Hibernation

Wanted to share these photos from the heart of winter before the season drips slowly away.

I can't believe winter is withering away so soon, there weren't even remotely enough freezing days for my taste. This winter was far from easy and I was mentally hibernating for the greater part, but in the spring I get ridiculously nostalgic about winter. Clinging to the memory of glittering fields, silent woods and all the dear dead flowers. The animal prints in the virgin snow and the distant winter sun, and even the cold that sucks all warmth from your bones.

dress / vintage from Budapest  rings / Blood Milk

   Looking at these photos I'm reminded of one thing: you know your sister must love you when there's almost -20 degrees outside and she still agrees to follow you on a snowy field to capture a few frames.

Virgin Snow

Yesterday there was a plan of going for a walk and taking some outfit pics in the early autumn glow, but this happened instead. 
Oh, Finland. I was preparing myself for some Jack-O-Lantern season goodness, not Jack Frost!

Afterwards my boots were soaked with freezing slush and then the city's electrical grid crashed, typical Tuesday madness. It's amazing (and a little funny, I must admit) how lost people look when the modern commodities crash for even an hour or so. We're so surrounded by gadgets, as if the world around us didn't exist without the deities of smart phones and TV and the rest of their addictive pantheon. The joke is equally on me too, my daily film fix is close to being what insulin is to a diabetic and that's pretty alarming.

Otherwise the week has been extra busy, I've been happily working on a few clothing print designs. Which has sneakily led me to sketching just for myself too, drawing feels so good again after a pause. The last time I painted was for a group show in June, so my nerves are itching for a new project! Maybe I'll get something started this week, I can almost hear those empty canvases rustling in the attic, waiting to be tainted like virgin snow.

Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it

Today is a rare event, both Friday the 13th and full moon. Hope you've all had a good day without any severe misfortunes! Mine has felt exceptionally lucky, something that's also been rare these days. But it feels like the winds are starting to blow in more positive directions, shedding negativity away like snakeskin and letting new things in.

Maxi dress eBay / buckle shoes local flea-market / bracelet antique market in Budapest / necklace  Alchemy gothic Eve Crystal Pendant (a sponsored gift from David at bodyjewelleryshop.com, thank you so much!)

One of my many goals for this summer season is to adapt to the heat rather than complaining about it, because that obviously gets you nowhere. This mindset has actually worked like a charm, I'm happy with the heat as long as I have my SPF50 and can escape direct sunlight to the shadows. Transparent maxi dresses have felt like the best thing to put on when the quicksilver speaks with tropical numbers. (They also neatly cover up all summer scars, derby battle bruises and mosquito bites!) 

I've went with more casual looks like this one lately, adding large jewelry pieces to minimalistic outfits. Do you have any summer style favourites?

A few April pieces

April flew by with minimal blogging, so I thought I'd share a couple of joys from the past month. I had the best of luck with flea markets in April! You know the feeling when you go second hand hunting with a specific thing in mind, and you find just that? That happened so many times I can't believe it. Here's a pick on some goodies that I found only last week, including a vintage lace collar that camouflages me with innocence, two books that I've been meaning to read, frames for my wall projects, another bell jar and a nice stack of other treasures. I wonder what May will bring my way!

I spent countless hours in the woods in April, remembered how lost I feel when nature is not constantly near. I only wish I could live in the middle of a city and the woods at the same time.

Hanged out with Nana, a darling black whippet. (She reminded me so much of Nipsu, the Moomin character as all Finns may know!) 

The big thing about this encounter is that I wasn't allergic at all to her, no matter how much I rubbed my face against her silky black fur. This gives some light hope of having a dog at some point in my life! I'm seriously having the worst case of dog fever, must be driving everyone around me nuts with my daydreaming after huskies and other precious canines. I could die from joy each time I get to pet and hug puppies on my walks.

Had many date nights with the dear one, this one was Cthulhu Mythos themed. Vegan Elder Sign cupcakes, cold brews, 20's jazz and horror soundscapes on the background and the only board game that I can actually enjoy and focus on; Arkham Horror. Nothing says romance like fighting against the elder gods and cultists while desperately trying to prevent the apocalypse, right? The great thing about the game is team work, you don't fight against other players and if you try to go solo you will likely just lose your mind or trigger the end of the world. A true treat for any Lovecraft lover!

And best of all, I FINALLY earned myself a new laptop. This is a huge thing for me and very good news for the blog too! Working on a deeply broken down machine was simply too tiring, so most days I never even opened the wreck. But this beauty works like a charm (plus the red glow is wonderfully diabolical). It's been years since I've had a new computer so I'm ridiculously happy about this! I couldn't even remember how it felt to be able to access files quickly and edit photos without your Photoshop crashing every 30 seconds.

The only flaw is that the HD screen makes all photos look like crap and I can't fix that, haha. All my photos are in a fixed size so they should appear normally here, but Blogger expands and chops them oddly. At least on my screen, I hope you're not seeing what I'm seeing!

She saw the stars on gravestones, and sung the sky in blood

An outfit from a few days ago, on a spring walk before entering the red seats of the cinema. I'm heavily addicted to ranger looks again, big hoods, boots and simple black forms have covered most of my days. The cloak has been almost glued to my shoulders, it's the perfect shield for prawling the woods or running busy errands! 

