Monday, September 30

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




Tuesday, September 24

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

Friday, September 20

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



Monday, September 16

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 mΓΌnchen
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



Friday, September 13

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




Wednesday, September 11

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








Friday, September 6

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