With the fact that we’ve a summer holiday planned for the last weeks of August (and by the time you’re reading this post I’ll most likely be sunbathing or dipping my toes in the sea for the first time this year, finally!) and that I felt the need of treating myself a tiny bit this month, August saw a good amount of favourites this time! And it’s quite surprising actually, if I think back at these last weeks, because all I can remember is me being stuck at my laptop trying to catch up with work to feel less guilty about taking a two-week break..!

But here are a few August favourites…

Up Move Fitness Tracker – Jawbone ; Performer ClimaLite Leggings – Adidas

. F I T N E S S .

I reckon it might all be down to the Olympics and the fact even eating *healthy* carbs in front of the television made me feel guilty this last month, but in August I decided to finally up my fitness game a bit. I was a bit sceptical about the Jawbone Up Move Fitness Tracker, but I was proven wrong because right now I’m completely obsessed! This little gadget keeps track of all your steps and also your sleep, and pair amazingly with an intuitive iPhone app, to give you suggestions for your lifestyle, help you reach your steps and sleep goals and also (what I like the most) gives you the capability of recording everything you eat and being able to compare it to what you truly consume during your days. I’ll surely talk a bit more about it in a separate post, so stay tuned for that!

I’m not one that will ever enjoy running, but with the fact I’m keeping track of my steps everyday, I’ve set myself a goal to go for a speedy walk everyday. And while the cheap H&M leggings are so comfortable and easy to wear for practicing yoga, I needed something a bit more appropriate for different workouts, and I happened to find the Adidas Performer ClimaLite Leggings in the sales this month! I’m in love! The ClimaLite technology transports your sweat out of the tissue to leave you feeling always fresh and dry, and I love the fact that they are nicely high-waisted but not too constricting on your stomach and that they really suck everything in (how attractive..!). Needless to say I’ve already bought two more since that first pair…

Fleur Three Straps Flats – Topshop (Similar) ; Embroidered Trim Swimsuit – Ninety Nine Degrees

. S T Y L E .

As I was mentioning lately, I went a tiny bit crazy in the summer sales for beachwear especially, with the excuse I totally needed to invest in some good summer pieces, but in reality just because shopping for beachwear is so much fun, right? And I was on the hunt for the perfect swimsuit to fit my needs, and I happen to be very needy on the swimsuit & bikini front. I have browsed the ASOS sales from top to bottom at least 5 times per day, to the point I started being quite obsessed about finding the perfect one but nothing seemed right up my street, until I found that beauty of a Ninety Nine Degrees Swimsuit and, luckly for my wallet, it was also 50% off! What a lucky day: it was everything I wanted in a swimsuit, with some lovely details, and interesting plunge front but a tight back and it was in my favourite colour too! I can’t recommend it enough for how well it’s made and how nicely it fits!

And talking of summer sales, I finally caved and got the Topshop Fleur flats I’ve been after since such a long time! And this time the perfect excuse was a wedding I’m going to attend soon and the fact you won’t ever see me wearing heels anytime soon… And yes, I’m already obsessed because of their amount of prettiness!

Laurel Wreath Ring – Pandora

. J E W E L R Y .

The entire month of July I’ve been strangely obsessed with rings. I never really found them interesting until I saw someone wearing a few lovely dainty rings in a picture somewhere and there was no way I could get the idea of buying some rings for myself out of my head! And there it started my hunt for some good quality rings I could wear everyday, and there I started stressing everyone about it.

And then, I was lucky enough to receive the most beautiful leaves wreath ring as anniversay gift – you see, stressing others about your current obsessions always works! I’m in love with how beautiful and detailed and romantic it is, and you know me and how I love everything that is linked to nature and the plants world especially. It hasn’t left my finger ever since…

Copper Pineapple ℅ Talking Tables ; Stationery – Oana Befort ; Phone Case Backplates – Casetify

. R A N D O M .

Last month I made a little order from the lovely Oana Befort taking advantage of some sales going on and deciding I need to treat myself to some of those beautiful cards and temporary tattoos again. As always, it was such a joy unpacking my order, she always puts so much attention into details and packaging and never fails to add an extra greeting card that is always as beautiful as all the rest!

I’ve also decided to stock up on phone cases backplates this month! You might know by now I design a few phone cases every now and then for Casetify, and I’m such a fan of the quality of their ‘New Standard’ cases that I felt so grateful they decided to sell backplates for them so that you don’t have to re-buy the whole case over and over again but can interchange them maintaing the main structure. The ones in the picture are three designs from my collection!

And last but not at least, this month Talking Tables has treated me to some amazing table accessories (you might have seen me unboxing the whole thing over on Instagram Stories) and that little decorative pineapple has already made on top of my favourites list! I’d say it’s more on the rose gold side of copper but that makes me love it even more: it has already found place on my dressing table and I can’t seem to stop staring at it!

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I told you it was going to be a long list, but that’s it, my August favourites all rounded up!
What’s made the top of your favourites list this month? x

My inner perfectionist and list-maker can’t really feel 100% confident and stress-free without a list or two (or three!) in my day-to-day life, I won’t even begin to tell you how many she needs when planning a trip! I’ve spent hours making lists of things to see and restaurants, cafes, shops and gardens and places to visit that would be good to fill up x2 the days we spent in Rome two weeks ago! Of course we didn’t really managed to make justice to the many hours I spent on Pinterest looking for pictureque places to visit, but I like to think we would have had an option for where to eat or where to go next for literally any places we visited! And yes, my customized Chroma travel journal came in handy indeed!