Spring is definitely my least-favourite season, but I can't help but loving nature just before it starts to bloom. It's so stagnant, with all the shades of grey and brown mixed up in a wonderfully bleak palette.

Ovate cloak / bag & shoes flea market / leggings from my sister 

And about the cinema. We went to see Only Lovers Left Alive, and both liked it very much! A rare treat for any artsy or vampire film lover. The film was beautifully shot, with a dreamy slow pace that's best for the days when you need some slow drama in your life. It's worth watching for the performances of Hiddleston and Swinton alone, I find it rare to see believable romance on the silver screen and both were so compelling in their roles. And beyond beautiful!

Extra points for the mentions of Kit Marlowe and Nikola Tesla! (I always get childishly excited when someone mentions Tesla!) Also one of the best things about the film was that it didn't underestimate the intelligence of its viewers, which usually is a common flaw in the modern vampire film pool. Only Lovers Left Alive was slow, clever and shamelessly stylish, and I think the drowsy scenes fit the immortal life perfectly. Not my favourite vampire film, but still a very good one.

The film really made me want to listen to melancholic Arabic-influenced music and travel to see the decay of Detroit. Some films just cling to the back of your head for days after you've seen them, like a tangible dream. Do you ever get the same feeling, thinking about a film for days, different twists and camera angles, and all that could have been? 

Fog of the World

Foggy roads and foggy mind have been a frequent guest in the past two weeks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm actually feeling pretty excited and happy although the images speak the contrary!

This is just much needed grey calmness before the plunge.

I feel like many things are about to change and so I've kept to myself a lot - gathering energy for the changes to come. Maybe even too much,  watching so many FMA episodes in a row and having solitary conversations in japanese can't be a healthy sign, hehe! This week I've mostly been decluttering the insides of my head and home, cleaning out ill thoughts and unnecessary things from my surroundings. Breaking barriers and letting go feels like the thing to do right now. I'm not aiming for complete minimalism, just a lot more space. Possessions are nice as long as you don't ever get possessed by them.

How has your new year started? Well, I hope! ♥

17: The Moon

"If the moon smiled, she would resemble you.

You leave the same impression

Of something beautiful, but annihilating.

Both of you are great light borrowers.

Her O-mouth grieves at the world; yours is unaffected,

And your first gift is making stone out of everything"

-Sylvia Plath

1: Cold White Light

It's time for December calendar again! Something for each day; random things, travel things and Yule things nicely mashed together in no particular order.  Last night I fell asleep instead of blogging so that makes two updates for today!

First of all, five things of the moment.

♥ Snow. It arrived for a brief time in October and now it come back to stay. Yesterday night there was a horrible blizzard monster roaming outside our walls, engulfing the brave who ventured out. Grocery shopping felt like a polar expedition! It's strange how the first days of winter feel so incredibly cold, and by the end of the winter you can easily cope with -25°C.

♥ A glass of port, to keep the cold at bay. Best when enjoyed with some British dress drama.

♥ Light eyes, dark lips. I've worn minimal eye make-up pretty often lately, on some days nothing but mascara. My Illamasqua order arrived and I love Pristine (the black matte lipstick seen in the photos) to bits! Nails are covered in Illamasqua's Baptiste, the most gorgeous purple I've ever seen captured in a polish bottle.

♥ A glimpse on a painting I made on Saturday. I left things to the last drop for the annual group show and there was only one day left to create something.. again. I'm kind of getting a behavioral pattern here. Next time I'm going to start early so that I can have something decent to show, haha! 

Somehow I don't feel like he is one of my paintings, more like an experiment or a sketch. I do love constellations and pretty men though, so I guess it's adequate. Please don't ask me why I paint blondes so much, as I have no idea and I try not to question it.

♥ Reading Haruki Murakami's words. They can suck you into very strange and wonderful worlds. I highly enjoy literature with surreal undertones.

Dismantled my dreams in a skeleton pile

There's a tiniest nature museum in a cellar near my old home town, and I thought some of you might enjoy a little peek inside! I shot these photos a good share of time ago and found them just now while browsing through files. I for one can't stop staring at those bone formations in all their delicacy and beauty! I just hope they all died natural deaths, although that's hardly the case.

There's a lot of taxidermy, domestic animal skulls, butterflies, moths and other critters and even fetus jars on those shelves and glass cabinets (or glass coffins). Captured under time and glass, never moving forward. I always get a baffling feeling of child-like wonder and sadness while visiting museums of natural history, like I don't wish to see these empty animal shells but can't stop looking at them either.

One corner holds a genuine human skeleton of a John Doe from WW2. A German soldier lost in battle, if I remember correctly. Some have insisted that the remains should be buried, but I think it's only fair to have human parts on display too, as we are not a separate thing from nature.

I think some kind of a "bones" or "museum" tag would be in place as there's so many posts here including those things. Hmmm, we'll see if that happens! The tagging system doesn't always work for me as I often forget to use it. Oh how I sometimes wish I was more organized.