Drvengrad - Mokra Gora

 

On our holiday in Serbia, we visited Drvengrad. For all of you incurably in love with unique places, pin this down onto your travel list.

 

The ethno-village Drvengrad (Wooden town) is nestled right on Mechavnik hill, settled between the two beautiful mountains - Tara and Zlatibor. It was built by Serbian film-maker Emir Kusturica for the needs of his film Life is a Miracle.    Around the world it is also known as Kustendorf; The Kustendorf festival is also hosted by the creator of it - the award-winning director Emir Kusturica. It is a unique festival, without a red carpet, billboards and advertisements and it is fully devoted to film, music, friendships and exchange of creative ideas and energy.

 

The rectangular village's main street leads from the entrance gate on one end to an orthodox Christian church on the other end. The main street is paved with wooden blocks and surrounded by authentic log cabins brought in from their original locations and placed on foundations made of stone.
 

The streets in the village are named after many famous people. The main street carries the name of the Nobel prize winner, the writer Ivo Andrić.
Other streets carry the names of Nikola Tesla, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Diego Maradona, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Novak Đoković, to name a few.
 

“Drvengrad” has an art gallery, a library, a cinema called “Underground” after one of Kusturica’s most famous films, a cake shop, a couple of restaurants, souvenir stalls, etc.

The beautiful thing is that the log cabins can be rented if you are in for an adventure.

Just below these stalls on a lower level, there is an art gallery with a free entrance. We were lucky to see the works of Ratko Lalic.  We enjoyed them immensely for their expressiveness and phenomenally created 3D effect. I am not sure if my pictures do them justice...

 

 

 



Out & About in Zlatibor

Zlatibor is located in western Serbia with Mt. Tara in the north and Mt.Zlatar in the south. Settled into an ocean of green mountains, the town of Zlatibor emerged from a group of vacation homes into a full-fledged urban location.

The name of it extracts the tone for the setting it was born from - Zlatibor means 'golden pine'.

Situated at an elevation of just over 1,000 metres, Zlatibor is a famous tourist resort, characterized by a cool alpine climate, clean air, long periods of sunshine during the summer and a heavy snow cover in winter. Tourist facilities include modern hotels, holiday centers and cottages, sports grounds and skiing tracks.

Zlatibor's slopes are not particularly challenging, making them a good spot for beginners and kids. Major skiing hills are Tornik (the highest peak in Zlatibor at 1496m) and Obudovica. The nordic skiing trail at the northern foothill of Šumatno Brdo is 1042m at its highest point.

In spring the whole region is speckled with wild flowers, horses and cattle scattered around and  amongst the attractive cottages.

A miniature botanical garden

Regarding food, Zlatibor is famous for its local pršut (prosciutto), sir (cheese) and kajmak (cottage cheese spread). Trying these is a must for the gourmets!

The town centre is peppered with traditional-style restaurants, pizzerias and local fast food outlets. Along the small lake there are stalls offering handmade items - starting from traditional woolen socks and slippers to coats and throws, hand-painted glass souvenirs and decoupaged gifts.

We've been in Zlatibor for 5 days so there is a lot of material we made and collected; however I'd post just about one thing more and that is about the so called Drvengrad also known as Küstendorf and Mećavnik, which is a traditional village that the Serbian film director Emir Kusturica built for his film Life Is a Miracle.

Stay tuned.

We are in Zlatibor - Serbia!

And it feels as if we are in heaven!

The green pastures stretch out as an endless ocean. It's green everywhere you look and even beyond that and you cannot get enough of it!

 

The scenery is magnificent: slopes cradle scattered cabins and cottages on flowery carpets with  ethereal and dreamy quality that make you question your reality. We've made a ton of pictures to show what we mean and how it felt.

 

We've been here for 2 days and we are hopelessly in love with it! Our agenda has been packed tight so there is absolutely no time for me to sit down and actually write about this journey. I will need time to settle down,  harness all emotions and experiences and  give them words to tell our story. I will share that story - our travelogue next week.

 

Have a fantastic weekend! I am signing off.

P.S. Last but certainly not the least and very seriously dealt with - the GDPR! Four dreaded letters that seem to throw the internet world into a frenzy.
I wanted to let you know that my privacy policies are all updated for your reading  pleasure and can be found just bellow the blog's banner.

DIY a Victorian Inspired Cuff

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to a crafty Wednesday! Today I am showing you how to make an easy-breezy cuff. If you are not into cuffs you can use this idea to make a corsage. 

 

What you need:

(vintage) fabric, crochet (velvet, fabric) flowers, beads and ribbon (sateen or velvet). Fabric glue, sewing needle and thread.

 

Cut 15 cm rectangle piece. You can leave it as a rectangle. I like to gradually narrow it at the end for effect. My fabric is synthetic so I singed the edges to stop fraying.

 

Next, some light sewing. Put the fabric under the foot and push it as you sew to get the ruffles. Cut ribbon that would be sufficient to tie it around the wrist. Glue the ribbon over the ruffled piece.

I wanted to use a velvet ribbon but had none in any of the colors of the fabric so I used sateen and added / glued a sequin ribbon at the sides to make it sparkly a little bit.

Position the flowers on the cuff and sew them nicely.

Cut a strip of fabric and glue it at the back to hide the machine stitching (of the whole cuff) and hand stitching (of the flowers).

 

It cannot be easier than this.

 

 

 

I made this cuff for myself and used a piece of my grandma's dress. I saved many of my grans' dresses and love to use them in my projects. I hope you liked this one.

Autumnal Sunset - A choker and cuff

 

 

Hello and Happy Monday to you all!

 

This whole week is going to be slightly different on the blog, so we are skipping the instagram inspiration Mondays which has been the practice here for quite a long time.

 

Instead I want to prolong the promotion of my Victoriana collection that went live on Friday.

 

For those of you who missed it, here's what it is all about.

 

The Victoriana Collection aims to accentuate femininity through mixed media designs that create an edgy and modern look embracing a vintage feel and adding the right touch of drama.

  

I called this set Autumnal Sunset and the name is pretty explanatory itself. I used a lovingly preserved vintage fabric onto which I sewed  a velvet ribbon and built the small flower ensemble on top of it all.

 

A tutorial how to make one yourself if coming up on Wednesday, so I hope you drop us a visit then :)

  



The Victoriana Collection

 

 

 

 



The Victoriana collection inspired by the Victorian era as the name suggests, aims to accentuate femininity through mixed media designs that embrace velvet and jacquard ribbons, vintage fabric, lace, soft pearls and cotton yarn.

 

The focus on the collection is on necklaces, chokers accompanied with cuffs and brooches and they all offer a luxurious and regal look. The designs can be worn with both formal and casual outfits to create an edgy and modern look with the right touch of drama.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lookbook.
The collection is available here.