I Am Back With Some News

I haven’t been blogging for a while at first I was making a “career” in the coffee industry. In the beginning, I was really passionate about my new job and I enjoyed being appreciated and promoted but after a while, there was that voice at the back of my head telling me that this wasn’t what I wanted. When the voice became louder and I was overwhelmed with stress, I decided to quit. The stress triggered several health issues which happened to be an old Lyme disease. I needed time to recover and find the balance again in my life. All these things encourage reflection about what’s important and how I want to live my life.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. I have been working hard to save on a mortgage deposit but when I decided to let go and find another way to have my home I got a decision from the Local Authority that they will rent us a home. We got a beautiful tiny home in the countryside with a spacious garden. Everything is new and fresh, it is warm and sustainable… I couldn’t be happier. The rent is not killing us so I can spend more time with my family and be present… The time of the move has finally come and I had to face the ugly truth: We were hoarders! It didn’t look like in the famous TV show because we rented a large house and we had 2 spare bedrooms we didn’t use. How much clutter and things that “I might need in future” I’ve accumulated? This was a real battle with all the mess for weeks now. I ‘ve donated so much stuff and few sold for nothing but still, we ended with way more than we could fit in our new home. This was the point where I decided to become minimalist and very selective about things that come into my house. I’ve gotten a chance to start over and I will use it wisely.

So let’s decorate 😉

Take care Gosha

Michal’s bedroom 

Kitchen

The mood board for the kitchen

How to Have Conscious Christmas?

It’s not a secret that I don’t like Christmas maybe, because nowadays it is oriented on buying… People buy a lot of cheap, plastic crap and all that ends up being dumped at the end of the season. Every year Christmas stock is displayed earlier and earlier and it ruins the festive spirit. However, I still celebrate a little with my family and decorate home and buy some presents and pack them.

I would like to show you that there are alternative ways to decorate your home and pack the presents in this festive season.

1. Natural Wreaths. This year I made a wreath myself from pine cones. It took me a while but it was worth the effort (you can check it on my Instagram account). If you don’t have the time or will to do them yourself there is plenty to choose from on your local market. They can be composted so they don’t end up floating in the Ocean.

2. Repurpose and use what you already have the only limit is your imagination. You can change the look of your last year’s Christmas decoration like on the picture below. I also like the idea of using books as a Christmas tree.

3. Use natural materials like cones, nuts pine branches. They add texture to your Christmas table, look good and stylish without spending money.

4. Bake your decorations. Why not make the little gingerbread with your kids? Your house will smell amazing, children will have great memories… and they look gorgeous too. The Internet is full of recipes on how to make them so it is really easy these days.

5. Pack your presents wisely. Wrapping paper is not recyclable so better to avoid buying it. You can still pack the presents using brown paper, newspapers or some leftover fabric.

6. Potted Christmas tree. When I was a child we had few times a small pine trees in pots. After Christmas, we then planted them in the garden and they actually grew big (well then someone cut them and stole before Chrismas but that’s not the point here). I think it is a really sustainable way to have a Merry Chrismas in style.

That was my few ideas on how to spend this festive time of the year more consciously. I hope you will have a really nice time with your family and friends without unnecessary pressure.

Merry Christmass Everyone! And thanks for reading my post,

Gosha

 

 

My Top 5 Plants That Improve The Air Quality

In one of my previous posts, I wrote about the greenery trend which is evident in interiors this year. Placing plants in your living room not only adds more interest and texture to it but can also significantly improve the air quality.

In 1989 NASA was trying to find the cost-effective solution for the “sick building syndrome” which became a problem along with new energy-efficient buildings. Few of the symptoms of the syndrome were headaches, dizziness, nausea, eye and respiratory system irritations, skin problems and many more. They discovered that stagnant indoor air allows pollutants to build up and cause serious health issues. Adding plants to the rooms was one of the solutions for the problem and can be introduced in any interior, not only in spaceships.

In this post, I will give you my top 5 plants to use around the house that are relatively easy to maintain and hard to kill.

• Spider plant– is very easy to grow and is a powerful filter that removes formaldehyde and xylene from the air. It likes bright and indirect light and requires watering 2-3 times a week depending on the season and humidity.
• Dracaena– comes in more than 40 different kinds so it will be easy to find the perfect one for your room however if you have cat or dog you may reconsider buying it as it is toxic for them. It is able to remove benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene and xylene from the air.
• Peace lily– prefers shady areas, in summer it produces white flowers that may contribute some pollen to the environment. Refrain from having too many of them around the room or place them outside in summer. This rather small plant can remove ammonia, benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene from the air. It likes moist soil. Avoid overwatering your peace lily though because it will die.
• English Ivy– this very expansive plant is not recommended to use in your garden as it will take over it very fast but used indoors can purify your air from benzene, formaldehyde, xylene and toluene. Some studies have shown that it has the ability to remove also the mould spores. This plant loves well-draining soil, plenty of watering and direct sunlight (it will grow in the shadow as well).
• Snake plant– commonly called Mother-in-Law’s Tongue is one of the easiest to grow. Water it occasionally, it prefers drier conditions and not too much sun. It removes formaldehyde, trichloroethylene and xylene from around the house.

