As I promised, here is my newest 'Flying Umbrellas' bag, which I like very much how it came out. It took me a little bit longer than the last (first) one, because there are some more complicated details. The other day I was solving some real math and geometry problems on my notebook :).

This time I won't give many explanations of the process, because it should be quite obvious from the images below. Just a few notes...


The buttons I have found at the flea market in Mauerpark, last Sunday, after an intense negotiation with the seller in my "excellent" German :). After I happily picked up 10 stücke, I already knew how the bag will look like.
And of course you can see the second try of the Flying Umbrellas logo.

This time I have upgraded the bag with a new feature (oh, sorry that I am talking in these high-tech terms, but I am 5 years trained as a CS engineer ;) ) and that is the interior fabric (actually 'lining' is the English term). I was looking for something more flowered, but I only found this white cotton fabric with an abstract pattern in blue and black; it goes very nice with the blue color of the bag.


This is more a summer bag, because it is made from thin fabrics. I love to wear fabric bags. They are more personalized, chique and not so heavy as those made from leather or artificial leather. What about you? What bags/purses do you prefer? What materials are they made of?


Also, just like the previous one, this bag will go to somebody else. I will see who will be interested in it :)

(images by victoria molovata)

I hope you have a great day and I just came in to share with you a little happy thing that happened to me yesterday: I won this nice and interesting book, The Creative Entrepreneur: A DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real by Lisa Sonora Beam, through decor8. It was a giveaway contest by Holly in collaboration with Quayside Publishing Group and the condition to win one free copy of the book was to honestly comment on the subject "What are some constructive AND destructive aspects of your personality that are directly influencing your creative process currently?". I found it challenging, because sometimes is so necessary to write down your thoughts and fears, pros and cons about your self. Making lists is worth it and really helps sometimes. Thank you Holly!



I was so surprised, because there were over 400 nice comments left for the contest, and I was one of the 10 winners. Yay! I can't wait to receive the book, and to share with you some ideas from it, because it is about a subject that I am interested for a while.

And stay tuned, because I will come soon with nice topics and, hopefully, with finished projects. And now back to work!

(images by Holly Becker for decor8)

Another Sunday, another project for me. Oook, this time it was a little bit earlier, because I have finished it last Friday, but we will still consider it a Sunday-project. Since I have said in a previous post about the fabrics that I have bought, I have decided to put some of them in practice - the first Flying Umbrellas bag (wow, I have a brand already :) ). And because a friend told me she wants to buy a hand-bag for her books, as she started her first German classes, I thought I would do a good deed for her and make her a hand-bag.

In some pictures I will try to describe the process (some details actually):

The fabric is cut in pieces (I have made the design on the paper), which are waiting to be stitched together. And yes, I use a piece of soap for making the signs on the fabric (and actually in my case went better than the special fabric chalk).


If I remember well, it was for the first time when I have tried the embroidery stitches of my sewing machine. And it was quite fun too :) I am so impressed of my little "brother" (yep, I have a 'brother' sewing machine).


Every time on a sewing project I am impressed how simple pieces of fabric are getting into some shapes.. It is like puzzling.. So, this is the first idea of how the bag is going to look.


I have played a little bit with this 1.5 x 2 cm label (a tentative brand logo).. Don't you see? C'mon.. It is an umbrella! A flying umbrella, of course :) Ok, I will try a better one next time.


And, voila! The final product :)


Good night for now, and meet you for the next Flying Umbrellas project!

(images by victoria molovata)

Again about tea and tea pottery. But also about "fine arts and fairy tales". I have discovered this little online shop (the only local shop is in Bucharest, Romania) just a short time ago and loved it instantly. It is a concept store, and the project was founded by Ana Wagner (artist and decorator) and her sister, Irina Wagner.

This is their "short history" (sorry, I cannot link some great pictures from their website):

"The shop ‘Wagner – fine arts and fairy tales’ emerged as a response to the need of artistic expression and communication.
A place of ‘tales’, because every artist on show comes with their own story. A space of art gallery, where art is presented in a non-conformist manner, in a warm and friendly environment. It is non-conformist, because for Ana Wagner, the founder of this ‘concept store’, china is the carrier of her drawings and paintings. Her fairy tales, stories of princesses and heavenly landscapes, with travelling cats and flying houses are no longer laid on the common paper or conventional canvas. This is true not only for Ana, but also for the artists she co-operates with and who we can meet in this space.

It is a shop where events and exhibitions take place, or one can simply have a friendly chat over a cup of hot tea. The space itself is an act of art through its optimism and colour, inlaid in the gray of Carol Boulevard, and last but not least, in the cultural-artistic context of Bucharest."

