Summer 2011: my notebook and I

Currently my mind is obsessed with thoughts of freedom, detachement from the commercial and corrupt.

I suddenly felt really weak and uncreative, and I knew the only thing that could safe me would be a pen and white paper. It feels so different to write with your hand than to type. Writing is more of a physical process than I thought. The internet can give ideas but it is so clinical and unorganic.

This explains my long break from blogging, and I guess after I told you 'bout those thoughts, I will have another break from it.

The return to the organic, to nature, to creating things with my bare hands, to sleep under the sky listening to circades rather than artificial beats, that is what I crave. To wake up and not checking the time, to dream and draw, to pick flowers and to swim in the sea.

Just a few days ago I watched "Into the Wild". It is such a touching film, based on a true story. At times i felt like shouting out "That's it! This is exactly what one should do. Just live."

BIN LADEN....

And all I have to say is: "WHAT IS REALITY ANYWAY?"

"You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." — C.S. Lewis

I am on such a health trip, it's incredible. I work out, get up early, I don't drink and I went back to being vegan. I feel the benefits more than ever. I feel like a little monkey that is happy all day and swings with its tail in the tree. Or like a bird. I am trying to stick to this lifestyle until my exams are over, so wish me luck and don't tempt me with cocktails.

If you are interested I could post some vegan recipes in the coming days.

I spend my morning equipped with tape, pencil, ruler and curved ruler, measuring tape around my neck and scissors in hand, working on the cartamodello of my exam piece. The 1860s inspired Jacket.

As promised here comes an ugly sketch of the final design: at least you can understand the cut of the jacket that way! I will probably take the tail off, since the only reason I put it on (to use a second fabric) is not an option anymore.

I finished the papermodel of the torso, you can see the low shoulder and hip already shaping out. I am only doing one half, since my jacket is perfectly symmetrical.

Andrej Pejic

"Fashion is quite inclusive and good at embracing different things and different forms of beauty. It's a very liberal industry. You can be yourself. Just not overweight."

Are you in your body?

Today someone pointed out I stole his book several years after I stole it. He asked me where the book was. If I do not know where it is, I do not know where it is, and if it is with me, it is with me, I said. I mean, we are all transitioning to disembodied states. We are mostly no longer located where our bodies can be found. I heard someone saying he had heard that an essay question they ask on the undergraduate application to Yale is Are you your body?
I describe books as creatures, with joy. I am a creature, says the book in my head, stretching, and then i say God damn that was some creaturely motion you had going. Seriously, when i take it, it curls into me and closes its eyes and makes a sound like the barest sound of wind over the top of a glass bottle. The book never buys anything plastic, indeed. For instance, it buys only glass bottles and it keeps them, all in the drawer.
I know where the bottles are if I know where the bottles are, and i know they are not with me, cause they are in the drawer.

found on sangbleu.com

there's still dew on the grass

12 weeks plan!

TOMORROW STARTS WEEK 3!!!!

First of all, I think you should make your own 12 weeks plan, because I made mine really to match with my life. For example, this week my mum is coming for a visit, so my incentives are 1) to get a huge pile of work done by tuesday 2) to spend the most amazing time with her:

show the most beautiful places of Florence, eat in amazing little restaurants, have coffee on sunny terraces, go shopping, visit the markets and museums, take pictures....

So my week's "challenge" is nothing to do with my diet, but rather with living to the fullest.

My rules:

• don't eat in the same place twice
• go to school every day
• work all monday

Week 4 will be detox ;)

Have a nice week and I hope where you live it's this sunny too!!!!

The end of VEGAN WEEK!!!

I did it, I did not eat any animal products the entire last week!!!! So here comes my evaluation:

What surprised me most is that I didn't feel socially crippled for one moment, if you know what I mean.. You'd expect being vegan to limit you so much when you eat out, but actually it doesn't limit at all, it just forces you to choose alternatives. When we went for a coffee I simple drank tea, another time we went for aperitivo (in italy it's big as a dinner), and of 9 dishes the offered 6 were vegan!

I lost 1kg of weight in this week, which I find incredible. This is because normally I would pay attention to not eat too much sugar, no unhealthy carbs and healthy snacks only. This week I completely ignored my usual "healthy diet" and allowed myself to eat EVERYTHING that was vegan. I had a lot of sugar, a lot of carbs and probably also more fat than normal, so that's why this 1kg I lost makes a really big impression on me.

