Times Like These #1

The Flea Market, this past saturday. I droped by to huh... support a friend, aka drool at the mere sight of her cake stand. This time, I fell for the pineapple brigadeiros, and I kind of regretted only buying a couple. More next time? I think so. (And by the way, if you're from Porto and you're into sweets... most people are, yeah, okay... I'd advice you to like her Facebook page, right here.)



A completely random shot of my bathroom. That rose's been there for... more than two months now. It wasn't planned - I just have this very strict, rather lazy policy of never throwing roses away (unless they start to rot, that it).



Experiments in dermatographism. Don't be allarmed, those aren't scars, and no one got hurt. The thing is, I have a skin disorder called dermatographic urticaria - it's quite common, affecting around 5% of the population. What happens is that my skin reacts to pressure in a slightly dramatic way, all red welts and whatnot. The effects last around thirty-forty minutes, and then disappear without leaving any trace. For this particular picture, I just wrote the word "skin" with the blunt end of a sewing needle, as an experiment to see how long it would last. This depicts the... three minute mark, I think? But then the word was visible for another hour or so. The upside is that needles work perfectly for this. The downside is that I tried on my chest and huh... I kept a couple of red lines over my sternum for two days. Oops?




I really like this shirt.





I also really like tea, so I took a few minutes a couple of days ago to reorganise my tea box. From left to right, we have: linden (which I don't like), the unbeatable Twinings Earl Grey, some random brand of black tea, lemon balm (which I don't like either), Twinings English Breakfast, Orange Pekoe in the visible black bag (second favorite tea of all time - and recommended by a Ciel Phantomhive roleplayer, you doubtful peasants), lemon flavored green tea in the black bag behind it, Lipton Mango & Peach, chamomile (which, go figure, I also don't like), mint (my current favorite), another random brand of black tea, a cute little tin of green tea from the Chinese grocery store, red fruits (OH GOD NO), and finally, a third random brand of black tea. Right now I'm also on the hunt for the Lipton Rose Violet White Tea, which is impossibly good... and, you know, open to suggestions.

Any tea lovers around here?
xx

Out Of Place & Overdressed

(source: 1 | 2 | 3)

A few details that have been keeping the style-oriented side of my mind busy. I really like the idea of cropped pants and cute little ankle boots. It looks comfortable and young and laid-back and it makes everyone look like their own version of a rebellious Victorian news-boy. Then, the bra. I like how it looks so functional and structured and heavy duty... and I like how the knit looks so soft in comparison and how the model has really attractive shoulder blades. It's a very good look, and I won't even pretend I didn't have it in mind last time I went shopping and bought a sweater with a zip-up back. And finally, I've been thinking about pencil skirts, lately. Pencil skirts with combat boots. It's such an unlikely combination, but with the right boots and the right skirt? I think it could work.

And as far as Spring moodboards go, this might just be the most inadequate of all time, but hey... to quote Dan Radcliffe, I tried and therefore no one should criticise me.

Oh, right, and to the portuguese out there... enjoy your April 25th!
xx

A Valiant Effort

I spent my Saturday on my knees, in the dirt, digging around for the remnants of a guinea fowl we buried more than five months ago, on November 4th. It pleases me to say that we found most of the leg bones, squeaky clean, and the skull too, in a nearly perfect state of conservation - it's a miracle, how it survived my senseless shoveling. Though in my defense, I was there for a good hour, hour and a half, with the sun beating down on my neck and shoulders and my dog showing up at random intervals to causa miniature landslides around the edge of the digging site with his massive paws and his massive lack of common sense. To him, I'm sure that constitutes helping.

The downside is that the actual body of the bird was still quite late in the whole decomposition process. Blame the feathers - no one removed them out when the guinea fowl died, because no one actually thought I was planning on digging it back up. Anyway, my sister and I improvised a plucking session with our trusty hand-rakes... meaning, we pulled out everything we could before replacing the soil and saying bye-bye to the Project for a another month or two.

Meanwhile, I have cat bones to clean and hedgehog quills to pick (I found the poor thing, or what was left of it, a couple of weeks ago... it was literally just skin and quills, everything else was gone) and a mallard skull to dig up. But not right now because it's Monday and desk work calls.

Have a wonderful week!
xx

PS - In case you were wondering, the guinea fowl pictured is still very much alive. We got it, along with the now dead one, from the same person, at the same time... it just so happened that one of them died a bit too early. Cause of death, unknown. The family has already entertained the possibility that it might have been killed by some sensitive listener because let's be honest, these are fascinating birds, but they sound just like... imagine elevator music in hell... yes, exactly like that.