These are pictures I promised to show you last year, I think. Jules took them around this time of the year in 2012, with a dress I had sewn up the night before. We tried to emulate some sort of Art Noveau or Jugendstil feeling there, deep in the fields of the Shire, and I still would like to paint some pictures with these poses.
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These photos were taken when Carou stayed here in January, down at the riverbanks.
Everytime I stand and see and feel the sunlight on these weather-softened roots and branches, the one-of-a-kind pebbles, the grass bowing to the wind, the clear water of my river, I feel something very much alike to awe. It’s a silent, almost serene feeling that I tend to get in museums and similar places, too, but it’s strongest when I stand ashore, or in a glade, or on a field, and just feel the beauty of it where other see another grey place in winter, or another spot to have their barbecue at, or just some boring place where a girl stands and just stares at the stones, and the grass, and the sand, and the roots and mushrooms.
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I’ve been lucky enough to be in fine arts for my minor subject this semester, and I loved it. We’ve got a great, whimsical collection of stuff for drawing and painting, and I’m always amazed by the things one can find by going through the old cupboards in this building.
This was the last chance to show off my holiday decorations, so I took it.
I’m lost without my daily diary. Completely. I went insane when the new year had already begun and I had no book to write down my appointments. Let alone birthdays and silly holidays. Or quotes.
My planner is important. Really important. During the last three years I’ve always been using the same design in different colours, the slim format ones from paperblanks.
2013 is the first year with a new format. I wanted to try something else, as the usual design was a repeat and I already had one that look that way. Because I actually keep my old calendars.
It’s always a bit hard letting go of the old year’s planner – there are so many quotes and words and book recommendations in there, and birthdays and notes and other things. One quote actually made it to the first page of the new one, together with one all-time favourite and another one I found just today, but more on that another time.
I needed two days just to find the right format, but finally I found something to my liking – yes, paperblanks, again. But smaller. And in an 18 months format, which would be great if the additional six months were for 2014, not 2012. Who buys a calendar in June? Anyway, I’ll be making good use of that extra space, and you should have seen my face when I scribbled down my first notes for this year. Like a junkie who finally got their stuff.
The sticker is something I still had at home, patiently waiting for its day to come. Well, today was the day, and I like it. Also, it fit into the frame rather nicely.
I can’t be the only one so fixated. Are you this attached to your planners, too?
23 was my number when I wrote my final exams back in school. 23 is the number of conspiracy theorists. 23 (and one and a half day) is the number of years that I’ve lived this life to date.
birthday breakfast with fresh lemon balm tea from the secret garden
I’m not so great at birthday recaps, but I had a really nice afternoon with two of my best friends, the latest episode of Downton Abbey (season 3 is finally airing!) with my fellow fangirl, someone dropping by to give me a book that they wanted me to read (I’d invited you in for tea if I hadn’t been so baffled by your showing up, sorry! By the way, the nail polish didn’t make it.), which is probably the most effective way to get me to read something anyway, baking, dinner with Scoundrel who came down from his internship especially for this evening, the sweetest and most surprising congratulation on facebook and the most awesome present ever.
I got myself flowers. I actually don’t like getting flowers, except it’s something very spontaneous and not bought. I’m not a big fan of flower shops, too. These are from the Secret Garden, pink roses (there’s another bud behind the blooming one) and more lemon balm. Oh, and my room is still a bit under construction decorationwise.
As for the baking, these are chocolate cupcakes (that are still to be perfected. I forgot the baking powder. Yes, genius that is me, but they were pretty tasty anyway.) with sweet cestnut and chocolate buttercream. I love buttercream.
The parcel my mother and grandmother sent me just arrived in time. They actually had already given me something bigger that had been sent directly to my place but they also wanted me to have something to unwrap. The things above are from my mother and her boyfriend (guyfriend? gentlemanfriend?) who added the magic lamp-like oil flakon to the gift. I think I’ve still got some rose oil to fill in there. The candles are something I get every year from my mother, it’s a really dear tradition. I never light them, though, I always forget about them on special occasions and they are far to precious to simply keep my tea warm.
The shawl was a present from my grandmother, the finest, softest wool I’ve ever felt.
These are the big present my Shire family gave me for my birthday: The perfect boots. Martens Triumph with Union Jack lining. I’ve dooling after them for such a long time, and now I finally have them, just in time for the cold part of the year. I just love the colour, the feel of the leather under my finger tips, the satin lacing, the details. Somewhat Steampunk, somewhat doll-ish, somewhat kick-ass. The perfect boots for me.
