Where Are You, Olga?

I haven't recently posted anything much about my home - this is what happens when you travel too much I guess :) But when I come back from my travels I always want to come to a very warm and beautiful place I call home and I like to do all sorts of things to convert it into this cosy, colourful and comfortable place to live in. Below are some of the things I created or added a personal touch to - to make them less boring.

This is a small stool which I decorated using decoupage technique, which looked like this and this before.

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

I sprayed this clock silver, then added the new background and the round elements to its lower panel and sides.

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

After adding the knobs brought from India to the wooden desk and the chests of drawers they definitely started to look better - slightly more exotic and now they really stand out. I love those Indian knobs - such a simple yet exquisite invention! Here is how the desk drawers looked before.

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

This simple IKEA tray started to look much better after I covered its bottom with wrapping paper and a layer of transparent acrylic lacquer.

Image by Olga

And the last but not least is the old broken lamp found in the attic... We had to remove all the old cables and replace them with new ones. I was lucky to find a couple of old lampshades in a second hand shop, one of which suited well the recovered lamp.

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

Giving things the new look and feel is quite easy - sometimes it costs nothing to create an absolutely unique thing for your place. I really have fun doing so :)

Today I like...

Images by Vi.sialize.us

Proper Winter?

Calendar winter has already begun and so have the preparations for Christmas in many countries, towns, homes, shops... and blogs! Exciting time - my absolute favourites are lights, old-fashioned carousels, red'n'green things, candles, packing presents, ginger cookies, winter decorations... Floss came up with a great idea of sharing all of this excitement - and one can really feel the preparations, expectations and the beauty of pre-Christmas days in the air now!

For me these days are all about real winter and snow and a lot of sun - this is how the winters are in Belarus where I come from and I immensely miss them. Winter used to be my favourite season of the year - proper winter that is! And I still love being outside and enjoying the weather when the sun is shining, and the snow is squeaking under my shoes, and it's -20C!

So here is some glitter and light, snow and ice and of course art also coming from a proper winter. Jukkasjarvi from Swedish Lapland is quite interesting, because it's not just a museum of Ice Art, it's a hotel where you can properly spend some days.

The Ice Hotel is situated in the village Jukkasjärvi, 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden and 17 kilometers from Kiruna, the nearest town. The heart and backbone is the Torne river flowing freely through the unspoilt wilderness. Covered with a meter thick ice layer in winter time the river is the source of all the art, architecture and design. The pure water and the steady movement of the river creates the clearest ice possible.

Images by Google

Determined To Live Forever Or Die Trying ..!

Image by Visualize.us

Wine after nine. Everyone invited... :)

Thoughts continued...

I am now back from my Nordics trip... It was good to come back to Sweden. And I don't think much has changed since the year I spent there - 2004-05. And I got to see Denmark for the first time! It was such a useful week for me - full of impressions and people I met, somewhat dark and gloomy as well - but with lots of candle lights... with some good time on my own, plus with some reflections on the Scandinavian attitude to life.

According to one quite widely spread stereotype the Swedes - and the Scandinavians in general - are quite cold and emotionless people. I don't think this is exactly true, but certainly they know how to control themselves and be discrete with their emotions. It's not considered OK to show your true 'needy' self and complain. In addition to that it is not OK when your negative emotions or feelings are directed to other people and aim at controlling or reproaching them. Interestingly, if you translate the Swedish word 'svartsjuk'(jealous) literally into English it means 'black sick', so jealousy is viewed as a black disease and this is a feeling one is ashamed of and is not supposed to display.

Images by Camilla Engman

Also another quite interesting thing is that being single is regarded as a strength and craving for being with someone is rather a weakness. (And the question here is - is it just a good excuse to cover up the misery of being lonely?). But then lots of Swedes prefer to stay single and open to anything which might come their way in terms of new experiences and they are quite direct in terms of expressing what they want - they don't play games and are just plain honest in saying what they are up to. So the key word here is individualism. For me coming from Eastern Europe with a culture totally different from this, it is quite a difficult thing to get used to. Here we are all so much more 'social animals', we wait for each other to go grab a coffee together, we wait for colleagues to go back from work together, we make plans according to the plans of other people - look just how dependent we are!

Image by Olga

Well, the disarming thing about the Swedes is the dry and self-deprecating humour they have and they do joke quite a lot!

Thoughts from Göteborg

Greetings from Nordic Gothenburg. I'm spending this week here - and there is still a lot to discover about this city! I have found this picture in Google, and for me it's quite interesting as it gives a glimpse of the office I work from to the left of the bridge.

Image by Google

The weather was just wonderful when I arrived on Saturday, I even managed to catch some sun, but then Sunday was unbearable - it was raining really hard for the whole day plus the wind was too strong... it was impossible to survive such a combination outside!

So I have been having some time alone trying to adjust myself to the Scandinavian rhythm/lifestyle/atmosphere. Gdańsk seems to be not too far away from here, but the difference is of course huge. It is very interesting to observe the Swedes and their tranquil but creative way of arranging their lives, decorating their homes with lights and things, following the traditions and gradually getting ready for Christmas...

I spent one year in Sweden back when I was a student and I quite often come back to that time in my memories. A year in a country so well organized with people so tolerant and open was a great experience - and I did learn a lot. One of my friends who spent 5 years here said that life in Scandinavia is good, relaxing and... black and white (by which he meant 'boring'). Many Swedes admit to that and I agree to some point. Still I think the Swedish people are good in engaging themselves in various activities - and some are far from being bored :)

So far I can say that the Swedish are more forthright in speaking about their achievements, are more spontaneous in their decision-making, offer personal opinions and express disagreement more readily and of course have a greater tolerance for individual style differences, and a more flexible definition of protocol - all quite positive observations. I just wish it would be easier to socialize with them! But I think I myself can be quite a recluse at times...

God natt...

Good Vibrations!

Video via You Tube

Salvador Dali's Alice in Wonderland

Dali’s incredible illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” (published in 1865) have caused it to become one of the rarest and most sought-after Dali suites. With the original gouaches published by Maecenas Press-Random House, New York in 1969, the Suite now contains 12 heliogravures - one for each chapter of the book - and comes with 1 original signed etching in 4 colors as the frontpiece. This collaboration brings together arguably two of the most creative minds in Western culture, as both are considered ultimate explorers of dreams and imagination.

The originals of these works are open for public in the Espace Dali Museum in Paris, Montmartre - a very unusual and phantasmagoric place to visit, which I really recommend.