Post 32: Notre Dame in the Morning…! 90 to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends what to see in Paris:

Another eventful day in a city of love. Last night over glass of wine I was discussing with friends my itinerary and my friend suggested that Mr Fabulous could become my tour guide for the day. Since he has currently nothing to do and could do with practicing his English. Realizing he will have to listen to me jabbering all day, he still willingly agreed and of course I do thank him very much for that.

Meeting point was at St Michel fountain. I was slightly confused as from my last trip to Paris I knew there is no fountain at Notre Dame, where we planned to go. Walking out of the St Michel tube station I thought to myself: “I am sure some fountain will turn up.” Well it did not!!! Having to find someone local look like, who could tell me, where is this place I am actually looking for, they pointed me in the opposite direction about five minutes walk away. I eventually found Mr Fabulous and this…

Post 31: Resolutions Review March! 91 to go!

Kat doodles about life and reviews month of March as part of 3 Days challenge:

Alright, I will make it slightly more clearer, why I have not really been round. Trust me, it is embarrassing and painful enough to know I have about twenty or more posts to catch up on and that I am writing March review in May. WHAT? REALLY? Since coming back from holidays in Paris I have been part of this very intense French language course, for about three hours a day on top of my daily stuff to do and right now it looks my life is about to change quite dramatically. Knowing myself that I get way too excited, I am now going to try take step back from my newly rediscovered passion, go back to my usual duties and think like an adult. Like that is even possible in my case.

Post 29: What to See in Paris?! 93 to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends, where to go in Paris:

Here I am with my first post about what I have been up to in Paris.  I have been very distracted for the last month, so I am sorry it took so long.

Before leaving, one of my friend shared this great Guardian link with me about top 10 free things to do in Paris. Wherever I go, I tend to discover the city in my own way, so this was a great way how to see the gems without paying a fortune. Here is a quick list for now with some extra tips from me.

Post 30: Walk Along the Seine! 92 to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends, where to go in Paris:

Here I am back again with my map ready to tell you what happened next. I spent the morning planning what to see and what to follow according to the list on Guardian web mentioned in my last post. I tried to figure out how to fit everything in with my two friends I came to visit. Plan sorted and around lunchtime I finally left home. Being so lucky with the sunny weather I decided to take the day steady. Just to enjoy the French atmosphere by looking at things, smelling the spring in the air and soaking up the culture instead of full on sightseeing.

27: London Adventure with Jan Kraus!

Kat doodles about life:

We all need adventures in our lives and this trip to London was definitely going to be one of them. I surprised myself and managed to get up after last night’s celebration. With my friend we got on the bus knowing we are returning on the 7:30 am the next day without any accomodation booked. How typical and exciting! It was a gorgeous sunny Sunday, spring in the air and we were heading up to the third zone somewhere in North London, which after fifteen minutes of walk away from the tube station, felt more like a village in the countryside rather then The City.

Post 24: Karen Makes Me Smile! 98 to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends:

So here I am today, writing another blog post, catching up with the other two I am missing and other things I have scheduled into to do in my diary. Last night and today have been filled with replying to comments on my blog and reading other people’s work. There are so many interesting posts and it is really sad there is not enough hours in a day to read all of them.  So every day I am trying to go through the pile until  my eyes cannot take anymore. There is one blog I really would like to mention, because since following it, it always makes me smile and I guess that is useful to everyone.

Post 19: Book Shopping! 103 to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends:

On Thursday I meant to meet up with one of my friends however it got canceled last minute and whilst I was in town I thought I use that time to search for things I need since avoid town or going shopping unless absolutely necessary. I knew I need some books for the lessons. My new student, who likes to travel, requested some fairy tales, which I am still not entirely convinced about. I know it may be the English he understands, but not the English he needs or will use in everyday life. Whilst looking for those, I was also keeping an eye on any interesting cookery book and something else, which may possibly catch my eye. And here is what I found:

At Works I went for the bargain of 4 for £5 and picked up these children stories. There some universal ones, so it should not be a problem to understand and they are told in simpler way than originals. I am particularly looking for using Big Nate Fun Blaster as it is full of fun quizzes, crossword puzzles and curious questions to answers to get both of my students talking.

Afterwards I had a wander around few more bookshops and I found this as a present to give as a ‘Thank You’. I already have this book and I have used it pretty much as my baking bible for the last four years on ongoing basis. This particular edition is twice as big than the one I have. It has extra chapters and basically recipes for all types of pies, tarts, cakes and everything else you need to know, covering the world cuisine. They are great basic recipes using ingredients you would have in the cupboard and illustrated with images for pretty much most of the recipes.

As someone trained in scenic painting, this book caught my eye, and for 50 p, I was not going to leave it there. Perhaps something new to learn.

My last successful bargain was in WSmith, where I found this language pack reduced £5- 3 books and 3 CDs. I have been battling with ‘the language of love’ for years, so why not give this a go.

By then my bags got really heavy, so after two hours shopping trip, I went back home. Literally literary satisfied. Kat xx

Post 16: Blog Posts Worth to Mention! 106 to go!

