The adventures of a powder pink blouse

...or the small adventure that we women sometimes go through, in order to choose an outfit. 

Now, on a small parenthesis here, I know that I do not usually post about fashion here, but since I'm so interested in the overall concept of styling in all its possible domains, I thought I give it a shot also here, other than my flickr account where there's a set of pictures devoted to styling and fashion....through my eyes always...the focus being mostly inside, even when we talk about or are involved in more - seemingly - superficial actions & things...

So, to go back where we started from...the adventure of choosing an outfit...I'm sure it has happened to many of us, in different ways. Sometimes it happens in a second, others there's a little bit more time needed or simply...a little time to go shopping in our own wardrobe, giving a fresh new look to clothes living in our closets for years, by making new combinations, adjusted  to our current moods and influenced a tiny bit by current trends.

....not too much...not too little...as balance in general is the key to successful styling....in colours, in texture, in shapes...and of course in the way we feel!

This is the outfit I chose to wear yesterday, which was actually the second idea in the raw, among the one with  the jean skirt and the one with the colourful floral bag. It is Springy but in a rather quiet way, as I believe it fits better to April, while the latter one fits better in May...

I like to take my outfits gradually from one season to another, as much as I also like a sense of continuity to exist from one day to the other, from one outfit to the other...

Everything in nature happens gradually and there are natural circles for everything...

In autumn for example, the colour of the leaves changes gradually until they fall and flowers bloom and aquire their full colour day by day in Spring.

Part of the essence of styling is that one is in accordance with nature's cycles by adjusting the outfits chosen and by going through stages, like participating in a charming dance!

Styling of course, should most of all reflect the personality of a person and focus on the positive physical characteristics, whichever they may be. Others are more gifted and others are less. The key is to accept ourselves for who we are, including our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our thoughts, our immediate environments and even the countries we live in.

Dressed up like being on vacation on an exotic,a Greek, or any other island, while actually being in the middle of a city, doesn't exactly promise successful outfits!...this is my humble view on the matter of course...

There's the right time and place for everything and success lies in being in accordance with them.

But the most important element is to be in accordance with our true selves. Then we wear our clothes, rather than them wearing us and elegance doesn't depend on spending huge ammounts!

Smart shopping, ability to recognise quality over label ( not that they do not coexist of course!) and a consistent style which adjusts to seasonal trends with small additions, all contribute to building a wardrobe to keep over years and making us proud, looking back, for our choices.

For me, it started 10 years ago, in my mid  20s, after I had experimented and enjoyed various styles, youthness being my aliby.

Hippy chic and bohemian chic were my most beloved styles, but over the years I reached to the point of being able to elicit through styles, the predominant one, being my personal one: this which expresses my whole existence.

As much as there are various styles that can be named both in decoration and fashion, I strongly believe that there should be exactly as many styles, as there are people and as there are homes!

I'm fanscinated by decoration, fashion and styling as seen in magazines & books but am mostly fanscinated when I meet extremely stylish people on the street, who know how to dress themselves and seem to be in contact and in peace with who they are. And the same goes for their homes.

Interior design can also stand for designing our inner selves, the key to true, long lasting happiness, which doesn't depend only on our temporary successes.

So here we reached again, down to the depth of it all, even having started talking about styling and fashion, that everything in life depends on our relationship with ourselves and the point to which we are aware of what is going on inside. 

To me, most liberation and evolution takes place not when we recognise our good sides, but when we are also wise enough, sincere enough and brave enough to face these parts of us that are less shiny and happy, when we take the time to face our "deamons".

Funny enough it is then that they become smaller and smaller until they disappear....keeping them in the dark, out of fear or pride or whatever other reason, will only feed them to grow bigger...which in the end will return to one and only place: ourselves and our lives. We have the power in our hands and we should use it wisely!

A sense of accomplishment ( A weeee weekend - part II: Sunday)

A sense of accomplishment...
...comes when we engage into the things we do with all our hearts, connected to our existences to the fullest, still the mind being at ease....


Sunday turned out to be a "home day", as when the sun is shining and the temperatures are warm, one of our favorite places to be is....home!


No, there isn't a lovely garden, like the really big one (1200sm) I grew up in Greece...oh my!...those were The days...!
No, there isn't a huge veranda or many verandas, like most apartments situated by the sea in the Athenian southern suburbs have....