(image from Wagner)

And you know what is amazing? Tomorrow, they have this exhibition called "Lace Collection" and you can find "hand painted porcelain, tales and a jazz concert". If you are in Bucharest, and love this kind of things, you should go there. I think it will worth it! But if you can not make it, just take a look at this beautiful website.

I am not in Bucharest right now, but when I will go home, I will check the Wagner shop. And I will take along all my princesses that are sleeping silently on the bookshelf, in the pages of 'Forgotten or Unknown Princesses' book, which was a special birthday gift from my brother and his 'princess'.

(image from here)

(quotted text from Wagner)

I love tea. I can drink tea all day long. For breakfast, at lunch and dinner... and in between. All kinds of tea: black with a drop of flavored Bergamot, with a taste of Jasmin flower, the African rooibos, the Chinese white tea, fruit teas (and they come in so various combinations), the healthy green tea with an accent of lemon, with milk or honey, with cinnamon and nutmeg, with a piece of chocolate and music or just plain. The only thing that I do for more than eight years is that I don't put sugar in it, because I want to feel that special taste and aroma that each has.

Today was a Sunday-project day. I had this in my mind for a long time: to keep my collection of teas in jars. I have found that this way the flavor is kept inside the mixture. I like to personalize things, so this time I made a small painting-calligraphy design on the jars. I colored the lids and wrote some words (the names of the teas) on the jar's walls. This is the result:


(a little note about the picture: I know that coffee is not tea, but I consider it the tea for those sleepy-rainy days and when I miss that strong, dark taste that coffee has)

You are free to follow me and to create your own jars. Below are some basic ingredients:

• glass jars;
• acrylic paint;
• paintbrushes;
• some good music;
• and a drop of imagination :)

I hope I have woke up the artist spirit in you :)

(images by victoria molovata)

That's right. The winter is just behind the door, so we have to be stocked up for those cold days and the snow that is going to fall. Oh, I think that is how I dream about winter, because I haven't seen that snow for a long time.. Anyway, we should stock up. Maybe your first thoughts are about food. But I was thinking of stocking up with some fabrics, because my old textiles are in Bucharest, but my sewing machine is here, in Berlin (yay!).

When it comes to fabrics and patterns, I am like a kid. Looking and wanting them all. Maybe not all of them. I love to touch the textiles and feel the softness of their texture and being amazed about how many different kinds they could have. My eyes are attracted by floral, geometrical, mosaic patterns with repeatable tiny shapes. The other day I was downtown and found some sales for some nice fabrics. I was looking for some color combinations (right now I am in the mood for pale plum, gray, purple..), because I am thinking of making some hand bags from them. I will see.

The same day, I found some interesting flower-plants. But instead of flowers there were some berries. Purple. So unreal. And I was thinking how the flowers, from which those berries came out, were looking? Unfortunately I don't know the name for that plant, but I am very sure that they look great in a flower composition.

(images by victoria molovata)

Until now, I was sharing with you my passion for photography at fotogravika, and also some thoughts about places, people, memories at blovika. It is time for something new!

For quite a long time, I wanted to have a space (web-space) where I can collect all my ideas about things that are related to happy-living-in-a-house. This will be my bubble were I will keep my ideas until I will have a real house to play with. These ideas can refer to decorations, hand-made stuff, food, music, ecology, nature, friends, and the list can continue within the same lines. I can recall having some of this passions since I was a kid. I remember with pleasure of those summer days when I was building my own houses from plants, dry boughs and flowers and I was a little upset when I was discovering the next day that they either faded or just disappeared being eaten by some animals. Yeap, this is the life at the country side :). The interest for decorating and room-arrangements I have developed also since I was little, when together with my mom we were moving everything in the house to create a fresh, new look. Sometimes I find myself doing little hand-made things or playing with fabrics. Ok, that was a short introduction about the other me.

You will ask yourselves, what the umbrellas, even more, flying umbrellas have to do with this?... A while ago, I was riding my bike through the rainy Berlin and I was looking at the various umbrellas people had, myself without one.. and suddenly this combination jumped out of my head and I have put it in a safe place until now. In the bubble.

Another question you could ask yourselves (some of you) may be: why English? And some reasons: it is an international language, so more people would understand me and it is more of a challenge for me. But maybe sometimes I will use my native language, Romanian.
Update: But you feel free to talk to me in any language you like; it will be my mission to understand you :)

So, come into my bubble and let's catch those flying umbrellas..