The night is dark and full of terrors

♫ Sequester – Night's Watch

No spoilers here, don't worry! I don't like to be spoiled myself, and I will protect others from it too! And the song I'm listening to is actually about this series!

I'm not much of a reader. I don't know how much I read "on average", but I'm not the type who always has at least one book in progress. However, something strange has obviously happened to me since I've already finished two books this year – well, I had started the first one last year and read the first half quite slowly... Until I got a grip of myself in spring and sped up. 

I've been reading A Song Of Ice And Fire – in other words, the Game of Thrones novel series, for a few fears I guess. It took me quite a while to finish the first book. It took me something like half a year to read half of the second book, A Clash of Kings. But as I sped up in spring, I finished the latter half of it in a few months... And at the beginning of summer, I started the third book, A Storm of Swords. It's over one thousand pages long, and I finished it a few days ago... And that is damn fast for me!

I bought the first four books in a bundle when I began because I figured I'd be a slow reader. It was true at first, but obviously something happened to me. Although all three books so far have contained some bloody boring chapters, they've been very enjoyable too – especially the third one since I devoured it with such appetite. Those of you who have watched the HBO TV series, and especially the third season, know the amount of extreme drama in the third book... But yes, it was the most interesting piece so far.

Now I'm moving onto A Feast for Crows. I think it'll be very different from the earlier volumes – I even heard a rumor it's not nearly as good as the preceding ones... But we'll see, eventually. I can barely wait for the fourth season of the TV series!

As all the fans know, it's not particularly safe to root for any character in the series as they might as well die next, but nevertheless, I support Jon Snow! Mostly in the books, though. Peter Dinklage does such awesome job as Tyrion Lannister in the show that it's difficult not to like the character, not that he wouldn't have the same wits in the book. And strangely enough, I've found myself liking Sansa Stark in the books too, maybe because her chapters have often been interesting.

Do you watch Game of Thrones or read A Song of Ice and Fire? Who are your favorite characters?

Just as sure as Rome is falling, I'll be rising again

♫ Civil War – Rome is Falling

Oh hi, it's been a while. I don't think I even need to apologize; I'm just here to tell I haven't really died away!

Since my last update, a lot of things have happened... Well, at one point in summer I escaped to Rome indeed. A beautiful and interesting city, yet an awful tourist spot as well.

Otherwise these things have kept me either busy or preoccupied; on one hand I've lacked the motivation to update my blog, on the other hand I've wanted to be where I think I've been needed more – with the near and dear ones who either needed my support or supported me.

Don't be worried – I am quite fine, and have been all the time too. The worst has befallen others close to me. And I can't help but wonder whoever it was that broke a mirror two years ago when bigger and smaller tragedies began surging over my family (and friends, some of whom have suffered a lot lately) – nor can I help but wonder when it will end.

But I will try to post something nice again – it's not like all these days had been miserable, not at all.

"I'm here to march 'gainst the force of evil 

Here to die in the pouring rain 

But just as sure as Rome is falling 

I'll be rising again 

I will return as a new believer 

Here to conquer the walls of pain 

And just as sure as Rome is falling 

I'll be rising again"

One hundred

One hundred blog posts down, can-never-know-how-many to go! Quite a lazy pace for a blog started at the very end of 2010, but well, I don't think I have to make excuses...

And one of the reasons why I don't update so often is the fact that I prefer to have some photos for the posts, but don't always have something interesting to show. And even though I love photography, I really hate taking photos of myself, it's so troublesome and difficult... Setting up a tripod and playing with the timer and all. :/ Either way, I did bother to take some photos of yesterday's outfit.

But I don't bother to put enough effort in these photos to make my wallpaper pattern match or something. :> Anyway, I had absolutely nothing to do, but I did leave the apartment dressed like this, something a bit peculiar of me. It was a nice, sunny day, but it wasn't too warm, and wearing that grey sweater was quite a good choice! It kept me warm enough but didn't leave me suffocating! The red skirt is actually a tube dress, buttoned up at the front, and most of the time I wear it without a shirt to hide it (though often with some top underneath). However, I have contradictory feelings about it... Even though it's short and can expose a lot of skin, it's not very elegant for such occasions that might call for a tiny dress. In my opinion, it's not particularly feminine, more girlish.

The shoes are nice canvas heels which are quite comfortable to wear! The only "problem" is that they're too big for me and cannot be tied tight enough. Insoles make the situation better though, I can actually walk without the shoes turning and twisting in my feet.

I also wore my hair in a very unusual way, a half braid, the bottom half open. Anything besides two braids (or pigtails) or a ponytail is exceptional for me, I'm not too good at making hairdos and I don't think my head is cut out for it either. :/

Perhaps this will do for my semiannual outfit post, let's see when we'll have another. :D So long!

