Hello my dear friends! How rarely I share my news here, on the dusty pages of my old London friend meaning my dear and beloved blog. Even though I changed my occupation, visited new places, met new people, and so on and so forth. However today I want to talk about something different, more precisely about an incredibly happy event that happened recently.
I’ll start with a background (not from the birth of Christ, as I love to do it, but still…) I have a friend Lena, whom we have been friends for about 12 years with and a few years ago she introduced me to her (at that time) student Pavel. Pasha (short name for Pavel) sent me some information about Astoria hotel on the 29th of July, 2020. The hotel was announcing a competition for a suitcase label that will be handed over to hotel guests and printed in the catalog. The label should have reflected the spirit of the journey, the history of the hotel, traditions, and much more.
![Гостиница «Астория» . Пятизвёздная гостиница в Санкт-Петербурге, расположена в центре го… | Travel photography europe, Places around the world, St petersburg russia](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f4/c2/6f/f4c26fe6a20046e6381c2b1b41c733e7.jpg)
Most importantly Pasha wrote me a message saying:
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_2249-1.jpg?w=815)
The meaning of it was: “Go ahead, my talented friend! Everything has come together: travels and love for it, art”
I must say, Pasha knows how to motivate. His words about everything coming together gave me a lot of encouragement! I really thought that the contest was made for me (as I consider myself as an artist-traveler). But, for some reason, I “put off until tomorrow what could be done today”. In other words, my friend sent me the competition information at the end of July, the deadline was at the end of September, and I only sat down to start with the sketches on September 16th or so. I was glad that I had quite a few ideas, that Astoria inspired me, and when I read a little about the history of the hotel, studied its official website, it became even more interesting for me to draw.
Then, at some point, it seemed to me that everything was lost, I wasn’t sure that it was a good idea to participate it. Sometimes it happened that way. Sometimes there is only one step from hatred to love, and there is only one step from genius and self-confidence to disappointment.
In the end, I did a few sketches. By the way, here I would also like to thank my good friend Mila Berillo (fashion designer), because she gave me a couple of good (albeit subjective, but important) advice after seeing my works and, in my opinion it helped me a lot. In fact she gave me a very good advice about the work that was chosen by the jury so Milla, thank you so much!
Here are some of the sketches drawn with a pencil (after I made some of them in CorelDraw and here I would like to thank my musical-pedagogical college in Omsk where I studied design and I remember how to use some designer programs even after 11 years of my graduation)
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_2266-1.jpg?w=764)
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_2267.jpg)
And that time, the work had been sent. Standby mode was on. But at the same time I did not wait for the announcement of the results day and night. I was running around in the bustle of my beautiful days and did not even notice how the end of November came. It was at that time that I received an email from (already my fairy, my namesake) Natalia Yermashova, who said that my work was among the three winners!!! (and by the way there were a few hundreds of participants!)
There were no limits for my happiness. I felt on top of the world. On that day I was still at home, feeling under the weather but my mood changed incredibly right after reading that very important email to me! I immediately remembered about the chain that life had built for me: my friend Lena (from Omsk) – Pasha – Astoria – my participation – victory. A wonderful chain involving my dear friends in it was happiness! I would like to share some more interesting moments of my joy and interesting conclusions on this matter.
1. It was in 2014, when Crimea became a part of Russia and we had a very difficult time, terrible relations with America, that same year I won (more precisely, received the audience award (the highly voted winner) and therefore I took the second position out of several hundred design works from all over the world !!!) in the American competition (provided by Kiesza (singer))! It happened at such a difficult time for Russia. There were those who dissuaded me, because what chance could a Russian girl have in an American competition (also in 2014). But there is always time for miracles!
Here is the link for the contest and its results: https://www.talenthouse.com/i/sozdai-web-art-dlya-kiesza/submissions
2. It is 2020 nowadays. It’s a very hard and strange year for everyone, for touristic field, the hotel business in particular. And here I was again marked by the jury of the competition!
3. Astoria. It happened that I was temporarily in Omsk and was trying to move to Europe 5 years ago (I don’t remember how many times I tried to do this, haha. In general, at some point I decided that while Europe was not available to me, I applied for a job position at the beautiful Astoria hotel in the city on the Neva. And thinking that I could get an interview on Skype, I was really disappointed (their HR said to me: “Natalia, do you understand which hotel you are talking about? This is the Astoria hotel! We do not make any interviews online. If you want to work with us, you need to fly in and personally attend the interview.” Which is what I actually did. I flew to Saint Petersburg, went through two stages of selection, it was a very interesting experience, exciting and memorable. As a result, I did not go to the third stage, and I had less chances there than in the first two. At least it seemed to me. But, in fact, it was the Astoria hotel that motivated me to fly to the beautiful city of St. Petersburg, and now, 5 years later, this hotel plays an important role in my life again. Thank you, my Beautiful Astoria for such an active participation in my life!
