Interior and me

Few weeks have passed since the end of renovation, so everything is pretty much settled in and I am ready to show you my New Room. Ta-daah!

The high-angle view was shot using the stepladder you can see in the next picture (it also serves as a clothes hanger and a shelf).
Also, a fitball makes an appearance - healthy lifestyle and all :)

Lucky owner of the room relaxing on the sofa...

...And at her workplace:

 This blank wall on the left is my Photo Background wall:

All cozy and comfortable:

Details:

 

The story of renovation

It's done!
It took 3 months and some noticeable amount of money, but it's finally almost done!
(It could have been much faster.)
(But not much cheaper! At least my conscience can be clear about that part!)
(There's still no furniture in the room. Argh!)
Anyway, here's the history of renovation in mobile pictures - sorry for the abominable quality, but there's not much sense in using DSLR to capture details of hectic mess :) However, there are a couple of pics taken with DSLR in this post, can you spot them? Of course you can!

First day of action, first scraps of wallpaper torn off. It almost counts as a BEFORE picture.
Old curtains are still in place. Desk is still brown and boooring!


Heap of wallpaper scraps gets bigger:
 

I try to wash off old whitewash (tautology?..)
Do you see the difference? Look in the corner...
 

Last day of the old wooden window...


...and first days of new plastic one:


Walls are getting makeover:


Ceiling is now even and painted white.


And here comes new wallpaper...


Time for painting! (And sanding...)



Light fixture has arrived.

 

Radiator changes its color from sad greenish to white. The door also gets a fresh coat of paint.



My favorite process:


Desk is finally covered with 2 layers of paint and 2 layers of lacquer and temporarily relocated to another room.



New curtain rod  takes its place:


Speculating: how it's gonna look?..


Desperate attempts to move sofa out of the room:
 

And finally - the floor!



Yes. The door misses a handle. The curtain is too short. And the glass in the balcony door serves not to let the sunshine in, but to show off untidiness of the balcony.

Who cares? Let's bring the furniture in, invite some friends and have a party! =))

Winter's eve

I really, really want to live in my own house.
With a fireplace and a rocking chair. With an attic and lots of cozy and warm handmade stuff: blankets, wool socks and sweaters.
Have I already turned into a grandmother?
Or is it just winter approaching? :)
Days are short and sun never seems to rise at all... Taking pictures becomes a challenge.

 Finished warm stuff...

 Warm stuff in the making...

My stash :) (basket is from IKEA, I didn't make it myself!)

When I'm in the bad mood...

 ...Best solution is to organize something.
For example, my photo database.
I know that pictures take up the largest part of my hard drive. Let's take a closer look.

First step: import everything to Lightroom. This sounds stupid, but it took me years to understand the power of this tool, and I'm starting to use it only now. Better late than never, huh?

First step of the first step: years 2011-2012, to begin with. Just 170 Gb of pictures, no more, no less. 15 thousands of them. And I need to find out if there is a couple of decent ones among them, after all.
Good luck to me.

What's the best thing about Moscow?
You can always take the train to Minsk from here.
And today is that happy day!

12 days at home

 

Focusing

Home at last...
Spent 4 out of 5 last weeks away.
Didn't write anything, even skipped 2 Monthly Results posts - what a shame. But I didn't want, and still don't, to go in depths about how awful it is regarding my iStock income.
Other than sales slowdown, I didn't notice how the summer crept in. The season that is the most frightful to waste away.
So, back to fighting.

Minsk

I have returned from 10-day vacation in Minsk. It hadn't been planned as a vacation, but turned out as one: much fun had, very little work done. I spent great deal of time socializing. I love my friends. I love the city. It's so easy to love something when you're far away from it :)

2011 Travel

I was suddenly overtaken by herd instinct and decided, like many other bloggers, to make Year End Post. In fact, January is almost over, but better late then never!
I will be specific and talk only about travelling here, because it's the part of my life that was the most successful and eventful in 2011. Nights in trains from Minsk to Moscow and back (that doesn't count as travelling, but moving from one point to another is one of my favorite parts of every journey), roadtrips with husband and friends, eleven take-offs and (luckily) eleven landings - many kilometers covered during past year, as I not only moved from Belarus to Russia, but visited 6 countries:
- Ukraine (January)

- Sweden (May)

- Poland (May)
- Lithuania (July)
- France (December)
- Thailand (December and first week of 2012)

All possible kinds of transport were used:
- by train to Lviv
- by bus to Riga and then boat to Stockholm
- by car to Krakow
- by car and ferry to Nida
- by plane to Paris and Ko Samui. And to top it off, we used motorbikes while we were in Thailand.
Not everything was bright: bad weather chased us troughout the year. In Lviv it was cold, but OK, it was January. Then in Stockholm it was extraordinary cold for the beginning of May, and rainy. Then it rained in Nida, sea was cold and we couldn't swim. In Paris it was quite warm for December, but it rained too, especially on the day when we decided to visit Disneyland. Even Thailand gave us 3 (out of 10) days of tropical rain during dry season! But I can say that in most cases our impressions were not affected by weather (not counting the enormous quantity of red-nose-photos).

I love that every set of photos has its own color palette, and the colors associate with the place in my mind.

I definitely will make a plan on travelling for the nearest future and post it later.

Workplace

'cause I'm for real
are you for real?
I can't help myself
it's the way I feel
when you look me in the eyes like you did last night
I can't stand to hear you say goodbye
when it feels so right
'cause it feels so right just to have you standing by my side
so don't let me go
cause you have my soul

and I just wanted you to know...

Enchanted by song lyrics again

 There'll never be a spring so perfect again
You'll never see a yellow so rich
The grass will never be quite as green
And there'll never be a kiss like your kiss.

There will never be a summer so complete
You'll never see a palette like this
The berries will never taste as sweet
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss.

There will never be an autumn so vivid and warm
So red, so golden, so crisp
You'll never see a color in aubergine
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss.

There'll never be a winter quite so true
When the sky was painted with gifts
There'll never be a moon so full & blue
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss

There'll never be a kiss like your kiss...

Innocent, they swim
I tell them no
They just dive right in
But do they know

It's a long way down
When you're alone
And there's no air or sound
Down below the surface

There's something in the water
I do not feel safe
It always feels like torture
To be this close

I wish that I was stronger
I'd separate the waves
Not just let the water
Take me away

Vacation

Everything as usual - the first day of my leave seems to last forever. And then all other days fly by like a bullet.
Today we've chosen and bought New Year presents for 10 people. Afterwards, we felt exhausted. But now we're done with gifts, and only preparing for the festive meal remains.
Not going to work feels sooo great!