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My lovely friend Joana from Ecological Storyteller made a banner for my blog. Isn't she amazing? Tell me what you think and take a chance to visit her blog, which I follow, of course- Give her some love, she totally deserves it. Thanks Jojo! <3

El Calafate

Geez! I'm being super lazy when it comes to blogging, I know that I've said that I'll post photos from my vacations a while back. Sorry about that. I've started a new job recently so I'm still adjusting to my new schedule.

So I went to a town called El Calafate, located south of Argentina. You can read more about it here or check the town's official site (although I don't think it's in English...). The most important attraction to visit there is the Perito Moreno Glacier (more info here) and I highly recommend it for everyone, it's amazing! You don't believe me? Check the photos!

 Walking over Perito Moreno Glacier

 Upsala Glacier

 A tiny beach @El Calafate

 Spegazzini Glacier

 Me being goofy

 Admiring the view

I hope that you've enjoyed the photos, if you ever come to Argentina, you MUST go to El Calafate as well. ;)

I'm back

I've just realized that I left this poor blog unattended. I went on my vacations and forgot to tell you about it... I hope that you understand, there was a lot going on. But the important thing is that I'm back and that I had a wonderful time. I'll share some photos with you soon. ;)

Mad Men Barbie & Ken

Thanks for the lovely comments on my last post, I feel much better now. If you read my blog regularly, you'll know by now that I'm a huge Mad Men fan. So when I saw this I had to tell you about it. There's a special version of Barbie and Ken, styled as some of the Mad Men characters (want!).

Anxiety and panic attacks

I haven't been felling well lately. That's the main reason why I stopped posting on the blog. My last post was about felling happy and celebrating a new phase on my life, but my mind sabotaged me. I'm not confortable talking about bad things here, because that's not why I've created a blog. It's important to me to share happy thoughts and nice things, as well as the blogs I read try to do. So why ruin the blogosphere with something that isn't nice?

But then I read this post and everything changed. I'm not alone in this. And I'm sure that many of you out there suffer the same. Anxiety. Such a tiny word for a huge ghost. Since last year I've been suffering anxiety and panic attacks. Feeling trapped in a horrible job, feeling awful in the subway, wanting to get away and just run away. I did therapy and overcome it, but then after a while it all appeared again. And that's when I've decided to finally quit.

February 28th was my last day and since then, I've had my ups and downs. Having all this free time in my hands was suddenly too scary. I'll go back to therapy of course, since there must be something more deep that provokes my anxiety. But I guess that admiting that I need help is the first step (ha, this sounds like I should go to AA or something :P). I also think that talking about it makes the ghost go away. So there it is, I've said it and I feel better already. And for everyone that feels the same out there, you're not alone. It might be scary, but like my yoga teacher told me last week "No one dies of panic attacks". This thing wont beat me, for sure, it'll only make me stronger.

The first day of the rest of my life

It's a cliche phrase, but that's how I felt on March 1st. Due to an awesome event, I'm beggining a new phase in my life and I hope that it'll be a super cool one, better than the past few months. I don't want to get too personal and rant about bad things, it's not the idea of this post or the blog in general. I just want to share happiness and good wishes and nice things. So, I'm trying to live the days to come at its fullest and just enjoy.

I'll share more on this later, in the meantime, a goodbye to Jane Russell.

LCD Soundsystem rocks!

I went to a concert on Wednesday, the most fun concert I went to in a while, to watch LCD Soundsystem. From the beggining to the end, my best friend, my boyfriend and I couldn't do anything but dance, dance, dance! We left feeling super happy and lucky, since we were some of the last people to see them live, since they're separating soon. They'll give their final show April 2nd at Madison Square Garden and that's it for them. The show was awesome, they played all their hits and I'll share this cool song to dance during the weekend. Enjoy!

