Down the road, if you decide to stick with me, I am absolutely sure that you will run into many of my grammar mistakes, you will hear them in my videos I promise, so I`d like to explain myself a little bit. Hopefully you will get me a pass on this one eh? You see, English is not my first language. Daaa! Chronologically; I am from Croatia, then, thanks to some morons (ON ALL SIDES!) who thought that the war is the answer, me and my family were refugees in Montenegro, where my father is originally from. After living there for three years, we moved to Serbia, where we settled. While in Serbia, I spent few years working and travelling through Bosnia as well, and spent lot of time in Slovenia where important family members live. I am Serb from Yugoslavia (that would be the sum-up), who immigrated to Canada, Toronto, in 2006, where I live now and writing you from. I am also proud Canadian. Canadian by choice.
So, while I`m still working on my English, I have decided that it shouldn’t prevent me from telling you interesting stories that had real significance in my life, new things I tried and fell in love with, so if it happens that we share the same passions, this is to inspire you and help you to try some of it yourself. And vice versa; I would really like if this could work both ways, so please share you stories and experiences on related topics, in the comment box. I would love to hear it, and I am sure, the other folks who are following would too. So let`s talk, let`s exchange our knowledge, let`s build our passions, let`s help each other and let`s all be Super-Master-Geniuses!
“Super-Master-Geniuses” you ask?!
Well yes, let me give you a quick flashback, to when I was 15, the time when I had just arrived to Montenegro and had been starting my first year of a high school. Still through out the elementary school in Croatia, I have always been good student, math was one subject I enjoyed, well minus the geometry which I totally hated. But thinking process; problems and calculations – I loved it. (Where did I loose this part of the brain over the years, I don`t know.)
Anyhow, this new math professor I got here in Montenegro, was a genius. I think he was a professor from university who happened to teach at the high school, and at his class, ninety percent of us, held JUST barely passing marks. Well, those other ten percent, and especially one guy with the curly hair, well, they simply couldn’t have been human, because problems that we were given to solve were on the level of the last year university students. So, often times it would happen that this professor writes up the problem on the board, and I think he`d put in there like ALLLL the Xs and the Ys of the world, and then, he`d wait to see if anyone had a clue. If the curly hair guy doesn`t stand up, then, no volunteers. In such situation, you could see the professor almost beaming with happiness that HE gets to be the one to solve it!
I remember him as supremely tall, like few centimeters over the blackboard. Big, wide, strong man. In another words – giant. He was also very gentle and calm. There was some kindness and jolliness written all over him all the time. Than he`d stand in front of the black board with the white chalk between his fingers, starring at the math problem. He`d be thinking about it, but just for a short time, and then he`d start scribbling the solution. You could tell, he was solving this for the first time. And then, with so much elan, he`d be going over it so fast, wouldn`t stop writing until the very end. And he would explain, oh for sure, everything! Every single number he was writing, he was explaining. Too bad that none of us could see a single bloody thing to understand his explanations. All we could see, were his wiiiiide back. We`d even start giggling to all this, he`d just keep going, even more enthusiastically now getting closer to the end. At some point we`d give up trying to understand, it was simply impossible. Instead, I think taken by his passion, we joined his anticipation of the result.
OMGosh – he got the result! The end! That was the first time he`d turn to us. He was standing there, in his sweater that only buttons up over his belly, with the little bushy hair streaking behind his ears which still didn`t decide to leave him just yet as the rest of it, offering the biggest smile. Holding the chalk between his fingers, now all covered with the white dust from all that abundant writing, and almost like pointing with it, he`d say the following: ” You see this? Only pure genius can do it!” He`d say that jokingly of course, and we`d laugh, but for some reason I remembered this EMOTION in him, and every time later in life, whenever I faced real challenge, especially if it was something that I have never done before, and I did get to solve it, my math professor and his words would always come to my mind. While he might not taught me the math well, for sure he gave me a better lesson. For the rest of that first year in the high school, I remained with the lowest passing mark in math, but this professor, remained my favourite. And besides, I got different math professors in the years after, and my marks went up to be good again, so, it all turned OK in the end.
