IVY

I brought an ivy twig from my recent trip to Cote D'Azzure. There was this wonderful, old house in the village near Monte Carlo, covered in redish-brownish-yellowish-greenish ivy. Unfortunatelly, my camera batteries ran out so I didn't take the photograph. But it looked somehow like this ...

 

 

 

  

  

The colors were just amazing.

So, I picked up a few branches with some leaves.

I brought them home.

In some water, of course.

But, they were not very promising.

Very soon the leaves fell off the branches

and there was just a bare, dry twig left.

I left it on the window sill in a pot of water.

Today, I had a look and there was a surprise.

Three little leaves coming out!

  

  

I have never had green fingers and this is probably the first time I have grown out any greenery. Usually, plants just die out in my presence, no matter how nicely I treat them. Maybe this ivy has flourished just because I have forgotten about it (as you can see in the photo, the water hasn't been changed for weeks).

I have this idea of covering some walls in my garden with ivy but I also have no idea how long it will take the ivy to grow. In the meantime, I have also sort of stolen a few branches of green ivy from a garden I was passing by from my way to work. No problem with this sort. It's been flourishing in water, so very soon I will be planting it in the garden.

 

My Hall

What do you think, are these pictures original paintings or just framed posters from a calendar?

 

 

The answer is: the cheaper version.

Would you notice?

CHALKBOARD

                                                        

What is it in chalkboards that make them such a popular feature in creatively designed homes? The fact that we can wipe off the inscriptions and change the design every so often? Or is it plainly the fact that we all have subconcious reminiscences about our school days? Are we nostalgic of our childhood days? 

via

Chalks are messy,

I MUST buy some of these great

CHALK INK MARKERS!!!

Click on this link and have a look!

http://vimeo.com/28155444

BUY CHALK INK MARKERS

HERE !

SUITCASE

This is how it looks like every Friday afternoon when Filipa, my daughter, comes home from a nearby town, where she attends school.

 

And on Saturday morning...

... and on Saturday afternoon...

 

...and the next day...

... and a little bit later...

on Sunday...

 

and then on Sunday afternoon she leaves and there leaves her suitcase as well.

How could you disprove a teenager's philosophy that there is no point unpacking or moving away your suitcase, when you will need it again very soon?

This or that and why?

Each time we start with an inspiring picture. Today, it is something to remind us that the spring is getting closer.

Question No.21 in the questionnaire I did the other day was very interesting to me:

1. Are you Consistent? – One of the common reasons that I see bloggers getting into trouble with their readers or other bloggers is that they change the way they approach their blogging midstream. Bloggers that are constantly changing the topic of their blogs, or who increase their expectations on readers suddenly, or who change the ‘voice’ that their blog is written in can end up losing the respect of their readers. While no one likes a boring blog – people do like to know what to expect to some extent.

Since I started writing this blog I have been changing templates (yes, I've changed it again, I don't think I will stick to this one for a long time, but for the time being, it will work), fonts, even the name of the blog. I have been rewriting my posts, changing my voice, deleting pictures, trying this and that.... But most of all I've been trying to figure out why I am doing all this "blogging" or better say, talking to myself, imagining I am addressing somebody else
 After I've done some thinking, I came up with this:

• I want to see if I am capable of doing something regularly.
• I want to prove myself I am willing to learn.
• I want to become well organized and consistent blogger (person).
• I want to inspire two close persons to start writing their blogs as well                                              (my daughter Filipa and my best friend Ivana). 
• I want to collect all the things I find interesting at one place.
• I want to practice a little bit of English - that's why I am writing posts in English.
• I want to cheer up a few good friends of mine who I know would appreciate me doing this.
• I want to cheer myself up, as I am the only reader and visitor of my secret space (apart from some accidental onlookers from faraway countries that stay on these pages for a couple of minutes anyway)

Well, enough reasons to keep on writing this blog.

And there is also some music for you (ha, ha...me!) to enjoy: MUSIC 
 And music is - Master's Hand - Charlotte Gainsbourg

DORA IZ LONDONA

I came across this picture via Decor8. Dora's mother seems to be a very stylish young woman from Croatia, living in London.  Go to Dora iz Londona and see all her pictures, her house is so white, scandinavian and serene. I just adore simplicity and tidiness of her flat, something I will never be able to accomplish. Anyway, we share the taste in lampshades and white frames, with no pictures in them. Compare my lampshades to hers.

 Lampshade in Tea's room

Lampshade in the study. Both of them bought in London.

Frames in the hall....

...waiting for some pictures that will never come...

Not my hall, but the idea is similar.

