Some luxury feeling, a little bit of romance and some sweetness...

All necessary ingredients for a most delightful tea time!

I wish this porcelain cup was of good Bavarian quality,like these ones, 
that live in my parents' Apartment 44  in Greece, since 41 years.

It's not though.Siiiiiigh!

Having missed the feeling of sipping a cup of tea from fine white porcelain with true golden details, accompanied with mother's excellent homemade cakes, cookies and chocolates, on a Sunday afternoon, I indulged myself to this very cheap copy, in exchange of €1 both for the cup and the saucer.

Two sets were bought and the amazing expense of €1.60 was made to purchase also two separate small plates.

Well, I must admit, that my eye was equally pleased, with the only difference being actually holding the cup, as fine porcelain is extremely light, which neddless to say, isn't the case here!

Still, the whole feeling that I wished for was created and the only fake thing in the setting was the non Bavarian porcelain. A sense of luxury was created and added a little bit of this magic we are all looking for in our daily lives.

I'm not in favor of copies, also having been brought up with a selective taste. But, I strongly believe that a nice sense of living should be enjoyed by many and not only by those who can afford it.

That brings us back again to style and styling, which could be the key to beautiful living.

The importance is on how we do what we do, on how we wear what we wear, on how we express our views, our thoughts, our emotions.

The more I grow up, the more I understand that style means a cultivated mind and soul...

And last but not least, what more could be style than doing what we do, being who we are, through the quaility of love?


And a note here:
The wonderful tea I drunk and very much enjoyed  is called "Frülingstau", or Spring Baptism, a present from my Chinese friend Ann Jing, who has a lovely Tea shop in Mainz and writes a delightful blog about cooking and of course teatime! 
Despite the fact that it is in Chinese, a visit is sure to reward you, as there is a collection of lovely pictures she herself composed and made.

The road Home . . .

A collection of pictures taken on an early Spring morning this week, presenting fragments of the settings found, when returning from a super market, located a 20' relaxed walk from / to our current place of living ( The Penthouse )

The road....Home passes through the park and Opel Villen district.

So, after having done some necessary  - but not heavy - shopping ( including one more bouquette of tulips), so as to be able to enjoy the walk back,  carrying the groceries in eco friendly bags and armed with the camera in hand, I sipped in every moment, as if it was the first time I was walking this path. 

It is amazing what effects does attention to detail and willingness to see the beauty around us bring to our realities.

The same path has been taken several times before and always was appreciated for its beauty, but it seems as something must have been missing....

Presence....

Absolute presence, to the given moment, surrendered to the senses and putting the mind and racing thoughts at ease.

 Not doubting and being thankful for the lucky and blissed occasion, that someone can enjoy a 20' min walk through a park, by a river, no cars passing, eventhough the central road is only a few meters dinstanced and at the same time being in a very central city, these lines are also written with the intention of emphasizing the importance of looking for beauty in our immediate environments.

As in most of the cases, beauty is there, just waiting for us to notice it and appreciate it.

So, here is the entrance to the Opel Villen district, built by Verna park, which in its turn is located by the river Main.

 

This is a sign which notifies that this is a living area, where citizens walk, where children might be playing freely and that cars can be driven only in walking (!) speed.

This is a part of the fortress, for which information can be found here

And somewhere here Verna park begins

Well, as much as I'd like to describe details in English, it seems that German language is so descriptive that the right word isn't always found in translation. So, I'll just present you with their original names in some cases and direct you to the main page each time. 

Above and below the Täuschung im Kleinen can be seen

Below here is Der turm or else, the Tower or the Castle. . . such a romantic note....makes me imagine of Shakespear's Romeo & Juliet taking place...

Its beauty, mystery and medieval atmosphere always seem to catch my attention so much, that this time I made a  lot of pictures, just as I was walking closer and closer to it.

I just love this tiny balkony...here is where Juliet would stand...right?

And here is the little bridge Romeo would have to cross, to reach the entrace of the tower where his beloved Juliet lived.

This is a fine example of the Tromp l'oeil technique, carrying the name of Täuschung in Grossen, the above picture taken from a short distance and below from further away...

....It trully gives the impression that there is a waterfall going on behind the tower...

....the fountain, which looked like this and that just a few weeks ago, when the temperatures were quite low and the snow had just melted...

This is the path one encounters as he/she enters the park from its main entrance, which looked like this, just a few weeks ago.

And on the way out of the park the first roofs of houses can be seen, not like those of the Opel Villen district, which are much more impressive, but simple ones...still quite charming in their humbleness and simplicity...

