Happy Belated Mother's Day and Thank You for Your Help!

Hello dear friends,

Happy belated Mother's Day to all Moms and Grandmas! I hope you had a beautiful day. I spent it with my family in a gorgeous Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden which is home to the largest collection of rhody species in the world! If you're happen to be in the Seattle area, I highly recommend visiting it in May or early June (bonus: free bonsai museum).

I thought I'd give you a quick update on my friend Irina's fundraiser 

HELP UKRAINIAN REFUGEES.

After successfully raising $10,000, Irina continued with a new goal of $20,000 and as of now is at $16,650. She reports that the money goes directly to the families helping refugees with their rent and food, as well as directly to hospitals and purchasing medication kits. And the exciting news is that Irina and her family are going to fly from the US to Poland to help refugees personally!

Thank you to all and each of you who are able to help in any possible way to save lives and wellbeing of families and children who are in the most heart-wrenching situation since February 24.

And despite popular opinion, my heart also goes to the Russian citizens who are against this horrible unjust regime, but cannot leave the country. Some of them still protest risking their life and freedom. All of them live in great grief and fear over the two tragedies: war with Ukraine and destroying our own beloved country. Some fled the country and now are considered enemies by Russian government. And the actions of the most of the world are against them. Somehow, to most of the world, they aren't victims like Ukrainians, but supporters of the criminal regime which is a horrible misjudgment. Just like not all Germans supported Nazi and not every Nazi was German, not every Russian supports Putin. Do not believe that 80% of population support him - the officials in Russia are professionals liars! I doubt there is even 30% of those who actually believe in Putin. 

I don't know whether I will be back regularly blogging any time soon, but f you'd like to stay in touch, you can always find me at Facebook or Instagram. I will be happy if you do so.

Слава Украине!

Жыве Беларусь!

Россия будет счастливой!

Sincerely,

Natalia

Help Ukrainian Refugees

Dear friends and readers,

I am grateful to each of you who read and reached out to me with comments and messages, sharing your feelings, thoughts and stories regarding my last post STOP THE WAR IN UKRAINE. I know that wrapping one's head around politics isn't everyone's cup of tea at the best times, not to mention the times of darkness and true tragedies, when unthinkable things happen, such as now. I understand the desire to look the other way, but the naked truth is that whether we look at this horrible wound done to Ukraine and humanity by greedy, bloodthirsty politicians of Russia, or not, the wound is still there. 

Stop the War in Ukraine: How We Can Help Ukrainians and Things to Know about Russians

 

Hello my dear friends and readers,

Never in my life could I imagine that the reason and circumstances I write in my peaceful creative blog will be WAR. Not war in the past (in which many of the older generation of my own family members fought, were wounded or killed), but the war here and now. Let alone, the war my beloved home country started against our brothers and sisters (we were raised to think of each other as brotherly people) in Ukraine. And the first thing that I want to say on my blog is:

STOP WAR IN UKRAINE! 

НЕТ ВОЙНЕ!

My Personal Message to All Friends: Help Ukrainian refuges and stop the war in Ukraine!

Dear friends,

You've known me for many years. I've always been the one to support and inspire you in different ways - to be creative, to live in harmony, to wear what you like, to be accepting. Today, I ask for your help - for the first time in all these years. Please be aware what a horrible regime Putin set in Russia, my beloved home country. People do not have any freedom to express their opinions any longer. A lot of us are against this criminal regime and war in Ukraine! Millions are suffering right now. Please help Ukrainian refugees and please help to stop the war in Ukraine. Join me on Facebook (link above)! I regularly post about the ways to help financially, by signing petitions and other ways too.

Love and Peace,

Natalia

Beauty of Gray and Vintage

Why not post the most recent outfit and tell you a vintage story. So, Justin and I took these pictures last weekend, and it was quite freezing outside! It would really be wiser to wear one of my parkas on a day like this, but I wanted to show off my elegant all-gray attire before I show off my coats and parkas. 

Boho Military Chic in September

 

Hello my style tribe,

There are four photo shoots from late September through October which I haven't shared with you yet. A bit out of season, but I figured that better late then never! So I'll pick up just where I left, when late Summer barely started transforming into early Fall, and I was eager to wear this fabulous trench coat by Altuzarra for Target. 

Taking the Next Step

Hello friends,

It's always a bit difficult to restart a conversation after a pause, isn't it? So let me jump right in, without a long introduction. We're old friends, after all. Thanks to blogging, you've known me for the past eight years. You've literally witnessed my little kid growing up. She was still in elementary school back in 2013 when I started this blog. This year, she graduated from school and started college. I'm often asked what she chose to study. Well, there is no simple answer to it. College education is very different here compared to mine back home in Russia in the 1990s. We had to choose our professional direction right away, and pretty much from day one, we knew what general field in which we'd be working once we graduate. Back then, I only wanted to study literature, so I chose philology. Pretty much all of my classes were related to this field, with some extras like Philosophy, Sociology, History and Economics. The rest was history of the Russian and world literature (mostly Western), modern European languages (German and Czech in my case), everything about modern Russian language and literature in depth, and ancient languages like Latin, old Russian and Old Slavic. Anya's classes at this point are pretty broad, some related to Arts and others to Science, and she doesn't have to choose her vocation till couple years later. Which is smart and generous for those who have many interests and not sure what to choose at 18. Which is, I believe, the majority.