In the mood for Autumn

My blog posts are usually about interiors, but these days I got into the mood for colder days, and I thought maybe I share the tips that help me welcome autumn. There is no doubt that the fall is here, and it’s time to take out the blankets, candles, good books, and hot chocolate, and get ready for the long nights. I know that all the lifestyle websites and blogs are about this kind of tips; social media is full of fancy hygge pictures, with nice choco cups, holiday socks, crackling fireplaces, etc. But my list with the autumn tips is a more simple one, I would say even a minimalistic one, no hard time to get any of these things for a warmer mood. So let’s take a closer look at what helps me to be ready for the cold season.

#1 Using the harvest as decoration

My parents and parents-in-law’s garden is full of goodies, pumpkins in all shapes and colors, autumn flowers, dried flowers, fruits, corn, you name it. All these placed in the right corner and the right spot can create a magical mood for the fall. If you do not have a garden, just look around you, in the park, at the locale market, in the supermarkets you can find everywhere things that might be perfect for your home decoration.

#2 Filling up my tea supplies

Before you think I’m a tea person, let’s just be clear on the fact that I love my morning coffee. I drink one coffee, usually a latte macchiato, every morning, and I could not imagine the mornings without coffee. On the other hand, I prefer tea in the late afternoon or the evenings, I can go with almost any herbs, tastes, except instant tea, no offense, but I prefer boiling water and brewing dry leaves/flowers for my tea. My favorite tea is mint combined with green tea, but I always buy many other flavors too for having the luxury of choosing based on my mood.

#3 Preparing my favorite reading spot

Having a nice, hygge spot where a little bit of sunshine still can snick in during the winter is essential. Choose a sofa, an armchair, a day bed, anything that can work as a relaxation spot. If you follow my social media, you already know that I have this reading corner with a comfortable armchair and a reading lamp, so this is the place where I curl up during the long nights.

# 4 Buying all kind of candles

This is not a habit only for the cold season, I always buy candles, all shapes, and almost all scents, to turn our nights into a simply magic night. It doesn’t cost you a fortune to get candles and light them up at night. It creates such a calm vibe, it smells good and it even gives a tiny bit of warmth. Actually, my husband loves it too, and believe if you check the dictionary for the definition of rationalism, his name will be next to it. The bee wax candles and the vintage candle holder (the small cup was a gift from them, thank you girl!) are from Philocaly.ro. Remember, you should not let any candle unattended while it’s lighted up!

#5 Getting a warm blanket

Last, but not least, a warm blanket never hurts while you are drinking your hot tea and absorbing the calmness of a candle. This one is from Zara Home, as the botanical pillow too. The Little Book of Hygge is a “nice to have” to make sure you know how to turn your home into a hygge interior, the book was purchased from the Book Express, a local business that I like a lot, keep doing what you are doing guys, you are great!

And before I leave, feel free to check out my Pinterest board called Country life, it’s a feast for the eyes, and it’s full of inspiration for simple living and getting into the mood of autumn. Stay tuned for the next blog post, as this weekend I’m going to share a nice Danish interior with a touch of colors.

 

Photo credits: 1. Cob Cottage Craft, 2. More Fun with Juan, 3., 4. & 5. focalpoint.ro; cover photo by John Price on Unsplash

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Daily inspiration: blogs I read every day

Every day there are 20 minutes for myself, spending with the most relaxing activity I can have. Nothing relaxes more than reading interior design blogs. I intentionally avoid news, television, newspapers, and everything that can take my morale down. Instead of staying informed about the world’s happenings, I choose interior design inspiration, and sneak peaking in Nordic homes and warm interiors. These are the blogs I read every day:

1. My Scandinavian Home

This is my no 1, I read Niki’s blog every day for 3 years now. Even if there is a day when I’m so busy that I can’t go through her latest post, on the next day I make up for what I’ve missed. She has this incredible blog since 2011, and she started her blogging journey by simply inspiring others. Niki writes about Scandinavian homes, locale brands, and products. She shares home tours of people who reflect Scandinavian simplicity in the real sense of the word. Every day (I mean really, every single day) she posts a home tour. What I love the most besides the fact that these are real Nordic beauties, is that the home tours show the cozy, homey, hygge feeling and lifestyle of these house owners. I can see pets, unmade beds, kitchens designed with things found on the flea market, vintage treasures inherited from the previous generations, and many other things that make a home “human”. Niki is from London, today she lives in Malmö (one of my favorite cities, no wonder why we had our honeymoon there) with her Swedish husband, their 2 girls and her stepson. She wrote 3 books that can be found on Amazon.

2. Contemporist

I cannot exactly recall when I started following this website. I wasn’t yet into interior design back then when I discovered them on the world wide web. They are not necessary specialized in Scandinavian style, they are focused on contemporary architecture, design, and art. They are sharing projects of big architecture companies and famous designers. Contemporist is for the “big boys” with budgets that I can’t even dream about, but it gives me great pleasure to see limitless ideas turning into limitless realities. It never hurts learning/getting inspired from the big ones.

3. Coco Lapine Design

Sarah is a Belgian designer living in Münich who shares Scandinavian home tours for sale by real estate agencies. I’m following her Instagram feed, ever since I discovered her through My Scandinavian Home, where she posts pictures of her apartment. She’s the living proof of simplicity, clean lines, and restrained style. Sarah has a print collection too that can be purchased on her webshop. She is one of my daily inspirations that restores order in my mind.

4. Remodelista

Ok, I need something classy too, something with the English elegance that I can take in along with my daily tea. Remodelista is everything about vintage and new, about classic and livable, and what I love the most about them is that they promote design products chosen carefully over mass-market things. I, personally, always try to avoid buying things that everybody else does, so this platform perfectly fits to me. It worth following their Gardenista website too, if you are into gardening and interior plants.

 

Photo credits: 1. My Scandinavian Home, 2. focalpoint.ro screenshot of Contemporist website, 3. Coco Lapine Design, 4. Remodelista – Ciro Cozzi’s house – photography courtesy of @justine.hand

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Welcome to my blog

It’s been quite some time since I’ve purchased the focalpoint.ro domain. I wasn’t decided what I’m gonna do with it, but I knew that I need it and later on I might feel sorry for not buying it. After more than 1 year of having this urge in me, I decided to start developing this platform. Not sure how nicely it turned out, but I try to show respect to my hobby and you, dear reader, who accidentally ended up on my blog. Thank you for stopping by 🙂

In the last few years, my management work was combined with a little bit of marketing work too, meaning that I was the author of a couple of IT companies’ blogs. It’s been a nice job, 99% I had the liberty to decide on the topics, visuals, and social media content. But still, building the brand of a company means some limitations, responsibilities, and most importantly, it means acceptable content to the public. I always desired to have the full democracy for myself, being able to write about anything, about girlish stuff, about cozy, homey stuff, about interiors, squeezing in one or two opinions about the things going on in the world. So, now on this platform, hopefully, I have my democracy, the full liberty of being creative.

Please bear with me regarding the content, I’m not an architect, neither an interior designer (ok, I have a certification, but that is not equal to a degree). This is just a hobby to me. I still have a full-time job, and I intend to keep it, so the frequency of the articles won’t be on a daily basis. But don’t forget to come back from time to time, maybe you will find something inspirational on this website.

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