And the first sings of spring here, too in the park as also in the city 

And to bring this nice, long walk with you to an end, here I was, standing on the grass, filled with daffodils and other sping flowers, where I stopped to make a picture of this huge, cotton bag, carrying empty plastic bottles on its way to the super market, 

and some groceries on its way home. 

This bag was found at H&M home and got a handwritten treat from me, in the usual spirit, of writing on things the profound, meaning what they actually are.

The word "bag" is written in French - une poche - and in German - eine Tasche, and most probably it will also be written in English.

Can you spot the bouquette of tulips among the flowers on the grass?

  I hope you enjoyed this walk, showing you the world through my eyes and you are encouraged to take some time off, during your busy daily and weekly schedules and look for the beauty that lies around you, as much as the one that lies within you.


   It's only us that can bring beauty in our lives, just as we can also bring misery....no matter how hard life might seem and actually be sometimes, it's always worth it and trully rewarding to try and make the best out of it, very often performing small, daily miracles, just with our thoughts, gestures and actions.

Desperate Housewife?

...not really....leave that for the TV series....to all those women who stay at home, taking care of their loved ones and families, of their homes and possibly having or starting their own home bussinesses.....allow to nobody to question your capabilities, your integrity and your human worth.

After a huge revolution in sex equalitity and women pursuing madly carriers, very often for the mere purpose of just proving themselves, rather than actually loving what they do in many cases, it seems that a new era has begun since a few years.

Thanks to this amazing, magic, modern tool of internet ( which like everything powerful can be used in many ways....creative ones, uncreative ones, destructive ones, senseless time consuming ones, and the list goes on and on) many people ( especially women) have the ability to combine work with spending longer hours at home, than they would do, should they have to be at their jobs.

Eventhough a jod is a means of earning money, it is of such great importance that it also fullfils a person's life in a meaningful way. There are a lot of women ( myself being one of them) who eventhough are part of a "modern" society, enjoy a more traditional role as women. That of a person who brings all the beauty in a man's life and their living surrounding.

There is nothing small about that. Actually, in today's crazy lifestyles, where marriages take place only to fall apart after some time or the first difficulties and when relationships are based on anything else but honesty, true affection and understanding or even physical attraction, a woman's role is rather big and important in a different way.

Men are more practical beens and getting in touch with their feelings is not exactly a piece of a cake. It is rather more applicable that a woman does the work for two on the emotional level. This needs time, devotion and patience.

Let me clear out here, that there is absolutely no doubt that there DO are women who enjoy having a carrier, do it in a very succesful manner and at the same time run successful relationships and families.

Just poiniting out here, that women who decide to work from home, deserve the same respect with the ones who leave home to do it. And had it not been for the female revolution a few decades ago, this would have never been an issue.

But as everything in life, every new thing needs to be evaluated through time and it has been proven that a tremendous decrease has recently taken place in the quality of relationships and family life.

Women have lost their selves, got confused with the power they aquired, only to make men also exactly as confused and actually frustrared and running away from any kind of commitment. They are not to be blamed. Actually it us, women ,who need to realise that our worth does not depend on being able to do or to earn as much as men do but
on being the best we can for ourselves. Not few are also the cases of women earning more than their male partners, by running their own home based businesses.

Nature is so, that women are blessed with the gift of having the capability to carry and give birth to children, and eventhough there is nothing wrong in men raising children, it is simply the most natural thing for a woman to spend some time raising their child or children.

Thankfully, there are ways nowdays that women can be productive & offer themselves to society and to their families, in manners different that would not have been able before the discovery of Interenet.

It enables millions of crafters and independent artists to sell their items, should they wish to online, either via their own shop or by participating in universal independent artists & crafters platforms such as Etsy, which holds a few million members worldwide, making it the biggest one.

Well known artists and people who have managed to earn their living ( and actually a good one ) are members of such online societies. And most of them can also be found on Flickr ( the biggest photography pool on earth) where their creations and often lifestyles are shared as a means of offering inspiration.

So, I 'll slowly bring this looooong post to an end by saying that should we actually want to go together with our times and not against them, it is about time we realised, that there have already decades passsed from " female revolution" and that being modern nowdays has a new meaning.

There is an increased need for returning to the rooots, whatever that means, ranging from a shift in our inner selves, to returning home, to being more close to nature.

And if an earth that is facing environmental disaster, people who are more and more depressed in consuming societies who offer everything and families and relationships who fall apart like sandcastles is not the proof and not enough of an alarm to wake us up, then, what is?

