tree as 'goodbye' for the year

This time of the year internet is full of beautiful xmas tree photos from all over the world. This time I was noticing only creative ones (I'll save the background story of it for the better times). Let's see what I've collected :)

xmas tree by Laduree in a hotel in Paris

Fashion Rules in Kensington Palace

Every girl wants to dress up like a princess even though she doesn't confess it to anyone. So to see what real princesses wore is a little holiday brought by Fashion Rules exhibition in Kensington Palace, London. We had a chance to see gowns of HM The Queen, Princess Margaret and Diana, Princess of Wales. And I have never been to Kensington Palace and Gardens before, all this beauty made my last days in London before parting for months unforgettable.

New York + London

          Even before visiting London I always thought there only can be one city that may have similiar spirit to it being exceptional and having so many dfferent cultures in it. And it is New York. It stays in my list of "dream cities'. Pretty much now it is alone there because London has a check mark in front of it...

          After living in New York for 7 years photographer Daniella Zalcman moves to London. It inspired her to create her kind of 'love letter to two beautiful cities' by the collection of double exposure photographs called 'New York + London' taken by iPhone4 . She shows us her vision of home combining lanscape and skyline of NYC and London. I fell in love with this idea and hope to do something similar if I visit NY one day.

Blue Book

'I couldn't hear anything after you said 'Tiffany'.' © D

Tiffany & Co has The Blue Book where they included the most exceptional jewellery pieces in the history of the House. Here some of them that I couldn't take my eyes off.

The Tiffany Anniversary Morganite Necklace

 

Montana Sapphire Butterfly Bracelet

 

Neal's Yard

This picture is very famous in the internet world. It's a small colorful yard in the centre of London called Neal's Yard. And my friends used to ask me if I've been there. So finally I decided to visit this place and take some photos...

The Berkeley. Caramel Room.

London. Knightsbridge. The Berkeley Hotel. Caramel Room. Where food and fashion meet. 

A tea room for fashionistas in a luxury hotel with the menu inspiried bu the latest fashion collections. It is just hard to explain. The idea is phenomenal. Its success is undeniable. And it is not easy at all to reserve a table in famous Carmel Room. 

brighten up with Brighton

This Saturday was all about appreciating how valuable our time in the UK is and travelling around. The choice was Brighton, an English city on the seaside. With a beach, famous Pier, an amazing district full of vintage shops, cafes right in the middle of the street and its wind, that reminded me of my Baku...

Lego iCase

I think everyone remembers Chanel Lego Bag from plastic that has a price tag that shocked a lot of people :)

And we all know about iphone case obsession all over the world. They are in all shapes and colours now. So when me and my girls found out that Chanel Lego Bag cases exist there was no duoubt that we are going to purchase them. I chose a red one, and girls' pick was pink. So here they are...

all about gold, summer and fashion...

            I'm obsessed with their shows, designs, hairstyles, acessories and every little details... It's Dolce and Gabbana Spring/Summer 2014 runway show and its backstage.

Hyde Park in September

             I found out the perfect timing to enjoy London and Hyde Park. It's June and September. June when windy and gloomy weather is leaving and letting summer to come more and more every day. You begin to feel warmth of the sun, the green of the nature. And September when summer is not gone yet and autumn is trying to enter our lives out of nowhere. This time we enjoyed gloomy but warm September day celebrating our re-union with my girls, London buddies. We love London, our friendship was born here and it belongs to this amazing place. Had dinner at Serpentino cafe near the lake, boat trip was nice and funny, couldn't manage to make a video :) this bubble thing awakened a child inside of us and waffles with nutella plus mint tea was the best ending to this day. London is life itself, and it is a huge part of mine.

                       

New York Fashion Week on the blog

My picks from New York Fashion week. Spring - Summer 2014 Ready-To-Wear collections.

