Day 399-402 Generational Attention to Details

Yes, yes, yes! Finally done. Oh, such a lovely feeling to see the design come alive on the mannequin. Mum told me that I sew the same way as granny did. Lots of attention to details. Apparently granny would still add some embellishment or embroidery to a dress to make it perfect when the client walked through the door to pick it up. Mum said she was passionate about making dresses. ‘Oh, I know where all this is coming from now.’ I smiled. ‘And the endurance from you.’ She smiled. And I sew through Day 400 on this blog. The Coral Dress with Golden Lobelias didn’t leave me much choice but now I am back :-)

Day 398 ?

Totally stressed out end of the day. Still lots to do. Why do I always feel when I make a dress that it would never be finished when I am so close to it.

Day 397 Time for Time Off

I haven’t finished the dress. After 5pm I couldn’t do any more work on it and started to feel sick. Of course, it wasn’t physical sickness, but a wake-up call for taking time off. I watched 3 movies and hoping to get up very early tomorrow to do the rest of the stitching. I try to think about it as an opportunity to have at least the whole Sunday off.

Day 396 40 Hours of Feeling and Breathing

Tata!!! Beading is done! I am over the moon! Approximately 5500 beads, more than 150 meters thread and almost 40 hours hard labour. Photos are coming in about 2 weeks. I remember my first real work, a hand-beaded Elizabethan dress I made back in 2004 well before I went to uni. I love intricate handwork. There is something in the fact that a piece of cloth is embellished by a person, not a machine. During that 40 hours whilst I picked up the beads one by one and pierced the fabric threw with a needle thousands of times, my inner being changed. I had time to think. And through the thinking process relive memories from the past. Create new ideas for the future and dwell on wisdom in the present. I chatted on the phone with family and friends whilst taking short breaks to rest my eyes. I am getting better in taking breaks. I used to never do that. But now after every petal I beaded I would drink a quick cup of tea or coffee take a short walk to the gate and breathe in some fresh air. I also had the TV on for most of the time and caught myself watching programs connected to Hungary. Hungarian films, Hungarian documentaries, Hungarian everything. I find it fascinating how much I’ve changed. To become a person who just wants to suck up everything this little country has to offer. I am like a sponge wanting to embrace the knowledge available.

Day 395 Still Beading…Skirt Beading

No comment…but still commenting: I am having a love and hate relationship with beads. My heart loves them and rejoices, but my eyes are in despair and desperately need rest. The same story as yesterday. The beauty of couture in its full glory!

Day 393-394 Goodbye 3500 Beads

In a total of 20 hours during the past 2 days I have sewn around 3500 beads on the Coral Dress’ golden lobelia design. I am very happy. I overall enjoyed the process and looking at the result  But now I really need to rest my eyes. They worked very hard today.

Day 392 Beads & Bugles

Ahead of plan. Have designed and drawn out the lobelia embellishment pattern for the ‘Coral Dress’. Cream glass bead middle, golden glass bead and bugle petals. I have 7 flowers to bead with 3 petals each, approximately 150 beads/petal. Started the actual beading as well, but my eyes are already strained. Need to rest them. Tomorrow is another day!

Day 391 Coral Dress Jacket? Tick! & a Midnight Comedy Sketch

Jacket finished! Yay! And almost all the tacking is done on the top part of the dress. Fruitful evening. It is almost 5am and desperately need to go to bed. (And I did fall asleep before posting this.) Plus I have to write about a very funny story from last night: whilst I watched over friend’s kids, their neighbour on the way home from a wedding party around midnight started to bang one of the windows very loudly. Worried about the children waking up I rushed to the street to have a look what was happening just to find out after a ten minutes conversation that the neighbour mixed up the houses and was convinced that my friend’s house was his. The whole situation was so funny just like a comedy sketch as he tried to figure out why I was in the house what he believed was his house. Of course, he had a really good time at the party and enjoyed many cans of beers which didn’t help him to easily make a difference between small architectural details on a not well-lit street. At the end he was extremely apologetic about his mistake, grateful for my understanding and finally when I went back the house I just smiled and smiled.

Day 390 Tale of a Secret Balsamic Remedy

Coral dress jacket is very nearly done, only have a couple of hours work left on it tomorrow. My eyes are aching therefore enjoying listening to The Spandau Ballet’s concert film from 2009 on TV. I had a really progressive day today working on the finishing touches of the jacket. Standing collar is done, lining almost sewn in and I shouldn’t forget to look for the hook and eyes tomorrow. As I was sitting on my chair rolling between the sewing machine and the overlocker today I felt really good. I remembered my feeling about The House with The Garden while I was in England for all those years and the goodness of that secret balsamic remedy of having a place of my own where creativity has permanent residency :-) And of course, as usual Ravi Zacharias and Joyce Mayer were preaching in the background from YouTube to caring for that precious interior called soul.