Concerning the energy: I guess I didn't feel a crazy difference. A friend told me though that the long term metabolism of the body takes 28 days, and that only after that time I could really feel different.

When I live vegetarian I miss meat more than I did this past week. I didn't crave anything I couldn't have.

I think I will do a vegan week soon again. It would be impossible for me to commit to this for a longer period, but I admit that it did me good and most importantly of all: I had fun!

my diana...

I was gonna write about my Diana so much earlier!!! I got this beautiful lomo camera from my mum for my birthday, and I was gonna write about it as soon as I can present some of her photos. Well.... so far I found no photoshop in Florence that will develop pictures that are analogue, and spread unevenly on the film. They managed to give me the negatives, but what do you do with negatives????

This is a classic case of "THE COMPUTER SAYS NO." Yeah yeah, "the machine cannot read it, if you can't tell me the format". The format changes, so what can I do? No more fun overlaying? no more square or half formats? I will write to the lomo office, maybe they know help.

THE ART IS DYING. hmpf. (the negatives do look like they'd make some pretty cool pictures btw)

Vegan Foodlog: Day 3

a culinary rather boring day:

8.28 stressed out whole wheat cracker, running to school

11.30 also stressed out vending machine crisps at school

12.37 finally home and rest of the fantastic beans of yesterday (warmed up for the 3rd time they had lost most of their glamour, none of their deliciousness)

16.12 a new invention: a selfmade eggplant, tomato, sweet onion cream on WASA wholewheat crackers

18.00 some dried plums and tea

19.44 thai rice noodle soup, followed by some lao nai nai (chinese horse nuts, so hard to bite that my friends and I tried multiple times to boil or fry them. no. apperently not.)

and here it comes, the first slip: 21.29 a small Rittersport square. AND AS IF THIS WASN'T ENOUGH... haha guess the flavour............. yoghurt. ha. milk. dairy. And my vegan world fell apart as those uninvited amino acids entered my system.

New try tomorrow!

Daria Werbowy

my current favourite Model at the photoshoot for the editorial "Ave Maria" of V magazine..

DARIA BY MARIO TESTINO from V Magazine on Vimeo.

Annaaaaa

HAHAHAHA!!! This woman makes me laugh!

The first 13 seconds I thought "PFF what a bitch, she needs attention sooooooo much. oh wow, how awful, embarrasing!!!! waaah thank god that I never never behave like this when sober." Followed by a self rightious "HA."

Then 20 seconds in, when I overcame my inner witch, I just couldn't help smiling, then laughing. And finally I admitted to myself, I love how freely she moves, I LOVE HOW MUCH FUN SHE HAS!!!! tadaa! It's nice to not care what others think, I hope she brightens your day too!

Patti Smith

There is so much truth in what she says. What I found most striking is when she says "take hold of your world".

In 2 minutes the friendly people living in the hotelroom opposite my window will be able to observe me plastering "TAKE HOLD OF YOUR WORLD" on my wall. I interpret it like this: I am the creator of the world I live in. Media, people, politics or religion cannot limit me or force their direction upon me. I will take hold of the world, I will make it mine.

Vegan Foodlog: Day 2

I am almost through the second day, and still not put off! And I didn't feel one moment like I was missing something (and that means something if you consider my appartment being flooded with the smell of freshly grilled kebabmeat from underneath).

9.00 a tangerine, an olive, then a spoonful of the lunch I precooked for later which burned my mouth so bad that I didn't eat again til after school, and instead cooled my mouth with icecold coke...

15.00 most delicious meal of the year, white means cooked with canned cubed tomatoes and one of my legendary sauces (spinach, sour onions, bellpepper, celery, dried plums, vinegar, soysauce = slightely sweet mediteranean taste)

16.00- 19.00 my usual snack behaviour of chocolate biscuits, olives, fruit and tea

19.30 second time of my fantastic bean dish

rest of today: greek coffee (thanks lena!) biscuits, and maybe a third portion of the beans. My idea for tomorrow: vegetable curry and rice.

Update on school work

Two more months to go. I have a whole lot to do, but the 2 biggest projects are the only ones I will try to update you about. From the two collections we will realise one design each.

Knitwear:

The objective: create a collection of knitwear pieces, that don't fit into the standart categories of clothing. (no scarf, no dress, no jacket, instead for example, jacketgloves, skirthood...) Inspiration should be taken from european folkore.

I chose the folkore from the region Estremadura, and for the final piece this specific picture has been my main inspiration:

Next update I will write about the material, and show you the sketch of the final design, and maybe some handknitted swatches.

