Romanian Folkloric Necklace

Lately, my passion for Romanian Folklore and traditional items has grown fast! I started being obsessed with all the old furniture items, accessories and clothing items that I could find in our old country house, in old flee markets. I saved all the blouses and scarves I could find ... and THAT's where I got my inspiration from!
This folklore-inspired necklace is pretty-pretty and full of life!
I chose a golden necklace, but this time a bit thinner than the one I used for the "Purplelicious" necklace. I added colored beads (glass, and wood) and little tassels I made out of colored fabrics and threads. For this necklace I preferred not to crowd the beads and tassels so much, so they are visible and each bead and tassel gets the well-deserved attention.

And this is the final result! Can't wait for your opinion! :)

Kiss kiss, Alexandra

DIY Purplelicious Necklace!o

So while cleaning up my room and checking every little box I found, I decided to reuse all the big, chunky, colorful beads I found. I used golden chains (which you can buy from any store specialized in handmade tools and materials), metal wire/wire bars, your favorite beads and the closing clasps.
I was in a very creative mood today, so I made two necklaces! :D
The Purplelicious Necklace has a very thick base chain, as wide as the pointing finger. I combined several colors: purple, violet, bright pink, white, taupe, in different shapes and styles: wooden beads, glass beads, painted plastic and crystals.
Mix them however you want, to get this unique accessory that will spice up any outfit!
This is what it looks like :D.

I'm curious about YOUR final result!

Hugs and kisses, Alexandra

Barbados - the bluest water I've seen so far"

Barbados is one of my favorite Caribbeans.

There are plenty of things to do here, all of them beach-related, but I promise you, they're worth every penny!

I'm going to tell you why I chose to start with this port, from aaaaaall the ports I've visited: besides the fact that I was simply amazed by the clear, blue water, I have the best memories here, that always bring a sincere smile on my face.

Being for the first time here, I just followed the "herd" and since every crew member was telling me about The Boatyard, The Boatyard it was! Some of my more experienced co-workers had been here before, so they knew how things were going on around here - and this was exactly my luck.

The ride, the entrance and a free cocktail were covered by the price we payed for the little bracelet they gave us when we took the car. When I got there - MAGIC! The whitest sand was being washed by clear, light blue water and the beach was just ALIVE! 

Half of it was full of passengers and crew members, but we couldn't care less...we were like crazy puppies running wild without a leash! :))

 Some of the locals are making a living out of water sports, so they offer you "the best deals" (so they say) for everything you can imagine: snorkeling, swimming with the turtles, jet-skiing, boat parties and probably many more activities that I might have missed.

I must admit that making a living out of sales helped me a lot - so much that we ended up getting great prices after a lot of negotiating:

• Instead of paying $45/ person/ 30 minutes on a jet-ski, we ended up paying just $20/ person/ 30 minute.

And I'm saying "we" because I didn't rent the jet-ski by myself: since one crazy person is not enough on a jet-ski, my Serbian friend, Jovana, joined me. She was working in the Photo Gallery, but although we were not working together, she was one of my soul mates: two crazy aquariuses - both balkans, both psychopaths. :))

It took us just 1 minute to "lift off" then drive like maniacs - the truth is, the owner looked extremely relieved after we returned the jet-ski.

• Instead of paying $10 each for a Banana ride, we went once for free, once for just $5. (Oh yeah! :D )

The free ride, I must admit, was a win-win situation: we went one round for free, the guy got his publicity :D.

The second (great) price, was after making a deal with one of the young guys in charge of the Banana ride: "you accept just $5/ person and I bring you more crew members". After making the deal everybody was happy - except the boy's dad, who made it pretty clear he didn't like me :)).

 

•   Instead of paying $15/ person for swimming with the turtles and visiting a ship wreck, we payed just $10 each.

This is another great memory I have and my only regret is not having any pictures taken with an underwater camera :(. The 
wreck we visited was covered in colorful corals and sponges, sea weed, very colorful exotic fish that were friendly and used to people, that were swimming close to you, touching you - it was something I've only seen on TV until that moment. 

Few minutes later, we got on the boat again and went to see the turtles. One of them was huuuge, maybe 50 cm/ 50 cm, while the other 5-6 turtles were the size of a watermelon...or..pie..(you get the main idea :D ). We got in the water and the boat's driver took out a bucked full of tiny fishiiiez which he started throwing in the water, in order to attract the turtles.

Smarty here got brave: "Please give me one fish so I can feed the turtle! :D" (OF COURSE I got my puppy eyes to be more convincing). He gave me the little fish but warned me not to let the turtle bite me - they have these beaks similar to parrots' beaks, really strong! 

So while I was extremely focused not to get bitten by the big turtle ( I only wanted to feed that one) - another little fella' bites my toe! :)) That sneaky little ...! It took just one bite to change my love for turtles into fear :)). From cute little creatures, in my eyes, they became ferocious predators of helpless toes! :))  Our guide started laughing and started throwing all the fish he had left, towards me - 5 seconds and all the turtles were swimming underneath me. We finally made it to the shore with big smiles on our faces (and all toes in their place), ready for new adventures!

 

And there's a lot more to do: rope swinging, you can get great food, awesome drinks! and a lot of good memories!

I honestly recommend it and I hope I get the chance to visit Barbados again, with the same friends!

These are some of the pictures :D

Lots of love, Alexandra

How did it all begin?

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was getting ready to finish my contract and come home... And it seems like it was just .. (also) yesterday ( :)) hahah ) that I did get home and meet my friends and family...and now, it's suddenly Christmas... and New Year's just around the corner - boy, time flies fast!

