my mood board today

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this is a video which me and bachi filmed on our way from telavi last weekend. i haven't even thought about posting it, but then i received 33a and niaz diasamidze's new album last night. it is called saperavi and has amazing melodies in it.

me and bachi were listening and discussing each song and came to a conclusion that songs by niaz are absolutely best soundtracks to the roadtrips. especially in georgia. we added one of his new songs to the video and that is how it began to look:

and speaking of niaz songs, i think that they are great even abroad, we have filmed many road views in france, where niaz's album in cd-changer was just perfect.

ps. my personal recommendation for all of you is to buy 33a's new album - saperavi - because i will never be able to tell you with words how great it is until you've listened to it yourself. and please please please DO buy it, don't just download it from internet.

by the way, this video is closed on youtube, i just opened it for my blog-readers. i think it will be right to wait for the official video of this song before posting the one i home-made myself.

tatara churchkhela

tatara and churchkhela - two words all georgians know, second of which sounds especially frightening if you hear it for the first time. but once you taste it, the only word you can say is 'delicious'.

churchkhela is usually made in autumn, when the grape is gathered, from grape syrup and walnuts. the syrup is boiled on the fire (don't ask me the recipe, never tried to do it myself), then walnuts are threaded in one line and put into the syrup. churchkhelas are taken out immediately and hung on a stick in order for it to chill.

this is how this process looks in pictures from my visit to lopota lake, where we were allowed to make our own churchkhelas:

 
an alternative to churchkhela is tatara - without walnuts. i don't like any kind of nuts, so tatara is really my favourite. but though i have tasted all sorts of tatara, none of them will ever be close to tatara my grandmother used to make.

lakobukia

i'm talking about my friends and let you get to know them for sure not in order of their importance in my life. in case it was like that, this friend of mine would be in one of my first posts. my friendship with her totally demolishes all the quotes and sayings about old friends and new friends never being able to take their place.

lako and i met in london in 2007 and since then no day has passed without us talking, sharing, helping each other and making each other happy.

let me tell you what kind of person she is. in one word she is a firework. why is that? she is emotional, loud, talkative on one hand, and beautiful, warm, kind on the other. i think in dictionaries she should stand near the definition of word 'friend'. she is always there, in all kinds of times and she is there so wonderfully! she makes surprises, she remembers all your dreams and makes them come true, she makes you laugh and is always ALWAYS on your side. i know even if i'm wrong and she will know that, she still will shout to the world i'm right and never let anyone doubt that. and she is an extremely interesting person, she listens to amazing music, she reads amazing books, watches amazing movies and we always have so many things to discuss and talk about!

that all not to speak of her talent as a designer, i myself wore lako bukia's dress on my wedding... and when i see her collections on the pages of vogues, i cant tell you with words how proud that makes me feel. 

i think lako's husband will be a very lucky man. but he will need to be very very imaginative - it will be so hard to overcome her in terms of surprises, presents and attention.

ps. oh yes, and she is my maid of honour

vintage gathering

as promised photos from rtveli (vintage)'2011 organized by my company in tsinandali, kakheti

 

 

 

how wine is made

have you ever seen how wine is made?
i will start my post series on kakhetia and wine-making with the pictures from my uncle's wineries and show you how the best wine in the world ('Kakhuri') is made.

first, the grapes are picked (i did my grape-picking earlier that day, will definately post the pictures afterwards). then it is collected and sorted.  

  

then my uncle zura pushes the button and selected grapes fall into a machine, where the leaves and stems are removed. 

this process of flying grapes is so beautiful, i wish pictures would reflect it all, but, unfortunately, they are not half as beautiful as the real process.

 

 then grapes are processed and turned into wine by special machines. after that it is kept in big barrels.

my uncle is unbelievably great-minded. his factory is soo thought-through and beautiful, like no other factory i have ever seen. all over it there are the grape-decorations, constructions made by himself, not speaking about the wine tourism corner that he has made, which i will show you in my next post. it for sure doesn't look like a factory, more like a museum or even a piece of art :)

 

 

http://www.kakhuri.com

http://www.facebook.com/kakhuri 

erreway

i know its stupid to write a post about rebelde way. but i just remembered how i spent my school years watching these series together with my best friend elya. honestly, looking back, i have no idea why i was so into rebelde way, but even now i remember all the lyrics to all its songs. ... besame otra vez que todo empieza, besame que ardo todavia...

i've got mail

this is my today's mail - amazon sent me three amazing books today. i can't wait to start reading them.

the first one - hector and the secrets of love - i ordered after reading lelord's first book about happiness. this one should be even better; according to all laws, love is always a better topic.

the other one - claude & camille - is a love story of my favourite claude monet and his wife camille. and the last one - the paris wife - i bought after watching woody allen's midnight in paris. this book tells a story of the 'lost generation' - gertrude stein, ezra pound, f. scott and zelda fitzgerald. but mostly it is a story of ernest and hadley hemingways, their love and life together in paris.