The other story related to what has become my motto, is my all time favourite cartoon character Wile E. Coyote Super Genius. I so always wanted him to win over that Bird. And as a child, I thought of him as ” oh poor coyote.” However, perspectives often change in life, so, as an adult, I started collecting Coyote`s memorabilia, and regarded him as a winner, not a loser. After all, he never gave up, no matter how many times he`d fail, there he goes again, trying something new with the same crazy passion. Throughout my life, I somehow found this relatable and started thinking that maybe there is a reason I ended up keeping my big plush toy of him all these years. From my professor, the coyote, well, and myself trying to make the impossible possible, spontaneously I came up with the Super Master Genius motto in the moments of accomplishments. Welcome to apply it folks, it is very empowering! After all, who`s gonna praise you if you don`t praise yourself first?!
The war was real, the struggle was real
The time I really had to call out for this motto, was when I got laid off from a job that I absolutely loved and was so great at it, it almost broke my heart.
It was shocking because, there I was, in my mid thirties, and I was without the job for the first time in my working life, which started early, early as 16 years old. Those were the “war” years back then. Living as refugees, my family basically left with nothing, not even winter jackets, the life changed over night. But at least we had lives and we were together – grateful. In the new circumstances, everybody had to pitch in. Mom and dad did whatever jobs they could have find. We relied on the help from the Red Cross, our Montenegrin family and friends.
(My dad is an artist, painting mainly realistic landscapes, but often venturing out to different directions as well. I guess depends on how he feels. That first year of the war, far away from the home he built, his friends, his life, watching from the distance the madness that was going on, he produced these three large, oil on canvas paintings. So I guess that was how he felt. He named the collection “Ripped out of their roots.” 1992.)
I got an idea that the local Radio station, should have at least one youth-oriented show, so I put it all on paper and went straight there asking for a meeting with the general director. I got to present the idea, and as a result I got to run my own show; two hours prime time every Saturday. I was lucky to get some very cool crew to work with me on this, and a few somebody`s relatives, so, you know… It was fun though, we stirred up the town and I got paid.
Also, somewhere around that time, my dad ended up on yet another surgery, and the whole ordeal lasted forever due to a strike by medical staff, so mom and I had to come up with money to pay the rent. She`d be working at some grocery store first half of the day, and in the evenings, she`d bake fresh pasta. I would then take that pasta the next morning to the farmers market, park myself among grandmas and their smelly cheeses that they were selling, and presented my product. I`d sell it all, I guess nobody else made pasta in Montenegro. I`d do my homework there, and I`d go straight to school in the afternoon. (I wish I could blame on this for my poor performance in math, but no, it wasn`t the case.) So, this is how we made money for the rent. We actually did it. And then the landlord, knowing what happened to my dad, refused to take that money, allowing us to live there for free. Because that`s just how the Montenegrin people are.
(Me on the picture here at 16 years old. The gym back then was outdoors only; I used to run up this hill, and as a reward I got to enjoy the gorgeous view of our Montenegrin town and the mountains.)
Upon moving to Serbia, when I was about to turn 18, for a while only, I worked as a junior journalist of the morning show for the national television. I also helped my mom to sell her yummy warm donuts at the farmers market, and eventually I ended up registering my own booth there, establishing a little gift store. I went to study marketing after high school, and I continued running my super small business, which worked pretty well. Little gift shop expanded to selling fashion jewellery and garments, and over some time, I did open one stylish boutique. But after first few months of pretty solid sale, everything went down rapidly, as the country was going through rough time again. Understandably so, people were mainly focusing their spending on food and not so much on fancy outfits. Closing that boutique was painful, but business vise – the smartest thing I could have done. After all, I voted and I fought for democratic changes in Serbia back then. It was a revolution infact, transformation time was expected to be the hardest time, so if my boutique needed to be a sacrifice, so be it, the future is what matters.
Graphic Design and Product Marketing
And then from there, I tried something totally different. Graphic design. By that time I was USING the computer for some three years or so (yes, that was a veeeeery long time ago), and I remember going for some beginner course which basically teaches you how to turn on the computer. (Oh Gosh this sounds so funny today eh?!) At the end of that course, in that private “computer school”, they introduced to us some other courses, and I totally had fallen for the Corel Draw. Completed that one too, after which I became confident enough to learn the Photoshop myself from one tick, how-to book I had bought. So I did. Until I opened my fashion boutique, I was doing graphic design for fun and practise, but then I designed and produced all signs for the store, flyers, business cards etc. Then I started doing the same for the fellow shops in the same mall, and soon enough I started providing that as a service. On a small scale but yes.
