~ enjoy the silence & wishes for a happy weekend

Good morning on what seems to be a sunny Saturday...just wanted to share this thought with you, while wishing you to have a wonderful weekend.

Enjoy the silence....as "she" is as precious as talking, sharing, writing, or anything openly expressive and communicative.

In fact, silence has a very intense communicative value and quality...

So many feelings can be expressed while being silent, so much music heard, while we tune to our inner notes...

It's a very precious state of being from which we have a lot to learn, gain and become familiar with.

This is the first post being shared on both the on line places I've been writing at (Busy Bee's blog & Domestic Stories)and there is a reason for that.

There is material to be shared in the upcoming days, thoughts, experiences, opinions, which have been held until there was time again...and the time was right.

There'll be probably discussions raised, as I'll be sharing with you how I feel about blogging, open sharing and the online world.

For now, I had this incredible need to just stay still inside and get in touch with my deep self.

Maybe this is not the right time for you to do the same and this is quite all right.

Whichever way you choose to spend your weekend, I'm wishing you it to be a great one, with lots of essence, creativity, relaxation, happy times and moments of self reflection, if that suits you.

And for those of you who don't know, I've been having a special visitor since a week, which is my mother. So, we've been driving around and visiting lovely German cities along the Rhein river.

There are just a few pictures shared so far on my flickr account if you'd like to have a glimpse, as there has been only but very few time spent online.

So, this post will be ending with my most favorite of pictures taken this week, capturing a moment very precious to me, while being in Limburg, sightseeing...actually sightseeing in the rain.

The sun is out and today we'll be sightseeing in the sunshine, that sounds really nice.

Take care and be well...we'll soon be enjoying meetings, discussions and also happy occasions among other things here and there.

Warmest of regards and best of wishes,

Ivy ~ xx

Sweet partnerships...and other ramblings...

live on flickr

Hello dear all on a sunny Wednesday morning :)

For those of you who don't know, I'm having a very special visitor since this Sunday morning - my mother - and am finding myself in an almost full vacation mode, despite being at home in Germany! (And hopefully this is enough of a good explanation for why this scheduled for Monday post is taking place today)

It is her first visit here since I relocated in this country some two years ago, in order to live together with my German partner.

So, we are spending lovely times driving around neighboring cities like Mainz & Wiesbaden so far, taking pictures, while also walking around the neighborhood and spending nice mother - daughter times @home. In another post I'll introduce her to you more detailed and we'd like to prepare a special post for you together.

But enough with the prologue, time to introduce you to the lovely person I promised to do in a recent, previous post, the lovely, young and talented girl with whom a collaboration has started since a month.

Smaranda Kee and I are putting together on a weekly basis a diptych according to a theme we've chosen.

Below is a mosaic I had put together some weeks ago in order to sum only but a few of my very favorite pictures of hers!

live on flickr

Not only she's extremely naturally beautiful, she's also a very sweet, kind and down to earth person, as much as excelling in her architectural studies and being a very inspiring and talented photographer among other things!

You'll find more of her delightful pictures and view on life here.

To go back to our collaboration, the diptych presented at the opening of this post is the last one we made this week and it 

 represents the theme of "the senses: taste".

As love is said to be both the sugar and salt of life, sweet heart-shaped cookies (by Kee) and salty snacks bitten forming a heart are put together (by me), both photographed under the sunlight.

I'll go on introducing you to the diptychs we put together, going back gradually back in time.

Below are our domestic stories, or else captures of the most common of activities in everyday life, such as hanging the laundry and being in the kitchen.

On the left, Kee's contribution and on the right is mine.

live on flickr

and here is our second actually collaboration based on a theme and activity we both love to do - and who doesn't? - travelling!

At the same time we wanted to engage into the subject with a vintage mood and therefore old, leather suitcases came into the scene!

live on flickr

And last but definitely not least, here's our first collaboration ever, which was the most fun to put together and probably the most successful also, in terms of responses in flickr, where we usually post.

