love

Domestic stories - Photography for your home

Domestic stories - Photography for your home, originally uploaded by ivy style33.


Hello and have you all a wonderful week!...was very - very! - happy to finally see some movement here after so long and admit to have enjoyed it a lot! Thank you for coming here :)
Now, got some time to spare and have a look at my Photography Series, the preparation of which is moving forward step by step in a satiyfying pace, let's say?


Here is my thinking behind it all....

These series are meant to address different kind of tastes, still being true to my personal, favorite choices and style.
Each composition is thought of according to its possible placement in a home. 

Being mostly an interior designer of spaces, I can only think of objects in relation to the environment where they are to be placed.
And of course according to the utility of the room...therefore these series belong to distinct categories.

Whereas the first five can be placed in a kitchen and/or dining area, the last one of the series, the half peeble heart, is more versatile and can be placed in a living or a sleeping place for example. What do you think?...am so looking forward to the next days when some first prints will be in my hands!

Zucchini Love

Zuchinni Love, originally uploaded by ivy style33.

...leaving you for the weekend with this heart made of zucchini slices, prints of which will be shortly available in the Etsy shop, as part of my "Photography... Through Ivy's eyes" series, under the label "Domestic charm", categorized as Kitchen Stories.

...aiming at bringing some Love in your kitchen and everyday life, in a minimal way, for many happy gatherings and delicious meals!

A stamp of love

A stamp of love, originally uploaded by ivy style33.

....two of my passions combined together and binded with...love!
...interior decoration and especially love for white, serene & simple interiors combined with my love for handwriting - something I, again, owe to my mother - only that here technology rather than human hands are responsible for the writing.

Captured in a picture, representing my ever increasing love for photography...

So, love & light! How can one separate love from light?
As love always carries a bright feeling...

Goodmorning love...

Goodmorning love..., originally uploaded by ivy style33.

....coz you can judge a good morning from its early beginning...the Greeks used to say - these days when they were less busy with protesting and complaining instead of concentrating on work - that: "I kali mera ap' to prwi fenetai"...or "A good day can be seen from its morning", the word morning standing here for an early beginning....there's not much philosophy in it...but a lot of practical truth...

...provide your organism with good nutrition to handle with the day ahead and do it in the best possible manner....referring both to the environment & table setting, but also to the people we are sharing our mornings with.

I think a lot of relationships are judged in the morning....and it is so rewarding to realise that you are begining your day with a person you mostly want to be with...and in case the realisation goes the other direction, then change would most probably be a solution....leading us to a more fullfilled way of living.

Look around you....

Look around you - love can be everywhere, originally uploaded by ivy style33.

Look around you - love can be everywhere, but of course also
Look inside you - love is hiding there!

...some years ago I realised that living with love is a priority in my life. This doesn't necessarily involve only a romantic approach in to seeing things and it definetely doesn't always mean, that life is seen through pink glasses all the time!

But what does it involve?

It involves living with the truth, living healthy and with sanity.

It invloves living with an understanding both for the self and others.

It involves being fair...oh! so hard in this competitive world!

It involves having the best of intentions, but also being able to move away

from situations, when they prove to be a simple repetance of things wrong.

It involves encouraging others to be the best they can, but also letting it go, when there is a feeling of extreme resistance from the opposite side.

It involves looking inside ourselves for answers, before we point our fingers to others for our misfortunes.

It involves being grateful for the gift of life.

It involves appreciating whatever we might have.

It involves bringing our existences to their highest possible point by

doing the best we can for ourselves and others.

I guess it also involves being authentic, by taking the time to discover ourselves and allow inspiration to come from within....

...again rather hard when inspiration lies everywhere around us, to keep the balance...to look inside in order to offer a  true part of ourselves....

Welcome  to my Diary of Love....where pictures and words will melt in each other, for the only purpose of reminding us the priceless value of love.

It might sound simple, but sometimes real love is a tough path to follow.

