Monday, November 30, 2009

OLD ILLUSTRATIONS








I was looking through my old works of university that I found some of my illustrations for a children story book. I remember that I loved the story. It was about a star which someday falls from the sky, but I don't remember the details. I miss doing stuff like that. and I really miss those days of school, the smell of acrylic colors and that mood with friends. Aw how beautiful those days were...

I'm sure I will start doing it again; in a near future. I'm sure.
xo

Sunday, November 29, 2009

ONE NOVEMBER DAY, PART TWO










More pictures of our day {here}.

A little note : As you can see on my sidebar, there are some links to be more connected with me. So if you want, we can be friends in Facebook, you can follow my tweets, or see my favorite pictures around the web at vi.sualize.us everyday.

Good night,
xo

ONE NOVEMBER DAY, PART ONE











One crisp clear day after a rainy night, in November.
I tend to remember the colors and the smells. I tend to remember the shapes of clouds and his beautiful eyes.

xo

Saturday, November 28, 2009

I'm back, I'm back. Lovelies!



Hi !
How are you blog friends?! Ooph ... I missed you! I really do.
But hey what an amazing 10(+1) days I had. If you have some stressful days of normal life, or you are feeling very "usual" in your life or at least at your blogs, believe me, being away for a few days will truly help!

After spending a good amount of time with boyfriend, working hard for project, thinking and wandering around and catching the beauties in "real life", smelling the Fall leaves and thinking about some exciting stuff for near future... I am here and I feel so good! Yes, I do.

Oh, I am not going to miss this one; hadn't I the most wonderful guest bloggers ever?! God I love them all! Last night I was thinking about each of them and tried to describe them in one word. These are the first words came to my mind:

Sara=success
Ida=dulcet
Rhianne=agility
Jeanne Ming=inspiration
P.=brightness
Julochka=vividness
Tanja=tranquility
Trinsch=tangibility
Paulina=felicity

And I thought, these are all the qualities I am looking for in me to be awake or to be found. So I am really happy to know them all and many more of you, lovely friends.

Happy to be back!
xo



{image credit : kitty's yellow jacket}

Friday, November 27, 2009

GUEST POST : Hello All

IMG_3060

Hello dear A New Simple Something! readers!! I am so glad to pay you all a visit over in this lovely corner of the internet. I feel an introduction is in order:

My name is Paulina from Mona May I. I like hot chocolate with marshmallows, the smell of freshly cut grass and homemade bread. I can be nit-picky and wish I had endless amounts of patience. I am different in every way imaginable but then again; I am just like every other 25 year old girl.

It is nice to meet you.

I am here because I fell in love with the energy in Shokoofeh's blog and consider myself A New Simple Something! fan. Her joys, her photographs, her talent for finding beautiful designs, and the love that resides inside of her even when she is going through difficult emotions.

She is so real.

It is so easy to love her, what do you love about Shokoofeh?


Wednesday, November 25, 2009

GUEST POST : seeing beauty

clouds #2
clouds #3
clouds #1

the other day someone sweet and talented commented on my blog that she liked that i see beauty everywhere. as flattered and proud as it made me feel, someone perceiving me like that, i know it is not entirely true. there are plenty of moments, even days, where i find it hard to notice beauty, even if it came up to me wearing a flapper dress and offered me a glass of champagne.

when i visit shokoofee’s blog it never fails to make me see the beauty, though. even the sad kind. and no, i am not saying that shokoofee is sad, but rather that on top of all the warm-hearted and artistic capturing of life she shares with us, her readers, she also chooses to share the sadness and the longing that is also. and she somehow makes it inspiring and so full of life. 

i think i began blogging because i was afraid to disappear when i moved from the city to the countryside. i am not sure what i expected, but i sure didn’t know that i would get so much in return, so much beauty and so many connections to awesome people making the world, my world at least, a better place.

come to think of it, i am pretty sure the world would be a better place for all of us if everyone did a bit of blogging (maybe a bit crowded, but the more the merrier. no?). if everyone made friends where they were made to believe there are no friends, saw how much they sometimes have in common with others living far away, be the distance cultural or geographical.

and the bonus, for me, is that the simple act of documenting the life that unfolds around me is teaching me to look for beauty, even when i don’t expect it. i still miss that flapper girl some days, but i didn’t miss the awesome purple and rose-colored clouds that one afternoon last week. and after i had admired it long enough, i ran, of course, for the camera. so i could share it with you, people of the blog world. it is, after all, your sky too, where ever you are.

wishing you a beautiful day - xoxo trinsch

GUEST POST : those tiny pretty moments today when I wasn't working



Today. In Helsinki. Amidst mundane hurry. I decided to see beauty in November drizzle.