Weapons of mass-confusion

♫ Dreamtale – Dreamtime

I was doing a bit of cleaning in my hall today and "came across" my interesting collection of arms – or I could say, I picked them up and moved them out of the way while dusting, but the sad truth is they've been lingering in my hall for looong, and I don't really know where to put them. I don't have any equipment to hang them on my walls, and I could barely even decide which wall. But they're cool nevertheless!

I cannot remember where I bought this coat of arms – somewhere abroad for sure. Some photos might reveal where exactly, but I'm quite sure such photos would still be on paper as it certainly dates back to 2005 or earlier, and I didn't have a digital camera back then. Too bad the shaft of the polearm extends so far that I cannot even place this on some surface to lean on something!

This is the oldest of these pieces! My very first sword, or not a sword but a dragon-shaped dagger! I'm quite sure I bought it in Greece ten years ago. I can imagine what was going on in my mind when I saw it, something like "omg-RPG-dragons-OMG-Middle-Ages-IWANTTHAT-dragons!!!" And yeah, I bought it, and I almost got to be a bit embarrassed because of it on my way back. At the airport, our luggage was X-rayed, and for some reason the monitors were turned so that while I was waiting for my stuff to go through the machine, I could also see what the inspectors were watching. And they stopped the steady flow of luggage when they suddenly saw a very suspicious black object in one bag... It actually looked quite cool, since it was turned so that its nice silhouette was what they saw. The inspectors pondered over this suspicious object for quite a while, and it was quite obvious whose bag it was that caused the stop... Yet in the end, they just let it pass, not even wanting to open the bag and see it. (Naturally it was going to the hold, so it was not like I was going to stab someone in the cabin.)

I didn't buy this one myself, but my mother brought it to me from Turkey. In case some conservative souvenir  vendor was confused seeing a girl buying a dragon dagger, I can only wonder what someone else thought of a middle-aged woman purchasing this... Or then they just thought she's going to give it to her son. I consider this my pirate sword since it's the closest to a cutlass that I have!

And yes, both swords can be removed from their sheaths, yet naturally they're not particularly sharp. The very tips of the blade could do some harm, though. I gotta be careful with myself. :x

And finally, a mystery (plastic) dagger – I don't know what it is! I don't know whose it is! Somehow it has just appeared in my apartment! It's plastic indeed, with a slightly bent blade, and I think it may have been a part of something (maybe a decorative coat of arms) since it doesn't have a rear. I guess I could use it as a bookmark since it's that much smaller than the others too. But seriously – I'm sure I haven't bought it, and no one has really given it to me either. It might have belonged to my brother (or that's what I suspect) but still, a mystery!

Now if I could only figure out where to store these weapons. I wouldn't like to hide them in a box, but I don't really have any showcase for them either!

The most honest cookie jar

♫ Battlelore – Buccaneers Inn

What a lazy blogger I've been. I suppose I've tried to be less lazy in real life (with little success).

A few weeks ago a friend of mine had a housewarming party. It wasn't particularly easy to come up with something nice to give to him; one one hand we'd been hinted that something edible would be nice, but on the other hand I also wanted to give something that'd last a bit longer. And this guy has a very elegant taste when it comes to décor, so I wanted to give something that'd look like "him".

The result: I purchased a glass jar, baked some white chocolate chip cookies and designed a sketchy blotchy poison bottle label. This was pretty much a sequel to the project I showed in the previous post. I used the same sticker paper too. The nasty thing, of course, is the fact that with the home-printed label (on a matte paper) the jar can only be washed very, very carefully on the inside. However, my friend got a spare label to stick wherever he wishes. :D

The poison label was also an efficient way to imply that everyone was eating cookies baked by me at their own risk. Cannot say they wouldn't have been properly warned!

My personal alchemy lab

♫ Sabaton – The Hammer Has Fallen

There are a hundred things I could do, should do, or would do (if) and I'm not sure if I'm good at prioritizing my projects, but when I suddenly got a strong urge to make custom labels for my spice jars, I just... well, put everything else off. Okay not really, but at least I completed this project rather fast.

Or too fast. :> The final stages, i.e. printing, cutting and sticking the labels to the jars were carried out late in the evening, and the kitchen was quite dark too when I eyed the line of my new custom jars in my cupboard and happily closed the cupboard door. And now the daylight (and especially the photos) reveal the ugly truth: I cannot cut anything even if my life depended on it. Seriously, I've never been too handy with scissors, and even though most lines have been cut with a paper knife and a ruler, the results are not too good on average. But I blame it on my desk lamp which recently resigned office.

