Alva Noto

As I'm little bit delayed with posting, I have something I wanted to tell you about a few weeks ago. 


Someone might say we are crazy people at the Supermedia studio, and I assure you that after reading this, you might think that too.  I consider myself as a lover of music with beautiful lyrics and pure melodies, sounds right from heart. On the other hand I can listen almost everything, even music what is simply pissing me off, and my big passion is electronic music (might have something to do with my running). 
So it happened that David and Federico let us know about upcoming concert of one, well how to say that, musician? We reserved ticket for those who wanted to see this pure electronic performance live and we went for a trip. 

 I was little bit skeptical, how the hell I will be able to listen this for an hour? I like it on youtube where it's short, but what about live performance? Dear friends, we sit to the chairs in one theatre, light went off and suddenly, out of the dark I felt just one simple beat coming through my body. 50 minutes of my body just vibrating and watching stripes layered one on each other. Absolutely pure visualization of sounds he was making. Only if Alva Noto didn't look like he needs to pee - some people really have funny dance moves.

 I cleared my mind, felt alive for awhile... I highly recommend to get your asses out of the house and go to feel some subwoofers. For a happier world.

What A Tool! Happy Holidays!

Good morning to everyone!

I wanted to do some special Christmas look on my blog, I wanted to make PF card, I wanted to write you guys Merry Christmas! But I went to my parents house and forgot my power cord in Prague... So now I will have busy time to make it in couple days. I'll do my best and I'll do it for you! At least I can promise that. 

How was your Christmas by the way?

 Any good stories? 

No? 

Seriously?

Nobody? 

Confession Of Teaholic

 I have to confess that I'm having an addiction to tea. I love all kinds of tea and I have a lot in my secret drawer. It's not necessary a bad thing, because when I want to drink something refreshing, I go for the fruit one, when I want to feel cozy I usually choose green or earl grey. And as a student of art, I also love good design, so I've been more than nicely surprised when I found new adorable design of tea boxes from Marks&Spencer. I was trying to find a designer, but I failed. My searching skills are not as I wish them to be, obviously. At least a picture.

 And while I'm already talking about drinking tea, comes to my mind, that you need a good mug if you want to enjoy your cup of tea. I have a couple of mugs in my kitchen and for some reason they are all somehow broken. One is leaking from the bottom and my newest one has chipped top. Hand made mug, what a pity! I would need a fairy to fix all my broken mugs. 

 Ok we have tea, perfect mug and what else? Because drinking tea is ritual, that's for sure. Well I'm from the city of ginger bread so I love the flavor of ginger, anise and honey... ginger bread is  perfect choice. Well since I have the dough in the fridge still, I had to buy one, so I went to Ikea and got their traditional swedish ginger bread cookies. I love their cookies! and seems like I'm nicely set up for a break of teaholic. And how do you enjoy your cozy moments? 

Getting a Bit Closer To Exams...

 Students' life is easy when you look at it from the perspective of someone who's not a student, but let me tell you something, it's one of the hardest things I know in my life. Just imagine this: you have to get up early because of the morning class, than you go get some cheap food because as a student you really can't afford eating at the restaurant every day. The other task day gives you is to wait three hours for another class, well you can spend it in the library, playing games, working on your homework, there's no such point of going home for half an hour and than travel by public transportation back to school. Late in the afternoon you go home and try to learn something because your exams are getting closer and you have to take care of all "To Do's"
 Well in the art schools it's little bit different. You don't have get up so early every single day, but you certainly get home very late. You can make your own schedule with some classes, like for example drawing and go there when it's most convenient for you. Other classes might seem very easy since you are not sitting in the desk listening some boring lecture about current situation in economy. The point of our classes is to discuss works, ideas and push each other further. Yes who wouldn't like this comparing to the other, but on the other hand, it can be quite frustrating. You come up with idea, idea, which you think is great and you start to talk about it and argue about it and than they will shut your idea down, or at least make you think it's the biggest piece of crap. And this repeats another meeting, and another and than you are just drowned, leaving school with bad thoughts. And you know it's harder and harder to get back there and tell something because of the fear again. Is this really how it's going to work?
 I had this little dream to be exceptional, the youngest and feminine but still respected in the mostly male collective. Now I just want to succeed with exams and maybe next year I could do something exceptional. I started with personal topics and yeah I guess I'm working on it... but it hurts when someone says it's not interesting at all and it's the same all female artists do. I am woman, I think like a woman, there's no need for me to act like a man and why does it have to be just wrong? I'm sick of all this idea when woman uses feelings she's weak and lame.
 Anyway, here I am... writing a post instead of thinking how to do the project, because to be honest I am lost as I never was.