It is so much easier to simply follow our nature than to fight it and go against it.
Human sadness arises not because of who we are but because of not allowing ourselves to become who we trully are.
And as much as simple this might sound, it needs a great deal of attention, care and patience to reach to the point of understanding it and then realising it.

The reward is a quality in life that simply money cannot buy.
And it's certain, that should we all discover and cultivate our inner talents, and decide to offer them to society, more than enough money to support our lives will come our ways.....and should there be much more than we actually need, we should always remember that there are billions of people, so much more unfortunate than us, who need our help. Because happiness & blissfulness only make sense - and are actually real - when they can be shared.

Eco friendly shopping . . .

means that we carry our own reusable shopping bags, which can usually be folded into tiny little things fitting everywhere, at the same time saving our s t y l e s, as trully what can ruin a lovely composed outfit worse than a mixture of various, multi coloured plastic bags?

Style is an a t t i t u d e, expressed in every single moment of our lives. And should we possess it, it simply affects every domain of our life.

Style is not:
-> being rich
-> buying expensive stuff wether we can afford it or not
-> being unapproachable & snobbish
-> copying other people's styles but
finding our own individual ones, by getting in touch with who we really are, while at the same time allowing ourselves to get inspired by others.


The bags used here are and can respectively be found as described:


-> black one: H&M Spring collection 2009 but a similar and rather nicer one is launched in the 
    new Spring collection.
-> black - grey - beige - graphic one, which fits in a tiny pocket : from reisenthel, a German 
    company which can be found  online here
-> blue & green flowers one: part of the "eco - carry" collection, aiming to the protection of 
    sea life, produced from 100% recycled bottles and manufactured in an ethically audited 
    factory, as they say. It was found in a shop in the old city center of Mainz, but as this might not 
    be of help for many of you, more info can found  here: design-collections.co.uk

Vertical lines & curves

Let's do a little shape analysis, shall we?

Finding the relations of shapes in a space is one of interior designers powerful tools. The eye must be trained to find immediately the vertical and horizontal lines in a space, therefore realising where furniture and what kind of them should be placed where, with the purpose of maximising the space's capacity and functionality.

This should be the first thing to be taken into consideration. Then the style of the furniture depending on the person's sense of style and personal taste can follow, also considering colours and texture, which both have a tremendous effect on a space.

The decoration of the space, with its bigger or smaller details is and should be the last step.This is emphasised here, because no matter how beautifully styled or delicately decorated a home or its corners might be, should the inner architecture have not been taken into serious consideration before, a lot of mistakes can occur and the capabilities of a space might not be used to their fullest extend. In the worst case, large ammounts of money have been spent on fantastic pieces of furniture or home accessories, only to find out that they do not fit in the space or actually do not bring out its best character.

The whole balanced feeling and functionality of a space depends though, on the right choices of furniture, concerning their shape, size and colour and the most beneficial placement and arrangement of them in the space. Of course vertical treatments, such as wall colours and the possible choice of the right wallpaper and even material choices for horizontal surfaces such as floors, have a great impact on a space and can actually add or subtract to its beauty and sense of space.

A few of the people I cooperated with back in Greece, during my first steps of actually performing my hobby as a profession, were thankful that their bank account was saved from quite a sum of euros, after seeing that a simple rearrangement of the place and correction of details had a major visual and practical impact.

Should the clients wish to go on with replacing furniture anyway, this is another issue. Still, in these times of a tremendous economical crisis, repurpose and reuse is an attitude which conforms with current reality and also shifts the attention from over consuming to actually appreciating what we have and finding pleasure within our own range of reach.

Now, as for the pictures put together here(It's one of the exercises I do to train my eye) , they were grouped mostly according to some relevancy in shapes.  But also according to some relevancy depending on context. Can you spot the relativity among them and in between them?

Colours of nature

A shift into anything organic, natural, ecologic, energy saving, has become a trend and a fashion these later years, arrising from the actual need that we humans have caused to emerge, as we are tending to disrespect nature and insist on doing things our way, very often harming it, the very same sourse from where we all originate.

But it goes far beyond being a trend. Should we not really shift our attention to going with nature, preserving it, respecting it and taking care of it, instead of going against it, the very near next generations will definetely have to face a life with a tremendous low quality of living; not that our quality of living hasn't alreday decreased enough. It has. Much actually. Much too much.

So, grouping these pictures together, featuring mostly brown and blue, brown of the earth and the bark of trees and blue of the sky and the ocean, has inspired sharing these considerations with you.

