Morel mushrooms and mother’s day…

This was our dinner the other night…

It was ammmmazzzzing…

Since we have been grown…usually my own mother is happily hunting morel mushrooms in the woods instead of with us…which is awesome! She gets this crazy passionate fire in her eyes when she talks about mushroom season and deserves more than anyone some alone time in the woods…

This year everything is early…lilacs, the everything including mushrooms so she had gone the weekend before. Her and her partner in mushrooming crime:) found a haul rain or shine!

We were so blessed to have this gourmet meal shared…a fresh morel mushroom, fresh farm raised eggs, and fresh asparagus omelet…

Note the purple hue of fresh asparagus, so tender, never stringy and from what is left of the little green house, the asparagus and rhubarb patches…

The leaf is a Nettle. They bring us back to Turkey…my cute father-in-law would go pick this prickly green without gloves…ouch! Bring them back for my mother-in-law to saute with onions and lots of olive oil. Side of fresh yogurt… delicious!

Unfortunately no picks yet but my dear hubby has been making fresh yogurt for us. It is amazing how moving across the world brought out the chef in him…I did the same in Turkey…

I don’t have a picture of the final omlette either but you just have to take my word for it that it was one of the best things I have ever eaten;)

On this mother’s day I feel so blessed with two daughter’s of my own. To have the most amazing role model mother as well as dear sweet aunties and mother-in-law!

Thank you everyone for your help!

xo

Lakes instead of seas…railroad tracks…

This gallery contains 18 photos.

My little family and I left the Aegean Sea months ago… I miss it! The smell, the color shift depending on the mood of sky…from blues to greens to grays and back again… that salty smell… That vibrancy in that … Continue reading →

Inspiration

With beautiful natural eggs colors like these you don’t need to dye eggs for Easter.

Been making connections and finding inspiration in others stories as I let my feelers out into the world.

Some fun things:

A family friend, Beth Mathews especially if you are interested in graphic design but she shares many fabulous things, a big sweetheart…

From Beth I found this textile designer, sewer extrodinar and mother of six, Anna Marie Gorgeous color and patterns.

Locally, I had cut out an inspiring article about a darling colorful baby shoe designer, Chelsea of Chelsea-baby. She started out of her parent’s basement too and is blossoming right now! I was lucky enough to meet her down my street! Chance or fate:)

I had a meeting this week with a store. Although it wasn’t the right fit for the product I have now it made me prepare. I met a nice shop women with lots of high-end retail experience who gave me a lot of feedback and I don’t think will mind if I contact her with future questions. Learned about a cool high end site, twist with delicious jewelry! Thanks Amanda!

Nava Zahavi, who takes Byzantine, this Turkish flair of jewelry to another level!

Dolores Petunia, have been admiring her work for a long time! Colors, colors and quality funky pieces!

My friend Molly, a talented artist who is about to launch an Etsy store…patiently await but here is her blog for now,there there. You should be excited for her watercolors! Thanks for her critics and advice as well!

Mimi…hey girl thanks for the good eye and feedback!

To my mom and hubby for support and watching the bigs(our daughter) so much!

Silk cocoons and lust…

Once upon a time…

when my husband was just my cute Turkish fling…

Pre-babies and stresses and worries(or different types of stresses and worries, much more egocentric)…

Pre-big love…just an evolving love…a lust…

We would take long drives through the twisty mountain roads behind our little college town of Eskişehir, Turkey…

We would save tortises from becoming road kill and stop for Turkish tea breaks in shacks set up by villagers for the sole purpose to make a few extra kuruş (pennies)…

We would use our “arkadaş”, friend in Turkish, which was our nickname for our little pocket dictionaries we carried everywhere for translation assistance as we fell in lust…then big-love through eyes and kind gestures…actions, not the words…those came later…

On one of our drives we happened into a friend’s village…

A village filled with crumbling stone buildings, lush gardens, huge Turkish hospitality and one big salmon pink cement building filled to the brim with silk moth pods…these cocoons…millions of them…

The villagers would “grow” the moths, or their caterpillars which twirl into cocoons in their fields(nature is so amazing!). The villagers would then harvest them, branches and all, as to not disrupt the fine continuous strands that silk is revered for. They proceed to bring them to this pink pop of a building for processing.

The cocoons then go into a big oven room (scarily reminded me of a concentration camp or something) and the worms perish as their fine silk thread cocoons are salvaged and woven into one luxurious type of fabric, fiber or thread…

The thermometer gauge…ekkk…

So very interesting I must say. There is often such a disconnect from how things are made. I love learning the whole process of a craft. Can you imagine just how many of those pods it takes to make a lovely silk necklace from me:)

I really enjoyed seeing this those years ago when I was falling in love:)

Grateful to say I still love silk and my husband even more!