Sewn Project:

The objective: Chose a specific painting from the period between 500 BC until 1900. Research the fashion of the period, and the character portrayed. Design a jacket.

My Project: I chose this painting by Ange Tissier. Paris, 1860, "Algerian Woman with her Slave". It is a beautiful artwork typical for the Oriental Theme in Western Art of the 19th century.

Design and more news soon!

another look I love!

The trousers, the knitted chain, his bangles an belts around the wrist the colours. I feel inspired!

sweet leather!

BIGGEST MOTIVATION

I am about to tell you a secret that might change your self motivational behaviour completely. I hope so, otherwise it's not worth so much.

Here Is what I discovered, and how from last week I motivate myself to do anything (my homework, workout, even the nasty cold shower after the warm shower that is supposed to tighten tissue and what not....

I BET MYSELF I CAN'T DO IT.

And then pride hits in. And the thought, "I can do anything I want to, you will SEE you nasty bitch, that I can do it." Thank god my brain is stupid enough to be tricked by the made up competitor.

So I bet that I will never be able to last a week in this vegan game. It's impossible. One day I'll be weak and drink coffee with milk, at least. SO now watch me win this bet :)

TRY IT! Bet yourself!

Geocaching!

pronounced: geo - cashing

No internet clearly does one good! Or at least small quantities of it! I had heard about geocaching before, but only last week, when a friend mentioned it again, I took a leap.

WHAT IS IT?

It's the coolest shit, really. It's like a modern day treasure hunt. It is more abou the finding, then about the find. Mostly you just find a little logbook anyway.

It works like this:

First: you get a free membership.

Then: you look over googlemaps for caches in your town, or the town you are visiting. You'd be surprisehow many there are. Even in my tiny home village there are some hiding spots.

Next step: you read the describtion of the spot where it's hidden, ususally the place is of some historical or cultural interest, or simply has a nice view.

Then: you decode the hint for the hiding place. (doesn't that already sound so adventurous???)

But wait, the true fun starts when you get there. You are looking for a tiny object, behind metal posts, inside the holes of the walls, underneath benches, AND NOBODY CAN SEE YOU. because you understand, someone who isn't in the game, won't only find you weird, they might think you are a criminal (or, it could be fun, when people discover you and your friends hectically searching the wall for holes to scream "DELY, I TOLD YOU NOT TO HIDE THE HEROIN OUT HERE!"), or they will try to also find something! or they might destroy the hiding spot after you leave it... oh oh... did I animate you enough?

CLICK HERE FOR THE ADVENTURE TO BEGIN.

bored of the same songs over and over?

Try this for a positive surprise!

Break some rules - live faster!

Vegan Foodlog: Day 1

times are just roughly and to give you a logbook feeling :D I didn't really take a log like this, I am just trying to make this seem a bit professional, bear with me! And you will notice, I do infact eat all the time, I can't do long without having a snack.

09.14 Porridge, cooked in water, with a bit of cocoa powder, maple sirup and a banana, and tea

10.03 an orange, an apple, then some olives

11.37 several high fibre chocolate biscuits (several? there are none left now....)

12.45 a soup containing cabbage, spinach and celery mainly, seasoned with a sauce I had made before (fried onion, chili and honey sauce) (I like to make sauces and keep them in empty olive glasses, they last about a week usually)

14.12 more of the soup, more biscuits and another tea

16.07 out to buy artsupplies, icecream on the way! in my case: strawberry and raspberry sorbetto, entirely without milk!

17.55 seaweed salad grabbed from the chinese takeaway in my street

18.30 an alarmed call from my dad. Asking if I already feel the the dreadful effects of the lack of amino acids in my diet (WHICH CANNOT BE CONTAINED IN PLANTSNO.) and if I'm hungry. also A MAIL. if I am hungry....

20.30 chocolate biscuits and tea.

23.00 an accident happend. NO people, I DID NOT FAIL AND EAT CHICKEN YET! noo, of course not! have some more trust! No, what happened is this: I cooked some white beans (fagioli cannelini for who wants to learn italian while reading my blog) for tomorrow's lunch. And yay they were so soft and perfect. So I took a small quantity of them to test the seasoning for tomorrow. It was delicious, and I had some sauce left, so I thought, oh what a wonderful idea to prepare it all now AND EAT IT TOMORROW. hmpf, I guess I can also have broccoli tomorrow :)

On the bright side I managed my first vegan day, without any torturing cravings, a full stomach, and no carrots. Very much looking forward to the energy boost that I promise myself from this week's project. And by the success of today I could imagine living as a vegan, of cours not affraid of a few weekly exeptions!