Kat recommends:

I have been collecting links to posts I like for a while and now I feel it is time to spread the message across the world wide web. I have been lot more selective than during 92 Days Challenge, but they all say something I am feeling or have something I agree with. Enjoy! Kat xx

Maison Bentley Style wrote a post about Erik Madigan. He is using the most incredible fabrics and colours together. They have velvet feel and very closely follow wallpaper background in photoshoots. I suggest you have a look and spoil your eyes with that beauty.

As you may have noticed in my previous post, it will be my birthday soon (wink, wink) and if you like to join me dribbling over this beautiful red coat, feel free to join me so here.

Next on the list are two posts from The Eye-Dancers. The first one is about Forrest Gump and him running in a search for love. It’s called To Believe or Not to Believe… Weirdly enough I have never seem a Forrest Gump, but a friend of mine was telling me about the film, then I saw this post and things in my life happened all at the same time by coincidence, which then made me write this post When a man tells he loves you… little too late! .

A lot of my recent posts are about languages, writing and the interaction with other people. Thanks to discovering The Eye-Dancer’s blog I also really enjoyed the post The Effluvium of Hysteria about creative writing process ever since being a child including criticism. It has a very fresh approach, so I highly recommend this read.

Last three posts are quite current issues. LearnerMother writes her view on the case, which recently happened in Scotland, Culture Monk tell us a real life story about homeless man asking for breakfast, but refusing to work for it and The Crazy Bag lady shares my views of dating a girl, who travels.

Day 89: Interesting posts to see!!! 3 days to go!

Kat recommends:

Alright guys, today is super quick one as I spent the day surviving work and entertaining residents of a nursing with my Christmas stories and if you ask, they of course did love them very much. When I got back instead of having a nap before running to work again meaning any minute now, I spent it by promoting my new challenge and spamming posting pretty much anywhere I could think of, where they would like to join my new year’s resolution challenge. I will love you muchly if you share this link:  https://katdesigner.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/join-me-in-new-3-days-challenge/

Back tomorrow, have a great Saturday! Kat xx

P.S. I did go through some e-mails last night (from 150 down 100 post notifications) and this is what I found and thought was great to see, so check it out!

A bit of an emotional read to start with by Put up with Rain called Internal Bleeding.

Some inspiration for your New Year’s Party(?) from Fashion Mayann in her window display: To start with Marge Simpson, after the check the red shoes or perhaps something lot more extravagant and out there. 😀

And last but not least the very stylish Maison Bentley Style taking camera out during her walks around London checking out the London Eye and snooping on others’ Christmas Door Decorations, so her family can do some fun Christmas making and show us the result.

Day 77: High on paint this time! 15 days to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends:

After posting last night, I got again into writing more e-mails and cleaning up my e-mail account. And there I have discovered long time sitting e-mail notification from a Maison Bentley Style Blog Party. I went through all the blogs listed in the main post long time ago and made some great friends, but there were so many other comments below and people adding their blogs at later date I decided to go through those last night. Plus I could not sleep, as I did that during the day, so why not to use that time in more productive way. Plus before falling asleep  I have finally figured out next year’s challenge. So I think. At least for now.

I have recently signed up to few blogs recommended by Learner Mother, so I have been having a look around those too.  Lia in Brussels is interesting blog about cultural events in Brussels, from gigs, theatre shows to exhibitions and. I highly recommend it even  if you do not live in Belgium, as lot of the stuff is fairly exciting to read about. Next blog is by Free Falling into 40 with her very funny take on Potty Training her children and her still being honest about major failure of this task. I will end this bit by talking about 44andfourth and her funny take on being a mum living in Laos and then by reading the best post ever of this week, which made me smile from beginning to the end and that is When The Going Gets Tough(ie) by Put Up with Rain. I found it personally so hilarious, it still makes me smile now I write about it.

Well after, what I did, was I signed to new weekly link swapping for all the different social media, so I spent this lunchtime about two and half hours by going through all the different links, clicking on Likes and Follow of selected  members of UK Bloggers. It did bring enough Likes so my Facebook Page was suddenly on number 99, so with a bit of hinting to my friends, which I am very grateful for, we got to number 106! How fantastic! I have few notes of browsing through some blogs, when I get a bit of time and connecting with the ones within my arty field, but to get you more traffic and people reading it is worth doing once in a while.

Craving proper food for the last few weeks of illness I went onto cooking good quality sausages and rustic mash with three different types of cabbage and broccoli, which I decided to have again for dinner. It was a feast I am telling you. Just a little trick what I do with the mash, I do not bother with peeling the skin, as it tastes better (well to me it does), salt, pepper, few cloves of garlic whilst it is boiling with caraway seeds, and once done after adding butter and milk, more of fresh garlic, caraway seeds if needed (in Czech there is never enough caraway or poppy seeds in anything, we simply love them) and lots of chopped curly parsley or coriander. All these ingredients make it taste and smell divine.  If there is no milk, you can substitute with yoghurt or houmous, which is another great tasting ingredient.