P.S. It’s official my darlings! I have a name for my little evolving jewelry collection, Kisa Kollections.
There is alot of silk and alot of love in this venture as well:)

Busyness planning…

Well my darlings, many of you know of my craftiness and wanderlust and my hope to bundle it into a sweet business package or two:)

My biggest excuse or complaint is not that I can’t do it but my lack of time, or is it my own focus? This new path has not been paved for me before…Fresh asphalt found and laid by me…so…

I have enlisted help;

A: My most important job still is mother. And mothering is no joke. I have the utmost respect for single-mothers, all mothers truly! If you do it well that involves constant attention, teaching, monitoring, healthy food preparations and clean ups, laughter, patience and so much love but I am trying to balance it all a bit more. Chasing balance…(megs)

B: Between my own dear mother, my hubby and his enrollment in English courses that offer childcare it is such a gift! Dearest aunties and uncles close by are so sweet to help when they can!

C: Finding a schedule…I have to work in the mornings! This growing baby belly makes me sooooo sleepy other times of the day! Or evenings if a nap was fit in:)

D: I enrolled in a small business class at women venture to kind of figure out if this is a feasible, viable idea for me and my small growing family. Trying make a real go of it. Help with pricing and where to sells…so hard…the making and collecting is the fun part …not so much a fan of the rest of it:)

I have scratched the name Mavisu Designs and am leaning towards Tied to Travel?, Traveled and Tied? something…anyone help me brainstorm here…silken wanderlust?…

Here is my “elevator pitch” for the class…the 30 seconds you may have to tell someone what you do:

-Tied and traveled designs are my jewelry lines that evolved from two of my most life changing experiences, the loss of my father and living abroad(ultimately making a second home) in the country of Turkey.

-Tied: stems from repurposing my father’s stunning silk ties into modern, wearable art. Custom orders are very welcome to help you keep a bit of your loved one close.

-Traveled: While living in Turkey I was constantly inspired by bold colors and textures. These collections use hand-dyed Turkish silks, semi-precious stones, gold plated brass and hand-woven needle lace flowers with their own story to tell.

So…

This is a design I did for my sister using on of our Dad’s pasley ties(he could pull of anything and look handsome, even look manly in pink!), vintage buttons, rough cut dyed agates, baroque pearls and a little lace…

You like? I am kind of a tease as many of you said you liked my Turkish imports…but I promise I am getting my act together and things will be up for sale soon!

Thanks for reading…

Thanks for looking…

Thanks for the support…and patience…

xo

Will the grass be greener on this side of the Atlantic?

So an update is…

Enjoying fresh brewed coffee, yogurt with my mom’s homemade granola, kisses and cuddles from gram first thing in the morning and throughout the day…

Our daughter and I are in Minnesota.

maples, mums and green grass everywhere

Translating my baby girl’s Turkish for my family members…she is already picking up more English but I never want her to lose her Turkish…

We are not so patiently awaiting news that my husband’s immigrant visa has come through (please hurry gov!).

Taking long walks. Crunching through fallen leaves. Admiring the lake instead of the sea. Smelling that fresh water not the salty. The colors. Fall here means reds, oranges and yellows. Crisp in the air is fresh…awaiting the snow but enjoying the sun…

We spent the past weeks cuddling with baba, babanne, abi and hal. Laughs and tears always…always bittersweet.

Saying goodbye to our sweet(at times crazy) German Sheperd…that was harder than I expected…we had to give her to my husband’s friend…a new home.

Packing up the house is always a pain but I never let myself feel completely settled there…completely at home…all this moving in my life makes it so much easier to get rid of STUFF…it’s just stuff and there were plenty of people to absorb it into their lives and put it into good use…How quickly we collect stuff…

We have unloaded the stuff we did bring into grandma’s spare room. Checking out what we had left behind from previous visits/years too…hoping to sell some stuff, I mean treasures, unique finds…

Baby girl is happily playing with some treasures grandma had tucked away for her from our youth…

Happily spending time with each family member…

Thinking about health insurance, cell phones and bank statements…settling in… hopefully just outside the rat race…allowing it to be a slow transition…don’t get too panicked…

Hoping and working towards a jewelry and accessory line. Collected inspiration and physical pieces. Now it is making the plan and making the time…making a space for it…grandma’s are the best babysitters.