Goodreads + World Book Capital

I've recently discovered Goodreads and as a reader I find it a very interesting site. You can keep count of the books that you've read, the ones that you want to read and share with your friends your opinions on them and also get recommendations. I might be getting to know this site a little late, but I'm loving it so far and I check it at least once a day. If you like, you can friend me there. ;)

In other news that get to me late, I've JUST found out that Buenos Aires is the World Book Capital for 2011. I can only blame the city's goverment for this... it's a completely underestimated fact! But this doesn't come as a suprise, I'm not ashamed to say that I think that the city goverment sucks. The most important things to be taken care of such as education and health are forgotten... don't even ask me were all of our money goes. I'm tired of politicians stealing our money. I'm not about to make this entry a political entry, it's not what this blog is about. I'd just like to be proud of having my city as the World Book Capital and knowing that the goverment is doing something about it.

Anyway, in the spirit of booklovin' I'll end the post recommending you a book of one of my favorite writers. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.

Telling what this book is about is a little hard, because, like all of Murakami's books, there are a lot of paralel stories and characters to follow. So I'll just say that it's a book that changed my life and that I felt sorry it was over when I finished it.

Have a great weekend!

I want to be a Mad Men gal

I've said it already, I loooooove Mad Men! And lately I'm in love with vintage clothing, I'd kill to own a 1960's dress!  And guess what? I've found an amazing Etsy shop tu fullfill my needs! Daisy and Stella is now officially bookmarked, here are some of my favorites.

Mandy's Giveaway

Miss Mandy over at Chocolate Creamcake has one of my favorite blogs and since last week is hosting a super giveaway. I think that you should take a chance to know about her and her blog, it's swell!

Interview at My beautiful disaster

My penpal and friend from Canada, Erin, over at My beautiful disaster, posted an interview featuring yours truly. You can read it here and while you're at it, enjoy Erin's blog. Thanks Erin! :D

Catfish

Like the poster says "Don't let anyone tell you what it is". So... I'm not here to tell you anything but WATCH IT! And then let me know what did you think about it. ;)

Photos

I told you on a previous post that I got a pinhole camera for my birthday. I've been taking photos with it, some results were pretty bad and other not so bad. So here are my two favorites.

I've been reading lately that there's a Valentine fever going on. That's not a super holiday here in Argentina, I don't know anyone who celebrates it here. But I might prepare a little something for my boyfriend anyway, really just as an excuse because I like surprises (getting them and giving them as well). Any suggestions?

Disconnect the dots

I love my new skirt!

 My cat Toto seems to like it too :P

Mad Men

I love watching TV series... If I had to make a quick calculation of how many shows I'm currently watching, I'd say over ten. But the one I want to talk about now is Mad Men. I've watched three of the four seasons so far and it's been a blast. The show is about a guy that works at an advertising company and the name of the show has two meanings: mad men (as in crazy persons, obviously) and Mad (short for Madison Avenue) Men (as in the guys from the street where all the advertising companies used to be).

All the characters are pretty good and what I love about the show is how well the '60s are represented. The wardrobe and art are just amazing! I'd just love to buy all those vintage dresses and wear that kind of make up...

And also there's a super hotie playing the main character of Don Draper, an ad man who suposedly has the perfect life, but not everything is what it looks like...

The plot line is captivating, I highly recommend you this show!

Somewhere

I've watched Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere" over the weekend. I really liked it and I think that she did a great job portraying what she wanted to show. And a phrase that I think it's perfect for this film is "Una imagen vale mas que mil palabras" (an image is worth more than a thousand words)... I don't know if this expression exists in English, that's why I wrote it on Spanish first.

Both Stepehn  Dorff and Elle Fanning are great at their roles and the film was very moving to me. I'm not sure about the ending of the film, but that's really personal. I'd say, though, that it's not important... and knowing Sofia Coppola, I guess that it's part of her way of showing things; she did the same with "Lost in translation".

Watch it if you can and let me know what did you think. Happy Monday!

Tacky souvenir swap

I've just signed up for the Tacky Souvenir Swap over at The art of staying up all night blog. I think that it's a super fun swap. In fact, we have this "joke" around my family and it consists on giving each other a tacky souvenir whenever we travel. I'm so excited that I'm thinking about what to get already, I might even buy the souvenir I'll send today!

Photographic wishlist

I'm a photography lover... considering that this blog has just started and that most of my posts are related with photography, it's pretty obvious, right? Here are some of the things that I'm DYING to get...