And getting back to work meant writing more work e-mails about January project, which I have some more work to do on this week, uploading  pictures to Instagram and replying to my new student, who is starting lesson tomorrow. He is a young ambitious man, so I am sure he will make the most of my knowledge of British life and my language skills, since my other skills are questioned by my housemates when voluntarily offering my help to paint this afternoon. I shall not bother with these type of teasing comments next time and watch them instead making comments about missing a spot 🙂 Now I will rather move on with getting ready to sleep after this very productive, in my eyes, day. I will see you all tomorrow. Good night Kat xx

Day 73: I am so very excited! 19 days to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends:

As random it may seem today’s blog post name, I am actually really excited. Hmm two things if I do not count my ongoing love affairs. First is I only have 19 days left on this challenge, oh my god, how amazing. The numbers are now below twenty, it is all coming to the end and I will be able to breathe properly without having to squeeze my brain cells to their maximum every day. I was having this discussion today with someone about the quality of posts and I know it is not ideal sometimes. I have to go to do the shift during the day, another one at night, cycle back and forth from all these shifts, do the normal things normal people do like washing, shopping, cooking (did I mention chill out?) and then being productive and then having to write about it. Never mind still having that fun. Exactly there is just not enough hours in a day, he cracked by laughing at me being sarcastic. But what I love about this doing daily challenge that it definitely kicked me into the right direction ( may be I should write one direction and see how my stats go up) and from next year I want to start a new challenge, be more artistic, but blog less to have that time. Plus I am sure you must be fed up of reading my doodles every day. So here we are 19 days to go. (She writes whilst dancing on her chair having that big fake smile on her face way past her bedtime.)

And secondly why I am excited is I have finally hit that Submit button on that tax form. And that made me very excited too. I thought I will have that same feeling already by finishing it two days ago, but it did not really happen. I was a bit like, where is it, happiness where are you hiding? It was not until I found out if I am owning money or getting them back and then I got the result. Getting money back. Whoop, whoop. I know this does not sound very nice to some of you, but I have overpaid a lot of money in one of my jobs I started last year, so seeing more than adequate amount of money on my payslip going somewhere else than my bank account kept making my almost cry every month. So I decided to get me going with the driving lessons again. I bet Joel will be very happy, when I tell him tomorrow. I know, how nice of me supporting the British economy rather stashing it in under my pillow or in the bank.

Now there are few other things to tell you about:

I have joined the UK Blogger Facebook Page. You can find some useful posts on how to solve some of those blogging problems and make new friends. Anyway I posted one, where I introduced myself and had a thread with someone going Day 72 buy yourself a proper domain name, so a bit of search and few hours later I actually did. I now own http://www.katerinadesign.co.uk How exciting! I have been searching for something like this for a while, but none of the pages with my name would be available. Plus I do not really know if I want to start a company or just keep my name, so I thought keeping a name is fine until I figure out what I want to do. So website project I guess will be on my list of challenges for next year. I am most likely to team up with someone clever, who knows how to do this, but I want to do it properly this time.

Another exciting event to mention is Winter Solstice Party. If you are in Bristol, want to go out on 22nd December and experience 1920′ madness, you better check out this event at MilkThistle organized by Positive Image. I will be there! So I guess that will be mad enough already!

Last little thing today, because it is really getting late and I am on massive sugar rush swing from eating Pecan Danish, which I treated myself to since getting out of the house first time in five days and being on a diet of paracetamol, rice cakes and Covonia cough syrup. They were 3 for 2 offer and I thought I am getting really good deal by buying three boxes with three each in, for the price of two, but when I looked at the receipt, there was no deduction. So I ended up with 9 pecan nut maple danishes (eeeh and so far ate four- I know, I know, don’t judge me, I am a pig) for the price of 3 boxes. That might be why I was finding everything so exciting when I started writing this post. Hmmmm…my eyes are still wide open, yes the sugar is still high…nearly 2 am, oh dear.

So yeah that little last thing: these three beautiful blogs I stumbled over. Have a read, they will bring a smile to your face. Goooood night! Back tomorrow darlings. Kat xx

http://cristianmihai.net

http://putupwithrain.blogspot.co.uk/

http://thesecretdivorcee.blogspot.co.uk/

Day 70: Latest blog posts catch up! 22 days to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends:

So it’s Monday, I have been ill for the last three weeks now, so I decided to take another week off and for good to get rid of this cold, because it is doing my head in. What is worse that I had to cancel a special plans last night, which I never ever do. Not good at all,  but I do not think my company would appreciate me coughing every five minutes. So today I am sitting behind the computer catching with my latest likes, followers, posts and here are some for you to share.

Being recently nominated for Liebster award I have passed on my questions and here are the answers: A Spoonful of Style answered in her sixth months anniversary blog post and shared with more awards with her readers. The next award post is here by The Crazy Bag Lady, who is very inspirational and again is on my list of popular bloggers.