Night Photography

I got this idea little while ago... it was night and I had very unusual light in my room and since I couldn't fall asleep, I decided to take a picture of me, while sleeping. You know tripod and long exposure and here we go! Unfortunately the longest time of my camera's shutter speed is 30 sec. maybe if it was longer, I wouldn't have such a dark shots, but truth is it's suitable to the night. I just wish it would capture for example an hour. I guess I will have to go back to 1870... 

Way Too Much To Do And Nothing Is Done!

Well the title speak for itself. Semestral works with exams are getting closer by every day and I feel like I have nothing done. I'm used for different process from studying photography and since here it's all more about the concept, it feels like I really have nothing done. I'm just keep thinking and writing down my ideas  and thinking even more, but I feel stuck. With every consultation we have I feel worse and worse since they started to push more. I leave the school with thoughts that the idea was absolutely stupid and so am I. 
Well tomorrow again... Let's do some art. 

I've been doing some time management...

Winter In Prague

 Yesterday I've had the most awkward awaking so far, well except the one when my two neighbors woke me up at 3 a.m. having sex with some strange man. This time I woke up and looked out of my window. It was just all cover with snow! I didn't expect, that snow will last on the "heated" (I have heating right under it) window will keep the snow. I opened it and our "100 roofs of Mother Prague" were covered in snow, and since I live at the attic, my roof was too. Imagine or not, winter is back!
I like winter usually only at the beginning of the season and in February I start to curse, saying I want warm weather again. But isn't it beautiful to have the white snow everywhere? Days like these make me feel very cozy and stay in the bed and since I'm ill again, I had the chance to stay in bed and feel nice and warm. I made myself chicken soup and watched Twin Peaks, worked on some school projects and thought about getting an Etsy account. So with that, do you think it's a good idea? Selling my pictures and drawings or something else. Well I'll see what decisions future will bring.

So I will give you all good advice: Go get cozy, get a hot chocolate and cuddle with somebody you care for, if you can. 

T.

Long Time Again....

I know, I know.
I'm definitely not a good blogger.
Well at least some posts about what I've been doing. I should keep you updated.


So starting with pumpkin carving which I've done for the first time in my life. I've never eaten pumpkin pie and never carved a pumpkin. Well 20 years of age is probably good time to start, so I made up my mind and did it. And since I love Tim Burton this time of year (This is halloween, this is halloween, halloween, ...who wouldn't like it?) I got inspired and carved a little Jack's face. Mind you, I live in Czech Republic and we have no tools for this, except knives. Well maybe I could find some somewhere, somehow, in some special place, but honestly, what for? I think I did a good job with knife only.

And that was probably the only very free thing I've done. School and troubles were overtaking my life and I got little bit stuck. In any event, I had to do my homework, which was mostly drawing and preparation for drawing. I suck in this field and since my drawing class is just merged with all other studios like sculpting and painting, it makes my life harder. Imagine me standing in the class and drawing like a freshman at high school when everyone else is just doing absolutely admiring work. 

But to my homework. I had to draw lips... Well you can see result here:

Back To School

What a cliché to write that three words. I mean, if you follow some other blogs, you might have seen it for whole September. Sorry for that, next time I'll try to be more original...

Anyway it's true and I'm back in the process. You know, getting up early, going to sleep late, working for school, thinking of some ideas. Pretty exhausting, that's for sure. I have feeling like I haven't slept in a quite while. Of course I did. It's just that my body is not used to it.

Even I was expecting some kind of introduction, we were thrown to the system pretty quickly, started with figural drawing which I wanted to show you but I won't, since it didn't ended up well. The other things I could show you are still not done, except cleaning up the studio so.. you will have to wait...
Moment of honesty, I'm super excited about it...

YAY...

If you expected usual pics quality, well forget about it... It's a cell

Have a great day readers

Fashion In Magazines

Hello, hello readers. 

We have to talk! Let's talk about something what has been on my mind for quite awhile. 

Czech High Fashion. I never was one of these kids who went to Prague Fashion Week, but my mother made me to watch lame Czech version of some American Fashion TV News, and yes I have been watching these shows since I was able to understand what T-Shirt is. And as I got older... Not by much, I started to buy fashion magazines. I wasn't a big fan of Bravo girl or whatever it was, since the paper quality was really low and even without my photoshop education yet, I was horrified by their retouching. And one day it happened. First CosmoGirl came out, first magazine with at least comparable quality to my mother's magazines. I was having a blast and enjoyed every fashion spread in it. And no lies I was standing every month in Newspaper shop with money I had to beg for, just to buy new amazing issue. My mom just had to censure (by that I mean glue or rip out) the sex pages since it was inappropriate for my age... and believe me or not, she was doing it till I was 14. Like we didn't have internet, silly parents.