Just for the record, allow me a little parenthesis, so that the amount of change that I had to adjust to is somehow better understood:
-> the home I grew up into had 60sm of verandas and an overall size of 140sm.
-> the last apartment, I rented and lived alone in with one of my dogs - Grace, had 30sm of verandas and an overall size of 73sm.
-> and finally the current home my parents bought and helped them with the complete renovation, measures 33sm of verandas and an interior floor plan of 80sm.


Outdoor life has been part of my daily life since the day I was born!....so, one of the main reasons this small 65sm Penthouse was chosen as our first common residence, since I relocated here in Germany in order to live together with my German partner, is the fact that it does have a veranda, with a most privileged orientation to the sun!


Just having an outdoor space doesn't do much, unless it is exposed to the sun for as long as possible, at least in my case. Well, the sun rising on the left of the apartment, it bathes the whole place with light and occasional sun and warmth ( this is Germany!) until almost late evening.
So, eventhough it measures around 5(!)sm and despite its obvious mini size, it makes all the difference! I couldn't have imagined what happiness can be found in such a small place!


Yet, life never seizes to surprise us!
It's a wonderful aspect to come to the point of enjoying life for whatever it offers us, being able to live well with more, being able to live well with less...


I read these following words this morning, visiting shortly my flickr account and taking a look at some of the profiles of people who add me as their contact ( thank you to all 788 of them!) There couldn't have been a better way to put this into words:


" I think one of the best ways of measuring a person's success is by measuring their accumulations of happiness within their heart ", writes Mr Tom Miller 
Thank you Tom for adding me as your contact and therefore giving me the chance to read this wonderfull wise words!


Now, it's about time I returned to this sense of accomplishment mentioned in this post's title....
Well, it has to do with gardening!....no need to laugh at me when talking about gardening in a tiny veranda with only two (!) plants at the moment....sometimes really less is more!


But, if you want to enjoy a really beautiful garden, part of a lovely home in Austria and real gardening adventures, then please do visit Kathrin from flickr's Lillian day.


So, this is what got planted by my bare hands this Sunday:

Yes, bare hands....as much as I find gardening gloves to be the cutest very often ( flowered or dotted for example) and do sometimes use them, this time I wanted to feel the earth with my hands, let them get dirty and dig in to the whole experience with the pure enthusiasm of a child who plays with earth!


Wearing loose tracksuit bottoms and the top of one my bikinis, I was getting sunkissed while replacing the sadly dried out olive trees, with new plants that have come to live with us.


There were found at Ikea and each one of us chose his/her plant....one for you...and one for me....I think, hope and wish that they will do well, as they are more suitable for German weather.


The symbolism also fits better to a home inhabitted by two people. The olive trees were lovely, but they were both my companions since my first own apartment back in 2003 and were both chosen only by me.


It feels much better that the new plants are commonly chosen. As much as women tend more often to deal with interiors and home decoration, I find it to be important that all the members who inhabit a living space, contribute actively to its decoration, it being a means of expressing equally its inhabitants.


So, happy as we both were, for our new veranda companions, we enjoyed a freshly baked chocolate cake and tea...seated on the floor, which gets as warm as it should be thanx to its new floor tiles (built with the technique of the "swimming floor" )....and which was freshly double broomed and moped after the planting processes ( what a mess despite the newspapers placed underneath!) were completed! 

As you can see, some were reading the Time magazine, seated on the Alseda stool...and others were making pictures...teheeee....darling...could you please take your...."tiny" foot out of the picture?....merci : )


In the upcoming days, the veranda will be completed step by step... 


-> the authentic, Greek "Kafeneio" table and two folding chairs will be brought from the cellar
-> A new umbrella will replace the current one, only that it cannot be such a  lovely one 
   again, like the white one with thick bamboo stick from Habitat that we had
-> and the bench will eventually get repaired and freshly oiled as it is naturally, unpainted wooden.


The gardening process mentioned before included also taking care of the indoor plants, which were not only watered, but also took a nice shower in the bathtab, after their dried leaves were cleaned out and enjoyed some fresh air and late afternoon sun before coming again inside in their...pot residences!

