the dress

the dress - self made

feeling obsessed with this dress!

never before i've made anything that feels so much like me

it's loud and colorful and over the top.. and yet simple

not everybody's favorite, for sure

but if you stick long enough

you'll see the other side

the wild 'back' side

one that's more appealing..

but you have to look for it

..

it's also my 'russian' dress

as i first called it

cause the fabric reminded me of those

traditional russian scarfs

and those scarfs reminded me of russian fairy tales 

that i loved reading when i was a kid

..

i don't like to pose for the pictures
but, wearing this dress
i enjoyed it (hence the picture overload)
the fact that nikola was with me to took them helped a lot
but it wasn't only that
it was the dress too, that helped me feel magical
..
mokosha

shift or sheath

dress - self made

is this a shift dress

or a sheath dress?

i've googled the hell out of it

with no definitive results..

in the end, all the beer that i've consumed tonight

decided it doesn't matter:

it's a dress 

why calling it names

..

also

it's a dress that i liked

more than i though i would

..

mokosha

grey knot dress

dress - self made 

lately i'm in the mood for monochromatic looks

and neutral colors

and new to me shapes

..

maybe it's just a phase..

there is a wonderful floral fabric

that is about to become a dress

of obnoxiously colorful kind

but.. until that happens

gray is my new best friend

..

this dress is a love child

of one burda pattern and one 'pattern  magic' dress

german-japanese alliance 

but a nice one, for change

(just in case, i decided to leave my italian shoes at home

to save myself from a head to toe 'axis' outfit)

..

mokosha

strange days

dress - self made (for sale)

i just had one of the strangest days ever

(and that has nothing to do with these pics or this dress

as usual, i'll write more about that on my burda profile)

..

it started with postman bringing me package

from the city of münchen

containing this:

which is funny

cause this morning i decided that i don't really like the patterns in this new issue

and i won't buy it..

and now it might be my favorite issue ever

..

 after this little surprise from burda headquarters 

i've spent the rest of the day feeling like a sewing celebrity

pattern drafting and sewing a bit..

and phoning nikola every five mins

to tell him how freaking awesome i am

..

then i decided to take a walk to the post office

before it closes down

and pick up another burda magazine 

one from the february of 1972, that i bought online

..

so, i'm walking back

still in my crazy sewing celebrity mood

squeezing my precious vintage burda under my arm

and it's sunset and birds are singing and life is good..

and then

 in the bushes, nearby my home, at one empty sloping lot

i see two naked female legs

in an awkward position 

and i stop

and look a little bit better

and yes.. two naked female legs are still there

well.. not just legs, but a female body facing down 

and i'm standing there with my silly thoughts 

and vintage burda under my arm

not knowing what to

terrified  

..

so i walk down the bushes

and i ask her: are you ok, should i call an ambulance?

no answer

but one hand moves slightly

..

i want to try to help 

but i have no idea what to do or how to do it

all of my first aid or medical 'knowledge' is based on watching nurse jackie 

so i decide it's better to call the ambulance than try something funny

and i just stand there

looking silly and not knowing what to do

looking at those sad two legs 

and little black dress 

and few blonde locks

..

7 minutes later ambulance showed up

it felt like 7 hours to me

and off they went..

i hope she is going to be ok

whoever she is, and whatever her story might be

..

strange day, i tell ya

if it wasn't for that vintage burda

poor thing would still be there in the bushes

..

mokosha

plum dumplings

 plum dumplings remind me of childhood

of last days of summer break

and of an old lady named draga, that lived next door

..

she was a rather grumpy lady

(and you wouldn't expect that from her name

cause 'draga' is serbian for dear or darling)

always complaining about us kids being too loud

always asking us to go play somewhere else

but

every once in a while

a miracle would happen

she would stop being grumpy for a while

and then gather bunch of kids around the garden table

and serve us plum dumplings and cherry juice

..

in my family

plum dumplings were never made

so, over the years

i forgot about them

..

but this summer that changed

i've stumbled upon a blog post about them

and that post made me remember the childhood

and my neighbor draga (that passed away last winter)

and i knew i had to try making my version

-

for the breadcrumb coating:

60 gr (2 oz) butter

2 tablespoons oil (i used sunflower oil)

200 gr (7 oz)  fine breadcrumbs

1 cup sugar

..

for the potato dough:

700 gr (1,5 pounds) white potatoes (i used kennebec potatoes)

teaspoon salt

2 egg yolks

30 gr (1 oz) butter 

1 and a half cups of flour 

..

