There’s a new Kat in town..

I’ve noticed that lately all I’ve been focusing and posting has been about Bulgaria and photographs. For the ones who enjoy music, like I do, I’ve been really lacking on that department. My excuses for that. I haven’t felt like I’m following much of what’s going on in the music industry. Partly because of I don’t have an mp3 at the moment, and just technology seems to fail me a little bit. I will try my best and update more music here as well. If you have any suggestions, resources, or any of that type at all – please feel free to tell me!

Kat Graham formerly known as Katerina Alexandre Graham was born in Switzerland to Liberian father and Polish-Russian mother. Graham’s father was a music executive. He was also godfather to two of Quincy Jones’ children. She was raised in Los Angeles. Now she is mainly known as the sultry Bonnie Bennett    in hit show The Vampire Diaries.

 

She started in the entertainment industry when she was six years old by appearing in various commercials. In 2002, she made her first television breakthrough. That same year, she wrote a song which was featured in a film.

 

She wanted to pursue a musical career shortly after. It wasn’t until 2007 that she had a breakthrough. She was featured on Will.I.Am‘s album Songs About Girls. In early 2012, she signed her first recording contract with A&M Octone Records. She had her first ever performance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show at the end of May. She is currently recording her first album.

 

Until we’ll be able to get our hands on her first album, she has released her first single from her EP Against the Wall. I was attracted to this song simply because of the fresh beat. I haven’t heard such a beat before. The chorus is especially very interesting to me. What do you think of the song?

 

 

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Wordless Wednesday: Sky Edition

It is time for yet another Wordless Wednesday! Last week, I gave you Airport Edition in two parts – part 1 & part 2. If you’re a frequent reader of my blog, you know that I tell you how beautiful the sky is here. Everyday, it’s like a new painting being painted on the sky. It is unbelievably gorgeous! Instead of just talking about it, this week I thought the theme for Wordless Wednesday should be the sky.

The sky inspires me so much! It is the first thing I see when I wake up. It is the first thing I look at when I go out. Over the course of time, it has truly started to play a bigger part in my life. When I think of Sky, I think of so many things but mainly what comes to my mind is the Native American people. Sky plays a big part in their cultures.

In most Creation Accounts, Earth and sky are the first things created. The sky is often personified in Native American mythology, sometimes as a Creator (Mother Earth and Father Sky) or a powerful spirit (Skan). Sky-dwelling creator figures appear in the accounts of many of the Native American cultures. Among these figures are Above-Old-Man (Wiyot), Akbaatatdia (Crow), Earthmaker (Ho-Chunk, Tohono O’odham), Es-te Fas-ta (Seminole), Kodoyanpe (Maidu), Kumush (Modoc), and Utsiti (Keres).

In many traditions, the sky is the home of powerful sky spirits. Birds were seen as intermediaries between humans and the sky spirits.They were believed to be messengers that could carry prayers to the gods and return with gods’ blessings and guidance. For this reason, Feathers were viewed as a bridge between people and the sky spirit world and were used as offerings and on Prayersticks. According to Cherokee tradition, the sky spirits – represented by Great Hawk (Tlanuwa) – were often in conflict with evil underground spirits – represent by Great Serpent (Uktena).

In the Iroquois tradition, Sky Woman, the mother of humanity, fell from the sky world. To make place for her to stand, the water animals created land. In the Chumash tradition, there is a story of a Sky Coyote, which you can read more about here.

I’ve always respected Native American people, and have been fascinated by their cultures ever since I was young. Though lately, I’ve been more and more pulled into it. I’ve been doing a bit of research of some of the cultures, as there are over 500 different cultures/tribes registered in the US, it is impossible to learn about all of them.

