URBAN JUNGLE BLOGGERS 34 > PLANTS & LIGHT

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This month’s Urban Jungle Bloggers topic ‘Plants&Light’ brings festive light into the dark long winter days, this season. I love how my house dresses up in many little lights in december, don't you? It really makes everything warm and cozy. Somehow we are all happier when we get home at the end of a busy day.

For this month topic I decided to shine light on something of plants that fascinates me a lot: their roots. I just love to admire them, such a vigorous image of life! That is why I usually place them in clear glass containers where the roots slowly grow, float in a tangle for the joy of my eyes.

Very simply I added tiny little fairy lights around the glass that host my cuttings. These lights are ever so tiny themselves, with minimal electric cable, plus they have an extra bonus of being battery charged so you are not bound to a plug and happily place them everywhere you like.

I love how the electric cable mingles, visually, with the roots. Can't wait to see how they shine in the evening, in the dark.

And what about your house? Do you use plants and lights together to decorate and give a green vibe to Christmas? If so, join the Urban Jungle community and share what you did.
Info on how to do it at the end of this blog post.

Hope you enjoyed my december contribution. I wish you all a green and peaceful Christmas. See you next time everyone!

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Urban Jungle Bloggers is a monthly series hosted by 2 bloggers: Igor (Happy Interior Blog) and Judith (JOELIX.com). Every month we share our love for plants. You can find additional inspiration on our Urban Jungle Bloggers. 
Want to join? Find out how on our website and use #urbanjunglebloggers on twitter and instagram. Let's bring some green into our homes and blogs!

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GREEN DO APARTMENT BUILDING

Would you like to live in a place embedded in a lush green landscape? Overlooking the city, behind a garden that makes you feel like you live in the middle of a park? I would not mind at all. A perfect example of Urban Jungle, don't you think?

Architect Keita Nagata has designed an apartment complex named ‘green do’ in the city of Takamatsu. This extraordinary complex, praised at this year’s g-mark japan GOOD DESIGN award, includes 5 residences embedded into the terrain, sandwiched between two roads in a residential and hilly part of town. 
The complex project took two and a half years to complete, despite its relatively small scale. It's contemporary in style, yet somewhat organic look, reminds me of green roofs architecture by Austrian Architect Hundertwasser.

The project comprises five levels, each covered with grass and natural vegetation. All apartments with own garden overlook the city below. Terraces covered with vegetation form the roofs of the homes below, providing them with good thermal insulation and a stabilized internal temperature.The exquisite Japanese minimal use of materials, natural woods combined with industrial materials such as concreet, never fails to astonish.
*All images courtesy of ©keita nagata architectural element via design boom.com

ARTERIE | ARTISTS UNITED FOR EARTHQUAKE'S VICTIMS ❤️ LAST CALL

This is really a last minute call, but worth sharing.
The last major auction of Arterie is open. For those unfamiliar with them: Arterie is a group of artists and illustrators who donated works to be auctioned, and the proceeds will go entirely to the victims of the earthquake in central Italy.
Just go to arterieaste.wordpress.com, choose the desired art piece and leave an offering in the comments box. At 22:00 of Tuesday, December 20, the auction will be officially closed and the high bidder will win the work.

Here just some examples of the work to chose from.

I invite STRONGLY everyone to share this wonderful initiative.
Let's add meaning to all this beauty ❤️
Happy bidding!

If you want to know how it works and help visit and read all info here

Questa è davvero una chiamata last minute, ma che vale la pena condividere.
L'ultima grande asta di Arterie è aperta. Per chi non li conosce: Arterie è un gruppo di artisti ed illustratori che ha donato opere da mettere all'asta, il cui ricavato andrà interamente alle vittime del terremoto del centro Italia. 
Basta andare su arterieaste.wordpress.com, scegliere l'immagine desiderata e lasciare la propria offerta nello spazio riservato ai commenti. Alle 22:00 di martedì 20 Dicembre, l'asta sarà ufficialmente chiusa e il migliore offerente si aggiudicherà l'opera.
Invito VIVAMENTE tutti a condividere questa bellissima iniziativa.
Chiudiamo in bellezza, o meglio, aggiungiamo un senso a tutta questa bellezza ❤️
🙂
Buona asta a tutti!

❤️

SANTA LUCIA

Happy Santa Lucia night, everyone! Today is the day when I start to feel the excitement and anticipation of Christmas days to come. What about you?

Santa Lucia – Photograph by Enzo Nocera 1970 – © Laudie Nocera

In Scandinavia, Saint Lucy’s Day is celebrated most wonderfully. 

At the dawn, processions of girls singing Christmas songs, dressed in a white robe, with a crown of candles on the head and a lighted one in their hand, do light up the dark winter night. A little girl who plays Lucia lead the procession, followed by bridesmaids and pageboys and closed by children dressed as elves. It's a lovely scene I hope to see for real one day. This tradition of the eighteenth century is repeated in churches, schools, hospitals and workplaces across the country and would not be Christmas in Sweden without Lucia, marking the transition to the last two weeks of Advent. 

Lucia and her bridesmaids give lusserkatter and ginger biscuits to the audience. Have you ever tried lusserkatter? They're sweet saffron bread buns traditionally baked for this occasion. I wish I had time to prepare some this year, they're delicious. For the ones like me who did not make it to Sweden this year, we can try it at home. I share here the recipe (plus a step-by-step tutorial) for the ones willing to bake a few. 

On the 13th of December, Santa Lucia is celebrated in some cities of northern Italy too. By tradition here, children write a letter to Santa, declaring they have been good and obedient during the year therefore listing gifts they would like to receive as reward. They prepare a bowl of milk for Lucia's donkey, and some chocolate, biscuit or tangerine to thank her. The morning after they'll find mysteriously no more food where they left it and a small present to play with.

I found some St. Lucy paper dolls, aren't they cute? Here you find a pdf to make one of them.

Let's have a lovely Santa Lucia night.