Friday, July 29, 2011

Holiday

After a non stop studying and working I am leaving one week of holiday (31sth July-6th August). I hope things will be fun and no bad jokes...

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Hot chocolate and coffe at 18 century




Since I studied Art History I love reading critiques of paintings. Especially 18th and 19th century paintings. One painting had caught my eye last year and I become a fan of it when i read the story behind the painting. It is a painting of Francois Boucher called The Breakfast (above). When we look at the painting a far it looks like a 18th century family having a breakfast but with what?
The drink at the painting is thought to be hot chocolate. In 18 century hot chocolate w as made from cacao, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla. It was a drink that aristocracy enjoyed. Cocoa was first imported to Spain from South America in 16th century. It was Spanish Princess Anna of Austria in 1615 introduce chocolate to French court.
On the other hand Coffee become famous in Europe after the siege of Vienna by Turks. It was a drink usually Protestant regions preferred. 1732 Johann Sebastien Bach compose a piece for its praise. Coffee considered as healthy by doctors. It though to clean blood, straitened the liver and calmed the stomach.
Back to the painting in this painting what is fun for me is this young man. As i first thought he was a member of the family. But as the book I am reading suggest it was the waiter from the chocolate shop. In 18th century people were calling hat chocolate from the window. HOT CHOCOLATE! and then hop here he comes to serve your delicious hot chocolate. Lovely. Take away in 18th century.

Reference:

Hagen, R. M. Hagen, R. 2000. What Great Paintings say volume 2. Taschen: Koln

Friday, July 22, 2011

Some of my designs

It had been raining since a week and last weekend all we could do was watching movies.It was quite boring ... We are living in Bordeaux it should be sunny right. No luck! Today the the sky look thoughtful. Half sunny half with the black clouds. He seems like trying to decide whether it would rain or give a smile to Bordeaux citizens:D I have not looked at the weather forecast yet. I am afraid of a bad surprise.
Instead I am placing some of my art pieces. Mori girl inspirations and romantic style.




Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Tea part 1





Who loves tea? Me i do love it, very much.
When i was young my family use to drink tea at least 4 times a day. Breakfast tea, after lunch tea, tea time and night tea. Tea time and night tea was very important because they were accompanied with my mum's delicious treats. Very often with a giant chocolate cake, apple tart with cinnamon, many sorts of cookies at the end same Balkan pastries. Our house was running like a bakery.
Here same facts about the tea:
Tea started to be used in China as a medicine and in the 8th century it was considered as a polite amusement.
In the 15th century in Japan Teaism was born. It was a cult and tea was used for purification.
Tea was introduced to England via Holland in the mid 28th century. Can you imagine before people of England were lived without tea. Now they are the top consumer of the world.

Here is a funny fact about tea trading routes. By looking different languages we can understand where the tea was imported from. There were two pronunciation of tea in China one is tu (tea) originated to Hokkien and Cha to Cantonese dialect. By looking at the words languages use for tea we can understand where they trade their tea from. Tea imported from silk road named chai so all the countries who bought their teas via silk road called tea chai. Tea was the name brought by British traders and most of the European languages adapted it.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Mori girl for all ages

I love to wear funny fashions styles such as Classic Lolita, Gothic Lolita, Mori girl, Dolly Kei...
But as my age is growing I was wondering how will I adapt myself without being so childish. I have find in Japanese magazine n-closet some ideas about Mori girl style for older women. It make me happy. Although Mori girl style is not characterized only for younger women. I am wondering more about Lolita fashion for older women. This I guess i will find it out with time.

Source: N-closet