20 plums, unstoned

(choose firm small plums

if the plums are too big, you'll end up with gigantic dumplings..)

first make the breadcrumbs coating:

put butter and oil in a frying pan, over a medium heat

when melted, add breadcrumbs and brown them

remove from heat, cool a little bit

then add sugar and mix well

set aside

boil unpeeled potatoes until soft 

remove from the heat

and place under running water until cool enough to handle

peel them and mash them

(using fork or hand potato masher)

add salt, egg yolks and butter, mix, then add flour

and quickly mix ingredients with your hands into a soft dough..

do not overwork the dough and try not adding more flour

that would make the dumplings hard and chewy 

..

work fast, dough is supposed to be sticky

so work on well floured working surface

..

 roll out the dough with rolling pin

into a large rectangle

cut into 20 squares and place a plum into each square

then close the dough around the plum

and form a ball, using your palms

..

heat a big pot of water until water starts simmering

put several dumplings in it, one at a time

(i cook 6 or 7 in one round)

they are going to sink

and after few minutes of cooking, they rise and start floating

simmer dumplings for 5 more minutes after that point

..

remove from the water with slotted spoon

put into breadcrumbs mix and roll until covered completely 

..

they are best eaten the same day they are made

if i have leftovers (and that almost never happens)

i store them at room temperature

cause potato dough hardens when stored in fridge

..

recipe is adopted from this fabulous blog

and i advice you to go there and check out the plum dumplings post

even if it's written in serbian

cause there is bunch of pictures of every single step

..

mokosha

red smear dress

dress - self made (for sale here)

planned to find a harvested field

and shoot pics of this dress there

so i took a walk to find the said field

..

somewhere along the way

i decided to take a turn left

and see where that road bends

and that road ended up in a post-apocalyptic place,

spooky and beautiful at the same time

..

there were houses and orchards long forgotten 

swallowed by the forest so dense

that it can not be entered

without the help of machete

..

it is fantastic

to see nature fighting back 

and claiming back some of it's space..

but it looks scary at the same time

with all the crazy things going on in the world these days

it can soon be my house and my orchard

that is swallowed by the forest..

or anyone's for that matter

..

at the end

all the walking and thinking exhausted me

a harvested field was nowhere to be found

so the original concept had to be abandoned..

i got back home and shoot pics

using wall of my parent's country house as a backdrop 

and while i was shooting pics

the strangest thing happened:

my parent's cat showed up

carrying a dead bird in it's mouth

..

bird was pretty much headless 

so i thought why bother saving it..

and, in the end, who am i to intervene? 

so i got back to my photo shooting business 

(even took a few pics of cat having a meal

but i'll spare you the visual)

..

mokosha

p.s.

thank you for all the lovely comments and feedback

to my previous post..

plum dumplings recipe is going to be posted real soon

summer bits and pieces

so this summer

we climbed mountains in montenegro

and hiked

and walked trough the magic meadows

we got soaked to the skin

and spent entire day by the fire

drying clothes and tents and sleeping bags

(and accidentally brewing soup

with slivovitsa instead of water!)

we spent an amazing weekend in the countryside

babysitting the piggies

..

meet: spotty, pirate, white one and black ass 

miss kitten was very eager to help us stacking the firewood for winter

her brother, mr kitten was more interested

in scaring the shit out of big cat

(grandma's cat is the most cowardly cat i ever met

he is terrified of cameras too

therefore no pics of him this time)

we also met the vulture eagles..

nikola is working as a park ranger

and one of his duties is to take care of the 

huge number of those wonderful creatures 

..

these fellas are in aviary 

which is a large 'flight' cage

where injured birds are living

until they get well again

oh.. and we hand picked tomatoes

and all the other veggies

from that handsome garden that nikola's parents have

..

it's such a cool thing

to take a morning walk to the garden

instead of my usual morning walk to the farmers market

and then handpick all sorts of veggies

i might need for that day

these are my grandma's cacti

they are blooming like crazy!

i can't get one to bloom

if my life depends on it

but grandma has some mad gardening skills 

baking, on the other hand

is totally my thing

..

and these are plum dumplings!

plum is national fruit over here

and now is a plum season..

everyone is traditionally making their own slivovitsa 

(which is, strangely, the only alcoholic beverage i can live without)

..

in case anyone is interested

i can write a post on how to make those dumplings

(i'm actually thinking about adding baking posts to my blog

for quite some time now

so, this may be the right time and place to check 

if anyone is up for that)

ok.. over and out

have one more weekend of traveling

and plum picking ahead of me

and then i'm back to sewing and regular posting

..

mokosha