Nature is the ultimate inspiration and the newst organic designs in furniture and products, only point out, the tremendous need that we humans have to bring something more natural in to our homes, as life in cities can and has complete disrupt the natural cycles of everyday human life.

Blissfulness

Blissfulness is :

opening your apartment door to step out and finding on the doormat a packet waiting for you.
It happens that our postman is a mostly kind man, who gets into the trouble of coming up the forth floor, eventhough there is not typical need and despite the fact that there is place enough in the mailbox.
It appears that whenever he sees a packet from a personal address, that comes from abroad, such as when my family sends a packet from Greece or amazing Madhu from Malaysia for example, he is kind enough to deliver it upstairs, without ringing the bell, out of discretness, just to make sure that it is safe and delivered, as if he understands the precious messages that it carries.

So a blissful day begins, when you realise that there are also so very kind people living in this world and actually in your immediate environment.

A blissful day goes on, when you recieve a present from a most special person, who went into the trouble of sending you another present, despite the fact, that she already did so for your birthday, for reasons her dear heart only knows why. As I trully don't know what I 've done to deserve that. But I do accept it ,with so much gratefullness, because once again this gesture made me feel so special and so loved, in a way I 'll always remember and cherish.

So, my dear Madhu, there I am,standing, holding the raw silk, in form of a wonderful pillowcase and wood, in form of two napkin rings for him and her, hoping that the picture can capture just a little tiny bit of the happiness you brought me.

Thank you so much....as words are probably poor to express.

Oh, shall we?

make a delicious chocolate soufle/cake as promissed, which is as healthy as it can be for ....being a sweet?

Before proceeding to the ingredients and the making process, let me say, that this is written and made by no baking queen, but from a person who can actually bake so far, this only cake!

Still, it has been...consumed with much delight and satisfaction by whomever might have tried it so far and pictures of it lately over at my flickr account have raised the question of:

"how is this cake made after all?"

Well, having  the need to play around, just a little tiny bit, while at the same time emphasising things about the essence of life, I already revealed the basic ingredients here.

Now, that you've read them.....

Laughing?...that's good...that's the spirit! And now...let's get down to work...!

Have you your pretty apron on?

Maybe the music that you enjoy?

No?...then how about tuning your radio in this favorite station of yours?

...or mayde a favorite cd?

Excellent!...are you a mother or a father of young ones?....then time to call for your little kitchen helpers, encouraging them to spend some creative time with you, learning things and having fun at the same time!

They can learn order, organisation and discipline for example, besides making a cake and feeling like little scientists, while enjoying themselves. There's nothing more exciting for the little ones than being part of the adult world, which they look at with huge eyes!

Let's be good examples ourselves and show and create for them a world worth of living in.

Any better way to do this, other than making a delicious cake?

Actually yes, there are thousands of, but today we'll just start with the easy and lots of fun stuff.

So, we need off course: chocolate!

To be more specific, 200gr of dark cooking chocolate ( bitter Kuvertüre)

We need a glass of sugar ( the original recipe - a French one - includes 250 gr of white sugar)

I have replaced it with brown sugar - as it has such a finer taste and aroma - and reduced the amount to almost 180 gr, as I trully appreciate sweets that do not explode in sugar!

We also need 4 eggs ( in lieu of 6 from the original recipe)

and about  80 gr of flour. Spelt, or else Dinkelmehl, is what I use instead of usual flour.

I encourage you to check over at wikipedia and decide for yourselves or probably take some nutritionist's advice, as what works for one person doesn' t necessarily work for another.

Spelt is preferred for its low ammount of glutein, substance to which many people are allergic to and is found to be much more tolerable.

And finally we need some butter, a small cube, something like 30gr.

Now, don't worry, as after this last picture, you'll find a list with the ingredients and finally some instructions for its making of.

So, our ingredient list....

How about writing it down in your delightful recipe books or your handmade journals or maybe  just a note to have close to you while you bake?

....and remember to take this favorite colour of pen of yours!...also remember what we said at the beginning?...( Did we actually?)... Enjoy the process....and it's all in the details....then at the end...we will not only have made a cake, but have also created a little bit of magic!

So, my little fairies ( men included, despite of the femininity of the term), pick up your magic wands!

                  -> 200gr of dark cooking chocolate

   -> 180 gr of brown sugar 

 -> 80 gr of flour or spelt

-> 4 eggs 

-> 30gr of butter

and a little about the process:

Start by melting the chocolate in what is called "Ben Marie", which means placing a smaller pot in a bigger one, filed with some water, which is hot but not boiling. As soon as the chocolate melts, add the butter and then the sugar. Stir well by hand and allow some time for the sugar to become one with the mixture, still don't expect it to fully melt, as it won't...this will have no negative effect on the mixture though and the sugar will melt gorgeously while being baked.