Our theme: Alice in Wonderland....and vintage watches belonging to Kee's grandparents came out of the drawers to be photographed in delicate, romantic porcelain teacup & saucers sets, while I was being photographed by my partner (also like crazy into photography) playing Alice in the castle near our home.

live on flickr

To end this post which took us back in time step by step, let me post here my favorite of the series of pictures my life partner and I made that day, this one representing the entering into a different dimension:

live on flickr

All the pictures are also linked to flickr, where they are originally posted, as there is where the action happens, meaning friends, contacts and other people, entering a conversation or simply leaving some constructive feedback on what they see.

I'll be seeing you quite soon with many more new posts on various issues, from life matters, to pictures and news about the shop, to new columns gradually getting added to the body of this blog. Still making no precise promises about when, as together with on line presence, real life happens, sometimes requesting alterations in schedules!

Have yourselves a lovely Wednesday! Enjoy life's journey day by day and if possible minute by minute.

All the love and wishes for all things best,

Ivy ~  xx

~ just pictures...

...no words this time my friends,

just pictures with their respective titles,

linked to flickr where you can see and read them live.

From me, a wish:

have a lovely, lovely weekend, 

wherever you might be!

Precision and concentration

Feel

See

               

Pretty elegance

                

Frozen music


Love,


 Ivy ~  xx

~ together

Hearts and stars

Good afternoon on an cloudy, still charming, autumn day in the middle of August!

 I hope you had a nice start in the new week yesterday. It found me mostly reorganizing and cleaning our living space, as the weather change called for warm woolen rugs to be brought up from the cellar. I'll show you what has happened in a next post. For now, I've come here with the intention to present some photography diptychs, therefore the title.

Whichever word we might choose, togetherness, partnership, sharing, team, pairs, two is always better than one. And so it happens with pictures sometimes. They complement each other and/or make a stronger statement of a subject.

So, time for pictures and no words, here are some of my current diptychs:

Life's rhythm

Unobvious connections 

Love for details

...there's always hope

Except from making diptychs of my own pictures, a lovely, talented person I met on flickr and I have joined forces and we are creating a diptych weekly, based on a common theme we choose.

Next week, we have one month anniversary, when I'll be presenting and revealing her to you, as much as hosting here, all of our collaborations!

See you later, taking you on a tour in our current living space.

Take care

Ivy ~  xx 

Sailing around the world...

Hello my dear friends,

I hope this finds you well, healthy, happy and productive to the most possible extent.

Days here are full and are shared among processing pictures, most of them to be placed at the shop's shelves,

making cards and other products which I'll present to you quite soon, working on the appearance of this new blog here and preparing the plans for the renovation/redecoration of a teenage boy's room, to be taking place this autumn.

At the same time, I'm finding temporary solutions to incorporate this small business in the arms of this also small, loft apartment, trying to organize the products made, the orders and packing station, while keeping it simple and spacious.

Not the easiest thing to do...We are surrounded by prints in various sizes, paper boats, cards, recycled paper, twine and strings all over!

I owe a lot to the patience, understanding and support of my partner for having all this done.

But enough with talking, I'll make new pictures (again!)

of the apartment and working station and share them here with you. Better see than talk ;)

In the meantime, I thought I present to you the post I had prepared for Ikea Family Live, which got aired yesterday.

So, are you ready for some action?

Time to wake up the crafty child inside and have fun while reusing newspaper pages...

We are making paper boats!

Let's get started and remember to ask your children to join you for lots of happy time together!

Choose the colors that you like and match to your environment and proceed with cutting square sheets, as many as the amount of boats you wish to make.

this print is available here

If you wish your boats to have some charm, as I personally consider it, cut one or some of the sides of the squares by hand, so that is has a look like the one which appears above.

 You can achieve that by patiently folding the sides a few times, until cutting by hand becomes easy and appears precise.

This is how your garland will appear seeing the bottom side of the boats and...

above is an easy decorative idea for your dining table.

Spread them all over, or place them on the plates, standing on a handwritten note, stating a name or wishing a good morning for example.

