Kraken, FTW!

♫ Pirates of the Caribbean Original Soundtrack – Skull and crossbones

Yay! I finally got the parcel I had been awaiting enthusiastically! Reason enough to write a new blog post so soon after the previous one.

So yeah, I had gone online-shopping at Steampunk Couture Etsy shop and bought a lovely lovely octopus which I had been drooling over for... long. Though I don't really know why, because I think I've only seen dead octopi in my life and they haven't been particularly cute... But for some reason illustrations of them can be relatively fascinating. Either way, I just had to get a sea animal into my hair.

 I think the parcel itself was nicely decorated with steampunkish labels. The address label too, which I censored for obvious reasons...

And I was very, very confused when I opened the parcel and it turned out to be filled with paper shreads.

Somewhere underneath all those paper shreads there was the thing itself wrapped in bubble wrap!

I also found a little "business" card and a heart-shaped lollipop!

And then the little kraken! It's cute, though maybe not as "light-weight" as advertised.

The kraken in my hair! Though it might be better to wear it on the other side of the head with its head pointing to the back of mine. Otherwise its head might look like a bump in mine... if its tentacles cannot be seen. :D (By the way, it's difficult to take photos of yourself with an SLR camera. Too heavy, especially with a separate flash. Though I did so, but was almost always pointing the wrong way or something... Thus the last photo was taken with a compact camera.)

And finally... A very similar picture to the last one (haha, actually one of those SLR shots!), edited in a sort of... in the spirit of steampunk?

If I wear that at work, I cannot possibly listen to music with headphones. How very sad... So long!

Swimming in the frozen sky

♫ Abney Park – The Wrong Side

I wish I could avoid complaining about this cold weather. And I'll try to, because it simply is no use complaining. There's nothing anyone can do about this coldness and on the other hand I like winters. Each season has its time...

I looked up some photos from last winter. *cough* Last winter, because I've been so awfully lazy to go out taking photos lately. I'm trying to remind myself of how pretty and epic winter can be...

For some reason this winter has been much more extreme than the previous three. This winter was the first when my mailbox iced up and when ice blocked my front door (one day it opened only 22 cm, no matter how hard I pushed or kicked) and when it was only + 9c on the floor of the hall of my apartment. So yeah... I am kind of looking forward to spring.

Though I rather complain about slippery roads than coldness. Someone could do something about them after all. The city center is not that bad, but my neighbourhood is. On my way to the bus stop I have to ascend a hill and it's so bloody fun when the sidewalk is slippery as hell. So far I haven't tripped, but there have been close calls. And I wonder, I truly wonder; how on earth can some people wear high heels in winter? Kudos for those who can do that, I don't think I could.

Still waiting for that one parcel. >,< Damnit, what's taking so long? I'm getting impatient and I think I lost a point here. I had some much more interesting topics to write about, but this is a lazy post-workday entry. So long!

But, oh, what beautiful things I'll wear

♫ Ashbury Heights – Morningstar in a Black Car

Strange issues, there are several things I could write about, but well, this time I chose to go for materialism and thus, things I've purchased recently. I've found myself having lots of strange urges to buy this and that, which is somewhat unusual of me. I would make a bad fashion blogger because I simply don't buy new clothes or accessories that often – which may be a good thing, I don't know. (I have to point out that I certainly am not criticizing how some people, such as fashion bloggers, spend money. At least many of those that I follow seem to be sensible consumers, recycling what they don't need anymore and also purchasing used items. It's just normal to eventually get fed up with certain things.)

A few weeks ago I popped to Seppälä and ended up buying some accessories. I couldn't resist that lacy ribbon with a cameo which can be used both as a hair pin and a brooch. I rarely find this cute items in all those regular clothes stores...

And then, I haven't bought earrings for such a long time. Part of the reason might be the fact that I rarely bother to change earrings to begin with. But this pair also being so cute that I couldn't resist, I figured I should start wearing different earrings more often. I haven't yet worn those because I wear such earmuffs in wintertime that wouldn't go with such big earrings, but once it's warm enough to go without covering ears, I certainly will start wearing those! Along with a few quite "special" pieces of ear jewellery that I have...

Even though my black-and-white-stripe period for clothes has pretty much ended, if not totally, then for the most part at least, I found these very fascinating. And well, lately I've been more into vertical stripes, but nevertheless, I fell in love with these!

Yesterday I dragged myself out of my bed early enough to go to Kaunotar ja Kulkuri, which is a nice second hand store in Tampere. I really like shopping there, it's much more pleasant than going to a flea market (I'm bad at rummaging through tables with messy piles of clothes) and the prices are usually reasonable. I've also once taken my own clothes there, but none of them was sold, although I told them to put them up very cheap. :/ Anyway, this nice shirt cost 4 €.

It's made of very thin, mesh-like fabric which is slightly stripey and see-through on the back and gathered on the front. And on the front it's not that see-through either. At first I thought it'd be too low-cut for me, but no, it's not, it seems to fit well. I just don't think I can wear it any time soon, the weather forecasts imply that next week will be somewhat unbearable.

