Good Afternoon Her Majesty!

Cavallini Glitter Postcards, Vintage London

I was eleven years old when I started learning English. I remember like it was yesterday that every page in my first course book was full of colourful pictures of various towns and cities in the UK and photographs of the members of the Royal Family. Since then, it's been my most precious childhood dream to go to Britain sooner or later and have a cup of tea with her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in any of those 775 rooms at Buckingham Palace – the White Drawing Room is my humble priority, let me say. Since then, I've been wondering whether to write Her Highness a letter with quill closing with the words 'I have the honour to be, Madam, Your Majesty's humble and obedient servant'. 

Cavallini Notebook, Keep Calm and Carry On

The day before yesterday I received this cute postcard from one of my students: DJ Arda. He's been in Britain for a couple of weeks to advance his English. Before he flew to London, he'd promised to post me a card as soon as he got the opportunity. When I saw the stamp on the back of the card, no happiness ever was comparable to mine. As if a royal butterfly had flown all that way from London and landed elegantly on my threshold.  My eyes have been shining with happiness since then. 

Well, it's the third gift I've received from London. The first one is this glittering poster and it was very kind of Amela – one of my friends here in Sarajevo– to bring me these two pencils. I couldn't get the chance to have that dreamy cup of tea with Her Majesty yet but these souvenirs from somewhere around her residence make me smile whenever I feel pessimistic about it. They do me good. 

Now I am 29 years old and I've been constantly asking myself why I am such a British monarchy addict. I searched for every piece of detail in my life and found out what? My mother used to call me "My Princess of Wales" while I was a baby, she says. I looked like Princess Diana as a blonde baby with blue eyes born to an all dark-haired family. Perhaps mom just wanted to create a fairy tale around me to unintentionally boost my already high-pitched ego. I don't remember it at all but there must be some hidden bond between my British Royalty admiration and these childhood memories. My ridiculous effort to believe in such a psychoanalytical approach makes me feel even happier. So, dream on. 

                                    

Ever been arrested for blowing bubbles?

At our last Zara shopping session Milou grabbed a realistic looking bubble ice cream cone off the counter. I unscrewed the ice cream off the cone and started blowing great bubbles through attached wand. We loved and naturally bought it. 

We later found out blowing bubbles at Milou's every meal time is a perfect solution for her lack of appetite. We have already got used to her persistent refusals to swallow but the moment the bubbles started coming out of the wand, she was just captivated. Her superdad Emir kept on blowing and it worked. The bubles were floating away in little happy circles. It was just something peaceful. When they popped,  it turned into something exciting! 

Have you ever been arrested for blowing bubbles?

Princess Milou hasn't, yet. Yesterday I watched this video about a protestor blowing bubbles at the G20 protests in Toronto and so threatened by a police officer to be arrested on June 27, 2010 . The officer says "If one of those bubbles touches me, it's assault" and then the protestor is taken away into a police van.

After gazing in openmouthed bewilderement for a couple of moments, I pulled myself together to google for pictures about blowing bubbles to understand what the "offense"or "assault" could be. Here are some of them. Can you spot any "offense"? You can enjoy many more at an art admirer and history lover Lili's blog.

by Russian artist Alexei Harlamoff

Summer Day by Tatiana Deriy

by Dutch painter Bernard Pothast

Last but not  least, "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" is a popular waltz which was first published in 1919. 

Here is the recording by Albert C. Campell and Henry Burr. Check it out!

Back-to-school Time

Back-to-school time is upon the students in my hometown Istanbul. From tomorrow on students will be pulling their heavily loaded backpacks home all the way from school and finding ridiculously imaginative lies why their homework is not done. 

http://www.grandmasgraphics.com/friends.php

The season is on: Parents have already gone crazy about shopping for the cutest and most expensive school supplies for them. There is a keen competition among moms to send their kids off to class in the latest style. What concerns me is their blindness not to see how easy, fun and above all inexpensive it is to create charming projects to get back-to-school. 

Although Princess Milou is only 6 months and 3 weeks old and I do not know even how to start a sewing machine, some basic hand stitches got me through this cute pencil case for her. 

It was once upper part of my favourite summer blouse. Since I had worn it on thousands of occasions and it had almost torn apart, I realized it was time to turn it into something(s) different. 

Whether it is Princess Milou or someone else who will use it, it is definitely a pretty and girly way to keep writing utensils in one place - perhaps with some make up basics.

French Vanilla

I have some friends who are addicted to french vanilla cappuccino. It is always the first and only drink witnessing our every coffee shop talk. Whenever we meet, one of them – after sipping her cappuccino - argues that the flavour in her mug is so genuine that she can swear the staff behind the counter warmed the milk with real vanilla caviar and vanilla pods in the same pot. 

vanilla caviar and vanilla pods combined with milk and sugar

When they notice the sarcastic smile on my lips, I tell them once again 95 % of ''vanilla" products actually contain artificial vanilin. 

This piece of estimated information naturally does not put any distance between the artificially flavoured drinks and their addiction. They just murmur something like "Hhmmm, interesting..." and take another sip.

The last time we had a similar conversation, Moses whispered into my ears "Why not make artificial flowers that look like genuine using french vanilla crepe paper?" I did not know a lot about flowers and making paper flowers, and so I just followed my inspiration. 

                            

                             

The natural look of the flowers in this table bouquet eventually made me smile once again but this time with a blossoming heart. They are beautiful alone, there is no need to mix them with a variety of other colours or different flowers.