And some tips for incorporating them into a garland:

Use baker's twine in your preferred combination, as there are so many possibilities. Here a brown and white one has been used.
 Now this is the part where you can exercise your patience, as you should be careful as to not destroy our little, happy, paper boats while threading them together.

And there's a secret for keeping the boats steady:
Use a bead underneath the "sail" which you'll then knot in place.
They will not sail away at all, instead they'll make you drift away with your own thoughts when looking at them!
Below is the garland that I came up with using the pages of a Dutch newspaper, brought from an Art Gallery in Amsterdam this May.

About the way to display it, there are few possibilities

but am mentioning here two :

 Hang it horizontally and you have a summery, stylish, happy garland!

Hang it vertically and you have a lovely mobile!

These little fellows make up for wonderful decoration for your boys' rooms as well, but also your girls, if you use patterned, flowered and dotted paper in cheerful colours.

print available here

And for those of you that prefer minimalism, muted and natural tones, the print above would be suitable to come and live in your home.

Ivy ~ xx

Love life by Miss Emma

Have a lovely afternoon dear friends!

There has been quite a lot going on both in real life and the blog world and I'm pretty glad to be at least managing to post now.

While I was preparing a post I'm suspecting you are going to love,

more lovely news arrived in my Etsy shop's mailbox and I came quickly here to share with you.

One of my very dear friends since the beginning of my online presence in flickr and blog land, talented and sweetest Miss Emma, has prepared a wee treasury, as she would say, including and promoting a print of my shop among other delightful items.

For those of you unfamiliar with Etsy and treasuries, they are a way of promoting a collection of items, selected by individual sellers themselves.

I'm very happy and honored to have been already included quite a few times, despite the shop's new items having been exactly just a month on its shelves and available.

It sure feels great to be welcome :)

So here's "love life...!" by lovely Emma

and here are my Oilcloths, photographed in Horeuto, a village by the sea in magical Pilion of Greece during our summer vacation this June:

available here

Hope you enjoy taking a look and I'll see you later caring a relaxed feeling of childhood memories...you'll see...

Love and best of wishes to you all

Ivy  ~ xx 

~ Love at the top of the world

Let's take a ride at the top of the world, 

shall we?

Is your mind already racing to the highest mountains and skyscrapers of all?

No need to go that far or that high up!

How about the roofs of our houses,

just around the neighborhood?

I'll take you on a ride with me around Greece, Germany and The Netherlands, where the following pictures were taken.

So, let's see what we encountered:

The three Magicians

sunbathing on one of the tops of the world, at incredible Makrinitsa village in beautiful Pilion of Greece

An only Chimney,

above the area of Ajios Nikolaos in Pilion again,
which stood there where the sea and sky meet,
at the eternal horizon,
there where hearts melt from happiness
and minds liberate themselves,
she stood alone
but felt not lonely,
as she embraced the whole of Existence
with every one of her breaths...

and...

The happiest of all

just like having jumped out of a Walt Disney cartoon, which
waved to me while going up the stairs of a neighboring building, seen (and photographed) through glass while in Amsterdam

and last but not least,

Shimmering roofs

in the lovely German city of Limburg,

just the same ones which appeared in today's

Good morning Life! post.

Above is a mosaic assembling together all of today's pictures posted here,

while giving me the chance to present a couple of new things,

such as the "Life of awareness" project,

a series of posts which attempts to touch and discuss delicate matters of life,

and my undeniable love for white,

which has been put together in this set of four prints below,

from the Domestic-Kitchen Stories,

designed to bring love and light in your interiors

in a discrete way:

* True Love never fades

* Baking love

* Purity

* Imperfections

all available at the shop individually in various sizes and as a friendly priced set.

Hope you are all spending lovely days,

finding the magic in everyday living and the simplest aspects of it.

I'll be seeing you soon, with news and pictures from the apartment,

but before I 'll be posting and official announcement

over at Mrs Busy Bee's Blog,

as there are so many more friends to be notified about this transition.

Love, 

Ivy ~  xx