“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.”

Late last night, I was stuck on Pinterest, browsing art paintings. This morning when I woke up, I was inspired to paint something. While my husband and I were on our honeymoon in Paris, we spent a day visiting Monet's garden, which was an absolute spectacle. I decided to paint my own interpretation of the water lilies on an interesting, long, piece of canvas. Often when I paint, I find the clean up; the mess, the process, the most beautiful, which thus inspired these photographs...

“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary." - Pablo Picasso 

Tosh Cadence Socks

I delved into the obsession that is sock knitting in mid December, when I knit my first pair of socks in worsted weight, using Silver's Sock Knitting class. Needless to say, I quickly became addicted.

This pair was knit up in Madeline Tosh merino light, which is super squishy and soft. The only downfall with this yarn, is as a single ply yarn, and knit up on teeny tiny  2.5mm (toothpick sized) needles, the needles often pull at or get stuck in the yarn, leaving little tufts behind. I also found to knit a bit slower than my usual pace, in fear of tearing the yarn or leaving behind a messy looking stitch.

The pattern itself is well written, and easy to follow. You can find my project on Ravelry, here, in greater detail. They definitely make for a very comfy, and gorgeous looking pair of socks! My current que for sock knitting is quite the list, but I would knit this pattern again.

New Year's Wishes

The coming of the new year has inspired me to get back into the groove of blogging. I have missed story telling of day-to-day life, and being able to have a little place to discuss my thoughts and keep track of things. 

As this blog has aged, so have I, and I've decided now would be the perfect time to reinvent this blog, and breathe new life into it. The new blog will be a collection of various things of my life; travel adventures, books, knits & other craft projects, recipes, and of course, a collection of photos.

"May your coming year

be filled with magic

and dreams

and good madness.

I hope you read 

some fine books

and kiss someone who

thinks you are wonderful.

and don't forget

to make some art-

write or draw

or build or sing

or live 

as only you can.

And I hope, 

somewhere, 

in the next year,

you surprise yourself."

- Neil Gaiman

Solstice Scents Valentines Day Update!

Solstice Scents will be releasing their V-Day collection, Monday, Feburary 6th at 7pm EST. Click  hereto see available scents! I highly recommend the German Chocolate Cake!

Ode to Darling Clandestine

I ordered some full sized solids from DC a few weeks ago during a 20% off promo sale. Seriously, join the facebook page! She has crazy deals all the time. I ended up placing another order a few days later for a limited edition scent called Dulcinea, and Evonne convoed to tell me my order would all ship together, and refunded me shipping from the most recent purchase. I honestly cannot praise her customer service enough! She is such a sweetheart and wonderful to deal with. In total I ordered 6 solid perfumes, and was sent one for free! It was completely unexpected but greatly appreciated. The texture to these solids are creamy, quite different than other solids I'm used to where you really have to dig in there to get some of the perfume out.

I knew I loved Falchion & Step Right Up, and they're even more wonderful in solid form. I've been wearing my Circassian oil almost daily, but I tend to wear one of these in the evening. Falchion is a sexier version of Circassian. The tins can be quite tricky though; they sort of screw on, and in my excitement of wanting to smell them all at once, I ended up getting two of them stuck on somehow.

Monstre Delicat... I fell in love with this the moment I put it on. It is very dark and mysterious, and again quite sexy. I tend to go for different perfumes depending on my mood for the day or what I'm wearing, and this one made me feel sexy just lounging around the house. I can see why some say this is moody.

Inked .... smells like something my nose is familiar with, but my brain won't let me know what that is. The wine makes this one have a foodie aura to it, especially in the tin. I knew I loved leather, and this is one of many reasons I've fallen for Inked.

Dulcinea, is quite potent as the listing states, but oh is it gorgeous! The cherry in this is quite strong, and initially I was worried, but no, it does not smell anything like cherry cough syrup. It is delicious

I haven't experimented much with Pyrotechnik yet, this one is spicy yet fruity because of the cantaloupe, and I know I will be wearing this one often when spring/summer arrives.

I don't think I should have to tell you that I would order again by now. I ordered just last week again, for a Valentines pre-order of a return scent, Carny Wedding. Evonne convo'ed me shortly after, saying I was her 900th customer and could pick a free solid in my choice of scent! :) Yay! I rarely win things, and I literally jumped up and down after reading this. <3

Vampires (sometimes) sparkle.

 

I scored this really cute (and warm!) sweater-dress as Winners a couple of weeks back. Now that it's deathly cold outside, I decided to wear it out today. It's so snuggly and warm!!  I did a smokey, vampy sort of eye to go with it. I've had Fyrinnae's Victorian Vamp for ages, but it's been collecting dusk in my pigment drawer. I used to be hesitant of using shadows that may make me look like I have a bruised/blackened eye, but I'm starting to love these sort of shades.

 

I made these earrings! I was experimenting with some wire wrapping techniques today, and with some patience, I'm proud of how these turned out.

Lost in Atlantis

I had Weds & Thurs off this week from classes, & had some time to finally relax a bit! I wanted to play with some blues and greys, as well as play with some of my Aromaleigh. I purchased samples ages ago, and for whatever reason I never really got around to using them.

 

I used: DG Atlantis, Aromaleigh Moth, Fyrinnae Calvera Cupcakes, NYX Odyssey

Morgana Cyptoria lipstick in Lush and DG Jar of Hearts gloss