How I Spent My August

Sometimes, you need to feel that only sky is the limit!

I am rarely - if ever - doing round up monthly posts, sharing my latest events, unless is there something special going on. Like the birth of a new baby, or a new job or some important blogging and writing milestone. This time, there is nothing that important I want to talk about, but just how, with a healthy mindset, a lot of motivation and discipline, I succeeded to have one of the most productive month of the year.

As a single mother with a busy life and a lot of interests, it is hardly a day where I am not doing or planning to do something new. Very often, my plans are rewarded and I am left with the feeling of the good job done, but also the obligation and motivation to continue. 

Why then this month was different of any other month? What made it so special for writing a full blog post about it? 

The difference was that compared to any other month of my life, at the very beginning of it, I said to myself and to my friend: 'This month, I want to take the full advantage of every day'. This is what I have in mind every single day, but I rarely made it public or keep repeating it often. I am just taking for granted every day but without openly expressing the gratitude or explaining how I will be grateful for. 

Once I made the statement, I observed more actively my eveyday schedule, with a specific focus on my achievements. Indeed, things looked much different and extremely refreshing. Every day I achieved and even overpassed my daily plan of steps; I started to walk barefoot in the garden; I started my days early in the morning, with a busy schedule ahead and planning to keep this schedule for at least 6 days the week; I concluded some interesting collaborations for my blogs; I covered a lot of topics and features on my blogs; I had some important meetings for my future professional plans; I was able to have at least two interesting trips, one of them abroad; I did some valuable and well paid freelance working; I've spent some quality time with my friends; I tried at least two new recipes; I tried to better organise my finances and manage my savings; I improved my social media coverage, by spending some targeted time networking on the right channels; I did an extensive blogging planning for the topics I want to cover in the next weeks. And there were for sure many more achievements, such as the interesting books I've read and reviewed, and the time shared helping people in need and also the unique time playing and learning together with my son. I also succeeded to worry less and avoid stresssful situations and individuals. 

Of course my life is far from being perfect and I am happy with that. But I cannot deny the positive effects of just a single sentence: 'This month, I want to take the full advantage of every day'. It gave me so much energy and motivation that I can go much easier over the tensed and unhappy moments. 

This is how I want to spend from now on, every month, finding the right motivation and strength to succeed, whatever the circumstances. Indeed, when you think that only sky is the limit, you end up feeling just like that!

Animals collage for the baby room

This is a DIY project I wanted to do for a long time, probably more than 6 months. The idea sprung after I realised how many empty boxes of napkins with cute animals figures I have left. As I also noticed that the baby love them, the idea of creating small landscape collage started, but as usual, it got lost on the back of my head, overwhelmed by other less important, not-baby related problems. Two weeks ago, I decided to move forward with it and purchased from Idee store, some background paper, yellow and green, and some glue - Rico - which I do not recommend because it requires extra action to make its job. Today, I woke up with a lot of creative energy and started the work. 

The images on the packages were on two categories: countryside and wild life. I decided to create one busy wild life board, where I also wanted to include the lion - he is also wild, isn't it? - but gave up and reserved him a spot on the countryside board. My idea is to be able to tell a story to baby D. based on the images. I already tried to put together some sentences and he enjoyed it which seems a small success for now. As we did a lot of hiking and nature outing this year, it might connect with some recent memories too. This board is really crowded but there were too many funny characters on the boxes to be left behind...

The countryside board is very relaxed, it can tell a simple story - about a party, yard gossips or/and the upcoming visit of the lion. It is more relaxed, looks less creative, but has many vivid colours and funny characters.

I already showed to the baby the two creations, as his biggest disappointment was of not being included in the working process...Couldn't afford to leave his tinny hands foil near the scissors...As for now, I am looking to create two nice frames for the works. My next DIY creative assignment. 

The entire work lasted around 1 hour and was a lot of fun and relaxation time, while trying to match and cut the animals and find a place for them in the story. 

10 Wallpapers from Cole and Son

I am very interested in wallpapers, as more than the simple paint on a room wall, it can be a simple yet very creative investment in the interior design and general look of a room and house in general. In addition, you can change it often, without too much of a hassle, as it is the case with general painting. In terms of financial investment, it is also fine, as you need only to pay for the wallpaper and the special glue, without spending money on workers or other tools that you need time to learn how to use yourself. After a while, you can call yourself a wallpaper expert and in one day, your entire house can look completely different.

My latest discovery, with models that suit any room and type of house - from small apartment to mansions - is the Cole and Son, producing fine and high-end designed wallpapers for decades. You can order them online, and the website is available in both English and Swedish.

Here are my top 10 choices, out of too many to mention, but you have a look on the website to find the right wallpaper that suits your budget and your style.

1. Bamboo

Delicate prints, available in different colours, that bring a touch of elegance to any corner of the room.You can choose a complete make-over or to cover only one corner, the effect is the same.

