Say Welcome to Reader Pics!!

What better way to start Reader Pics than with an amazing photograph from London!

As we try to fill up the emptiness left by the incredible Olympics organized by the British lets appreciate this beautiful view, photographed by Gustavo Damião from Brazil!

*Click on the image to see in its original size.

London by Gustavo Damião

Fashion Wishlist

I am writing this post from my office in London wearing a breezy summer dress, but am already on the look-out for mid season clothes. I love planning ahead, creating mood boards, finding inspiration in incredible fashion brands and then (after several impossible budget calculations) making one amazing expensive purchase and finding the rest of my wishlist in high street brands. Here is a sneak peek to my ideal mid season purchases. Yes a girl can dream….

Street Style from Jak and Jil

J.W. Anderson Cashmere Sweater

Kenzo Vans

Coach Neon Leather Envelopes

MIU MIU Jewel-collared chunky-knit wool sweater

Elizabeth and James sandals

Chloe Elsie Shoulder Bag

What are you guys craving for the season?

Olympic Fever

It’s impossible to ignore the Olympic buzz in London at the moment! We are trying to prepare ourselves for the crowded and probably impossible tube journeys to work every morning, not to mention peak times are meant to be from 3pm-7pm. How the hell will I be getting home? I guess the answer is…. RELAX and enjoy the games. Instead of going home I will be heading to the pub around the corner from my office, ordering a few pints to cool down after long hours in a stuffy room and cheering for the Brazilian team of whatever sport is on. I am also desperately trying to get beach volleyball tickets and will definitely find a way (don’t ask me how because I can’t afford expensive tickets at the moment) to be there for our amazing super star Brazilian volleyball teams during the finals. My boyfriend and I are very excited about the tickets he bought for quarter finals men’s basketball! I love watching professional basketball and want to watch as many live games as possible over the next month.

Below are a few pics of what the city looks like at the moment! Regent Street is always the go-to place for celebratory ornaments. They decorated the entire street with flags from different countries.

Regent Street

Olympic Fever also hit High Street shops like H&M and Topshop. Check out their shop windows below…feeling very welcome at Topshop 😉

H&M window

Topshop window

Inside Topshop

Now let’s talk about the double-decker buses, London’s trade mark! These buses are obviously all over the city and it’s impossible not to notice advertisements in other languages… so funny! This morning I also saw a bus with a Smirnoff ad about Brazilian Caipiroskas, a great nod to the huge Brazilian community in London!

Bus

Bus

So if you are around during the games and want to have fun on a budget without missing the best views in London you MUST:

– Explore Hyde Park on a bike! The park is beautiful and huuuuge, so bikes are the best way to get around. Rent a Barclays Bike for 1 pound/ hour and enjoy the beautiful views. Feeling good about cycling for an hour, return the bike (might be challenging, make sure you have a map with you) and head towards the fountains for a picnic. Hyde park is also a great place to people watch; there is so much going on you wouldn’t believe it.

Cycling in Hyde Park

Fountains/ Hyde Park

– Check out Frank’s Cafe in Peckham. A perfect hang out place away from the crowds, Frank’s Cafe is located on top of a car park (level 10) and boasts an incredible view of the city. Have a few drinks, eat their amazing food and chill with your friends for hours until the sun sets at around 9:30pm. You can see the London Eye and the newest coolest building in town: The Shard.

Frank’s Cafe

Frank’s Cafe

Frank’s Cafe

View: London Eye

View: The Shard

Let the games begin!

xo from London

–

Damien Hirst, a review

Summer in London means… more rain. After living here for almost 3 years, I can safely say that you shouldn’t rely solely on outdoor activities during the “hot” season. This brings me to a grey and rainy Sunday afternoon when all I wanted to do was leave the house. I was lucky enough to discover that one of the best museums in London, the Tate Modern, was open until late for the acclaimed Damien Hirst exhibition. I booked an 8:00pm slot and left the house, umbrella and wellies on, looking forward to an artistically refined evening.

Damien Hirst ruthlessly explores themes such as life’s transient and fragile nature or the individual’s relationship with religion, medicine and anything that will protect him/her from the undeniable reality of death. I know this might not sound like an ideal end to my Sunday afternoon, but the truth is that I felt surprisingly calm and wise after being exposed to the emotional, and often brutal, nature of Hirst’s work.

As some of you might know, Damien Hirst is famous for his Dot paintings and his series of dead animals in formaldehyde solution. Hirst’s current exhibition at the Tate includes many of the dead animals, such as the impressive shark called The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991. Although the shark was breathtaking, I have to say I was stunned/revolted/intrigued by Mother and Child (Divided), featuring a dead cow and a dead calf split in half (meaning each half is in a glass container and you can walk through them viewing both sides of their bodies). It was crazy — very crazy — and unnerving.

Mother and Child (Divided)

The exhibition also featured Hirst’s butterfly pieces. Constantly exploring themes such as life and death, the fine line between the two, and the beauty of both stages, Hirst presents a variety of paintings and installations that feature dead and live butterflies. The first room of butterfly pieces showcases dead butterflies on a few colored canvases such as For Boys and Girls, 1989 – 1992. Next, you move on to a humid room filled with live butterflies flying around (In and Out of Love, White Paintings and Live Butterflies). Side comment– I grew up on a farm with many flies/butterflies/bees and still found this installation a bit weird and uncomfortable. Now that I look back on the experience, it makes me think that sometimes life can be uncomfortable… Life can indeed make us feel claustrophobic and overwhelmed. Sometimes, in art and maybe also in life, it might be easier to appreciate the stillness of death.

In and Out of Love (White Paintings and Live Butterflies), 1991

After the room filled with real live butterflies, the exhibition takes you to other works by Damien Hirst, such as Loving in a World of Desire (a ball floating above a square base), and Beautiful, amore, gasp, eyes going into the top of the head and fluttering painting. The exhibition ends with awe-inspiring paintings that look like stained glass windows but are actually made of dead butterflies and household gloss on canvas (Doorways to the Kingdom of Heaven, 2007). The three paintings stand beautifully next to each other, and in the middle of the room there is a glass container featuring a dead white dove, a symbol for many holy and peaceful things, called The Incomplete Truth, 2006.

Doorways to the Kingdom of Heaven, 2007

It is difficult to explain how I felt after this exhibition; the truth is that words tend to simplify and flatten emotions, not doing justice to the magnitude of what I felt that Sunday evening. For the first time in my life, I understood that death could be beautiful. All of the dead animals in the exhibition finally made sense. After facing so much death and beauty, I was able to make a connection between the two and accept our undeniable fate with more ease and poetry.

– Natasha