Isn't this pendant to die for? Via the Photojojo store.

I'm using a pocket camera, but I think that it's time for me to have a Digital Reflex... my boyfriend bought for himself the D3100, but it's out of my league.

My camera collection wouldn't be complete without a LOMO... and the Diana Mini is just adorable. Via Lomography.

Another beauty, the Fuji Instax Mini 7.

What's on your wishlist?

Black Swan

Ever since I first heard about "Black Swan", I've been meaning to watch it. The combo Darren Aronofsky + Natalie Portman + Vincent Cassel (!) was too good to pass. And finally, yesterday night, I've watched it thanks to my gorgeous boyfriend. He knew that I wanted to watch it so he got me a pretty decent copy in a good quality and we watched it together. We were both pretty amazed by Portman's performance, she's just great. I've been following her since The professional and I have a crush on her, BAD! After the movie ended, my boyfriend and I were shocked and we spent a while discussing it and the psychology of Portman's character. I don't want to reveal much for the ones that haven't seen it yet, but it's a wonderful movie and she deserves the Oscar.

Pinhole camera

I've mentioned on a previous post one of my bday gift's and now it's time to talk about another one. My boyfriend gave me a pinhole camera set containing:

The pinhole camera

Photographic paper

Developer/Fixer liquids

A tupperware with the perfect measures to develop

I was super excited to get this, being a photography lover and I've already tried it, of course. So far, I think that I still need to adjust some things, but we've already achieved great results! He loves photography too, so we used it together and he was just as excited as I was. I'll share some of the photos we took on a future post. ;)

Currently reading

I'd like to share with you the book that I'm currently reading. Its original title is La chaimbre claire. Note sur la photographie.

This was one of the gifts that I've received my past b-day. I've been meaning to read something by Roland Barthes for some time now, so I was really glad to get it. Plus, it has a special meaning since it's a gift from my photo teacher and my class mates (I've been taking photo classes since last year).

Barthes' approach on photography is really interesting, I didn't finish the book yet, but what I've read so far is a completely different analisis on photography from other things that I've read before. The "twist" here is that what Barthes really does is his personal view about photography and he speaks about what it does to him. Plus, he choses one of his favorite photos, which is one from his mother's childhood. Further on, he makes an analisis comparing photography with death. Impressive.

Design + editing

When I first started blogging, I had all my blogs hosted on Wordpress, so this is my first time using Blogger and I have to admit that I still don't get a lot of the things that I can do. For example, on my previous post, I tried to add a link to a Youtube video, but it doesn't seem to be working. Any tips?

Also, I've uploaded a different design for the blog, but I can't seem to view it properly on Mozilla (it seems to work fine in Explorer). Grr! These kind of things take some time until you understand them, I'll have to be patient, but if someone could give me some advise, it would be awesome.

Thanks in advance!

Update: I've just discovered by myself how to add a youtube video, yay me!

About me

I've just realized that I didn't introduce myself properly... I'm not very good with introductions, but I'll do my best. My name is Jazmin and I'm from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I live at my apartment with my cat Toto and I'm 28 years old. I love taking photos, I consider myself a book worm and listening to music caresses my soul. I practise yoga almost on a daily basis and I try that everyone around me practises too ( they don't take my advise anyway). I believe that yoga is an awesome activity and it's both great for the body and the mind. I love watching movies and TV series (I'm currently watching around 15 shows). I love to travel and all my savings are destined for future adventures. Mmm... it's hard to describe yourself, isn't it? I'll end it here, I'm sure that you'll get to know me better by reading the blog and seeing what I post. What about you? What do you like?

Here's one of my favorite songs at the moment.

Welcome!

Bienvenidos, welcome!

Después de pensarlo y repensarlo millones de veces, finalmente he decidido abrir un nuevo blog. Varios años atrás me metí en la blogósfera y me encantó ese alter-mundo digital. Tuve varios blogs a lo largo del tiempo y conocí a un montón de gente, blog-amigos. Y después de mucho meditarlo, he decidido volver al ruedo a ver qué pasa. Espero que me acompañen los de antes, los de siempre y muchos nuevos. Saludos!