2012 in Review

Now that the year is nearing its end I find once again that I’m not the best when it comes to writing reviews, not of films and not even of a year of my own life.

There’s a lot of good things that happened over the last twelve months, such as taking up fine arts for my minor, stopping my bad habit of biting nails and getting to sing and act again. There are a few sad things, too, but I don’t see the point in getting into those.

One of the greatest things in 2012 was Jules moving here, definitely. Constantine returned from Ireland, Tony stayed on campus instead of transferring, and I’m still happily in love with the Scoundrel.

I also made new friends, unexpected ones, too. Actually, some of them I’ve known for years and didn’t know in the least that they were to become some of the best friends I could imagine!

As for today, I’m going to spend the evening with the usual suspects blowing up Bertie’s model houses and having raclette and then go up to Jules and have a merry change-of-years with him, Liz, some other great folks and a lot of cocktails and karaoke.

Have a great passage into the next year, I’ll see you there!

Preparations Again: Halloween

Primaly I wanted to split the Halloween preparations post for this year into several parts, each dealing with another way to celebrate this holiday. But now there’s only one week left and I don’t want to push and force things, so this concept will have to wait until next year.

Instead I’ll bring the anticipation for October 31st to you through the medium of…

… Computer Games!

Indeed. And this is only the first part. A second one will follow (but rather in the form of a Cute Games issue)!

First of all I’ll have to admit that I’m a little bit of a browser game addict. Not really a severe case, but I truly like my daily dose of Poupée Girl.* One of the greatest things with these pretty, well-designed flash-based games are the “events” that turn up with every larger holiday (in the case of Poupée Girl not only western, but also Japanese ones).

Long story short, one of these holidays is traditionally Halloween, and here we go with some of the awesome gadgets, outfits and objects the creators of my major waste of time (just kidding) made for it.**

Halloween background without Halloween items

Poupée doesn’t only host the aforementioned events through special items but also changes the background for most of them. While this is quite nice, the really interesting part is what happens when your doll wears something from the event collection.

Halloween background with Halloween items

I really can’t decide what I love most about this room design. Probably the interesting pattern mix from bed and floor, but the patched Sally Ragdoll-like rocking horse is awfully cute, too.

Sometimes they also launch very small items that trigger another “special” background. This year on Halloween it’s bracelets, optionally with ghosts, pumpkins or black cats.

special background

They even animate these backgrounds:

special background with some alterations. spot the differences. ;)

In this picture you can also see my favourite clothing items from this event. One thing I appreciate very much in flash games with vector graphics is the amount of details one can zoom into.

hat from the "room" outfit

And once again I wish I had these clothes in real life.

Aaaaw, and the stockings!

detail: ragdoll hair bow

I’m actually thinking about replicating this bow for myself, maybe a little bit smaller, but esentially a look-alike. I only need a solution for the needle, I don’t think I want this near my hair, at least not this pointy.

detail: dress and apron neckline

The hue of the dress is awesome, there should be so many more Lolita dresses in this colour!

awesome apron detail.

* I do realise that most of my readers might actually know these pictures already because they play Poupée Girl themselves. If you do, feel free to add me, this is where my doll lives.
** Also, please note that this post is by no means an advertisement and that I write this out of mere enthusiasm for what I think is cute design.

Preparations Again: Mad Hatter Day

October 6th is Mad Hatter Day!

I already wrote about it two years ago and completely left it out last year, but here we go again!
Here are some (old and new) ideas how to spend this holiday:

1. Dress in rather unusual fashions (in normal standards) or at least something wonderland-related. Blazers and jackets could be nice, as well as knickerbockers, striped pants or victorianesque skirts (no problem here if you’re a Lolita). Speaking of stripes, this is the ideal day to mix any pattern you’d like. Have a look at the myriads of Mad Hatter interpretations made by artists from three centuries. Another point could be not to dress in neutral colours, at least not completely. Try to find accessoires that resemble something from the books, be it chess pieces, card suits, rabbits or caterpillars. Oh, or tiny tea dishes! Don’t forget your pocket watch.
2. Drink tea. Bring out your favourite china and complete tea arsenal, make one cup of each and have a tea-testing session. Invite your friends and/ or favourite stuffed animals and dolls and have a tea party with fairy cakes, sandwiches and cake.
3. Why not have a tea party in public? Get yourself a picnic blanket or sit down on park benches, in your school’s or university’s hall or your workplace’s cafeteria. Take your tea with you in a thermos flask and make a Wonderland-themed bentō with apple bunnies and card suit shaped sandwiches. Don’t forget the cake (as mentioned before) and take enough with you to offer some to a passer-by. Don’t bring your best teacups, go for something rather sturdy instead to prevent the breaking of china and hearts.
4. Wear a hat! Obvious, isn’t it. Decorate it with a pretty piece of thick paper with the writing 10/6 in this style and maybe some needles and pins. If you don’t own one, make one. Which brings me to my last point:
5. Make hats or headdresses. It’s Mad Hatter Day after all. Even if it’s only a paper hat, but you could also follow the many instructions for more fancy pieces. One of my favourites is the infamous Tim Burton’s Mad Hatter top hat from Threadbanger. My favourite German DIY community also has a wonderful tutorial for a tricorn. :)
   Small headpieces that look like tea cups or cake would be great, too, and why not go so far as to make a whole set of matching accessoires?