2. Archipelago Border

It is a world in itself, that this wallpaper brings into your home. Think about the Alice in Wonderland lost in a forest of colourful vegetation. It is definitely my favourite design for my working room or for the library.

3. Luxor Geometric

Jazzy geometric labyrinths, creating the feeling of movement. This is what you need to give more depth and dynamism to your space. I see it as a wall in the lobby, as an invitation to the visitor to start the journey of discovering your world.

4. Plume

Inspired by tribal art from around the world, it has fine brushstokes of greys, charcoal black and metallic gold. It matches an elegant minimalist living room, preferably with pastel furniture.

5. Balabina

Named after the Russian ballerina Feya Balabina, this beautiful elaborated design with peacocks covered by a luxuriant vegetation are a good adornment of the bedroom, or some walls of the living room. It indulges stylish vintage furniture. It is available in different colour combination.

6. Orchid

This design of orchid resting on stylish leaves is available in different colour combination. It can embellish the lobby, or a corner in the living room, with a stylish colourful chair or couch part of the landscape. For fixing, a special glue is recommended.

7. Flamingo

When it comes to flamingos, my objectivity fades, as I can see them everywhere in any corner of the room. Thankfully, I can choose between different colours - blue, grey or yellow, for instance - and patterns, and why not, have a house full of them! As colours on screen might be different from the real design, it is recommended to order a sample - for 1.5 pounds - to figure out if the pattern is what you are looking for.

8. Woodstock

Brought to you from the psychedelic times of the hippy revolution, this wallpaper - available in different colours - makes you feel forever young and ready for a change. It suits simple yet colourful pieces of furniture. Where do you want it fixed, it is up to you, as it suits any kind of setting, as long as you are into pop-art.

9. Opera

A bit of sophistication and style are always in need. For a stylish furniture, this wallpaper created in 1959 remains in fashion. The luxuriant combination of flowers and fruits, resting lasciviously on three-tired structures can suit your living room very well. With such a view in the front of your eyes, even the long family dinners are tastier. 

10. Bellini

Named after the Italian composer Vicenzo Bellini, this wallpaper uses the motif of tiles, broken by curves forcing the eyes to follow the various shapes into a labyrinth of flowers and leaves. Out of the four simple colourings, this is my favourite, and I see it very well embellishing the kitchen. I bet it can make me more creative when cooking something new.

Pictures from the Cole and Son website, English version

Creative DIY project in Lübben

During my travels, I always pay attention to various creative discoveries. If you follow my blog, you might notice that I share my discoveries in terms of interior design or decorations, or some specific art of a local creative mind. 

 As I was visiting recently the Lübben locality in the German Spreewald, on the way to the train station, I noticed the hall entrance to a block of houses. Massive wall paintings were made not only out of drawings, but by using natural materials, such as tree rind, for creating the image of a tree.

 For the bicicle, a real row was added to a fine wooden silhouette.

The fine crafts and details of every landscape makes everything more real and almost a slice of real life. Some details, like the cats here add a note of humour to the work, but also succeeds to go beyond the common. 

 It is more than a children painting and more also than a piece of street art. It is a mix of imagination and creativity using mostly natural ingredients provided by nature.

Sometimes, you don't need too much to be creative. Just a focus mind and the desire to create. The rest will slowly but firmly come by itself.

Rosenthal beauty

I grew up with Rosenthal porcelain ware that decorated our family table for various occasions, but somehow, as a teenager, I resented something I used to call outrageous luxury. However, as a fully grown up woman, I returned to the old memories and cherished there with more respect than I used to as a confused teen. 

Thus, I adopted many of my family household customs, especially of using special glassware for various occasions. The Berlin Rosenthal store, that I visit regularly to check for inspiration, succeedes every time to brought childhood memories back to life. And to give me some new ideas too. How may refuse a travel-themed table service? Not the traveler me, anyway?

The Ku'damm store presents various temporary exhibitions with works produced for the company by various ceramic and porcelain artists from Germany and abroad. 

Besides modernist bold designs, there is always something simple left in the collections. For instance, the nature-inspired patterns which I particularly love at a serious cuppa.

The Ku'damm store is designed with taste and reflects at a great extent the over 125 years of tradition of the company, the market leader in Germany in the segment of glass-ceramics.

Simplicity of lines of materials are often the result of hard work and long experiments in order to achieve the perfect shapes and finest compositions of materials.

 Rosenthal is part of the eating and living experience of many European families nowadays.

The colourful touch of some new items on the market reflects the need to catch up with the times, while keeping the highest standards. Just think how many middle-class women used to have Rosenthal part of their dowry and you will understand the relevance of this brand for the everyday life in Europe.

The headquarters are based in Selb, close to the Czech border, but have stores in big cities across the world and Germany, uch as Munich or New York.

