life

it's been busy lately. odd times, not bad, but I'd rather see them gone anyway...
this year has been a huge challange - I've been living in between different places, people and duties, spending long hours on trains, sleeping on different beds and couches, longing for sth more stable to come. most of the time totally hard up and lost without a place I'd be able to call home. it's so incredibily difficult to live with a feeling that wherever you go, you reach the very same place - and that this is not the right place for you. at this point journey is not an alternative: the ability to come back home makes journey what it is.

almost three years ago I've decided to leave everything and move to belgrade to be with mr. sewer. I've packed all my stuff and moved them to my parents house 200 km away from gdańsk, left job in a cultural centre, returned keys to my rented apartment and - with no clear plan and savings - got on a bus to belgrade. some people think it was brave, I say it was a thing to do.
belgrade wasn't easy, but was very important and I never regreted going there - even during this long struggle after I got back to poland last year.

now I'm finally back in gdańsk for a while - I've rented a good appartment, I work for another cultural institution, pay my rent and wait for t. to visit. for many it may seem like nothing's changed, but for me this is a totally different life. I learn - step by step - this new reality, try not to make the same mistakes as I used to, struggle not to forget about things I've learnt and planned. old, well known frames are sometimes misleading, so I keep my eyes open, try to build a new, good rutine and finally really be where I am. I guess this will take me a while.
this is not a dream-reality, this is a compromise on the way of making dreams a reality and that's perfectly fine for now.

I know I sometimes smuggle some facts from my life here, but I never really said how this life has been looking like lately. I love this silly blog and I would love to be here more often, but the lack of some stability can make blogging impossible from time to time.
even now, when everything should be easier, I have a feeling that even though changes happen fast, getting used to them is a more time consuming process.

but it's all ok. life's good.

-oh

a special place

I was born and grew up at the sea. and when the time of my studies came, I moved to a bigger city - also at the sea. there is no better place to think, to rest, to play and to disappear than a sandy beach overlooking the greyest of all seas: the baltic sea.
a friend of mine once told me she nearly drowned when she was a little girl - she was afraid of water since then. but now as an adult she discovered that whenever she feels vulnerable she automatically turns to the sea, a river, a lake. water calms her down, gives her strenght and clears her mind.
I like that story. water as a threat, water as a friend. hypnotyzing, always on the move.

there is one place near my hometown that I love particularly - a beautiful combination of a wide sandy beach and a dense forest. it's this specific kind of forest with lots of coniferous trees and ground that is a mixture of soil and sand. you have to find your way through the forest to get to the sea.
during summer we used to go there often with t. and I'd give much to be there in this very moment:)

have a good sunday afternoon!
-oh

and the beloved summer trio: seaside, bike & boyfriend:)

moving out, moving in

theoretically things you do often should get easier with time. and it's true on one hand, and it's so not true on the other.
during the past 12 years I've moved like 16 or 17 times, there were months of my 'homelessness' when I lived at my friends' houses - two weeks here, 10 days there. now I'm kind of an expert when it comes to packing, selecting stuff, looking for a new appartment. it got easy, almost effortless.
but on the other hand, it's not so much of an adventure any more. it's practical: one has to live somewhere. maybe the fact that for years things were so temporary and unsure used to give me a kick - it's good to check oneself, see what you really can when a situation gets difficult. but after so many years, I just feel I don't need more checking, I've passed all my exams and should happily graduate:)
yup, I'm moving again and instead of a decent kick, I feel just some tickling...


after almost two years spent in belgrade and some months in my hometown I officially move back to gdansk. as some people say: it's time to start a new chapter.

fingers crossed!
-oh

circulating objects

t. and I got a serious crash on ping-pong this summer ;)

it started innocent - nearby my parents house there's a sports valley: a huge playground filled with all kinds of sport fields and facilities. we went there once with a friend of mine, she had the ping-pong bats, the ball jumped, my eye blinked and I was in love. since than, every other day we went there to have a few games. it was kind of a ritual.

we started with basic, cheapest bats that we bought on a flea market and later I found another pair at home (did I mention my father's a hoarder?), so it was clear we have to give our basics to the people:)
it was kind of cool - I wrote a little letter, attached it to the bats and we simply left it all on a ping-pong table. after a few minutes a girl came, read the letter and took the bats.
the letter basicly said: take it and use it. enjoy it like we did and when/if you get bored, hand it to someone else. the bats are meant to be used.

