... this blogger gave to thee...
... seven shoes to choose from...
... six party dresses...
... five gold rings!..
... four silly socks...
... three Etsy shops...
... two tuneful gizmos...
... and a great soup for cold winter days.
It's four in the funking morning!* And I'm awake**. I've been trying to get to sleep, I've been lying in my bed, having started the process earlier than the last few nights, and I've tossed and turned and tried to find the right position. I'd done deep relaxing breathing and tried to relax all the parts of my body one by one... I draw the line at counting sheep. But the truth is, I can't seem to turn my brain off tonight. So instead of continuing to lie there, I've turned my laptop back on and started to type up the eighth day.
The eighth day, which usually falls on New Years Day, but this year has managed to fall on the eighth of January, is more often than not, a list of things I like. The first year or two I did it, it was resolutions... I'm not even going to attempt that this year, because my brain, heart and body know exactly what I have to do this year and none of them will agree on a plan. So let's stick not nice things.
This year, I'm going to go for eight random things I've loved and seeing it's four in the funking morning and I haven't worked all of them out yet, let's just leave that as our intro...
I never had any time for The Office (UK), when it was on TV in the early 2000's. I don't find Ricky Gervais funny in any format I've seen him, I found the character David Brent irritating and generally it just never appealed to me, which given it's popularity I know I'm in the minority. But in contrast, I always really wanted to watch The Office (US), I find Steve Carell remarkably funny in most roles and I was on the verge of buying the boxset when Amazon uploaded the entire nine season run onto Amazon Prime.
So what did I do pre-Christmas? I binge watched the whole thing as I worked on the Christmas window for the practice and became quickly obsessed with the mockumentary series about Michael Scott and the staff of the Scranton branch of the Dunder Mifflin paper company.
In particular, I fell instantly in love with Jim Halpert and the beautifully evil way he messes with his colleague Dwight and how much he loves Pam, even if it's unrequited to begin with. I loved that Michael Scott was appalling, but in the way that you know he's trying to hard to gain the love, friendship and respect of his employees, and he's trying so hard it just continually fails to work out the way he expects. I loved that no matter how awful the characters were, you rooted for them and that even over just the first episode I'd gone from looking at this as a copycat to the UK original, to being completely invested in the lives of this mundane office.
I also love that after I watched it, I suckered my little sister into watching it, who told me that her friend David was watching it and they were both hooked too. Those I will be curious to see the reaction of both when I tell them there's talk of a reboot...
(Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, David!)
But I think the thing that made me love this show the most was Jim, played by John Krasinski. A massive fan of the original series, Krasinski manages to capture something of his UK counterpart Tim, and some of the little mannerisms that Martin Freeman who played him had, then made those completely his own.
And yes, I do have a massive crush on Krasinski and Jim. Who wouldn't have a crush on Jim as soon as you see how much he loves and cares for Pam? I want a Jim one day, to have someone who loves you as much as he loves Pam, I think most people probably would want that. While I'm still keeping my fingers crossed, hopefully you've been a little luckier.
The plot of the Paperman is this... standing on a train platform in the 1940's, an accountant named George is waiting for his train. Which is when he's hit by a piece of paper that is being chased by a young woman, Meg as a gust of wind takes it from her hand. As George stands with a pile of papers himself, another gust from the incoming train blows one of his papers into Meg's face, leaving a lipstick print on the sheet to both her an George's amusement. But before he can interact with her, she's boarded her train and he can do more than exchange glances as the train moves out of the station. Something which leaves him disheartened as he arrives at work, thinking about a missed opportunity with a pretty girl This is until he looks out of his office window and sees Meg in the building across the road. Desperately trying and failing to grab her attention, George begins folding paper aeroplanes from the stacked papers on his desk, which he throws from the window great hope, but with poor success. Eventually all that remains is the lipstick kissed paper and he thinks all is lost when the paper plane is pulled from his hand by another gust of wind. But then he sees Meg leave the office building and despite the fact that he should be working, George rushes after her only to find the ill-fated paper plane. Fortunately for George, as he angrily throws the plane again, it and it's brethren have another plan to reconnect the potential couple.
