Something happened last week that I didn't thought would ever happen to me, or at least at this stage in my 'blogger life'. A few weeks ago, I received an email from the pr-company Mr. Goodiebag. To be honest, I've never heard of them before. They sent me an e-mail with an invitation for the Christmas edition of The Great Blogger Dinner, a premier in Belgium after the big successes in Amsterdam and Berlin. At first I thought it was send to the wrong person or maybe this was a joke or spam or something like that. After some investigating with the boyfriend, we realised this was an actual invitation, written to me and 39 other Belgian bloggers. As a week went by, I started to get nervous whether I should go or not. But as this was the first time I was invited to something related to my blog, I realised I just had to go and 'have a mister experience'. 

On the day of this big christmassy blogger dinner, I got myself ready and went to Antwerp, where the Hilton Hotel is situated conveniently in the centre of the city. Antwerp is totally decked out for Christmas at this time of the year with a huge iceskating ring and Christmas markets located right before the hotel and Brasserie Flo, who were hosting our dinner. I wore a dusky pink velvet tshirt with a maxi black skirt and my pink fluffy faux fur coat. I mean, it couldn't feel more like Christmas at that moment. 

I was welcomed by Mr. Goodiebag along with some delicious bubbles by Anna Codorníu when I found a place at a table with some other bloggers. I got to know Anne De Graaf from Anne Travel Foodie, Karen Liesens from Dressing in Labels, Wendy Troch who is one of the girls from Shades of Ghent and Ornella Sacré from The Sacred Closet. It was so nice to meet other people who have a blog and to talk about similar things we all like and love. It wasn't even awkward to take pictures for your Instagram or blog in the middle of the conversation. 

As an introduction for the rest of the evening, we had some exclusive canapes served by Brasserie Flo. If this had to set the tone for the rest of the diner, it promised to be an amazing night full of surprises! I don't know exactly what we had anymore, but these first three courses involved oysters, caviar and scallops. After the canapes, it was time for the real thing. The dinner proceeded at the Belle Epoque Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel, a magical place where an impressive chandelier illuminated the entire room. There were long dining tables, richly decorated by Sezoen, surrounded by pine green and gold burning lanterns. After we were seated, the six-course dinner began, accompanied by matching wines by Anna Codorníu and water by Chaudfontaine, which was served by Lady Chef of the year Julie Baekelandt from C-Jules. 

Every course was prepared by top chefs and several food and lifestyle brands. I took some pictures of the gorgeous meals before I ruined them by eating it all.

Last weekend my boyfriend and I decided to make use of our well deserved wellness weekend thanks to Bongo and my mom. We celebrated our six year anniversary on the first of December so there was no better to way to celebrate than to go on a weekend of relaxing and shopping. We ended up going to Eindhoven which isn't such a long drive. We only stayed for one night and two days in the Pullman Hotel. The hotel is placed in the centre of the city and I immediately saw all their Christmas decorations. I'm a sucker for all things Christmas so it made me instantly happy. 

When we arrived at the hotel, we first went for a coffee at Lucifer Coffee because we were an hour early for our check-in. Once we had our coffee and cake, we got back to the hotel for the check-in  and to drop our stuff in our room. The service at the Pullman Hotel was one of the best I've ever had! The staff were all very friendly and made sure we had the best stay.

After we settled down in our room, we decided to explore the city some more. We only had to cross the streets to end up in a shopping mall in the centre of the city. We spent a few hours in Primark where I surprisingly didn't buy that much. It soon became dark and after our dinner, we went to the wellness part of the hotel to relax and became very sleepy. 

The next morning was a relaxed one. We had our breakfast at the hotel where there was an enormous amount of food options to choose from. This was our last day already so we packed our bags after breakfast to check-out at 12. Some more shopping and walking around town finished off our tiny trip to Eindhoven. 

I managed to vlog a couple of clips so I don't have that many pictures for this post. I hope you enjoy the little montage I made instead. It's also in Dutch in contrary with my blog! Let me know what you think of this video of our weekend and if you want to see more videos in the future! 

- xoxo -

Chiara

This weekend is one of the most popular weekends to shop online. Whether you're shopping for yourself or if you ar looking for the first Christmas presents. Here are a few websites I received an email from with lots of discounts for this Cyber Weekend. I found some goodies I like myself, both fashion and skincare/beauty (also, every picture is linked to the website where to buy them). On the bottom of this post you can find the matching discount codes! I hope you enjoy! 

- xoxo -

Chiara

                  

                  

                      

                         

                       

                       

                  

                 

REAL TECHNIQUES