Summer at Home...

If you want to bring a bit of summer and some romance to your house, its so easy.....First put some blue and white...

Eğer evinize biraz yaz, biraz da romantizm getirmek istiyorsanız, çok kolay....Önce biraz mavi ve beyaz...

Always some fresh flowers...

Daima taze çiçekler....

A jar, candle and some sand for a bit of romance...

Biraz romantizm için bir kavanoz, mum ve kum fazlasıyla yeter..

And some simple soaps to have that fresh smell...

Ve biraz da o taze kokusu için sabunlar...

Reorganizing

It's a pretty windy day and not fun to be outside...So today I am organizing my closets..Summer is coming out and winter is going in...

This is our spare room. I was dreaming to make it all blue and white, but it has other plans. Traditional divan pillows from Southeastern Turkey and a 100 year old square kilim I recently found at the local market at an incredible price makes this room a colorful one.

Bugün dışarısı oldukça rüzgarlı , bende dolaplarımı düzenliyorum..Yazlıklar dışarı çıkıyor, kışlıklar kaldırılıyor..


Burası bizim misafir odamız. Buranın tamamen mavi ve beyaz renklerle düzenlemeyi düşünüyordum ama odanın kendine ait başka planları varmış. Urfa'dan alınan geleneksel sedir yastıkları ve geçenlerde pazar da bulup, inanılmaz ucuz bir fiyata aldığım yaklaşık 100 yıllık kare bir kilim, bu odayı bir anda rengarenk yapıverdi..

Cold Days..

Finally the much expected snow came to İstanbul, but unfortunately its not a totally white one. It is melting immediately and leaving us with muddy streets..Even Hera is not very happy with these weathers. She prefers her blankets to everything else..

 However it looks like the spring is in the horizon..All the beautiful spring flowers started to appear at flower stalls..

PS: Blogger ban here continues so I still cant see you as well as me!!

Soaps of the Palace / Edirne

Last week we went to Edirne in order to take advantage of the excellent weathers. Edirne is the westernmost city of Turkey which has  borders with Bulgaria and Greece. It was the capital city of the Ottoman Empire before Istanbul.

We visited lots of monuments and did some shopping. Above are the soaps that I bought from Edirne. They are special to this city and produced for centuries. Starting from 1600 these fruit shaped soaps loved and used by the lovely ladies of the Ottoman Harem..In those days these soaps were only produced for the palace, but now decorating my bathroom.

Have a great week and more photos from Edirne trip soon....

Back to İstanbul

Finally we are back to İstanbul after 4.5 months. After spending so much time at open space and at the beach, first days at home rather brought a mild depression to Hubby and me while Hera is having a major one..After a big re-packing session, we ran to supermarkets and the farmers market to make a reasonable food stock..and I started to fill the baskets and bowls at home with season's products...

 and in the meantime our little Hera had an operation 2 days ago..She is sooo sweet with the big kone on her head but as you can guess she is quite unhappy...

So our life in İstanbul has started. So far I couldnt go out except food shopping but hopefully this weekend. I already miss so much of your posts but as I have a proper internet now, I will see you soon..

Summer Flu

Just a quick reminder: Never take your good health granted. It is actually such a precious gift.

Well, as you can guess my summer flu still continues with blocked nose,running eyes,sore throat and some fever at night. I am confined to my bedroom surrounded with books, notebooks,pills,pc, tissues and so many other stuff. Its a mess, but here is a picture of it on a much tidier day.

The wonderful turquoise painting is the one that I bought this winter and posted about it here. Blue printed bed cover is from Esfahan - İran and pillows are the product of my mother who used a vintage bed sheet.

and the blue and gold painted pottery is a gift from Jordan..

have a very healthy day under the sun shine...

A night at home

Hubby is out of town and the puppy is in a deep sleep after her dinner. It was chicken purina and water for her and a glass of wine and avocado for me. It was a quiet and peaceful night. I am listening music ( incredible Fazil Say on the piona) and playing with the camera..

I love my house. I feel safe ,secure and happy here..I think its extremly important to create a surrounding like that.