 

I have recently enjoyed few posts, so I would mention the article of A Spoonful of Style on a programme about Liberty. I have not watched it myself yet, but it is will added to my list for sure. Few years ago I have seen a documentary series, I think it was called The Next Big Thing and upcoming designers would come to an open day of stores as Liberty, Habitat and Boots. It was fantastic to see their journey and see the progress they would make. On those basis, I will be watching.

 

Very interesting post recently came from learnermother. She is currently dealing with Welsh education and her little boy finding it hard in certain subjects. They are English-speaking family, but him attending Welsh school causing a bit of trouble when it comes now to more difficult subjects and homework. Are you bilingual or had a similar issue when educating your children in two or more different languages? Perhaps you can help by sharing your story with her.

 

Last but not least is winolady. Her post about baby? resonated in my mind for quite a few days and together Richard’s Herring article in Friday’s metro When I wish upon a star… I ended up in quite a philosophical mood and wrote this post on Feeling the Pressure on Day 68.

 

That is for today, I am going back to drinking more tea, eating paracetamol and hoping to recover pretty soon. Much love Kat xx

 

 

 

 

Day 51: On culture monk, being atheist and having a faith. 41 days to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends:

This morning I woke up about half ten, had some breakfast and went straight back to bed. My flu is a bit of a weird one this time, as I barely have any symptoms, but I am so exhausted and in lot of muscle ache, I have to go back to sleep. Before  and after falling asleep and waking up again around 3pm I decided to read and catch up with some of my blogs, which have been piling up in my e-mail.

Especially the ones from The Culture Monk. Ever since subscribed to his blog, and it was more that he found me when liking one of my posts… really I cannot remember, I have really been looking forward to each time it arrives in my inbox. However compare to the majority of posts, I have to be in a certain mood to read them. He writes about life, as you could say the serious stuff, and I am not always in my busy schedule prepared to take time to think about what he has just written, although it is pretty spot on. Being mostly in agreement with him, there is a part of me, which not always gets the part, when he talks about religion and God. And not in a judgemental way, I am just not one of those people, who believes in God. So I guess that makes me an atheist.

My mother’s family have always been going to church and I was even baptised as a child. My grandfather being a professional violinist and his sister being professional pianist, both traveling the world most of the time, would find themselves when back at home most of their Sunday mornings playing for the local church and I would be hanging out with them as a part of the babysitting experience. Next to the organs up at the top of the church discovering the beautiful architecture and art around me. And that is part of me, which stayed around until now. I love going to any church anywhere I visit and I have always been fascinated by their beauty and grace. I mean Prague is full of them and they are always part of some drawing assignment. So I like them for the art, not for the religion. Thankfully my family have been pretty open with my religious education and apart from the occasional church ceremony, attending family weddings or my mum praying on Christmas Day during the dinner, we have not been forced to anything else, which I am very grateful for.

During my academic years I have certainly inclined more to the Darwin’s evolution theory and I decided to believe that there is someone/something up there, but I do not call him God (although we take him for granted in our everyday language) and I should really have only faith in myself, because quite simply if  I do not make the difference, there is no hope for me. We our in charge of our own destiny. And that is what brings me to people, when you meet and they start forcing you God or other religious theories. I do not mind having friendly conversation, but sometimes it gets too much and that is when I go: “Well if God exists and God is good, why did he send my father away? He was very good man, always made everyone laugh, worked hard and he was taken too young away way from me. ” “Oh Good would have wanted it they way””Ehh, no, I am sorry, but that is a lot of nonsense, because why he would take the good people and keep the bad people here?” At that point I become too angry, so I rather leave or the other person already gives up. I respect people’s opinion and willing to hear the other side of the story, but please have some decent reasonable answer prepared, when comes to this sort of topic.

I would never even think to write about religion on my arty blog, but this post has been inspired by reading today The Culture Monk’s post It’s about authentic love and a fake affair, which is about a man, who got rejected by his church, when he stopped believing in this particular church movement. He had to pretend he was unfaithful to his wife, so the church won’t reject her and the rest of the family and now as a consequence he has been forbidden to see his children, which I think is really sad, that can happen in a Western society of 21st century. I know we do not know the full story, however this should not happen. I am glad my parents were enough tolerant I can choose my own beliefs and act as I feel.

If you enjoy the sound of The culture Monk (plus or minus the religious bit as you choose) I recommend to check out his latest posts I liked:

I wanna be famous

Searching for a mail-order bride

This way to death by alcohol 

It’s about letting things go

It’s about the little things

Single people suck

Stupid&Cheerful

and many more. Back tomorrow Kat xx

Day 50: Being still and STILL BLOGGING! 42 days to go!

Kat recommends and doodles about life under some extensive dose of camomile tea and selection of colourful tablets (against flu of course):

Alright, well, I am ill. It is just the ordinary cough, sore throat and the usual headache and other ache. So I am going to live, just feel fairly uncapable of doing anything of any kind. I spent the day in bed, getting up only to eat and make tea and watched the great selection of Made in Chelsea, The Big Bang Theory, latest Deal or No Deal (gosh that woman must be feeling dreadful after having dream finish and dealing at 19k) and episode of Grand Design. I barely watch catch up tv, because I somehow do not seem to have time for it, so it was quite nice. However one day I feel the same as when I used to feel when a child, I am totally bored and have enough of this.

