Sunglasses and the City Hat

Fine! I admit it, when I bought the hat it wasn't officially summer but when I bought the sunglasses… well, that’s another story…

It was the end of May when my old sunglasses broke. It wasn't officially summer but it was 35°C in shade and the summer was obviously telling us this was how we’d play until September. So I was left without my favourite sunglasses and a few other pairs I had at home weren't gonna cut it. Blame it on the age, (im)maturity, whatever, but I needed the same (or extremely similar) pair. Since I bought them from a random street stall chances to find the same pair were close to none so the extremely similar pair it was. And thus the Big Sunglasses Search of 2014 began. It had to be this particular size, but they were all too small. It had to be this particular colour, but suddenly everyone made them pink. I needed them to have metal temples but suddenly everything was plastic. And not to forget I wanted all the UVA, UVB, ATM, USB, and the rest of the alphabet protections.

Long story short I found them, the extremely similar pair (of much better quality I must add). As I was standing in a checkout line, my heart still hurt for the old pair (my wallet also hurt a little for the price tag) and I was still wondering if the super glue was the better solution (it wasn't). It was a sunny Friday afternoon and I was happily testing the new extremely similar pair of better quality sunglasses on my way home, happy for the promising warm and sunny weekend. It started raining the next day… indefinitely…

So, tell me - this can't be only happening to me: if I buy a pair of sandals the great flood ensues; if I buy a pair of boots suddenly spring arrives right in the middle of December. If you say it does only happen to me you are all lying!

————————————————————————————————————————

Ok, I’m coming back after a few deep breaths with the story about the hat. This is a new type of hat discovered by moi, for toi (or it can stay just for moi and you do as you like it).

For example if this was a telemarketing commercial it would go something like this:

-Are you sick and tired of walking around town with that parasol of a wide rimmed hat on your head?

-Are you sick and tired of being late because you and your too wide rim of a wide rimmed hat couldn’t fit into a bus?

-Are you also sick and tired of lugging that same parasol/hat after the Sun goes down and you’d like to walk around on a pleasant evening for a little longer?

(I know there is more than one sane answer to this dilemma. Lady, buy a baseball hat or just stop lugging that monstrosity around etc. But for the sake of this tiny, barely sane thought experiment bare with me, don’t change the channel.)

We present to you The City Hat. It’s rim is significantly smaller than your standard boho wide rim so it won’t poke your fellow bus passengers in the eye. If you stop to look at a shop window at least three more ladies will be able to stand next to you and at least one more man will still be able to walk around you all. And when the Sun goes down you don't have to go home, just put your City Hat in your bag and you can continue your summer walk carefree and luggage free.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love my wide rimmed monstrosities and I own both the winter and summer version, but last summer on vacation in Greece I got tired of dragging a giant hat with me so the idea of the city hat was born. I spent half the vacation searching for the smaller hat that I could easily stuff into my bag and guess what - it proved to be impossible to find even in beach town stores full of hats of all shapes but apparently not all sizes. 

I found this one in April and it’s almost perfect and I don’t have to wear a baseball hat so it’s perfect enough. I can walk around on extremely sunny days of summer doing my business, get on a bus, stuff the hat in a bag and not get my hair all sweaty or occupy three seats with my hat. It is a little bulky but fits most of my tote bags and considering the elusiveness of a pretty and functional city hat and the hard life of us telemarketing visionaries discovering such things I’m satisfied... The End

:)

*Serbian 

A Ring

So, about those rings again. This is the one worn most often last week. I didn't even manage to cheat and take a picture of it on my left hand because it wasn't easy doing it with the left hand. Left hand index finger shows off a fresh scar, a token of a hard worker me, so the tripod had to be drawn.

And the wrist warmers are the stars of the season. I make a pair for myself, my mum gets them, make a pair for myself, sister gets them, make them for myself and hide them. Now, everyone wants a pair and I gladly oblige, cousins, friends, boyfriends, just name it!

And for the ring, I got a wonderful compliment from the gentleman who sold it to me. Didn't look like a kind of  man who'd have an opinion on rings, more like a kind of man whose wife left him to keep the store for a while. Anyway, he kindly and in great detail pointed out the superiority of my choice over the rest of the lot, and I was left impressed.