Soon to come…silks, stones, gold, colors, vintage buttons, fabric finds, estate sale treasures, hand-printed scarves, oya that is Turkish lace work…combining the explosion that is my life into one cohesive line…

Will the grass be greener here?

Literally speaking it is and it is everywhere!

Figuratively…we’ll see…

“Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.”
-Roy M. Goodman-

Treasure Hunting…

My visa was almost up so we rode out to Aydin; around and around from goverment building to goverment building keeping baby girl content with runs up and down, up and down the stairs and these…

Snow in a cup with cherry or mulberry syrup. My husband assures me that this is real snow from clean peaks on top of the mountains that they harvest in the winter and save for the peak of summer season. Yum!

I know pre-electricity/refrigerator times they would cut the ice from the lakes in MN and stuff the huge slabs in hay filled barns for the humid summers there (random fact via my wonderfact father-I miss you and these factoids…)

I remember opening the door when we were young scooping the fresh snow into plastic KEMP’S ice cream buckets with metal spoons and pouring orange juice all over it. Fun to eat and fun to watch the snow melt.

Then we heard about acid rain?

Anyways the pazar women I contacted initially about the lovely lace on their headscarves didn’t quite pan out. These women they know how to hustle. They work hard especially over the hot summer months and again they know how to make a buck. So although I had asked them if they made the lace themselves and they said yes these our ours, actually ‘ours’ translated to ‘our villages’ lace.

Long story short these connections didn’t quite work out and too much time lost in translation between hubby, them, me, my auntie…but my man knows I’m serious about the hunt…that is good.

Next we went off to my husband’s childhood stomping ground, Nazilli for a new lead…

We’ll see…met a few lovely ladies and got some info on some good villages…

The thing with all this hunting is that so many women need jobs in Turkey. Through Catherine at Bazar Bayar I found out about an organization KEDV, Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work. Rumisu sisters had some inspiration in their beginnings

The most awesome treasure hunter job I have heard of; the buyer for Anthropologie, Keith Johnson, Man Shops Globe on the Sundance Channel.

I am going to study this…

Oya is Turkish Lace

I am up with the crickets and roosters today. The heat woke me up and my brain has kept me awake…

Nice to sit alone in these early hours. The air is cool. Listen to and feel the wind.

Peaceful in knowing my little family is safely asleep upstairs.

And now to finish this post…

Ever since I came to Turkey 4 years ago(has it really been that long?) I have loved my hubby, the food, the sea, then the oya…(something like that anyways).

Going to the weekly pazar(farmer’s market) I would salivate over not just the fresh figs, or whatever else was busting with colors and scents but the pazarcinin yemeni; village women hustling fruits and vegetables have the most gorgeous examples of this ancient handicraft sewn around the borders of their loosely tied headscarves.

I would go to certain women’s stalls to buy their potatoes just so I could have a closer look at what flower was laced into the scarf, what pattern they chose, how many colors were used.

As a natural crafter myself I would fascinate over the amount of time it must take to make these intimate flowers or geometric shapes and the potential in what else could be done with it.

For a long time I would just look…

I would collect too. Traveling to different cities across Turkey; Iznik with its tiles and the first time I saw scarves for sale.

Kaş and the island of Kekova where women would row out on little boats to trying to hawk their wares to the tourists on the bigger boats.

Close to Didim we have the village of Kapı Kiri Köy on Lake Bafa where these women are competing with each other so ferociously that it takes the fun right out of looking. The supply is high and the tourists must come to them so the prices dive way low, but so overwhelming. They stalk you…

In Eskişehir I found a shop that had high quality pieces and appreciated this craft as an art. They had examples of oya in forms other than just the borders of head scarves. Such as the lovely necklace above.

I was happy to have recently come across a book, Osmanlı’dan Günümüze Oyalar, Oya Culture Since the Ottomans by Taciser ONUK, Translation into English by Barbara Blackwell Gülen. (My hubby got it for my birthday:)

The history is amazing. This craft has been preserved, passed down from generations and came to a peak during the ottoman times in the palace atelier and held on, passed down through tradition by village women.

Not only is it beautiful but there is language inside of it. “…when people remain silent, colors, motifs, the environment and “oya” speak.”(from above book),

Also found this gorgeous blog, rumisu by two sisters who have a done a wonderful job modernizing this craft.

Now I have made contact with those women whose figs and oya I revered. (I know sounds like I contacted aliens but for me it felt like that- different language- different culture-you just try living abroad…another post)

Seeing where that step takes me…xo