I hope you’ll enjoy your Mad Hatter day, and if you celebrate and make a blog post about it, leave me a comment with a link!

Off to the South for the Weekend

In about twelve hours I’ll be at Lilibeth’s house after a journey by train together with Jules and maybe a little sightseeing tour – I just don’t know where.

We’ve got an awfully stuffed program (it will be splendid, though) including museums, photo sessions, crafts, a picnic and long walks. Oh, and we’ll meet Noctua, too, an event I’m really looking forward to!

I would have loved to travel with my two old cardboard suitcases as my luggage, but I had to pack so many things that they simply were not the most sensible choice (my backpack is way easier to carry, too). Maybe for another journey.

Sadly I won’t manage to finish two sewing projects of mine before I’ll leave. But maybe I can convince Jules to another photo shoot when we come back and he’s visiting his prince charming here in Marburg next time.

Things I packed as I considered them essential for this journey of four days (of course I stuffed in some clothing and everyday needs, too):

• Hare: My stuffed animal of choice.
• Nightgown: Lilibeth made it for me as a birthday present last year, and we don’t have decent photos yet! Besides, I need something to sleep in.
• Secret Sewing Project: To be revealed when I’m home again.
• Pencils and drawing paper: Because I made up my mind to draw more.
• Toothbrush: Why, it’s essential.
• Old-fashioned badminton bats: To play a very lady-like game of badminton now and then.
• Laptop: To pre-write some posts.

So good-bye now, no posts until Sunday.

I hope you’ll all have a splendid weekend!

Porcelain Sunday – Happy Easter!

Originally I wanted to post my re-written Porcelain Sunday themed of Sucker Punch from last week today, but I completely forgot that this Sunday was Easter Sunday! Well, this might have made a great preparations post, too, but it’s to late now.

It’s a little difficult to write a Porcelain Sunday about Easter, so I’ll just list some things that might be inspiring for you. So, what I love about Easter:

• Egg hunting. One of my favourite traditions ever! I even wanted to hunt for my Christmas presents, it was just so much more fun! My grandmother used to hide several smaller and one larger nest in the garden, the latter one not only with hard-boiled eggs or sweets but a little gift of some sort. I remember one time when I was still in primary school when I spent the Easter holidays in Italy with my father and some friends of his together with their children. We had an egg hunt and one of my teeth was loose and I lost it in a half-melted chocolate egg…
• Ēostre. We don’t know if there ever was a goddess named Ēostre (Ostara in German) or not, but I personally like the thought. Laugh at me, but the thought of a spring deity as a symbol for the rebirth of nature, accompanied by hares, comforts me. Besides, I like her name, made up or not.
• Egg decorating. We always did thins a week before the actual holidays, most of the time my cousins, my grandmother and I. My grandmother also has a quite large collection of easter eggs, painted by herself, the women of her family, her best friend or me, decopatched on with silk paper by my mother (quite Waldorf), adorned with ribbons, batiked, bought on crafting bazaars, everything. If I knew not that I’ll most probably some times in the next ten years, I’d start my collection right away. There’s a method to boil an egg in vegetable or tree dyes while a flower or leaf is fixed on the shell that I really want to try next year.
  Also, think of Fabergé eggs, which are the most Loli-able (and sometimes Steampunk) kind of easter eggs ever, come to think of it.
  
• Cake. Another thing that belonged to my family’s Easter celebration was cake in the shape of a little lamb, mostly simple pound cake. I prefer dry ones on Easter, like marble cake, they’re easier to take outside with you for a picnic.
  
