Mjorf

Today I went to the National Art Gallery to look at an exhibition they've had for some time now. I intended to go befor Christmas but I never went and so I went today, the last weekend of the duration of the exhibit. The theme was The Peredvizjniki. I can't say that I was let down, the exhibit was very large for something so narrow, and there was so many famous pieces on show.
I was so delighted that they had one of my favourite art peices of all time, Ilja Repins "Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire"

I've never really understood just how huge this painting is, and being able to stand so close made me discover so many new and wonderful little details. I don't know why I've always been fond of this piece. It might be because they are such characters, each and every one of them. It might be because it depicts a rather amusing story. or maybe I just imagine them to be quite a fun gang.

Afterwards I went for a walk through the city. The snow was lightly falling and things actually felt quite peaceful.

Ok, here's something that's been bugging me for quite some time. Whenever I browse online stores I come across hundreds of garments with their colour described as the mystical "nude". Sometimes it's "flesh" or "skintoned".
What is this colour? What shade is it? I have absolutely no clue. I consider myself to be skintoned but I've yet to find a garment that matches the skin on my body. As a description it's pretty worthless also since "nude" seems to be everything from a pale beige to a semi-dark caramel.
I can somewhat understand that this is used in small swedish stores since we are quite beige, but on internationally huge stores? Come on, most of the people they reach would never consider beige to be "nude".
Lets have a look at Von Luschan's chromatic scale:

This scale is not very broad but you kind of get the point.
I'm not all for being politically correct all the time but this is just plain stupidity.
Wouldn't it be better just to call beige well... beige?

I'm a very visual person. Visual arts have always been very important to me, they help me evoke all tose weird emotions we humans harbour. Since I also like to draw I keep an extensive inspiration folder on my external harddrive. Whenever I feel lost and in lack of inspiration I go through it.
My most recent additions into this folder are these promotion pictures from new clothing brand Ovate. Other than a really striking name they have some of the most beautiful promos of last year. They don't represent so much the actual garments, but more the attitude and the visual world of someone who would want to wear them. They are actually so good I'd like to have them hanging on my wall, supersized and breathtakingly stunning.

And yes, I really would like to have that dress with the quote in runes. I'll have to look if I can find a slip to go with it. As much as I like the occasional nudity I don't think I'll be alowed in most places with it.

A couple of pictures from the 24th. A little late, but hey, it's Christmas!

One of my favourite things about Christmas is me and my mums fabulous Christmas tree. It's completely covered from top to toe (root?) in gilded decorations and bizarre things like minature baroque mirrors and candelabra. We add something to it every year and the theme is loosely "turkish brothel/18th century france/winter palace/old Indian temple".

Shura did not enjoy all the commotion. It's her first Christmas, so it's OK. As son as my mum sat down in the sofa she came up for a cuddle and some comfort.

And yea, me. As usual in many shades of black and bushy hair. I was thinking about painting my lips in MAC's Russian Red, but I ran out of time. Sadly. I do like red and that one lipstick may be the best red ever.

I had a great christmas, I got some wonderful designer china, make-up brushes and a set of products from my favourite BodyShop line, Sweet Lemon.
I wrapped up a large chunk of Falu-sausage and gave it to my dog. She had so much fun unwrapping it, but I think I may have enjoyed it even more.

Today is my mothers birthday, so; Happy birthday mum!
I baked her a large dark chocolat cinnamon cake filled with black cherries and I might have to go and get another piece...

I did a quick "greeting card". Picturing me. I forgot to bring my tablet, but it's the thought that counts, right?
I hope each and every one off you will have a nice weekend, wichever holiday you wish to celebrate.
I'm going to eat lovely food, read books with my dog under the heating blanket and maybe watch some real silly films with my mum.

I might be in love with these shoes. I've always had a soft spot for Jeffrey Campbells monstrosities, commonly known as shoes, but these might be the most bizarre and perfect yet.
They are somewhat pricey, but maybe worth it... I don't know.
To buy or not to buy?
Decisions...

