Fashioned by Love turns 2

I often think that the time flies by way too quickly. Before I knew it my little blog turned two. It happened last weekend, on 5 January, but since I now spend the time with my men rather than blogging, I decided to postpone the celebration until now.

It’s been a good year. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and realised that looking for a new horizon as a bench mark feels wonderful and rewarding.

I also met some wonderful people and the blog gained more followers, more than I ever expected or wished for – and I thank you for being out there, visiting the blog, commenting, supporting and inspiring. What would I do and where I would be without you? Better not to think of that because blogging happened to really get under my skin and became an important part of my life and I wouldn’t want to change anything or lose any of my amazing readers.

Today I wanted to write a retrospective sharing the most memorable and special posts that some of you might have missed in case you have just only started following Fashioned by Love or wouldn’t mind re-reading a few stories.

2012 was such a mix of fashion and personal…

I wrote 329 posts and including Monday editorials from the past and 52 stylish quotes.

I was lucky to interview gorgeous Dutch model Anne-Marie Van Dijk, director of Viva London Natalie Hand, incredibly talented and very special fashion designer Kinder Aggugini, Russian top-model Inna Zobova and aspiring Russian fashion designer Nikolai Krasnikov.

Found and shared wonderful, inspirational and sometimes forgotten fashion documentaries about Anna Wintour, John Galliano, Tom Ford, Vidal Sassoon and Christy Turlington.

Fell in love all over again with MaxMara, Daks, See by Chloe, Bottega Veneta and newly discovered Michael Angel and Rachel Zoe.

Created a few outfits inspired by New York, Paris, Milan and London fashion weeks as well as Victoria Beckham and Michael Kors collections (for less).

Continued my Fashion Weeks series with stories about Christian Dior, Gianfranco Ferre and John Galliano.

Talked about healthy inspiration, body image and size issues, fashion and eating disorders, organic skin care and make-up and why I’d rather have wrinkles than use Botox. I was also invited to the launch of CLEANSE: One Body. One Planet initiative in New York – unfortunately I couldn’t make it, but it was a huge deal for me just to be invited and later offered to blog for CLEANSE about fashion (it still give me endorphin bauble and butterflies).

Wrote about some of my favourite trends including stripes, wedges, PJs, long gloves, transition pieces, winter whites and sweet jumpers spotting some animal motives.

Started new 5 Dresses series with posts about LBD and sweater dress.

Mused about bags and happiness and got all practical talking about my favourite apps for iPad, building your perfect bag collection, choosing a perfect pair of jeans (with the help of Donna Ida) and looking after cashmere.

Shared my Shopping List 2012 and some of the finds including Missoni bag, perfect little white dress, Marni pieces, red suede pumps and much-loved Donna Karan wedges.

As the year was coming to its end I saw two wonderful exhibitions – The Little Black Jacket and Valentino: Master of Couture that were simply unforgettable and celebrated Christmas in every shade or red, gold, green and silver.

And then came 2013… And I am looking forward to spending some of it blogging about things that inspire and those fashioned by love. Thank you for stopping by today. And if you feel like making a cake to mark this special moment (or just because you fancy something sweet) here are my favourite recipes for banana bread, carrot cake and chocolate torte.