I moved!

Hey there!

This blog moved to leni's lines successfully and now I am residing there. You can subscribe to its Bloglovin' account in order not to miss any new posts.  

It is still going to be a personal type of blog with photos and some tutorials. I intend also to post drawings more often than here. It was very enjoying experience to write here and to be part of blogger. 

I will be very happy to see you again on my new site!

:")

Why I am missing...

Hey there!

Probably you are wondering why I am so bad at blogging lately, but I have a legal excuse this time. Ehem...My laptop completely crashed. My hard disk burned and guess who was left with no personal or whatever information since 2008. That includes all the photos I made up to this date.

Yes, I know, you can blog from your phone and so on, but it totally freaks me out to write and read on less than three inch display. It is painstaking. 

While my Dad is trying his best to retrieve the valuable photos and projects, my brother is searching for a hard-disk replacement for my laptop. 

Apart of this, I am working on my new web-home on www.lenival.com. Not ready yet and completely under construction for the reasons explained beforehand. So hopefully I will have a new blog in couple of months and I will fill it with new exciting content about everything! Well... that if I fix my trusty laptop. Let's hope that I and this place will have a nice start of 2014 or earlier if we manage to make everything work.

During the absence of computer aided software and digital cameras, I managed to redo my room, get in nail polish obsession, buy a bunch of stationery, write a couple of poems and read a dozen books. Life is always good. 

Take care! Hugs!

September's Sunny Days

Hey!

I hope that you are having great summer time as I do.
Lately I am quite busy with work and preparation for the winter season and so on that I can't stay in one place. But life is good. I get to travel a lot around and soon I will post my latest photos here.
Without noticing it is September already, one of my favourite times of the year is yet to come. As promised here is the new desktop that I made for myself and that I share with you.

I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I do!

And a small personal message to a girl named Sour Cherry: I just read you message with 7 months of delay. I am so sorry that I missed it. If you are still interested to meet me and know me, I am here and I will be glad to have a big cup of tea with you! Just leave me a message here or answer me in Flickr. 

photo: me, location: Dobrusha

August is here and a wallpaper

Happy August to all of you!

The very summer is knocking on our doors. This month is embodiment of sea, sand, sun and freedom. 

The old time of pure bliss and summer vacation during our childhood. Long days and warm evenings divided between play and leisure. Hide and seek, picnics and watermelon juice dripping over the road. It makes me think about adventures, books, sunflower fields and bathing in the river. 

I have a small surprise, a wallpaper with one of my favorite photos from July taken in Romania. I called it "the green grass of home" after the song. Feel free to click on it to save it in full resolution. I am thinking to make this a tradition, a simple wallpaper for every month. Let's see if I will be able to keep up. Next month I am planning to have some freebies. :")

Have a wonderful day! 

Summer food ramblings

Hello people!

It is already Wednesday and I hope you are having a great and joyful day today! :")
I woke up in the greatest mood ever, I slept really nice and I had the most perfect breakfast with my man: homemade pannini bread with baked zucchini and mozzarella cheese, peppers and sun-dried tomatoes. Not to mention the sweet Belgium waffles with chocolate ice-cream that followed.
I was supposed to take a picture, but it was too tasty and I ate it all in a minute! My bad. You probably already guessed it, this post is going to be food related. With all the stress and lack of movement lately, I am really trying to eat more clean, fresh and less processed foods and less about calorie-counting. I love tasty dishes what can I do?

My lunch box these weeks is a little bit more fruity lately :") 

So I wonder, what you prefer eating during the summer?

Whole-grain bread is my new favorite choice and although I tried several times some gluten-free goodies, it is just not my piece of cake. Other summer choices for me include: avocado mash-ups with eggs, white cheese with tomatoes and grill baked vegetables. Also I consume different seasonal fruits. Eating anything meat related is hard for me in the heat. I prefer switching to cottage cheese, yogurts and other dairy products. It works just fine for me as I usually work late shifts from 14 pm till 23 pm and my lunch break is more like dinner. 

Armenian Salad with baked Aubergines and Tomatoes, all in honey-basil pesto. 

Do you prefer leafy green salads or you are more on the "whole veggies" side?

I know that eating green leafy salads is good for my health, but I never feel completely satisfied and full after it. Give me beans, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, carrots and broccoli. Currently my latest preferences go for baked chickpeas with sour cream and fresh basil. Really tasty, easy and fast dish. 

What are your favorite dishes? Please share them with me. 

photos: me

Bloglovin and my empty list

As from today...

I was wondering for very long time if to subscribe for this type of service, but after Google Reader died on 15th this month and I was left with no feed, the decision came by itself. So here it is: click! Love!
The sad part was that while I was checking my list of favourite blogs to add them there, I found quite dead ones. Left, unused, empty. I can't bring myself to let them go and un-follow them at the moment, because I still want to check them from time to time. The blogosphere is full with cooking, recipes and nice dreamy american housewives who write about d.i.y and design, fashion and... less and less nicely written and funny, ultimately personal, rugged places to visit.

