World Lullabies

Soir means Evening.

 

 

image by Mark Riboud

 

To me 'evening' is one of the most beautiful words in the English language-- just the sound of it makes me think of a time to relax and unwind from a long day.

 

However,our newest creation, my son Aydin, has made evening a bit of an adventure... to say the least. :)

 

To appease this little tike and get some peace in the process, my husband and I did some searching for lullabies, in his native language: Turkish, and in mine: Arabic. We came across something lovely that kept us searching different nationalities and seeing these connections of cultures all expressing a little about their heritage or ways of life thru a simple song...

 

Here are a few examples and I hope that they may help any parents out there to get their little ones to sleep..
 

 

African Lullaby

 

Turkish Lullaby

 

 

Armenian Lullaby

 

Arabic Lullaby

 

And if anyone has any others to share please do!! :)))

Home Fronts

If I had a million dollars, besides buying a lot of fancy catsup, I would have a beautiful home taking ideas from these lovely abodes..


check out the fantastic green 'living wall'  how it connects the exterior to the inside- Suzuki would be so proud.


no bad chi in an oval house...from artechnic architects



this fantastic flooring reminds me a little of snake skin, or one finish that has worn away to reveal another.


lovely stair storage for all your kitchen stuff (images above from Oui)


I love the open-ness of this space it makes me want to start placing my own furniture in there.
(image above from got Arch)


from the same home, this exterior glazed tile is just beautiful.

okay lastly-not a house for you or me- but God... and a strange one at that...



I don't know about you but this is kind of freaking me out..
(deconstructed photo of a church-by Michael Jantzen)

Summer Fun

Okay, okay, I know I said in the last post I would get back to Design fun, but did I also mention I might talk about food from time to time? Well, at the beginning of the summer I purchased half a share of a farmer's crop and every week we recieve different types of organic vegetables and eggs from them. Every week is usually a surprise - we never know what we are going to get, or how much we will get.

 This last week I recieved the mother of all zucchinis- and it was an adventure trying to think of some good ways to use this vegetable (or is it a fruit?? it has seeds??) Anywho- I shredded the heck out that zuke and then divided up into three portions.

For the first attempt I made a very typical Turkish dish called Mujver or Zucchini Fritters and the recipes goes like this:

5-6 small firm zucchinis, grated  (makes ~4 cups)
3 eggs
1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
2-3 tbsp or 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint (depending on how much you like mint)
3-4 green onions, finely chopped
1 cup white cheese/feta
1 tbsp paprika
salt
black pepper
~1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup olive oil for frying

-Put grated zucchini in a colander. Sprinkle with salt and let drain for 10 minutes. Squeeze and place in a bowl.
-Mix well all the ingredients except for flour and frying oil.
-Add flour in slowly and mix well.
-Heat oil in a frying pan. On medium drop scoops of Mujver mixture in hot oil. Make sure they don't touch.
-Fry them on each side until golden brown, 4-5 minutes.
-Drain excess oil by placing fritters on paper towels.
-Serve with plain yogurt or garlicy yogurt sauce. For garlicy yogurt sauce beat every 1 cup of yogurt with 1 clove of minced garlic.

 

 

Then I decided to make a savory zucchini cheese bread with walnuts- it's my mother-in-law's recipe, which she makes superbly :)

The recipe:

-3 eggs

-1 cup yogurt

-1/2 cup canola oil

-1 cup grated cheese (mozzerella or cheddar is fine or even feta)

-2 1/2 cups self-raising flour

-1/2 cup grated zucchini

-3 green onions diced

1 tbsp of dried oregano

1 tbsp of sesame seeds and  1 tbsp of caraway seeds for sprinkling on top)

 

Mix all of the ingredients together and pour in a greased glass 9x12 pan at 375 degrees for 40 minutes

 

 

 and lastly a more typical sweet zucchini bread but with cocoa added and chocolate chips (and walnuts- I went to Costco, so I had ALOT of walnuts :))

 2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups zucchini, grated
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup bakers chocolate, chopped (optional)

Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon together.

Combine eggs, oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat until well mixed. Add the flour mixture from the waxed paper. Mix until smooth. Add chocolate and nuts and mix. Pour mixture into a greased 13x9x2" pan or if you have a similar size just check with a toothpick until it comes out clean.

Bake at 350ºF for 40 minutes.

 okay that was fun--Bon Apetit!