Yup, today I finally went home. Way up north to the large timbered house inhabited by a shaggy dog and a quite shaggy mother.
It's been a very long day for me. I had to get up way to early. My mind refused to fathom that it was actually supposed to get up, eat something and put on some makeup that could pass as "almost neat". It was raining. And cold.
I got thrown out of the bus on my way to the central station because I had forgotten the number to order an sms-ticked and the driver seemed to be in a very foul mood. It's not like I was trying to get away from paying, I even asked him what the number was. I had to wait outside for the next bus. Did I meantion it was raining?
Getting to the airport some idiot had put paprika on an other wise perfect tuna sandwish and to top it off my plane was almost an hour late. I got a slight case of motion sickness and some idiotic child would not stop yelling in the plane.
My mum picked me up, drove me home and fixed some bacon and eggs.

Now I'm waiting for the varnish on my toenails to dry so I can go to bed.

And yes, I did report the bus driver. He was behaving like a twat.

Six years ago I had absolutely nothing to do and shot this sequence of a collapsing incence cone.
Six years later I had absolutely nothing to do and found said sequence on the internet.

I still think it's pretty cool.

Doodeling in my arm. I thought that little bone bump on the wrist would look good with a sun.

I swear his voice just gets better for every year. It's amazing. Truly amazing. And very original, I can't think of anyone he sounds like. Just listen...

 
This past weekend my father was here, visiting me. We had a wonderful time, we ate for more money than I wish to think about, went to a really nice museum and shopped some. Dad found a very pretty hat, sadly it was slightly to small so it had to stay in the shop. We have large heads on his side of the family. 60-61cm...

We ate at Le Rouge, my favourite restaurant. For dessert we had the huge selection of ten different desserts and each and every one was absolutely amazing. The cinnamon ice cream was a real surprise.

I wanted to do something really fancy with my hair, but the weather was quite wet so no...

I always like having my father down here for a couple of days. We both like to take strolls, watch the city and to eat. Eating is very important. And I got to se what he was looking at in all the stores. Sneaky way to find ideas for christmas presents. If only he had cheaper tastes.

The last week I've had this most irritating dry patch under my eye. It's been red, irritated, dry and itching.
This monday it was so bad I felt like I was going crazy from all the itching and stinging. My eyes cept on rinning and make-up under the eyes was a big no-no. I really hate when this happens. It happens almost every time I run out of eye cream during the winter. Every time I start seing the bottom of the jar I think "no hurry buying a new one, it's not like it's important"... ha!
So, monday evening after work I went and bought a new jar. Cliniques rich eye cream.  Thank the gods for Clinique. It's pricey but worth it. Now the itchiness is all gone and the swelling and redness is starting to fade. 
Why can't my stupid skin just decide what it want to be? Sensitive at some places an oilfest at others... Argh!

A couple of years ago I would never have been able to upload a picture like this. Hair slicked back, centre front shot. Eyemakeup actually following my natural eyeshape. Growing up I always wished for a cute round face with big round eyes and plump, round rosy cheeks. Instead I got angles. And more angles.
I always do my makeup to flatter my eyeshape, but still make them look bigger. I almost always pose to make my eyes look bigger. I try to hide my chin whenever I can, without even thinking about it. And I don't have a forhead, I have a mighty fivehead. Thank the gods for bangs!
I know it's really silly, and I constantly try to think of myself as beautiful. Sometimes I'm successful, sometimes I fail. It's a contstant battle.
At least now I can accept that this is how I look.
This is probably not very inetersting to you, but it is important to me.

It's been so long since last time I did a doll, wich is kind of sad. I had forgotten how much I enjoy doing these little things. This one is just to get me going but the next one will be ball jointed. My sculpting skills feels so out of shape!

Yesterday was a truly awful day. I got attacked by a ninja virus. I spent most all of the afternoon in bed, reading and snoozing. I really did not feel like having anything to eat, wich was really bad because the day befor I had only had cinnamon buns for dinner. My blood sugar was on a roller coaster and when I came out form the toilet I fainted. I woke up covered in cold sweat and had a nasty pain in my forhead. Now I got a pretty bruise. Thankfully I have bangs to cover it with.
Needless to say i also spent the evening in bed.
I hate being sick when I'm alone...