And what was that contract about? I work on a cruise ship as a shoppie - the shortest replacement term for "retail sales associate". I must tell you the truth: although I used to say it all the time " boy, would I love to work on a cruise ship!" I never actually believed that I would end up actually working there.

A lot of friends ask me how did I actually get there?

I've been hearing a lot about ship life from my cousin and his wife - who have been working on cruise ships for 9 years maybe? - have been seeing a lot of pictures and hearing a lot of stories... Then a few other acquaintances started working on cruise ships... then another friend, later on - a friend of a friend..and so on.
I decided to apply - first for Spa - as a manicurist, nail technician, nail designer - whatever my Diploma could cover. I got the call, everything was "waiting" for me: the job, the interview day was close, the departure was supposed to be immediately - everything you could wish for if you wanted to leave, still I hesitated.
 Being a hopeless (idiot) romantic, I was respecting too much the relationship I was in, at that time, to which I added the "gut" feeling and many other imaginary reasons for not to go - so I said NO.

That year's end came with a lot of surprises, including the end of my so much respected relationship - wow, that was a bust! :)) and I entered that "dead" time of the year, when everybody is gone, the ones that are not gone, are either with their significant others, or enjoying vacations, or enjoying beer after beer in a cheap local pub .
Professionally it wasn't too peachy either:  I was becoming frustrated, not too many appointments, not too much of a big income.
Sentimentally - devastated! (now I realize I was just adding drama to the whole picture :)) hahah, but then, I was too busy mourning to notice it).
So when I finally saw that my ex-boyfriend had no problem with redoing his life (amazingly fast) and that my "career" was a bit stuck, I entered my "kamikaze" mode: not caring about anything, not being afraid of anything and pretty much up for anything! I realized there was nothing holding me here and if there was a time in my life to try my chances, this was it!

So I sent again an e-mail to the recruiting company: "This is what I can do, these are the languages I speak, send me wherever, whenever and for as much as you like". Surprisingly, I got an answer in only a few days.
Everything happened unexpectedly fast - events just poured one after the other and before I even realized it, I was already on a mini floating city - it took me one month to realize what have I gotten myself into :)) But I will detail all those little stories in future posts.

Long story short (for now) ... It was a decision that I'm happy I made. It was an experience that gave me the opportunity to evolve a lot professionally (regular shoppie -> promotional ambassador -> jewelry specialist ...all in just one contract!), to learn a lot from different people, different nationalities and mentalities and also, the opportunity to visit a lot!

In the end of this post, I'll show you a bit of what I visited this contract! :D ( lucky me got the interval when the ship was repositioning, so I also got the Baltic run, as well as the Carribbean run Yay yay! :D )

• St. Petersburg - Russia
• Tallinn - Estonia
• Harwich - U.K.
• Helsinki - Finland
• Gothenburg - Sweden
• Stockholm - Sweden
• Copenhagen - Denmark
• Oslo - Norway
• Bergen - Norway
• Geiranger - Norway
• Reykjavik - Iceland
• Klaksvik - Faroe Islands
• Dublin - Ireland
• Cobh - Ireland
• Le Havre - France
• Paris - France
• St. John's - Newfoundland and Labrador
• Bar Harbor - Maine
• Boston - Massachusetts
• Portland - Maine
• Tampa - Florida
• Geroge Town - Grand Cayman  (here, I must admit, I never got off the ship) 
• Cozumel - Mexico
• Oranjestad - Aruba
• Bridgetown - Barbados
• Basseterre - St. Kitts
• Castries -St. Lucia
• Roatan - Honduras
• Puerto Costa Maya - Mexico
•  ...and probably a few more that I don't remember - I know in Scotland I've been, for sure, I just didn't get off the ship. boo- hoo :(

Let me know in which of these places have you been! :D I'm more than curious!
Until my next post,

Hugs and kisses! Alexandra

The beginning of... THE OFFICIAL blog :)) ( hopefully the final one)

Hello there!

Where do I start from? ... I can tell you a little bit about myself, but knowing my way of telling stories, one post wouldn't be enough :D. So I'll leave the details supplying for later - a little new surprise in each post you'll see here.

My name is Alexandra-Maria Rada and I come from a GORGEOUS city from Romania, called Oradea.

I have had several attempts of having my own blog...but each time, something kept me unsatisfied with those blogs and I ended up giving up on them.
Probably I was having a hard time deciding what should my blog be about: should it be about my personal life? Mixed events? Daily outfits? Should it be about my job (at least one of the MANY I had so far)? ...And this is how I ended up having blogs about my personal life AND a blog picturing my complex professional life (up to some point - and I will explain that later).

I mentioned " one of the MANY jobs I had so far" precisely because ... I had a lot of jobs. :D
I started working at 17 as a promoter/hostess and kept working in sales ... Education was also sales-related (Economics High School and Economics University - Majored in Marketing).
But ever since I was a kid, my biggest love has always been ART. I've always been ( although with great results at school)  that "not paying any attention" type of student. :D - drawing in classes and daydreaming about my next sketches.
At 19 I started tattooing - got my official authorized Tattoo Artist Diploma in the winter of 2012, when I became an official member of The Union of Romanian Tattoo-Artists.
Also in 2012 I got my Certificate in Manicure and Pedicure - which I also chose for the artistic part - the nail designs.
... And I pretty much do and love everything that is artsy and cute ^_^.

Why am I telling you all this? ... Because I'm done with starting a thousand blogs with different themes - there will be one to have them all! :D

All these being said, it's my pleasure to meet you and start this blog adventure together!  ^_^
Pupici!  ( =ro. for "kisses") :*