;)

*English

One Ring to...

I'm a ring girl, I used to be earring girl, and I'm rarely a bangle/bracelet girl.

I stopped being an earring girl after I dyed my hair red and finally figured out how to best keep it in it's natural unruly state. I realized that all that happening on my head was enough and because of that all the big and little hoops and all the other intricate heavy weights went to rest. As far as earrings go I'm mostly a minimalist now. I have one piercing on the left ear and two on the right and I like combining tiny studs in all sizes and shapes. Just a little shine through the hair that's it.

I wear a thin silver bangle with a flower on the right arm for the last 11 year. I'll show it to you one day. It was the first birthday present from my boyfriend and it leaves my arm only if it's absolutely necessary (which is now because one of the petals on the flower broke of and it's being fixed).

As for the rings that's where the minimalism stops. I remember my first obsession with rings when i was about 12 or 13. My best friend at school had beautiful hands. When puberty struck I felt her hands were moving like a ballerina's hands, they were so narrow and elegant. I started school earlier and was a year younger than everyone and my puberty was nowhere in sight. My hands were still baby hands and my ring collection consisted of the annual fair finds and Kinder surprise surprises, plastic, many flowers and rainbow colours. And my friend always wore two silver rings that her grandpa brought her when he travelled to Austria.

And then one day my aunt gave me a tiny white gold band and my mum gave me one of her silver ones. And then my hands started being all ballerina like and I started buying rings for my self. No gold or silver, but always big and there were many of them, I had a whole year to make up. My friend and I coordinated our collections and daily wears and before PE classes we'd took off all our rings and put them on the wrist watch band and leave them in the changing room.

That's how I lost my aunt's ring. Someone just took my watch with all the rings on it. I'm still sad for that one today, my aunt is gone.

***

Up there on the picture is the majority of my grown up ring collection. I'm a ring girl. Sometimes I just wear one, one of the big ones or one of the small ones. And sometimes I want them all. Only one is silver, no gold, and two are made of wood. Others were cheap and made of whatever, but I had them for a while, I chose them carefully and I like them.

And all this intro is because I plan to occasionally show you the ring situation on my hands, staring next week.

;)

*Serbian

I Wish...

            ... you didn't forget me while I'm hiding under a blanket on my couch . And I wish I could wear this outfit soon, very soon...

The white shirt – I've read about GAP white shirts several times. How they're all great, amazing and all the other adjectives in superlatives. Then one day by chance I met and fell in love with one, in a second hand store, for under 4 euro. And it's all true what they say, the cut is great the material is sturdy but light and it hugs all my 'curves' very well.

Trousers – You've already seen them here when I bought them at the flea market for half a euro last winter. They've had to wait for the more appropriate weather to join the other crazy printed pants I currently own*. Although now the weather is cruel to them again.

           

The bag was a New Year gift and it (I) could hardly wait for the sun to start shining.

Sunnies – These are vintage all the way and I should know since my mother bought them in the early 90s which means I've been trying to get my hands on them for a long time. My sister and I call them the chameleon sunnies since we repainted this little strip of pink twice already when originally it was white with pink flowers. First we painted it deep purple but after about two years we decided we needed more contrast in our life so we made it pink. And what happens next, we'll see...

The Book – (The Salmon of Doubt, Douglas Adams) Although technically it's not a novel, at least not a complete one, this is probably my favourite book ever. It's made of Adams' articles, stories and interviews collected after his untimely death and also the beginning of the latest Dirk Gently novel he never got to finish. I will stay forever enchanted with the story of diving** at the Great Coral Reef with giant manta rays that left my head in the air (ocean) for days and days to follow. And the beginning of the novel The Salmon of Doubt is also included in the book and once you read it you'll suffer for the rest. Unfortunately for this world, planet and the rest of the universe we'll never know what happened next...

Nail polish, a crazy colour joined the collection.

The ring, one of those I never want to take off but I have to before bad to avoid serious injuries for everyone involved.

Shoes take a pick!

* I believe that anyone who's seen me in the last couple of months believes I do not own any solid colour trousers anymore. 

** ...said the woman of 29 who still has to hold her nose to prevent water from getting in and starts drowning after a swimming for 5 minutes and really, badly wants to go diving with manta rays at the Great Coral Reef.

