Photography – Another day in Paradise

To meet your soul

Few days ago, I met a couple who works for “doTerra“, an America based essential oil company, which awake my interests to the oil. My knowledge to oils are limited, I know they can be used aromatically and with or without dilution. But I didn’t know if the oil is pure enough they can even be used internally. For example, add a only one drop of lemon/peppermint oil to water or tea.

I always believe we are what we eat and be the food your medicine . The history of Chinese herbology or Zhong Yao in Chinese can back to 2800 BC. I still remember when I was little, my grandmother boiled herbs, the smell is “awful” if you are not used to it. But when you drink it, first it’s very bitter, then come the scene of sweet and fruity. You can even addicted to it. Unlike the western medicine, which has most often immediate effect on your body, the Chinese herbs work slowly but entirely from inside out of your body.

The nature has a lot to offer. We should respect and be humble. There’s lady named Kristbjörg in Iceland, she established a company “Blómadropa” (flower drops in English). She was first of all a yoga teacher and a spiritual flower hunter as I like to call. She will go to the very remote area in Iceland, meditate in the mountains and pick up wild Icelandic flowers, then refine the essential oil from the flowers. Very similar to the essential oils that I know of, they are from flowers.

Yesterday after dinner, I had a friend coming for a long chat. We started talking about the babies, relationships etc. She herself is a mother of two beautiful children and a learnt yoga teacher. She also believe very much in the power of Nature and meditation. She gave me some advices on how to meditate as beginner. She said you could imagine yourself a flower. And you slowly climbing on to the pedals, then inside the flower, be there, observe the flower around you, protect you, give you energy, and slowly climb down when you finished. Another way to meditate is to scan your body, from the top of you head to the tip or your toes.

Nowadays, everyone is busy occupying others’ business. What we should do, is to sit quietly and have a conversation with our inner soul. How’s your body feel like ? What’s on your mind ? Do you truly love yourself ?

February 16, 2017 by Mad margarita Categories: Life style, YogaTags: iceland, lifestyle, meditation, nature, Photography, yoga Leave a comment

Fashion mama blog

Being pregnant doesn’t mean that you have to give up all the fancy clothing. On the contrary, you can use more imagination to, be more creative. It’s all about being proud of your body. I personally believe that the pregnant women are the most beautiful women in the world.

Here are some fashion bloggers who are mama-to-bes 🙂

The Brunette

Le dressing de Leeloo

January 12, 2017January 16, 2017 by Mad margarita Categories: Fashion, Life styleTags: Fashion, featured, paradise, Photography, pregnant, style Leave a comment

Guilt

Let’s talk about guilt this time. Guilt with the big G.

What is guilt? when do you feel the most guilty and why?

Who is the devil behind?

Is it after cheating on your loved one? or after craving 20 cakes plus chips? or not achieving the goal which you really really believe in and work hard on it?

Is it only some chemical reaction in your brain?

Guilt is an emotion that occurs when a person believes that they have violated a moral standard that they themselves believe in.

-wikipedia

In French, “guilt” is “la culpabilité”, which descends from the Latin concept of fault (culpa). The concept of culpability is intimately tied up with notion of freedom and free will. In explanations and predictions of human action and inaction, “la culpabilité” is a measure of the degree to which a person, can be held morally or legally responsible.

Culpability marks the dividing line between moral evil, like murder, for which someone may be held responsible and natural evil, like earthquakes, for which no one can be held responsible.

-wikipedia

Therefore, it’s a “point-to-yourself-kind-of-blame”, yet YOU are the one who make the consequence and YOU know exactly what’s going to happen before the action. If so, why on the earth YOU could not avoiding it happens, just say to yourself “hey I’m not gonna do this”. No one likes to feel miserable, don’t we?

One of my favorite rappers Eminem wrote a song called “Guilty Conscience”, about the conversation a boy named Eddie has between himself and his self-conscience before robbing a liquor store.

