes. From then on thinking of things I am grateful for kind of became a part of my night routine. Once I tuck myself in and before I fall asleep, I would thank the Universe for all these amazing things, people, moments that I have and experience. Sometimes I fall asleep half way through because I am so tired or even before I get to think about it but it’s okay cause the next morning I’d be grateful for the good night’s sleep:)

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Fall Baby Shower

Published November 22, 2015

Fall Baby Shower

Russian/Русский

According to the ancient legend, if you help a friend with a baby shower, you will be the one having it next! At least that’s what happened to my dear friend Elina who organized my baby shower earlier this year and now she is expecting a baby girl!

Baby shower for a pregnant woman is almost the same as a wedding day for the bride – you want it to be perfect! The difference is that when you’re pregnant you have these little guys called hormones going all crazy and it definitely spices it up a bit. Elina’s baby shower was planned to be outside in a beautiful park overlooking Los Angeles, of course you wouldn’t worry about the weather too much living in California but guess what, it was freaking cold and windy! I got scared for a second when I saw momma-to-be ready to cry over the weather and everything not going as planned but everything turned out great!

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Crateful Meal Delivery: A Culinary Adventure at Home

Published November 10, 2015

Crateful Meal Delivery: A Culinary Adventure at Home

I love good healthy food. If I could have a giant fresh salad or a homemade soup or hearty bowl of veggies and grains for lunch every day I’d be the happiest person on Earth. Unfortunately, there are just no good lunch places in walking distance from my office and, for car-less me, lunch time is always a struggle. The other day, I came across this local company called Crateful, which provides chef-prepared gourmet meals with locally sourced and organic ingredients delivered to your door. Whatever comes with an intro like this already has my attention. And it only gets better!

Crateful is a healthy food subscription plan that offers meals designed by Michelin Star Chef Cristina Bowerman and supervised by licensed nutritionist Alyse Levine. The set up is pretty simple yet there are plenty of choices. First, you select your meal plan from 4 available options: Chef, Vegetarian, Pescatarian and Fitness. Then you choose the meal pairings such as breakfast and lunch, breakfast and dinner, lunch and dinner, dinner only or all day and how many times per week you would like to receive your meals (5 days or 7 days). Meals are prepared daily and delivered 6 days per week in the evening so you always wake up to fresh, delicious food. Depending on the length of your subscription, you may get a discount if you subscribe to the multiple weeks at a time.

All Things LA

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