The sky is just a small reminder to me of everything going around me. The wind is a reminder for me to sometimes stop thinking and start listening the nature. And as I listen to the wind, as I watch the sky, I get this feeling of gratitude. Happiness takes over me. These two elements are so important to me. I find inspiration from each, daily.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It is time for some Scavenger Hunt Sunday pictures again. This time I actually went hunting outside rather than hunting from my archives ;)! Without much further ado, here are my interpretations…

 

1. Capturing Movement

This also could have been facing my fears as I don’t like to be outside when it’s storming, not in Bulgaria. The storms here get quite wild and I’ve already had a bad experience when I was just looking at the storm and since then I’ve been a little scared… I wanted to try and capture the storm, it would have been even better to have captured the lightning but maybe better luck next time. You can just see the storm rolling in though…

2. Currently

I currently live in this beautiful little village in Bulgaria that I call home. I see this car nearly everyday as I go to the bus stop or go get some groceries. This village, and the city of Veliko Tûrnovo, is so picturesque. It inspires me so much and I love taking pictures from here!

3. Beneath Your Feet

This is just the rawness of the beautiful nature around here. This was taken a day after the crazy storm I showed you in the beginning. As I live in a very hilly neighborhood, the water flows down. I tried to capture this but I don’t think it does justice to the real thing, unfortunately.

4. Face Your Fears

Darkness can be scary to me. I need light just to make sure that no one or nothing can scare me.

5.Texture

These sheep come by our backyard nearly daily. I see the herders walking their animals nearly daily. It’s definitely something I’ve had to get used to! It’s a very lovely sight to get used to though, it makes me smile every time I see that. So, the main ‘texture’ is the fur of the sheep.

Next week’s items are shine, fast, left, peace, plain.

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Being a tourist in VT

I’ve been showing you what my living environment looks like. I think it’s time to switch up a little bit, and show you some more pictures of the actual town. Although, I haven’t gotten to do as much tourist-y things, I’ve still gotten to take some pictures from when I’ve been to Veliko Tûrnovo (VT or Viti as I like to call it). This town is so picturesque, you would not even believe it! Pictures are nothing compared to the real thing but I hope I’ve captured some of the beauty this town offers…

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Scenery

My home is my sanctuary, it is a very sacred place to me. So for me to let you in to see my home, is a big deal. My home needs to inspire me everyday. From the moment I wake up, I want to have a smile on my face or when I go to the living room, I just want to feel at ease and inspired. This home does just that. When I open the curtains in the morning, I feel blessed to have found such a gorgeous spot to live in. It’s like a little miracle each morning when I see the mountains, sometimes even mist in the mountains. This has been exactly what I’ve been looking for and dreaming of. I couldn’t be more grateful to have found such a beautiful spot!!

Let me show you what I see everyday..

A actually took this picture of the gorgeous sunset we see nearly every evening

The crescent moon was spotted..

We see some farm animals that the herders walk nearly everyday

The sheep herder sometimes goes by our backyard

This was taken from the top floor bedroom at sunset

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with me first if you want to use my photography! Thank you!

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The New Home

For those of you who have been following my stories from Bulgaria, you may be wanting more visuals than what I’ve given you. No? This time, I will show you the house I live in. Yes, the one where the landlord is awesome – he fixes everything immediately, but sometimes he lets himself in. As I’m accustomed to people giving me notice when they want to come and fix something, I just need to get used to it.

The house is the same price as when I rented a studio back in Holland!

So, that is the grand tour of our new home. It was love at first sight, even when we saw it online in pictures, we knew that was going to be our home if it was still available. It had been up for rent for quite some while so it was a surprise that it was still for rent when we got here. Maybe universe kept it available for us, as it has everything we could have hoped for! Ok, maybe there is one thing missing, a pool. I’m not greedy though, I’m grateful that we have such a gorgeous living environment!!

I could have shown you some more, such as the opposite sides of the bedrooms and whatnot but I felt it was unnecessary and there is already so much to show! You might have not gotten till the end of this post had I posted more pictures! What I do want to point out, however, is that everything is very nicely decorated in here. We have lots of beautiful art on our walls. This house is colorful, which I truly love, but it’s not tacky colorful if you know what I mean ;).

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If you would be so kind, and respect copyright, to not remove the credits – always check with

me first if you want to use my photography! Thank you!

 

Please read A’s side of the stories and his perspectives on life

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