So today I am going to post few random things, which have crossed my mind in the last few days, so excuse the quality of non creative, partly not so very serious (since when I write about serious stuff) post.

1. Why creative people sometimes make no sense. What a wonderful blog post explaining Mihaly’s explanation to  this. He pretty much answered all my questions I ever had. I think I will add that book on my sort of wish list or list to read, because it sounds fascinating. And I can finally explain to people that my behaviour is normal… well normal within the making no sense chart of behaviour.

2. Which takes us to the second less serious thing to talk about and that is which character from book are you? Alright I know what are you thinking. It is one of those stupid  test you see on Facebook, but I could not help it. And after what you read on making no sense, you will understand that my result turned out to be a Tiger from Winnie The Pooh is just so true:

You are Tigger. You are fun and rambunctious. You love to make your friends laugh and to have a good time. People like to be around you because you accept others without judgement and you are cheerful and outgoing. As Tigger says himself “Bouncing is what Tiggers do best.”

The books by A.A. Milne featuring Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends have been cherished for children for centuries. The first book was published in 1926. The world of Pooh is a world of enchantment. It is a world forever fixed in the minds and hearts of countless children — a world where Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga and the others share unforgettable adventures with Christopher Robin

If you fancy finding out for your self, here it is:

3. Jean Claude van Damme. Well I do not like action movies or never been a fan of those muscle kind of men like Lee, Schwarzenegger, Hulk etc., but I did watch few years ago documentary about Jean Claude van Dame and his rather human side to him you would not get to see in action films. And it was rather sweet. I was not exactly amazed by his recent project with that cold beer advert, but this week I stumbled over the new truck advert, where is presenting himself exactly how we know him. 2 trucks drive backwards and one of them moves away whilst he stand on their side mirrors and performs a split. I had to watch three times to actually see what he does and the video “behind the scenes”, where you can see his surprised reaction ‘What did I get myself into?’ when is told what to do. Brilliant, well done Jean!

and the teaser:

4. My friend’s brother is a founder of a company LEDeco solution,s.r.o., which is installing and is completely all about LED lights. They are based in Banska Bystrica in Slovakia and their latest project is lighting theatrical show.  There is a selection of sculptures based at the main square and lit every night for two weeks. Such as project has never been done before in Slovakia and so far it is very welcomed within the community and got the attention of local and national media. If you like to see more, here is the link to web and their Facebook page to see more. The videos are in Slovakian, so please bear that in mind.

Video 1:Video from TA3

Video2: Video by TV Hronka

Back tomorrow, with hopefully feeling more better. Kat xx

Day 49: My favourite storage solutions on the budget. 43 days to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends:

Alright today I am not feeling very well, so I only managed to do few things. I thought I have a little reorganizing day and perhaps to pick few things to give away to charity to keep the space clear. Over the years I have moved a lot. In the UK between houses to live in for at least six months it was six times and within two first two years it was fairly temporary, we are talking from days to months. In those days it was easy as I only had a bagpack, now I simply need a van. To keep all my tools, books and other things handy and organized I thought I will share my favourite storage solutions, especially if you are on the budget or do not have time to mess around. Feel free to add your favourites in comments.

These boxes are fantastic. I had them for over three years and now have collection of twenty. You can buy them from Argos and you get four for £20. They are 40 litres each and you find them under crocodile boxes because of their interlocking grey lid. They save lot of space, up to six can fit on top of each other. I use them for tools, fabrics,decorating, storing images and bits for projects etc. Everytime I move, they are the best solution to packing and the great plus after is you can slot one into another and put it away.
.

The next space solutions are these metal mash drawer stands. I got them for my studio,because they were pretty cheap, I think somewhere £5-10 from IKEA. If you are careful, you can put another one on top. I use them for rulers, tapes, arty things and also for my paperwork, projects and blog ideas as a part of the Getting Things Done system.

These baskets are from Ikea. I had them for probably seven or eight years, so pretty good for wear and tear for the price, as they not the cheapest if you are looking for quick fix. They had all sorts of purposes from storing my camera bits or photo albums to now being the “In basket” and storing spray cans and fixative glues. And pallettes of awkward shapes of course.

The next two images are organizing toolboxes for bits like beads, screws, buttons, cotton threads. Anything small you like. They are around £5-7 from Toolstation and they sit nicely within the bookcase. If you notice little more,I  also collect the empty negative boxes and mini jam jars for beads. They can be put sideways, but not to get things mixed I suggest you keep flat.

And final picture are wooden cutlery stands I use for pens and pencils straight on hand.