So after I closed my store, I started looking into graphic design positions. Even though I didn`t have proper educational background for it, nor substantial experience yet, I wanted to try it because I loved it. I got called for an interview at some marketing design studio that had a real printing studio attached to it. Offset printing studio!!! I brought with me my little pieces of portfolio, but I basically told them; “I know I don`t have much to offer, but give me a test, let me design something for you.” They went for it. I remember I designed packaging for the chicken meat. Noting less but the packaging! Guess what, there were three of us in the top competition, a guy who was a master at drawing, he was at the art school, and the girl who actually completed the graphic design courses and had working experience. I was the one who got the job. Hell yeah I`m bragging!!! I worked at the studio day and night, I learnt so much, I was so excited that I got this opportunity. I got along well with all the clients and I got to design anything from billboards and office material, to soccer game tickets and salami packaging. In relatively short time, I built a substantial portfolio. But then I liked interacting with clients also. It prompted me to scan the job ads again and I sent my resume to one which was looking for “a graphic designer with the sense for marketing”.
I was doing graphic design in this new company for the first three months only, and switched to marketing completely. Soon after I was hiring graphic designer for my team and I spent many years after, working as a product marketing manager in financial services, both in Serbia and here in Canada. I loved that job, I loved the fact that it was a global company so I worked with teams from many different countries. I loved working with clients; banks and other providers of financial services that we partnered with.
I was a customer myself and highly praised the company`s vision of connecting people around the world in a way that provides them a better life. I think this feel for it, and understanding of people using the service and their stories, is what made me excel the most. Because it was inspiring. Because I was a part of something good, that helped someone somewhere in the world to solve at least some of their problems. So in the span of some eight years or so, I have been doing brand management, advertising, product developments and launches, business analysis and strategies – just to name a few of my favourite assignments. Lot of times I`ve been asked to lead teams on large national projects and I loved that. I loved collaboration, I looked for a transparency in our work, conquering challenges together until the successful completion of the project. In the end, I enjoyed harvesting positive customer feedback and good business results.
For many of such achievements, I felt totally crushed when I got laid off in the fourth round of lay offs in my company which was transforming and adjusting to troubling global economy at the time. In such circumstances, it was understandable, but it was hard to digest. If one is to be fired from a job, I would imagine it would have been easier, cuz then you know you did something wrong. But this… aah you can`t help but feel angry and heartbroken, and dispensable, and used. And to add to this story – this all happened just fifteen days after I purchased my first house, with my partner at that time. AND, it wasn`t just a house, it was a serious fixer upper from the 60-ies.
No more business attire, no more nail polish, but…
My proudest Super Master Genius era starts here. My job hunt didn`t produce results, well, not at least in marketing, but, I figured, this house needed to be redone this way or another, and if I do it myself, instead of paying somebody to do it, it would save money, meaning, make money! So I started researching how to do certain things, reading about it, talking to people at the hardware store, talking to contractors, watching YouTube, and most of all, figuring it all out once I started actually working on it. That became my new job; first careful design, then demolition, material sourcing and further installations like wall insulation, drywalling,
Just like that, from passionately selecting fashion pieces and cooking new recipes, I went to falling in love with the building materials and tools. There was a lot of firsts with this house of mine, and some pretty spectacular moments when I saw the projects finished and when my designs came to life. This is when the excitement prompted me to think of myself as a Super Master Genius.
Before this house, I did lot of decorating projects rather, but nothing on this scale – where I put it all down, redesign and rebuild it. With my own hands. So when you turn back and actually UNDERSTAND that it was YOU who did it, and it looks like a magazine picture, it is very rewarding feeling. And sure, it`s a big thing when you see how much money you can save, or make, but in this case, this house meant so much more to me than I realized at that time – it kept me from going mental.
That`s why folks, even when times are good, but especially when you feel like you`re loosing it, just get physical, get to work. As simple as that. I swear this solves all problems. I totally embrace this as my lifestyle now. I also got myself a gym membership while working on my house to get stronger and healthier. By now, I`ve become a runner, completed my first half marathon (PR 2h9min) and my first marathon (PR 4h17min). I enjoy lifting weights and I need my trainings like bread and the dose of happy hormones to kick in after each one. You will hear me talking about this topic, I`m sure.