4. Preparing for the competition and studying the hotel and its charms, I realized that I really wanted to have breakfast there. It seemed like there was no reason for me to stay in it, but coming for breakfast was something I really wanted to do!
![Отель «Астория» в период самоизоляции запустил предложение на уикенд (и на любой день недели!)](https://www.sobaka.ru/images/image/01/28/86/80/_normal.jpg)
And now, thanks to the Universe that always listens to my (and everyone else) desires, I won a certificate for a weekend in the hotel. It’s for two persons with breakfast included. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Dreams coming true (some of them for sure). But then I almost immediately realized that I would be much happier if my parents use this certificate when they plan to visit northern Venice. And I will be so happy to settle them in Astoria. But, since the desire to have breakfast at the hotel didn’t disappear I am still planning to go there for breakfast with a friend of mine, no matter how much it costs. I just want to do it. And it means that it will be so.
So, the first thing that I got from the wonderful St. Petersburg hotel was a magical dinner and a solemn reward taking place in the zoom. Dinner was also important because Marius Ackermann prepared it for us (the chef of the following hotels: Astoria and Angleterre).
![This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-2.png](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/image-2.png?w=570)
For 20 years in the profession, he managed to work in the best restaurants in Germany, Great Britain, Austria, Switzerland, including restaurants with Michelin stars. Marius had a chance to cook for Barack Obama, Melania Trump, King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz and many others. In general, no matter how crazy and posh it may sound, I felt that at least at this point I stand alongside the above-mentioned people. It’s funny, don’t you think so?
I don’t know why it happened but my special dinner was supposed to be delivered to my home, but was actually delivered to the city center, to a cafe during my meeting with a friend.
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_2164-1.jpg?w=764)
Then I went with this huge box to the dentist, and then I got home… it was really nice and touching seeing the labels of the three winners placed on the box, including mine. These are indescribable feelings, a huge range of emotions and definitely very happy ones.
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_2153-1.jpg?w=764)
So, the ceremony was held in the zoom. One of the winners was in the sky (the girl was flying on an airplane) and was unable to attend, so there were two of us (the winners) as well as representatives of Astoria (including the CEO – Gerold Held, on the photo below)
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_2176-1.jpg?w=764)
and members of the jury (from the owner of the gallery to the editor-in-chief of GQ magazine). The conference took place in the format of the jury’s communication with each other, discussion of the quarantine and the current situation, travel, presentation of some products that we had in the dinner box, presentation of the contest labels (three winners and the winners themselves) and, of course, dinner itself.
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My friend Nika helped me a lot. I can actually say that it was Nika who worked in a tandem with Marius and she was bringing all the dishes to their logical conclusion at home. I also touched some dishes with my creative hand but since I followed the conference attentively and was there, inside, I left my friend Nika alone and didn’t help her much. I knew she could be trusted and the dinner was excellent. Thanks again to Astoria and, of course, the jury for their choice! The event was over and the joy is still with me.
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_2171-1.jpg?w=764)
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_2183-1.jpg?w=764)
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The chef’s presentation
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![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_0009-1-1.jpg?w=1024)
Our second dish
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_0014-1.jpg?w=768)
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_2169-2.jpg?w=764)
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/img_2239-2.jpg?w=764)
Well, the cherry on top (at least for me it was the main prize) was distribution, delivery of labels to the hotel visitors, printing them (the labels) in a catalog, an exhibition in the hotel lobby, and also mentioning in the media. At the moment I can share with you this link: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4582545 (it’s in Russian but you can see my and other’s works there)
And here is the Instagram post from the hotel: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIQnHNEjzbt/?hl=ru
In general it was such a great contest for me and I would like to sum up by the following: even in difficult times (such as Covid 2019), miracles happen! The main thing is to believe in it and wait! The second point is that the Universe will lead you where you need to be, at the right time and at the right moment, and all meetings are not accidental (thanks again to a friend who introduced me to her student and him for the link to the competition). And there is another very important point I would like to mention. I have heard many times that contests are won because of connections, and someone may even pay. Thus I would like to say that I didn’t know anyone from the jury, I had nothing to do with the hotel, I participated, jumping on the last train, and this is the result! I just believe in miracles. And I wish you to do the same and here I’ll make a stop and will continue telling you how beautiful life is! (But next time)
Thank you for your time and for being with me.
My best wishes to everyone!
P.S. Here is my work that was selected by the jury, by the way:
![](https://westminsterscinderella.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/d090d181d182d0bed180d0b8d18f-5-1.jpg?w=948)