Dress Inspiration, volume 3

The beautiful model is Gaye McDonald, this is a photoshoot from The One Magazine.
Photographed by Pieter Henket, Hair by Ben Skervin.

Not only do I love each and every single dress, the whole photoshoot is one big inspiration to me personally. Gaye looks absolutely stunning and she wears the gowns full of pride and with grace! As a semi-professional photographer, the shots are just stunning. I love the silhouettes of the dresses, how the flow and compliment her body. The background fits perfectly with the shots. The colors are what makes the shoot so lively and vibrant, along with the movements. It’s just one of the best ones I’ve seen! Truly amazing. Truly inspiring. Truly inspired.

Wordless Wednesday: Club Edition

Nearly two weeks ago, after living in the beautiful Bulgaria for 2,5 months, I went out for the first time. What a memorable night it was! When we got to the club after a somewhat boring dinner, I knew I was going to be have so much fun… a little too much, it turned out. The club we went to are some of the nicest ones in VT but apparently not in the whole of Bulgaria. The entrance fee was a pitiful 3 leva (€1,50) but you do get checked for not having a gun with you or any other weapon. The club was a very nice, stylish club. I have been missing that kind of atmosphere, the kind of music they played. At one o’clock, the DJ comes and starts playing Bulgarian dance music, which is really my kind of music. That’s when they also bring out the go-go dancers who are in their underwear.What also stunned me were the two percussionist who came out. You could give them a tip or buy them a drink and they would stay with you for awhile.

This being A and my first time of going out, we were in the perfect company for this. He showed us how to party, the Bulgarian style. Apparently, what they do over here, is they get a packet of paper towels and throw them. One of the percussionists, he put some of the paper towels on the drums. Then he poured a little bit of water, which made it rain a little. Right before he left, he put some alcohol on his drum and lit it up, all the while drumming. I’ve had some great, and crazy, parties over the few years but never have I seen something like this before! Mind you, I don’t go out a lot, maybe once in every couple of months but whenever I do, I guess it’s go hard or go home type of thing.

For once, I took my big camera with me, and actually used it. These pictures are from right as we got in, before it got too busy.

The great thing when you go out in Bulgaria, is that when you get a spot for you and your mates, you won’t have to worry about that spot being taken away from you. As a woman, you can also leave your purse on the stool without having to worry if it will be taken from there. Some people even reserve tables beforehand to make sure they have the nicest spots in the club, we just made sure we were early enough there.

Wordless Wednesday: Samoyed Edition

This is not going to be a Wordless Wednesday, it’s going to be very Word-ful Wednesday. I’ve already shown you a glimpse of what happened last Saturday, on the Scavenger Hunt Sunday. Here comes the full story…

 

A and I love Samoyeds, it is our absolute favorite breed! Since losing our first Samoyed, we’ve been heartbroken. Although, we know that he is in a very loving and lively home, we still think about him nearly daily. For some reason, Samoyeds are not very well known. Or that is the impression that I have. We’ve been looking for a Samoyed breeder here in Bulgaria, and we found one who doesn’t live too far away from here (Sofia would’ve been too far). After many emails back and forth, we were able to go meet this breeder. Boy, were we in for an adventure!

 

The day didn’t start on the best terms. Being a foreigner and not speaking the language can get frustrating. That was our morning. We went to a bus station here in VT, just to find out that the bus leaves twice (or was it even once) a day. Oh great. We went to the other bus station that this town has. It didn’t look all that promising at first. We still went and asked if there were any buses going to this town. Thankfully, they wrote down three times and we took the first one! Phew – that was a tiny scare.

 

The thing about Bulgarian public transportation is that it’s not one company that runs the show. They have several bus companies, from which many of them are also taxi companies. When you go to a bus station, you see the offices for each company. Usually, you also see the towns the buses go to. All written in Cyrillic. To me personally, the letters start jumping and the letters don’t mean anything anymore. What’s good about this country, is that there is usually always someone around who wants to help you. A lot of times it’s a bit of guessing game and charades but so far, we’ve been able to understand what they’re trying to say.

 

We had almost two hours to kill before the bus left. So, we went to check out some shops we knew were close by. We went in one and found there was a locksmith. After a little over a month, we’ve only had one set of  keys! Finally we were able to make another set of keys for us!! In Ireland making an extra set of keys cost us €30 (that’s for three keys!), for the same amount of keys we only had to pay about €3, that’s 6 leva! I am so amazed about this..

