Friday is my day: Craftsbynesli

Hello all! Today we are traveling to Istanbul to meet Neslihan from 'Craftsbynesli' and 'Colorfulfelts'! Enjoy the ride :)

Hello, this is Neslihan Yücesan. I live in a small town with natural beauties, a magnificent lake, full of bird chirps, only 1 hour away from İstanbul. I am a sentimental, positive and highly creative person. I have two Etsy shops named 'Craftsbynesli' and 'Colorfulfelts'. The first one is for my vintage themed  jewelry, accessories, bags, purses and pillows. The second only for my felt works. Generally I spend the day by creating and preparing orders.

My 8 year old beloved son wakes me up at 7:30. He will soon be on the way to school so we are making the last preparations. He will have his breakfast at school so he only has a banana for now. He really loves being at school and he waits for the school bus impatiently in front of the house.

And this is my dear husband Ulaş, with who I am still in love like the first day. My husband works as a mechanical engineer at our family business. After a little morning chat he is off to work and I start my long day.

Both me and my husband passionately play a traditional instrument called 'Baglama'. It is also called 'Saz'. We really enjoy making music at night together. But I also try to spare a couple of hours to Baglama during the day. This gives me the chance to think and relax my mind. After playing Baglama for 2 hours I quickly tidy up the house and loose myself in my creations.

 
Some sewing, some coffee, some sewing, some coffee... and finished at last. These days I have too many orders and I am a bit tired but happy with the result. I send out my work to boutiques both in Turkey and abroad. These are the colorful, sugar like bags I made for a boutique in Alacati.

I go for a walk in our garden, have a yummy toast and prepare the orders I will be shipping in an hour, wear my sports outfit and go to the gym. Nearly every weekday we go to a sports club with my husband. Some times in different hours. Sport keeps us healthy and give us relief from the daily stress. I believe this way we can give much more love to each other.
Then I come back home and spend all day sewing, making accessories, listening to music and doing household. I spend too much time on Etsy. This is because I also buy my supplies from there. I try to have some time to relax and listen to my inner self. Being in a green garden gives great inspiration for my creations.

In the evening, when my husband and son come home, we have a delicious meal.  The tomato soup is the star of the meal. Tonight we are alone but sometimes our musician friends join us and we make music till late.

Our day has ended, tired yet happy. Thank you for sharing my story of a day. I hope you enjoyed. 



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

Friday is my day: ThePaperMachines

Hello all! Today we are traveling to Manchester, England to meet Raphaela from ThePaperMachines! Enjoy the ride :)

Totem Necklace No3

Hi! My name is Raphaela and I'm a French designer living in Manchester, UK.
I make bags and accessories, all from salvaged leather and locally sourced supplies.
In my free time, I like to play the violin, read books and watch more anthropology documentaries than anyone I know! 

 [9am]
Tea!! Then I check emails, and answer them as I'm having a nice breakfast. Then I take advantage of the sun and take some pictures of my new items! Then it's time for me to get into my daily sewing routine. Today I needed to replenish my stock of drawstring bags in which my jewelry is sent. Lots of fun to see them all done! 

 [11 am]
Post office time...Not the funniest part of the day but today is quite sunny so I decided to stop at the park on my way back. It's so nice! 

 [12 am]
Lunch time..I like to take my time to cook myself something nice, today it's roots vegetable bake, with rocket on the side. Yummy!

 [1 pm]
Back to my studio until the early evening. Put some good tunes on and get cutting, threading, drawing and sewing some more. I love vintage decor and my room is filled up to brim with artworks in pretty frames, records and old books. It's a bit like a cocoon where there is always something nice to look at and be inspired from.  

[6:30 pm]
Time to tidy all the mess I created! Then my lovely half and I will share a homemade dinner or sometimes a pizza, then I might list some items and go through my tags and descriptions, blog about my day and watch a film!

Hope you enjoyed following my day!

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

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