10.15.2010

~ business ~ shop ~ services ~ contact ~


To request our services:
interior design consultancy ~ decoration / renovation of spaces
children's rooms ~ gift packaging ~ custom orders
you may contact us  @: 

Ivy_style33@hotmail.com

follow an attempt to living a creative life of awareness;
there where design, craft, arts & photography 
become a means for living a joyous, fullfulling life.
There where writing stems as a means of expression
A blog to be read while being looked at

fill your spaces and offer as presents unique photography prints 
& stationary from our shop,
carefully designed and produced.
Delight yourselves with the eco-friendly,
 personalised gift packaging


 
stay tuned to both the blog's and shop's updates by connecting on Twitter
and flickr

Kindest regards
Ivy ~

9.16.2010

V i s u a l i s e

Visualise your life, here

Stay connected with what is taking place here


Have the loveliest of Thursdays
~ Love ~
~ Ivy xx ~

Tea party with a queen

A tea party with a queen is taking place at Domestic Stories
....and we love having distinguished guests, 
so come along!


C u all there,
Ivy xx

9.14.2010

Connecting


Since quite a lot of you are still passing by this place here, I thought of linking you to the post written over at Domestic Stories. Hoping to be seeing you there and expecting you so happily :)


It's a crafting day today...actually we are putting music in a jar! 
Just like that, while telling domestic stories, or else what is happening in our little Penthouse, there where you met me.....still here in this place we've so much loved and which is slowing outgrowing itself...oh well, changes are part of life.


                                                  Join us!









9.03.2010

The end ~>next chapter: Domestic Stories with Ivy


Who doesn't want to be free?....who doesn't want to have it all?....to be healthy, loved, prosperous...who doesn't want to live a life according to his or her personal dreams?....wouldn't it be great if we just dreamt of what we wished and then everything would be possible and become a reality just like with the touch of a magic wand?

Well it might take just a little bit more than that.(To be discussed soon) Let's stop for a while and think a little tiny bit....let's try to see life outside our comfort zones and our own personal perspectives. All people like you and me, living in such societies as the ones we do, where peace and food and clothes and medical care are taken for granted and those of us who have the luxury of having daily technology in our hands and therefore being connected via numerous ways, this blog being a small example, do we really believe that all it takes is for us to dream about what we wish?

Then we are all either too naive or too selfish. Cause I cannot imagine that world peace and elimination of hunger is not included in our prayers and dreams*. Then if we all wish for that, how come more than 1.000.000.000 people of the world's population suffer from severe hunger, most of them being children? How come there are so many wars, so many diseases, so many early deaths and so much unhappiness also in the very same world that you and I are living in?

{*Yes, of course, we all wish for the next more beautiful and more comfortable house, the next vacation, the next nice thing to wear or decorate our homes..... but this cannot be all that we wish for, right?}

We humans tend very often to be blinded by our ambitions and quite often can see as far as the end of our noses, when ourselves and our behaviour is involved. 
And to avoid taking this post very far and deal with the subject recently mentioned that I wished to talk about and communicate, let's talk a bit about online presence and behaviour, while baring with me sharing a few personal details.

I think it's quite amazing that people can connect thanks to this great tool called Internet. Concerning my online presence, I must have been one of the very, very few people that I was totally against it as a tools of communication, other than a means of getting informed and acquiring some extra knowledge. It's only three years ago that I had made an online account - then in myspace - moslty to manage to direct myself into learning more about design, which I had then started studying as a second degree and to connect me more with Europe as I was then living in Greece. 

I had no plan or specific intentions whatsoever, but let me tell you that the first person who I met and was then admiring my totally primary skills in photography and taste in design is now my current life partner and the reason for me having relocated in Germany.It seemed that life had other plans for me and I just dived into them with all my heart and no doubt whatsoever.

It is rather the right place to make a parenthesis and mention serendipity, a term I became familiar with during my studies in Psychology and which I recently came across here. The incident of finding something that brings extreme pleasure and happiness, while looking for something else.

And this brings me back to now, to these lines being written in order to be shared and to my general online presence in flickr and blog world since a year.
I can hardly remember how I ended up having a flickr account, not to mention a blog, and before I did, there was absolutely no time spent following or reading other blogs or anything similar. I was  just a books and magazines person.