I love the idea of circulating objects and it just feels good to send some things in outer space from time to time. it's like finishing and starting a story at once.

hugs!
-oh

biking all the way!

when t. and I came to my hometown, where we've spent this summer, there was one thing we were sure we wanted to do - bike a lot. problem: there was only one bike working and available - my old mountain bike that I honestly never really grow to like. the second one was still to emerge...
in the garage - my father's hoarding sanctuary - we've found a beautiful, but complitely neglected, rusty violet bike. it was a love from the first sight and I can only wish I had a picture of it before we started bringing it back to life. it is an old fisher basic and nobody's sure how it actually end up in the garage. I say it's fate;)
it took us a few days to take it to pieces, clean, polish, grease and paint every part, but it was defenitely worth it! the bike moves like a dream now and during the past two months I had absolutely no problem with it.

all in all, it's my absolutely beloved reanimation project that we've ever made. and all it cost us were two bottles of spray paint - everything else (grease, sand paper etc.) we were lucky to borrow from my father&brother.

take care, autumn is coming!
-oh

and the only 'early' picture of the bike:

slow blog

waaaaaaaaao! it got to me today that I used to have a baby-blog ;)

few weeks ago I've read this slow blog manifesto by todd sieling and it felt so cool to answer myself that my current slow-manifesto would sound as simple as 'have a great summer!' goes. sitting at a computer is realy one of the last things I could think of when there are beaches, bikes, trips, books and good company around. I mean, would you prefer to post sth new to your blog or to take your bike, go wander the forests, find a lake and have a swim?
yup, a great summer is what made this blog suffer femine and solitude (again). and if that summer could last longer, I would with no doubt let the blog starve to death.

but now, when all kids in white blouses and best trousers have gone to school and the weather seems to be less friendly than just a few days ago, I guess it's time to finally reconcile and say simple 'hello again!'

-oh

staklene bombone swing back!

surprise, surprise - we are NOT dead! whoever thought this long silence meant the definite end of our little blog was obviously wrong: I'm glad to announce that we're fine, we're good and we're coming back on track;)

there was a lot of things happening during spring - t. (who - apart from sewing and being my boyfriend - is a great drummer) toured a lot with his band while I was busy working on streetwaves about 1500 km north from him. fortunately, there was at least one thing that we managed to do together as staklene bombone - "the sewing manufacture". it was another project we prepared for streetwaves - this time we've been sewing festival tote bags on the spot. we've prepared a loooot of different second-hand fabrics, cut them into pieces and made them ready to be sewn together. people could choose the front fabric, back fabric, handles, they could decide whether they want a bigger or smaller bag. they could also choose one of the screen printed drawings that t. had prepared with fanzin ceger. and in case somebody had known to sew, there was an extra sewing machine ready to be used and I'm glad to say that it was used:)

it was a pretty, easy and interactive little project. I'm kind of bored with how majority of festival tote bags look like - same dark/light fabrics, same templates, just different prints. and we simply wanted to make something fresh - there were a lot of colourful fabrics, various combinations possible. besides, it was a nice promotion of an idea of a manufacture and collective work. I like it much better than choosing a template form a catalogue and waiting until the package full of same-same totes arrives!

enjoy summer!

-oh


[photos by asia weltrowska and piotr połoczański. you will find more streetwaves pictures HERE]

the white splash

didn't I tell you - petals do look like snowflakes!

rush, rush - I've got to pack and catch a train soon! ah, the neverending saga of trains, schedules and crowded stations...
have a super pretty Monday:)))
-oh

a statement t-shirt DIY

for the past months I've been having a rather peculiar living situation that I call 'being kind of homeless'. of course, I don't live on the street, I have some friendly beds and couches here and there and I'm incredibly grateful for that, but there's no place I could come to and say 'ufff, I'm finally home!'. the longer it lasts the more tiring it gets and I'm running out of ideas of how to make it sound less frustrating. nevertheless, trying to fight the frustration I thought of a little DIY that I want to share with you today... you don’t have to be an experienced crafter or buy any fancy supplies to do it, so it’s pretty much available for anyone with a few minutes of spare time:)

1 & 2. supplies you’ll need: t-shirt, interfacing textile, scissors, ruler, a pen that easily writes on fabric, iron, ironing board
tip: most probably you’ll find either black or white interfacing fabric, so before you buy one, make sure which t-shirt you want to use – if it’s light colour, maybe it will be a better idea to buy dark interfacing (and the other way round) to make it more visible.
you may want to get a plain t-shirt for this DIY, though I think the one with print is even better. I like a little chaos that it makes:)

3. cut a rectangle of an interfacing textile of size appropriate for your t-shirt
4. on the piece of interfacing write a word of your choice. I did it by hand, but if you find it difficult, you may use stencils instead. if you’re ambitious and want to write on the back of your textile so that no pen lines would be visible on the front, remember that the words will be converted
5. cut out the letters carefully. for curvings you may need some small and sharp scissors (I used nail scissors)
6. place your interfacing on the t-shirt to see how it looks. make the last changes


tip: when it comes to letters with ‘bellies’ like o, p, b, d etc. you may leave them ‘empty’ if you want to (left) or simply place the the lacking part inside (right), just remember not to throw it away while cutting!