From pieces of furniture to fine dishwares, some of them produced for high-end brands such as Versace, Rosenthal remains a European brand whose history is part of our histories as Europeans as well. 

A visitor at you2016 Berlin

When I shared with the teenager in the house my intention to visit You2016 Berlin this year, the announcement was received with irony and a discouraging speech followed: I am far beyond the average age of the participants, there is nothing of interest for me, all the beginner teenagers will have a lot of fun of me. Etc. Etc. But it is hard to discourage me when I have an aim, in this case, my curiosity to understand the market for this age segment plus, eventually, got more glimpses into the YouTube mania in Germany. Somehow, I succeeded to have a look at the fair, but gave up the YouTube part, as I decided it was already too much for me. As for the audience, no one forbade me or made fun of me and surprisingly, there were new more than one mother with baby too.

The ICC Hall, plus the yard, were full with activities and teenagers jumping back and forth in all directions. Expect loud music - party mood - and some shootings at the Mädchen stand. Knowing something about the passion of teenagers nowadays for as much make-up as possible, I was expecting more beauty companies, but it wasn't the case. Instead, henna tattoos made by Indian ladies were beautiful. One day, I will got one too.

There were a lot of competitions with various prizes, and those areas were usually very crowded. Maybe too enthusiastic too.

Some competitions were more serious, like the Battle of Schools, aimed to display the best graffiti work.

As in the case of make-up, fashion was underrepresented. At the sports area, there were more shoes and sport suits options.

The manga fans had a small corner with colourful and exotic items.

Japanese sports praticed by German experts were neighbouring some serious boxing matches, with bells and hard hits. Even for a couple of seconds, it was my first boxing game. Not sure if I would fancy to repeat the experience though. 

A big hall was dedicated to jobs offers for teenagers. Army, Police, Customs, insurance companies, were some of the options. Bundeswehr - Army Forces - invited the youngsters to have a look inside a PA 200 Tornado.

Outside, teens are fighting paintball or shoot some laser weapons. Indoors, some basketball training was going on. I left with a lot of ideas of what I should keep in mind for a growing up boy. As a once in a lifetime experience, it was useful. And not all the teenagers are really mean actually. 

Interior Design inspiration at Paper&Tea Berlin

Situated on a quiet street in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf area, Paper&Tea is a classical destination for those in love with high tea, Asian minimalist design and elegant shopping. 

Although the space does not abund, the shop is organised with careful attention to details. The many tea items and tea boxes or other ingredients are spread between the many shelves, without leaving the impression of crowded. The furniture is paint in pastel mild colours which matches the usual classical musical background of the store. Invitation to serenity.

The tea assortments abund, but for me, the most interesting experience is the chance to touch the texture and smell the various teas. Particularly my beloved Matcha.

The quiet Japanese porcelain is an invitation to silence and finding your inner strengths.

Each sortiment of tea is presented in detail, with information about the geographical origin and the description of the fragrance. Just like in a laboratory.

Apparently, there are so many utensils used for the preparation of the perfect tea, that you need to take some classes to understand how to use them right. Their website - in German and English - offers information about the products displayed as well as tells stories about tea and brings information about various events hosted. The information help in case when the customer service had a bad day, as it happened when we visited.

Tea&Paper is a place for inspiration and wellbeing, to visit even if you may not be that passionate about tea. Yet.

5 Flower inspiration for your garden

Springs and summers are the time of the year when I love this city more than ever. With its sunny and green corners and the trees adorning and embelishing even the most boring and ugly looking streets. If you are lucky enough to have a big garden or you just want to decorate your small balcony, here are some suggestions you can find to any flower store in Berlin, at very cheap prices. Most of them do not request special assistance or more than average knowledge.

Rhododendron - There are thousand of varieties, many of them edible, in salads or tea. The national flower of Nepal, a woody plant, it requires a well drained soil.

Member of the sunflower family, Bellis is an ornamental flower that is not only a beautiful ornamental bedding, but also brings joy to any garden arrangement.

There are more than 400 species of English Geranium a must-have for any respectable English Garden. From the spring until early summer, it brings beauty and grace to the garden.

Forget-me-not is indiscutably a gracious and beautiful presence in any balcony and garden. Discrete, romantic, uncomplicated, there are resistant to cold weather and suit well the shady areas too.

Blaukissen Aubretta are a bit pretentious as they need more light and special watering. Spring is the best season to plant them and they have a late bloom in the mid-summer too.

Bonus, two beautiful bouquets from one of my favourite flower stores in Berlin, Le Orchid, on Joachimsthalerstr. 14. One year ago, I ordered there some special flower arrangements for a client's wedding and they were more than friendly. They can make a beautiful wonder out of everything. These two arrangements are just two of the many seasonal bouquets they make every day.

What about you? What are your favourite flowers arrangements and garden flowers?