And again, there was so much welcoming just from the very first days of my appearance, that I felt that something pleasing and powerful had been discovered accidentally, a whole , new, vast world was opening in front of me. And it is very true. I've been meeting, being approached by and enjoying the work of so, so many talented people thanks to the means of Internet.

But, as everything wonderful it has its tricky sides, too. At this point, let me say to you that I never meant to built a "commercial" blog, as much as my work quite often is widely welcomed among this of other very talented people. 
Writing occurs to me naturally, with no preplanning whatsoever and this is the only way that it makes sense to me. The only exception is having a fixed cooperation with a website or online decoration magazine, in the case of which I'm more than happy to produce work on a regular basis.

Concerning my fist personal blog, I had the feeling at some point this summer that it has come to a closure, but this in no case meant that it is "dead" as I read in a comment from an otherwise devoted reader and kind person. A blog is considered to me like keeping a journal or writing a book and it so happens that they reach their end at some point. 
I had the choice to totally change the flow of the blog, remaking its layout to fit my current taste and not risking loosing the already registered readers and followers. This would have been a preplanned - commercial choice and certainly one that wouldn't speak of who I am.

I would not like to be one of those I have ended up not really thinking so highly off. I've seen it happening and it only creates to me mixed emotions. Bloggers changing their style and content according to where the wind blows, with most probably one purpose in mind: "how to get more readers".

So, allow me to say that Busy Bee's Blog is not dead and will always be alive, whether I currently write there or not. It is part of me and there is lots and lots of personal experience shared there with no other purpose than offering my insight to life, to whomever had been reading.
And also allow me to say that I have every right to bring it to its closure and take my time into figuring out what is going on, meaning whether it has really reached its final chapter or just taking a break.

It appears that its final chapter has been written and so have its last pages. Ever since the decision was made to invest into a small home based business where prints are produced and are sold in my Etsy shop, I felt the need to create a place directly connected to it, this being Domestic Stories with Ivy. At the same time it is very closely connected to my everyday life, as work and home meet.

It brings me real pleasure to go there and post relating to what is happening both in our current living space - decoration & design speaking - and the shop, which mostly offers prints from my photography line.

In the end, it's not the blog that matters, but the person who is behind it. And I'm just the very same person, just moving on to the next chapter, one that is more clear about my online presence and my means of earning my living.

After a year, I have realised that not only I love design, decorating and photography - as I always have - but that I also really love to write and I'm quite happy if some inspiration and knowledge or views on life can be shared.
It's the way that all who I am and have been meet. Someone who majored in Psychology and minored in Philosophy, mostly for her personal needs and reasons. Someone who for years taught English at the language institute of her parents, someone who worked closely with children and teenagers carrying ADDS. Someone who adored interior design, architecture and decoration for as long as I can remember. Someone who dares to make her hobby a job, someone who has devoted herself to living a life of awareness, trying to see just a little tiny bit further than her - rather big and long indeed! - Greek nose.

So this is the official announcement that whoever might be interested in reading my writings while enjoying pictures, will be finding me here.
It' be lovely if besides watching at nice pictures and talking about the loveliless of simple, domestic life, we could from time to time, touch and discuss about issues of life. I'd very much like that and be happily expecting you.

8.28.2010

Enjoy the silence....and wishes for a happy weekend



Good morning on what seems to be a sunny Saturday...just wanted to share this thought with you, while wishing you to have a wonderful weekend.

Enjoy the silence....as "she" is as precious as talking, sharing, writing, or anything openly expressive and communicative.
In fact, silence has a very intense communicative value and quality...

So many feelings can be expressed while being silent, so much music heard, while we tune to our inner notes...
It's a very precious state of being from which we have a lot to learn, gain and become familiar with.

This is the first post being shared on both the on line places I've been writing at (Busy Bee's blog & Domestic Stories)and there is a reason for that.
There is material to be shared in the upcoming days, thoughts, experiences, opinions, which have been held until there was time again...and the time was right.

There'll be probably discussions raised, as I'll be sharing with you how I feel about blogging, open sharing and the online world.

For now, I had this incredible need to just stay still inside and get in touch with my deep self.