It is honestly one of the most beautiful shorts I think Disney has produced in a long time and the reason I want to include this straight after The Office, other than how much I love this animation in content, story and style, is because of a few similarities and some beautiful artwork.
Firstly, they're both about office workers who work with paper, then you have a goofy looking guy who in unashamedly and to begin with in unrequited love with a girl who he would do anything to gain the attention of. The characters in Paperman even look a little like a 1940's Pam and Jim. But for me this connection was actually sealed by the beautiful artwork of Mhaikkun, who my sister directed me to on Instagram, who did beautiful mashups of Jim as George being harassed by paper planes (could be worst, it could be Dwight and snowballs) and of Pam as Meg noticing her lipstick stamped paper, folded into a paper plane, in a flower stand. Mhaikkun even included the beautiful detail of The Office's Kevin in the background for eagle eyed fans.
Now, I'm a little confused as to who Mhaikkun actually is. The illustrator seems to have two Instagram accounts one with artwork under the name Mhaikkun, the other for blog like photos under Pachuburichu both with Mhai/Chuu as the associated name. However, when you go to her professional website it's again under another name, that of Patricia Diaz. Needless to say I'm a tad confused, but I'm pretty confident their all the same person. Either way I'll leave all the relevant links below and if she ever was to sell these as Dunder Mifflin Paperman illustrations as prints, she would have my money in a heartbeat.
The picture at the top however, is actually a photo I took of a one of my Christmas presents hastily blu-tacked to the hall wall, so I could include it. My sisters very kindly bought me this print by artist Greta Traldi a.k.a. Gretateg via Redbubble. It is a of a pastel drawing (as far as I can tell), paying homage to Disney's Paperman and I love it.
I have no wall space to hang it or frame to put it in, but I'm of them thought that if you don't have walls for prints now, you hopefully will some day, so it's better to buy prints you love now than miss them later.
Project Pan is basically a year long, self inflicted and self motivated beauty challenge. Essentially the challenge is to use up or hit pan on as many beauty products as you can, before using others or repurchasing new ones. This is most often, as I have seen, coincided with a makeup no buy or low buy, where you either stop buying new products all together, or limit yourself to repurchasing staples you've used up and think you can't live without.
I love makeup, I own a lot of makeup, but I don't use them enough. Sometimes things go unused because you don't like a formula, or it's not the right colour, it's not right for your skin type or you have a reaction to it, which then results in a backlog of products which will - and frequently have already - gone bad. Project Pan encourages you to be a bit more mindful and to try and use up what you've got before you go out buying more.
I first found about Project Pan via the YouTube channel Beauty News. This is an Aussie channel which does a twice weekly rundown of new beauty releases, as well as doing a weekly video called The Makeup Breakup, where they destroy makeup whilst testing to see whether the consumer is getting the correct quantity of product, how easily are products repressed if damaged or broken and how much longevity there is in certain products by doing a counted swatch test. I love watching these videos, I find then fascinating and incredibly satisfying, but you'd probably be scared by how often there is less product in an item than stated on the packaging or indeed how few applications you get out for what you do receive and pay for beauty products. This however is how Project Pan was introduced to me, by Hailey O'Bryen (Just Buy The Makeup) and Kat Wilson (KitschSnitch) - who run Beauty News - as they set about their own Project Pan and low buy.
My Project Pan, of which the above photo is a few of the items I was trying to pan (some of which I successfully did) took the form last year of simply listing a bunch of products I wanted to use up and noting down anything I was finishing, abandoning or items I was constantly rebuying. This included makeup, bath, hair and body products as well as perfume, skincare and samplers, and it was interesting to see what I was using up and what I genuinely didn't want to use even when the plan was to use it up.
For example, I went through packets and packets of makeup remover wipes, unsurprising, however I quickly saw which brand I preferred over others and that one brand I'd been using for a long time was actually irritating my skin. I threw away mascaras, which I know only have a lifespan of around three months for hygiene reasons, but I would have kept hold of despite using others. Because of that, I realised that there's actually only three or four I really like enough to repurchase, and as hard as it is to remove, I'm a waterproof mascara kind of girl because I will always cry chopping up onions for dinner.
