I'm sitting on my bed between piles of clothes, makeup and accessories while I'm typing this blog post. My 'Golden Oldies' playlist on Spotify is playing in the background and I can't help getting excited for my holiday which is in two days! I'm going to visit my friend in New York, which has always been a dream of mine to go to 'the city that never sleeps'. I don't know how to feel about the whole trip, due to the long flight which I have never done before and I'm totally doing this on my own.

The whole stress level has gone down a bit since yesterday because at first my friend couldn't come pick me up at JFK. Little side note, the first few days I'm staying over at my friend's place and from Monday on, we've booked an hotel near Central Park until the end of the week. So she wasn't able to pick me up from the airport, which meant that I had to go to Grand Central Station on my own with either a shuttle or using the subway. When I would get to GCS, I had to search for a train that would bring me to where my friend lives (which is more than an hour away from the city). I'm not one to travel by myself, let alone to find my way in one of the busiest cities of the world, for the first time in my life AND with all my luggage and a map to find the right subway stations. As you can tell, I was quite stressed out about this, but hey, all is fine because she can come and pick me up, yay!

On my last trip I went to Eindhoven with my boyfriend. A video says more than a thousand pictures so I vlogged that trip and I like how it turned out. I'm going to be vlogging again this time in New York, just to capture more of the special and exciting moments. Of course I'm going to take lots of pictures too and make notes when I visit a nice museum of when I discover some hotspots. So at the end of the month you guys can expect several new blog post about New York. 

During my holiday you can always follow me on my Instagram or my Facebook page to stay up-to-date or just in case you can't wait for the pictures in a blog post. If any of you know some tips or places I should visit, definitely let me know and I will check them out! Here are some inspirational pictures that make me more excited than I already am!

- xoxo -

Chiara

Every year we have got two Christmas parties. One with my boyfriend's family and one with mine. We usually have our Christmas dinner on the 24th with him and a second dinner on the 25th with my family. During these dinners we give and receive a lot of presents. But it has been sort of tradition that we also get some extra presents on New Year's Eve or New Year from my family. So instead of posting this blog post last week with only the presents I got at Christmas, I decided to also include the presents I got on New Year's day. Small disclaimer: I am not writing this to brag in any way or to show off with what I got this year. I am just writing this for myself to look back on in a few years as a memory (as most of my blog is an online book of my memories) and also for those who are interested to see what I got or asked for. I am a curious and nosey person myself, so no shame!

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.