Day 388-389 Nicole Kidman & the Renaissance of ‘Kalocsai’ Embroidery

Good news, the Coral Dress jacket is in the beading stage. I worked on it all day and gave me much pleasure to create the design I did a couple of month ago. I even had time to pop over to mum and help her to make some home-made aubergine paste, ketchup, vegetables in tomatoes sauce and tomatoes juice. I love pickling of any kind for the winter. It is part of that old fashioned life, I so much would love to carry on practising in my personal quest for a more environmental friendly living. By the way I still haven’t bought any clothes, shoes or accessories since I started to write this blog. The temptation was there in Lodz in a shoe shop to buy a pair of green boots, but at the end I decided I should really wear those I already have and put them back on the shelf. Hungary is floating in the fashion euphoria caused by Nicole Kidman’s white dress with traditional Hungarian ‘Kalocsai’ embroidery (http://galeria.velvet.hu/blogok/2012/03/16/nicole_kidman_matyo_mintas_ruhaban/14). Last Christmas I got a ‘Kalocsai’ necklace and a ‘Kalocsai’ handbag for graduation in July from my brother and his family. I get lots of comments about them and how fashionable I am. Well, it is my brother who is fashionable and I enjoy the presents I get from him whilst I carry on with my saying no to unnecessary shopping, which means I cannot really be fashionable, unless fashion recycles itself, because I can’t buy anything.

Day 383-387 The Amazing City of Boats, Lodz

I was invited to a breath taking wedding in Poland over the weekend. This was the first time I went there and I was blown away. The beauty of the country, the kindness of the people, our shared history mirroring the second half of the 20th century, the architecture that tells stories on every single square meter, the continuous redeveloping of the ruins of the past to preserve the aesthetics from before. Lodz which means boat is the third biggest town in Poland developed on the promises of the textile industry during the 19th century. The legend says when Andrzej Wajda’s Promise Land (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVHTcb0idew) about Lodz was Oscar nominated he was asked in Hollywood how Poland, that poor Eastern European country could have afford to finance all the sets in the film? By the interviewers biggest surprise he said it was all original. It is truly touching that on Saturday morning we walked around in the palaces and on the streets, where the film was shot. I arrived to Warsaw on Friday morning after 3 hours sleep and visited the Palace of Culture, which is the tallest building in the Capital. Walking around the 30th floor I tried to find the landmarks shown on the maps with more or less success. In the great hall by the lifts there is a plaque commemorating that the palace was given to the Polish people as a gift by The Soviet Union in 1955. It is in English. The history of Warsaw up on the 30th floor is only in Polish though, so I didn’t understand much apart from the pictures. In the evening after all of us the bride’s and groom’s guests arrived from abroad we visited Manufaktura, which has been redeveloped into a grand shopping and leisure centre once the textile industry fall apart at the end of the communism. To me as an Eastern European it was very emotional to see how the place has been transformed and preserved creating jobs in the town. I remembered the knitting factory in the county town of Bekescsaba back in Hungary, which just started to be demolished recently after being unused for almost 20 years. The restaurant La Vende (http://www.lokacje.pl/restauracje/Bistr-8580.html) where we had delicious dinner had a fairy-tale interior with lots of white antique style furniture and bunches of lavender everywhere. Saturday morning we were taken on a sightseeing tour on a tram originated from the 1910s and combined with a bus engine a lot later. We had a really good tour guide, who took us to 2 of the biggest of the 150 weaving factures in Lodz and to the animated film museum. I recognised some of my childhood favourites for example Bolek I Lolek (in Hungarian Lolka es Bolka) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWu9Kuf6OHM) and Philemon i Boniface (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fiu1TsthiN8&feature=related). Of course, the latter was daubed to Hungarian  when I watched it. To be continued … 

