The quickest, easiest and most delicious RAW summer smoothie recipe

I hardly get excited on new recipes unless they are really delicious. I've had cravings on something refreshing (we have 36-38 C here), but creamy and sweet.. so isn't a smoothie the perfect combo?
Each time when eating a melon i find how amazingly creamy this fruit is.

But let's have a look on how good actually the melon is for your health?!

*beneficial for your skin, because of the high concentration on fibers, minerals and vitamins (Vitamin A, C, Potassium, Zinc, digestive enzymes, Folic acid and Fiber)
* help to flush out toxins from your body, which cause digestive issues, breathing difficulties and nerve disruptions
* low Glycemic Index (good for your blood sugar)
* great source of potassium and copper


This smoothie will jump into my all time favorites now. Here's the final result:

                                    and with sprinkled crushed walnuts on top:

I've also added ice for more cooling effect.

Needed:
* cold melon
* food processor / blander
* crushed walnuts / ice cubes

After i cut the melon into pieces and put them in the blander, i squeeze out what's left from the skin as much as i can. You'll be surprised how much juice comes out. Now just bland until creamy smooth.
Add walnuts or other spices of your choice.

I literally finished the whole glass for under 2 minutes, it was soo yummy, i just couldn't help myself! :)

Let me know whether you'll try this smoothie and share with me your favorite so far? :)

xoxo,
Lara

The worst advertisings lately

Advertising! Is its content important?
Probably everyone of us has seen an advertising on the tv or in the magazines, that followed the question: “How is this possible?”.
I have experienced that so many times, that I’ve decided to write this post.

Throughout the years we’ve seen lots of  big brands done their advertisings with “empty” content. I’ve started asking myself  how important is it actually?

Who makes the advertisings and who approves them?

The idea of creating an advertising is to tell the world that a certain product exists. The main goal is to present a brand in its most recognizable way. We keep it in our minds for a period of time and it doesn’t matter if  the budget is low or high.

Nowadays advertisings are part of our modern lifes and it would be hard to imagine the world without them. But how important is its content?

A few days ago ended the European football championship.
The audience of such big events is huge. Millions of people are in front of their tv’s, watching the matches and the advertisings between them, of course.

What has caught my attention? The videos of Coca-Cola, Chevrolet and Adidas! Coca-Cola was one of the official sponsors of the Championship. Their advertising “officially” won the battle for the worst advertising of the month in my opinion.

I’m sure that I’m not the only one, who didn’t get the idea. I would even say that it is unpleasant to watch. Here it is:

Let’s have a look to the next one – Chevrolet Aveo: flying spiders, caterpillars and other insects… are not appropriate for this brand. The official message of the advertising is that Chevrolet Aveo is made for fun.

 

The third example is with Adidas Predator. For its 30 seconds video I didn’t get anything. It was hard to understand what is this advertising all about. In the video participate famous football players…so what…?!

 

Actually I remember all these advertisings, because of their failure. This practically means that they’ve reached their goal – to be memorable.

Now I know that Coca-Cola, Chevrolet and Adidas exist. But let’s think for a moment, if  big companies, that pay millions for advertising and pr should be promoted this way?! If they were with better content we would also remember and recognize them, but with positive check. This is how we humans run and we also search for the beauty.

Have you asked yourself why some of the advertisings of these same companies are well made and some are really rubbish? Is it acceptable that their team makes a great advertising today and totally ruins the next one? …

Let me know what you think?

xoxo,

Paul

Wild life behind bars and a walk in the Sofia Zoo.

A couple of days ago i and Paul went to the Sofia Zoo. The reason was that I wanted to kinda escape from the city and be more in the “nature”. Apparently this didn’t happen.

I am against zoo parks in general and I think that animals should live in their real habitat, not behind some concrete bars and cages. Especially when it comes to wild animals. So instead of having zoo in every big city, there should be more national parks, where you can pass through with your car and see the animals that run, eat and live and aren’t  just sitting and waiting for the next meal...

Sofia Zoo is not small in territory, but it has small cages for the poor animals, build God only knows how many centuries ago (btw Sofia Zoo has opened in 1888). They don’t have enough space, nor they have enough greens inside them.  I was really disappointed, because nothing has changed to it since I was a kid….

The entry pass costs now 2 leva (1 EUR/ 1,33 USD) and I understand why it is so low (the average salary is low here), but this would never ever help the Zoo to become more comfortable for the animals.  Some wild cats and bears are adopted by big companies like National Geographis for Kids etc. and hopefully this makes their situation a little bit better.

Comparing Sofia Zoo to the Kiev Zoo, well the second one wins. Yes, it is located in the city’s heart and between some flats and nevertheless it is smaller in its territory, the cages are bigger, greener and more appealing to the animals. They try harder to make their living as close to the nature as possible – with more branches, trees and water.

So here some photos and a video of that day.

Trying to bring some fun :)

meet Paul, the ninja (or Kung-Fu Panda may be?)

This is Dasha. She's our favorite bear in the Kiev Zoo.

