Images of... New Hamamist Photos and Our Village Visit

These are some photos I took a couple of weeks ago (time flies!) for Hamamist.  I took them at my lovely friend Alara's apartment  -who, by the way, is ridiculously stylish in a totally natural way - I basically just want to move right in to her apartment  ;)   I was totally overwhelmed with all the beautiful things that I might put in the photos - check out the beautiful glass bottles below with shell tops - she made them!  I will definitely have to have another photos session there!

And these are some more photos of from the trip to my husband, Shenol's, family village near the black sea coast.  I wasn't at all restrained with these - so quite a lot of photos coming up  :)

The house we stayed at was where Shenol's grandmother lived - it was the one next to this and looks pretty similar (somehow I missed taking a photo of it!)  The two houses are surrounded by forest.  Below is the swing by the front door of the house - Yashar loved it!!  It was so green, cool and lush there.

This is the lovely cool stream that you need to cross to get to the houses

Cherry picking!

We went to a neighbouring farm for some cherry picking - this tough and independent woman was working the farm as we arrived.  She told us about the loaded gun she carries and how she takes it to wedding to shoot into the air in celebration - yikes!

Below is the yard at the house where Shenol's farther grew up, and below that is the forest next to the house.


Thanks for joining me on this little 'slideshow'!

Still here! Some creative finds from London

Yep, I'm still here - just busy busy after my sister's visit and the little trip to London.  Does that always happen to you??  When ever I have a little holiday planned, all of sudden things get busy and there ends up being a huge rush in the lead up and after getting back!  But anyway, being busy makes me very very happy!

Just stopping in with a couple of great little finds from the Spitalfields market.  The very lovely Mandy from Belle and Boo recommended I visit this market on Sunday morning and I wasn't disappointed!  First stop was yummy breakfast and coffee and then a little browse around the lovely market.  I came home with a gorgeous screen printed illustrated bag from Brick Lane   -no website... yet  :(   Photo above - That's the illustrator on the left - what amazing work!  And a super cute long sleeve top from Rock a Bye Baby for Yashar - it's the white one with the red guitar on the right..and it comes in a record sleeve - so cool!

The market is also surrounded by some fantastic little vintage stores like elemental. Elemental has some great light fittings, a huge collection of letterpress letters, and lots of little interesting finds and mini collections.  I just had a quick look at their website and blog too - I know I'm going to be spending any spare moments there for the next few days!!

Above is another shop with many gorgeous baskets hanging outside that we passed on the way back to the hotel...  check out the guy on the right's sneakers - awesome!  More on the London trip and lots of other things soon!  But now back to work  :)

Back to it!

I hope you had a wonderful week!  I had a great time away snowboarding in Austria!  Unfortunately not many photos as I definitely didn't want to risk taking my big camera snowboarding with me.    We stayed with a couple of friends at a fantastic apartment just between Zell am See and Kaprun.  I had forgotten just how much I love snowboarding!  We spent most of the week up at Kitzsteinhorn Glacier - so amazingly beautiful!

I had a nice surprise during the week I was away - the Ikea expedit shelves I painted for Yashar's room were featured on ohdeedoh.com   Thank you ohdeedoh! And a very warm welcome to all the new visitors and sorry I haven't been able to get back to your questions - ok - tick - I just went and did that now. 

And now I'm back to catching up on everything around here...including spending some time with Yashar...did I mention that we had left him at grandma's for the week while we went to Austria...eek!  Of course we were a little stressed about doing that and of course he was totally fine!  And yes, I did wake up during the night while I was there thinking 'what have I done!  How could I leave him for the week?!'  Our strategy, after I talked to some other mums was to leave a small present for grandma to pull out from us each morning (stickers, pencils etc) and we made sure to emphasise that we would be back soon.  It seemed to work well  :)

Le Marche – Casa San Ruffino

Photo above from the Casa San Ruffino website (photography by Charlie Pinder)

We were so lucky to find this wonderful place to stay – Casa San Ruffino – a small boutique hotel/bed and breakfast (only four rooms) in rural Le Marche.  I didn't have a chance to snap a photo of the room before our stuff was all over the place so above is a photograph from their website.   It's a 19th century farmhouse, renovated by the owners, Ray and Claire Gorman.  It was done so beautifully, with rough stone floors, exposed wooden beams and simply beautiful bathrooms. 

The view here was so amazing, rolling hills full of sunflower fields, tractors moving up and down the other fields harvesting, birds dipping in and out of the pool, little villages dotted around the hilltops.  
 

We hired a car and in the evenings we would drive to neighbouring villages where we had some amazing food and ice cream of course!

This was in a small village we went to on our last evening where we had the most delicious food!...which of course I can't remember the name of right now!  But if you stay at Casa San Ruffino they provide you with a list of recommended local restaurants - this was a favourite of theirs and I know why - it was fantastic!

I did come to an interesting realization while I was there though…I no longer have dreams of moving to the Italian countryside and renovating a farmhouse.  Shocking I know!   It was beautiful for a few days, but for a long time or a life time I realized it’s not for me.  Phew, one less that things to plan for!...that doesn't mean I don't want to go back for a holiday though!  We loved it!  It also doesn't mean I don't want to renovate a beautiful old house...I totally do!


Do you have dreams of renovating an old house somewhere, moving to the sea, moving to another country?

Leaving Rome, we headed straight to Spello, a little medieval town in Umbria. It was ridiculously gorgeous and we also visited the neighbouring town of Assisi.

And, of course, here are the mandatory shots of just a few of the beautiful doorways we came across. I am a total sucker for pretty old doorways!

