Jewelry - is the most desirable and attractive thing for any girl. And don`t deny it! Confess to yourself that sometimes it wouldn`t be bad to have a golden ring with diamonds (the more the better), sapphires or emeralds on your finger (not obligatory on the ring finger). The matter is about one of the most successful, popular and well-known jewelry company in the world - Tiffany & Co. I`m sure you also know it. I am  a worshipper of this company. The history of its success is amazing.  It begins when Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young opened a small stationary shop in New York on the central trade street Broadway. It is remarkable that in the very first day the day`s receipts was only 5$. But gradually the company began to provide itself with logotypes and brand signs which appeared in 1837 in the form of brand wrap and advertisement material in special turquoise colours. And now any person who sees the turquoise box or packet associates it with beautiful and excellent-made jewelry by Tiffany & Co. 
 In  1885 the company made a major contribution to financial history of USA completing the State Seal. Tiffany became increasingly popular after 1961 when the movie Breakfast at Tiffany`s had been released to the public. In the movie the heroine of Audrey Hepburn wore a diamond necklace by Tiffany & Co. 

 This collection I chose by myself. It includes my favourite jewelry.  Enjoy!

I`ve never thought that jewelry may be so original even in simplicity and brand so recognizable.
















    

OneRepublic - Good Life

  It is one of the best and the most positive songs for me.  OneRepublic is an American rock band from Colorado Springs. Formed in 2002 by Ryan Tedder and Zach Filkins, the band achieved massive success on MySpace, becoming the most prominent unsigned act on the website then. The band varied style of music has been described by Ryan Tedder: "We're no respecter of genre. If its a good song or a good artist whether rock, pop, indie or hip hop, they've probably influenced us on some level...nothing's new under the sun, we're a sum of a bunch of parts." OneRepublic made radio history when with their first single from the debut album Dreaming out Loud , "Apologize", received the largest amount of airplay in history with 10,331 plays in one week, the record only being broken again by "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis, a song Tedder also co-wrote. But, to my mind, their second album, Walking up, is the most successful. Good life also came into this album. I guess every music lover must listen to it. I hope you`ll enjoy it!

Another one my favourite gem is a fluorite.Fluorite is a mineral with a veritable bouquet of brilliant colors. Fluorite is well known and prized for its glassy luster and rich variety of colors. The range of common colors for fluorite starting from the hallmark color purple, then blue, green, yellow, colorless, brown, pink, black and reddish orange is amazing and is only rivaled in color range by quartz. Thats why I like it. Fluorite is magnificent, mysterious and enchanting. I guess it is one of the most beautiful semi-precious stones in the world because of unusual form and rainbow colours.

A fluorite crystal could have a clear outer zone allowing a cube of purple fluorite to be seen inside. Sometimes the less common habits such as a colored octahedron are seen inside of a colorless cube. One crystal of fluorite could potentially have four or five different color zones or bands.

The deposits of fluorite one may find in England, China, Brazil, Morocco, Bancroft, Germany, Mexico and number of other countries.

Every mineral collection owned by even the newest and youngest of mineral collectors must have a specimen of fluorite. Fluorite is by far one of the most beautiful and interesting minerals available on the mineral markets.

 Today I want to tell you about the history of the most delightful and fickle proficiency of the leaving season - making ice statues. To my mind it is  marvellous but thankless art ( because of its short life). The first ice sculptures were originally crafted by Chinese hunters and fisherman in 1600’s in Heilongjiang on the Chinese border with Russia. They used buckets of ice to dig a hole into and then put a lit candle inside creating a lantern. After the first Chinese people did this for a practical use other’s started to hang decorative lanterns from their homes, and it even spread further when people began to parade them in carnivals. As the decorative trend spread the town of Harbin in Heilongjiang grew into a large city and become the home of the annual International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, which today holds thousands of artists work. 

  However, Russians claim that St. Petersburg was where ice sculptures originated from and was the palace of the first monumental scale ice palace. The palace was exquisitely designed, by Piotr Eropkin, and featured some fantastic creations such as ice cannons that shot real ice cannon balls and an elephant that, through a canal with pipes connecting it all up, sprayed water from its trunk. It’s hard to dispute if St. Petersburg really did found ice sculptures, but they were certainly the pioneers of the first grand ice sculptures in the world. Here on the photos you can see a look of nowadays ice sculptures.