Cool signs @ Kiev Zoo

Share with us, do you have a Zoo in your home town? What do you think about the Zoos, should they exist?

Xoxo,

Lara

Kiev – The Co-host of 2012 European Soccer Championship or Where is my heart ?

Kiev – The Co-host of 2012 European Soccer Championship or Where is my heart ?

Ukraine has been dominated for seven decades of Soviet Union. Nevertheless  Kiev is now fast growing city in its cultural and tourist life, as also there are lots of improvements in the city, made on a daily basis.

I’m very subjective, when talking about Kiev. It is my second (or in my heart may be even first ) home.

As a half Ukrainian, I traveled really often back in the days and I’ve spent the summer time in Kiev. My best memories are for joyful, carefree vacations with lots of games and my grandparents made this all possible, God bless them!

Now Kiev is a Co-host of the European Soccer Championship and regarding the info from my friends, the situation in the city is under control and there is no traffic or other problems in the downtown.

Kiev is literally the most amazing city I’ve ever been and I think I have a clue where this comes from (my childhood). For its size Kiev is a pretty clean city, full of history and landmark (the churches are awesome), art life, creative people, amazing parks and very delicious cuisine!

Of course as every ex-soviet country, it has its problems. But I hope they are progressing in the right direction.

Here are some photos we made in 2011:

St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, this is the proof of how beautiful Kiev is.

St. Andrew's Church

                                                                  

Me & Paul

                                                              

This is the HYATT Hotel in Kiev. As you can see this city has some really modern buildings.

        

One of the most delicious ice-creams. If you are about to visit Kiev, don't miss this out! This is a soft ice cream, half chocolate, half lemon with chocolate & nuts crust! yuumm . You can find it on Khreschatik str. near the metro station.

The municipality of Kiev runs every year this beautiful Flowers sculptures exhibition, which if you're lucky you can see in the Pechersk Park.

Finally, this is how happy we feel in Kiev. This shot of Paul i made spontaneously :)

Don't miss out this restaurant, when in Ukraine Puzata Hata  for tasty traditional cuisine!

Let me know which is your favorite city or country and why? 

xoxo,

Lara

Heaven in Bronze. Cool clothing for the hot summer.

A lot of people love summer. So do I, but the most frustrating thing about it, is that if you live in a country with very hot summer climate like me, you’ll definitely connect summer with sweat haha. We can call it the double S – “SS”. And clothes have a lot to do with it.

I adore the sun (of course when it’s not burning like you’re a sausage in a pan haha), the sea, the green grass, the flowers, the vacations! How exciting it would be, if we could choose the wheather we like, when we have our day off?!

My perfect day would probably look like this: a sunny day with big fluffy clouds, caress wind, somewhere in the greenest forest with a lake, dogs and cats around me and lots of natural ice cream and ripe fruits, haha. What would your perfect day look like?

As every summer bronze color is in trend, I’ve decided to share with you some really lovely clothing and accessories. What is summer without a dress?! Do you love girly, girly stuff or do you prefer the edgy look? 

Bronze Dress from uniquastudio.etsy.com

 I find this dress super gorgeous! Yep. If you're curious you can go and check it on your own. It's made with removable accessory, which you can alter to your taste, it's unique and it's bronze!

Well, in real life this looks like a magic. It gradates from golden bronze into silver. Really impressive!

 You can find all this items at www.uniquastudio.etsy.com 

  

Let me know what you think. Which is your favorite color for the summer? :)

xoxo,

LARA

Summer fashion trends & lovely gradient effects!

I was always into gradient fabric. And it's in this summer fashion trends. I can’t really explain why, but it kinda represents a part of me. Probably because sometimes I’m a real tinder-box, but I always calm down very quickly.

So I made a selection of some gorgeous picks, you can style to your taste.

Here we have random items. While searching, I stuck onto some amazing artists on Etsy. I love etsy! You’ll hear this a lot haha :)

I run my mom’s shop there and I was always fascinated by the number of talents in one place.

When writing this post i tried to find more information on the history of the gradient fabrics, where it all began etc., but unfortunately I didn’t found anything.

Thinking about cooling and refreshing stuff (in Sofia it’s too hot already), I dream about the sea, the wind and Londons weather..haha. Blue is a great color to match your dreams for colder times haha !

      Ok, here are some gradients fashion trends (incorporated not only in fashion industry):

Oceanic blues by BriannaBoutique on etsy

Pastel gradients by LacquerLove on etsy

Swimsuit by Gottex

 

I can't bypass this piece of art, it's made of bottles and is currently in Rio de Janeiro. Don't you love it?

This is the amazing NHow Hotel in Berlin. I find it really scary, but it's awesome :) Would you rent a room? :)

 

I've seen some really cool gradients items on ASOS, which unfortunatelly i can't show you, because of the blogger rules. I'm sure you can find them easily. :)
Let me know what you think, which are your favourite fashion trends? Do you have any cooling and refreshing summer products you love?

xoxo,

LARA