My friend's puppetry!

The street Fair in Orange is getting closer (this weekend!) and as always I'm not feeling ready at all.. My creative spark has been with me a lot lately and there are a lot of things in my mind but I'm having labor pains to push them out! I delivered some pretty cool things but I feel like I still have many babies inside of me struggling to come out to life! (OK, why am I comparing having babies with my creating process? am I evaluating or something?)

Anyhow.. Today I want to tell you about a very dear friend of mine, from my college in back home Turkey. Her name is Asuman Subay, and she is one of the most successful people graduated from our department of Set and costume Designs (also with the best hair). She opened a studio in one of the coolest places in Istanbul (Beyoglu/Taksim) where she creates her fab puppets of different kinds, and give drawing courses to the students who wants to pursue fine arts. She also excepts custom orders to make a very own puppet version of yourself! Isn't that cool?



In my recent trip to Istanbul, I stopped by her studio, intrupting her working for an upcoming exhibition (how rude ehh?). She was so happy to see me (duh!) , and even made me my latest favorite thing in the world: Mastic flavered Turkish coffee (yumm).


We talked about the economical and pilitical issues going on in the world, and what can we do about it. *snort* Not really.. We mostly had fun doing a photo shoot with her puppets and gossiping about out past classmates and what everyone is up to. It was one of those days that I know I will remember when I go back to U.S. and have a broken smile on my face, saying;
'I wish America was as close as Europe to Turkey, so I'd go to Istanbul at least once in a couple months!' for the 1000th time in my life.


Following week I was at her exhibition!


Here is her website; click here

She also has a facebook group 'Su Sanat Kukla Atolyesi' with more than 400 members, join in if you like to see more of her work and hear about the updates!


Love,
Derya

My friend's puppetry!

HELLOOOo..oooo.. ooo..oo.o............

I can almost hear my voice echoing in my poor little corner of abandoned cyberspace! Can't believe how long I've been absent, but hey I'm human and believe me "not a perfect one" for sure! Long story short, I traveled and traveled (has been in Istanbul/ Turkey-my country- for 2 months!), needed some time off from everything (including my Etsy shop), had some up and down times, did a lot of thinking and a lot of more thinking, a little couch time with a sleepy face, some arguing with myself and then kissing-making up with myself again etc. Yep! Alll regular human stuff.. lol

Meanwhile I've been visiting my blog, thinking about what I should post about, realizing there are TONS so get overwhelmed and click back to another webpage. Well, now it is not one of those days so I clicked to the 'new post', yayy! I already feel like accomplish something.. ;)

OK enough of explaining myself I think.. :P I had a fabulous time in Turkey! My brother got married, so there was his wonderful lovely wedding. Although my hair looked pretty bad (whatever the hell they sprayed on it, it looked so unnatural rock like thing that I couldn't resist keep touching to surprise myself with the weird foreign feeling everytime!) my dress was pretty and I had a lot of fun. Annnnnd after the wedding, I and my mom with a group of lady friends of her, we went to Cyprus for a week long vacation, wohooo! That was relaxing, fun and the sea was beautiful.. Overall a very therapatic time we had there. When I got back to Istanbul, I was out everyday EVERYDAY either with my friends, family or relatives, I don't remember being that social for years! I even met with a group of my elemantary school friends which I haven't seen for almost 20 years! Also highschool friends as well.. I was so social I even lost weight! (that was one of the best parts)

There are ton of photographs from my travelings, I don't even know which ones to put here *sigh* it'll be hard! Ohhh before I forget, when I got back to U.S. I and my husband also had a trip to Seattle for 5 days. That was also sooooooo awesome, I always knew I'd love it there and I was right! I have tons of cool photos from there also!

Hmmmmm... Am I missing anything else?? YEP! I'll have a show next week, yupppiiii! It'll be in downtown Orange, International Festival one! There is gonna be food, artists, music too (I think) etc. Friday- Saturday- Sunday event! (kinda scary yes!) I found some really cool display items from my last salvation army trip, I have to take photos soon to show you.

What else, what else?... Well.. My etsy shop is looking pretty empty now, I haven't updated it for a while as you can imagine. :/ The floors need a good sweep, and I need to get rid of the spider webs too.. Once this show is over, I'll do a nice come-back I promise! I'm already making so many new and exciting pieces, so I'm planing to put them in my shop right after the show!

If you are close by, pleasestop by to see me there! I'll be sharing a booth with other 2 jewelry designers from Etsy! Elsiee and melissaloschy

Muah muah for now lovelies.. :) I'll be back soon..