BACK AT WORK

The weekend zoomed away, It's Monday again! Another weekday, 4 more to go till Friday afternoon. It is snowing here. I had tried to dig out my car to go to work, but at the end I ended up using my husband's car, because mine was completely frozen ( I couldn't open the door).I answered about 20 questions that I found here, to find out if blogging is the right thing for me. Why have I started writing this blog in the first place? After questioning myself I realised a few things:

DRAGA MOJA ČITATELJICE

Draga moja čitateljice!
Uz ovaj magazin, koji je namjenjen samo vama, odmorit ćete se nakon (monotonog? kaotičnog?) radnog dana u kojem ste razapeti između svega, svačega i koječega. Vi ste, draga moja, jedna vrlo suvremena, sofisticirana, modno osvještena, tehnološki napredna i kreativna žena kojoj je nakon napornog dana potrebno da otplovi u neke druge svjetove. Osjećate li želju da se inspirirate nekim drugim životima? Da sanjate o putovanjima na koja možda nikada nećete otići? Da upoznate ljude koji vode ispunjene i smislene živote, baš kakve i vi želite imati?
Sve to, i mnogo više, naći ćete u vašem omiljenom magazinuCOPY PASTE. Napravite si kavicu, opustite se, klikajte nepreglednim prostranstvima cyberspacea. Slušajte lijepu glazbu dok razgledavate fotografije koje vas inspiriraju.COPY PASTE vas čeka svaki dan na istom mjestu, sa željom da vas zabavi, informira, pokrene .... ali nadasve i ponajviše INSPIRIRA. Draga moja čitateljice, očekujem nalet vaše kreativne energije i želje da ju podjelite sa nama sličnima. Znam da imate toliko toga za reći i pokazati, znam da i vi možete inspirirati mnoge druge!
Voli vas urednica vašeg jedinstvenog COPY PASTE magazina! Nadam se da će moja zadaća i misija biti ispunjene. 

Not So Lazy Saturday...

I finally figured out how to set up a template that I like, the one that will host all my photographs if I want them extra large. Bravo me!
I talked my older daughter into creating a blog, helped her a little and today she has started her Tadadada (trumpets)  A CHIC ME  blog. We argued a bit about the title of her blog. She wanted to name it ECLECTIC CHIC, but I suggested a name that would be easier to remember.
If she wants her friends, teenagers of 17,  to be her audience, not many of them know what eclectic means. Then I suggested a silly name A A A CHIC, just for one reason. Could you guess why? In all alphabetical listings of  favourite blogs, the ones that start with the letter A come first. So AAA... would definitely win the first place in all the listings. Why hadn't I thought of this ingenious idea and  named my blog AAA secret blog??? Just in case someone puts me on their blogroll.
However, she discarded my idea with a contempt, but she still surrendered and accepted the idea of her blog starting with a letter A. So, for the time being, it's A CHIC ME, which is quite nice. She loves the word chic, because the other day, a teacher of hers told her that she always looked chic. She said, it sounded so good, this compliment and the word chic.
She didn't have much patience to finish her first post. But she downloaded 1 million photographs from all over the worldwidenet.
Then she put on some feathers and flew away into nightlife.  Just before she flew out, I took some pictures of her. And then, my younger daughter showed me how to edit pictures in Photoscape. I don't think I would be able to repeat all the steps if I venture to do it on my own.
Here they are.

I love these pictures!!!!!

becauseimaddicted is a fashion blog where I have found these fabulous pictures of Sasha Pivovarova.

TGIF!!!!

I am still practicing putting pictures in my posts. I like these ones.

It's so difficult .....!

It's so difficult to edit blogs! It will take me ages to learn the basic things. My younger daughter made six blogs when she was nine years old. It was so easy for her! When I watch her doing things on her computer, typing 1 million words in a second, opening new windows, inserting pictures, banners....I get so frustrated! How could she possibly know all that? It just comes natural to children, as they have grown up with all this modern technology, I suppose. As I don't have computer logic I am annoyingly slow. She tried to show me some things, but she actually has no patience with me. She gets so annoyed with my silly, stupid (for her) questions, rolling her eyes in astonishment at my computer illiteracy. And when she saw me sweating over editing my first post, she commented: "Why are you bothering doing this? What do you need a blog for? Blogs are for young people...I will be completely embarrassed if my friends get to know that my mother is writing a blog! Gross!"

Well, I won't take these comments from a teenager very seriously. Just you wait, you daughter of mine, and we'll talk about it in two years time. By then, my blog will be full of banners, photos, inscriptions with various fonts and other fancy things. I will edit my blogs with such an ease, enjoying the process as much as I am dreading it now!

Well, let's try to put another line of nice photos into this post. Let me see.. How do I do it?  I know I did it somehow yesterday, but I somehow forgot how I did it ...Uf!

                                                       Via http://highclassproblem.blogspot.com/http:

I found a lot of nice designs for blog titles, such as this one above. I probably have to put the link to the blog where I have found it. At least I've seen other bloggers doing this. Let's try to do it now. How on earth do you do that? 

Well, I have tried something, but I don't believe it will link to anything!

Anyway, here comes another nice design.

I don't know whether I prefer designs with pictures,  letters, fancy photographs or some gaudy  scrap work designs. Have a look at these  ones. Found them at 

                                   
                                                     Fabulous-k  

Yupiiiii, I found out how to link to the page!!!

