Abundance...

Today after our morning walk and swim with Hera, I picked these flowers from our garden. They were so pretty and I cant resist to take couple pictures of them.
Later when having my tea and checking the internet, I came across with the words of Epicurus....How true, how wise, how simple and how we tend to forget...

''Not what we have, but what we enjoy constitutes our abundance..''

 Bu sabah Hera ile günlük yürüyüşümüzü ve denizimizi yaptıktan sonra, bahçemizden bu çiçekleri topladım.O kadar güzellerdiler ki dayanamayıp bir kaç tane resimlerini çektim.
Daha sonra çayımı içip, biraz internet'te gezinirken Epikür'ün  aşağıdaki sözlerine rastladım. Ne kadar doğru, ne kadar basit, ne kadar bilgece ve ne kadar da unutmaya eğimli olduğumuz....

''Zenginliğimizi sahip olduğumuz şeyler değil, bizi mutlu eden şeyler oluşturur''

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...

Fashionable Ama from Ethiopia

Ama is a lady from Ethiopia with beautiful earrings. She made them her self by using the luggage tags of Turkish Airlines. On a lucky day she went to the market and a Turkish tourist wandering there took a photo of her and then sent it to Turkish Airlines...

Then she became the new star of the company and played in the recent commercials. Considering that Kevin Costner, Manchester United Football team, Caroline Wozniacki and Kobe Bryant were the previous faces of the company, its a pretty big accomplishment for Ama, and I just love the commercial and the sweet story behind it.

You can watch it from here:
http://vimeo.com/22840876

and at the end, take notice how the whole family singing the jingle. Its very sweet...

Men and Women of Allah

I have got badly hit by another round of summer flu...While there is a beautiful day and a lake like Mediterranean waiting and calling me outside, I am trying to gain my health...So far my days are passing with taking lots of liquid, pills, sleeping and reading..

So while surfing on the net I came across with the latest collection of the young Turkish fashion designer Erkan Coruh.. With the rising of the İslamic forces in my country, the name of his collection 'The Men & Women Of Allah' was quite eye catching...

The concept of his collection is based on the idea of ''hybridization'' between classic and radical by creating diologue on differences.

With this collection he is questioning the role of women and men in the paradoxical reality of Islamic way of life in the modern world..

I kind of like what he is trying to do and definitely love some of the pieces but hope never forced to wear some other pieces. For the rest of his collection please check  http://www.erkancoruh.com/

Master Sitki

Whenever I pass thru Kutahya, a city in mid Anatolia, there is a place I have to go. It is the store of a ceramic artist known as Master Sitki. Ceramic tiles used in the decoration of palaces and mosques for centuries in this country. It was a way for artists to express themselves when Islam prohibited most types of painting.

Sitki Usta (usta means master) is the most famous contemprary name in the world of ceramics here and guess what?? he was selected as one of the living human treasures by Unesco. Isnt it cool??? His love to his art led him to resurface the formula of certain colors which have been lost centuries ago.Please take some time an look at his wonderful works at www.sitkiusta.com . He is a real treasure.


As I said I love stopping at his store whenever it is possible. Although most of his works are beyond my budget I like to look around and if possible try to add something to my little collection of animals. This time an alligator came home with me..


And here are some birds from him.


First photo is from here

Sunday Flowers

I love fresh flowers..However when the season is not right or my budget is tight, I usually go for the mini options.. Here are some flowers for your eyes. We collected them yesterday with Hera on our morning walk at the park. First ones were spotted by Hera on the grass. Surprising to find them on a cool morning.When we came home, I put them to tiny glasses to enjoy then took some photographs. This morning I spotted some red things inside the poop of Hera. Alarmed at first, but realized afterwards that she climbed to the couch on the balcony and ate the berries, spitted the leaves and drank the water as a small night snack. Well, we enjoy things different. I, visiually.. Hera, deliciously..

Flip Flops

I am not one of those women who is crazy about shoes. Well, I have a thing - for big bags, but let's say it's on a managable level.

However when it comes to flip flops, I cant get enough of them. Where my shoe expense for the summer is almost close to nothing, I constantly keep buying flip flops of all colors and shapes. Luckily they are not expensive.

I even succeded in converting my husband in to them who used to think that it was not a -man- thing, before me. Now I cant get him to wear a decent shoe when we are going out.

They represent all the things that I love.. Summer, freedom, simplicity, outdoors etc..God bless who invented them..

PS: As for my little model, she had a happy but short life. After she started her life in my balcony,my neighbor adopted her. She soon became a lazy and fat cat but unfortunately she got hit by a car..

BLACK & WHITE Sunday

When looking for new blog posts, I found out that Julie at BeingRuby and Anne Marie at

NaDaFarm are playing a game of Black and White Sunday.. I dont really know what the rules of the game are but just for the fun of it and as I love B/W photos so much, here are mines. I took them last Thursday on Oludeniz - Fethiye..

Summer Pillows..

Thru blogging I met with so many wonderful people. With some, our friendship went beyond the internet connection. I first get to know my very talented friend Sema, thru the short stories, she wrote on her blog. Later, when we found out that we have so many similar ideas about life, we have met personally. Then I learned another creative side of her. Since then, she started to sell her wonderful creations on her new site..

You could reach Sema and her creations at www.renklitasarimlar.com

A store in old Datca..

I found these beautiful felt hats in a new store in old Datca. The owner Ozlem Suner is mainly selling 100%cotton fabrics that she has collected from different regions of the country in a lovely small shop in this street of old Datca.Although you could find her at http://www.pestemals.blogspot.com/ it looks like she did not update it regularly. As I am planning to buy some of the goodies in her shop, I promise I will bring you some more photos from her shop.

Evil Eye Beads

In Turkey we like to hang evil eye beads to our offices, homes, cars, boats etc. or wear it in the form of jewelry. In a way you could attach them to everything that you wish to protect from evil eyes. It could also be your new born baby, or pets. I just love them. I have one in my house, one in my car and a small turquoise color one framed with gold that I use as a necklace..

Pumpkins

Every summer I like to collect weird shaped pumpkins for decoration. I took this photograph last summer. They were the collection of a proud farmer. Aren't they lovely???