 Zac Posen

Mad Men

          If I had to describe the show Mad Men only with one word, it would be classy. I can't imagine any other show on TV to have more class, chic and style than this one. Advertisers from Madison Avenue in 60's, their agency, private lives... The main character that is Don Draper played by Jon Hamm is one of those men that women hate and love at the same time. His charm, looks, gestures. Don Draper is good at his job, he is one of the best, everyone loves him. The show has interesting storyline, but the main thing that atrracts a viewer is the environment of 60's: fashion, lifestyle. The way they dress, the way men and women behave even the way they smoke is so different from the time that we live in, it captivates you from the first episode. After I watch this show every time, I just want to wear a dress and shoes on heels like those women wear everyday, have some classy hairsyle and walk around like a real lady :)

To Kill A Mockingbird

It is a big pleasure at last to reach the book you wanted to read for a long time. And it is a bigger pleasure when the book apeears to be delightful. This time it was 'To Kill A Mockingbird' by Harper Lee. It's been awhile since I have read a book like this one. It reminded me the books from my childhood: kind, warm, cozy atmosphere that teaches you a lot. Unfortunately we don't understand the message quite well when we are kids. So I highly recomment to re-read it as an adult to get the whole story in details and more clearly, because it is definitely worthy. There is the whole point of mockingbird that unfolds in front of you throughout the whole book. It is impossible to put it into few words or sentences. The feeling after the reading is hope and joy. Hope for a better life, for better people, for better world. Joy because you start believe that you can be a better person. The way that a little girl understand the world and interperts it is amazing. You remember yourself as a kid and your fears, games, happiness, tastes come to your mind. Doesn't it worth to go back in time and feel yourself a child reading 20th century american classic novel?

'To Kill A Mockingbird' delivers some important messages. Let me put them into quotes from the book:

"As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men evry day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine family he comes from, that white man is trash."

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it"

Oxford

Soo here we are :) three silly weirdos singing embarassing songs on the streets of Oxford.

Meet my groupmates: Turan and Ruslan.

The trip was all about fun. Oxford, its universities, the beautiy of the city, its historical splendor, rainy weather and everything else was a background to a 10 hour hilarious conversation :) But I didn't forget to take pictures so I could share them here. 

I loved this place. The calmness in some parts of Oxford attracts a person to take his time and live here for a couple of months. A place to come back some time for sure.

Dirty Dancing. Movie and musical.

           80's romantic movies are considered the best. But the thing is you just need to forget about logic while watching, because the only thing that rules here is love. I like movies about dance and the most popular and unforgettable 80's dance movie without a doubt is Dirty Dancing :) It's a part of american pop culture with the whole genration on the other side of the ocean this movie is special for. There's a boy that can dance, really dance. And a girl which is full of hope in this world and has dreams about making a change. Of course they will meet and he will teach her how to dance. Oh, and they will fall in love with each other <3



           I've always loved reading a book and then watching a movie based on it. Now I had a chance to watch a movie and see its musical on stage. That's quiet impressive. Maybe first of all I love musicals(besides movies) and second of all there're talented performers out there. This musical was more about dancing rather than singing, I didn't expect that because I got used to big songs and great voices in musicals. But the only thing that was a little bit disappointing is the actor who played the main male character. Of course, no one can beat Patrick Swayze from the movie, but his problem was that he didn't act quite naturally. Other than that he is a very good dancer indeed. Everything else and especially dance performances were amazing. They tried to make everything like in the movie, the lift rehearsals ;) Additional funny moments were good and fit in. And the last scene... it was perfect!

They don't let take pictures during the show, so I can only share some from the movie.

Gowns on Net-a-Porter.com

Lookin through dresses on Net-a-Porter.com is heartbreaking and enjoyable at the same time. Gowns are so beautiful that they make your heart race...

