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.