Hush City

Presenting an interesting and thought-provoking sketch film about Minsk, which can be viewed at Hush City. This film is professionally made although it is not a commercial project. I like the graphics and design, which well reflect the mood of the 'hush city'. Those who know about,were/are in Minsk do check out the Concept of this project - i think the whole idea behind it is intriguing. This is a great movie, which shows Belarus from an interesting perspective and attracts attention towards it. Here are some snaps of each of Minsk seasons presented in the sketch:

Autumn:





Winter:





Spring:






Another Autumn:

Images via Hush City

Chinese Paper Cutting

This art form is very popular in China but is hard to come across in Europe - at least I have never seen anything similar to this. If you have - leave a comment, I'm very curious! It existed in China for thousands of years with a long history and different themes and designs. The oldest surviving paper cut out is a symmetrical circle from the 6th century found in Xinjiang. You can visit the blog of Mr Lee - an artist carving paper cut art works. He ezhibits his works there and demonstrates the actual way he is carving on paper:

Images via Mr Lee

The blog is also full of pictures about China reflecting traditions and lifestyle and also has its Travelling in China series.

Images via Mr Lee

Here are paper cuts I found on the window of my hostel room when I was staying in Pingyao during my trip through China last September. I like how they look together with those old window frames. Will be posting more photos from China soon.



Paper cutting works sold on the street in China:

Images by Olga

El Arte de Vivir

Here is one of the greatest designer shops I came across during my trip to Ibiza. You will find live and bright colors, great atmosphere and gorgeous things inside Amore Ibiza. It seems so awesome to have your own shop with things you designed yourself right in the center of Ibiza's old town, which is so small, a bit shabby - and still very beautiful and visited by so many different people who can appreciate things you created! According to Amore's philosophy Amore Ibiza invites you to the world of color and detail and promotes creativity, ecological awareness and recycling.




Images by Olga

Images via AmoreIbiza

Orient Express

I got inspired by yesterday's video and read up a little about Orient Express. Actually there are two options nowadays - one train travels through Europe and the other one is called Eastern&Oriental Express and runs through Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Laos (these countries are on my travel wish-list!). Just imagine entering the train which has so much history and I'm not even mentioning how great its interiors are!

Images via Google

Number 5

It is getting late here in Gdansk and the weather is stormy. The wind is very strong and the drops of rain are sliding down the window of the room where I'm sitting. Have a look at this video, it gives such a nice and warm feeling of cosiness and it is beautiful in every detail - orient express, the idealized Istanbul with its spices market... I'm looking forward to the movie about Coco Chanel which is going to be out some time soon - hopefully it is as beautiful...

Video via You Tube

Islamic Design

Today I wold like to dwell on the unique features of Islamic design and patterns. As the cultural and religious implications entailed the utmost development of the depiction of patterns rather than forms, the sophistication of Islamic patterns can't be underestimated. Exquisite geometrically correct patterns would definitely capture the attention of any viewer.

Images via Google

Here are also some examples of interior design I was able to photograph during my stay in Egypt:

Images by Olga

Make Love Not War

Here are some more cards I've created recently... These two are of the same size and have some repeating elements just as the one I posted before - the circle patterns which I recently fancy. I have a little 'tool' to create them and can draw as many of them as I want with different color pens, I still lack some practice to create those really detailed and multicolored ones, but hopefully this will come. After I finished the first card - somehow it started to associate with the flower generation 'make love not war' slogan, as for the name for the second one... well, how about 'forbidden forrest'?

Images by Olga

Venice Impressions

Beauty of Venice is in its canals, bridges, old and shabby buildings, its remarkable history, art and music... Life goes on right in front of you on the water and this seems so natural you can't imagine it could have been done in any different way. Venice has public transport boats called 'vaporetto', boat taxis and ambulances, boat grocery shops, boat dumpsters and even boat catafalques... And of course - the thing I should have mentioned first - the magnificent black gondolas which are made of 8 types of wood and are covered with 10 layers of paint before they are ready to roam the canals... Still there is so much more to that! Gorgeous things are everywhere - in every shop window, in every house attire and even in every grocery shop and snack bar - just have a look at these snaps:











I have so many more photos of what I saw and couldn't take my eyes off.. - I'm sure this is far not my last post about Venice!

Images by Olga

Venezia Venezia Venezia!

It seems it has been a really really long time since I posted here last.. It feels a little weird now after all this absence, but I was really busy trying to digest all the impressions of the wonderful city and actually I still am. I can't keep my hands off posting all the pictures I took of all the beauty around! I literally have thousands of them I think! I want to organize them in series and post the best ones - I just need to try not to be too Venice-focused in every post which will follow!. I need a bit more time to copy the last photos from the camera and arrange them, so today I will just be giving this little treat.