{Meet Eddie, twenty-three years old

Fed up with life and the way things are going
He decides to rob a liquor store
But on his way in, he has a sudden change of heart
And suddenly, his conscience comes into play}

Alright, stop!
(Huh?)
Now before you walk in the door of this liquor store
And try to get money out the drawer
You better think of the consequence
(But who are you?)
I’m your motherfuckin’ conscience
That’s nonsense
Go in and gaffe the money and run to one of your aunt’s cribs
And borrow a damn dress and one of her blonde wigs
Tell her you need a place to stay
You’ll be safe for days

if you shave your legs with Renee’s razor blades

Yeah, but if it all goes through like it’s supposed to
The whole neighborhood knows you and they’ll expose you
Think about it before you walk in the door first
Look at the store clerk, she’s older than George Burns
Fuck that! Do that shit, shoot that bitch
Can you afford to blow this shit? Are you that rich?
Why you give a fuck if she dies? Are you that bitch?
Do you really think she gives a fuck if you have kids?

Man, don’t do it, it’s not worth it to risk it
(You’re right)
Not over this shit
(Stop!)
Drop the biscuit
(I will)
Don’t even listen to Slim yo, he’s bad for you
You know what Dre I don’t like your attitude

I have a confession. I craved into breads, whole-grain biscuits and nuts again few days before. This makes me feel sick and guilty. It’s not only about the weight, but the self-control and discipline.

Here I am, again, in a Health Hotel. A friend of my boyfriend is running the hotel. Since he went to Norway to advertise his hotel, we decided to be a guide for his guests over the weekend when he’s away. They are here for a detox programme, which I was in last year. During the programme, you only eat fruits, vegetables, and lots of teas to clean the body. Yet we’re not in the detox this time, I like the atomosphere here.

So this morning I took a yoga session, it was wonderful, breath, stretch, relax, focus, listen to the body and soul. I was a rabbit, an eagle, a camel, a butterfly, a lotus flower, a child, a hero, I was everything. I believe that practising yoga can really change one’s life. Not only it does good to the body also to the mind.

Meditate could be the solution to defeat guilt.

The photos are from a New-Yokais photographer Ted Sabarese. The models are dressing the real-food that they craving for.

March 16, 2014March 16, 2014 by Mad margarita Categories: Life style, Photography, Psychology, YogaTags: detox, health, mind, Photography, yoga 1 Comment

London in Love

Check this out. I was about the Campbell sisters’ age when I first fell in love with London. It was late October and I had been living in Paris and photographing with my only camera and lens. I stayed with my sister Barbara DeWitt who was working with David Bowie and she let me her flat because she was once again on tour. London was covered with snow and cold as hell, but I did’t feel it – just like the ruffians in these photographs never felt the rain. In fact they wanted it, they wanted to get soaked and take their clothes off and lie by an inviting fire on a rug with friends. The London I discovered as a young photographer was the spirit in the pubs and the music (vinyl) in my sister’s apartment with big windows overlooking a bleak London. But the bleakness welcomed me somehow and was very beautiful. I kissed a lot of people – in fact a few I didn’t ever know, maybe because I’d had too many at the neighbourhood put – but walking back home with our footprints wet in the snow, I had all of a sudden some new pals on my arm, some whisky – “Irish or Scottish”, I suppose in my stomach to keep me warm and then London belonged to me! Because with all the laughter and all the mischief there is that innocence at the bottom of its soul. I woke up the next morning hung over and called my parents to tell them I loved them. I guess I was still their baby. Then I rolled over and hugged one, tow, three, maybe four people – old friends and new – and we all laughed and just took bleary-eyes portraits of each other. But that was a long time ago.

Bruce Weber, London 2012

November 14, 2013 by Mad margarita Categories: Fashion, PhotographyTags: christmas, Fashion, london, love, Photography Leave a comment

House with windows

Matt Glass and Jordan Wayne Long are video-making duo under the name Half Cut Tea. Their interviews with cool people from many creative fields are really worth watching!

Nick Olson and Lilah Horwitz quit their jobs in 2012 and set off to build a glass cabin in the mountains of West Virginia. He is a photographer who specializes in tintypes taken with a camera he made himself. She is a designer. And this is their incredible house.