;)

*Serbian

Daily Review

This week moves slowly, and me, I have no other choice but to follow it slowly (with the camera in hands, naturally...)

So, I wake up and slurp the coffee.

Then I pretend to work and, since it's almost the end of the school year, I must pretend less since I'm the local  911 for bad marks.

Then I despair for the desperate weather.

And in the end of the day I thank to whatever force is responsible for my tiny hands because I can buy cute rings in children sizes. 

;)

*Serbian

Double Sided

You know how there is a time in every woman's life when she starts mercilessly attacking stuff with nail polish (!?) (You don't? I suppose it's just me then). Well, my nail polish collection did start growing exponentially this summer, but obviously the expansion of my jewelry collection was not exponential enough and I had to intervene. 


So, since I got this necklace its backside looked almost equally attractive as its front to me. This Saturday, the mix of extreme summer heat and the smell of nail polish obviously got my creative juices flowing. Instead of one, I, now, have two necklaces and one of them even mirrors the season's trends of neon and ombre and not particularly subtly, if I may say. Just because I'm trendy like that...


So, how many nail polish attacks did you have this season?

;)

*Serbian

Hat-Bag-Dress

No, I did not forget to tell you about the hat. In fact, I'll throw in a story about this bag and this dress just because I can.

About a month ago my friend Tamara called and said she'd be passing through Belgrade and she had some free time to meet up over ice coffee and catch up on news. So, she was waiting for me and I was late (which is actually very unusual for me). I was running down the cobblestone street when I saw an old man selling some old stuff and among old stuff this hat. I had to stop, I had to go back, you know I had to, even though I was already late. 'How much for the hat?' I screamed (I'm usually more articulate and polite). 'Two hundred' (which is about 2 Euro) he answered. So SOLD! Gave the money, grabbed the hat and ran off. And I had the perfect excuse for being late, which nobody would understand better than Tamara.

A week later I was going up the same street, after BF and I got late for the bus to our old little town. We had two hours to kill until the net bus, so we settled on going somewhere for milkshakes. As we were going up, I saw this old lady selling old stuff and this time a bag had my radars going. I said to the man we had to come back later and the man said 'Go now!'. And I went. The lady said 'Two hundred' I happily handed over two hundred and left with a completely new leather bag.

As for the dress, the story about it is completely unrelated with the previous two but I had to share it. I spent last Saturday in search for the dress for one of my best friends wedding this June. Now, people, I love shopping, I really do, but this day was so grueling I almost swore off it forever (well, we all know that would never actually happen). I tried on so many dresses and kept wondering when they'd stopped producing clothes for grown ups. It was like all the dresses were designed for me when I was fifteen and chasing boys around our little town in the hot summer nights. When I finally hit the stage of I'll-buy-any-dress-just-so-I-don't-have-to-relive-this-day, I luckily found this red one. Now I admit it, I cannot wait for June.

And I leave you with that, you can go and read other things now. As for the story about the hair you'll read in another issue... 

:)

*Serbian

1, 2, 3, round IV

As (almost) every Monday, something old again.

The red bag is a flea market find from the time of my red bag obsession phase few years ago. It doesn't have a story, but it has a sister Anotherredbag, a bit bigger that is currently on a sick leave (broken zipper).

This scarf, on the other hand, has a story and you know me, I'm gonna tell it. I bought it about 10 years ago at the Belgrade book fair. Why there was a place to buy scarves on a book fair, don't ask me. Anyway, the moment temperature goes over 10°C I wear it all the time until the first snow. I almost lost it two times. Once I forgot it in a bus to a town where my parents live. I ran back and fortunately the bus was still there. And the other time it slipped and fell in front of another bus while I was crossing the street and I didn't notice. The driver saw it and honked until I realized what happened and came back.

In the end a book by a Serbian writer Momo Kapor. I like it so much that I've been rereading again and again since high school. Unfortunately, i don't think it was ever translated to English. 

;)

*Serbian

1, 2, 3, look around

It’s December and I’ve been thinking about this blue sky of mine and obviously it’s not right anymore. My head is full of fairy lights for the tree, I like them blue, white or rainbow, cheap ones from China. Last year they lasted until March. Then they succumbed to my constant abuse of the program button and with a puff, some smoke, light effects and the smell of burning plastic they were done with me. I still haven’t bought new ones but I put them up here on the blog. Like them?