/>7, 8/

this is another (much easier:)) way to make the letters. just cut stripes of your interfacing, lay them on your t-shirt and cut appropriate pieces forming letters
9/ place everything on your t-shirt and see how it looks. if it’s ok, it’s time for ironing!

10. place the t-shirt on an ironing board, iron it, put the rectangle and make sure everything’s even and right
11. place a piece of cotton fabric on the t-shirt and iron the interfacing through it. don’t do the ironing directly on the interfacing as you may burn it. if you want to be sure that your iron isn’t too hot, make a trial run on another piece of fabric
12. do the same thing with other letters. it’s always better to divide this work into parts instead of ironing the whole thing at once. this way you’ll have a better control of how it looks
13. take off the cotton fabric and see how the interfacing sticks to the t-shirt. you may need to iron some parts for a bit longer

ha, now you’re ready to go!:)

if you're handy with a sewing machine, you may try to sew the edges of the interfacing just to make sure it will stick better. I'm too lazy for that... :)

cheers!
-oh

sprrrrrring!

uuuuh, it should be officially forbidden to get sick when long awaited real spring finally knocks at your door. life's wicked sometimes, but thank god for the blooming nature ouside though:)

-oh

trying to be a multitasker

judging by the lack of posts lately, being a multitasker is a very difficult task.
I’ve changed my place of residence again and started a job that will keep me pretty busy for the whole spring. it’s no revolution, much more kind of an unexpected, but pretty exciting come back. I’m happy to be in gdansk again, I’m happy to be involved in organising cultural events again – this is how my life used to look like before this blog was born. and this was a damn good life!:)

all in all, it’s great to be back here again for a while – it’s all a little bit disturbing considering my homelessness and lack of any steady rutine, but it doesn’t matter that much:) it’s just soooooo great to be around friends and to work with cool people and to be involved in one of my absolutely favourite events ever:)

I have a feeling I would write sth more if only I weren't that sleepy today... maybe I'd be able to make it all sound a little bit more chipper and not that vague again (my writing is just soooo vague sometimes!), but nevermind - I'll have one more reason to pop in more often and give you some insights in what's going on!

hugs!
-oh

yes, yes...

changes are coming, but pssst...

-oh

it’s just the way it is

it’s so absolutely beautiful that mr. t.'s here, really. I wish the scary shadow of his departure wouldn’t follow me so badly and bite my ankles like a little, wicked terrier, but I can’t help it – it’s just the way it is. long distance love is a bulimic kind of love, it rarely hits any balance. it’s either starving or about to burst. it’s mostly difficult, sometimes pretty miserable, always hungry for flesh. but it’s just the way it is. after some years I guess I’ve learnt how to survive it and how not to get bruised too much, but it definitively still has some disturbing aspects.

this post is not about moaning – if I were to choose between what I have and sth more comfortable, I’d absolutely stick to mr. sewer. this post is about longing for some simple every day life on our own again, with no departures, no meetings in between, no missing and a lot of holding hands. when you have it, you tend to think of it as of a background for sth bigger, but when it’s gone, when you’re left alone with day and night longing, loving via skype and a lot of big words in your messages, this really seems to be the point of everything. simplicity builds like nothing else.

you guys who have it, enjoy it – we’ll gonna get it back soon!

-oh

the spring-green and a dream job

there’s the green vibe in the air: lettuce and parsley, pistachio ice cream, self-sown basil on a window sill, green-green grass and trees full of light green feathers. it smells green and it makes your eyes greener from watching.
spring has finally got the scepter and is doing a real good job sitting comfortably on its green throne! and it feels so great to be unattached, to have no regular work hours, to be free to pick the right moment just to go outside and enjoy. it’s my first spring od that kind since quite a while.

there are new plans that we have, new places we’re gonna visit and we’re really looking forward to all that – I’ll write more about it soon!
and there is the spring dream job that found us unexpectedly – there are three cute, but full of character creatures living next to the kalemegdan fortress that need to be walked every morning. the bombona sewer is our guide. I do the chatting part most of the time;)

happy easter for those of you who celebrate easter!
happy weekend for those of you who celebrate weekend!