Now, my dear cooking ladies, don't get offended. :") I follow some lovely places like Bubolinkata and Dimi's blog and others, I read them often, I find inspiration in them, they even make me try some of the dishes myself. But this is mainly because they are made with personal touch and differ from the rest.

Surely, like everything in this world, the blog, this type of self-expressionism evolves in something new. Which is nice, I suppose.
Surely, my own hiatus was something that was impeding me to write. I have changed a lot. My interests changed as well. My work and my newly found activities also leave too little time to blog as much as I want. So does the everyday life and all the responsibilities of a grown-up. At least of a person who tries hard to act as a grown-up.

 

Some questions that come to my mind while I write this post:

Does that mean that I lost some of my readers? Yes.
Did I find some new friends? Yes.
Is keeping this blog alive worth it? Totally.
Do I know what I want to say to the people that visit this place? This one is simple. Create, explore and smile.

photo:here

Bucharest

Or why they call her the Micul Paris?

Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. A big and glorious dwelling that I will visit in two days for a weekend seminar. As all people around me know, I love to travel and this is going to be the first time for this year, so you can imagine my enthusiasm.

I can't wait!

The last time when I visited this one was two years ago in a foggy November and I couldn't see anything from the magnificent interbellum architecture as it was so cold that we needed to hide in the cafes from the piercing winter wind. Bucharest in the winter is cold. Really cold. 

The things that I remember from my last visit are the Whittard Tea Shop that almost made me spend a small fortune on tea and hot chocolate (as I said, it was really cold outside), and the baked bagels with sesame for the small price of 2 Lei that an old lady was selling on the street. 

I hope that this time I will have more luck and later on I will present you some nice shots of the city itself. With me swift trip and luck! 

photo from here:~vlad-m

About a Lamy

Do you love to write?

And I don't mean poetry.
I've always loved beautiful handwriting. My dad has one of the most sophisticated, easy to read and smooth handwriting that I know. I enjoy to read his scribbling and notes, especially his grocery lists.
As a child I grew up in a house filled with writing instruments, technical pencils, drafting tools. The reason? Both of my parents are engineers. The want to explore all these meticulously crafted, fine instruments stayed with me trough my teenage years and I still love to experiment with new pens and pencils.
So 20 days ago, on my Dad's birthday, I ordered online new calligraphy fountain pen with a couple of Diamine Inks. I wanted something cheaper than 30 $, sturdy, lightweight, that can take some abuse and will write smoothly. The big plus of a fountain pen is that it is faster and cleaner to write with than a dip pen. The negative side is the lack of permanent inks for this type of pens on the market here in Bulgaria. And while ordering those online is a possibility, the price is excruciating for my budget.

Do you wonder what I got?

After some confusion and wondering, price comparison, reading several forums, watching several reviews in Portuguese. Yes. Portuguese. I decided to get a Lamy.

the color of the ink is just right :")

Lamy Joy with 1.1 Italian nib
Features:

• sturdy black plastic body and cap with some red accents, a little bit too long for my liking
• converter for ink, but works with cartridges as well
• interchangeable steel nibs, almost no flex in them in my opinion
• cardboard box in dark red

What I like is the overall quality of this pen. I easily imagine myself using this to write notes with some nice ink and fill text in my drawings. But... if I could reorder the same purchase now, I would go for the Safari pen. Better quality, but shorter, nicer design for everyday use for a little bit extra on the price tag.
The good thing is that I can always order a Safari as well and the nibs are practically the same and can be switched between many Lamy's designs. Really useful and user-friendly.

So if you want a good starter fountain pen, go for it. You won't be sorry. :")

Thing that I love lately - June

Hello all!

I hope that you are having a great summer. Currently we are experiencing a rainy period of relief after weeks of the heat wave from the beginning of this month. A short list of the things I like and enjoy this June:

The Rain. Why? It makes my skin smooth as silk, the air is fresh, I can jump in the poodles with my super funky Animal Rubber Boots.

Running in the morning with my brother who is way more faster and stronger than me. Why? Because it is shared time with one of my closest friends and makes my heart race.

Klorane Douche-gel Mediterranean scent. A lovely fresh experience with nice moisturizing.

Sephora Blueberry Body Scrub that makes my skin baby-like.

Rhodia dot Pad. It is so good, that I will probably review this one.

Diamine Inks in Soft Mint and Merlot. The only reason to order these two is because I am crazy ink, paint, all kinds of supplies and stationery aficionado. Or nerd. it depends of your point of view. :")

Kamen Vo and Toncho Tokmakchiev new old comical sketch "Hamalite" about the political situation in the country. Probably the only thing that is actually funny in the whole mess that is happening here.