you've noticed it right - three books and all of them about love. yes, i'm a romantic.

i love-love-love my friend tiko

i love-love-love my friend tiko, who made my day today. she appeared in my office, and i almost fainted to see her here, instead of kiev, where she lives.

i love-love-love surprises, which is something tiko often does.

and i love-love-love my mood today, which is absolutely happy, because of the things said above ;)

pilates

a few words about my new pilates lessons. i just adore them. three times a week, during lunchtime - perfect timing. the whole day is ahead and i feel like i have super-energy to spend. after exercises and great music i'm feeling content and happy

as pilates himself once said, 'physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness'. oh how true it is!

chocolate pills for bad mood

u r not allowed to write when u're in a bad mood? then can please somebody get me these:

о театре и москве

не могу похвастаться отличным качеством фотографий, но могу похвастаться спектаклем на который ходила в прошлую субботу. это -  дядюшкин сон темура чхеидзе с алисой фрейндлих и олегом басилашвили в главных ролях. я не буду долго говорить о спектакле, в котором просто блистала алиса фрейндлих: сколько же энергии и силы в женщине, которая играет и выглядит также как и во времена служебного романа.

но о чем я действительно хотела поговорить, так это о моих ощущениях. сидя в зале и слушая русскую речь, я ощутила безумную тоску по москве, ее театрам, ее разговорам. мне казалось, выйду отсюда и на улице будет снег и садовое кольцо, а потом огни на тверской и украшенная елка в конце улицы.

 

 

stella's cakes

it's been a long time since i last wrote about cooking. not to forget that part of my blog, i want to dedicate this post to stella luzan, my favourite georgian cake master and her cake masterpieces.

cake boss is my favourite show on discovery travel&living channel and the things they make and how they make them are truly crazy and unbelievable. but its even crazier and more unbelievable to imagine that here in tbilisi, stella bakes magical cakes without all those super baking technologies. she makes colours herself, flattens marzipan with her own hands ... and in several hours that is how her magic cakes start to look:

 bachi's birthday cake

 

  our wedding cake

   my 25 birthday cake

 other cakes i like

too early for new years mood?

today at work i received samples of christmas hand made cards which i really liked. out of many variants, i chose the one below - a sweet angel.

and that was when my holiday mood started. is it normal to anticipate chrismas and new year in the beginning of october? but the weather is helping we with that. so do the songs, that i've been listening since morning.

minus you i'm half, plus you i'm whole

when i just started dating bachi, i sent him a song to listen and wondered whether he would like it. it is not something many people like to listen to, but is my absolute favourite. if bachi didn't like it i thought it was impossible to be with this person. his answer was 'very yeeeeeees' and so was mine on 17 july 2010 :)

 

then like every couple, we got our own song. our song was by 33a, perhaps the best modern georgian band. the lead of it, bachi's good friend, niaz diasamidze, performed this song on our wedding too - and that was perhaps the best gift i got.

and then my collection of songs which make me think about bachi started. in my car, in ipod, on the laptop, in a bar, restaurant, street, beach - i hear the songs which cover me with warm emotions and thoughts about bachi. enjoy my small selection of songs which can be a nice soundtrack to your romantic date too.

i've been searching a long time, for someone exactly like you, i've been travelling all around the world; waiting for you to come through, someone like you, you make it all worthwhile, someone like you, keeps me satisfied, someone exactly like.. you

my bebo

grandma is warmth. grandma is childhood. grandma is happiness.

yesterday was my grandma-bebo's birthday. i want to tell you a little bit about her, since it became a tradition in my blog to talk about people who matter most to me.

bebo was different from cia type of grandma. she was very homely. i don't know if such word exists, but by saying that i mean that she most of all cared about her family. she cared about their being healthy, happy and never hungry.

she would make the tastiest food in the whole world, some of which she invented only for us. her 'antre' was our favourite, a mix of fried dough, cheese and god knows what else, which made this dish absolutely unforgettable. she would make tatara and let us do our weirdly-shaped churchxelas, which never looked like proper ones. and i loved to talk with her. i spent hours sitting by her and telling her all the stories - things i did, boys i liked, friends i had. and she told me old stories about her big family, stories about my mom and uncle's childhood, my own childhood too. i loved those stories. and i love(d) my bebo. and there will never be a D after that word.

i think this has been so far the hardest post for me, because though three years have passed since bebo is not with us anymore, i still can't talk about her without tears in my throat. you know why? because with her my childhood went away too.

i'm sharing with you my old photos from telavi and bebo's house

on this picture i'm on a balcony with a huge can of sand, which my uncle brought me, since i was too little to play alone outside, this was my very own playground :)

that's me and ani's photos in telavi's house

me in the office

 ani, nikusha and me in artana's house