~ the Penthouse @ Ikea Family Live magazine

hello everyone!

 isn't it quite a nice date today, that is if a detail like that matters to you at all in any way?

 09.09.2011

 numbers have a symbolic meaning to me

 and am quite a fan of them,

 asides from having been quite good at dealing with them back at school and university

 it seems to be connected with an easiness in evaluating spaces,

 visualising complete rooms put together

 {without even having made one sketch by hand or on the pc}

 make the best possible use of their space, 

 maximising their performance with simple & easy solutions

I guess this characteristic allows me to be successful as 

an interiors consultant & designer

speaking of that, I'm quite happy to be sharing today with you,

after a week that the edition has arrived in our mailbox,

{I just wanted that a few very dear friends had the honour of finding out in person by me,

before making a post here & I just loved their reaction and input!}

that our current home,

this so beloved & charming, little {loft Penthouse} of ours,

is hosted in the German Fall issue of Ikea Family Live

it is a wonderful feeling being hosted in the pages of a publication I adore,

which has also marked the beginning of my life in Germany,

the magazine being something totally new to me back then{3 years ago},

as it wasn't published in Greek.

and the best of all, it is connected to a company I love!

having not the time to momentarily translate the interview into English for you,

I'll just state a few facts:

 1.  the interview took place on the phone

and the Penthouse is mentioned as my current residence,

which I share with my life partner.

 2. I'm also mentioned as their co worker, as since a year now,

I'm blogging for their online website,

which by the way since yesterday has launched totally new!

you may check it out {here}

& visit me {there}

3.  Ikea Family Live's editors have contacted me twice more than a year ago, asking if I would be interested in having their stylists and photography crew come over for a

detailed feature in their magazine

 4. I was "dying" to meet the crew and see how they work on the spot

 5.  what went wrong? 

my life partner didn't wish to be part of this

& 

we were trying to arrange how he would be away for the three days that the crew would be here

  6. I clearly decided that him and our relationship is more important than my wish

to have our home published in a magazine and a favorite team work

 7. in the meantime he is {through living together with somebody who blogs}

much more relaxed about such issues,

so perhaps a new home in the future could be a potential feature 

 8. I was thrilled when the editors suggested that we make a small feature instead,

me sending my own pictures as an interiors photographer

and voila:

so it happened!

isn't life the most fabulous adventure my dear all?

and aren't true love & patience always rewarded?

it seems so....

anyway, I'll have to leave you with some of my portfolio's favorite pictures

 which were used for thefeature:

our living / lounge / sofa area

our reading corner, as seen from the kitchen with a view to the stairs up

my favorite box carrying always my latest paper creations {like these ones}

our reading corner's art wall,

the creation of which you may follow in two parts

as blogged for Ikea Family's live website

{here} + {here}

and a quick, tasty solution for a Sunday breakfast as blogged {here} about a year ago

below are the scanned pages of the magazine

and promise as soon as I take some time off during the weekend

to catch up with... myself amongst all craziness,

I'll post the translation cause it has some humourous parts, too!

wishing everyone the happiest of Friday & weekends ahead!

see you soon my dears ~

Love,

Iro - Ivy

 ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

photography & interior styling by Iro Ivy Nassopoulos for Domestic stories with Ivy 2011 & Ikea Family Live {all rights reserved}

~ a weekend with Ivy...

[click here]

well my dears, good morning & have the loveliest of new weeks ahead!

I hope your weekends were nice ones, spent in meaningful ways,

whatever this involves for each and every special one of you...

as for myself... 

"a weekend with Ivy"... as the title connected to the pictures flying around here suggests,

 I'll let you know all about it in the second part of this post.

 ~ ~ ~

for now, let me tell you what does it mean for people who share their life with me

to spend a weekend {and sometimes a life} together...

what will they say...

she is a child...

an incurable romantic...

with an unexpected twist in logical thinking when needed,

still always connected to her deep sense of intuition...

she creates all the time...

she develops ideas,

she makes with her hands,

she photographs

& 

styles everyday life as if it is the most valuable present

she manically cleans the kitchen when at home {unless she is that tired a few times now & then}

she organises everything and yet sometimes she makes a chaos...

she talks to herself while she writes...

she dives into her favorite interior design books & magazines...

she sets the table every time, a few times a day

 as if it was a celebration,

using the most inexpensive and modest of accessories...

she carefully folds recyclable waste

so that they do not aquire much space...

she gets angry when bees flying in the house are about to be killed

and whole operations are put together instead,

in order to safely return them to their natural environment

through the window & veranda...

she has a clear hate relationship with cables,

which she also manically puts away,

folds or organises in any possible way

if they are white, they have slight chances of being put up with...

they are black ~> they are dead {meaning they are hidden away}

sometimes she loves socialising with others

and then there are times

she is only occupied with all she does...

while making {non pragmatic sometimes} plans

about saving the world,

performing good,

infuencing others in positive ways,

making an impact on this society, in this life...

I know that living with me is not easy,

unless perhaps you are "me"

{and even not that always!}

but then again everything & everyone in life

have two sides...

and when we are blessed with some charismas,

with some positive sides,

we also carry a little burden on our shoulders,

these darker sides of ourselves,

ones we have to deal with,

in order to set ourselves free 

& 

proceed with living the life we really want for ourselves.