So as I was getting older, I stopped buying CosmoGirl and started to read magazines more for my age (yes I was still like 15)... Elle. It was good for me, since my mother and sister  have been buying it and I didn't have to buy it by myself. Well Ok... I'm fast reader (just magazines, even I love books, they take a little bit more) so it took me a day, and I got bored of it. But time to time I looked for fashion inspiration. After a year, I thought I'm in another level of education than my mother (I studied a fancy art school, which I loved very much) and I thought I am very sophisticated (teenager in Prague, living in a dorm, studying art? Not good combination) and I started to read political magazines, not that I was reading all articles. Well than I went through times when I was reading art magazines only etc. Now I don't read any of them. I just decided not to spend my missing money on something I don't want to keep. So I got my internet connection ready and started to read american vogue on the internet, well it's not exactly reading, but so what. And I started to follow some fashion blogs, art blogs, design blogs, food blogs, make-up blogs, hair style blogs, sport blogs and you know... I really just go through what I want to know and it doesn't cost me anything. One thing I can't deny to fashion magazines... their gifts...

 By the time my mothers fashion magazine mania, I collected some very pretty things. I got some ugly scarfs, some nice scarfs, some little make-up bags, what ended up in the trash because my mom brought better from work (who wouldn't want YSL bag over Max Factor, right?), I don't know what all I got, but it was quite few and you know what? Some of them were really good quality, even, it's a magazine gift for "free".  Well but now I want to get to the point of post today. 

 Last issue of Elle CZ offered a pretty big deal... T-shirt from Jakub Polanka, who's something like "hot stuff" designer over here. Well except the fact he's a handsome guy, I never got into his creations, but maybe comparing him with the rest of top fashion designers he does do things differently. Well I don't want to sound hateful, we have some pretty good fashion designers, but the problem here is, that we are still talking about small businesses. Nobody ever have done something like other great fashion designers did, well maybe except Baťa, but that was First Republic, by that time we were the most developed country in the old continent, unfortunately this amazing time lasted just for 9 years. It was between wars. Back to topic. My mom of course bought this magazine and gave me the t-Shirt. I have to say, for the first impression, it looks kind of cool... for the second and maybe not the one everyone would judge, but I do since I'm learning how to sew and I'm watching Project Runway (I feel so critical after that, I would really just judge everyone). Let me ask you question (and I would be really happy if you would answer to that in comments), what would you expect of getting from the best fashion designer in country 2010? 

 I would expect some quality, since it's a gift from designer and I would expect him to represent his brand. Not in the case of Jakub Polanka. First what I noticed, T-shirt was made in China. Not a big deal, I told myself. Lot of things are made in China, right? Second... the material is Rayon. It's one of the cheapest fabrics, and even it has some good qualities like it's draping, it also has bad qualities, it shrinks and has static issues... I don't even have to mention, that I actually got little electric shock and could hear cracking sounds as I was taking the t-shirt off. Rayon is made of cellulose, which sounds like a natural material, but the process how to make a fiber from cellulose is so chemically complicated that Rayon is considered as a synthetic fabric. Now to the design. 

I know now the last season was super popular this horrible 80's mode, but as I well researched, it won't take long and the next season will be very girly and very female. Shouldn't be fashion designer ahead a little bit? I like the idea of using this tee as a canvas and finishing the words, but that's about it. Now how it's actually made. Seams are literary falling apart, because they weren't finished and "locked", there are no hems, which is OK, it's part of design, I just hate these curly unfinished garments. When I am sewing, the most important thing for me is, that the parts actually fit to each other and there is not one of them longer or shorter... Not for mister Polanka... The front piece is longer than the back one, so it doesn't sit as it should and nobody even bothered to cut it. 

Why to do so, when it's curled right? I see another point, two seams have been sewed by this blue (my color as you know) thread, which I can see it as a designers intention, but WHY? I mean we can't actually see it until we turn the t-shirt on the wrong side, so is it just a hidden surprise? You might disagree with me, based on this was mass produced t-shirt for magazine. I get it, but my question is, should be top fashion designer sign under such a poorly made t-shirt? Maybe in Czech Republic.

Well I wrote enough today... I'm on my way to dream about someone who will actually raise the level of fashion here...
At least I got nice t-shirt for my upcoming drawing classes at VŠUP.

