Are you festive?

Someone very polite asked me if I was going to dress up for Halloween. They brought it up with the phrase "Are you festive?", rather than saying 'Do you believe in celebrating... et c.', which can jut out into unpleasant conversations about clashing worldviews.

I've never done it before, but I dressed as the most classy witch I could muster, given the timing. For tonight's festivities, I'll attempt some kind of darkly dressed fairy. We'll see how it goes. :)

The eye make-up.

Tri-Coloured Nails

Last week I mentioned to a friend that I was in the mood to do my nails.

From left to right: Call You Later, Love Nails, See You Soon

The next day my friend came by with three lovely colours that I never use because I don't own anything green or blue at the moment. I was in awe of the lovely shades and imagined that eventually I would like to use all three.

My sister asked if she could do my nails for me, and came up with this great little pattern to incorporate them all. We took photos a little while later. 

I think the little claw-like ring is a nice touch. 

I remember reading in an article (somewhere) that nail art is becoming so popular because it's an inexpensive but potentially bold form of self-expression/creativity/fashion.

Sinful Colors

I'm told (by said friend and my mom) that Sinful Colors is a great company to buy nail polish from. They say that the richness of colour and the strength of the lacquer is amazing for the price. I think after this, I'll have to buy some Sinful Colors.

P.S. Did you know they have their own website, with some basic ideas for some nail art?

That's how I roll!

The other day I was reading a Refinery 29 article and they gave a few suggestions of what to do with curly hair. They were all good suggestions, but the one that stands out in my mind was the Victory Roll. It has all my favorite things:

• Pinned up and out of the face (though hair in your face is nice sometimes, too).
• Features (natural) curly hair
• A possibility for huge volume (I adore big hair)
• Uses hair pins (I like the old-fashioned flair of it)

With all those things considered, this simple hair style was just the ticket. 

My friend Nathaniel--aka Ivory Sorrows on Tumblr-- and I (dress by Old Navy)

To avoid practically plagiarizing the article, I didn't include a step-by-step tutorial. But briefly, it's a section of hair just a bit wider than the arches of the eyebrows (for me at least), that goes back about 2 inches on the scalp. One can just roll this section from the ends towards the roots in the same way one might put a paper towel back on the roll. Pin it in place with bobby pins (you can hide the pins under the roll). For the hair between the center roll and the ear, you can overlap them slightly and pin them in place just under the crown of the head.

I thought it looked pretty decent. Maybe you'll see me with this hair style again, sometime. ;)

A saved post

This summer my great uncle had his 90th birthday party. Best friends with my grandfather, my mother was raised as his niece. His daughters have become my aunts, and all the kids of the next generation are my cousins. More so than any other set of friends, I see them frequently, and I often feel like we look out for one another, just like family. 

My great uncle is so beloved that with all the party-goers, I barely got to talk to him that night. It was a relaxed evening where I made the hors d'oeuvres, and afterwards posed for some pictures while my sister had the camera and my cousin kept us riveted with his piano playing. 

I wore a dress that I abandoned for ages, and my aunts all "ooh"ed and "aah"ed as though it were brand new. That's when it hit me that I've never shown this dress to all of you. :)  

Braids and pearls seem to make a good pair. 

Playing an original composition while I'm rendered breathless

Calligraphy

I started calligraphy some time when I was in high school, if I recall correctly. For some reason, I loved the complex fonts that I would find in old German books, I was just jazzed about the first edition Gutenberg Bible. (I got to see one with my own eyes, and it seriously looks handwritten; each letter is saturated with rich ink, nothing is is askew.)

A birthday gift from my best friend. (Hi, Britt!)

I wished I could write with the spellings that Chaucer, John Donne and John Milton used. (Little did I know they used different spellings than today because the English-speaking world hadn't decided on how every word should be spelled). So I settled for at least having old-fashioned handwriting.

My friend Nathan says "Hallo"!

I would use thick paper and close it with melted waxes and seals, in order to send letters to my best friends. I felt it was a manifestation of my naturally romantic heart. Also, I loved all the old fashioned props you would find in movies like "The Interview with the Vampire", as well as what I would read in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

After a while, I got busy with school and forgot about this aspect of my life.

Just last week my sister asked to photograph my work and some of my reference books of mine. She had to do a photo-journal for her typography class. As I opened my Prada perfume box, and took each item to explain it to her, I realized how long this hobby of mine has been neglected.

Fabulous photographer that she is, she made even my practice markers look fascinating and I realized: I must go back! This must be a part of my life again, even if I'm not as perfectionist as I used to be about it. Time to reclaim this part of me...

Much like Japanese and Chinese calligraphy, the books teach you one stroke of the pen at a time.