Day 381-382 From the ‘PAS Truth’ to Success

As I said my favourite time of the day is having a cup of coffee in the morning, reading my devotional (Brennan Mannings: Reflections for Ragamuffins and the Celtic Daily Prayers) and from the book of books Proverbs. It challenges me every single day. I can’t put it into words how refreshing it is to be patient. I remember the long years when I was so distressed for not being able to start Vondores and bloom it into a successful enterprise and I remember the frustration as I looked at the logo I draw with by hand and tucked into a plastic sleeve. I remember deliberately hiding it into one of the 10 Ikea cardboard boxes that followed me through my university years and I remember after some months franticly looking for it and hoping I didn’t throw it into the bin in my distress. And yes, the logo was there patiently waiting for me to find it and embrace it once again. And of course the time came when a wonderful friend touched it up on a computer and it became the One that is still patiently waiting today. This time in The House with The Garden I don’t try to rush the present to the future, but the opposite waiting patiently for the right time for everything and enjoying every minute on the way. I wish I could tell this to those young souls who are frustrated upon a great idea which has to be rested in a draw. But I suppose when our adrenalin is high and our drive is on full speed, there is no time to listen. At least I didn’t. Especially all I’ve heard chanted around me, about how success was supposed to be achieved were those words I have since erased from my dictionary. And what is success? How do we define success? The quantity of money or rank? And how about the quality of success that balance the soul? And how do we define that? I remember long discussions about tutors with fellow classmates from various courses that ended in the conclusion that this and that tutor only became a tutor, because they couldn’t make it as an artist or a designer. This is a classic misconception of believing in a ‘Prematurely Arrogant, Self-righteous Truth’ as a young mind. As time went by I became to understand they were great tutors, though. And most likely the quality of their success that balanced their soul was closer to tutoring than being a great artist or a designer. And that all that matters. And there is nothing wrong with that. What’s more it was our gain as they planted creative seeds in us. That in some cases bloomed into becoming an artist or designer to balance our soul. But in other cases it lead us to many different private adventures some of us becoming mothers to plant seeds into the next generation, some of us become social entrepreneurs to plant seeds in the outskirts of big cities and small villages in Africa and some of us was rekindled with skills that has never been taken seriously before. And some of us became the subject of that ‘prematurely arrogant, self-righteous truth’ planting seeds in the next generations to gain success in what we do to balance our souls. And that all that matters.

Day 380 A Relaxing Day or the Recollection of Morning Happenings

Vondores has been very busy today on the Coral Dress. Designed and prototyped the beading. All the tacking has been done on the jacket and can start stitching it together tomorrow. My favourite part of the day is waking up in the morning, making a cup of coffee and drinking it slowly with pleasure.

Day 379 ‘No. JR’ Cocktail Course – Part 1.

Finally, work has been done on the Coral Dress and it is going to be beautiful! The little bolero has been cut, tacked and will be overlocked tomorrow. I am very pleased! The precious past month I kept for myself before I started the work on it was worth it. Even the ‘Doubting-Days’ when the ‘Doing-Mode’ of my brain started to jeopardise the delicious refreshment of ‘No. JR’ cocktail (no-work, just-rest) were successfully defeated. I often wondered before I returned home whenever I had days off after long periods of work and study, why I felt the need to do something when I could have just enjoyed not doing anything. Now, I know. I did not take the effort to train my thought pattern to appreciate rest, but straight away felt guilty for not doing anything and tried to fill that imaginary hole a day-off caused in my busy schedule. In my busy life. In my busy being. In my busy universe. And it was not right to waste valuable hours even minutes on strolling in a park, sitting quietly on a chair or just have yet another cup of tea for the sake of having it. But now, the ‘No. JR’ cocktail had been drunk and more is on order. Part 1. of the course has been completed :-)

Day 378 Q&A Phenomenon or Wisdom Out of The Blue

Waking up at a regular time works really well. I start to get into a good daily routine, which deep down I must have missed. And the day ends with gardening. It is so relaxing to see the change. I’ve been thinking about the difference of an overgrown garden and the one with a little regular trim here and there to make it look pretty. I like the idea of a pretty garden. It is like having a daily routine. The place and the time, creates the exact measure of dos and donts. The rest is role play. I’ve read a couple of pages from a book. It was one of those things when one has a burning question, needs and answer and the answer comes out of the blue. First, I remembered the people who lent me the book and after went to the temporary bookcase, which supposed to be an old shelf for plants and picked up the book. I put it on the kitchen table and let it rest for a while. And coffee came and the book opened and my eyes focused on a paragraph. And there was the answer. Phenomenal. And as it most likely happens when we praise our daily routine. I fall asleep before posting this and woke up this morning 2 hours later than I was supposed to. My daily routine was broken. But the good news is tomorrow is another day :-) And the toile of the dress I am making is on the clean desk and waiting for me to pull it apart and cut that gorgeous coral silk, wow! Finally :-)

Day 376-377 Cycling by the River Koros

What an amazing day yesterday, cycled almost 70kms, swam in River Koros, and ate ice-cream with delicious chocolate pastries. We cycled from one town to the other, one side of the river to the other and back. Today I gave a trim to the garden and nearly to my left index finger. Ouch, still very painful. Still, I am ready for Sunday  And Monday will come. The first Monday of September and the work needs to begin, first slowly, and after…the book 