I also used up more foundations this year than I have in previous, trying to find the right one for me, whilst also working out that most I owned were too dark or the wrong undertone, and even though I'm in the palest shade in most brands, I was having to mix multiples, often with a white corrector, to make any of them work. By December I'd worked one tinted moisturiser and three foundations which were approximately correct, and with these in hand and swatched in my local Boots, I found one with an appropriate formula for my dry skin and a colour which is pretty much perfect without mixing. I'm almost finished one bottle and bought a backup I like it so much.
Basically, while I didn't do a proper Project Pan, by keeping track of certain things, I've been able to work out a why I didn't like a lot of the products I owned. I realised I was often tempted by "new" hyped products, but actually the fashion for matte, for example, is not for me, and pore filling dimethicone heavy products left me irritated and in actual discomfort.
More importantly, I've curbed my habit a little and can save money instead of staring at regrettable buys since I live in the UK and unlike the US, I can't return makeup once it's been opened. I'm stuck with it whether I like it or not and it's galling to have a stash of products you can't use.
Will this stop me buying pretty makeup spur of the moment? No, not all the time. But it'll make me think and ask whether it's right for me or if I really need it. Plus, I also got to make a list, who doesn't love a list?
I may do a more serious Project Pan in 2019, because what's the point of loving makeup but not actually using it? Is this something you'd try?
At the start of the year, while I was still a large amount of pain from hurting my back before Christmas 2017, I was laid up in bed and I was watching movies. Not a rare occurrence for me to be lazy and watch a film, but I feel being in pain counts as a good reason to watch one that I'd been saving because I was so excited to see it.
I'm a big fan of Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, they've both been in a number of films I count as favourites and so hearing they were going to be in a film together, I was pretty much in. After seeing the trailer for Swiss Army Man, I was completely in.
The plot of the story, without giving away spoilers is this:
Hank (Dano), has been stranded on a deserted island for an unknown amount of time, has reached the point where he's decided there is no hope left, and his only option is to end his own life. Which, as he has the noose around his neck, is exactly when he notices that a flatulent corpse has washed up on the beach. This is the story of how Manny (Radcliffe) helps Hank escape the island and make his way home, and how as Hank befriends his new deceased friend, he begins to talk and discover how remarkably useful Manny can be when new obstacles unfold.
It is a bizarre film. I really can't explain how bizarre it is and that's with the initial outset that a man is helped home by a talking corpse being the easy bit of explain. But I love it. It's beautifully shot and beautifully scored and emotional and funny and I finished watching it, watched the extras on the DVD (I know, DVD, how quaint!), sat for a moment or two slightly gobsmacked by what I'd just seen, and then begged my sister to watch it because I needed to talk to someone about it.
It took her months! I swear she did it on purpose, but at least she liked it and shared the same what the hell did I just watch, feeling that I did. I really recommend watching it, even if it's only out of curiosity.
Things didn't go as planned.
Firstly, I bought cheap balloons instead of the thicker larger pearlescent ones I've used many times before with no problems, but these started slowly deflate - unbeknown to me - after the second coat of paper and glue... did I say glue? I meant to say the wallpaper paste PVA glue monstrosity that I made, thinking it would give me the properties I liked of both, i.e. it would be really easy and not too sticky to apply, like wallpaper paste (it's also cheaper), but would dry really good and hard like PVA glue when you don't water it down too much... I was wrong. What I ended up with was a "glue" which too forever to dry, made the previously dry layers of glued paper re-hydrate and slump...
... now, anyone who has seen any of the window displays I've made in the past, probably knows that I very quickly gravitate to using paper mâché when making things. I have been making nonsense out of paper mâché since I was in primary school because it's really strong and versatile. *Sigh* I have never, ever had so much trouble with something so simple!
It was balloons wrapped in paper mâché! How did this end up in my sister and I cursing something new every time we returned to the stupid things? Even when it came time to paint them - with a carton of eggs in front of us to colour match - when I speckled them I covered everything!
EVERYTHING!