With colour-love,

Tanja from Pretty Gingham

Sunday, November 22, 2009

GUEST POST : outside looking in: copenhagen windowscapes

i always come to a new simple something! when i need to be inspired or feel thoughtful or restful and peaceful, so i wanted my guest post to be at least one of those things. but it's not easy, anyone who knows me would definitely say that restful and peaceful were not among my attributes, so perhaps i'll just try to provide some inspiration and with any luck, some of it will make you think a bit along the way. so i give you shop windows in Copenhagen...



a big thank you to shokoofeh for the opportunity be a guest here.
i hope your time off has been exactly what you needed

xoxox,
/julie (aka julochka)

GUEST POST : Eye Break: Alexander Kori Girard







Hello dearies - it's P. from What Possessed Me. Very happy and honored to be here while our darling girl takes a short break from the blogging grind.

Sometimes life can seem a little uninspired, which is why I started a little series on my blog called eye breaks - the visual equivalent of a shot of espresso when I'm in need of a pick-me-up. This one's coming to you from Brooklyn, New York (my home sweet home) where I stumbled across an exhibition by Alexander Kori Girard (grandson of the legendary designer Alexander Girard) at the lovely Brooklyn boutique, Layla. AK Girard takes vintage Indian photographs and gives them new life with his bold, graphic style. I walked out without one - much to my dismay. It was one of those times I wished I had a discretionary budget for wonderful, serendipitous finds such as these.

Hope you all have a wonderful week, blog babies. For more eye breaks, click here.

GUEST POST : The Caretaker



Miss Daang had been taking care of the Li's house for many years. There was nothing she did that gave her more enjoyment that hanging up their laundry and then collecting the sun bleached and fresh clothes at the end of the day.



Dear Friends of Shokoofeh,
It is a strange yet comforting feeling to be asked to be a care taker of someones blog. How she must trust me. She has no idea what I might write or post, yet she asks. I love that about our dear friend. Total optimism and trust.

But on to the subject of care taking. I have a second home in Northern Thailand, in the hills north of Chiang Mai. My home is surrounded by hill tribe people of the Karen and Hmong tribes. I have not been here for a year, the last time being the day before the airport in Bangkok was overtaken by protesters. I was lucky and got out of Thailand five hours earlier. It has been a busy and difficult year for me and so I have not been able to get away and return here as I normally do. But I am now here for a week! Like Shokoofeh, I needed to get away and clear my head.

So I arrived from the airport, set my bag inside and immediately grabbed a rag and began cleaning and throwing open the windows. The house smelled so musty. Then I gathered up arm loads of clothes and linens and have now been doing laundry for the last 36 hours non stop!

There is a care taker. But it is only a home when I am here. Yet he does things to my house I wouldn't dream of. He moved my son's ping pong table from the outdoors into my old studio, a great improvement and which I will leave alone. He planted a teak tree in the back which is already 12 feet tall. He moved the potted plants around and detailed all the phones. My studio was on the ground floor, near the water supply and the outdoor garden, but over the course of this year, he has moved it up to the third floor. He has rigged a water tap and drain off the balcony. I was amazed to find my art supplies and easels all laid out as if he expected me to begin painting immediately. The light and air is infinitely better. And just in time, I might add, he added several bamboo poles to increase my drying capacity when doing laundry. His touches are unique to him. Every time I come here I discover some small thing he has done to enhance the beauty of the setting and make my life easier. I wonder, how does he know what I need? I don't know myself.

But he cares not a bit about musty clothes.

~Jeanne-ming

Friday, November 20, 2009

GUEST POST : Autumn in Leeds

I absolutely love Autumn, so I knew when Shokoofeh asked me to guest post on her lovely lovely blog that I had to share these photos.

Pretty Leaves
Autumn Tree I
Cottage Road
Tree Double Exposure
Tagged

Unfortuntely all the colourful leaves have fallen from the trees now leaving Leeds bare and it is definitely starting to feel like Winter, so I am extremly glad that I took my Holga out to play when I did.

I hope you all have a great Friday!

Love Rhianne