 

Moving on, our bus left. We arrived at the other town on time. It is always a little bit nerve-wrecking to meet someone you’ve only exchanged emails with. The couple came to pick us up from the station. Right from the get-go, we hit it off. Bare in mind that this was our first time of being welcomed into a Bulgarian home. On the way there, I asked A how many dogs they have, he said he thought 3. When we actually got there, there were 6! Six amazing white Samoyeds! Even when the Sammies don’t know you, they’re very eager to meet you! They barked. They jumped up and down. They ran. They sniffed. They wanted cuddle. So many lovebugs that I wanted to cuddle! All of them have the same mannerisms as our first Sammy.

 

I wanted to cuddle with all of them! They were just so happy, and very loving. After the initial reaction, they calmed down a bit. Still curious and wanting to know who we were. There were two smaller girls, one of them (or perhaps both) followed me around constantly. If I stopped petting, she started whining and got closer to me! It was so adorable!

 

The family set up a table for us in the backyard since it was a very lovely day. I thought they would just offer coffee type of thing, or lunch at most. When N, the hostess, came out with two plates full of food, I was so surprised! I had not expected that at all! She just kept bringing more and more. A salad, rakia (a Bulgarian drink)..it seemed never-ending. As she finally was able to sit down with us, A and I found out that back in the day, it was mandatory for Bulgarians to make a full meal for their guests. Since Europe, and being part of EU, it is not mandatory anymore. I remember when someone would come over, we would just offer like a dessert of some kind with a beverage of the guests’ choice.

 

The day couldn’t have been better! After the dinner, N had prepared dessert for us! WOW! A full-meal to complete strangers. The meal was some of the most delicious meals I’ve ever had! I want to learn how to cook like that! After the meal,  the least I wanted to do is clean up. All I got to do was bring the dishes inside, and even that was a surprise to her. At least, I helped with something!

 

This is what I know about Bulgarians – they’re incredibly nice people! They give so much, and they do it with such a huge heart! It’s incredible to see. Right off the bat, A and I felt very welcomed to their home. The feeling what I got there, could not be described in words, it was out of this world. Something very magical about it.

 

After the meal, we still had some time to play with the doggies before we had to head to  catch the last bus. For the meal, they put the dogs in their big dog house so that we could eat at peace! How considerate! They calmed down while they were there. As soon as they were let out though, they were so happy! It’s as if we were gone and they noticed us again for the first time. I took the last pictures.

 

We had a little bit of extra time, so they wanted to show us the well-known attraction of their town, Covered Bridge. They wanted us to come over again, though for a weekend. They want to show us waterfalls nearby and some other attractions. We’d love to come by again, we were honored that they would even ask! So, hopefully, next month we’ll be able to go there again! I’m so looking forward to that.

Now, enjoy the best of last Saturday’s visit…

This little one is Lora, she weighed nothing! She was one of the two who kept following me! I wanted to take her home ;)

Once you meet a Samoyed, you’ll notice how they will take your heart immediately! It is a very special breed!

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It’s time for yet another scavenger hunt! My goodness, days just flies by! This week I got the wonderful opportunity to go visit a kennel with A. This owner has six dogs of our favorite breed ever, Samoyeds. If you don’t know this breed, you really should! I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like or is afraid of Samoyeds. If you love Huskies, you’ll most likely love Sammies too. I will tell you more about the trip to this kennel shortly, but my interpretation of this week’s scavenger hunt is inspired by the lovely loving Sammies.

 

1. Peace

This lovely bunch lives at peace with one another. Upon arrival, they were all jumping on us, running around, barking – what have you. After the initial reaction, they calmed down, and they were so peaceful! They get away with the naughty behavior because they are so friggin’ adorable! And who could not forgive when they smile like that ;-)

2. Fast

Samoyeds are actually really fast! I’d try to take a picture, and they would have moved already. They have energy for days, you’ll never get bored with them!

3. Plain

This handsome little fella just wanted to have a little photo session with me! Just plain smile after rolling around on the ground.  This is a typical look of a Sammy.

4. Left

This is more in the middle kind of picture but you can see the Sammy mainly on the left ;-). I had to be really quick to get this photo as she only stayed like that for a second until she wanted to go check out what the others were doing!

5. Shine

These two are enjoying the sun, the fun, the playing, the barking and they’re always so happy-go-lucky! I truly love that, and love them!

If you want to see and read more of the trip to Samoyed kennel, please keep coming back to check out when I’ve written more about it. I loved this trip, it truly made it worthwhile. Such a magical trip for me. The love Sammies give is something very special! There is no other breed like Samoyeds!

Next week’s items are travel, silly, black & white, spots, paper.

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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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