• Discworld Tradition: Soul Cake Day. The Soul Cake Duck the Discworld version of our Easter Bunny and I even bought a duck-shaped cookie-cutter yesterday.
• Bonfires. I love bonfires. Being raised by a very spiritual, nature-bound mother may have caused this, but maybe it’s only the urge to feel alive just like my ancestors did when they sat at the whispering flames, telling tales of great deeds and feasting on the prey of the last hunt. You see, archeology soaked it’s way deep into my mind. It’s also a good way to get rid of bad thoughts or dreams or set your wishes free into the night sky, just like on Yultide or New Year’s Eve. Write down what bothers you on a piece of paper and burn it.
  
• Greeting the awakening of the new-born nature. Easter is a great opportunity to celebrate every new leaf and every flower you meet. In many families it’s traditional to take a biking tour on Easter Sunday (in my family it’s rather on the 1st of May), but a stroll in the park or countryside will do as well. A picnic might be perfect, even if you go all on your own!
  
• Hares and Lambs. I love both as symbols and animals alike. Hares stand for fertility, joy of life and even some kind of aggression (ever saw a hare fight?). Lambs are something worth of protecting, sweet but curious (leaving out the religious part). They both make adorable motifs for dresses or skirts or t-shirts as well.

That’s what I love most about Eastertide. What’s your favourite part of the holidays, if you celebrate them, anyway?

Advent Calendars

I know I haven’t posted too much this month, especially about my Christmas preparations. At the moment I’m doing the ornaments for the annual Yuletide letter to my relatives overseas in New York, and I’m planning to catch up with all the presents during the next two weeks.

Air Mail to America

 

But something little that I can show you right now are the advent calendars I’ve got back in Marburg (you remember, I’m still at my mother’s house).

First, there’s the (hippie-eco-tree hugger – I love it!) tea advent calendar I got from my Mum in the mail.

I didn’t have the chance to get my daily cup during the last week, but this makes me even look more forward to coming home the day after tomorrow.

The second one is some kind of “collective” advent calendar my mother also sent to me. I always had it when I lived with her, and now I use it for the whole bunch. There are four of us – Bambi, Satyr, Scoundrel (doesn’t officially live with us, but unofficially he’s a member of the household as well) and me which means there are six bags for each of us. I filled those for the boys – mostly the same stuff in different colours but with at least one specific gift in the last bag before Christmas. Sadly, I couldn’t take any pictures, but maybe I’ll be able to when I come home again.

So far I have only opened one of my bags as I’m the fourth in line and went south at December 5th. But there I found a wonderful little gnome from the Scoundrel, just like the ones that I had when I was younger.

And now I’ll leave you again to pack my bags and go for an evening stroll to see all the lighted houses with my Mum. Tomorrow at this time I’ll be in Frankfurt at my father’s house after lunch with my grandparents, a visit on the Christmas market and a short meeting with Jules. And when I’m back in Marburg on Tuesday I’ll visit the Historian to take a look at the pictures he took at the Coppelius concert. Which means: I’ll be posting soon again!

Love, stardust and snowflakes,

The Hedgefairy

Bloomers and Bites

Neck bites, to be precise.

Yesterday I finished sewing my first pair of bloomers.

I made them mainly for the Steampunk LARP that’s finally coming up in a month, but also to proceed a little bit with my attempts with Lolita. I’m awfully nervous about the con and today I’ll start sewing my real dress.

The bites are from an aspiring young opera singer named Mona, leading Lady of A Vampyre Story. That’s a point-and-click adventure concentrating on Mona’s try to escape the castle she’s hold captive in by an awful, stupid Vampire named Shrowdy. She’s accompanied by a bat named Froderick who’s never too tired to give a comment.

Mona and Froderick in the castle kitchen together with Pyewacket the Cat.

The design is really great. I’ve got to admit that this is the first thing I look for at a new game, just followed by the story. Presumeably that’s the reason why I love point-and-click so much. At some parts the game is really tricky, but it’s fun, anyway.

Tomorrow I’m going to visit Lilibeth! I’m incredibly excited, not only because I get to see her again but also ’cause he’s going to have her birthday party on Saturday. Her theme – A Midsummer Night’s Dream – will be opulent, great and lovely at the same time and you can bet that I’m going to take some pictures.

So, have a lovely time! I’m going to bed now, there is a huge load of work waiting for me tomorrow due to the con and I didn’t any packing either for my trip to Lilibeth.