Food-wise:

Apple Cider with friends in the park

Cashew

Boro's Tom Yum soup.

My mother's baked beans with tomato sauce. Yummy, healthy, hot, soul food!

Metro Mug Steel Works by Sigg's. A wonderful way to keep your beverage hot or cold. It is 380 cc. ideal for Coffee or home-made lemonade.

Talking about beverages, my latest find is cocoa beans tea infusion. It tastes like heaven, has almost no calories to build up on my daily routine and

The dinner with my beloved yesterday, the last Sunday of the month. As I was super stressed lately and we couldn't hook up ofter enough, it was very special. I also enjoyed our ritual to go out and try new food picking it randomly with closed eyes. Last night favorite: Fresh spinach salad with goat cheese, Parmesan cheese flakes, grapefruit slices and reduced balsamic vinegar for a price under

Things that I would love to have soon:

Ikea Arod lamp in Grey

Lime Yellow pillows for my bed

New haircut in lilac-redish color

A tripod

As I am experiencing some problems with my Picasa, I hope to be able to add the respective pictures soon!

Purple is brand new

Yeap!

I finally got to redesign this blog. I am not a fan of constant changes in the templates of any site, because I normally don't find a new design to my liking. And honestly I suck at coding/html/internet stuff. But the old design was already too boring and... I don't know. Probably missing something.

Some hours later and purple is brand new. Or at least in semi-transitional state until I get the free time to finish it. My bad.

I hope that I will be able to post more often especially when I start to sketch/draw/write again. Until then: here is a white chrysanthemum or mum, as I call it.

Sunset during revolution

The sunset from my window is ever changing. Soon the monstrosities on the horizon will be finished.  They won't be so transparent and interesting to look at, skeleton copies of themselves, but a gigantic cubes of concrete towering above the skyline. 

Am I bad to wish that they should stay like this forever? Unfinished temples of human's greed.

Outside the people are roaring on the streets, unhappy about their lives, dignity and uncertain about their future, our nations future. Some of them knowing, others pacifists that stand-by and watch with empty stare.

The sunsets during revolution are more colourful, aren't they?

photo:me

Red, red, red

It was nice spring Saturday afternoon, I was in my "all red" mood and we were just walking on the streets of Sofia taking photos of moving objects. In these count a decent number of stray cats, a tramp, some vehicles of all sorts, us all the time and a kissing couple on a bench.

I had my old, but quite unused Smena 8 with me. I am still waiting for the film to develop... but I promise to share the results here soon.

Enjoy!

P.S - Because I constantly get many questions, even from male friends, the red, striped t-shirt is from New Yorker, a general all-brand store.

photos taken by beautiful and very talented Nastia Gretchanli, model- me

Dogs on Sunday night

Hello all,

It is been a while. I had no mood, nor time to post anything in the blog. Too many emotions, too many changes, too much life. By the way, I am  completely happy, overjoyed and with BLUE hair. 

Should I promise that I will start to post again? At least I will do whatever I can to update one-twice a month even with my super fast-paced way of living. 

The reason to come back is to show you two sweet dogs that I found on Vitoshka street on a lovely Sunday evening. So meet my new friends. Aren't they utterly sweet?

Currently I am searching for the owner of the first dog in order to send him the pics as obviously he gave me wrong e-mail address.

This lady is a mix of a Rich's bulldog and I don't know what more, but she is such a cutie. Super energetic, almost crazy and very playful. This look came because of the shutter sound of my camera. She tried to take revenge eating it later on.

And she is a posing beauty!

So this is it. Happy week! 

May I?

May came and washed away my pain with its never ending rains. I feel like I am living in the UK. Everything is green and so clean. My city is inundated, but I like it this way. How is yours?

I am currently studying intensely German, because I should be leaving to make my Ph.D. next year :") Though I don't have any idea what my thesis should be I am looking forward to try.

I went for a short walk to my villa and this was the first time in may days to shoot some interesting stuff and meet new people. I love that house with her green and lush backyard, I love the hounds of our neighbours always so ready for a long walk in the oak woods, I enjoy running barefoot on the freshly cut grass. Guess what? I am a real city girl with passion for nature. 

So here are some photos from the one-day vacation I made! I hope that you will enjoy them, tomorrow is a big day for me: my name day and three years since Dee, my dear friend passed away. 

Happy, happy week for all of you!

Iron is his name, he is a mixed English hound and such a charmer.

Strawberries...what else? Home-grown, no chemicals, no artificial colours.

Yellow rose, one of the few types that I actually like.  

Looks like an exploding star. We have a bunch of them just by the eating area.  

Purple me. 

Parallel. So close and never touching. 