There are many other solutions I like, most of them Ikea. Like simple computer table around £10 each. I have put a big board on top to create one big table, which can be easily taken apart and moved again.
Next thing are those cd/dvd or A4 size boxes. I store photographs in them now and they are practical and look good. Talking boxes they come up with package of two carboard boxes JATTENE, which takes up to 30kg each. I discovered them this summer and although a bit pricey and large to carry home by hand,they were fantastic and well solid for all my books. Cleverly designed interlocking system means you do not need tape, but I did rather use it. When you finish, just flat pack them down. No more need for random cardboard boxes. Very impressed.

The last but least storage are BILLY bookcases. Easy to put together,shelves can be adjusted to your needs and one little secret if you go for white option you save somewhere between £15-30 compare to the rest of the range. Since everything in my room is white, it makes it all look bigger even with so much in.

Just to be clear, I have not been  given any items above or asked to write about it. I just simply find them practical and on the budget,ideal for someone in a similar situation as me.

Back tomorrow. Kat

Day 29: New lot of Posts and Blogs I like!63 days to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends:

I better get this post out quickly as I am starting to feel quite sleepy. I ended skyping up last night with my very good friend, who currently lives in Belgium, pretty much in the middle of nowhere less than an hour from Brussels. We finished at nearly 3am, when I was falling asleep on my keyboard. He is pretty much the male version of me. So if you are reading my blog, you get the idea quickly of what sorts of intellectual chats we have wondering about our love lives, spontaneous journeys out and about around the world and by the locals back home labeled as the weird foreign ones. So anyway that meant today as one of my very few days off in the last few weeks I ended up cleaning my room, doing washing and slowly pottering around the house. I managed to wrap those beautiful presents for my beautiful little girls, when I was their au pair and hoping to send them tomorrow. The wrapping paper was really cool (bought in WHSmith) and really made me want to get some presents myself (thinking oooh it is my nameday soon!) If you are wondering what is nameday, it is a day when all the people of the same name celebrate the day. And of course you get your birthday and we also celebrate the 1st June – Children’s Day. Schools usually prepare fun games and there is no teaching, just playing and fun going on. Oh lucky those Czechs. So with nameday just to finish the idea, when you are a child it is considered small or equally same celebration with cake and presents as your birthday. As you get older, it is a really good excuse to go out and let your hair down. You do not expect too many presents, it is more about socializing. We have a calendar with names for each day, so perhaps I could do a post if people tell me/send me an e-mail with their names, I can prepare a post and give you a reason to go out. I bet now you are all excited. Let me have a little think about, but feel free to start sending your names in.

I also did a bit of social networking and reading through my blog and post notifications, which arrived in my mailbox over the last seven days. I tried to increase the number of Post I like you can actually see, but WordPress won’t let you see more than 15. When I counted them, I discovered I like 29 of them. That is a lot of love for 7 days!!! (Blame the Maison Bentley Style Party-  no, no I am only joking, obviously that was great as it spreads the message about other bloggers much faster).

I have a little surprise for all the fashion bloggers tomorrow since I went through the whole list and most of them were fashion themed. So I guess prepare yourself for the worst since I am the opposite of fashionista. I though I will be writing a post with my take on fashion…

So here is what I enjoyed this week:

Learner Mother

http://learnermother.co.uk/2013/10/27/on-life-being-precious/

http://learnermother.co.uk/2013/10/27/silent-sunday-27-10-13/

http://learnermother.co.uk/2013/10/25/on-a-night-at-the-beach/

http://learnermother.co.uk/2013/10/18/on-beach-days-in-pembrokeshire/

http://learnermother.co.uk/2013/09/02/bring-on-september/

The Culture Monk

http://culturemonk.com/2013/10/25/stupid-cheerful-really/

http://culturemonk.com/2013/10/29/what-do-women-really-want/

http://culturemonk.com/2013/10/26/stealing-babies-really/

http://culturemonk.com/2013/10/22/it-sucks-to-be-alone-really/

http://culturemonk.com/2013/10/23/when-it-disappears-really/

Blog Party:

http://maisonbentleystyle.com/2013/10/27/welcome-to-the-maison-bentley-style-blog-paaardy/

http://cocktailsandcountrytales.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/welcome-to-the-maison-bentley-style-blog-party/

http://maisonbentleystyle.com/2013/10/28/thank-you-xxx/

fashion:

http://fashionmayann.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/philip-johnson/ and http://fashionmayann.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/lindt/ 

http://cocktailsandcountrytales.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/buying-a-mulberry-handbag-and-the-importance-of-shopping-ethically/  (very special like for this one, as I got inspired to soon write about my frugal experience I had in the past. )

http://fashionwithfeli.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/maison-bentley-style-blog-party/ (I follow the blog) 

Interiors, home decor, arty things:

http://chasspain.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/atmosphere-francaise-a-melbourne/img_2897/

http://myasmusings.com/2013/10/01/9-diy-embellished-pumpkins/ (I follow the blog)

http://myasmusings.com/2013/10/23/organizing-your-craft-supplies/

http://myasmusings.com/2013/10/29/how-to-style-a-barcart/

http://ashleyadores.com/2013/10/09/travel-log-lacma-lampposts-104/

http://bulanlifestyle.wordpress.com/sketch-a-day-challenge/sketch-of-animal-french-bulldog/ (I follow the blog)

http://bulanlifestyle.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/sketch-of-the-day-181-stencil-on-cupboard-live-by-the-sun-love-by-the-moon/

Literature:

http://jackiemallon.com/2013/10/17/bridget-jones-is-in-my-office/

not sure how to label it:

http://kukolina.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/weekend-photo-challenge-week-7-how-do-you-feel-about-posing/

http://kukolina.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/would-you-take-a-baby-to-a-party/

http://longandluxe.com/2013/10/11/of-mermaids-secrets/

Blogs:

http://kittnoir.wordpress.com/

http://aspoonfulofstyle.co.uk/

Day 21: Week three review and my favourite blogs& posts! 71 days to go!