The eggs, the table, the cupboards, the floor, myself and my sister who was in the room for all of about a second before it happened. The hot air balloons we made when the practice reopened after it's renovations caused us less trouble and there was a cactus, strawberry, goldfish and matryoshka to name but a few of the ones we made out of paper mâché and hand painted...
Mum then filled the shells with my old crocheted flowers to run until we put in the reef display again - for the first time since the first time which was in 2012!
It wasn't the most dynamic window, but since the revamp the practice had in the summer of 2017, having a completely empty window and losing the height that the old glass shelves gave us and the old curtain cable which allowed us more ease to hang things, it's been a little harder to do. But actually given the practice's new look, I don't actually mind the fact that the windows are a little more simplistic and we can go a little more modern such as with the Christmas tree bauble shelves I made out of foam board.
I still love making the windows for the practice, even if I whinge when I'm doing it. We'll see what we come up with this year and I'll try and post some pictures. Fortunately my lovely mother is better at documenting them than I am these days, she has a Pinterest board dedicated to them called, Our Window Displays.
The black zebra version I bought her, is my little sisters favourite and the pink flamingos I bought for me and to share, is fought over when either of our mugs is in the dishwasher. I've even just checked Dunelm Mill's website, to see if there are any still left in stock in Dundee or Perth, which luckily there seems to be. So, I'm going to have to go and buy another one because the idea of breaking it breaks my heart. Silly but true.
This is to me, (and my sister) the perfect mug. It's a comfortable shape, it holds a ridiculous amount of liquid and it has two things I've loved since I was a kid, yellow and giraffes. There's even a less than lovely anecdote about the latter involving me making it all the way to Glasgow, to my Grandpa Fergus and Granny Jess's without being carsick, and how just as we pulled up to their front door me, my lovely flowery skirt and my stuffed giraffe toy having to be bundled out the car and straight into a bath. This is how a lot of car journeys ended when I was a kid, but that particular story my dad likes to remind me of, especially when giraffe's are brought up.
In the end, it might sound silly to some, but sometimes you find things that are really comforting day to day and I find this mug to be that. I think mostly because the shape is comforting to hold and when it's warm it keeps its heat and I can happily sit cupping it to keep warm on cold days. Plus I know if I drink three to four cups of anything out of it, I've had approximately what you're supposed to drink in a day according to the NHS***.
Might be coffee, might be water... sometimes it may even be a G&T. But that's for me and the mug to know!
And what can I say about the manipulative little fluffy nutter? He's glorious and I think he likes me a little more than a year ago, as he gradually softens and stops being quite as skittish. He's even currently taken to sleeping on my bed, and by this I mean he sleeps on half the bed and I get to sleep mostly just on the pillows with my feet sticking off the side. But it is nice having him there and purring.
Charlie's can usually be found sleeping, in as many inconvenient places as possible and with as much belly on display as he can muster. He loves boxes, the smaller it seems the better and being up high, which usually leads to crys of "don't!", he prefers dry food to wet but stick treats over anything. He is band from the cat flap thanks to a series of small creatures being let loose in the house and one never being found despite frantically emptying an entire room of the house of everything and multiple humane traps being laid, which means he has to ask in an out at night, which sucks for me but is lucky because he never mastered going out of the cat flap anyway. He has become progressively chattier over the past couple of years and in order to leave the house, meows as loud as he cans, batters on bedroom doors, reflective surfaces and inside the shower unit next to my room until he attention, then batters on windows to get back in. He's terrified of loud noises, in particular the vacuum, sneezes and fireworks. Loves playing with a stick that I move under a piece of cardboard and with a catnip filled squirrel toy. He gives head bumps and even though he doesn't always want you to touch him, prefers to be in the same room as his humans than on his own, even to the point where, when I let him in, you have to follow him wherever he needs to go. He also won't go to bed unless you walk him to his favoured spot and wait for him to settle, if you don't he'll just start the process of battering on things.
Loving the cat doesn't take too much explaining, though the word collolopse might. Are my family the only ones who talk about cats collolopsing? You know when they just kind of collapse and flop on their sides without warning, all legs and fur and as if they've just given up?