Derya

1. P.S. The photos are from my Istanbul trip.

2. P.S. I decided to eat healthier, and especially after reading that book called 'Skinny Bitch'
I decided to challenge myself to be vegetarian for 30 days as trial period.. It's been going very well, and I'm not having a hard time so far.. I'll update you about that also in my upcoming posts.

HELLOOOo..oooo.. ooo..oo.o............

My latest shopping spree & what's up with me lately!

Bloom in Black Headband is from ChristineCecelia
(sorry for the bad photo, it was taken by a phone!)

Time is passing by so fast, it is crazy! I've been preparing mentally and shoppingly (I just created a new word as I often do!) for the last few weeks for my trip to Turkey! As some of you know I'm originally from the beautiful city of Istanbul in Turkey, and my whole family lives there, so I go and visit them about once a year. Now, that 'once a year' time has come again, but with a little extra reason for me as a 'have to go' this time, which I don't complain of course.. My brother is getting married, yayy! So, most of my shopping was about the very important part about his wedding; 'what am I going to wear??'..

Thankfully with the help of my friend/fellow jewelry designer/stand by mama (a hot one)/personal therapist/shopping buddy/personal stylist Elsie, it was a fun and a little exhausting but with a happy ending experience! The exhausting part was because -from my understanding-; most of the designers of evening dresses have the mentality/assumption of a woman who is going to wear those dresses would want to reveal their boobies! So most of the dresses I tried and actually really liked was too low cut, after tens of trying, I found myself thinking about getting one of those and add a lace or something to cover the 'decolletage' area, out of desperation! Finally and thankfully I found a very nice and sophisticated dress that fit me well and didn't need curtains for the window! *wink wink*

Along the way, since I was already in the shopping mood and my antennas were working perfectly for spotting potential items to purchase, I got a few extra pretties not related to the wedding at all! ;) It wasn't limited just with the local stores, Etsy had it's role too of course in this spree!

I'm leaving this Sunday by the way, and I'll be in Turkey for 7 weeks!! The idea of leaving my honey behind all that time hurts, I already miss him, so this week is going very emotional for me, spiced up with tears and all, mostly sudden or when watching a love scene on the T.V. or even simple commercials.. :/ Then I comfort myself by reminding all the bead shopping I will do at my favorite places in Istanbul, all the partying with friends I'll have, and the wedding of course! So, I wipe my tears off with the back of my hand and get calm.. I know I'm mean like that sometimes! :P

Back to the FUN subject; shopping.. Besides my new favorite headband that you see at the top of this post, I have some other goodies to share with you;

This is my latest #1 skincare product; Rose water cleanser by UnicosCauldron . I have been looking for a all natural cleanser for my face with rose water for a while, and I came accross her shop on Etsy. I ordered and tried the sample size first, and loved it! Especially the fact that it is not only a cleanser but it is a moistruzer as well. The humactant ingredient in it pulls the moistrure from the air and locks it on your skin. I reccomend it if you have dry skin, or combination skin like me!

And these are my favorite new sandals I fell in love at first site at Nordstrom while shopping for my dress! I got the black one!


Aaaand these are my HIGHs from Forever 21, YES I can walk in them but not too long! :P


Much love!!

Derya

My latest shopping spree & what's up with me lately!

Welcome!

I've been wanting to start a blog for a while now, and here I am. Welcome to me and welcome to you! ;)

What you will find in my little corner here is simply some mirroring from my life; ongoing projects as a jewelry artist (or on my other medium art works), my inspiration elements, daily dreams or quotes, books that I like, a trip to somewhere etc.

Shortly about me; I'm a 27 year old Turkish girl, originally from the beautiful city of Istanbul/Turkey (Yes, the old Constantinople, as in the song!), who currently lives in CA, has studied fashion in high school, set and costume design in College, and 2 years of interior design school (not finished, man those general ed classes!). I always have a huge passion of learning different kind of artistic mediums/techniques, so I kind of have issues with focusing on just one thing! Jewelry designing takes most of my time though...

English is my second language, so I must warn you; you may see some errors on my writing here! This reminds me a little funny thing I experienced in the past; when I was listing some of my jewelry designs on the net, I was referring to some of them as 'This necklace would look great if worn with a night gown!' . I did that a lot until I got a comment from a very nice lady who viewed my listing and told me that I must have meant 'evening gown' not 'night gown' (like we wear to go to bed)! Haha! I was of course embarrassed but very appreciative. :)

I think this is enough for an entrance, you will get to know me better by time as my posts build up! I hope you enjoy reading about me, my life and interests. I always love comments, and interacting with different personalities, so you are always welcome to pop in and drop a 'hello' to me! :)

P.S. The photos are from my city Istanbul, taken on my last trip (April/May 2008).

Welcome!