I'm also waiting for one parcel to arrive from the US. I don't know whether it will fit in my mailbox or whether I will have to go get it from a post office, but I'm slightly afraid that these temperates might shatter it in my mailbox. :/ Once I had bought some (used) CDs which had to remain in my mailbox in very low temperatures for a few days, and the cases turned out a bit cracked when I opened the parcel. I'm rather sure they only got cracked on the way and were not like that to begin with... Though those are just little visual flaws as the CDs work, but I wouldn't like to receive my new accessory in pieces... Anyways. So long!

Reading can be risky for women on the verge

♫ Turisas – To Holmgard and beyond

A while ago a friend and I ordered some books from Amazon, and a while I go I fetched them from the post office. And this is what I got:

Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. I'd been thinking of buying it for such a long time, but I'd never bothered to order it all alone. I'd been waiting for a time when I'd have something else to purchase too. I guess it's a must for me to own, because:

We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.
- Cheshire Cat

Through the Looking Glass is relatively strange to me still, I've never had chances to familiarize myself with it. Reading it at the moment.

I don't know why exactly I got the urge to buy Tim Burton's poems. Might be all the movies I've watched? Anyway, the book is awesome. I'm very picky when it comes to poetry. I want poems to really have some ingenious language, not necessarily rhymes, but something. I easily regard modern poetry as wannabe arty, and thus, rarely like it. However, Burton's poetic language was brilliant, and the stories were hilarious. I guess I could relate to Voodoo Girl:

But she knows she has a curse on her,
a curse she cannot win,
For if someone gets
too close to her,
the pins stick farther in.

Last but not least, I also bought something that's supposed to be useful.

AdamsMorioka & Terry Stone's Color Design Workbook, which is supposed to be of some help in my thesis work. I hope it'll also be... Although the whole thesis work frustrates the hell out of me. I realized I rather read fairytales than anything that'd help me to graduate.
I guess this is it for now, so long!

Yo, ho, haul together, hoist the colors high

♫ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Original Soundtrack –
I don't think now is the best time

I truly feel like writing about my love of pirates.

Sure my "feelings" are highly romanticized, but so are the legends and stories, I guess. :D But I'm not denying it, I am a romanticist.

I tend to say that if I cannot maintain myself as a graphic designer, I will become a pirate. At the moment I am, however, doing design for a living... Nevertheless, I'm always prepared to board.

I live in a piratey hole, I guess. That photo looks awkward, but yes, it's my front door. It looks like a warehouse door, I know. That why those friends who've never been here before have trouble finding the right door. Or not anymore, since I can tell them to look for the Jolly Roger. However, I pity every courier who has to come knocking on my door...
I have to thank my neighbourhood's kids for giving me the idea to make such a flag. Thanks to them, it suddenly felt like an obvious idea – though I wonder why I didn't come up with that earlier, given that I had spent years wondering how to block that window (it had a blank white curtain for three years) and also given that I've liked pirates for long...
And how did they do that? One afternoon, two small boys knocked on my door. I went to open, and they totally froze, not saying anything for a while, until the other one asked; "do you have a ring?" I was very, very dumbfounded, not understanding what on earth they were actually after. I tried to ask though, but they figured I couldn't answer their question in a satisfactory way, so they left without telling me what was going on. After that, they came to spy on me through my open window. Now I call them treasure hunters.

Despite my interest, I hadn't seen Pirates of the Caribbean movies until this week. Now I watched all of them, and now I feel all piratey. Yarr.

The movies were all entertaining and nice. However, such piratey language is occasionally a bit difficult to follow... :/ Audiovisually stunning, too. That's why I'm listening to the soundtrack now, and oh, the boats – what they looked like! And everything else too, but I was particularly fascinated by the Flying Dutchman. Oh so epic...

I feel like drawing piratey images again...

Pirates sure have made my life epic in other ways too. Roughly a year ago, a friend had a housewarming-costume-party, and I decided to dress up as a pirate. With my souvenir sword, my piratey pants from Baby, the stars shine bright brand's collection Alice and the Pirates... and a pirate map of the city, tied to a bottle of rum as a housewarming gift, I sailed there.

That map could have turned out much better, but I made it completely with Photoshop, thus, the lines are not nice, lively and delicate. I also made it quickly. (The "real" places would be these: Ocean of Näsi = Näsijärvi, Gulf of Dead Women = Naistenlahti, Unholy Sea = Pyhäjärvi, Mountains of the Cursed Bishop = Pispalanharju.)

However, I had fun while working on that map, and I thought, probably even told a friend, how awesome it would be to get to make some pirate illustrations as a real commission.

A month passed, and I was contacted by one editor of a newspaper in which I had worked during a few summers. She asked if I could make an illustration for a newspaper article dealing with pirates. The deadline was a bit tough – I got the commission on one Wednesday midday, while I was at work, and the illustration was to be in their hands by Friday morning. However, I couldn't possibly say no. I spent two evenings, after days at work, drawing like a madman, but I had great fun, and I delivered the illustration on time. (And I slept quite a little.)