And before the New Year arrives and presents and all other new things I wanted to show something old. From now on *Monday is the day for old things so I don’t lose or forget them. So Monday, the day for the things we have (maybe we realize we don’t need something new*). 

1. These are my two favourite rings. I've had them for two years and I always have them with me. I carry them in the purse if it's not practical to wear them.
2. These two I have since fifth grade. I wanted the girl because she looked just like my sister, I wanted to have blond, straight hair like the two of them. My sister chose the boy because he reminded her of her best friend. Today they have a special place on the book shelf. And the boy lost his shoes but he is still cool.
3. These watches belonged to my mom and dad. They wanted to get rid of them and I had to save them. Dad's watch is mechanical and has to be manually wound.
*Next week this post will be on Monday. This week it was delayed due to header construction problems. 

*Serbian

Pelerina...

*Serbian translation

I like to use word pelerine for poncho or cape, or as we say it here in Serbia pelerina. I loved this word when I was a kid, simply because it rhymes with ballerina. I believed that wearing a pelerina somehow made me more of a ballerina. Ah, to be 5 years old! I've never became a ballerina, but the word pelerina stayed and now I'm sharing it with the world.


This pelerina is a flea market find. It was about 2€. There was another one on the pile, red with the hood. It looked like it belonged to the Little Red Riding Hood herself, but my wallet had already suffered enough that day, so the other one probably made someone else happy.


And this hat is another story. My boyfriend inherited it from his grandpa. It was bought in Italy long time ago. We were told to take good care of it since it's worth probably about ***€  and that's the last thing we remember from that day...

111111 (One Friday)

I'm going to use this opportunity to mark the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of this special day, 11/11/11, and pronounce it the minute-for-not-working........ there, I hope you used this time wisely. And I'm just going to add TGIF, a special day indeed.


One more thing, I'm not really liking all this November/fall atmosphere. I'll admit it, the colours are nice, they go well with my boots (the ones I wore to the book fair, but weren't in the pictures). September and October were much nicer and they smelled of roasted peppers here in Belgrade, and now November smells of smog. And the wind... just dare to go out, and if you do, don't bother doing your hair beforehand. Last week I wore sunnies, even though it was cloudy, to protect my eyes from all the dust. Then I met a friend and he said: -You look really popular like that! So there you have it, just match your shoes and sunnies to November and you're good to go. (If this guy only new what I had looked like just an hour earlier crocheting this little hat in my pjs and funny socks.)


And how's November treating you?

*Serbian

This is life since Friday.

Friday was not nice to me although I did get this pretty bracelet, a gift from a very special little girl. It continued with an impulsive purchase of the shoes although I really needed them (when I say really I mean really really, not justifying really). However it was hard to say that to bf as he knew how Friday was not nice at all to me, imagine how that sounded- Hi, I had a **** day and I bought shoes, HA. Does anyone else do that?


And flowers smell nice and look nice...

*Serbian

9th

This summer is not going down easily. Belgrade is hitting 30 to 34 °C so we spent a day on the city lake beach yesterday.


Don’t get me wrong, summer is my (almost) favorite season but this tropic kind we’ve been having lately doesn’t really make sense in the city, it’s just too aggressive. But happy spring to Australia, I wish I was there, somewhere on the beach.


This is the only safe place for me to admit I would like some rain since I would be banned from my house if I would say that out loud. Although I really hate winter (except for the holidays) and it would be great if the spring could come after fall. And this is getting season crazy, so this is the hemisphere I was given and I’ll just live with it…


I wear this bracelet with a little silver leave hoping it will emit some magic call for fall to start, or autumn, whatever you like, I like both. However, my sister made it for me, and I made her the same one with a silver seashell as she is the one attacking anyone saying they like fall.


I am secretly taking out fall shoes, coats, and jackets, it’s like having a new wardrobe. Clothes that I couldn’t wait to get rid of in the spring is now my favorite again. And the hat floppy, wide brim, felt hat and the cape… Ok I am gonna go now and do some rain dance…