But if you thought these were the most awesome present ever you’re wrong. That one came from my father who personally showed up to hand it to me. That one…
… was this. A Faber-Castell Polychromos set with all 120 colours that they provide. It is awesome. I used to buy one colour at a time some times back in school when I really wanted to reward myself for something, but that’s no comparison to this beauty.
I could spend hours just looking. And reading the names of these colours. The picture above shows one of my favourite palettes at the moment (definitely including the yellows) and the colours that Jules generally refers to als “Hedgefairy red”. Did I mention I think I might have the best father I could ever imagine?
I didn’t show pictures of these, but I also got gift certificates for an outfit (from Jules) that I’ll write about more when it’s done, and three of my favourite ice creams from the cafeteria (from aforementioned Lady of the Lake). As I greatly believe in giving oneself gifts, I got me new brushes and the latest issue of Ottobre, but more about that another day.
I hope you had a great time, too, birthday or not. ♥
Wow. My third Hedgefairy anniversary!
I think of a blog as a very interesting project. Not only can I use it to show the world who I am – or who I’d like to be -, but also is it fascinating how it changes and evolves over the years, together with its writer. Sometimes I go back to my first posts from when I was 19 and wonder if I have changed notably for everyone else, too. As we rarely see change when we’re dealing with the changing person or project every day after a while…
As for the stats I’ve got roughly a 40 views average a day, in my first year it was only 6! My overall views for this year, however short it might be are about double of the overall views of my whole first year, 2009!
Which can only mean one thing:
There are actually people who are interested in what I write. Yay!
So: Thank you, all of you, my dear readers, for three years of Teaparties & Fairytales. May it grow during the next twelve months even more, and may you still be reading it when the title announces the next anniversary.
THANK YOU.
P.S.: AND this is my 401st post! So many reasonst for a giveaway… so you better watch out!
My holiday were divided in three parts: I spent Christmas Eve down at my grandmother’s place together with my grand-aunt and my mother having rather usual and not so very festive dinner, on 25th I had Yule Breakfast with my mother after which we went for our traditional walk, which was a little more like the holidays should be with two sorts of cake for breakfast, boiled eggs and tea, but the most awesome and appropriate part of this year’s Christmas was when Jules and I celebrated together on Boxing Day our style.
Jules arrived in the afternoon (sadly Ludwig couldn’t come to accompany Hollis, as he was otherwise engaged), so we decided to take our tea first and then have the gift giving. As mentioned in the post title everything was a little bit makeshift – from the decoration to the choice of the table cloth to even my skirt wich isn’t really finished yet but I had to wear it!
Or whole table and setting had something of a children’s make-believe or pretend tea party about it, and we fully embraced this A Little Princess style.
As we went on to the gift-giving, I gave Jules a T-shirt with a glittery green ドラマ おしましょ! (jap. dorama oshimashiyo – Let’s make drama!, an idea by the Scoundrel) print and two packs of sequins to complete it to his liking (that’s why there isn’t any picture yet) while I got wonderful orange-yellow-ish striped arm and leg warmers with amber embellishments from him (no picture yet, too). As most of the time with Jules and I the things fitted the taste of the respective other quite well, and I was relieved to see how much he loved the shirt! He even bragged about it in the most cute and adorable way to Scoundrel when the latter called later in the evening.
We retreated to the kitchen to prepare our dinner and even had the starter – puff pastry squares with grated cheese – there. Our main course was a rural (given that my mother’s house could be seen as my country cottage ^^) combination of cob slice omelette and button mushrooms à la Provence au jus de vin rouge et citron, not so bad for makeshift, especially when you know how to make your menu card fit your mood.
Our dessert was a crème of yoghurt with ginger honey and cob nuts again…,
… and then it was time for christmas crackers! Jules had never had one before, so it was some kind of a must. My mother used to make them herself when I was little and I continued this tradition yesterday.
the inner life of my cracker
Jules with his crown.
I had grabbed the tastes-like-diabetes “Best Friends” key chain unicorns during Jules’ and my trip to town on 23rd. The glitter was something I had in my really small craft stock at my old room, as well as the cardboard for the crowns and the marbles. Makeshift again, but nevertheless incredibly fun. Maybe I’ll even manage to get the crackers ready in time and with a bit more design to them next year!