But like I said, I cannot say no to a commission of my dreams. Unfortunately, for some copyright reasons, I'm only showing the image like that... As the article dealt with modern piracy, swords have been replaced with assault rifles and sailing ships with, eh, tankers? I don't know about these marine things much, and despite my love of pirates, I'm not particularly much in love with seas or ships.

An acquaintance said my life resembles a movie because it was so absurd how I got that commission.

By the way, if the skulls in the illustration and in my curtain seem somehow similar, well, I can say, they are – I used the illustration sketch when I was painting that fabric.

Somehow my interest in steampunk goes well with piracy. Both give me a lot of creative ideas, for designs, drawings, interior, clothes...

And somehow, pirates never fail to fascinate me. :D In 2008, my absolute favourite group in the Eurovision Song Contest was – surprisingly – a band of pirates!

Pirates can also seem credible in bright colors. I've never seen anything else but this video of this children's TV show:

I wonder if I've now said everything I've got to say about pirates – for now, I'm rather sure this won't be over. Oh but no, I almost forgot, I dressed up as one on Halloween too. Or to be precise, on All Saints' Day, when a friend had a costume party. That time I drew a map by hand, but unfortunately, I have no evidence of it anymore as I gave it to the party hostess. But it turned out much better, being hand-made. I am aware that Facebook is available in pirate English as well, but I don't use it, don't know why... Maybe I truly should? So long – and until the next time – yarr! Follow my blog with Bloglovin'

Doctor, doctor, give me the cure!

♫ Modern Talking – You can win if you want

Some time ago I came across an interesting post at The Steampunk Home, directing to an even more interesting post by Cathe Holden at Justsomethingimade.com.

Vintage apothecary labels! I found those rather brilliant. There's something very fancy about vintage graphic design, and I could have created something similar by myself, but well... Would have I done that? Hardly. Although I pretty much am a graphic designer, I'm either too busy or lazy to do something like that. So, how perfect that someone did it for me.

I didn't have more than one spare glass jar to decorate, and it probably looks a bit out of place all alone, but I guess it looks better than an empty glass jar would, holding my stationery.

Click here to view the original post! Ms. Holden had also made some awesome towels with those labels, but I don't think it'd turn out good if I tried... I'm not exactly friends with sewing needles.

(I am also aware that the label I put on the jar should be in a bottle instead. Too bad I didn't have any!)

Now that I'm talking about graphic design... I could tell a funny occurrence I had at work yesterday. Our client wanted to have a diploma template made – which I didn't find particularly difficult – but nevertheless, I was given the client's sample of a diploma, which had obviously been looked up using the Google image search. Well, nothing special about its looks – an official diploma written in English and such... Then I actually read the text, and much to my own amusement, found out the diploma was obviously the only one ever awarded by an accredited American university in parapsychology. I also found it slightly ironic that our client's field is somewhat related to rescue / first aid.
So long!

So I fell in love with an uncommonly gentle man

♫ Waves Under Water – Serpents and the tree

I don't like Sundays. They usually turn out useless, as I wake up very late, but know I'd better go to bed relatively early. What could I try to do if I could comfortably be awake for only ten hours? No wait, I could try not to screw up my sleeping pattern during weekends, but that's no fuuuuuun... I guess it's somewhat alright to be inefficient every now and then. A friend and I tend to talk about Sunday angst, which basically means that you cannot enjoy your day off since you know the following day will be Monday. At worst, Sunday angst begins on Saturday, when you think that Monday is the day after tomorrow... I'm not saying that working is like hell, I just don't like early mornings – that's it.

Anyway. After watching Beetlejuice I had to entertain myself with another Tim Burton movie too. About the time for Edward Scissorhands too – I really had not seen it earlier, although I had wanted to. However, I'm lazy to do anything about the movies I'd like to see... It really took me this long, I should have watched it about twenty years ago. Okay well, at least ten years ago, maybe it wouldn't have been too good for me to watch it at the beginning of the 90's... However, I had seen lots of pictures of Edward, and I'd always been fascinated by his attire, and many sharp objects – such as scissors, knives and swords – are beautiful in their own right.

I've learnt that my opinions often differ from the masses, and thus, I was not certain at all that I would like Edward Scissorhands, although I know what kind of people usually like it. I was rather surprised to find out it really struck a chord with me. Johnny Depp has never stirred up strong emotions in me. I've seen him in only a few movies, thought he's okayish, rather flexible and such... But well, he did awesome job as Edward, making him so disarming.

I really liked the mansion in the movie, it was visually so stunning. All in all, a wonderful movie.

On Friday I decided to watch Coraline. I think I had even considered going to watch it in a movie theater, but I guess I forgot... The main reason for me wanting to watch it would be because it is an animation, another reason could be the director Henry Selick – who also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas. I think there were some common aspects between the visuals in those two movies – I wonder if the art departments comprise same talents...

However, Coraline was a little disappointment. It was entertaining, nice, relatively interesting... But not fantastic. For some reason, I couldn't really root for any of the characters. I guess it was worth watching once, but maybe not twice...

I need to find more interesting movies with fantasy or macabre elements that are not full of gore horror... But I guess now I'll just go curl my hair. So long!