The time came to apply the wall sticker theory in practice. And it’s not as easy as it seems; first, you have to decide where to put the sticker, and then how to paste it – i.e. in what configuration. For some designs, which consist of several big parts only, it’s relatively easy since you know exactly what the final result is supposed to be. But for the designs that are built up from a number of small elements which you can put together in various ways - it gets much more tricky!! That was the case with the sticker I’ve chosen for our bedroom, this is the design: Actually, it doesn’t look that attractive when it’s in this form, but once you remove the lining it turns out that the design is much more delicate than it seemed initially. It took me quite some time to figure out how I want it put together, but here is the final result – I think it looks really great! What do you think?!
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I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel… meaning the number of boxes left to unpack can be counted on the fingers of one hand only! So I’m almost there – although my exhaustion level has sky-rocketed this past week. But it’s far enough to start thinking about wall decorations, and I have a lot of plain, white walls to fill :-) I’ll definitely go for wall stickers – they are one of the most creative options available, plus they don’t damage the walls. Since we’re only renting this apartment, I can’t add colour splashes and style with wallpaper or by changing the paint colour – which makes it a bigger challenge ;-) So wall stickers it is – I’ll post photos of the results of my work later this week, and in the meantime here is a selection of great wall stickers by Nouvelles Images – more can be found here. Enjoy! OK, time to think abort something creative and fun :-) What about a spin in a huge bubble which floats and wobbles on water? Ever heard about it? I saw it for the first time last month at one of the outdoor festivals organised in the park surrounding Kasteel de Haar, near Utrecht. Didn’t have a chance to try it though, and I wish I had – sure looked like fun, with a bit of adrenaline thrown in.
The basic idea is as follows: you’re put into a big, transparent, rubber-like bubble and once you’re inside the bubble is pushed onto the water surface. You keep trying to stand up, but the gravity and other forces of physics get in the way so you end up falling down on your face or your butt in a number of creative ways ;-) Now that I think about it, is seems a bit masochistic when described like that, but look at the photos – fun, eh? ;-) It hit me yesterday evening. And it hit me hard. I have left Holland. And it means so much more than just crossing the border and moving – it means leaving behind the life I have built in the past two years, and all the things I loved in it. Living in the Netherlands was not perfect, of course. It had its fair share of frustrations, but which place doesn’t. The important thing is that it had a lot of things about it – some big, some tiny – which I came to love – a lot of them found their way to this blog! Separately they may seem insignificant, especially to an outsider, but together they made me happy – no more and no less than that. The kind of happy when you get up in the morning and can’t help feeling excited about the rest of the day. The kind of happy when you notice hundreds of things around you which makes you smile and which you find pretty. When you know that there is still so many things you are looking forward to, and you can start planning them starting this weekend. When you’re never bored, when there’s always something fascinating to do, to see, to experience, and when you feel you’ve finally found your place. And when you have someone you love to share it with – probably the most important element of all. And that’s why today I’m sitting on the pile of boxes in our new apartment in Warsaw, where my husband got relocated for his job, and my happy little place on earth got left behind – many, many kilometres behind. I have a strange feeling of displacement. As if the world outside was somehow wrong – a bit like in a dream when you cannot wake up but part of you realizes it shouldn’t be happening. The air seems suffocating – the result of not living on the seaside anymore - the colours seem dull and the light is definitely wrong – I’m almost afraid to take pictures knowing that I do not have the Dutch light at my disposal anymore to make the colours vibrant and the photos alive with them. And I feel so cooped up here, not being able to do what I did in my free time for the last two years. I’m sure the feeling of wrongness will fade away with time – after all I am good at adapting to new places… In the meantime I think I will have to work on a photo collage, a photo tribute of sorts to all those small and big things I’ve loved about the Netherlands – I’ll post a copy here when it’s ready. But for now I’m entitled to a period of feeling sad and miserable – and what’s better to mope with than a sad, sad song? Here is the one I recommend – Two for Tragedy by Nightwish. So I haven't had that much time lately to publish new posts, but as you know I have an excuse – maybe not a very creative one, but believe me, one that more than justifies why I’m neglecting my readers a bit. So, here is my excuse – you have to see it on order to fully understand the scope of what I have to tackle: I remember I said at some point that I’m looking forward to decorating the new place, but I’m afraid it’ll be some time before I can focus on the pleasant stuff, so keep you fingers crossed for me – the sooner I get things in order here, the sooner can I go back to everyday blogging!
