25/02/2014

Winter is lingering...

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I was having a rough day today. Stressing. Worrying. A headache coupled with work on a good day is not desirable. 

I wanted to write a blog post and decided, as we crossed the creek up into our yard, that I would snap a couple of pictures of the sunset once it lowered a bit. 

Also to show all you people in the south that it is still very much mid-winter here. 

Minus thirty-five degrees yesterday morning. 

Buried under two feet of snow.


***

These two get quite hyper when you go outside and of course they proceeded to wrestle just out of shot of this first picture. I got them to settle down eventually and took some really good portraits of the two of them together. 

They are the best of friends. Adopted mother. Adopted son. 

Ezra was probably around 4 or 5 when we got Seth and he was definitely too young to be away from his mother because he cried and cried. It was heartbreaking. 

Ezra was a little wary of this little whiny fur ball that had arrived unexpectedly, they adopted each other quite quickly however. Seth took comfort in her at night, and because we had gotten him in the winter, they both slept in our little duplex for those first couple of months. 

They have become inseparable and are a little lost when the other is not around.


13/02/2014

Loving // Black Honey

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On one of my online shopping sprees I got a few things from Sephora, and I picked up Clinique's All About Shadow in Black HoneyI had this on my wish list ever since I saw it featured in Anna's Autumn Edit (1:10) video on YouTube. 

This shadow is so highly pigmented and easy to blend. And it's such a beautiful rust, brown colour, that it really makes paler eyes pop. I think I've worn this every second day -- at least -- since I've gotten it and it has incredible staying power. In one sweep and some strategic blending you can have a great 5 sec eye, that looks like you put so much more effort into your make-up.

I haven't played around with other eye looks since getting this shadow, but have merely swept it all across the lid, blending it into the outer crease and adding a salmon coloured highlight in the inner corner. It's a great stand-alone look and I haven't had the desire to use it in any different way.

All in all, it's a great shadow that goes with everything, but steers away from the basic taupes and browns; bringing in a muted cranberry/rust red that makes a great statement and a good twist on a neutral eye. 


09/02/2014

Pinterest Inspiration // 8

Pinterest Inspiration // 8
1. Zsa Zsa Bellagio 2. Social Proper 3. Blog Baesil 4. Topshop 5. KENDI everyday 6. A Pair of Pears 7. Zanita

1. Most of my "Mouthwatering" board on Pinterest has been taken over these past couple of weeks by cakes that I pinned purely for how they were decorated, one of my favourites is this white ruffly cake edged with gold and topped with roses.

2. That's not what ships are for. I have a difficult time thinking about leaving home and going to school, I know it will be difficult at first and be terrifying, but that it will get better. I can't quite get my head past suddenly being so very alone and out of my comfort zone, I also know, however, that I can't stay here at "harbour" because that's not what I was made for.

3. I want to live there. Wherever it is. In the meantime, where can I get a striped bed set? And an apartment in London?

4. Plaid has been spotted quite frequently on my "Lovely threads of cotton" board, also, tweed and herringbone. I have yet to get my hands on either one. It's quite shocking really. I should get on that.

5. I keep telling myself that spring is around the corner, but really I just want it to be warm enough to wear something like this outside. When it's minus 25 and feels like minus 32, you won't be getting away with wearing something like this. I have more than once made the mistake of being overly optimistic and switched out my long heavy wool coat for a thinner fall version -- I may have turned to a popsicle.

6. Whilst planning my future as a student and planning my trip to Europe, I have felt as I lay in bed that I had "too many tabs open!" and it is a lot harder than just clicking the small "X" at the corner of each tab, when it's in your head.

7. This is a beautiful photoshoot and I love the effect that the 85mm lens has in comparison to a 55mm. It makes such a lovely hazy bokeh in the background, making the subject clearly the main focus.


06/02/2014

Recommended Read: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Book Review 1 Book Review 1

Flavia de Luce is the youngest daughter of three, her passion is poison and at eleven years old she knows more about chemistry than most university students ever will. 

Growing up in a decaying mansion, with a distant father, a sister who won't take her eyes off a mirror and another who won't take her eyes off a book, a gardner of questionable sanity and an equally questionable cook, life at Buckshaw was not the quintessential childhood of a girl in the mid-twentieth century. 

When unusual events occur at Buckshaw, starting with an argument in her father's study in the middle of the night, to a man found dead in their cucumber patch, Flavia acts as a sleuth, working underneath the nose of Inspector Hewitt and his gang, to solve this seemingly random series of events.

***

I think what I liked most about this book was Flavia's wit, it was often unintentional humour -- more how she saw the world and her impressions of other people.

"Mrs. Mullet, who was short and gray and round as a millstone and who, I'm quite sure, thought of herself as a character in a poem by A.A. Milne, was in the kitchen formulating one of her pus-like custard pies."

"'I've brought you some nice seed biscuits,' she said. 'Seed biscuits and tea and a nice glass of milk for Miss Flavia.' Seed biscuits and milk! I hated Mrs. Mullet's seed biscuits the way Saint Paul hated sin. Perhaps even more so. I wanted to clamber up onto the table, and with a sausage on the end of my fork as my sceptre, shout in my best Laurence Olivier voice, 'Will no one rid us of this turbulent pastry cook?'"