My 12 weeks plan!

Yay, while absent from the blog I came up with new ways to entertain myself!

I made myself a 12 weeks plan, with the purpose to challenge myself and keeping my body in top shape! Every week has a topic and is an adventure in itself. It won't force me to be consitent, rather inventive.

Right now we are in week 2. MY VEGAN WEEK!!!!!!

Ok, this isn't because of the poor animals, but because I heard from different sources about the positive side effects of being vegan. I tried to find you a cool link for this, but they happen to be all uncool, so either google it yourself, or enjoy my very condensed list:

weightloss, healtier hair, gums, and teeth, more energy, more libido, no body smells, more creative cooking!

So my challenge is: no animal products for one week, I am curious if I feel a difference. I will keep a food log on this blog, so you can see what I come up with and I can persude the last ones of you that being vegan doesn't mean to chew raw carrot only (my dad was affraid I won't get enough fat, and gave me a 1h sermon about all non-animal sources of fat and protein. nice, huh?)

One very nice blog featuring italian vegan kitchen! to give you a nice start :)

HIII!

I'm back to blogging! yeah, I need those breaks from it, I could never blog prfessionally.. I just don't like routine.

Like my nice roommate Dely quoted:

"EVERYTHING IS MAGIC UNTIL IT BECOMES ROUTINE."

THE COMPETITION IS OVER

Here we go, the competition is over! His name is Hitler, and my roommate chose the name. I can't appreciate this name at all times, so I usually call him Adolf, Adolfo or Oscar instead.

Unfortunately the facebookpost of another friend gave the right answer away, and I'd find it unethical to reward someone with the advantage of having insight in my facebook account. It's unfair to those people who actually borrowed books about the Bulgarian history and humour in the library, and I know some of you did!

But since you all (my two main readers) got so excited I will start another competition soon.

For now I say bye with the word "TENG" and a diagonal stroke with my index finger.

PS: that's what koreans say and do to express "you guessed wrong!!"

Taram...

While sewing on a jacket (the sartorial classical cut) I am listening to Ray Charles... It feels good to be working in a tidy room.. haha, you can guess that I didn't do that in a while!

She made me think....

The essence of this song is so true, I am really touched. Music should inspire and give you energy, not degrade others. Kids are wiser than you think.

applying the diesel campaign to life:

Be stupid.

War

One of my big fascinations.

First of all you have to know that I am very very anti militaristic. I just think that violence is never a solution, it creates more problems. I also hate the thought of people being killed for whatever reason (I also don't support the death penalty). And the fact that people in politics sacrifice strong young man, instead of trying to be diplomatic. Eversince I am little I refuse to touch guns and I can't watch horror films because i get nightmares. Soooooo, why that post about war you might wonder?

I am not oblivient to what's going on in the world. There are people fighting in so many places in the world, some closer to us than we can imagine, at this very second. What does a soldier feel? The moral split between what's good and bad. So much violence. The value of a life. The value of their own lives. Fear. Death. Passion. I started thinking about this when I got to know some soldiers personally. It helped me to see their point of view. I could see the human in them rather than the dumb american killing machine that is send to death by a heartless government.

And I understand that dark things always fascinate me. Dark and dangerous. Forbidden things don't thrill me too much, but the dark side in every human represents a beauty hard to describe.

All the emotions bundled in this topic are strong and contradicting. The uniforms are bright and beautiful, the men are homogenisized, strong, living a harsh controlled life. If you consider all this you might understand why I collect pictures like the following, and why they serve as such an inspiration (and that's why fashion has so many military influences, reoccuring every season)...

We have a new pet!

TADAAA!

No, It's not a horse :D it's a gecko! My roommate found him in the street and now he eats the flies we catch in our kitchen. To guess his name you have to understand a lot about Bulgarian humour and history. Should I make this a game? ok. If you can guess what he is called I will send you a reward (something cool from Florence, or something to eat)! btw, if I mentioned the name in your presence, you can't be part of the contest DUH.

So here are the name guessing clues:

Bulgarian history. Bulgarian humour. You have heard this name before...

Summer is coming!

I mean it's march. Then April. May is like summer already, don't you agree? And every moment where you feel the warmth of the sun on your skin can be counted as summer too. It is so close that I can almost touch it!