I'll not tire you any longer with my Monday morning ramblings

and will immediately let you know what the pictures

in this post are all about!

so... as for today, I'm a contributor author in Birch & Little, 

an Australian online magazine publication,

connected to {this} blog & soon an {online shop}

for independent designers.

our cooperation has been marked with

the release of the 1st issue for October 2011,

which you can flip though {here!}

Below are the pictures from my "After the spa, household stories" post,

which were so nicely & artistically put together by the editor of the magazine

as seen on the top picture of this post here

&

 it is in fact placed in pages 21 & 22 of the actual magazine

will you let me know your thoughts as well?

am so eager to hear them!

asides from participating in this issue with a short version of

{this} blog post,

the opening and contents picture & the cover one

are both chosen from my portfolio

&

 must admit that this makes me so very happy,

even if this is just an online magazine!

I love the magazine's logo

{ I mean, who doesn't love two blue... love birds after all!}

and

find the whole layout to work so wonderul with the picture,

the original of which you

see below & can find posted {here}

finally, here is the cover!

I can so clearly imagine this publication printed...

it certainly makes a strong impact 

&

 just love the combination of colours & fonts!

the original picture can be viewed online {here}

&

 it was part of  the "Joyful simplicities" post

I guess before ending this post...

{and starting to prepare a new one, as there is so much taking place

almost in every field of my life, I don't know where to momentarily find the time

to post about everything and then where to begin from!}

... I wanted to say that I'm quite happy for the fact that not only

am I appreciated as an interiors desinger, consultant & photographer,

but also as a writer.

And this gives me enormous happiness,

cause I honestly never ever in my life had imagined that to be taking place.

had it not been for starting to blog,

such opportunities would have most probably never reached me.

I'm so thankful for everything...

and wishing you a happy Monday ahead,

cause there is really so much work to be done around here...

till next post 

very soon...  

much  ♥ to you

P.S:  photos by Iro Ivy Nassopoulos for Domestic stories with Ivy 2011

        magazine captures & editing:  birch&little

~ West meets East

via

As  promised earlier today, I'll reveal what is the story behind this picture.

Ready?

...being featured on some kind of printed press is a very happy occassion for all people like  us {and not only of course!};

meaning people who are gradually developing a profession out of a passion, a hobby or simply out of doing what we can best and love with all our hearts.

When approached by one of the editors of LOHAS  magazine just a little bit before our Christmas trip to Rome,

I felt very excited, lucky and honoured to have been asked to participate in their upcoming monthly special feature.

A feature about eco friendly and handmade all the way packaging.

Wonderful I thought!

It fell as a Santa Clause 's present on my plate,

as those days I was spending  incredible amounts of time

packing in a very personalised and special manner packages for the etsy shop's orders,

my direct custom orders from friends (and very encouraging and loyal customers!), 

 as much as for two and more handfull of friends all around the globe.

I was enjoying every minute but tiredness had already begun knocking on my door.

My partner was commenting that he didn't understand the reason into doing this 

and as much as this didn't take away the happiness of the process,

it did leave me with a heart kind of heavy.

So why have I been doing this?

Why have I been creating one of a kind, personalised packages for all my friends and customers while recycling and reusing every kind of paper that we had?

From vintage music sheets, to catalogue pages made of already recycled paper...to natural string and jute...to...to...to?

Given an eco consiousness included, it basically gave me pleasure. Simply like that. 

It felt right. 

The most important reason though is that packaging instantly became a form of art itself.

Taking into consideration the choices each person had made, I tried to create a second present, this being the wrapping. It was my communicative way to express care and attention.

And this is what made the proccess worthwhile.

Christmas and life itself is about giving,

and that was an effort to give the best part of myself I could.

I'm so happy it somehow got noticed. 

Very honoured to be part of a publication, which focuses on Lifestyle of Health and Sustainable Living.

The whole magazine is gorgeous!

With all the glamour of a lifestyle magazine, still with a distinguisable quality easily noticed.

That of a more humanitarian approach to fashion, interiors & styling.

Aiming at waking up consiousnesses.

...and here goes a little travelling adventure:

the copies of the magazines travelled in between Hong Kong and Europe a couple of times until they reached my hands, due to them arriving subscribed when both my parter and I were away from home.

Him on one of his almost montlly trips around the world (this year he was actually in Hong Kong when the magazine was available there, but couldn't find an issue) and me in Greece, dealing with a very tired, nostalgic and low in energy self. 

Spring is here and together with it the copies of the magazine.

...and a most delightful and thoughtful present:

a mini book with thoughts and expressions about Love.

Isn't it wonderful how things are brought together sometimes?

...seemingly effortlessly, naturally, but certainly with lots of work having previously been done.

As for the interview, I'd like to share here the few questions and answers that are stated in the feature.

 Still the editor has to be contacted again to find out which of the many questions that I had originally answered are actually included.

Sometime in a next post my friends....

Till then, have a great evening and take a look at {this}

Love quotes...

"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence."

 quote by Erich Fromm

eventhough the expression "problem of human existence" puzzles me a bit

- why should our existence be considered problematic any way? -

that love is an answer to many things {problems, too}

 is certainly something not to deny

....more on the picture later my dears...

have a great start in the week 

&

hope you've spent a marvelous Easter holiday!