*written in her notebook
"Friday, 2nd of June 1950, 9:42 A.M. Subject's appearance normal but grumpy.
(Isn't she always?) Onset may vary from 12 to 72 hours.
I could wait."

While keeping you enticed by the narrator's obvious good wit and humour, the quality and attention to detail that the author put in the story, often adding a necessary history lesson, really helps you imagine the world in which Flavia lived. 

"The Pit Shed was the outbuilding farthest from the library's main building. Tottering precipitously on the river's bank, it was a conglomeration of weathered boards and rusty corrugated tin, all overgrown with moss and climbing vines. In the heyday of the motor showroom, it had been the garage, where autos had their oil and tires changed, their axles lubricated, and other intimate underside adjustments seen to. Since then, neglect and erosion had reduced the place to something resembling a hermit's hovel in the woods."

Something that I found quite interesting was the relationship and interactions between each family member. Flavia’s father was quite distant and didn’t put a whole lot of interest in his children, but was seen as a dark figure of strength and fearlessness, after his time in the war and his wife’s death, always there but not always present. 
Ophelia and Daphne, Flavia’s sisters, seemed so much older and foreign to Flavia’s 11 year-old mind.
Harriet, their deceased mother whom died when Flavia was quite young, was always addressed as Harriet, never mother. 
Dogger, the valet turned butler turned chauffeur turned gardner, was a grandfather-like figure to the girls and was quite close to Flavia.

"A dark shape moving in front of the Vauxhall's headlamps caught my attention as, for a moment, it cast Dogger and me into the shadows. A familiar figure, silhouetted in black and white, stood out like a paper cutout against the glare: Father. He began shambling slowly, almost shyly, towards me. But when he noticed Dogger at my side, he stopped and, as if he had just thought of something vitally important, turned aside to have a few quiet words with Inspector Hewitt."

"...there is something lacking in the de Luces: some chemical bond, or lack of it, that ties their tongues whenever they are threatened by affection. It is as unlikely that one de Luce would ever tell another that she loved her as it is that one peak in the Himalayas would bend over and whisper sweet nothings to an adjacent crag."


“Now you’ve done it, Flave, I thought, you might never see your family again. As an attractive as this idea seemed at first, I realized quickly that I would miss Father -- at least a little. Ophelia and Daphne I would soon learn to live without.”

Her naivety in some matters of the world was in stark contrast to the wealth of knowledge that she had concerning her passion; chemistry.

"Once I had taught myself to make sense of the chemical equations…the universe was laid open before me: It was like having stumbled upon a recipe book that had once belonged to the witch in the wood…As time went on, my notebooks grew fatter. My work was becoming ever more sophisticated as the mysteries if Organic Chemistry revealed themselves to me…My particular passion was poison."

All in all, it is an eloquently written web of mystery, innocence, discovery and gumption. You will fall in love with Flavia and all the characters that make up her world.


02/02/2014

J a n u a r y F a v o u r i t e s . . .


January Favourites 2014

It is now February and I decided to start a favourites post at the end of every month, what a perfect time to start but January Favourites! 

January Favourites are bound to showcase Christmas presents and the first that I have been loving is my purse from Gap. I have been looking for ages (to now avail) for the perfect handbag. I wanted one that was big enough to tote around my laptop if I wanted but could also hold a lot of other crap that I carry around with me!

This bag is so awesome. I never would have picked such a bold colour, but it surprisingly works...with like everything that I where. It's the perfect statement piece to pull together my whole outfit!

My next favourite is a lip combination that I have been wearing constantly for the past couple of months, it is Revlon's Just Kissable Balm Stain in Charm and Revlon's Colorburst Lip Butter in Pink Truffle. 

What's really great about this combination, I've found, is that even as the day goes on, because Charm is a stain, the formula kind of mixes with both colours so you are left with a slightly lighter version of what you first applied, but stained to your lips! It's so great for days when you quickly remember to apply something to your lips in the morning, but can't be bothered in the afternoon. It's a great your-lips-but-better shade that is achieved.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. I've just finished this book yesterday morning and it is quite the treat! It is full of little witticisms and dry humour, told from the point of view of  an eleven-year-old girl, whose slightly naive but very cunning and smart. It all just mixes together to form the perfect mystery novel -- with a twist!

I received Mumford & Sons' Babel album on vinyl this Christmas and have listened to it often as I am getting ready in the morning or just mulling about my room. It is such a different sound then if I would just play it from my iPad, but it is whole different experience as well! I love to hearing the intro to the first track, soon after I placed the needle on the spinning record. It's very satisfying in a way.

Jane-a-Day 5-Year Journal was given to me by my sister for Christmas last year and I have loved reading the line I wrote on that very same day a year before. It's funny seeing all the situations and struggles that I went through on that same day from a whole year's experience separating me from it. 

The Paradise. Mom and I just finished watching the second season last night and I don't know what we're going to do with ourselves now! It is a really great BBC series about a Victorian department store -- of the same name -- and all the drama that goes on between the staff and their departments, from Ladies Wear to the kitchen -- it is a perfect British soap opera.

I also got this dress for Christmas and I don't know how I didn't have it in my life before now, it is the fifth striped dress I own and let me tell you, you can never have to many in my opinion!

Well it's late. I have work tomorrow :P and I've said all I needed to say. These have been my January Favourites, what have been some of your favourites this past month?