Sunday's home procedures finally included starting to take care of the aparments four main woolen rugs*, which are to be removed for the Spring and Summer months. This time they will be sent to be professionally cleaned, so as to have them back fresh as new in Autumn!


* 1.  woolen flokati from Habitat, currently in the sofa area
   2. off white pure wool rugs from Ikea, in the reading corner and dining area 
   3. striped woolen/ cotton rug in the kitchen,from Habitat


I guess a good week starts from having spent a nice weekend and wish that all of you did so, each one in your own special and personal ways....but let me repeat the ending of the previous post, should it not have been one that brought you happiness, it's ok...there's always time and chances to feel better.....and now is where you/we can start....Happy Monday to all!...next one will find us already in May!

Weee moments in a weekend!

The best things in life are free...

...and sometimes the best things happen unexpectedly, unplanned...

...like meeting with somebody, a loved one, a partner, a friend - whoever might be avaliable at a given point in our lives,

...without having previously made plans about it, being picked up from the centre of a city, like Mainz for example, and ending up in between lovely nature, fields and farm animals, just a few kilometers from home...

...enjoying a late afternoon walk and a magical sundown...

...yes, the best things in life are free....the nature, the moon and the stars...and relationships with people...

...with the only difference, that we must take care of them, as they seem to offer us, only exactly what we give....

....giving and taking in a constant interchange...

...and as for nature - to make a small relevence to the recently celebrated Earth Day - it's not much different from human relationships...it will only give back to us, what we offer to it...and we can at least begin by respecting it and doing whatever possible in our hands to preserve it and enhance it...

...not only on celebrated "Earth Days", as these are meant to be only for our awakening, but in every single moment of our daily lives...

Have a wonderful weekend, enjoying your loved ones and lovely surroundings...in nature, in a city's hidden corners...but also in your interiors, if you prefer to spend it in...

Happiness sometimes is not in places far away, but right around the corner and very often, in our arms...all we have to do is to embrace it!

Fragments of life....

...nature in Spring...pink blossoms
...wonderful doors and architecture of times gone by...like in a fairy tale
...adorable, loving, unique dogs
...home baking...in kitchens with the air of a different era
...simple, everyday moments, like tea drinking
...beautiful girls, dressed in fabulous clothes, but yet so quiet
...earth colours
...brown, pink, dusty pink, beiges and greys
...all fragments of life...

...a Spring that is closely connected to its previous season, winter, taking small steps in to passing from absence of colours to the explosion of them...transitional stages are also nice in life...life is a journey....not only a destination...the destination is the journey of life itself...after one full month officially in Spring here in this part of the world, in central Europe, warmhearted wishes for lots of enjoyment in life's daily trip, whichever the seasons, whichever the reasons, whichever the occasions...

When the shades of soul are open...

...forms of goodness will always cross our paths in life....sometimes we'll be the ones to give and others we'll be the ones to receive....eventhough the cup of pain doesn't have the same size for everyone....there will be goodness and blissfulness knocking on our doors and our windows...we must open though...trully open...and be prepared...cause as we open to feelings of bliss and happiness, we are also susceptible to feelings of fear, sorrow and sadness...

  It is so normal though, as we cannot be happy, smiling robots, always excited about everything and always pleased with ourselves and others...unless we are participating in a play rather than real life....

  So, true happiness can be felt when we have also allowed sorrow to be felt.
Sadly, it is mostly considered as a sign of weakness in our current societies....sensitivity, which is the basis for experiencing feelings in all their range, is considered often a shame.

  Maybe all the great individuals throughout the whole human existence, who have accomplished greatness should be considered....maybe then there is a chance of considering a different perspective...

  Sensitivity doen't need to be mistaken for overemotionalism, when everything seems to affect us in an extreme degree, possibly impairing our daily lives...

  Sensitivity doesn't need to be confused with many powerful words...for this again, is a quality to be expressed in someone's actions and felt rather than be spoken about...

  Sensitivity is possibly respecting deeply ourselves as we respect others...

  Keep in mind that a delicate, adjustable tree with a flexible bark will be the one to survive strong storms, as it has the ability to bend...and then stand straight and safe again...able to enjoy the next sunshine and spring...



  This attitude has helped me through all kinds of life's difficulties, since early childhood....the heart was kept soft....as a hard heart is a frozen heart....and all the blissfulness and warmth of the world is not enough to make it alive again...