Coz loving life means to embrace both the good & the bad, both the bright & the dark...accepting their dual existance and simply making clear choices.

Blissfulness

Blissfulness is :

opening your apartment door to step out and finding on the doormat a packet waiting for you.
It happens that our postman is a mostly kind man, who gets into the trouble of coming up the forth floor, eventhough there is not typical need and despite the fact that there is place enough in the mailbox.
It appears that whenever he sees a packet from a personal address, that comes from abroad, such as when my family sends a packet from Greece or amazing Madhu from Malaysia for example, he is kind enough to deliver it upstairs, without ringing the bell, out of discretness, just to make sure that it is safe and delivered, as if he understands the precious messages that it carries.

So a blissful day begins, when you realise that there are also so very kind people living in this world and actually in your immediate environment.

A blissful day goes on, when you recieve a present from a most special person, who went into the trouble of sending you another present, despite the fact, that she already did so for your birthday, for reasons her dear heart only knows why. As I trully don't know what I 've done to deserve that. But I do accept it ,with so much gratefullness, because once again this gesture made me feel so special and so loved, in a way I 'll always remember and cherish.

So, my dear Madhu, there I am,standing, holding the raw silk, in form of a wonderful pillowcase and wood, in form of two napkin rings for him and her, hoping that the picture can capture just a little tiny bit of the happiness you brought me.

Thank you so much....as words are probably poor to express.

The world through the eyes of love

Love is a quality rather to be practised than spoken about.

It is this quality, that completely transforms our lives and one that must be cultivated in order to be understood.

Love is naturally not only romantic love, but a vast essence.
Love is undestanding
Love is acceptance
Love is forgiveness
Love is actually listening
Love is making space for a different perspective, without necessarily needing to adopt it
Love is respect
Love is setting boundaries and
Love is accepting the limits others set
Love is adjustment
Love is accepting that in life there is both happiness & pain
Love is the power to change

" I love you but I cannot ", is a contradiction.

" I love this/that/the world/myself, but I have no time/money/courage to support it, is another.

Loving somebody, something, ourselves = doing anything possible in our power to support this saying, no matter how difficult, no matter how hard, no matter how much inconvenience and pain must be gone through, often overcoming our own selves.

After years of having written these love quotes on these mirrors, back in 2004, it's now more than ever, that I actually understand and experience what I myself had written as aspirations of what love is, when my reality and everyday life were definetely not bad, but still wholeness and fullfilness wasn't acheived.

I hope that now is the start of a probably another half of my life ( I'm turning 35 these days ),when I can do anything possible in my daily life to experience and spread love.

Here and now, more than ever, my heart is at home and seeing the world through the eyes of love is a possibility.

My own shortcomings, failures and imperfections had to be accepted,
Occasional unfairness and cause of pain had also to be accepted and let go....

and it is always a daily decision, the way in which to experience the world, often not the easiest one to take, as the world can be and is often hard.

Still the only meaningfull way to live is through practising and experiencing love...

If we people are to be determinded by something, it is our experiences and our feelings...rather than possesions....and life is too precious to be wasted in being bitter and complaining, sitting with our hands crossed, only to move them, in order to point our finger to somebody else who is supposedly responsible for our unhappiness.

Taking the responsibility of our own existences is love.

Devoted to my dear friend and therapist Vali, who has supported me in every possible way these past seven years, into my personal quest of finding Love.

It's a blessing to have met you.

For a more complete and detailed view of the quotes written on the mirrors, you may visit this set of pictures.

Is there anything better than acceptance and recognition?

....except ,of course, from true unconditional love....But doesn't such love involve  a c c e p t i n g   and  r e c o g n i s i n g  the good qualities in the ones we love? This IS an imperfect world...and we are all more or less imperfect human beings, with advantages and dissadvantages, with talents and characteristics to be proud of, but also caring our negative aspects, ones that we have to fight for to overcome, to be better for ourselves and others... 