This one above is a little old fashioned, I  think I prefer more minimalist, Scandinavian type of design. For instance this one:  


scandinavianretreat 

This one with photographs is also nice:

Mammas Hus  

 or this one is very simple, just letters

 dosfamily 

 It will be really difficult to make a nice, eye-catching, sophisticated, witty, memorable, original title design. For the time being I will have to put up with the ordinary, boring one that is already set in blogspot.com. My next lesson will be how to create an original and stunning title design. I don't know how long it will take me, but just watch me!


Let's practice again. My patience has no limits.... Just kidding
Here goes another picture, a little bit of red colour, just to brighten up the page.

 

I know there is a cyberspace law/rule not to go around stealing pictures and pasting them to your blog, but I kind of have a folder full of nice pictures with no URLs, that I have saved in the past months, and it would be  pity not to use some of them. Do I risk being caught by cyber police for stealing nice pictures?? Here goes another nice pic. Red colour is really refreshing. The only thing missing in this picture is me, resting on the striped sofa with a cool glass of wine and a nice magazine. No company, please.

I think I am getting better at inserting pictures, but still ... how do you arrange them to look nice? I want them extra large, but then, just half a picture appears on the actual post. The nice thing though is, if you click on the picture, it enlarges. How long will it take me to learn some basic things in Photoshop? Do all the blogers design their blogs by themselves or they pay an expert to get the design?   

Do people design their rooms all by themselves or they pay a designer? 

Do you prefer bright rooms or dark and sexy ones?

Are you a minimalist or you like a lot of details?

Shall I make my blog bright or dark, with lots of details or minimalistic???

I hope, I will soon find out what I like.

 

So, this post is all about practicing and me being frustrated by not not knowing so many technical things ... which could obviously help me make my design ideas for this blog come alive.. So, to make a long story short, I really have to learn so many things. It will take me months, days and many sweaty hours to get to know how to make my blog look nicely designed. Pretty daunting. 


By the way, my dear hubby is really curious to discover what I am up to with all the typing and surfing. Luckily, we have two computers and a laptop. So the younger daughter is facebooking on the laptop, my H is warcrafting at the computer in another room, my older daughter is not at home and I am writing my post here...


Maybe it's time to go to bed. Enough learning for today. I am so proud of myself, but too much intellectual, brain stretching stuff is not good for anybody. And I am just overloaded for today. And even worse... I made pancakes and have just eaten four of them. So I am overstuffed as well. 
So, that's all folks for today!
xoxo  Secret Girl  

isn't it?

PS Just to mention. The grey living room above belongs to Gemma, a lucky girl from England whose sister is a famous designer Abigail Ahern. They spent only 6000 GBP to achieve this out of world space that has been in all magazines. This is the result when you are not afraid to experiment with dark colours (Abigail says you should use the same dark colour on your floor as well as on your walls - it wipes off the line between them). I wonder how it feels to live in this old grey Victorian house. It looks great in photographs and magazines, but is it that nice in real life?

START

The beginning of a new life, finally!    (OD PRNJA PREKO TRNJA DO ...)


In two years time this blog will be discovered by Nora Ephron, who will make a blockbuster out of it. The film will be called THE SECRET BLOG or whatever, the main character will be played by ...oh, I don't know who, probably a cool, talented, no.1 actress...The film will be a huge succes, much bigger than Julie and Julia....Everybody will be hazed by my story - ...FROM RAGS TO RICHES AND GLORY, it might happen to you, don't worry. You just have to wish hard, ask and go for it. Yes.. I can picture it... Oprah will be simply smitten off her feet by my success story, she will invite me as the main guest in her show. Not that I want, but consequently, I will get hold of a pile of money because everyone will want to pay for every second of my precious time... They will all want to learn the secret of becoming planetary famous, successful and rich! Because, all of you guys out there, like to hear inspiring and uplifting stories like mine. Turning from an ordinary unknown humble woman into IT WOMAN ! How did she do it? If she could have done it, I could do it too!
Wow! It's so great to write this blog! I can already feel the bubbles of success dancing around me.
So, in two years time ....
xoxo Secret Girl
OK, OK I know I stole it from Gossip Girl, but I just love it. I am partly ashamed to admit I watched all 2 seasons of GG last month, after my daughter had become completely addicted to the serial. She used to watch, on average, five episodes per night. It freaked me out, as she couldn't cope with normal everyday life after consuming so much virtual stuff. And now I've become a junkie! I'm saving the folder with the third season of GG in my computer for the time of crises, I haven't started watching it yet. 


You are still not following scandalous lives of Uper East Side Manhattan's Elite? Ccccc, I don't want to be a dealer, but click  here...  

And the place where I would feel very comfortable and relaxed is Humphreys' Brooklyn loft. Not to mention that anything cooked by Rufus would be a great bonus.

 

  

xoxo Secret Girl