Good night!

Festival Preparation

As we’re at the middle of July again I think it’s time to write something about one of my personal highlights of the summer during the last four years: Festivals.

I’ve started going to festivals at the age of sixteen what was quite sensible when I look back on it. I don’t think very highly of dragging people to festivals when they aren’t even allowed to stay out after midnight if you follow the law strictly.

This year I’m going to visit Veldenstein Castle for my summer entertainment, mostly for the sake of the ever-genius Coppelius. The other bands are either good enough to dance to or ignorable – one needs a little rest from time to time, even if it’s only a one-day festival. Although I like whole-weekend festivals a lot, one-days are incomparably less stressful. You can take your time to arrive on friday without the schedule of the first concert chasing you and your companions, set up camp with more care when it comes to choosing the place on the campground, enjoy the concerts on saturday and sleep as long as you want until you decide to drive home on sunday.

The most important things to plan for festivals are these:

• Packing space: As for us, we’re going by Bambi’s car which is pretty small (and canary yellow ^^). “Us” refers to Bambi, Jules, the Scoundrel and obviously me. The equation goes as follows: 1 very small car : 4 people x 4 days = Tetris. One of the most sensible things is to open up the sleeping bags and camping mats, place them on the back seat and let the ones who sit in the back settle on a way more luxurious seat. Another one is to place the smallest person on the co-drivers seat. In our case, that’s me. When I’m putting my feet on the seat during the ride the leg room can be stuffed with luggage.
• Food and drink: Well, the first and foremost is something else than ravioli or at least not only ravioli. Don’t get me wrong, I love ravioli, but living on them for three days for breakfast, lunch and dinner is simply too much. Things like cereals and UHT milk, some fruit and other canned things than ravioli can add a little luxury to the trip. Bonus points if you really get to cook something not entirely made of tinned food!
• Outfits and clothes: There is a way to look good, handsome, cute, pretty and entirely awesome on a festival without taking your whole wardrobe with you or ruining your best pieces. I’ll devote a whole post on this next week introducing my own festival outfits for this year. Just keep in mind that thing should be practical, pockets might be a good idea, you’ll most probably need a smaller bag than a giant backpack to carry with you on the festival ground and you will also most probably dance, so leave your high heels and ballerina slippers (they fall off!) at home.

These are my personal basics for a good festival. Of course the music to be played on the car ride is important, too, but as you’re going to the same music festival it’s mostly expected for you to like the same kind of music, isn’t it? And don’t forget to settle who’s sleeping in which tent and who’s to bring which things.

And don’t forget the bottle opener.

Great Expectations

No, not the book. This weekend somebody who is really special to me will come to visit me. It’s my pen friend Lilibeth. This is by the way the beautiful last letter that she wrote to me plus a wonderful gift she sent me:

It will be the first time that we meet each other in person.

We had a nice (and long!) phone conversation some weeks ago and I think she is truly a kindred spirit. ^^ Our correspondence so far has been a very pleasant one since we met at the Natron & Soda bulletin board via the Lolita thread last year.

She’ll arrive here at about 8 PM on Friday and will stay during the weekend at which I’ll show her my favourite places here in Marburg. We will be a little creative, too, but just like her I don’t want to spoil you with information and rather show you the results.

Maybe I’ll finally get the chance to wear my Ugly Duckling dress! Reminds me of the fact that I lack matching accessories…

I am pretty excited and got to admit that I’m a little bit nervous, too. Maybe Lilibeth is the bosom friend I’ve waited for my entire life… Yes, our relationship is pretty affected by Anne of Green Gables (we’re planning to watch the mini series together, as well ^^).

And now I’ll go and bake a cake for the role-playing evening we’ll have today. Be prepared for some more nerdy character stuff tomorrow! :)

Present Growing

Top o’ the morning to you!

Remember that I mentioned to post a teaser about Jules’ birthday present sometimes? Well, as he is coming to visit us this weekend, here it is.

I dare say I like the way the picture came out.

Plus, I hope that I’ll get it ready until Friday! My to-do list is enormous like always but I’d be rather confused and helpless if I had nothing to do on the contrary.

Thanks to Lilibeth I’m pretty much hooked up on this Anne of Green Gables video. I love the song and the video every time reminds me of the fact that my darling pen pal is going to visit me, too, at the beginning of June! I’m really looking forward to that.

But now I’ve got to go and check off some of the to-do points.

Bye then!