Maybe this is not the right time for you to do the same and this is quite all right.

Whichever way you choose to spend your weekend, I'm wishing you it to be a great one, with lots of essence, creativity, relaxation, happy times and moments of self reflection, if that suits you.

And for those of you who don't know, I've been having a special visitor since a week, which is my mother. So, we've been driving around and visiting lovely German cities along the Rhein river.
There are just a few pictures shared so far on my flickr account if you'd like to have a glimpse, as there has been only but very few time spent online.

So, this post will be ending with my most favorite of pictures taken this week, capturing a moment very precious to me, while being in Limburg, sightseeing...actually sightseeing in the rain.



The sun is out and today we'll be sightseeing in the sunshine, that sounds really nice.
Take care and be well...we'll soon be enjoying meetings, discussions and also happy occasions among other things here and there.

Warmest of regards and best of wishes,

Ivy 

6.30.2010

In summer mood....


Goodmorning to all who are living in the same hemisphere as where the little Penthouse is located, the living room of which is pictured above and from where I'm usually writing :)
And hello or good evening to those being in different time zones.
I 'm finally managing to come and make an appearance here to say hello and give a taste of this week's happenings (since previous Teusday's last post)  through some pictures. As you may well have guessed, I have indeed been a (very) buzy bee lately! Still, there has been some time to....




style a little tiny bit our veranda, by adding some hamam towels (bought at h&m Home on line)
on the chair and the bench and enjoying some sunbathing during the day or grilling during the evenings



make a collage displaying favorite moments happening around the house, such as 
getting dressed for an "at home" Friday dinner, styling around a bit for some pictures, crafting and making - one of a kind - combined art, collage & drawing cards such as this one,



bringing out Mr Squirrel to help me with providing some string ,as I was packing some gifts for dear friends and therefore making a click to capture the basket holding all of the "balls" of string as they looked so photogenic to me...



making the bed with fresh sheets (Ikea) mixing and matching the pillow cases (Ikea) from different sets with a light grey, duvet cover perfectly light for summer, also found at h&m home....all combined to acheive a minimal look in natural tones...




...also spending long, endless hours in front of the computer screen, processing pictures according to my personal feel and taste,  like the "House with hats" above, photographed by my loving partner (also madly into photography) in our neighbourhood some months ago and processed by me specially for the needs of our Etsy shop




....and the "Happy nuns" pictured above, which you are invited to open in flickr by just clicking on the link to find out why this is the title and which, together with the previous one, belong in the "Stories of times gone by" photography series and was inspired this weekend....




mostly by our visit to the Oltimers car's festival that took place in the park across our home (Verna Park), where I accidentally discovered myself in the reflection of a super polished back part of a 1930's car front light and therefore took a minute for a little - ahem! - posing....




and had plenty of time to fall in love with the cutest of the cars participating in the festival among Rolls Royce and Jaguars to Austin and Bentleys..to  Porches, to astonishing Cadillacs and totally rounded Ford vans... this little guy, an original VW beetle caring "his" vintage, leather suitcase on "his back", simply stole my heart like forever!....that's why he'll have a special place on the shelves of the Etsy shop, at your disposal when you wish to signify that you'll be away or to simply wish a friend:




...and as if all this has not been enough, there was some time to engage into a play with circles, remembering old days of school, when geometry class was one of my favorites(!) and so often run home to find the solutions of the assignments we would recieve, almost always absolutely correct to my teachers' surpise...."get a life you little teenage girl!", they must have thought and actually I do think the same, now.....I wonder what would they say if they saw what has been happening to all I've learned and how it is incorporated into my daily life....sigh....!


 Finally, to be bringing this rather happy Wednesday post to its end....




there has been some time to be feeling just like walking in the skies, when out in our veranda, as apart from the view of little roofs among gardens, one has an immediate connection to the sky, the little penthouse being situated on the 4rth floor. Oh Good heavens, dear all.....if it isn't about celebrating every little moment in life, then what is it about?....hard times will always come our ways as well and am thinking that maybe...just maybe...sucking the beauty of glorious little moments to the very depth of our souls when they occur, can be the antidote when these hard times appear.


All the love and blessings to all 
Friendly yours,
Ivy