Martina and Lola's Room

I saw a tour of this shared girls room the other day on Apartment Therapy and thought I'd share it in case you guys hadn't seen it. I adore this room which is so sweet and whimsical. If you notice, there's nothing particular about the room that screams 'girl'. There are no pink walls or Disney princesses about and the wallpaper, lighting and many of the toys actually are very gender neutral. If I'd had a girl her room would look like this (assuming I had as good taste as the mother who put this room together).

The mother, Beatriz, writes the amazing blog, Con botas de agua, and I have become smitten with it for her beautiful photographs, restaurant and cafe recommendations in Madrid where she lives, and a glimpse into her family life. I recommend you check it out if you need another online addiction and if you speak Spanish, of course. Enjoy!

(Photos: Con botas de agua)

A day at the park

A few weeks ago, the Professor and I met up with an amazing sixteen year old who is a high school student by day and amateur photographer/blogger by night. Her name is Giulia Duch of the eponymous blog. I stumbled upon her blog by accident and quickly became addicted. She writes the kind of Barcelona blog that I wish I could write, with beautiful photographs of the city, little anecdotes about her life and interests, and excellent recommendations of trendy restaurants and cafes. I got in touch with her to ask her whether she would be interested in photographing our little family both as a way of documenting our time here in Barcelona and also to get some photos of all three of us together. We don't have a very good camera and we normally end up snapping photos on our phones anyway so they're not very good quality. Also, we normally take pictures of Roman by himself or with one of us. We had shockingly few photos where we were all together.

So a few Sundays ago we met at Parc Joan Miro, hardly the most iconic of Barcelona locations but a place that we frequent very often as a family. Giulia spent a few hours walking around with us and capturing us going about our usual business hanging out at the park with our baby. I'm so very grateful to her for these beautiful pictures. I honestly believe that one of the best presents you can get new parents is a few decent photos of them with their little one(s). The time with them goes by so quickly and it's so important to capture these fleeting periods of their lives.

If you'd like to hire her or just ogle her wonderful photographs, check out her blog: http://giuliaduch.blogspot.com.es/

Thanks again Giulia! Un beso!

(Photos: Giulia Duch)

Don't you wish your vacation photos were this beautiful?

 

 I don't know about you guys but I'm a sucker for travel pictures, beautiful landscapes, and gastronomical delights. So imagine my pleasure when I stumbled upon the absolutely gorgeous blog of photographer and food stylist, Aran Goyoaga.  Above are pictures that she took on her recent vacation to Iparralde, in the Basque Country. For more inspiration, visit her blog, Cannelle et Vanille (meaning Cinnamon and Vanilla in French).

Enjoy!

(Photos: Copyright Aran Goyoaga)

Living Vicariously

Where would we be without the internet?  This question is so clichéd by now but take a moment and think about it.  Nevermind the ability to access knowledge about any topic at lightning speed, the ability to communicate with anyone in the world via social networking media, or the delight of finding videos of cats doing cute things and babies laughing.   

More specifically, think about this: Ten years ago,  if you were moving to a foreign country and wanted to read about the experiences of other people who had done it, where would you find these people?   How could you get in touch with them to ask them specific questions or ask them for advice? Ten years ago, I would have had no idea what to tell you.  Today, however, there is this amazing invention called blogs (perhaps you’ve heard of them)  where people with seemingly no concern for their privacy, open their lives to the prying eyes of others and tell the world all about themselves.  And thank God for that!

I know I’ve written about Barcelona-bound blogs before, but lately I’ve discovered (and quickly become addicted to) blogs about people moving to all sorts of awesome places.  Reading these blogs is not just useful because they convince you that you CAN do this and that you are not alone but also because some posts give practical, important information that you can use if you should find yourself moving abroad. 

In the blog, La Vita è bella, two Americans, Kate and Rob, picked up and moved to Florence, Italy.  Their blog has been really helpful for explaining how to pack your belongings when shipping your stuff overseas, what shipping service to use, how to take your gadgets with you, and how to take your pet with you.  Needless to say, SUPER useful for us.

In the blog, Flying House, a couple who have moved from Spain to Morocco to Denmark, blog about the experience of living in these different countries with their 3 kids.  This is a VERY special family.  Can you imagine country-hopping  around the globe with your kids in tow?  I didn’t think so.

Finally, in the blog Oh Happy Day, a professional party planner blogs about moving her husband and two small children to Paris for the year.   I think that’s probably everybody’s fantasy, am I right? I mostly visit this blog to ogle pictures of Parisian cafés and smartly dressed Parisian women but the blog also provides some insight into the cost of living in Europe, the visa process, and did I mention the awesome pictures?

The great thing is that you don’t have to be Europe-bound to become addicted to these blogs. Just enjoy living vicariously through whoever gets to eat that chocolate gelato above.

(Photos: La Vita e bella, Oh Happy Day, Flying House)

In case you weren't jealous...

Just found this awesome blog, Bloesom which recently featured a post by a guest writer from Barcelona! The images are beautiful and not the traditional touristy things you would expect.

Check it out! Lisette reporting from Barcelona

(Photo by Lisette @ cutesuite.wordpress.com)

Yet Another Barcelona Blog

It’s amazing how being out of work can make one very unproductive and simultaneously feed what I assume is a dormant case of attention deficit disorder.   Since finding out that in a few short months we will be flying to Barcelona, I’ve become web-obsessed.  It all began very innocuously.  I began checking different web sites to find out more information about shipping our belongings by boat, to checking if someone had created a tip sheet on what to pack for transatlantic moves, to stumbling upon the blogs of a few expats who blog about moving to Barcelona!  (I may add that I read the contents of these blogs in about a day and a half).  Apparently it is not as unusual to blog about moving overseas as I thought. I know, I know. This is 2011---everyone blogs!  But I suppose you have no reason to read a blog about going overseas until you are actually in that position yourself.   Which makes me wonder….why are YOU reading this?  Where are YOU headed?

Anyway, my web obsession (or rather my Barcelona-specific web obsession) has actually been somewhat of a blessing in disguise.   Through the endless hours of peering into other people’s lives, I’ve actually learned quite a bit about where we should begin our apartment search,  which neighborhoods are decent and which are prostitute ridden,  which are good places to go for food and whether or not Barcelona has a GAP (sadly they do not.  Thank Heavens for Zara and H&M though).

If any of you readers (I love how that sounds like there’s more than one person reading this—thanks for the support honey!)  happen to be moving to or even visiting Barcelona, I highly recommend these blogs:

http://www.frombarcelona.com/

http://cantdocell.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!