My greatest impression from Venice was when St.Mark's square got flooded during our 2nd night there and the water rose pretty high, more than 1m! At around midnight the square was filled with live classic music played by little orchestras from cafes around it and we were running along the flooded square and dancing in the pouring rain. And then the hotel was flooded as well! The water was coming from under the floor of the lobby, but the front desk could not be bothered and so was the waiter elegantly serving drinks to people in the bar wearing his galoshes :)

Images by Arek

Inspiration Boards Continued

Today was quite hectic - I was busy with final preparations before the departure to Venice (yay!), which included leaving the pets with our friends (I'm gonna miss them..:(), cleaning up the flat, doing some shopping. I haven't yet had the time to pack, so will have to get up rather early tomorrow - the idea of which I don't quite like. I'll try to post from Venice, it depends on internet availability, but if not I think I'm going to miss blogging a little... Posting a picture of my latest inspiration board I put up not so long ago after we came back from our trip to Paris. This is actually the one I used for this blog's header.

Image by Olga

Ноябрь

I think now it is time for me to post one of my works here. I have recently contemplated working on a collection of hand-made postcards united by one common theme or similar element. I have gradually started to work on this and created 4 cards so far - I thought it wouldn't take me so long to create each card but I want every one of them to be rather unique and quite detailed so for now it takes time. I'm posting a picture of my first card today - as they say you must spoil before you spin, so it doesn't look too sophisticated. I have used different paper textures - velvety and ruffled but unfortunately this is something which can't be seen on a picture after the card is scanned. I like more the cards I created after this one so this sort of proves that practice makes perfect. More cards coming soon, stay tuned!

Image by Olga

Józef K

Coming back to the topic of sweet'n'cosy cafes I started to explore in my yesterday's post I couldn't keep my hands off posting about the cafe which exactly falls under the definition of a perfect one for me. It simply could not be better! If you are in Sopot, Poland, one day, this place is a must-see, although it is not one of those hot spots visited by crowds of tourists (counting on you to guard this secret;))... In fact the cafe seems to be still mostly enjoyed and visited by locals, which helped it to preserve its charm.

Józef K is a literary cafe and quite an ambitious one I would say - where apart from getting a cup of lovely 'Kot Behemoth' chocolate (umm, with that lovely minty after taste!) - or acorn coffee, which you will never find anywhere else - you can pick a book from the cafe's little library and either enjoy works of authors like Bulgakov and Tolstoy or just browse through some colourful table books in a feast-for-your-eye interior. But that is not it! Józef K promotes a quarterly "Korespondencja z ojcem", samples of which can be found on this website and is closely connected to the so called Slavic Literature Cooperative, which supports young writers from Central&Eastern Europe and Balkans. Lovely interior, great reading and a creative idea behind it all! Enjoy:

Images via Jozef K

Cafe Cosiness

It's been a pretty damn busy week at work, so tonight I can't help looking forward to my trip to Venice next week. I'm really excited and can't wait to explore this little piece of Europe! There are so many controversial opinions of the city - but I really wanna put them aside and go with an open mind to make my own impression. And of course I already see myself taking pics of those old shabby buildings, colourful waters, islands around Venice and of course drinking 'famous Italian' coffee in cosy little cafes. Here is a cosy cafe reflection of the trip to Brussels we took back in December, it makes me want to repeat it (I only wish the weather wouldn't be so cold as that day in Brussels!)

Image by Olga

Inspiration Boards

It is curious how one can get inspired by listening, watching, reading or SEEING something beautiful - an original pattern, objects arranged by form and colour or simply something different from anything else seen before. Visual perception seems to be very much connected to our emotional world. Just imagine a collection of all the small things and pictures which recently caught your attention and provoked positive reaction - this is also a good reason why many people blog ;). You can have such a collection always at hand and be able to change and update it according to what you like/feel/are into at the moment. All you need is a cork board and some pins - and you can put together all the things you find so cool and have your very own inspiration board. It is such a simple yet such a joyful thing to do and to have. Here is a photo of my first inspiration board I created about 2 years ago.



And I haven't stopped since then really... It seems like putting together little collections of things which inspire and appeal to me is something which will never get me bored. I will be posting some more snaps of my inspiration boards in the future. Seems like this pastime becomes more and more popular among many people - check out the whole collection of inspiration boards on Flickr and get inspired!

Image by Olga

Home Is Where Life's Adventures Begin

Recently I have noticed that I don't like to concentrate on the decoration of the whole room but would choose a little part of it or a corner and would devote it to a particular theme or decorate it in a certain peculiar way. It is nice to have these little parts of your home attracting attention and filling you with positive emotions. It is also great to change themes from time to time, sometimes it is even sad to part with your little creative spots when you are changing them for something different! The picture above shows how I tried to put together 3 boxes brought from China, a lamp which I made myself from a wine bottle, a candle and an aztec-style stencil I cut and colour-sprayed a while ago. I hope to post more images of our house going forward.

Image by Olga