My Favourite Childhood Poem

I was just sitting in the park today when, all of a sudden, I remembered a line from a childhood poem. I feel like in most European kids have to memorize poems by heart when growing up. (My Italian flatmate did confirm this, so we’re 2/2). Reading the poem again made all the memories of being a 3 years old in Sofia come back.

And to this day, РОДНА СТРЯХА is one of my favourite pieces of writing:

Бяла, спретната къщурка,
две липи отпред.
Тука майчина милувка
сетих най-напред.

Тука, под липите стари
не веднъж играх;
тука с весели другари
скачах и се смях…

Къщичке на дните злати,
кът свиден и мил!
И за царските палати
не бих те сменил!

Transparent accessories are in FASHION.

You may have seen these invisible innocent little hair ties   taking the world by storm:

I couldn’t resist jumping on the bandwagon. They’re great for putting your hair up without crumpling the hair strands and creating crease lines. Although they can stretch out, they magically regain their tight shape! I’m a big fan. (Though I fear it will be one of those short-lived fashion statements that I will have to explain to my children as they doubt my coolness as a 20-year old…)

Anyone who reads this blog will know by know… I love watches. So, with this clear/transparent trend going on in hair fashion, I looked for watches that were following a similar aesthetic. SWATCH was the main leader in transparent, fun time-telling accessories. At Stansted airport on my way from London to Ljubljana, I bought this lovely little watch: Thin Liner. I love the sleek thickness of the watch face as well as the fun colour choices. It’s definitely a statement of me not wanting to enter the later half of my 20s….

Here I am in Ljubljana wearing both clear accessories:

Hair ties and watches aside, Slovenia is one of my new favourite places in the world. (As in, I want to start learning Slovenian so I can move there…luckily the language is very similar to Bulgarian in pronunciation, it just uses Latin characters rather than Cyrillic). The nature, people, architecture, and city were all breathtaking, humble, and comforting.  Watch this space… but I reckon by 30, I’ll be wearing my Swatch and Invisibobble in Slovenia! #maybe #languagelearning #centraleurope

Updated Figure Drawings on my website.

The flowers are blossoming in London and that can only mean one thing: SPRING. And with the change in season comes Spring Cleaning of my apartment. It’s officially time to store away 2-3 sketchbooks and throw away stacks of loose paper. The more I draw, the less attached I get to any one drawing. When I was in high school, I used to get protective over every painting, drawing, and doodle. But I’ve started thinking about my art as an ongoing journey and form of creative meditation rather than a portfolio (required for college applications or job interviews). This mentality has completely changed my approach to figure drawing… and my willingness to stuff A3 sketchbooks into the trash.

How would you change your approach to something you love if it was for purely personal fulfillment rather than professional development? 

Most people believe in the ‘Do what you love’ mantra about work, but I think it’s hard to receive personal fulfillment if you’re being paid to create work/art for someone else. To me, there are things I love doing at work and things I love doing in my personal life. Equally satisfying, but in separate ways.

If you want to see my favorite figure drawings, I’ve uploaded them to my website (obviously I created digital evidence of my work before throwing them in the bin!) Check them out here.

 

My current mood.

 

I’ve had my black americano and am now ready to do some work on our team’s global strategy.

Also, someone at work showed me this cool TED video:

Enjoy your Saturday. X

Yes, Yes, I love watches too much.

Here are another two that caught my eye while walking around the Paradise Center in Sofia.

Tag Heuer Formula 1 Diamond Steel & White Ceramic Watch in three words: attractive, confident, and flashy

Calvin Klein Drift Silver in three words: modern, feminine, and smooth

The new accessory to my wrist.

I’m in love with my new watch:

Skagen Rungsted Steel Mesh Watch.

Simple.

Elegant.

Not Too Feminine.

And as a gift from my grandmother, it reminds me of her timeless TV that is always playing news in the kitchen while we eat banicha and moussaka:

If 2016 was a horror movie…

Pretty accurate. Pretty scary.

‘Watch’ This Space…

for some cool timepieces. As today is my 24th birthday, I’ll share a lifelong goal of mine: to have a cool watch collection as I grow up. Now, I’ve picked out a nice simple (but elegant) silver Skagen watch for my present this year, but I thought I’d share three other cool watches that have definitely caught my eye:

ONE. Mondaine (I have mentioned them a million times before) have a new edition to their Helvetica range. Who doesn’t love a good font and a classy colour? This is their Helvetica No1 Light Graphic Edition. 

TWO. By the luxury brand Jaeger-LeCoultre, their Reverso Classic Small. I haven’t explored square watches nearly enough…

THREE. A cool new company, GroveMade, based out of Portland, Oregon. They’ve created this unusual Round Maple Watch that I would love (but it only ships in the US… darn!)

 

Happy Holidays and watch this space for more time-related inspiration in 2017! X

 

I feel the breeze of 2017 against my cheeks.

VegFest London 2016

I should probably start by saying… I’m not a vegan (despite having been to two vegan festivals in different countries in October!) I do have a few close friends/flatmates that adhere to that lifestyle and I’m quite health-conscious and sustainability-minded. But my favourite thing about the vegan community is their innovative and inventive spirit. Plenty of small business owners I met today said, “no one was meeting my needs, so I decided to make it for myself and others.” Who knew you could make blue cheese from cashew nuts? Or filling tacos using jack fruit?

Here are my top discoveries from today’s adventure:

1 . Black Seaweed Pearls (aka Vegan Beluga Caviar) from Cavia.

2. Hazelnut & Carob Spread (tastes exactly like Nutella, but has only 3 ingredients) from Nutural World. 

3. Organic Chufa de Valencia Tiger Nuts from The Tigernut Company . What on earth is a tiger nut? That was my question as well! It’s not actually a nut, it’s a small root vegetable, grown in a field and harvested in pretty much the same way as a potato. Known in Spain as the ‘Chufa, it’s a super little tuber, nutrient dense and packed with superfood qualities.

4. Soap Nuts by Living Naturally. It’s the 100% natural hypoallergenic alternative to laundry detergent. Clothes also come out soft and fresh, so no need for scent boosters or fabric softeners!

And for the branding – I’ve added:

5. Pepo Papa Pumpkin Seed Oil. This product screams ‘OCTOBER!’ and Autumn. A Hungarian-founded company just starting to get distribution in the UK.