Kat doodles about life and recommends:

Right today I should be reviewing my week, but I want to tell you about my favourite posts and blogs, so this will be super quick! I am on fire right about now! I have been productive or creative or both for the last 21 days and then managed to write about it, which in my eyes is special for definite. I had some lows such as passing out in hospital on Tuesday, but the rest of the week has been definitely on high. There are four different art projects I am suddenly putting my hands on, spreading myself over the internet, and just simply networking with other people in real life. It all feels lot more natural and somehow working. I have 71 days left to find myself full-time creative job within theatre design, interior design or any 3D spatial based industry or become fully self-employed. It is weird that somehow things have moved on quicker in the last three weeks then in the last three years since I graduated. There must be something about how people see you, how do you come across and in what way how you put yourself out there. I cannot explain it, but I hope you get what I mean. Anyway last thing to say to sum up this week is I celebrated nine years of living in Britain and today made group of retired ladies in a nursing home listen to me reading the post about it out loud after they finished their Monday afternoon quiz. Since I don’t see my grandmother very often, it is nice to hang out with them at least, and if it makes their day special, so why not to do a good thing. Plus they really (apparently) enjoyed it and clapped at the end. Very sweet of them!

I have added a new feature to my blog page. You can see ‘Posts I Like’ (Go to Appearance-Widgets-Posts I like)   now added to the left hand side column right at the bottom.  By being proactive for the last 21 days, I keep having about one new follower a day signing up to what I have to say. I have now 22 of them, how great is that!!! Thanks very much everybody! So I thought I would like to spread some love around, say Thank you for supporting me and let know the others about the great posts I get to read! Unfortunately some of them do not have Like button, but are worth mentioning. There are blogs, where I like the posts, but necessarily follow the page. It is because it is just not really my thing to read on ongoing basis, so please do not get offended. So here they are:

Learner Mother I have known Michelle Davis for years and always admiring her non stopping desire to do things. I guess when you have a husband (my now ex boss), two businesses two run and three children, there is not much of a choice. She writes about her life as a mum, her business ventures and house renovation and many other things. I just simply love her style of  writing, really useful advice she gives out and genuine interest of what is going on and how to help. My favourite blog posts recently are  On sleeping teeshirts, On Credit Unions and On SW Broadband. If you like, you can follow Learner Mother as a blog and get e-mails from her. She won’t appear in my Posts I like, since she went self hosting, but she is working on how to get it back, so her posts can be liked. If anyone knows how to do it , I am sure you will praise you for telling her.

MasonBentleyStyle MasonBentley is a London based fashion label set up by Anna Mason and Kate Bentley. I think the main blogger is Kate, who started following my blog and although I am not really that fashion kind of person, I fall in love with her style of writing.  It connects fashion with the real world out there and makes it more I guess human is the word. Today’s post informed readers about splitting up the blog and label, but there are new plans, so I am sure there is lot more great work to be seen from both of them even they part separate ways. My recent favourite posts are A special day x talking about IVF, loosing babies and her daughter celebrating 7th birthday. Very moving! To the point it brought tears to my eyes. And the other one I really enjoyed is The Weekend x. Kate went to vintage fair in London, there are some really great photographs and I am sure lot more to see if you are a fan of this style.

The Culture Monk Kenneth Justice is blogging about I guess the life and people’s behaviour. He is reacting to everyday situations and putting it into wider prospect. When you look at his page, he has fairly big following, which indicates he must be doing something right. Since Kenneth started to follow my blog and I started following his, I really enjoyed these posts:  Just Today Please…REALLY???. He’s just too into you… Really???, I thought We We’re Gonna Be Friends Forever…..What happened??

and here are few posts or blogs I enjoyed, but don’t necessarily follow.

The World’s Top 10 Best Ever Kit Kat Cakes. Blogger Russell also made me laugh when reading his little About, which comes in with e-mail notification, when he started following my blog: ” It is my job to make Websites famous! Maybe I could even help your blog to grow? But if you are reading this because I started following your blog then your blog doesn’t need it because it is already pretty awesome otherwise I wouldn’t follow it, and it is as simple as that.”How brilliant, you made my day Russell!

Nurse Reveals Top 5 Regrets People Make on Their Death Bed   That doesn’t really need much explaining…

Reasons Why You Should Travel While You are Young ItsRonEvan’ s blog about travels, adventures and tips.

