My nieces are going through a I-don’t-want-to-take-a-picture phase, every time I try to snap an iPhone pic or basically anything they get mad at me or end up putting an awkward face. But bring on a real photographer and they light up, they are pros, they don’t take pictures just for anybody. These are some pictures taken from my sister’s pregnancy photo shoot with the girls, but I just wanted to give them the spotlight this time. They are growing up at such a fast pace, sometimes I feel like I need to stop time and embrace how they are right now. Pictures are worth more than a thousand words and I love how this shoot captures their energy and their individual personalities so well.

Photos taken by: Maria Gloria Cucalón.

All rights reserved, these pictures may not be taken from this site without consent.

“Fall in love with your ideas, work with illusion. Remember that the sun will always, always, always come up. Today is the day.” This phrase stood out to me while looking at Mr. Wonderful‘s products, it may not sound as good in english as it did in spanish (that is certainly a first) but I felt it is very simple, sweet and to the point. Mr. Wonderful is a Spanish online shop filled with goodies specially made to bring a smile to your face, founded by two designers who are also husband and wife, their story is as cute and quirky as their designs. They met at a graphic design studio, when he stumbled into her office they fell in love immediately.

Their designs are all about simplicity, which is driving me crazy because I would kill to be able to do that: communicate so much with so little and still manage to be incredibly beautiful. With handwritten typography and adorable illustrations, it’s all about nice things to lighten your day with phrases like: “Today is a good day to smile”, “Happiness is carried inside”. They are so happy together and with what they do, and that feeling can be noticed in every item that they sell.

Photo Credit: Mr. Wonderful

Hermione was always my favorite character in Harry Potter, the fact that she was a hero because of her intelligence and logical reasoning was what made me always pay more attention to her. I remember that the summer I read the first 3 books I wanted to be like her so bad that I started reading my school’s textbooks before classes started. That did not last long because I got too tired too fast to study that hard and well, let’s just say I was never the all As student. Harry Potter days are long over (I’m a recovering Potterhead), and Emma Watson somehow managed to almost detach herself from her 10 year old character.

She is known for being a well rounded and serious person, a very rare thing for a child star. Her style started developing over the years, Instyle has one of those transformation-over-the-years-photo-series, it’s so cute to see her during the early years. Right now she takes a lot of fashion risks, starting with her pixie cut which I was not a fan of but it did help to differentiate herself from Hermione. Her wardrobe can go from couture dresses to print t-shirts and jeans, she is very versatile.

The dress she wore for the People’s Choice awards (first picture) was tasteful, appropriate for the event, sexy and edgy (just about the perfect combo). It seems like she always gets it right, with some exceptions because no one is perfect. Ever since she got the Esteé Lauder contract she climbed the fashion ladder, though she is not one of those super exposed celebrities. I see a very bright future for her as a serious actress, though for some reason I want her to be something more since she is getting such a good education.

Photo credit: 1, 2, 3, 4

I don’t usually post a lot of pictures on Instagram, mostly because I spend all day trapped in an office with nothing pretty to take a picture off (I work on an insurance company), but this week was a busy one and there were so many moments I wanted to capture.

My goddaughter Amanda was born last sunday, she was a bit early so she was very tiny. I am so happy I will get to be more than an aunt for this beautiful girlie. Right now she seems so fragile that I get scared when I hold her. My other nieces seem huge next to her, they are all grown up. I will have a post with better pictures of this cutie, I am just waiting for my sister to give me the ones that the photographer took. In the third picture Amanda is taking a bath, it’s the cutest thing ever because she actually enjoys the warm water so much that she makes this little happy sounds.

On tuesday, the company I work with was shooting the commercial for their institutional campaign. I work in the marketing and communications department, so naturally I am very involved in this project. The commercial is an analogy between what a goalie is to his team and what an insurance company is to a person. It was a first for me, and it was so fun to be in the behind the scenes of producing. Our star was actually our local team’s goalie, so we had some starstruck kids watching during the filming.

My sister’s academy’s recital was on wednesday, but she couldn’t be there since she had just given birth. My nieces were going to perform, and I couldn’t miss it for the world. The play this year was “Neverland” a prequel to Peter pan, the costumes were very pretty and the girls were dancing so good. This are the moments when I can’t believe how much they have grown, it is mind blowing.