And according to my mum this is gonna be the summer of love. If you know my mum, you will understand that she is always right about such predictions.

The birth of an idea

I get those ideas.

I can't draw it, I can't explain it. But I know it could exist.

Unconsciously I am familiar with it like with my own child. I might not be able to tell you what it looks like, or what it feels like, but when I touch it, I know that it could not have been any other way.

Yes, I am talking about design.

it's MY BIRTHDAY soon!

I hope when I turn 20 a miracle is gonna happen. Like the sun shining for example (even though computer says no) or that I meet someone who will be giving my life a new direction. OOOOR I save someone's life, or I wake up with no more hair on my legs.

Estremadura

This dry region just where Spain boarders Portugal, is the new centre of my creative interest.. at least for the next month.

I'm talking traditional costumes here. Folkore. A mood. A palette. A project. Knitwear design.

And just like with the dress, I will blog about the different stages.

You can make it CLICK, makin' me POP.

drawings... more and more

since I am working on digitalising all my artwork at the moment you can look forward to a lot of posts containing drawings, sketches or painings from my own brush. I hope you enjoy!

precelebrating my Bday....

MY MUM GOT ME AN ABSINTH RING! yay :D she is too cool! I got another fabulous present but I will only reveal the news when the time is right....

My dress.. samurai inspired

I am so proud to present my dress you, my lovely readers! I got pretty good grades, and measured by the amount of work I put into it (especially compared to others) this was quite surprising.

Do you remember my endless posts about starching? All this talk about me trying to achieve a paperlike effect? Does it makes sense now?? :D Tell me if you like it!

Realisation of this sunny morning:

Infact ALL OF THEM.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

It's ok to be crazy for a good reason. Love is a good reason ;)

WAH

My mum says my blog is boring! Oh isn't she so right???? It's shocking, and true. So new inspiration needs to flood the dry fields (wow: egypt references all over the place). Good enough we started already yesterday drawing and painting and it feels all like spring!

TODAY

I WANT PERFECTION WITHIN AS IT MEANS PEACE.

The Rock Ball

Last weekend I was invited To the ball of the AIRBORNE 2nd Battilion, who returned from Afganistan in November. It was easily one of the best nights of my life. (The reason for that might have been the perfect chemistry between my date and me..)

It was very intense to get a peek inside the US Army. We got to see the best of it, but at the same time we got to understand what hell is waiting beneath the celebration and the beautiful uniforms. Later in the evening, when people were tipsy, some soldiers started crying for the awful things they had seen, some got very aggressive. It was so sad to realise what they go through, how violence is their job. One said to me: "Those people, who want war, have never seen it."

The ceremony was very beautiful. There were about 300 people, or maybe 500 or even more. Hard to say. Someone said 1000, but that seems a bit much to me. First we had cocktails, our dates introduced us to everyone, and the etiquette requested them to salute all the higher ranking officers. Before we sat down around the tables, we heard a speech, the flags were presented, two prayers, remembrance of the fallen, another speech, followed by a lot of toasts, including a toast on Obama and one on the ladies.

When the formal part was over we went dancing. I couldn't have enjoyed this night more. We had so many interesting conversations, took hundreds of pictures. The mood was overly friendly and everyone was congratulating each other. Enough said, check out he pictures!

I got to try on his uniform!!!

Ethan Peck

Before i get to post more interesting stuff, I surprise you with something nice and shallow..... :

My new Actor crush!!!!!

He looks nice, but the best thing about him is his voice. It's so sexy. That's why I insist that you watch this interview with him. And when he described his dream girl I almost started jumping like a happy dog thinking "It's me, it's me!". Funny how in my last month of being a teenager, I really behave like one :D

Before party cocktail song!

It feels so good to have the exams behind me! At least almost all of them. The last two days, I didn't do much other than sleep, hang out in cafés, go shopping and celebrate! Sounds as decadent as it feels! I have my energy again, so you can look forward to plenty of blogging material!

Good vibes at prada!

New androgynous

Jean Paul Gaultier FW 11/12 menswear

Unisex is so 2010. From my point of view unisex fashion is the bridge to overcoming clothing gender limitations. Nobody likes limits nowadays, designer even less. So unisex made it OK for men to wear a see-through tank top and tight jeans, because it was ALSO made for women. And the other way round of course. This leads to something greater though. When the market slowly got used to the idea of "men and women can wear the same clothes" then it is the right time to introduce mens wear (that looks like womens to our still oldfashioned brains) that is nevertheless an only male product.