Author: Oana

Jumping Dog – A Children’s Clothing Collection Like No Other

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Back in 2013 I came across this amazing project by photographer Joost Vandebrug. He was trying to raise money through his CINCILEI photography project for a bunch of homeless boys living in the sewers of Bucharest. I wrote all about it here, you can have a look before you read on. The project has meanwhile evolved from the initial book to creating an entire centre in Bucharest where street children can feel at home and reintegrate into society. The name of new Jumping Dog children’s clothing collection was inspired by the stray dogs street children develop strong bonds with during their years of living rough. The collection is beautiful and emanates strength. The strength these street children have proven over the years, surviving the unimaginable, transcends into a collection that invites children to play and exploration. I love their reversible t-shirts and I am planning to get Emma the adventure one for Easter. Not because my child needs another top but because ALL the money raised from the sale goes towards making the centre in …

Mother’s Day…on Instagram

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I have been using Instagram separately from my personal Facebook for the past six months, in an attempt to separate business and personal life but I have recently realised that most of my friends have missed on our news in this way. So, inspired by a fellow blogger who has an Instagram post once a week, I will attempt to keep my friends and family updated in this visually pleasing way as well. This week has been all about the coming celebrations for Mother’s Day as we got loads of bits to enjoy on the occasion, all thanks to this blog. We kicked off the celebrations (I know, I am the mummy here but I cannot leave those two out, can I?) with lovely, scrummy food from Charlie Bigham’s, for which we had been sent vouchers the week before. Charlie Bigham is the amazing chef who came up with the brilliant idea of “oven-prepared convenience dishes”, designed for one or two and selling at a very reasonable price, in an attempt to bring harmony back …

A spoonful of strength

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I was going to title this blog post “To the idiot who preached at my husband in the gym yesterday” but decided against it at the last minute. But my blog post is going to deal with that incident and let you into our lives and our rawness, once again. Not because we need your sympathy but because our pain needs to serve a purpose. And if that purpose is education, so be it. My husband is a bereaved parent, just like me. Men deal differently with pain and sorrow, as we all know, but that does not mean that they do not feel the anguish of parting with a beloved child. My husband is a great dad and loves both his children very much. He has very strong bonds of love with Emma and with Georgie, bonds that transcend death and distance. My husband’s heart has been left bruised and emotionally, he has been severely traumatised by what he has seen his son go through. My husband displays signs, just like I do, of …

Tuck n’ Snug for a Better Night’s Sleep

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Emma is a great sleeper and once asleep, she stays put until the morning. But she is a great bed wriggler too which means that many times, her duvet ends up all crammed in a bed corner and she would sleep without a cover over over for hours! When I learned about the Tuck n’ Snug covers, I immediately emailed the lovely PR team and asked if we could review, as I wanted to see if these special duvet and pillow covers would make a difference to Emma’s quality of sleep. The concept is simple yet very efficient: to a normal duvet cover strips of fabric have been attached on the sides and to its bottom bit so they can be tucked under the mattress. The strips secure the duvet in place, making incidents like we have every night with a normal cover impossible. This is not to say that the cover does not allow for plenty of room to wriggle in bed, as there is still plenty of opportunity for that! What did we …

My Slimpod Journey

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In January, I wrote about realistic plans and tools for getting fitter this year and I included two revolutionary (in my view) products: the Polar Loop 2 and the Slimpod Gold. I have found both products nothing short of amazing in the past month, as they both continued to motivate my weight loss and promote my self-esteem. If you have been on any weight loss program, as I have been previously so many times, you know that motivation starts to wane around week two, as deprivation of nutrition kicks in. These two act totally different to a weight loss program as the accent with both is on movement and choices, rather than depriving yourself of food. My Polar Loop 2 keeps me in check daily. I find myself consciously moving more as I am eager to clock in the 12,000 steps I need to be doing each day. I have felt an incredible sense of pride last night when I checked my activity tracker charts and saw that in the past two weeks I have …