Кот под валерьянкой=)

Our birds and beasts can be very funny and hilarious! That is an example. A cat with language facilities! Listen our colleague who is trying to learn a new word! I advise you to watch all the video to you heart`s content!

The nature is very changeable and mysterious. Every moment in the subsoil of the Earth go on different physical and chemical processes, most of which people can never comprehend. One of them - formation of the fanciful-shaped molecules that make a base for semi-precious stones and gems. My hobby is studying of stones.
 From the time immemorial people believed that stones might serve as talismans.They were considered to be  connection between gods and humanity, they contained  a vivifying energy that could treat any disease. Every stone bears very powerful energetic fund: it can injure to people or help them: bring luck, attract money or even contact with next world.
 I have many favourite stones and I`ll tell you about them from time to time.
The first one is Lapis lazuli:

This opaque, deep blue gemstone has a grand past. It was among the first gemstones to be worn as jewellery and worked on. At excavations in the ancient centres of culture around the Mediterranean, archaeologists have again and again found among the grave furnishings decorative chains and figures made of lapis lazuli – clear indications that the deep blue stone was already popular thousands of years ago among the people of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome. Particularly in the Middle East, it was thought to have magical powers. Countless signet rings, scarabs and figures were wrought from the blue stone which Alexander the Great brought to Europe. There, the colour was referred to as 'ultramarine', which means something like 'from beyond the sea'.
 Lapis lazuli is regarded by many people around the world as the stone of friendship and truth. The blue stone is said to encourage harmony in relationships and help its wearer to be authentic and give his or her opinion openly.
Lapis lazuli is an opaque rock that mainly consists of diopside and lazurite. It came into being millions of years ago during the metamorphosis of lime to marble.
 Uncut, lapis lazuli is matt and of a deep, dark blue colour, often with golden inclusions and whitish marble veins. The small inclusions with their golden shimmer, which give the stone the magic of a starry sky, are not of gold as people used to think, but of pyrites. Their cause is iron. The blue colour comes from the sulphur content of the lazurite and may range from pure ultramarine to a lighter blue.

 Since our childhood we know the Myths of Ancient Greece - one of the most distinctive, original and priceless work that have been ever created by the humanity. Everyone can note in them something attractive, captivating or  interesting for him or her, capturing our mind and imagination. Maybe we still have resemblance in characters with our ancestors, have the same superstitions or even fears. I dare suppose that you also had your favourite personage-god or creature in the myths. My choice is Athena. She was revered as a goddess of organized war, strategy and wisdom. Besides she was a patroness of the arts, crafts and knowledge. In all ancient myths Athena was characterized as wise, brave, intelligent, fair, strong warrior-maid. In a word she personifies all the features that I rate in the human beings. So... Who is your favourite mythological personage?

I guess many people underestimate animals. What does it mean? To my mind, animals can threat diseases such as heart attack, headache and spasms, cheer up, have an influence on our emotional state, protect and even take care of us.It is an established  fact that animals can be good helpers for the deaf and blind. History knows  the cases when animals shaped the fortunes of the whole nation or civilization. You may say: are you kidding? can it be true? And  I confirm this. Have you ever heard the story about rescuing Rome by geese? I`ll share it with you.
  In 390 A.D. Romans were at war with Gauls. Having crossed Alps, Gauls moved far inland Italy and soon laid siege Rome. The defenders repulsed an attack of enemies with fortitude. But soon the stock of ration was run low and hunger came. All that were edible were eaten. Only the sacred geese, that were living in the temple of goddess Juno on Capitol Hill,  were left. Many times  hungry defenders thought about these geese, but were afraid of the goddess`s anger - a protectress of Rome.
 Once at night a noise awakened one of the warrior. Having woke up, Mark Manliy (that was his name) heard the cackling of geese. He rapidly raised up the town wall and run into Gaul face to face. That night Gauls had made an attempt to take the city by storm. Mark threw one Gaul down the wall. After him begin to fall other Gauls. Because of noise and scream, the geese began to cackle loudly. At the same instant other warriors woke up and began to defend the city. And Gauls were defeated.

 So even the small creatures can save our life. Thanks to the geese we can admire the beauty and grander of modern Rome. 