Next step, take a bowl and start seperating the egg's yolk from the white part, keeping the latter one in the bowl and adding the yolk one by one ( one yolk -> stir, second yolk -> stir etc) in the chocolate mixture. Stir well until it all becomes one, and repeat three more times until all four yolks are added one by one to the mixture.

The mixture must be kind of hard by now to handle and it's time to add the flour or spelt. This will give to the mixture a kind of dense but elastic feeling. Our final step is to whip the white of the eggs very well and finally add it to the mixture.

Keep on being a little more patient with this stirring process and your chocolate cake/soufle will soon find its way in a porcelain form of your wish ( you might want to make two smaller ones, instead of one relatively big or even four personal portions ). 

For the cake to be able to be taken out of its form easily, use of baking paper is highy recommended or a little bit of olive oil, spread with a small brush or even your - clean - fingers, on the bottom and "walls" of the forms.

The baking process is about to begin...your mixture is in the form (or forms), you have sprinkled it with love and you have preheated the oven in 220 degrees. Now, watch these clocks of yours, as this is a cake not meant to be overbaked, unless you don't mind it being kind of dry and cracked like this one!

Depending on the oven, 10' to 15' should be enough....as soon as you see it.... growing, you may turn the oven off and take it out in a few minutes. It is supposed to be eaten warm, with the very centre of it being kind of liquid ( therefore soufle).

To add some sweetness  and an extra taste, cocconut powder works very well with this recipe, but if you want to be lost in paradise for a while, serve it with any kind of ice-cream (vanilla or anything white being mostly preferred) and possibly add some pieces of strawberries on top.

Now , how about you sharing your experience here, after you've tried it, also linking to some pictures, if you'd like that and even suggesting new ways you came up with to decorate and serve your chocolate soufle /cake?

That would be really delightful! 

Many wishes for an enjoyable process and delicious outcomes!

Peaceful moments. . .

Gathered here, are moments of peace during my Birthday and these I 'd like to share. There were also of course more intense emotions such as being extremely moved or feeling lots of love & passion.
Am choosing to emphasize peacefulness, as there must be this critical point in everybody's life, regardless of the actual age, that someone feels in full acceptance of his / her life. Of all the happiness and all the pain, of all the struggles and all the rewards, of all sucesses and all failures.

Peacefulness is again one of this internal qualities that cannot be faked or dublicated.....somebody knows that he/she is in peace when life situations are absolutely acceptable and considered as blessings despite their imperfections...
One is in peace when anger is dealt, when grief is felt, when envy is healed, when there is the abilitity to see the beauty of our own selves and at the same time have all the place of the world for a million other fabulous people, without being afraid of comparissons, understanding that there are areas where we will prevail and others that we won't.

Being in peace means finding, cultivating and living our talents. and sharing them with the world. It means seeing the talents of others and being able to appreciate them, without hiding behind our own fingers, out of fear of finding ourselves less.
Being in peace means doing our best to be the best that we can for us, free of the need to be better than others. As our own selves become our means of measuring.

Being in peace means working hard to aquire characteristics, that others we admire have, at the same time cherishing theirs.
Being in peace is knowing that in life there is justice, and all we have to do is embrace it and act towards acheiveing it.


This is to my loving parents, who brought me in this world, my wonderful life partner who is also a teacher and a friend to me at the same time and in the memory of the amazing woman who was my grandmother, a lady of big heart and kind acts.

Bemz pillow...&....pimp your reading corner ; )

...reposting this picture over at my flickr, newly cropped, to set the focus on the lovely crisp, textured pillow ( the large, off white one ) Bemz company sent me, as a reward for entering their Christmas Crafts contest and in my turn, once again, thank them.

Since then, I' ve been enjoying lovely contact with Christie - www.flickr.com/photos/23272548@N02/ - who also offered me the chance to write a post as a guest blogger for Bemz's blog. 

You may read it here: www.bemz.typepad.com/itsacoverup/2010/03/iroivy-shows-us-....

As I 'm a fairly new and inexperienced ( but very eager and passionate! ) blogger, Christie showed a lot of understanding and assisted me firmly throughout the process.
I sincerely like companies, which not only offer nice products, but also have a kind, human "face"....

Christie, once again, thank you so much, I mostly enjoyed it and learned a lot !
And, last but not least, thank you for the repeated invitation, I gladly accept and will happily write a presentation again in your blog.... soon! : )