Would you risk that?....we have it in our hands....we hold happiness in our hands...we are the key...we have the responsibility....

Repurposed gift wrapping - earth colours

Gift wrapping is an experience as important as choosing the present itself.
It needs to be adjusted to the preferences of the person it addresses to and be a little gift of its own.

Something special, something new, corresponding also to the item it wraps....

It is a way of showing care and thoughtfullness to the ones we are offering the present.

Putting aside personal likes, despite the fact that each design reflects our overall style, and emphasizing  the likes of the person to be recieving it, it is meant to comminicate thoughts of care and love.

When nature decides...

A dinner in Paris...it should have been...to celebrate my partner's birthday, wearing most probably this outfit...and a breakfast to begin the day (delicious croissants instead of humble bread), that would have most probably taken place in one of our favorite cafes in Montmarte ( instead of our tiny Penthouse), like we did the same period last year, when I first visited this magical city.

  Well, it seems that nature had other plans, which resulted in flight cancelations, and ours to Paris on early Friday morning was one of them. There was disappointment of course....and tension...but it is one of those cases, that one must accept what is happening, be thankful for positive aspects - in our case, living a 15' drive to Frankfurt airport, therefore the cancelation simply finding us home and receiving confirmation that there will be a full refund for the flight and hotel bookings - and then proceed to a new plan should that be wished.

And so it happened. The weather forecast promising lovely, Spring, warm and sunny weather, a  short weekend escape by car to Strasbourg, the lovely, reasonably sized for a weekend visit city, just by the southern borders  to Germany, seemed like and was a good alternative.

On the way there, a 2 hour stop to the beautiful German city of Karlsruhe was made, so as to visit the wonderful castle and gardens.

On the way back from Strasbourg, the green line was taken through France and southern Germany until eventually taking the high way back home. It's more or less a 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive.

   We returned both with 2000 pictures added up together, of which many are worth to be shared. Due to time restrictions though, just a few chosen will be for the time being. It's nice material to work on though...beautiful  scenery all around!

So, one more time life and nature became great teachers, reminding us who has the power and showing us, that should we not be able to adjust in life's changes and master our ambitions, happiness might be always close, but somewhere round the corner...not really manifesting in our lives and living in our hearts.

Now is all we have, the present is where we live and here is where happiness lies.

Dreams are lovely and we all do so much enjoy to daydream and escape sometimes...and that is o.k, so long as we do not lie to ourselves and become identified with our dreams in an unhealthy manner, believing that we are who we wished to be.

We are who we are, and should we want to evolve as existences and our dreams to manifest in our lives, we need to work on many levels equally....the practical, the emotional, the spiritual, the bodily...

All are important and need to be taken care of....and now that these have been said and written and shared....movement is what I need and wish for...other than the typing performed by my fingers....

Wish you all to be spending a lovely day, despite its possible cancelations and disappointments and find the pleasure in simple things....

Colourless

...just because...
...it allows space for the individuals to be the protagonists rather than the objects

...because sometimes silence is golden and silent interiors contribute to that

...in the era of multimedia and everything published /aired/ blogged/ twittered/ stated in FB/ shared in any possible way

...keeping the balance is hard...but so incredibly necessary

...extrospection  is needed as much as introspection, otherwise we tend to share just for the mere purpose of sharing...resulting often in.... not really having much to share...( reaching to the point ---> Attention needed no matter what )

As much as extrospection, in common words observing ( to put it in a kind manner ) what others do, is so often noticed and exercised, there seems to be a rather big absence of introspection, meaning , observing ourselves, personalities and behavior.

But to achieve that, we must be willing to see all parts of ourselves, parts that are often unpleasant, small, wrong, terrifying sometimes, along with all the greatness that each of us carries.

And there comes the point ,where lots of people, stop, turn their backs and simply say "I don't need to do that", "I have already done it".

Well, should this be done, it means that it actully becomes a process of our daily realities, looking inside, taking care of our own gardens, as much as we look, admire, get in spired ( and at worst get envious) of other people's gardens, or advise them about how their flowers will grow, when our own are actually not blooming at all.

A possible way it manifests is through the actual speech of people...somehow eventhough we may be speaking about ourselves, there is no need to start every single sentence with "I", "me", "mine" or point all the arrows to us ( look at me/ hear me / love me/ admire me / be jealous of me...)...the actions are to be emphasized...and there is a realisation that we are just simply, another human existence in this world.

