Friday is my day: Domatoma

Hello all! Today we are traveling to Swiss-France borders to meet Maryia from Domatoma! Enjoy the ride :)

Long cat who loves sea

I live in a small French town on a Swiss French border, near Geneva. This town was actually build by Voltaire :)))

We almost never use alarm clock, because our little son makes a wake-up signal at 7 o'clock and the day begins :) We all get dressed and I make coffee while my husband is trying to protect me from a little hungry guy, who just cannot wait (for example, watering flowers is a great option to drive his attention away from kitchen). My son knows that high chair is for eating and painting so he usually tries to combine the both activities, that is why every breakfast slowly becomes a creative process and we have a masterpiece every morning.

 
After breakfast my husband leaves for work and we stay at home for play and fun. While my son is making music, I'm trying to make a hat and a hat, learn French, answer e-mails, read, work with my photos and so on. Then we leave home to buy some food, on our way we are looking at airplanes and Mont Blanc. When we get home we make some funny food, have lunch.

After my son's afternoon nap, we are going for a walk to Geneva. We take a bus and in 15 minutes we are in Jardin Botanique. My son is very happy to run around and to see the first flowers and bees. And I'm happy that I can take photos :)) We stay in park till sunset enjoying the evening light.

We get home and make a simple supper. Then my husband brings our son to bed (after a Great Bathtub Battle of course). I'm getting into my reading corner to think and create, where I usually forget about time, meet the next day and go to sleep at two o'clock at night."

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Thank you Maryia! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)

xo
Tatiana

Friday is my day: Akamatra

Hello all! Today we are traveling to Greece to meet Maro from Akamatra! Enjoy the ride :)

Hi and welcome to Akamatra's world! A world where house chores are always done a bit late and handmade jewelry takes up almost all free time and space! Please be advised that you are entering at your own risk! 

Lace peach pink leather necklace

 

My friends call me Maro but I also respond to my little cloud, my little clothespin (I know!!!) and my little cherry when my love calls! I live in Athens with my boyfriend in a cute rented apartment with huge balconies and great light but no view whatsoever. I am convinced about two things: a) my 1.59m height is a result of radioactive strawberries overconsumption during the Chernobyl days and b) I don’t want to live without sun and chocolate.

In the morning

I have the hardest time waking up in the morning! I mean it is almost impossible to wake no matter how many hours of sleep I’ve had! I have had this problem since I was a child going to school. My father use to wake me up spraying water in my face! No kidding! I was soaking wet and still didn't want to get out of bed! I love sleeping! I love my bed! The one I have now, it's my own design, built by my father. I love it more than any other furniture I own, silly I know! My love wakes up earlier than me and he struggles to get me up using any torture known to sleepers. This bell we bought in our last trip to Lisbon has proven to be my nemesis.

Well, since I try to stay in bed as much as I can and since I am lucky enough to have my workplace nearby my house (thank you universe for these little treats!) I take my breakfast at the office. Well the lab actually! I am chemist did I mention that? I have a PhD in Biochemistry and a post-doc in Molecular Biology but I will not bore you with scientist stuff. I love my work in the lab and many of my jewelry are inspired by chemistry! The day advances with lots of analyses and reporting and then it is finally time to go home!

In between

We have similar work hours with my boyfriend and we get home almost at the same time. He uses the bicycle almost all year around but I feel too cold in the winter and wait for spring to use it to go to work. I usually cook as soon as I get home. We try to eat light and healthy and it has been easy. We love salads and small fresh fish, miam!!!

As soon as we eat my boyfriend goes for his nap and I let my best friend Mr. Bosch do the dishes. And then it is coffee time and the best part of the day begins. Sometimes I drink my coffee in the kitchen reading a book (I love The Return by Victoria Hislop) and sometimes I take it to my desk. When the weather is fine I take it outside keeping company to my flowers. I worry this year about my tulips. They haven’t bloom yet, hmm…

My desk is my craft place as well. It is filled with beads and leather scraps and chains and more beads. I spend the rest of the day here. I design and draw new items, I try new techniques, I make new items and list them or I spend an unhealthy amount of time on Etsy, Pinterest and Facebook. That is if I am not out having coffee with dear friends, or visiting my parents, or just walking around with my love.

In the evening

Well, most of the time we eat light in the evening so there is no cooking involved, unless we feel like having homemade pizza while watching a movie, or reading books. Then it is time for bed. I will not lie. We don’t always sleep.

Thank you for entering my world. Take care and smile!




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Thank you Maro! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)

xo
Tatiana

Friday is my day: Bartinki

Hello all! Today we are traveling to the Netherlands and meet lovely Martina from Bartinki! Enjoy the ride :)

Unique Denim Jacket

Welcome to Bartinki world! To start with, I would like to explain my shop name. Bartinki is a nickname for me and my fiance Bart, given to us by our friends (sort of Brangelina style). We were called Bartinka, so when I was choosing name for my shop, I didn't have to look for long. It also shows the effort of both towards Bartinki shop - even these are my creations, I wouldn't be able to do any without support of Bart. So to know who is talking to you - here we are! (While choosing pictures for this post, I realised we don't have any regular photo - we always make funny faces! Oh dear!)

8.00am
I wake every morning to find out my cup of coffee already at the table. You know whose job is that :)

I come from Slovakia, and even we are living and planning to stay in the Netherlands, my heart will always belong to that beautiful tiny country in the middle of Europe. Many people confused Slovakia with Slovenia, but I don't mind. It's only 6 millions of Slovaks out there, so we are (as I was once told) rare. If you need help to recognize us - Slovakia used to be part of Czechoslovakia till 1993. From our modern history you might recall Velvet Revolution in 1989.