Rome has some extremely lovely spots, and although if you’re staying only a few days I bet you’ll have no time at all to visit anything else than the classic touristic destinations (which I highly suggest to visit in a first place!), if you’re staying for a little bit longer, you might want to include some of this lovely places and shops in your travel plan! Also, I have some great food picks for you as well!

S T A Y

We usually like a good modern-looking hotel, but for our staying in Rome, after reading many and many more reviews online, we opted for the lovely Hotel Viminale. The decor is very old school, we wasn’t really a bad thing at all in the end as it contributes to the classical Rome atmosphere.

But what led us to this hotel in the first place was the chance of having breakfast in their beautiful garden if the weather would have been good to us, and we were lucky to be able to eat outside for most of our days there! It has probably been my favourite thing of it all: the buffet breakfast was extremely lovely, the choice endless, with fresh croissants of any kind, fresh fruits, yogurts, coffee, juices and much more, and the garden is the nicest with olive trees and bougainvillea right next to the tables.

The rooms are also super nice and clean and the team is extremely friendly, plus the hotel is one of the few we found very close to the underground, with the closer station only 5-7 minutes away – and walking through those lovely old small streets and picturesque steps was the best thing about it all! Not to talk about the fact it only took us around 10 minutes of walking one evening to find ourselves in front of a quiet but still so-beautiful Colosseum – and it was romantic, I’ll tell you!

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E A T

I’ve eyed up this place since the very beginning of my relationship with Pinterest together with a couple more places – am I the only one that gets excited about pretty restaurants and cafes especially when travelling? So yes, we had to pop into Ginger at least once!

Ginger is a mixture between a huge selection of healthy foods, extremely good-looking salads, juices, organic sandwiches and some great classics of the Roman cousine; it’s basically the perfect place for literally anyone! I’d highly suggest to get their Cacio e Pepe with courgette flowers – it’s pretty amazing plus you really can’t visit Rome without eating a Cacio e Pepe or Carbonara (if you’re not vegetarian) at least once!

We (read: I) planned to eat gelato much more than only once, but apparently the weather didn’t really love ice cream time as each time that an ice cream was appropriate it started raining! But we do managed to visit the lovely Gelateria Del Teatro everyone suggests and their ice cream was quite good! And we do have picky tastes when it comes to ice cream!

That said, ice cream is not usually that pricey in Italy like it is in Rome! But this gelateria is not extremely expensive as many others!

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S E E

Villa Borghese is kind of a classic but one worth a visit indeed! It reminded me of London parks and gardens but with classical Roman architecture which made it so very characteristic! Not to talk about the amazing view on Piazza Del Popolo!

I highly suggest checking out the small lake in the middle and to hire a boat if the weather is nicer to you than it was to us, because that place is just perfect!

We were on our way to Parco Savello when we ended up finding the most beautiful rose garden of all. Whether you’re planning to stop for 30 minutes or more in a nice place, or simply visit it because it’s totally worth, the beautiful Roseto di Roma Capitale is located right in front of the Circus Maximus and it’s jam-packed with the hugest amount of roses I have ever seen in my life!

Perfect location for pictures-taking, I’d say! 😉

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S H O P

Customized Travel Journal ℅ Chroma Stationery

Being Italian we know most of the shops in Rome and we weren’t actually very much into buying things if not souvenirs, but I have heard a lot about Namastey, and if you know about my love for tea you’ll understand why I *had* to made it a necessary stop in our trip and visit it!

It’s the loveliest tea store, with the hugest variety of teas and tastes and flavour combinations – you name it they have it! They also sell online and ship to all Europe so I’d highly suggest to check them out even if you’re not going to be in the boutique (which is the best experience anyway!) if you like your tea a little bit different.

P.S. Their Apple Pie green and white tea blend with tosted crunchy apple cubes is the best thing in this world!

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And that’s it: my mini guide to Rome! Hope it’ll come handy to some of you!
Are you planning to visit the city anytime soon? x

Whoa! It has been over an year since I shared my last Etsy Favourite Finds post! It was in my plans, one year ago, to keep supporting small businesses on Etsy and sharing the love on this blog once in a while, and although I’ve kept buying from my favourite creatives, I only recently realized a blog post about them was a bit overdue by now!

So here I have a list of three more favourite creatives that sell on Etsy totally worth checking out if you’re a lover of handmade!

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Oana Befort

I’ve been following Oana since a very long time on all kinds of social media (and I’d leave it there or you’ll think I’m a tiny bit creepy..!), but she really is one of the most inspirational creatives online to me! She founded her business back in 2010 after giving birth to her adorable Sammy and decided to start selling her illustrations in stationery and prints form on Etsy.

She illustrates with watercolour and has the most unique, beautiful, detailed style I’ve ever seen! She focuses on nature, both flora and fauna, and if I was asked which one between the two I love more I wouldn’t be able to answer! She sells beautiful paper goods like postcards, prints, notebooks and also temporary tattoos (need to have them all.) and, although she is based in Romania, she ships from the US but her shipping costs are actually very small and each order from her shop comes with a beautiful envelope & re-usable thank you card (but I won’t spoil you the surprise!).

Just check out her blog to have a look at her beautiful, inspiring work!

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That’s it! Three of my favourite Etsy shops!
Would love to check out your favourites if you have any! Share the love! ♥