Every person, unfortunately, has his or her own weaknesses. Usually they are carefully concealed. You can believe me or not but my weaknesses are not pastry, chocolate, compute games or mobile phones. I can live without all these things. But I cannot even imagine what the world (and I especially) will do without... CATS! I really admire of all the breeds of cats (pets) and wild cats: tigers, lions, snow leopards, cheetahs, clouded leopards. I think that is the most self-willed and free animal indeed. If it want it can be gentle, sweet, touching. It can rubbing against our legs or licking our hands. But if it don`t like something it can rip to pieces a man or a thing. Also it is said that cats can treat people from rheumatism,  heart and headache. In ancient Egypt it was the most honorable animal. Cats guarded the entrance to the next world and not allowed the souls of dead to disturb the tranquillity of human beings. There are two goddesses-cats in Egypt: Sekhmet and Bast. The first one was originally the warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing for Upper Egypt. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath created the desert. She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare. And Bast or Bastet was the goddess of happiness, love, woman`s beauty and hearth. Egyptians had also their horoscope. Here you can see what god is your patron according to this horoscope.http://horoscopes.rambler.ru/astrosystems.html?sid=164841 

Within a week the world will celebrate a very fair holiday St. Valentine`s Day, so I want to share with you my views on the most incomprehensible and mysterious thing  - LOVE!!! How many works of literature  have been written about love! Shakespeare, Byron, Austen, Bronte. What is the shape of ideal love? How can we recognize it? That is a million dollar question!!!

Must it be all-forgiving or inside out strict? Sacrificial and flaming or full of cold passion? Mutual or unrequited? In my opinion all these epithets about love, there are different manifestations of desirable  feeling. But what love you`ll have depends only on you. St. Valentine`s Day is the reason to make a declaration of your love to each other. On that day you can make a choice and confess yourself: wish you be alone or plunge into the whirlwind of new feelings. Don`t afraid of this. Maybe your love is standing around the corner and waiting for you. I understand that my words are the old truth and have not been a secret for generation of people long time ago. But many of us can`t even imagine such a happiness as being in love because they are closed of this feeling. So don`t afraid of looking foolishly! Don`t afraid of making little stupid things for each other! It`s not a shame!!! You`ll be understood. Make happy your sweethearts! Amate inter se!!!

I suppose that my note will concern to the cinema-goers. I want to tell  you about the movie I`ve recently seen in the cinema. It is called Underworld Awakening. This movie is the pattern of mixing three genres: action, fantasy and horror. So I ask for speaking about my group-mates who are interested in these genres. The first reason for choosing this film - is that I can see my favourite actress Kate Beckinsale. For me she is one of the best in actor`s profession in Hollywood. I think she is underestimated in the movie industry. She is more beautiful the Angelina Jolie and not so skinny. But I won`t impose my viewpoint that is the matter of taste. Another reason  - is that I admire this movie. Really, I like heroes who are firm in a character, strong, courageous, brave, skilled, but  are not deprive of humanity. Two shortcomings of this movie are too much blood on the screen and a little bit monotonous plot. The main story is that follow. When human forces discover the existence of the Vampire and the Lycan clans, a war to eradicate both species commences. The main hero Selena and her sweetheart Michael were frozen in the kryochamber and had been staying there for twelve years. Until her twelve-years daughter set her free. When she reveals the existence of Eve (her daughter) and that she is hunted by the Lycans Selene leads the battle again humankind. I advice you to watch this film if you are fond of this genre. What do you think about this actress and movie? 

  Today after studies I felt like a piece of ice. Now REALLY I understand prehistoric men!!! And my groupmates will understand me! Just a little and it will be a boulder-period in Ukraine and we will run with a small acorn trying to crack it like a squirrel in a well-known cartoon. And we complained about lacking of snow? Plenty of snow and ice even for making an ice-cream. Let`s go to the University with spears! We will hunting for good marks ( some of us even for boring instructors - I can make a suggestion about these persons- two of them). Well, at least, that is the way for getting warm.

Look at this pictures!! What a beautiful world that we live in! What a great variety of  rich colours, wonderful places you want to visit! I couldn`t refuse of living in such a delightful picturesque place! When you`re looking at this picture a phrase comes to mind: once upon a time.....