cheers!
- savez

14000 reasons to be happy

a few days ago we’ve passed a street bookseller who – among other – had a book called „14000 reasons to be happy”. the cover didn’t really seem appealing, we were in a hurry and the bookseller stood in a shadow whereas I was hungry for the fresh loads of spring sun, so we runaway fast.

but than I thought: wow, 14000 reasons? and so I asked the bombona sewer wheather he could imagine so many reasons for being happy. he frawn. (most probably after the eternal combo of coffee and cigarettes, drumms and sewing machine he run out of guesses. I can only hope that my modest figure appeared somewhere remotly on his vague and indigent list...)

hell, I don’t like mathematics, don’t like counting reasons for doing something or not. of being happy or not. I don’t make lists of pros and cons. it’s all about feeling the right way which all of a sudden becomes the only way. this is how I got here, this is how we started staklene bombone.

happiness is a living creature – it’s hungry for today, tomorrow and doesn’t really remember its yesterday. it bites when fed with the past. so feed it well with anything you can find. let the food be fresh, without poisonous preassumptions of what’s good, what’s bad. of what should make us happy and what should rather stay out of question. staying out of question is the only thing out of question here;)
I have a feeling we’ve fed the beast really well today!

cheers!
-savez

ps. if you want to see what bags went to poland – click here. there are much more of them - didn’t manage to photograph all, so let’s just say this set is an appetiser;)

pps. the sewer (aka the student) did really well during today’s exam. a good beginning - hell yes!

the being-happy card is an oooooold gift from someone who visits the blog from time to time. and whom I wanted to say that I've dragged it all the way from my parents place to belgrade;)

poetrying is varying

it’s not a slam – there are no awards and reading or, so to say, performing your poem you are allowed to use any ways of expression. you can sing it, chant it, show it if you wish. it’s an open „active poetry training” colourfully coated with mini screenings, slideshows and pictures selected by authors to accompany poems they read. a goodnight concert comes as the icing on the cake. oh, not to forget that a modest admission fee is spent on printing a little poetry book of another author-participant.

is it really possible that there is so little to be read in english about belgrade's pesničenje/poetrying in the net?
I would say this idea should spread like slams did, like pecha kucha and many other do. with its limitless power of only skeched frame and its main, bolded idea that poetry is not restricted to only some of us, that poetry is not restricted to words, that poetry is energy, that poetry is movement, that poetry doesn’t necceserily have to be serious to be true, but its strenght lays in being unpredictable, always moving forward, developing and open.

if you happen to be in belgrade at any time check this website or hit pesnicenje on facebook to get to know where and when to find it. and if you’d like to participate, just send them an e-mail. don’t worry if your poem/text won’t be in serbian. doesn’t have to.

oh, and of course pesničenje/poetrying is powered by škart group. it should go without saying as I guess nobody understands the secret links between life, art and poetry better than they do.

and because I have no pictures of the last pesnicenje that took place in rex saturday evening I put some pictures I found from about two years ago. these were still the beginnings of the whole thing and as I was in bg at that time, I was invited to read some of my texts. in polish, of course;)

photos by Biliana Rakocevic

because I was asked to host the last event, because I haven’t lead anything at least since june and got a little bit wild down here, I was so irrationally (!!!) nervous saturday morning that I thought only trying our new oven and baking a cake could save me ;)

as that’s one of my favourite winter cakes and because I almost lost my recipe I decided to officially put it here – in case anyone wanted to try or I lost it again…

carrot & orrange cake
- 1 cup of grated carrot
- 3 oranges
- 1 cup of suger (ca 200 gr)
- 2 cups of flour (ca 340 gr)
- 2,5 tea spoon of bicarbonate of soda
- little bit of salt
- 0,5 cup of milk
- 60-70 gr of butter
- 1 spoon of ginger
- sesame/sunflower seed/almonds/nuts etc.

1. blend cleaned, unpeeled oranges, add butter (being honest, I use oil…), suger, ginger and stew it for about 15 min. it should get dense. remember to stir it well from time to time.
2. add carrot and stew another 10 min.
3. cool it, add flour, salt, soda, milk and whatever you chose: sesam/sunflower seed/almonds/nuts etc. in any amount you like and mix it all well
4. set the oven on 180 centigrades and bake about 45 min.

as all the cakes that are made of fruit/vegetables it will be thick, moist and absolutely delicious! the pic is not maybe the best one, but with that light and our good old camera I really can't make it better...

bon apetit!

-oh