Alexander McQueen

Duchess silk-satin gown

Summertime Barça

             Barcelona... A perfect place to feel summer in its full. The city of the sun, the sea, palms, football, flamenco, Gaudi, sangira, paella, balconies with curtains and ideal perpendicular streets, where all crossroads seem the same. You can be lost easily and get found even easier :) Just 3 days and you are full of energy for months coming. With the people that can make you laugh and mad within two minutes, I mean siblings you can go wherever they say, but still Barcelona is the best.

            The background music of our trip was the soundtrack of Vicky Cristina Barcelona movie :) Two Woody Allen fans couldn't chose anything else than this. I think it is perfect for my blogpost too.

Soo here we go....

Oscar de la Renta

Fashion? Art? It's more like genius mix of two. Any woman who has a chance to wear an 

Oscar de la Renta 

gown may consider herself lucky in all fashionable and unfashionable ways... Just look at these and you will understand what I mean.

'I heart London' or 'A Day Off'

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

— Samuel Johnson

London <3

What can I say? I love London...

Roman Holiday

“I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.”
— Audrey Hepburn


I want to belive in pink, in the fact that laughing is the best calorie burner, in kissing, kissing a lot, in being strong no matter what life gives you, that happy girls are the prettiest, that maybe tomorrow is another day and in miracles...

I'm sure lots of us want to believe in love, in beauty that Audrey Hepburn brought to this life, in her eyes of Bamby that shine through her characters in movies, in Gregory Peck with his smoldering appearances, in their chemistry in Roman Holiday (1953)...

A fairytale with an ending that is not expected in a black and white movie of 50s. A brief and pure love that grow in front of your eyes and that goodbye in front of eveyone's eyes but with feelings only for two...

Marilyn Monroe

After a long talk about iconic women with my life-long friend in this lovely summer evening  I decided to post these pictures that I had on my computer. Even though we mostly talked about Monica Belucci, that I consider the most beautiful woman of our time, this picture set is about Marilyn Monroe...

"No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told they're pretty, even if they aren't." - Marilyn Monroe

She is an icon. After so many years people consider her as one of the most beautiful women of all time. It is not just about her look. It is all about her that she could represent in a way that no one would dare to. A woman, that seemed fragile and weak on the outside but had a whole different world on the inside. A woman that has been admired for decades. A woman that has been imitated. A lot of people talked about her, many books were written. I just wanted to share my personal favourite photos of her. Maybe not the most famous ones, but still.

random 3

It is a tiny country on this big planet, and there are a lot of beautiful places out there but for us, the one that we call home is the sweetest. It is a place where we grew up, where we made our first steps, where we said our first words, where went to school, where we understood what motherland means and nurtured great love towards it inside of us not even being aware of it. The place you want to be when you're sad or happy, pictures of which comes to your mind while missing it, where you are surrounded with the ones you love. The nature, the weather, the wind, the sand, the sea, the sky of which is the best in the world for you and you will never find a place better than that. You will never call another place your real home. Maybe temporarily but not forever. It is precious, it is a part of you, it defines you...

minutes in Florence

Приезжаешь во Флоренцию, сходишь с поезда. Заселяешься в отеле поблизости, прямо в центре города. Ходишь по узким улочкам с трехэтажными домами и окнами со ставнями, где первые этажи либо пиццерии, либо сувенирные лавки. Выходишь на площадь с Duomo. Закупаешься сувенирами, пробуешь пиццу, затем gelato. Не смотря на двухчасовую очередь, заходишь в музей и поражаешься величественности 'Давида' Микельанджело. Но только обзорная экскурсия по городу на закате открывает перед тобой всю красоту местности и рождает в тебе эмоции, которые ожидал пережить при приезде. Проезжая по берегам реки 
 со средневековыми мостами или поднимаясь на зеленые холмы с желтыми виллами с видом на Флонецию тебя уносит далеко-далеко.  Ты там есть и тебя нет одновременно. Мысли витают далеко в облаках, смениваясь со скоростью смены пейзажа перед глазами; купола храмов, стена замка с многолетней историей, река с отражением заходящего солнца... Непередаваемо.