I would have wanted to create labels which seem very old and probably bear resemblance to poison bottles and such, preferably printed on a brown paper... But since my spice jars are genuine Ikea products and don't look old, antique, vintage or whatever, I decided to go for a less extreme style. As you can see, the background isn't pure white (but I've failed to cut off the extra white paper here and there!). I looked up some instructions on how to use all those spices on the internet and put a brief description in the labels simply because I need some guidance. I am not the worst cook, but experimenting with spices isn't my area of expertise. However, I also wanted to add some useless information as well, such as the Latin names and some labels even got a suggestion for medicinal uses. (And in case you understand Finnish, don't try to use those tips! :D They may be accurate (or pure superstition) but I wouldn't really try to pour parsley tea into my eyes.) I guess pirates need medicinal herbs though...

I drew more or less accurate pictures of most spices, yet spice blends got a picture of a random spice bottle and cardamom had to settle for a pastry since cardamom seeds look too strange and I've never used it for anything but baking.

And I should have taken all the photos from this angle so that you wouldn't have seen all that salt on my shelf. Oops, I've forgotten to clean it. :x Maybe one day I can replace those Ikea jars with something resembling old apothecary jars and bottles and create labels which seem more mysterious. However, I think those are better than the masking tape strips which marked the jars before. So long!

P.S: I was positively surprised to find matte sticker paper which was very affordable too. I bought a variety which hadn't been die-cut into smaller labels of a certain size because I want to be able to use it for versatile projects. However, the backing paper was a pain to remove!

P.P.S: What is your favorite spice and why? I love the scent of cinnamon, cardamom and curry. I know cinnamon isn't particularly healthy (at least not the cheap type) but if I buy vanilla ice cream, I eat it with cinnamon (doesn't happen too often though). I would like to use (mild) curry more, but I am still not too good at experimenting. Oh, and one of my favorites: lemon pepper! It goes with almost anything. :D (Not really, but I love it anyway.) I love the scent and flavor of lemons, though I don't really eat the actual fruits.

In pursuit of a perfect dress

♫ Gloryhammer – Silent Tears of Frozen Princess

Eh, oops.
I cannot give too good excuses for not updating, except for having had a rather boring life, you know. Or well, a very dear friend did get married at the beginning of March, and since I was her maid of honor, I had a lot of wedding stuff to do. I've also spent the weeks after the event editing the photos I took there.

Anyway, the wedding had a slightly historical theme and the bride and the groom's clothes were somewhat inspired by the 19th century. I didn't want to get the most modern evening dress either, so I went online-shopping looking for a perfect steampunk inspired dress.

Both the bride and I fell in love with this one, even though it's all black. But I got the bride's special permission to wear all black since she also thought the dress was adorable. :)

Sorry about the photo. I took it right after opening the parcel and didn't bother to set up a tripod. I haven't seen (and don't have) many photos of myself at the wedding, but since they all have other people as well, I don't want to publish them here.

However, getting the dress was a pain. :D To cut a long story short: I saw it on Ebay, but spend a month considering other options as well. One night I went to see the Ebay sale again and decided I'd purchase it on the following day. As I was about to do that, I noticed the size S had sold out during the night! How frustrating (though I also learnt a lesson!). I turned the internet upside down looking for it somewhere and eventually found it in a British webstore. I shopped it, but it turned out they didn't have it in stock but could order it. I asked if they could do it within a month, and they were quite certain they could. I started to wait.

A month passed, they didn't get the dress, then another week, and another. Just a few weeks until the wedding and I had no idea if I was going to get my dress. The shop kept apologizing. One day they just said they still didn't have it and asked if I wanted to keep waiting. Before I answered, I got desperate and again turned the internet upside down – and surprisingly, managed to find it restocked elsewhere! Quickly I placed an order to another British webstore and very soon, after a few hours, the order was shipped. I was happy!
I knew the next thing I had to do was canceling the first order, asking them to return my money. However, at this point I left for the gym instead and decided to do it after getting back home. But while I was gone (for a little more than an hour), I had got a shipment confirmation from the first store too! I was dumbfounded since a few hours earlier they'd said they didn't have the dress and I wouldn't have expected them to do anything before getting my answer as they knew I needed the dress by a certain day (and if I couldn't get it on time, I wouldn't want it at all). So yeah, suddenly I had two dresses on their way to me, and I could no longer cancel either one of the orders since they had been shipped. *deep sigh*

Naturally, I thought of returning one of the dresses even though it would cost me a bit more to send it back, but fortunately, the bride wanted to buy the other one. :) It turned out to be a good dress for her to wear to the hotel breakfast on the day after the wedding! Though I joked that she should have been like some brides in America and have two dresses for the wedding party already...

The wedding itself was an amazing party. So much love and fun and overall good time. It was also a pleasure to take photos there (even though damn difficult too) since the photos turned out to be filled with such warm emotions (not only between the couple, but their relatives and friends too). So long!