nordish by nature.

via awakenedaesthetic

diamond teardrops.

as amazingly chic the cube-/teardrop-/quartz-/tetra-/dodecahedron-terrariums (above) are, as expensive are they... now then I'll stick to the humble version of presenting my mini-cacti (as below).

Homestory approach.

These images do not (yet) have much to do with our home - it is still a chaos we're trying to fight. But I promise some insight soon.

The image above I found on "Old Chum" (about wich I blogged here before) which is one of my absolute favourite blogs. It is not an interior-design blog, the most inspiring stuff I find there is kind of abstract, in the sense of not directly applicable for my flat. The succulent above is, and as soon as I can turn my focus to things like plants I will definitely start a small succulent-garden. Until then there are for example the floors that need all our attention. We emptied the kitchen yesterday (and chased out the mouse that apparently lived behind the counters), ripped off the ugly PVC-flooring, scrubbed the floor (smelled like mouse-pee) and then sanded the old lack-finish so that today the new finish can follow. It will not be moss like in the pic below it will be fresh shiny white lack.

The image above is also via Old Chum, it is a print by Andrew Moore. It was taken in Detroit, where the most charming derelict buildings of the world seem to be (search google images: 'detroit derelict').
Below: the M3 chair by Thomas Feichtner. Which is a new object of crazy desire :) I found it via Love the triangle, the blog of my dear friend Josephine.

Tarte.

well, it's really a cake for sunny days - and today I heard that the seasons are renamed as: spring, shit, autumn, winter - but I wanted to share this beautiful cake with you since I saw it but not before I tried to make and eat it myself. I finally did and I can only say: I was so proud (no, I don't see a problem with a 'feminist' proud about her cakes...) and it was gi-ga-great and dazzling-delicious, yay. I found the original Stella-Cake (inspired by Stella McCartney's citrus-prints) by appolinas via todayyouinspiredme, I changed the recipie to a more european version (half the amount of butter of the original american version, cream-cheese instead, less sugar, more fruit). I will also soon add my version of the recipie to this post, with all european measures and so on.

slow wood.

wood is wonderful.
I think it is a great material and it gives furniture a special, timeless worth and of course - warmth. Or as Christien Starkenburg from Slowwood says: "Wood keeps you connected with nature and the feeling for a simpler, slower life in this hurly burly world."

The Slowwood tables have extra value: they are hand made, eco-friendly and fantastic good looking. I adore the combination of the fine but raw natural elegance of wood and design and the bright, deep colours they use. It's just the right balance.

"Mineral pigments such as oxide, yellow ochre and earth black create unique matt colours. In fact some colours are the first earth paints used by mankind! Some colours take 1 week to dry! The slow aspect…"

noticed via design attractor

Sitting on the dancefloor.

The chair above by Michael Ferguson is made from recycled floorboards from flats in Berlin. Even though the surface seems to tell stories of thousands of feet dancing on them it is totally smooth, due to a lot offhand grinding and beeswax.

How much I would love to have one like it on my own few squarmetres of Berlin floor (I'm moving to Berlin in september!)...

The eco-quota in furnishing and decorating my future home will probably only involve raiding my parents and grandparents cellars & attics and a lot of fleamarket strolls - even though I found some more amazing green design and furniture via green living.

To see it for yourself:

Over the teacups.

a coffee klatsch in the bosphorus metropole 

and a brunch in the nest at the lake constance.

"One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating. And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends." (Laurie Colwin in "Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen")

Or posting pics of eating with your friends on your blog.

Urban Gardening.

Absolutely lovely. Even though I must say that she looks like the incorporation of alternative-eco-stereoptype: I think this is really cool. And I was astonished how much harvest she actually has in the end - even though we're only shown a very small part of it. This got me definitely hooked! I found the video via yougrowgirl.com, a page for people who have maybe even smaller or no gardens at all.

Homemade Happiness.

Today I was inspired! by Johanna's blog and her post on garlands. I decided to make one of the simple ones to decorate my room, supporting the spring-feeling coming up here in Istanbul. It's really easy to make a garland, I did it like this:

1) take a carton, cut out a triangle with two same length longer legs as a stencil.
2) choose paper you like (left over wrapping papers? or coloured, patterned, I think even newspaperpaper would look nice, oh, and plain white for the garden?) and use the stencil to make as many triangles as you want for your garland.
3) fold each triangle along the short side aprox. 1 centimetre to the back. cut away the small overlapping corner parts right and left.
4) lay a twine into the fold of the first triangle of your garland and fix the fold at the corners with a stapler (>> staple free stapler).  Try to fix the twine inside the fold by stapling, if possible.
5) go on with the next triangle. and the next one. and the next one, and the next one... aaand finally hang it and be happy :)

If you want a free hanging garland, you should cut ot diamonds instead of triangles and fold them in the middle. I guess in that case it's easier to glue the halfs together instead of stapling.

Baltic gewaltig.

As beautiful as it might look - unfortunately it was fucking cold and me in skirt and tights  - so I did not take the time to fall into deep meditation over it, but just had a quick obligatory gaze (is gaze and quick a contradiction?). The Bosphorus is nice and all, but the Baltic sea is where my heart is.