2nd blogiversary: a year in review

First of all I would to thank the lovely Rae for starting the blogiversary celebrations this week! If you haven’t checked her post kicking off the “3 inspiring bit series” already, please do, because I bet you will love her photography as much as we do!

Our blog anniversary is here and I still have to pinch myself to realize that two (two!) years of blogging have already passed by, two years of never stopping thinking about new projects, to improve our photography, to learn, to grow, to dream about new life projects. I won’t lie and tell everything in the garden is rosy, because it’s quite exhausting sometimes: we keep our daily work and on top of that we take pics, edit them, write posts (well… let’s say the mister is less stressed by this point) and try to be on the social loop. But how do I enjoy thinking about the new posts! The new adventures we could enroll “just for the sake of the blog”! How this brings so much observation into our everyday making it, somehow, less ordinary.

I’m sure you may have noticed that I’m lately rambling too much, so in order to keep this fun, let’s move to the overview of our adventures during the 2nd year of blogging, our yearly classic (I know classic with only two years it’s more than a bold statement, ha!). Ready? Seat belts fasten?

Our most inspiring adventures

One of the places where I remember having an instant peak of happiness is around these yellow flowers of the picture. It was at the end of a hiking day with my mom and Dani at El Delta del Llobregat when we saw a little path with the most cheerful flowers, a little corner out of a fairytale. Check the complete session here & also our complete hiking day here to see more about one of our most inspiring adventures of the year and my favorite portait!

The sea is an important part of my life, and although I have a difficult relationship with the beach, I can’t be separated long from the blue wonder. Every summer we try to take as many pictures by the sea as we can. Check our adventures eating Paella and Thrifting by the sea.

Hands down the Mossen Costa i LLobera (aka the cactus garden) has been our favorite discovery in our city, if you haven’t, check our pictures and make sure to add it to your Barcelona visiting list for your next travel.

We almost never have snow in Barcelona, so in order to see the white wonderland we must travel a few hours from our home. During winter we took a much needed day off to chill ourselves, we came happy but with our fingers and toes frozen.

Your favorite posts

I was delighted to learn that many of you keep mementos from your travels, and it looks as many of you were also interested to see how I keep them, thanks lots!

The Van Van market was the first initiative of our city to give credit to the talented young chefs behind the food trucks. It’s a pity they are banned from selling freely but I appreciate that the love has increased and lots of editions & other initiatives have been taken place since then. The Vans are surely pretty to the eye, so no wonder you were amused with them!

The parks are a favorite of everyone, and although Barcelona has a few small ones some of them don’t lack the charm! I wore my brand new Susi Sweet Dress outfit at the botanical rose garden.

El Festivalet is the most thoughtful, well curated and decorated handmade/design winter market in Barcelona. The last edition was full of balloons and neon lights, we all agree they are ace!

As of late…snapshots from our phones

One of the new series this last year was the “As of late…snapshots from” which feature the pictures taken from our phones & show that other adventures that doesn’t have their own post in the blog. Some of them are Instagrammed as well, but lots of others aren’t, so we find it fun to gather them together month by month.

Places we visited

This year we were lucky to travel to one breathtaking scenery: the South of Wales. We were happy as a clam (ok, sheep would be more appropiate in this case) surrounded by the castles, lands and cliffs in the dragons’ lair.

We travelled together with my family to Sintra, a very majestic Portuguese town next to Lisbon. It was our first time in Portugal (and we loved it, of course! our nice neighbors) and the first time travelling with a kiddo (my nephew).

For a second year in a row we visited the lovey-dovey Paris for our wedding anniversary, it was like a round two, that second time that just confirms that you just love that city and want to come back year after year, well, maybe it would not be so, but you know the feeling!

And while we were in Paris we had a free day off to Disneyland! By now you know how excited I get to visit the happiest place on earth, thus the Halloween decorations were making things only even better.

Ohlala… the blog fun

Hands down the best thing of having a blog is to meet people, and I am not gonna lie, the highlight is to see that your post gets to someone else’s house in form of comments, views, likes, shares whatever shape :) Along these two years we have been blessed with the acquaintance of lovely souls, of whom you have in mind in that moment when clicking the publish button where you wonder “What will Mary comment? I’m sure John will enjoy this part” (of course John and Mary fictitious names).

During last blog anniversary we had a few of our favorite souls joining us and we felt we couldn’t be more grateful. Thanks to Always with yoo (now Winding Ridge Lane) / Photostorming / Kitsune-kun / Burntfeather! / Sugar & Dinosaurs / Ice Pandora / Random places familiar faces & Gamerwife

Another amazing effect of blogging is suddenly daring to show your photography to people you’ve long admired; you hold everything together, stop a little to breath and go ahead and write a note on their social networks to show the pictures you have taken at their event, with their clothes, their creations. This was the case with Alicia, the Festivalet organizer. Thanks to her lovely acquaintance we were featured in their crafty book and we had the chance to go to our first ever book release party (with a bingo! Aren’t they the best?) We have also met some other of our heroes!

Mitsuru Nagata and her adorable wife Maika are friends from friends that we were the nicest to meet. Our friend Anna thought we could make a good match, we both have blogs and interest in doing something creative besides our day job. We have to thank them for quickly enrolling us for a giveaway!

We have also been present in some other bloggers’ mind by means of blog tags (a new concept for us, that got us quite lost during the first year!) and guest posts (thanks Jane!). Check them here 1. Blog hop on creativity / 2. Around the world blog hop / 3. Blog tag / 4. Guest blogger at Winding Ridge Lane

And this year we had another first ever experience, meeting a blogger…in flesh and bones! Deniz came to Barcelona with her hubs Türker and we shared a lunch a some laughs together. I was very nervous but I think I could handle another meetup, anyone interested? ha!

Juno

Juno was a model this year for Rronrron, a handmade crafty business that creates felt cat houses which Juno is in love with. She is more conceited ever since, and has demanded why her invitation to the Met gala didn’t arrive.

Juno receives presents (thanks Fee!) and she is more than happy to model for us with them. After 5 years we know that the presents are always for her, we are not that naïve to think otherwise ;)

Pikmin Juno is a cuter version of Juno! Check our DIY and thanks to Fiona Harding for her version for Gremlin!

Thanks for anyone who was able to reach to the bottom, it wasn’t easy with my blabbing plus the many pics, but please indulge us since it’s a review! Which was your favorite adventure of our blog this year? Maybe we missed it in the review! What was your favorite adventure from your blog/life/everything?