I hope you had equally great holidays with your friends and families and made it well through the ranges of dinner, biscuits, puddings and pies.
I solemnly vow to deck the halls and be jolly,
To party like I never partied before,
To dress and feel as festive as possible,
Not to be quiet and demure,
To scare away the demons and hardships my family had to endure,
To troll my carols loud and clear.
I solemnly vow to celebrate the return of the light into a dark world.
I vow to have the best Yuletide ever, someday.
I thought it would never come. I got myself into some kind of Yuletide spirit at last yesterday evening and finished three of four presents that had to be ready until Christmas Eve and went to bed thinking that at least I was in the right mood now, even if my fairytale town wasn’t.
I had an exam today, so I woke up quite early this morning. It was still dark outside, but though the gaps of my curtains I saw something waft down the street outside, something white…
The last two pictures are from my campus, isn’t it beautiful?
It really is. And here are some tips on how to stay warm, happy and cuddly on a dark winter’s night.
Clothing. One of the most basic (and that’s why it comes first) things you can do about being cold is of course to dress conciously. As often, the key is layering. I especially recommend wool or cotton tights, simple longsleeves over which you can wear your favourite T-shirts or cutsews, wristwarmers, legwarmers or gaiters, thick woolen socks, bloomers or cute shorts and additional hoodies or jumpers. This of course leaves out JSKs, onepieces, skirts and normal trousers, but I didn’t want mention the obvious neccessarily. In accessoires, the obvious – and here I can’t really avoid it – are scarves, fingerless gloves and all kinds of hats. Such things are often found in cute designs and even if you don’t find something to suite your taste they are easily decorated with bows, buttons and some lace.
Bathing (or hot showering if you don’t have a bathtub). One of my favourite ways to drive out the cold! Just make sure the water is hot enough (but not too hot) and you’ve got the heating on as well. I’d recommend chocolate or spice bath additives for winter especially. Something with orange might be nice, too. Combinable with other warming things, too, such as…
Tea. Any hot beverage will do (and you can also offer it to upset people), but spice tea such as chai is perfect. The spices don’t only add a certain autumnal or wintery feel to it but also will awaken your spirits a little bit (by stimulating your circuit). During the winter time most shops also offer some kind of mulled claret aroma tea or something cider-y.
Baking. If you don’t have heating in the kitchen just like us here in the little white house at the edge of the world it’s the perfect excuse to try a new walnut bread or cinnamon bisquit recipe. The heat that seeps out of the oven during the baking process will keep you warm and you’ve got something to nibble at afterwards.
Reading. One of my favourite activities during the coldest season is snuggling up in bed or my armchair with a blanket and reading out loud to the Scoundrel (and every other friend who happens to stop by). Reading out has become rather underestimated during the last eighty years, due to the high availability of other entertainment and media. As for the stories, we made it through the first Eddie Dickens book last year (read by Scoundrel) and The Exiles just recently and are thinking about the next book at the moment. I’d suggest nothing too serious, children’s books with a twist for grown-up readers (look for Neil Gaiman, Philipp Ardagh and Hillary McKay, for instance, the latter two being the authors of the aforementioned works) and children’s classics ( such as Anne of Green Gables, Huckleberry Finn or the ever-surreal Alice in Wonderland) are my favourites for reading out.
Cleaning. Another activity that I have found surprisingly sensible and quite handy. We’re talking the full program here, swab the decks (also known as floors) to dinnerplates, do the dishes, srcrub every corner of your home until it shines. It’s exercise and doing chores and avoiding additional heating all at once!
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On heating: Growing up in very green households makes me want to avoid heating as much as possible. But I’m a very, very girlish one when it comes to the temperature of the bathroom, and I’m even using the heating on a low level in my bedroom during the day. Just make sure to let in enough fresh air once in a while! I usually have my window tilted when I sleep (and consequently the heating shut down) as I’m under covers and blankets and have a very high sleeping temperature anyways. The other occasional airing is done at best when you just come home from the colder outsides and aren’t wont to the warmth that a heated room provides anymore. This is the moment when I tear my windows wide open to let in the fresh air, and I shut them again when I’m acclimatised again
Oh, something that I forgot: Cuddle someone, even if it’s “just” you favourite teddy bear.
P.S.: Happy Winter ILD!
