And here she is... my first legit publication

I know it's been two months since the July 2012 Real Living issue came out featuring Noah's Room. When my mom visited last month she brought me a few copies from the Philippines but with all the traveling I couldn't get it up here until now.

But anyway, here are the pictures of the actual magazine, in July I posted pictures of the electronic version. Nothing like the real thing tho :)

Obviously the cover page

Page 24... first cover story of the lot!

Et voila! Noah in his jammies lol.

 

 

The write-up... if you can read it :)

 

Noah lounging in his chair. That hair, yeah, that's why I stopped cutting his hair, so he won't hate me for the rest of his life haha.



If you click on the image above (or any of the other images) a close-up of it will pop up for easier reading.

Thanks for joining me in this fun ride of creating a happy space for Noah. In the next month or two we may be moving out of our current rental and into another home... which means another kids room challenge may be in the horizon!

New Year's Resolution & Bucket List Accomplished!

Last year one of my New Year's resolution was to get one of my home projects published in a legit magazine. Well, I couldn't make it happen last year, but that's completely irrelevant now because I made it in this month's (July 2012) issue of Real Living magazine (Philippines publication)!!! And a two-page spread at that! Not bad for a first timer :)

There's my darling N sitting in the chair that I added nailhead trim to.

Early this year I finally got around to taking pictures of Noah's room. I've blogged about it here and here so I'm not going to kill this topic by going into it again. Back in May Real Living contacted me about featuring the room, of course I agreed and the rest is history.

I ordered a few copies of the magazine from my mom who will be visiting me from the Philippines very soon so I have yet to hold the magazine in my hands. Naturally I couldn't wait for her arrival so thanks to a copy I found online, I get to read the article for myself and see the picture of Noah my mom spoke of over the phone.

Here is a close-up of the text. I think if you click on the image, a better quality of it will pop up.

LEFT

RIGHT

Another reason why July has been kind to me - a few weeks ago I got to cross off an item on my bucket list! Confession: I've never been to a real live concert. When I say "real concert" I'm not counting the times when up-and-coming bands performed at my college, nor occasions when major DJs like Tiesto and Paul Oakenfold made appearances at Avalon in Boston (yup, I was once a frequent clubber), and certainly not the days when our local church choir had a X-mas concert. No, I'm talking about true stadium style seating concert with mega-crowds by the thousands flocked to witness and be wow-ed by an iconic singer's (only the kind that could fill a stadium) performance.

So when last-minute someone was trying to get rid of tickets to Madonna's concert in Istanbul of course I grabbed them without hesitation. I figured I lost any chance of witnessing in person the genius of Michael Jackson, and gone along with him was the chance to hear the gifted voice of Whitney Houston. I wasn't going to pass up this once in a lifetime opportunity to witness equally influential Madonna perform her latest album and (more importantly) her 80's hits to fans in Turkey. Even if it meant hauling myself (and my family) all the way to Istanbul for her MDNA Tour. She may not always be known for her voice, but in her 30+ year singing career she's managed to maintain her position at the top of the crop, and at 53 yrs old she's still hitting the charts. God bless her!

Here are some shots taken as we were entering the stadium.

 A few feet in front of us Turkish paparazzi was snapping shots of local celebrities. People watching would've been a joyous activity had I known who these celebrities were.

Crowds slowly flocking in. Was surprised that no one dressed up as Madonna. The next thing closest to dressing-up as her was seeing her face on t-shirts.

So that's more thing crossed off my bucket list I wanted to share. Let's hope I can keep this momentum going :)

Magazine Files: Mediterranean Villa

The other day at the bookstore I picked up this month's UK edition of '25 Beautiful Homes' magazine. I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the 25 homes featured is located along the mediterranean coast of Turkey (representing!). Very rarely are homes in this part of Europe featured in international shelter magazines so this is a big deal, for me anyway :)

Coincidentally, this villa is located in Kalkan, a vacation town I visited with the Mister a few years ago. According to the article Kalkan is supposedly the "Beverly Hills" of that part of the Mediterranean which I didn't know at the time I was there. I'll include my pictures from that my, but first I want to show you this villa.
This 8-bedroom home was built from scratch by a gentleman from the UK. It took 2 years to be completed because local restrictions prevented him from doing any construction work in the summer. Interesting fact. Of course my favorite thing about this place is the spectacular view of the turquoise water, or turkuaz as locals would say. Here are the photos of the villa and a glimpse of one of Turkey's many, many gorgeous summer destinations.

~ That view, that view, that view! A-mazing. On that note, I think I would have preferred to see glass balustrade to maximize on the view of the sea from those comfy looking lounge chairs ~