...we don't take ourselves more seriously than we should....and we have managed to refine the notion of being ambitious...it's more rare than commom though, among well known people ( and not only), and this is just so sad.....and to bring this post to a closure with a positive feeling...after having stated in a way what un/de -inspires me, here is what I'm trully inspired from (and also try to achieve)

-> taking small steps
-> taking time to establish and be established
-> sharing for a reason
-> offering inspiration as a means of balancing for the inspiration often received from
others, having something new to say, to show, to give
-> quiet strength
-> people with effortlessly sparkling personalities
-> depth in character
-> examining and tasting before taking a decision/ judging /accepting / turning down
-> being connected to life, to its reality, to its truth
-> learning and people who devote time and effort into doing that
-> being enthusiastic but rather not shouting it
-> whichever expression of emotion comes from within
-> genuine creativity
-> people who are mostly in touch with themselves ( this doesn't mean that they talk
about it , rather than act like it)
-> true qualities

Feeling love - have a nice new week!

Feeling love...
...im my living space,
...in my environment and surroundings,
...in the country I'm currently living,
...inside my heart,
...in the things I engage into...

...there were times when this seemed totally impossible... but patience, hard work with the Self, willingness to look how small I also am, how wrong and imperfect, has led to such feelings prevailing in my daily life...even when things are difficult, because easiness and uneasiness are both sides of life.

  Stopping to expect that life ows us something, because we believe to be something better, could be a key to that. Even when we reach to the highest point of our potentials, there will still be countless of other people better than us...I wonder why this is so terrifying to some....and the top seems to be the only place where they feel comfortable....but the "Top" is such a subjective place and notion.

  People who sparkle in their lives with their existences, for whichever reason this might be, just fancinate me...and some of them might be trully well known or might simply not be known at all.

  On the other hand, people who strive to get attention no matter what and for the only mere purpose of it, just make me think....what is it that has gone so terribly wrong, that cannot be recognised?

Vintage wallpaper...

...a giant, wooden wishbone
...a mini shelf with a small glass vase and candleholder collection
...and blossoming branches collected on a sunny Sunday afternoon...

It's not much...but it means the world to me.
I like styling that evolves and grows with the inhabitants of a place...aka "organic" styling...

All have an important meaning for a reason...

->The wallpaper from Albert Van Luit (1965) was a very lucky and unique find years ago ( among with a few other rolls), in the attic of one of Athen's oldest wallpaper shops.
I got inspired after returning from my first trip to Amsterdam about a year ago and rolled it out, as a piece of art.

-> The wooden wish bone was found in our garden by my father and given to me, after saying how much I liked it.

-> All of these are "standing" above the couch that my partner had chosen many years ago, before we met and which I could have also chosen myself.

-> The milky glass candleholder (on the left on the shelf) was my first lucky win on Ebay when I came to Germany (1 euro!)

-> The golden/honey coloured vase is another vintage, lucky find from DDR.

-> The blossoming branches are the ones collected today on a sunny afternoon walk, ones that I was longing for since months...


What simple things mean the world to you?...which simple gestures, actions, activities, objects?
Which of them were part of this weekend?...did you find beauty in life's joyful simplicities?....If yes, which ones?...If no, which ones would you like to live, encounter in the upcoming days and near future?

A Saturday afternoon walk...

...in the neighboring city of Wiesbaden, ended up being again a practise in photography.


Lovely buildings and a very dramatic sky, combined with the afternoon light of Spring, work very positively for pictures with an impact, without needing any processing at all.


Some of the pictures made can be seen here, in the specific set in my flickr stream, named  "Wiesbaden"


In the picture above, the low building on the left, with the blue, wooden shades reminded me of Greece...I'm getting a little homesick these days, as it's the first time since I relocated in Germany, that almost half a year has passed and I haven't visited. A long weekend or at least a week were usually planned every 3 months.

But it was clearly my choice, as I had spent far too much time last summer and autumn ( all together 8 weeks), renovating Apartment 44, the new smaller place my parents bought to live in.
And it was tiring, very tiring, except from rewarding, as it was the first time I got not only to decorate a living space, but to literally tear it down and start all over again, having chosen and designed everything from scratch.