If you would like to follow me on Instagram, my user name is thehiboublog

Begins right where it left off in The Carrie Diaries, Carrie was mugged and lost all her money and her beloved “Carrie bag” so she called the only contact she had in New York, Donna LaDonna’s cousin: Samantha Jones. This was the moment that defined everything, she fell under Samantha’s wing and on her very first day in the city, she was already hanging with the beautiful people. Carrie fell in love hard and fast with the city and she was determined to find a way to stay, she had six weeks to do it before she had to start college in Brown.

Many people will probably like this book more compared to the first, because we finally get to see how it all started: how she meets the girls, how she managed to stay, and her first real mistakes in love. The eighties are such a fun decade, everyone experiments with fashion without fear, kids can go out without needing fake ids, and the city was their playground. Carrie is still a virgin and more and more is fascinated by the stories and opinions other girls offer about sex, it is still like a mystical thing for her.

Samantha is the fake it till you make it girl who is trying to get the life she wants by marrying an upper east side golden boy. Miranda is a women’s right activist who collects signatures against porn outside of Saks, she utterly and completely hates men. And Charlotte, we only get to meet her at the very end, but as always she is a hopeless romantic. Carrie also has a group of friends from her writing class, one of them is Capote Duncan (he makes an appearance in the Sex and the City pilot) who she initially hates, but ends up being something more.

{Spoilers might start to appear ahead.. }

There is a different side to Carrie, she starts getting a bit full of herself. This was something that annoyed me, but at the same time I understood why it happened. She felt like she had reached heaven on earth, and when someone was not impressed by her new life as she expected them to be, she got irritated. New York is her new wonderland and she distanced herself almost completely from her past life, but deep inside she was terrified she might have to go back.

Carrie meets a famous play writer and starts dating him, she is completely infatuated with his fame and age, she doesn’t realize she is just a post-divorse crisis for him. Influenced by him, she decides to write a play for her class and at the same time meets a guy who has a “space” where he hosts parties, play readings, fashion shows, etc. Carrie then gets her play reading, even though the guy with the space hasn’t even read her play (suspicious). All of this can only go wrong and explode in her face, you can imagine what happens.

In a turn of events, she catches the attention of a news paper editor who is looking to capture a younger crowd and has the idea of a column where Carrie can talk about her life in the city, where she never gets it right. Without even knowing, this guy got her back to her high school column were she talked about the things that were happening around her. That was when her voice was the most honest and full of insight, and that is why it was something that really stuck.

Get the book here. See “The Carrie Diaries” book review here. Images from the movie Sex and the City 2. Skyline drawing by Lee-Ann Adendorff

I tried out my first crossfit class. I wanted to start exercising because beach season is coming up and besides I can’t even remember the last time I was active. First mistake: I had a very late lunch. I was stuck in traffic and got to the crossfit gym at aprox. 7:30 pm. There they told me that the class started at 7:10 and that I had to wait until 8:10 for the next class.
 
I still had half an hour to kill, and I realized I forgot to shave my legs and brought shorts for the class (yikes!). So second mistake: I went to the drugstore across the street to buy a razor (what was I thinking?!). I went back to the gym with my gym bag (that was actually a beach bag because really I never go to the gym why would I own a sports bag) and wearing my work uniform (I still hadn’t changed because of the no-shave problem), naturally everyone was staring at the weirdo.
 
I went to the bathroom, into the showers and ran the water so I could shave my legs. I didn’t have any soap and it was such a fast shave that I ended up cutting myself all over (tiny cuts but still they wouldn’t stop bleeding). After that I didn’t have a towel (forgot about that little detail) and had no idea how to dry my legs so I had to use my sweater. I changed into my oh so very improvised gym outfit that consisted in a colombian navy shirt that my dad got me as a souvenir, my office’s soccer team shorts, and my high school white sneakers that had orange paint stains. Of course my legs started itching me real bad and I saw a rash starting to appear.
 