9.00am

Oh yes... On line world! I spend at least one hour in the morning and even more in the evening on line. My laptop is mostly on all day long, so I can respond to inquires, emails, have Slovak series on while working...

 
Bart's hobby is wood, and he has his own Etsy shop Ligamentum. I found his buttons sooooo cute, check yourself! 

Afternoon
Off to post office, time to get some fresh air, or just simple walk along Rijn river. We live exactly in the middle between John Frost bridge (maybe you recall A Bridge Too Far movie or Battle of Arnhem in 1944 - yes, that's the bridge!) and Nelson Mandela bridge. Both spectacular.

Or I list my items. Bart is my personal photographer and our 'photo studio' is actually the corner of our dining room. We do all photo shoots on 2m squares. Yes, it's possible!

I don't have a schedule for creating. Some days I do nothing new, some days I cannot stop. I walk around, start this, finish that, no working pattern whatsoever. I don't know how other people do it. I think I would be more efficient if I had a routine, but I feel it's just not me.

Evening
Oh, the best time of the day. Cooking some pasta, my favorite macaroni with herbs, or nice steak. No, we are not vegetarians. Neither we do eat healthy, whatever it means. We eat what we like and the more, the better. Ups!  Last summer we also tried to grown our own vegetables. We had some nice tomatoes. That's it!

On Bart's days off (which are also my days off) we like to drive and walk around and discover Dutch countryside. Holland has some lovely cities as well as pretty forests, very quiet, very relaxing. We enjoy both.

That's about it about our days. Soon we are moving into our first house, so we both will be enjoying larger space and workplaces. Can't wait!

Have a lovely day and greetings from the Netherlands! Thank you for stopping by!

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Thank you Martina! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)

xo
Tatiana 

Friday is my day: LuckyCatHandmade

Hello all! This time of the week is here again! Today we will travel to Portugal to meet sweet Mafalda from LuckyCatHandmade! Enjoy the ride ;)

Coin purse, kiss lock or clasp purse, navy blue with orange amd red sakura

Hi! My name is Mafalda, I’m was born in Lisbon but I’m currently living near Bragança, in the north of Portugal, with my husband Filipe and our 3 very spoiled cats: Bunny, Mimi and Socas. Since I finished college I’ve worked in Archaeology but when Filipe, who is a surveyor, got a five-year Job in a dam building site more than 400km from home, and needed an assistant, I started working with him.

Our day starts at 6:30, when we wake up, have breakfast (cats demand to have theirs first…) and get ready to go to work. This is the time I wish I could wear sabrinas and skirts for work… Instead: security boots and a bright yellow jacket...

By 8:00 we arrive at the building site which is in the middle of nowhere... but such a beautiful wild valley with a meandering small river running at the bottom, which in some places had poplar trees

I know... I have mixed feeling about this dam from day one.

We do have to work and it’s supposed to create cleaner electricity but still it´s such a shame to ruin such a pretty place and make a turmoil in the lives of  animals...

Anyway... Filipe is in charge of the surveying in the subterranean part of the dam. Mostly I help him with anything he needs when we have to indicate places to blow up the rock, build underground structures in concrete and verify the precision of the whole process.

I also help him with office paper work when needed but I choose to leave all the complicated calculus to him... Kidding! It’s really scary math stuff...

By 12:00 we return home to have lunch, that I left prepared the previous day, and, of course, pamper the cats a bit more...

By 13:15 we have to get back to work but some afternoons, like today, I get to stay at home because Filipe has stuff to do on his computer so he doesn’t need me to go. Which is great because today I have parcels for my dear customers that I need to take to the Post Office!

By 15:00 I have just finished tidying the place up and I only have to wrap one of my coin purses, finish the packaging and make sure I have all the parcels I need to post today. 

I love wrapping and going to the Post Office... I always find it similar to when I send little surprise presents to my family by Mail (we don’t go to see them as often as we wish...).

I love the purses and other accessories I make and sell on my shop but the best thing is when someone else likes them so much too that they want to keep it... So it’s great to wrap them up and send them on long trip to someone who’ll be happy when they open my package... The Post Office is in a small village 16km away so I have to go by car and it’s a a sort of pretty wilderness I cross but on a lonely winding road...

Everything is still covered in dull colors. Even the almond tree’s blooming (which is beautiful since there are a lot of them around here) is delayed this year: it hasn’t rained since Christmas.

When I get home by 16:30 it’s time to take care of some chores in the garden. Finally my daffodils have started blooming! 

Now is the time for some sewing, listening to Dinah Washington or Nat King Cole. I’m finishing one of my purses with cute black and white cats. It’s Filipe’s favorite fabric. I can’t say which one is my favorite – I love all of them, must-stop-buying-fabric :)

I also browse through Etsy a lot! Mostly supplies, and also to learn how to make my shop more visible (boring stuff...).

By 18:00 I start to get dinner ready and to think up tomorrow’s lunch. I also bake a marble cake - my favorite - for breakfast. With lots of talking to Bunny but mostly to her babies because she has too many pigeons to chase off... And catch! Today we were lucky: Filipe managed to get home by 20:00 so it’s time for dinner but, as usual, Bunny is already in his chair and no one has the heart to remove her... Oh well...

Until 23:00 we spend a calm evening chatting about our day, a little bit of work but mostly our great and super lucky cats! For now they are our only babies... Thank you so much for sharing my day, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did showing it to you... Hugs!

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Thank you Mafalda! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)

xo
Tatiana