   I 've been often labeled a dreamer, a romantic...but I think that this is just part of the truth. Anybody involved  in a c t u a l l y doing things is not a mere dreamer. And there is nothing more fullfiling than doing things with love. Attention! I do not say doing things WE love...it is almost impossible throughout our lives to engage into doing ONLY things that we love...we should be very happy if we manage to reach such a level slowly...day by day.

  So , what I want to say and point out is: doing things WITH love is what matters. That, translated in to everyday, non - dreamer language, means doing things with awareness, with care, getting really personally involved wether this is having a conversation, reading a book, doing the laundry, exercising, taking a walk, interacting with children, cleaning, going to our jobs ( even the ones we don't really like at a given point in our lives!)....everything!

  I also believe that    c r e a t i v i t y , in every of its possible expressions, is also a form of love. And lately, I 've been meeting so many creative people, that love their lives and love to live! It is so wonderful! If all could DO just a little bit for their dreams to come true, for the world to become better, if we can find the strength to transform our   w o r d s   into  a c t i o n s ...how much could be achieved!

  To reach to a closure, let me share with you, that acceptance is a very basic notion in my life. For reasons unknown, I 've been deprived of it severely as I was growing up - eventhough my parents were the best that they could be. So, it means so much to me, to find out that what I do and who I am is accepted and very often lovely received and welcome....by all, wonderful YOU. Thank you from the deep bottom of my heart. And of course, thank you Eva for having the Penthouse and me in your blog  "Otis & Frank"   and for the lovely , sweetest comments. You are the inspiration for me writing these words here!

  And since this is going to be a very busy week, it's time that I go and wish you all:
H a p p y   M o n d a y  and the  H a p p i e s t   A u t u m n  of all...to all !

Love for living spaces...filled with....L o v e !

....arrived in Athens in the afternoon and run to the " new " apartment to see how the works are going....the almost white ( I like to call them sugar white) wooden floors have been placed in the area of the living room, entrance - dining room, kitchen and small corridor. They are absolutely fantastic, am so pleased concerning that : )...the shiny white " Abstract" Ikea kitchen has been delivered and is patiently waiting to be montaged.....when exactly they could tell us NOT....and here starts the " not so pleased " part...organisation in this, definetely beautiful country, is not a daily happening. And as the icing on top of the cake, the electrical appliances ( Whirlpool for Ikea ) eventually start to be a c t u a l l y sold the first of September - eventhough you see them at the store. Oh man! This is really bad, as I' m flying back the 28th of August. Anyway, I believe in miracles, so am hoping for a montage date for all the cupboards in time, even with out the appliances.

To stop complaining, sooth my heart and connect this post to the picture above, I 'll go back to thinking of my tranquil and organised life in our beloved, little Penthouse.... " At peace, at home "...one of my many favourite books...this is exactly how I feel more and more living in Germany....and for this reason the theme of the photos of this post will be Love, true love coming from deep, deep down inside our beings...love we feel for a person, for ouselves, love for nature and animals, love for what we do, love for how we live and mostly love for living our daily lives, enjoying them to their fullest extent, love for the moment, love for LIFE.

Here are a few photos that express the love that I feel in our Penthouse, in a very simple way....



...by owning and reading books about love...


t
...by cutting a heart shaped noticeboard from a roll of cork and " posting " a picture of my boyfriend and me.....


...by trying to create " A nest for two".....
( another favourite book )


...by wrapping in wire a heart shaped stone, that I had found on our vacation and offered it to him, in lieu of a card, before I left today, writing " I LOVE U "....



...and simply by making breakfast, setting the table nicely : )

....Throughout the last 5 years I 've been trying to live my life with love - and trully that doesn't involve only happy moments, but lots of frustrations, fears and tears, too - which always brings me to making things and creating spaces I love to....love...for me or other people. For more love creations, hop to my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivy_style33/ and look for :" Love mirrors " and " Love made of wire ".

Breath in aaaaall the love and go on creating and living the Lives that YOU love to live. ..................................................