Anyway, he's furry, he's purry, he's the reason I haven't had a full nights sleep in four years and seeing it's now five thirty in the morning and he's just gone out, I've probably got an hour or two before I see him again and cease having leg room. Which means I'm going to stop writing and try again to get some sleep.
I love the horrible little git, but because I love him, you get to look at photos of him in all his glory. Which is mostly on his back, tummy on show and glaring. Enjoy!
( I love you. )
This is where my creativity comes from. Where my shyness and sense of humour stems. Where my mad curly hair and freckly arms can be found. Where my bad temper, sarcasm, morals, politeness and craft hoarding are sourced. And my family are everything to me even when I want to batter the lot of them and get as far away as possible. They're my support system and I'm incredibly grateful for them.
And I know these are all old photos, we're not great at photos as a family, none of us like having our pictures taken, but some of these are my favourites and are the ones we have on the walls. You even get the very first thing I ever remember, which is the days I met my little sister.
Horrible isn't she? You can tell I'm not impressed. Thank god we got Popples by way of apology because she really has been nothing but trouble since they brought her home.
I mean seriously, getting Norovirus on New Years Day? Can we say attention seeker?
Anyway, though I'm finished writing, I've got a few more pictures to edit into this before it, but when it's up, I hope you enjoyed the ridiculously long wafflings of a sleep deprived idiot and letting me show you a few things I really enjoyed in 2018. There wasn't really anything fancy, but neither am I.
Happy New Year, Merry Christmas and night night! Part nine, what, next week maybe?..
Kidding...
* Guess that reference and win... well, not a lot, but feel free to make a cuppa and feel smug.
** I'm obviously writing this over a few days, so if my sense of time keeps wander, that's why. However I wrote the majority of the post it was either 4am on the 8th, 3am on the 9th or randomly over the 10th when my sleep addled brain is vaguely functioning... My sleeping patterns have become a little mucked up over the past month. Between Christmas insanity, the cat and my brain not wanting to shut up and let me sleep, but instead keep running over and over everything that's going on and going to happen this year, I'm not really sleeping.
*** When grandpa started getting sick, the doctors wanted him to drink more and told him he should be drinking 2 litres a day, which was actually too much, as 1.2 litres (6 - 8 glasses) is recommended by the NHS. In solidarity, because he was finding this hard and I know I don't drink enough during the day, I started doing the same and my giraffe mug holds just under 500ml, so I needed to drink 3-4 mugs. I was awash! Awash I say!
Link || The Office US || IMDb || Wikipedia || NBC
Link || The Office UK || IMDb || Wikipedia || BBC
Link || These Stars Could Sit Behind Michael Scott's Desk for The Office Reboot by Sarah Midkiff via Refinery29
Link || Disney Short: Paperman || Disney Animation Studios || IMDb || Wikipedia
Link || Dreaming of You Print by Greta Traldi (Gretateg) via Redbubble || Website || Instagram || Tumblr
Link || Dunder Mifflin Paperman 1/2 by Mhaikkun ||
Link || Dunder Mifflin Paperman 2/2 by Mhaikkun ||
Link || Mhaikkun || Twitter (Mhaikkun) || Tumblr || Instagram (Mhaikkun) || Instagram (Pachuburichu) || Patricia Diaz Illustrator Website
Link || Beauty News || YouTube || Instagram || Facebook
Link || Beauty News Hailey O'Bryen (Just Buy The Makeup) || Website || Twitter || Instagram || Facebook
Link || Beauty News Kat Wilson (KitschSnitch) || Twitter || Instagram || Facebook || Flickr
Link || Project Pan 101 | What You Need To Know Before You Start One by Sun Kissed Violet
Link || Swiss Army Man || Website || IMDb || Wikipedia || Rotten Tomato
Link || Review: 'Swiss Army Man' Is a Buddy Movie in Which One Pal Is Dead by Jeannette Catsoulis via The New York Times
Link || Yellow Giraffe Mug from Dunelm Mill
..................................................................................
Listening: Numb - Max Jury
1 comment:
You showed the internet my baby potato head.
...
HOW COULD YOU?!
...
I will be avenged 0_0
Post a Comment