This period also caused lots of instability in my personal relationship and since then I learned to prioritise and to support my feelings with actions. Making clear statements with my choices.
I grew a lot since that period and I 'm very, very thankful for that.

I feel that my parents are now settled in a new way of life, less luxurious but more meaningful. They have also accepted my choice to live in a different country and they are very happy I must say, for how things have turned out.

Now, I feel that I have two homes, one here in Germany and one in Greece and this is a feeling I had never imagined before...

I decided to spend a long weekend in Munich this year, which was my parents generous present for my birthday and Christmas together, instead of flying to Greece.

I'm very happy though that a first summer visit in Greece is planned for June....not too crouded and not too hot for my German partner .... :)

Wishing you a happy, fresh weekend....

Somehow . . ., originally uploaded by ivy style33.

...like the feeling that these two pictures evoke to me...Spring is the time for blue skies and on the left is an example of how nature can be represented in our living spaces...here on our table settings...

Dotted light blue napkins, like the sky with white friendly clouds...
Wooven placemats from bamboo, bringing the earth inside....
Darker shades of blue reminding of deep seas and...
White standing for natural light, like the one reflected in the villages of Greek Aegean islands.

Have a great weekend!

Muted tones

...on a recent day where thoughts & concerns about stating opinions prevailed, the unquestionable worth of silence came to mind...

So, in between preparing dinner and doing grocery shopping in the afternoon, also a little time to "play" a bit, whilst setting the table...also finding peace and silence in these moments, photographing bits of the crafting projects I've been working on lately.

The plaid tunic in grey and blue tones that I was wearing, inspired the setting for the little photo shooting that went on at home.

Simple thoughts on domestic life

...or domestic simplicities...would you join me in seeing what life itself brought into the span of my attention today? I'd be so delighted to share with you...

Even a small rearrangement, when cleaning up, can bring a fresh feeling in our living spaces...as we are not always in the mood or have the time to invest in bigger changes.

Here:

....just the vintage books, which have since recently been serving decorative purposes on the coffetable surface, have been shuffled up, bringing up the lighter one with the golden lettering.

It is worth noticing the big impact that even bits of colour have in our spaces.

As an additional change, the porcelain form, serving as a candleholder, has been placed on the books instead of next to them, sitting on the same paper doily that was "accidentally" forgotten under the books, in the previous arrangement.

I find that being  p r e s e n t  when cleaning, eventhough I might as well be out enjoying the sunshine at that point, has a more creative effect to the whole process and actually incorporates some decorating in it....I guess this is how traditional housewifes used to do it in the past, could it be ?

...when decorative tips and ideas were not widely offered and presented via magazines, books and recently blogs and TV shows...and when people were more concentrated on themselves in the most unselfish way....

Some more thoughts about our daily lives emerged, after seeing this picture I took this morning...

A goog morning...

...can be prognosed from the early morning, says a Greek proverb.

Well, jugding from the early sun rays bathing the little Penthouse this morning, I must admit this could be true.

Still, my considerations are, that we can stop and change the flow of our days at any given point, should we feel that something might have not started in the best possible way.

A w a r e n e s s   is the first step.

A c c e p t a n c e  the next.

Then comes  i n t e n t i o n  to change,

and finally  r e a l i s a t i o n  of our intentions by taking  a c t i o n.

And finally, combining the two pictures in the begining of the post in a diptych, gave rise to sharing the following thougts and appreciations on life and its magical simplicity....

...coz life's beauty lies in living it simple....

Simplicity is often mistaken as less or just not enough and there are so many of us running around - and often away! - like mad, trying to always have more, achieve more, earn more, be more, when trully nothing can be compared with the blissfulness and prettyness of the relaxed beauty of simply being who we are and enjoying the gift of life and whichever activity we might be engaged into.

We do need to be or to become a little bit wise though, to reach to the point of appreciating ourselves and our lives.

And should we reach to this point (for which very often a lot of hard work in all fields - practical, emotional, spiritual, mental, educational - is required), just everything, kind of magically, falls into place and that manifests in our daily lives, the way we treat ourselves and others....


So, I' m wishing us all to be finding the beauty in the simple things in life, which are always the most precious ones....inside lies the treasure...outside it also becomes evident.