It's been over a year now since my wedding day and I keep remembering that last Spring I spent entirely immersed in wedding preparations... Probably it's a good thing I wasn’t blogging then yet, or this blog would have been about creative weddings, not creative life ;-) I remember that back then I discovered how creative the world of cakes is. In Poland cakes tend to be rather traditional and conservative in design, while e.g. in UK and the States only the creator’s imagination seems to be the limit. It’s amazing what shapes and designs you can create with the use of fondant, marzipan and similar “tools.” There is also absolutely no limit when it comes to colours – the cakes can be anything from gold and silver, through red and pink to blue, purple or even black! Here are a few of most creative designs I’ve found in my “wedding files” from last year – I especially love the topsy-turvy ones! Phase I of my big move is officially over (phase I - getting all our stuff and furniture packed and shipped, and the apartment cleaned) and phase II is about to begin this weekend (phase II - unpacking all our stuff and furniture, and cleaning the new apartment…). So I’m snatching moments from this dreary reality and, in order to try to stay sane, I’m escaping into my “creative land.” This time I did some more work on this year’s Keukenhof photos, preparing a collection of shots overflowing with tulips from top to bottom – enjoy!
Another Spring spent in Holland means – not surprisingly – another visit to the Keukenhof garden with my photo camera. I think I’ll never have enough of tulip photos – there’s so many kinds of them and they look so amazing on photos that I just keep shooting! This year – as those who live here know very well – the Spring has been a bit late in coming, especially when it comes to warm temperatures. So when I went to the Keukenhof at the end of April, half of the tulips was in bloom and the other half was just beginning too – while last year, about the same time, many tulips were already past their blooming period. So this time I got a chance to take some shots of not-yet-opened tulips – and some of them looked very creative indeed. I almost froze my fingers off – the temperature and wind outside were freezing – but I’d say it was worth it – here is the selection of this year best photos! One of the things I’m planning for my new apartment (never mind that I haven’t actually seen it yet…) is a bird photo wall. Not really surprising since as you know bird photography is my latest great passion ;-) So I looked through all the hundreds of bird photos I have in my photo library and chose a few which I think are the most interesting ones, thus deserving space on my bird wall ;-) Here are a few of my favourites, and I have created a new gallery in My Creative Photo Library from all the ones I've chosen - visit The Best of Bird Photos Gallery I to browse them all! So you probably noticed that I haven't posted anything for a few days, but believe me, I have a very good excuse – I’m in the middle of a big move. I’m not only changing apartments, I’m actually changing countries – as if a normal short-distance move wasn’t complicated enough. Not to mention that I have a tight deadline to adhere to, and my husband is not here to help me – so I have to do everything… At the moment I think I suffer from a moderate sleep-deprivation, have more bruises and scratches all over my body than I had as a kid, I doubt there is one muscle in my body which doesn’t hurt and my nerves are wound so tight I’m jumping at shadows. But the first phase of the “ let’s move” operation is almost over, so I’m about to get some more breathing space soon… What I really need though is a week away from everything in a spa, but somehow I doubt it’ll be happening :-( So I’ll take whatever I can get… Is there something creative to the process of changing apartments? Hmmm… I think that you need a certain dose of creativity to stay sane throughout the entire process and manage to pull it off within a limited period of time. But when it comes to packing and boxing, probably it’s better to avoid solutions which are too creative, especially if you want to be able to find what you packed later on. So for now I’m trying very hard not to think about the fact that all those things I packed in the last month, at the cost of scratches, bruises and lack of sleep, will have to get unpacked soon… Instead I'm focusing on the challenge of furnishing and decorating our NEW appartment - a creative challenge I'm sure I'll be looking forward to once half of my "battle wounds" are healed ;-) I may be moving, but I am certainly not changing my pursuits of creativity in everyday life – you can be creative regardless of where you live, and so my blog will continue!!! I still have some material about the Netherlands, enough to last me through the “transition” period, and after that I will be following my creative mantra in Warsaw, because that’s where I’ll be living soon… Keep your fingers crossed, and in the meantime, here are a few photos of the “ creative” mess a move like this generates ;-) |
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August 2012
AuthorA fiery red head, a writer and a photographer in love with beautiful design and all things creative |