I didn`t always have an idea of creating this blog. Maybe it happened somewhere half way while working on my house, and after I gained some knowledge and started being good at it.
It was the moment when instead of going to the hardware store clueless about what I needed to get, to the moment of arriving there, taking the exact pieces of wood I needed and cutting it to size right there in the store, when some guy asked me politely; “Oh honey, do you need a help with anything? ” And I was like: ” Do YOU need a help with anything?” That made me laugh, but it felt so good. And kinda proud.
So I started thinking; why not sharing with other people my discoveries, someone is on to a similar project and this just might be helpful, if nothing, inspiring. And then I realized that I had been video recording a lot of what I`ve been doing on the house, for my family and friends back home, that I could use for the blog and the YouTube channel. (Ever since I immigrated to Canada, I`d carry my camera with me everywhere. Then, I`d edit to fun movies, which is something I also like to do, and I`d send CDs to mom, dad and everyone else. This was my way of still sharing life together even living so far apart now.)
And friends; here we are now! WooHoo!
Sgravalli is all this…
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I also launched my fashion jewellery line and an online store in the middle of all this, which originally carried the name Sgravalli. This blog now comes more of an extension to it, with other different, but still very related content.
I design and make mix media jewellery, where my stars are knitted beads, further mixed with other hard and soft materials into a unique fashionable compositions. Like everything else I`ve learned while working on my house, I also learned how to knit and make jewellery, and I learned it via Internet, which is ironic given that I am coming from a generation of knitters! But I`ll let you read more about it on this page and of course, welcome to visit my online store hosted at Etsy, where you can purchase my designs in a safe manner www.sgravalli.etsy.com.
I hope it comes clear by now, that I`d like this blog to be a place for the interior design ideas and DIY projects for everyone who is going for any type of home renovation, or decoration, with the goal of saving money but not sacrificing the beauty and the function of the new space. I am not a designer and I never did this before in my life until I bought this house, but, I did it, and so can you. I will try to prepare as many videos as possible to help you better on certain projects, and I suggest you to move on to this page to see what`s already posted.
(I thought it would be interesting to report how I also learnt how to use sewing machine to sew garments, curtains, upholstery etc. And yes, via Internet and practise. Actually, the name “Sgravalli” was born when I sewn the first garment ever, a jumpsuit, a gift for my sister! I made for her million things by now, one of which is this elegant, super complex and hard to sew satin dress, according to the pattern I bought. I was so exhausted but proud once I finished it, because I did it so professionally. And my sister wore it. Once. As a bloody Halloween costume!!! Meet my Frida Kahlo.)
Besides fashion jewellery talks and renovation talks, I also wanted to save the space on this blog to talk about other aspects of my lifestyle, which is anything that keeps my body, mind and soul happy. Travel is another big one for me, and you will see how much is related to my designs, both jewellery and spaces, because I find lot of inspiration on my trips. If you want to see which places I am writing about, please go to this page.
Well, one other thing is left to announce and that is my passion for food and cooking, as well as fitness. Whoever knows me, knows this about me, that the full fridge will make me the happiest, that the new recipe turned out amazing will be the highlight of my day, and that the fresh bread from the oven, baked for the millionth time will always be equal sensation. Of all recipes I tried, I think my bread is the winner with
any crowd! And hand in hand with this, comes my passion for exercising. My friends and family know it the best, cuz they`ve seen so many fitness reports on my progress via my Facebook page (and selfies!), and they have to put up with me, when I insist on my planned training no matter if I`m travelling or having guests over. I will always find the way to do my workout because I make it my priority.
I have a big Super-Master-Genius moment coming out of all this, and that was the completion of my first full marathon, in rather impossible conditions. Read about it and see it here.
I am always on the lookout for the new experiences, and I don`t know what will be the next I will fall in love with, that will be worth sharing, but if we have enough in common so far, subscribe with your email and be notified every time I launch the new post.
As I said it before, I invite you to a conversation, please share your thoughts in the comment box, because I think we could all benefit from each other.
(But for a few bright stars among us, who like to go on the Internet to just, well, hate, please know that I won`t be tolerating such behaviour on my pages. There is a difference between the constructive criticism, which is welcome, and just putting somebody down or even using profanity – ain`t gonna happen. Nope. Gonna be erased.)
Hey don`t forget to connect to my social media channels as well!
Hoping that we will be in a very long relationship,
Cheers!
Olja