I ran into a lot of people I know (crossfit is the craze right now) and they told me I would be fine that today’s class was easy (I didn’t believe that for one second but I stayed). They told me I had to tell the instructor that it was my first day, but when I walked to her, out of nowhere she screamed START! and everyone around her frantically ran to get a mat and started doing crunches and I was like, what do I have to do I? didn’t get a chance to say I’m new!
 
I got nervous and I ran towards the instructor but out of nowhere there was a guy who tackled me with the weight he was using for the crunches and catapulted me in the air. I fell in my face right in front of the instructor. Everyone was so intense with their workout that they didn’t even notice (crossfit people are very intense). The instructor then told me that the class hadn’t started yet, they were just working out because they wanted to (intense right?).
 
Illustration by The Hibou.

The one thing we are not supposed to do. I know that it the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t only refer to books, it’s about appearances, but in the world of design everything is about appearance. Every time I go to a bookstore or browse through amazon I get so lost in so many titles, and reading thousands of reviews can get exhausting. In the end I pull up the books that catch my eye, and I’ sure most people do to.
 
Considering how little people read compared to watching tv, movies, browsing through the internet, etc; books have to make an extra effort to catch people’s attention. Here’s a list of books that just looking at the cover, I would want to find out what they are about:
 
1. Castles in the sand by Crockett Johnson. Illustrated by Betty Faser
 
2. The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo by F.G. Haghenbeck. Designed by Anna Dorfman Illustrations by Lisa Congdon
 
3. On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Designed by Greg Mollica
 
4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Designed by Gray 318
 
5. The Tattoo Artist by Jill Ciment. Designed by Helen Yentus
 
6. Wild Abandonby Joe Dunthorne. Designed by Gray 318

It’s summer in the southern hemisphere, while North America, Europe, and most of Asia are freezing cold, we get to enjoy the most fun season of all. But there are those few corners of the earth where summer never ends. I live in a city called Guayaquil, cold temperatures do not even exist here.

There is a pro and con to that as usual; I can’t even bear with winter, but we wear the same type of clothes all year round. We never get to wear boots, cute coats or scarves. It is hard sometimes to shop for clothes because while I may want cute and colorful summer clothes, my favorite stores only have dark colors and thick fabrics.

Browsing around the web I found this store in Amsterdam called Scotch & Soda that has a very summery vibe, this is the laid back style that I want for my beach wardrobe: a bit tribal and indie. Another discovery are these bags by african designers Lalesso x Pichulik, which I basically want to buy every single item of their store, the collection is called “The Promise of Summer” which is perfect because I live that promise all year round. The best part of these two stores is that they offer free shipping world wide (wait what?). Yup.

In the world of design, where you went to college or your grades don’t really matter to anyone. All they want to see when they decide whether to hire you or not, is your work. If you want to work at an ad agency and you send them just your CV, it is probably going to get buried in a pile of desk paper. There are too many designers out there, and finding a way to stand out is hard. Looking for inspiration for my own portfolio, I found this self promotional “kits” that some designers have made trying to get a job at companies they are interested in, or to send to potential clients.

I think this is brilliant, these remind me of college care packages (and how I never got one because sending from Ecuador was just too far away). Getting a package filled with goodies always lightens someone’s day, even if it’s promotional material, it get’s people’s attention. The most important part is branding, the potential client or employer gets to experience first hand who you are as a designer and if they decide to hire you, they already know what to expect. In the end, the most important part is getting your portfolio out there and in a way that people won’t be able to ignore it.

Designs: 1, 2, 3 & 4, 5, 6

I am by far the clumsiest person I know, the weirdest and funniest stuff happens to me on a daily basis. I could spend hours telling you my anecdotes and you would probably ask me how am I still alive. When I was in school I was bullied because of my clumsyness, people made me feel like I was stupid just because I easily slipped or fell on my face. That made me a bit bitter for a while and also made me try to prove to people that I was smart, making me a bit of an annoying know-it-all. I learned a while ago to laugh at myself even when the most embarassing things happen, because that is the only way to be happy. That’s part of growing up I guess, feeling confortable with who I am. As a new post series, I will be sharing with you stories that happen to me on any ordinary day but that are somewhat riddiculous. I am quite the detailed story teller so bear with me when sometimes I may write too much. I hope we can share a laugh or two, and if you are clumsy as me please share your story too, I would love to read it.