Well, actually I was planning to introduce a Turkish painter on this post but somehow I couldnt find a photo of him. On my birthday my mother took me to his studio and asked me choose one of his paintings. Mr. Feridun Ugur is quite well known here and his second country Holland with his water colors.He is painting big and vibrant flowers. However I decided to go with a rather daring one. A nude.
I dont know what you think about it but we really enjoy having her in our living room. On the other side of the room we have another painting from him. A donkey painted in oil. Do you think that we have a rather strange taste???

Well, the leaf on the nude and the leaves and berries around the candle are the todays find of our excursion at the park with Hera. She will probably eat the berries tonight while I am sleeping but for now they are still OK. I am in the habit of putting autumn leaves every where in the house in this season. I think they are too good to throw into the garbage once they fell out of the tree. I wish you a peaceful night,too. Or day, if you are on the other side of the world..:))

Happiness

I think one of my biggest contribution to our marriage and happiness is to create this office place for us. This place is the extension of our kitchen, normally designed for a dinner table.

As you know I am retired and, my husband is semi retired so when we are at home we love to spend time on internet. We have our blogs, games and hubby has his own on line bridge partners. When I realize that we spent so much time seperate from each other, I designed this space. Now we are together all the time. We talk,watch TV, help each other and usually have the breakfast here.

Our desk is usually crowded with papers,various gadgets, used plates and cups but for today I tried to tidy it up a bit.
So welcome to our kitchen office....

3rd World War

I cant sleep..... Every morning in the very early hours of dawn, the 3rd world war erupts in the airspace of my house. Opposing parties are seagulls and crows. I literally jumped out of my bed with the sounds of two screaming armies and as you know they are not the types of birds who receive the grace of good voice. My husband says that they are protecting their young ones. I am impatiently waiting them to grow to have some silence. O, how lucky you, starts the day with the sounds of singing nightingales....

Less is more ????

I like the idea of less is more and trying to adopt it to many areas of my life, but when it comes to books, paintings and beautiful pieces I want more and more...

The latest addition to my paintings was a gift from a dear friend in İran...Sara and I first met thru our blogs then I have the chance to meet with her on my trip to İran this past April. So Sara's Khatoon found its place among other paintings I collected from my trips to Cuba, Mexico,Bolivia, Mexico, Cambodia, Holland and Bolivia. This is the entrance of my house where I like to display colorful paintings for a colorful welcome..

You could visit Sara's blog at www.day2daypictures.blogspot.com

A Decluttering Miracle

Ara Güler is the first name that comes to almost everybody's mind when you think of the word photographer in Turkey. His documentation of İstanbul in the 50s are just magnificent. Even before I interested in photography, I bought some books of him just to enjoy his images, but never had the chance to acquire a photograph signed by him...

Well, guess what happened two weeks ago. I started a decluttering mission at home mainly targeting the boxes full of old documents. After half an hour, first I found my missing university diploma which was proudly received once upon a time and still a great mystery how it ended in a lousy box with paid bills from 20 years ago.

Then I found the great treasure. It was sleeping in a dusty file from my banking days. A signed photograph from Ara Güler taken in 1950. After the initial shock, I vaguely remember that it was a gift from a client. It was framed immediately and found its proud place among other black and white photes.

So all I can say decluttering is great. Who knows what you will find among your long forgotten stuff.

Today you could still see the great master and glance some of his photograps in his lovely cafe in the Beyoglu district of İstanbul.

My little tomato farm...

So what if my piece of land is really really small and my rooster is fake...... I have big imagination... Have a nice day...

Lazy Weekend

Although the weather in İstanbul is excellent I spent the whole weekend at my home. The reason: my still swollen face from the teeth operation. I did not want to shock the world with my beauty :))

My balcony was the main attraction area of lots of reading, writing, eating and drinking...Sometimes I need times like this. It refreshes me.

A bit of Nature

We are living in a small apartment in a very big city, surrounded with other apartments. So the plum tree in front of my balcony is a great joy for me. I collected some last week and served it in an old cup from Aegean region.