It was a fogy raining day. 

The pins are hanging there alone. 

You can always call me if you miss me. The old bell in Gerry's yard. The perfect place for family reunions and dinners with friends. And I love bells! I just love to touch them and to hear how they ring. 

Photos: me

Smile, the sun is shining!

Thank you, Gish! It was a wonderful walk!

Photo: me and Grigor Mishov

Winter March(ing)

Time is slipping away. The spring is coming. It is so close. I still can't believe that it is March already. Three months into the "new year". It feels like the beginning was a decade ago.

Too much work to do, too little time to write and surf in the net which is not that bad at all. Anyway I will try to make more photos and share them here. Less words, more sights. I am still waiting for the sunny days to come, to be free to run in the park and enjoy the singing of the birds. Jays... my favourites.

One more month and I am going "German" again.

The world is big, salvation stalks you from everywhere. 

Some poison ivy with beautiful texture and colouring. 

Just a bunch of common Snowdrops :)

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Just Tulips and plans

The flowers that my dad gave me for my graduation. One of my all time favourites.

I love tulips! Aren't they adorable? Can't wait for the purple ones in my garden to grow again. And, yes! I am officially an architect. Over and done with the university, now I am searching for an international trainee program to participate and continue my learning. I also plan lot of travelling in Europe this year, especially Italy and Germany, may be also Holland (tulips!). Also working on a portfolio and personal semi-professional web-site, learning German, getting a big-ass-crazy tattoo on my left side of the body and training. A lot. 

I hope to get my new old-school camera soon and give you some nice shots. 

And happy again. :")

2011 in 12

My 2011 in twelve shots.

It was a wonderful year, but a sad one. A big one in my life. Time for change. I loved every single moment, the trips in Europe, the beauty of Spain and France, the perfect comfort of my home in Bulgaria. I lost my waist-long hair, some of my delusions and six dear friends of mine. I hope that they are in a better place anyway.

I found some new friends. Learned how to dance, how to make pasta from a real Italian, how to run faster and longer, found the perfect dog and planned a future trip to New York. As a result I will have a enormous tattoo on my ribs and go to study abroad again.

Enjoy!

January 2011- Barcelona, Spain.

I am writing postcards in Parque Guell to my dearest ones. 

February 2011- Valencia, Spain

I gave my heart. It was made from glass. Now it is shattered to smithereens.

March 2011- Fallas

The biggest party with fire on earth. Officially. From pyromaniacs to pyromaniacs. 

April 2011- City of Innovation, Valencia

We said "Hello!" to the sharks.

May 2011- Heart of Africa

I will definitely go to Africa again. And again...

June 2011- A handmade present

That never got finished anyway...

July 2011- Seville, Spain

Wonderful, hot, lovely Seville. 

August 2011- Tracian valley, Bulgaria

The garden of my mother. My place for serenity and rest.

September 2011- No shots.

October 2011- Sofia, Bulgaria

At home for a little while. Four funerals, my birthday, one wedding.

November 2011- Romania-Bulgaria-Turkey

It was a long and dizzy month. Two more funerals. A cat found mom, she named him Percival.

December 2011- Dungeons and Dragons

I had an operation, I almost died. Lost my voice. Found it again.

Lost twelve kilos and all my muscle power. Stranded at home I started

to blog again, to read books and to draw. Started to smoke and quitted it again.

It was a two steps forward, two steps back. 

Have a wonderful 2012! I will as our plan madness is going right on schedule.

photos: me

Merry X-mas to you all!!!

It is just a stray post to wish you a happy and joyful holidays because I know that all of you deserve them! I wish you health and happiness regardless the surroundings, I also wish you more truths in your everyday life. 

Don't take this religiously. It is just the occasion to stop for a moment and rethink what is most important in your life. For me it has always been and it is my family and close ones. I love you all! Thank you for your moral support and care, thank you for every single happy moment in my existence! You are great and I am a blessed person to have you around me!

Kisses and hugs!

Wednesday: A walk in the park and a cat

A walk in the last warm and sunny days. An isolated bench on a hill. Autumn leafs and still green grass. A big hot cup of tea with apple, cinnamon and raisins. And a really cute cat. :") 

A friend of mine passed away a couple of days ago. Although she was far away of being a close person to me, I am still sad because of her premature death. When something like this happens you realize that life is really short, beautiful and ironic. Apart of that I feel too confined at home and so it happens that I just can't work over my diploma project which theme is funeral hall. Too many grim thoughts. So I decided to pass all my free time away, at the sun. Happy and fuzzy, and warm with friends. Having a good company is something important, don't you think?

Sunny days, and "benching". What a way to pass your afternoon. We made some tries at flare photography. It was my first time at this so if you can share some advices with me, I am open for it! 

Photos: me and Sto