I was tempted to start off this post by saying I can’t believe how time flies but had to stop myself cause duh! My baby boy just turned three years old! The age between two and three was probably my favorite so far despite the notorious terrible twos. I actually think it wasn’t that bad and all the funny and cute moments outweigh the tantrums which did not spare our family by any means. The past year has been a wild ride with so much progress, challenges and difficult choices along with the impossible love, laughter and fun. I’ve got the best kid ever and I am so happy and proud to be his mama.

Read More Alaric Turns Three + Construction Site Birthday Party

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Mine

Russian/Русский

In my previous post I shared 6 tips that really helped me to finally start working out. Here I share how these tips apply to my workout routine in details.

I have always been an active person, I love sports, I love walking, and biking, and hiking, and swimming, and snowboarding any many other fun physical activities that have kept me somewhat in shape for the last 20 something years, but I have never been able to stick to a workout routine. The only thing that I enjoy and challenge myself to push harder is yoga, I love how it feels throughout the process and the thought of the Savasana keeps me going. However, yoga sessions are usually at least an hour long and in my current schedule I would not get the results I want in the time I have available for exercise hence I started to think about trying to actually work out.

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Following my tip #1, I picked a program. I’ve been eye balling this program for over a year obsessing over transformations people shared and when I decided that I’m gonna start working out this was my first choice. This is not a sponsored post, I just really am happy it worked for me so I would like to give you some details about the program I am doing.

Read More My Workout Story + Bikini Body Guide Review

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Now that the Summer is in the full swing many of us are in a big hurry to get in shape. For someone who’s never worked out consistently the idea of finally starting working out could be as overwhelming as it is exciting. I think all of us have been in a situation when you say: “Next Monday for sure!”, and then Monday rolls around and you are not feeling it and then you miss it and it feels like you already failed. Trust me, I’ve been there.

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About 3 months ago I decided that enough is enough and it’s time for a change.  I have started working out and going strong to this day, consistently working out 3 times a week.

Below I share a few tips that really helped me to start working out and to stick with it.

Read More How to Finally Start Working Out

Mine

Russian/Русский

Every Spring California explodes with clouds of flowers. Fences, houses, sidewalks are taken over by the beautiful bougainvilleas, hydrangeas and other flowers. Right now it is a jacaranda time on our street and it’s gorgeous! I only found out the name of this tree from some person on the street passing by. We couldn’t miss such a great backdrop and did a quick shoot coincidentally on a Mother’s Day.

Alaric was too busy eating the flowers and didn’t want to cooperate at all, he also just learned a new trick of throwing his hands up and pretty much sliding out of the arms so it was pretty difficult to hold him. So today we mostly have some candid shots taken between the moments of baby juggling.

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Read More Jacaranda

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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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Read More The Grove

All Things LA Mine

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!

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Read More Blog Anniversary & Christmas 2015

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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:)

Read More Giving Thanks

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