3 days in Scotland

I agree with this thought. Everybody wants to be happy (everyone in his own way), be loved and love, to travel all over the world. We want to get close to our dreams. As close as we can... I always begin with travelling, leaving other two points to the destiny :)

This time it was Scotland, UK...

Looking For Alaska - John Green

There are books that are considered classic and need to be read by everyone or books that are temporary, people read them today and forget about them tomorrow or books that are quite new to be considered classics and too good not to be remembered tomorrow. 'Looking for Alaska' by John Green is a book that people read today, young readers love it, quote it. Apparently it spoke to their hearts. Can't say anything about tomorrow, you never know. The book is about a boy, which doesn't have any friends changing his school to a private one and gets new friends there. Simple and cliche storyline you say, like any other teenage movie. But the thing about this book is, it talks about important things from the prespective of a teenager, that is making his first steps in this world with its ups and downs, gets to know the good and the bad. How a teenager interprets religion and applies it to his life. I don't know, but there are sentences that explain you, just the way it is. Like the author was in your head once. Like anonymous said on tumblr: '...it sometimes feels as though they were written with us in mind'. Ran into a lot of quotes by John Green on tumblr and decided to begin with this book of his, regret nothing :) I like to follow people's taste and try to understand why they love something, what for.

The quotes I picked (I read the book in translation):

CHANEL for men

I have an assignment for my Luxury Brand Management class, which I decided to do about possibilities for Chanel launching a new clothing line for men. Chanel adds a few looks for men to every ready-to-wear collection for over ten years. It shows that they have some kind of a concept and trying to show that Chanel can not be feminine only and has potential to explore men's fashion. Seems like Karl Lagerfeld has a certain view on how Chanel man should look like. These are the best looks I chose from previous shows:

back to basics: school

finished school 5 years ago. best years of childhood, when everything seemed bright and shiny. when expectations were high and dreams were sweet.

Dolce & Gabanna

Dolce & Gabanna... a window to a wrold of lace, gold and classic italian chic. Too many words have been said. It's time just to contemplate the beauty.

Old Spitafields Market

You can live in London whole your life, but there will always be places that you haven't been to... My sunny Sunday was spent in Old Spitafields Market, an amazing place full of various goods from different eras....

Tsundoku

Tsundoku

japanese (noun)

the act of leaving books unread after buying it, typically piled up together with such other unread books.

Thanx to this word, now I know that it is not only me and there are other people in this world that buy books and leave them at home without reading. It is not because we don't love reading, or think these books are boring. It is because....

random 2

make up. that mask behind which we are trying to burry all out insecurities. trying to use more and more, changing the shape of our eyes, lips, cheeks, eyebrows. even after having tons of cosmetics on our face we don't feel confident, there are still thoughts in our heads like 'my arms are fat', 'they're gonna stare at me if I wear this', 'no-no-no! these jeans? never!', 'my hair is a disaster' etc. we all wish there would be make up to correct our bodies too.
that feeling when you think that no man will look at you twice.  that feeling when you are scared to show up without make up or you belive that whoever sees you for the first time with your natural face would never like you again. that you will never have your dreams come true because you're not beautiful enough. and it is not just our imagination, it is reality. not going to blame others, or us. just accepting the fact while time goes by... what will it bring us? who knows...

Do you believe in this? I wish...

home

Being away from your home is interesting and sad at the same time. But you miss what you left back there, like...

sudden shopping fever))

Shopping is addictive. It really is. Girls (not only) will agree with me ;) You buy one thing, then you want another one. Mostly it is about little things that you instantly like and buy immidiately. Online shopping is when you run out of money most quickly. One click and oops! money is gone... I think last week was all about shopping fever. So here I am, confessing about it. It may look like bragging or smomething like that, but to be honest it is the result of my weakness. So it is time to promise myself that there's no shopping in 2-3 weeks at least.