A life less organised  Lovely and cute little blog full of reviews where to eat, drink and enjoy yourself in Bristol. It arrived in my e-mail account yesterday evening, so I haven’t had much chance to discover it properly, but it is written with love and certainly that personal critical touch. There are few sections about pub crawls in little areas of Bristol discovering all the local ciders and ales. If you like to be out and about I certainly recommend to follow nettastrophe’s blog.

Stay tuned for more blogs and posts in the future and if you share or follow my blog (www.katdesigner.wordpress.com) or like my Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/kat.portfolio), I will be over the moon! Thank You! Back tomorrow Kat xx

Day 8: Costume scrapbook, part two! 84 days to go!

Kat doodles and recommends:

So today’ post is a bit late. I did the actual creative part on Tuesday as I was suppose to, just run out of time to post about as I went out for the evening. If you live in Bristol, there is always something going on and although my weekends are dedicated to work and during the week I prefer to meet up with friends for a quiet drink rather then standing somewhere loud doing  whatever you feel comfortable with under the expression “night out”. I went to a gig of the band Lanterns on the Lake in Rise, record shop, which is also known as Friska cafe  at the Clifton Triangle. They had a problem with the sound at the beginning, but it got fixed, but just I as I was just getting into enjoying it, they stopped. It only lasted half an hour, but it was worth it. It is very dreamy sounding music, very instrumental, mellow and lovely to hear. The lead singer is certainly very talented, she has that little girl’s voice, not quite sure how you call it, and although she was shy at the beginning, by the end she was cracking jokes about alarms. Personally I think it was freezer or fridge telling the owners of the cafe, the temperatures are getting higher then they should be. Who knows what it was…  Anyway if you fancy listening to Lanterns on the Lake in full on gig, they are playing next Thursday in Thekla or simply checkout their web or Youtube.

So on the day of me supporting someone else’s creativity, this is what I have done… There were still few more images to be glued in into my costume crapbook, so I have taken five more photographs, so you can get more inspiration what to put in.

Tomorrow I will be catching up with a blog post, which should have been posted tonight, but it will be all about challenges and feedback  people have given me. Stay tuned, with love Kat xxx

Badaude: Street Style Sofia

Kat recommends:

So I am sitting on the train to work and as I pick up one of those newspapers from nearby seat and flicking through The Times, my attention is suddenly crossed by one bright funky illustration.

Baduade: Street Style Sofia

I guess even more than the illustration was the name Sofia written at the top. I lived in Bulgarian City for three months during my Erasmus Exchange in my second year of Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff and I loved it so much You cannot even imagine. It was the place where I truly felt happy again about year and half after my father died. I could simply be simply be myself as my Eastern European roots were grown in similar ways and I was cocooned in this magical world of the past.

I started to study the illustration and couldn’t believe Badaude mentioned National Academy of Arts on Vasil Levski Bulevard, because that is where the main building is and has its own nickname Shipka. I used to study at one of those beautiful old broken buldings on bulevard Tsarigradsko shose surrounded by greenery and wonderful views as our scenograghy studio was on the top floor.

Every morning I walked through this path, which runs along the Tsaregradsko shose bulevar. Academy is hiding right at the end.

Academy hiding behind the trees in still cold days of early spring.

That was the first thing, which came to my mind looking at the pictures of three funky dressed like ladies and reading Baduade’s comments. I wondered who she is, so I found her blog.

It is full of lovely Illustrations, drawings and her I guess the story of her artistic journey. She started blog in July 2006 and since then came a long away.  She even published her own book. There is actually too much to say and I will have to dedicate more time to this wonderful young lady and checking out her work. She draws anything, anywhere on anything. Yes from drawing naked ladies in crowded cafe to drawing pretty things on tents at festivals. I know what are thinking? What? Drawing on tents??? Oh yes!!!

So Thank You Baduade for brightening up my day and bringing back happy memories of Sofia.

Filmmaker to watch!

Kat recommends (to watch):

One of my best friends Jan Sipek, who is a filmmaker and I believe a genius and workaholic too, recommended me a book, which changed my life quite recently. It’s called Getting Things Done. Don’t worry I will dedicate one whole post to it.  But now I want to tell you about Jan. You will find his filmography at  http://eldar.cz/kangaroo/filmy/  and I certainly recommend to watch his award winning film Fighting the brain. He is the one to watch and I am sure You will hear about him in the future.

source: http://dafilms.com/film/7711-souboj-s-mozkem/

Everyday life in a drawing.

Kat recommends:

My friend Amanda is interested in the area of Pontcanna in Cardiff and she recently started new art project. If You would like to check out her illustrations catching everyday life in this pretty part of Cardiff go to http://www.amandabathory.com/

Source: http://www.amandabathory.com/

Upcycling!

Kat recommends:

Talking upcycling, check out blog recommended by my friend Alice, who is an interior designer  http://greenfancy.blogspot.co.uk Interesting ways how to turn old maps for example into hot looking lampshades.

Source: http://greenfancy.blogspot.co.uk/