Adding these five plants to your design can significantly improve your well being through cleaner air but this won’t solve your problem with pollutants in 100 %. You may consider improving air circulation around the house through a better ventilation system, opening windows to let the fresh air or buying the air purifier. Better choices as it comes to the furnishings, cleaning products and even reducing plastic can benefit your general health as well because they emit harmful gases to the atmosphere. Take care of yourself by taking care of your home and environment.

Thank you for reading,

Gosha

Few Snaps from Barcelona

When I started my current job decided to reward myself and spent my first salary on a trip to Barcelona. It was a low-cost holiday. We stayed in Hostal Nilo located in Gothic Quarter.

We arrived in Barcelona at 9 p.m. so we decided to get there by taxi… Our first impression wasn’t great because the driver added extra 10 euros to the fee for bags (!) That basically was the scum as it turned out later. We learn by experience right?

In general, people there seem very distant and cold compared to Ireland. They don’t engage in small talks, don’t reciprocate the smile or thank you for letting them pass or anything like that.

Another thing that I didn’t like was the small portions of food for a fairly high price but we found one place close to our hostel where for 10 Euro we got a very filling meal plus drink and a dessert so we usually went there.

What I really loved there was architecture and many palms everywhere. They really care about the design and have exceptional attention to detail. I enjoyed the guided tour of Park Guell designed by Gaudi.

We also went to Monsterrat. We travelled there by train and then we changed for the cable car. The view from it was amazing. The cable car took us to former monastery located in the mountains. There was also a possibility to go higher by funiculars. They took us to the upper part of a monastery where we could walk to the tiny chapel on the top of the mountain… It was the best place I visited during this trip and the view was breathtaking.

Here you have few pictures I took during this voyage… Definitely, want to go back to Barcelona someday…

We took the funicular to get to the upper part of Monsterrat…

A creative window display on a restaurant called “Ticket”. An interior was pretty amazing too…

Me- Hungry, waiting for food. I was hungry all the time 😉

Casa Batlo by Gaudi.

The Gat located in not a really nice neighbourhood, but we had to see it. It was pretty cool…

This was the most expensive meal we had there and we had to go to eat something after this lunch…

This building is beside the Casa Batlo. I liked the detail on it and the colour combination…

Here as well I liked the colours combined together. There is a beauty in this place even though it wasn’t very representative…

This lighting is amazing… We were just passing by and sneaked in to make a photo 😉

In summary, I was fascinated by Barcelona, especially by Gaudi’s creations. If you would like to see more pictures from that trip and see what’s going on in my life, please follow me on Instagram .

Thanks for reading,

Gosia

New Year New Goals

After certain age the new year is not so exciting anymore and I am in that age already, but 2018 is here and I would like to wish all my readers a really good one.

The last year wasn’t as good as I expected… I thought that after obtaining my diploma in Interior Design all doors will open for me instantly and I will choose among job offers but this didn’t happen. That was a hard lesson from life but this led me to few good things. One of them was volunteering for Society of Saint Vincent de Paul where I met wonderful people and started to do window displays, which was something I was thinking of for a long time. I also appreciated more people around me, my friends and their support. Starting the blog was also a result of my difficulties with finding the job. I love Interior Design and wanted to be up to date with trends and wanted to share the knowledge and skills that I learned at school.

The start of the year is a time when people make new resolutions but research shows that most of them fail after a few weeks. I read an interesting article related to this subject here which I recommend. I decided to make some changes in my life and thought that a new year is a good time to start and that declaring my goals publicly will increase my chances to succeed.

In 2018 I want to:

• Be more productive and work everyday on blog related tasks because when I write my post I often struggle to find perfect imagery or spend too much researching the topic. I was so far spontaneous and I need to organise that process. At the end of the year I happened to be sick, then I sunk in Christmas madness and haven’t published for weeks. I need to have backup for such situations.
• I want to develop my writing skills as English is not my native language and we speak Polish at home. Sometimes it is hard to find words to describe things and I repeat the same word over and over. I want to read more design related articles and books and make notes.
• Create an office space in a spare room to not work in my bedroom.
• Exercise first thing in the morning during the week to look better and uplift my mood.
• Have more social interactions both in the real life and online as I really suck at this.

I had a long list but I think there’s no point in overwhelming myself with expectations. Every little change can have a huge impact on life. I am starting from now on and will see where this will take me.

Do you make a new year’s resolution and would like to share it here? Please comment below and maybe we can motivate each other?

Thank you for being with me and reading the post.

Gosha