1) Harrods, what are you doing to us? It was one moment thing when I discovered a whole lower ground floor full of bags I have never been to before...

Love Moschino medium leather bag

it's ok

sometimes you just miss people. no reason. they may not be the same person since you knew them but still. you miss the ones that still live in your memory, the ones that once were so important to you, the ones that you thought will remain as a part of your life, the ones that made you happy or sad before and that's why they were so precious. a part of your heart will always be about them, the memories will live deep in there. you may still see their pictures or meet them in person, but nothing is the same anymore. you are excited to see them, you still care about them, you are still happy because they are happy even if you are not in their lives anymore, but you don't speak about it. sometimes you don't even look at each other, avoiding eye contact, just observing those people from the distance when they don't see it.... let's not get upset about all these, let's just cherish everything that people brought to your life, everything that made those times so valuable and keep in your memory. because at the end it is all about what we remember.

sorry for being boring, guyz)

Who Knew © P!NK

           Concerts are my favourite, because you can interact with the performer. It doesn't mean you're going to chat with him, but the process of delivering emotions is real. On the April 28th I went to P!NK's The Truth About Love show in London. It was held in O2 arena, one of the best venues in the world. P!NK heself is known as a talanted and charismatic singer. Admired her since school and remember listening to her album I'm Not Dead  for thousand times. Since then I'm her fan. Luckily I have Seva, my groupmate from ASOA, who loves P!NK too and we decided to go to the concert together. She traveled from Southampton specially for this event.

           The show was entertaining, P!NK literally was flying over the viewers and singin at the same time. Dance, set list, videos... Amazing. Moreover, she was incredibely friendly with her fans and personally accepted all the gifts,cards and flowers they gave her. She sang her new songs form The Truth About Love album and the old ones, such as U + Ur Hand, So What, Who Knew etc., which made everyone very happy.We didn't have the best seasts, but she was so energetic, never let enyone felt abandoned. And we are talking about 20,000 people. Her impressive acrobatic moves in the air during the show were seen from everywhere.

rebel inside me

          I don't even know where this love came from. Just a few pictures and first movie with him and that was it. His appearance and personality which I discovered through books and few interviews  are magnetic. It doesn't let you stay ignorant towards him. You just fall in love and idolize him, exactly what the world did with his figure after his early death. Even after 60 years he is current as he was then. The icon of rebellion and a person with his own rules of life preceded contemporary. Incredibely talanted actor, that was gone at a very young age of 24. World only witnessed him shining in 3 motion pictures but he stayed in minds of people forever. 

Forever young James Dean.

frozen spring

             London is the perfect place to explore and find little things that make you happy. Today after a lovely talk in Laduree Covent Garden with my friend Farida (the result of which will be posted on her blog soon) we decided to take a walk in that area, that we adore. Tiny streets with surprises on every corner awaiting for you are mesmerising. Your inner explorer wakes up and forces you to find new places. SNOG Pure Frozen Yogurt shop was a godsend for us. It's a colorful place where you can find frozen yogurt in seasonal flavours with lots of toppings such as cookies, chocolate, cornflakes, berries, fruits. Staff is smiling and it makes you feel more comfortable. The shop is decorated in a way that purchase becomes a little holiday and reminds of ice-cream happiness from childhood. Tasting frozen yogurt gave us a scent of summer that especially missed in UK, while your home country is warm and so dear when you are away.

My order: Classic size frozen yogurt in flavor of  Calamansi with chocolate hearts and strawberries

sunny day of mine

Eveyone knows that sunny days in London are rare, so everyone here tries to go outside whenever the sun honours this city with its presence in any way. Today was one of those days, when I left my two hard-working friends in study room (sorry, guyz) and went to beautiful St. James Park in the neighbourhood of Buckingham Palace with my friend Turan. Beautful London and its parks... where you can walk around, sit on a grass for hours chatting or just enjoying the weather in silence. 

Love is in the air <3