Drawings

My art teacher in school ( long time ago) lived a lonely life hidden deep in the countryside, spending his time carving faces into tree trunks. Spooky, right?
He was the kind of guy being referred to as crazy and we always made fun of him and called him all kinds of not so nice names. Today i would just call him eccentric and unique.
I don't remember the details but i do recall that we were an overly confident bunch of wanna-be adults and ended up with a letter from the principal being sent to our parents because we had left the teacher's classroom after a hefty debate about his inappropriate behaviour and refused to go to the local art gallery the same day.
 
So, this man made us draw and paint and create the weirdest things which i usually did not like at all but still managed to get a good result despite my aversion.

One day we entered the class room which he had already prepared for a new project and there were animal skulls everywhere. Skulls of cattle, monkeys and cute little creatures like squirrels or such. That seventeen-year old girl felt the urge to vomit but my disgust was immediately overpowered by fear: the fear of losing my hard earned 15 points ( A+ or 1+) that i had scored by creating a Plaster of Paris sculpture that was good enough to be exhibited in the art gallery mentioned before.

And so i grabbed my charcoal and began to draw skulls. And i got another 15 points and an exhibition for my drawings. And i hated them so much that i hid them in the backmost corner of my room for many years.

I rediscovered the drawings when MisterT and i moved into our previous appartment in 2008. And i liked them! So much that i put them into matching frames and displayed them on our wall.

Today I am grateful for being given the chance to draw something more sophisticated and challenging than the usual flowers and geometric shapes.

Thank you Mister G. for being my teacher. I still think you were a moron but thanks for standing out and staying true to yourself.

Valentine's Tree

My Valentine's day decoration: Three branches in a vase, decorated with tags made of hand-made paper.

Update: My tree won the Plaid Twitter Valentine's Contest, yay!!!

Thrift Store Finds

Look at this beauty!

Can anyone please try to convince me that this is the ugliest thing ever and there is absolutely no reason for me to be sad about not being able to buy it?
We saw it two weeks ago at our favorite store and that kind of furniture usually sells really fast. But this cabinet was still unsold yesterday. I think it is gorgeous, it offers plenty of space and would fit into our hallway perfectly. The price is unbeatable but we cannot justify spending the money on it right now. Not enough Cents in our piggybank.
My heart breaks and looking at this photo almost makes my cry. 
Oh well, it is just a piece of furniture...

Instead i bought this wooden sign:

Moreover i am now the owner of a collection of beautiful crystal glasses and a jewelry box, both heirloom from my grandmother who passed away two months ago.

The box itself is terribly ugly, totally 80s style but i plan to give her a makeover soon. It is filled with some amazing pieces, nothing of monetary value but still very pretty and i will definitely wear some of them and then use the rest for some crafts.

Oh, and we found some cheap stuff at Ikea, e.g. vases for 10 cents and finally, after 2 years of searching they finally had a white bargain door in the "as is" section. We already bought one last year after the sales person assured us it would be a Billy door. But it isn't. I have yet to find a good use for it.
This one is Billy Olesbo, half panel half glass and it was 9€ instead of 40€. Perfect!

Curls!!!

I don't want to turn this into a beauty blog but i think this is so funny and i MUST share it with you.

A while ago i saw a DIY hair tutorial on YouTube that i had not known about before and i tried that method last night. I do not have a link to that video but it basically shows you how to get pretty curls with the help of an old towel. All you have to do is cut that towel into strips and then roll up strands of damp hair just like you would do with those old fashioned curlers. However, the main advantage of the towel strips is that they can stay in over night and you can actually sleep without being uncomfortable.



Ok, under normal circumstances i would never ever post such an unflattering photo of me here or anywhere else. But today i am unashamed and fearless of showing you what i looked like last night.

When i saw myself in the mirror i could not stop laughing. Not because i looked so stupid but because i immediately had to think of a certain person. Can you guess who? Do you wanna know?

S
C
R
O
L
L


D
O
W
N
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Nellie Oleson!! I looked like Nellie Oleson!! Muhahahahahaha!!!

Oh how i hated that nasty little b... with her silly curls and pink bows. I got so mad everytime she did or said something mean. But i guess that just shows that Alison Arngrim must have been a good actress if she could evoke these feelings in me.

Source of both photos: The official Alison Arngrim Confessions of a Prairie Bitch Nellie Oleson Website

Ok, so this is what i looked like this morning right after removing the strips.

Aren't those curls bombastic fantastic??

I did not brush or comb my hair because it is really thick and heavy, and curls usually last no longer than a few hours. But those stay in all day and even survived a little nap. I am pretty sure i will still have beautiful waves tomorrow morning.

This towel technique is awesome!! It is so simple and quick and easy and i LOVE the result!

Party Preparations

Ha, I exceeded myself organizing and stowing the christmas decoration! I managed to pack it into two boxes instead of four, plus a small one for the ornaments.  The living room looks so much brighter and bigger now without all that junk and the massive tree.

I wish i had more time for blogging at the moment but there isn't much to write about anyway, as i am busy, busy, busy preparing the wedding anniversary. Right now MisterT is scanning old photos of my parents while i'm in the process of making giant paper flowers from old newspaper as wall decor. But i have no idea how and when and where to spray-paint them, as there is a heavy storm and rain going on, which prevents me from working outside on the balcony.
Time is running out and i am not so sure if i will be able to put all my ideas into action. I have tons of ideas and gathered every silver item i could find, so in the end this party probably won't cost anything except the costs for champagne and some food.

So excited and looking forward to seeing my parents' reaction!

De-Christmassing

To my surprise that is indeed a word, i just looked it up in the dictionary.
In other words, i began to remove our christmas decoration and as every year i am trying to come up with the perfect storage system. Life could be so easy if i just threw everything back into the boxes, but i spend hours trying to figure out how to pack everything with minimum space requirements and more reasonable than in the previous year.
I think i will be able to minimize the number of boxes from 4 to 3, or at least i hope so. Looks good so far.

Once everything is stowed away i will decorate the entire living room with silver elements. It's my parents 25th wedding anniversary in a few days, which is traditionally known as the "silver wedding", and they will be here with us. I am going to throw them an intimate cocktail party although they said they refuse to accept presents or even celebrate this day. But I am well known for being huge in coming up with awesome surprises and so far they have always been amazed by my secret ideas. Yay, can't wait to see their smiling happy little faces, just like kids opening their presents on christmas.