Some of the locals chatting on the street.

We spent the last night here at a local restaurant watching the World Cup Final, which coincided with the my nephew, Joe’s birthday – who is soccer mad!

Tomorrow we’re off to Le Marche to a really special place to stay…

Italia

Ok, I’m officially back! What I didn’t mention in my earlier post is that we missed our flights back from Italy :(    It was a bit of a disaster – our tickets were non refundable etc and so we were only able to find flights back the next evening at a ridiculously expensive price. It also meant we missed two full days that I was hoping to spend working on a project…now I am finally caught up!

But, it didn’t take away at all from the gorgeous time we had. Such a beautiful, relaxing holiday! Full of some of the best things in life – spending time with family, great food, great coffee, great wine, great ice cream! So, if you don’t mind indulging me … let’s visit Italy here for a few days!

We were in Rome for even less than a day, so I used the Rome Guide from Design*Sponge which led us to the place many said to us whad the best coffee in Italy)!  Angela Liguori - who wrote the Rome Guide says  "One of the best cafes in Rome without any doubt is Sant’ Eustachio, established in 1938, in Piazza Sant’ Eustachio, 82, from where you can also see one of the most amazing baroque cupola: San Ivo alla Sapienza, by Francesco Borromini. The caffe` has the most creamy, full-experience espresso, with authentic floor mosaics and interiors from the 1930’s."   The Rome Guide also led us to Giolitti - Mmmm - the gelati was amazing!  Angela writes that "everytime I’m in Rome, any time of the year, I always go to Giolitti, for the best gelato. Giolitti has a huge variety of flavors, all exceptionally good, on Via Uffici del Vicario, 40, near the Parliament; it is in a beautiful area to walk with a gelato in your hands. It is also interesting to read the story of how it all began in 1890 and how they used to sell milk from their pastures in the Roman countryside."  I wish I had time to visit all the other places in her guide!  (She also recommends lots of book, design, art supply and paper stores).

We met up with my sister and family which was so wonderful – and Yashar loved spending time with his three cousins!

Tomorrow we're off to visit Spello - a beautiful little medieval town in Umbria!

We are back from Italy and it was so beautiful! I am rushing around a bit catching up on everything but I will be back very soon!     This is from the most amazing restaurant at a tiny little village in the countryside in Le Marche.

V
xo

Agva

Wow!  Firstly I want to say thank you for all the entries in the GIVEAWAY(!) and all your lovely comments!  And if you haven't entered yet it's not too late!  To check it out click here or just scroll down a couple of posts. 

Now I wanted to share with you a few photos from a little trip to Agva (pronounced Aa-va) that we went on while my Mum was here.  It was beautiful!  The drive there was through lovely green thick forest.  We stopped here for a roadside snack - gozleme - which is delicious!

 Agva is relatively free of the mass development that you find in many other holiday destinations here.  Instead Agva was all small hotels along the river front and, according to the owner of the hotel we stayed at, it is strictly controlled by the Jandarma to make sure the hotels are not polluting the area.   It's the type of place where you could go and just hang out in a hammock and read books and drink wine all weekend...um...if you didn't have a 2 year old with you. :)    We did manage to fit plenty of relaxing and some wine in though!

We went for a little ride in a boat along the river while we were there.  It was fun to spot gorgeous places like this and the one in the photograph at the start of this post.

And we made it down to the beach, which although wasn't as clean as some other areas of Agva, did have some beautiful wild flowers growing at its edges. 

Have a great weekend!

Stormy Light

Firstly, I wanted to say thank you so much for all your lovely lovely feedback on the wallpaper designs for Studio Nommo!  I am so excited about it!  And if you missed that post, you can check it out here.

While my Mum is visiting we took the chance to have a weekend away at the Black Sea town of Sile (pronounced Shi-ley).   It only took us about an hour to get there - perfect for a weekend away.  Pretty much every place we visit has me dreaming of one day buying a little house there.  This one had me dreaming of a little place to escape Istanbul.  It was so beautiful. 

It was a stormy weekend, which although meant a little less time at the beach, also gave us some beautiful stormy light. It reflected off the water making it look like satin.  And I was loving all those shades of grey. 

This scene reminds me of a painting. don't you think?

ps don't forget that the sale in the Light Garden shop ends on Friday, so if you are thinking of buying a print don't miss out! 

A place for weary travellers to rest

Cinci Han was formerly a caravansaray - an inn where travellers could rest after the days journey.  And I guess now that it is hotel it serves a similar function - without the camels, donkeys and horses!  This particular caravansaray was built in 1645 and was on the Silk Road - an extensive trade route stretching from Southern Europe to China.  Although I wouldn't call the actual running of the hotel amazing (it was fine, the staff were friendly, the breakfast - not so great), it was amazing to be able to stay in such a historical place.

The entry to the caravansaray.  For some reason it looks like I stuck Yashar's head in here and that he has some sort of weird hat on!  But he was really there and that's a table behind him.  Really.

Look at the height of (or lack of) that door! Proof that people were shorter back then??

Images from Safranbolu

Safranbolu is a UNESCO world heritage site full of many beautiful and well preserved Ottoman houses.  We wondered through cobbled streets, the smell of woodfires burning was in the air.  You could see old shoemakers at work on their equally old machines.  And it's home to some of Turkey's best Turkish Delight and Helva...all of which must be sampled of course!

The things strung up here are the pieces of root used to make Sahlep - a delicious Turkish winter drink I posted about here.

No, I am not an old granny but I did buy some of these bags of lavender!  I loved the hand printed material!