Love T.

My Little Night Rhapsody

I haven't had such a hard time to fall asleep in a long time. Suddenly I feel emotional and I have to think of what all happened in my life and how fast it goes. I used to love get up very early in the morning watching sunrise, when I was a small girl and actually I still do love that... Week ago it happened I got up early and on my window was this amazing pattern with absolutely gorgeous light and to be honest, it made my eyes watery. Maybe I'm gonna stay up just for the morning beauty... 

My Blues...

Holla readers. 

So summer is leaving us for good, well at least until next year, and I haven't talked much about what I've actually done during the summer. So except all traveling and enjoying myself, I actually practiced my knitting and sewing skills. I want to post pictures of what I've sewed so far, but I will be honest with you, I don't have any yet. So I guess I have to collect all my products and do little photoshoot for you guys because I would love to show you. (Well and I also have to finally put it on my BurdaStyle profile)

But let's talk about what I have and I'm able to present.

As you know, I got that beautiful electric blue dress I wrote about before. Thanks to that, blue became my favorite color for this summer. Last year I visited Greece and it's perfect they have this color on their flag. It's a blue styled country. I would love to share some pictures but I accidentally deleted them and I have only ones on facebook. Anyway I got these two pictures as a memory and believe me I haven't seen funnier old people. 

So they are sitting on my closet, watching me and making me laugh. Cute, huh?

Anyway when I was in Canada I bought myself yarns, just in case I was bored and my color choice was this amazing greek blue color, which makes me happy every time I take needles in my hands. It took me two months to get the cable knitted scarf into stage how it looks now, but unfortunately it's still not done and I will surprise you with the length and final design. 

To add something, when I was in Montreal with Rob, we had to make decision about colors we want to paint his apartment. Try to guess what color we got for bedroom... BENTLEY BLUE!!!

And now back at home, my daddy asked me if I could sew him some little bags for dry lavender flowers.

(We have herbal garden since herb became passion in my family)

So I was looking for some fabric I could use and I found this blue vintage plead fabric with little red/white flowers. My mother probably bought it in 80's and used it for some horrible blouse for my sister and of course I had to wear it as well. Nothing better than use it for cute little bags, with natural rope... what do you think?

So I guess that's all from me for today. 

Let me know what do you think!

Tereza

P.S. Check out new blog about my running adventure... for english version click here and for the czech one here!

Big Thanks To...

Dear readers.


14 days ago I realized what a bad blogger I've been. Didn't post for almost two months? That's unacceptable. I really do apologize and let me to fix it right now. 


As you probably know, I was enjoying my time in Canada, because I had to live every moment till the end. 
I created a nice home with my love, I was spending time with my most favorite family in the world and also trying to enjoy friends. Well and now I'm back... In Czech Republic, where my days now are mostly about sewing, knitting, preparing for school and already missing my summer. 


But what is my point today? I want to thank all my special friends in Canada! Josie and Tomáš, because they always are my family in the other side of ocean, Bryan and Al for invitation to their absolutely amazing wedding and all the fun we had in Canada's Wonderland, Rob's Mom for being so nice and warm to me, Kylie and her amazing family, for having me for absolutely fantastic afternoon, Candice for being so friendly and nice to me and making up the party, Christopher for all the fun BBQs and mostly for helping us move to Montreal and being VERY PATIENT with us, Tom, Ivana,Graeme, Aleš, Jan, Sergey, Kseniya, Tyler, Martina, Lukáš, Jasmin, Jason, Dave for being such a great friends to hang out. And MOSTLY I want to thank my dear Rob, for being such an amazing man, partner and real support to me. I love you my dearest...


So as a little reminder to me and some sneak peak for you, here you are some pictures from my trip.

Pictures are courtesy of me and RG

Summer Heat & Knitted Fashion

Hot sun is keep digging in my skin and I have feeling that it goes right to my bones. Let me tell you, I'm looking forward to autumn again. I think it's my favorite time of a year anyway, well maybe spring could be concurrence. I spent my last september in Canada and I miss the weather those days here. I know, I'm back, but I'm leaving the last day of August, so maybe I'll miss nice cool weather here. Well, whatever.

At least I started to learn knitting, cooler days will come soon and I have to be prepared. 

Which reminds me another thing I wanted to share. I was reading through Vogue.com and found out that knitted goods are very actual for this fall/winter season. Right on time, don't you think? 

Dior - FW 2010

Dolce&Gabbana - FW 2010

Michael Kors - FW 2010

pictures 1-2 by RG

pictures 3-11 from www.style.com