DIY Part II - This time it's personal.

Okay, I'm back with more fun.. I had a brief stint DIY-ing stuff around my home. I found some chairs someone was going to throw away. Here they are:

They weren't bad looking just old and worn. I also didn't care for the wood stain color, or the seat material for that matter. After cleaning it until I was satisfied all the cooties it might possibly have were gone, I removed the seat and sanded down the frame. I then painted the chair frames a bright cherry red. After it dried I painted over the red with an espresso brown --not very evenly, so the red still popped thru in areas.

I had found an interesting quilted fabric that had a worn looking print of flowers that I liked..

and Voila! There's my big ole' reveal..

I think they look nice on either side of the fireplace, don't you?? :)

Alright I think my next entry we'll get back to some of the best of the oddest of design and environmental endeavours...
until next time!

A little on the home front

Okay, this is just a little experiment. I want to show a little of the projects I do at home for fun.

Ikea has some wonderful patterned fabric--it's not  always something you might put on a sofa, but some large images that are whimsical and colorful-

so my bare stair landing needed some interest...

I bought a couple of yards of a few of the larger scale patterned fabrics and played with them in couple areas that needed some love...

The stair landing:
I took an old poster frame and cut the fabric the size of the poster's image and voila!

I will be adding more to that wall as i get more inspiration...

(Forgive the bad picture, It's hard to get a good angle for the stair-- and yes, that is a brick wall view from our window- but hey at least I can look into the neighbor's house, just 5 feet away :p )

I also needed to clean up our entry with some fresh paint and kid's storage--nothing too fancy and or expensive,

so I took out the ikea fabrics and made the simplest pillows I could with my limited sewing skills- painted the whole space a neutral beige with a slightly glossier finish for ease in cleaning.

ikea also has these panel dividers that are meant to be hung as a divider between rooms, i cut one into three pieces to make curtains for the entry sidelites and window and...

Voila!

I needed some artwork so i painted an old canvas with similar colors from the pillows, and a flower to match the panel fabric..

notice the pillows are different? i started with a big long pillow and kept playing around until i was satisfied with two smaller ones...Btw, the mirror is just an outdoor mirror from Canadian tire that was about $30, and the leather storage bench everyone has seen before - from Zellers for under a $100.

alright tune in tomorrow, you'll see what i did with these ugly chairs:

Yarn Bombing and Happy Yellow

Well, I haven't posted anything in a while (had a baby and am finding not much time these days), but I am hoping to be back on more often!

So, while were on the subject of kids, check out this design and arts center for underpriveledged children in Thailand, designed by the architectural firm Sparch :





love this Swiss cheese facade..


and this yellow.. If I'm not mistaken, I think Feng Shui describes golden yellow as symbolic of health and well being, I wonder if the children who utilize this space feel that way too... (not sure what cow hide does, however :))






and lastly check out this fantastic installation in Seattle, Wa. from Suzanne Tidwell, it's called Yarn Bombing, it's an example of a new art movement where you knit unlikely objects in often public places, I've seen this around Uptown Waterloo, recently as well.

I love Green...and everything in between..

Spring is here and I am reminded just how much I love the sight of new things growing and of course the color green.




Images above  from Young House Love

Clothing store Zara recently commisioned an installation of 3,000 pear, quince and cherry blossoms to commemorate the opening of their new store in New York:



(images above from Saipua)

some really lovely interiors images:






(images from Emily Johnston Anderson)

 And lastly, check out this famous (green) Siren:

Starbucks has opened a new concept store in Amstredam where it's not only trying out a new look- it's trying out new types of brewing and coffees.:


(looks fun to me, and of course there's..mmmm.. coffee..:))
(image above from Business Insider)

Small is Big...:)

A while back I posted an entry about Micro Homes and wanted to expand on the subject with some additional images of small spaces...

take a look at the following examples of a simpler way of life:




this 'greenhouse' above is from Kekkila Garden, it's a prefabricated shed that's available in many configurations.. it looks like it may get mighty uncomfortable on a sunny day, but it still looks idyllic in the midst of all that forest..


This feels more treehouse than home, but I still like it.


nothing like an orange cabin to brighten your surroundings.



(images above from Apartment Therapy)
this home above makes me happy, in a Lake House sort of way..I'm just expecting Keanu to come and tell me that he's from the future, or was it the past?? Never understood that movie's logistics...