this was my 2007
Ok, this is what caught my attention in 2007:
January
Also known as bento craze month - I bought, packed, wished for bento boxes.
February
I discovered the world of Posie, and an entire new outlook on colour and decorating.
March
Pinup month - the first of many! I brought out my inner pinup - now I´m doing a pinup tattoo on my arm!
April
I began Weight Watching, and lost quite a bit in the next few months, unfortunately I´ve gained it all back and then some. My doctor told me I should consider gastric binding, and I think I will go through with that. But in April, I was feeling confident in losing weight, and was thinking a lot about fashion, what I like and what I don´t. I like Dita von Teese!
May
Apparantly, I didn´t have much to say here, because I started my knitting blog:
malinmerino
June
This was a month of kawaii and swap packages, I did I lot of both!
July
Actually, I didn´t talk about anything but swaps here either...
August
Hmmm... all swaps here too - no wonder I feel I overdosed on swaps for a while!
September
It´s my birthday, so I did some bday saps, and I had some people over for my big day (how big it can get when I´m 33...). Picture the rolls of paper in the picture looking like balls of yarn, and this was my presents (yes, she said I could exchange the paper for yarn...)
October
This month brought back a brief crush on bentos, and more swap packages, so both in one picture:
November
I really got into the vintage housekeeping, and also re-discovered Cath Kidston and pinups. It was actually a quite fun month!
December
was all about favourites - apparantly I have a lot of them!
That´s my 2007 - quite one-sided, and it didn´t happen a lot, and definately a lot less pretty than Jenny´s year. Maybe a little promise is in place? I promise that my 2008 will be less about swaps and spending money, and instead I will do more crafting, personal development and vintage housekeeping! And have fun - 2008 will be a fun year! And I will go out and buy my green camera, so I can post more pictures of my own, instead of having to borrow them all over the net...
mostly about me getting
Just a quick reflection: the sun is rising outside, and the sky looks gorgeaus, striped in pink and blue. One of the perks of winter - I don´t have to bee up very early to see the sunrise, or very late to see the sunset.
Ok, it´s been a week since last, it´s been Christmas, and I´m back to work. First things first. On the 23rd, I went to Stockholm with my sister Linda, I can´t remember the last time I did as serious shopping! Some of the things were more expensive than I usually spend, but anyway - I did spend a lot of money. And since I very rarely have that much to spend, it was fun! I finally got a camera and a mp3 player, but I managed to spill tea on it the first evening, so I returned it yesterday. I think it´s a sign - I wanted a green one, but they didn´t have that anywhere, so I settled for a pink, so this is what happen when you settle for second best - it gets broken. The mp3 is a joy, though - I have loaded lots of music, and there´s still room for three times more. My old one only had room for 17 songs, s that´s a huge difference.
I also got some of this and that - two bags for me, a small bag for Kellie (we´re doing a swap in a couple of months), a couple of manga books, some make up (a bit of advice, especially in the makeup counter - when they ask if it´s a present, say yes! They make the prettiest presents, and you deserve a pretty present!), some lavender/mint bathroom cleaner, Pee & Poo stationary (the first great Swedish stationary I´ve found - ever!), a beautiful flowery mug I´ve been coveting for a while, and I know there had to be more things, because I couldn´t have spent so much on so little.
And then came Christmas Eve, and I got presents and I gave presents: every year I give my niece and nephews a new bauble for the tree, hoping they´ll keep it when they have children of thir own, and remember the Christmasses when they were growing up, I know I wish I had something left from my childhood. My sister got a luxury breakfast bag (fancy marmalade and honey, odd raisins and dried mulberrys, and some chocolate covered crisp bread), my best friend got some tea, a tealight holder and ginger bread lollipops, and then there are some presents who haven´t reached their recipients yet: a build-a-mammoth-skeleton in wood for my nephew, matching socks and hats for my parents (knit by me), pretty glasses for my sister, Moomin mug for my other sister (she gets one every bday/Christmas) and for my sister´s bday a hula pinup makeupbag, and some goth lipgloss, I hope it´s right down her alley.
And I did get some presents (besides the ones I got for myself...)! Shoes with red and blue roses from my sister (I told her to buy them for me - she thinks they are horrible, I love them!), homemeade candy from my other sister´s family, a kitten calendar and a Christmas table cloth from my parents, very 50s housewives soaps and soy containers (for sushi) from my best friend, a green "pashmina" scarf from my employers, and then i will get a present from my sister when I go home to visit next time.
Yesterday me and my sister with family went to Farsta, to return my camera and to do some christmas sale shopping. I decided to return, not exchange my broken camera, and get the green one when they are in the store here in Nynäshamn instead. Then I got some wrapping paper (green with white polkadots and aqua with pink roses - very pretty!), fancy yarn for my swap with Iris in a month, and some earrings with cherries.
And now I´m so out of money!
talking films
I love my DVD player (even if it´s getting about time to buy a new one), and I have a rather big film collection, a very eclectic one, I might add. But lately I haven´t bought much new films, and I´ve had a hard time finding something to watch. Imagine my delight, when ve found several films I love for decent prices, the only problem is when I will get time to see them all. First, I got a new Advent calendar, "Sune´s Jul" (Sune´s Christmas), which wasn´t as good as I had remembered it. Then I got the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" (aaargh, matey!), I bought a magazine to get my hands on "The Black Dahlia" (which I haven´t finished yet, it´s beautifully made, but slow), yesterday I got Disney´s "Alice in Wonderland" (it´s so good!), and any day now "Cry-Baby" and "Beetlejuice" will drop down my mail slot as well (definately oldies but goldies). A while ago I got "Tales of Beatrix Pottern", the animal ballet of her fairytales, which used to air every Christmas, but not anymore - it´s a good thing I have a copy of my own now! All I´m waiting for now is a good offer from the DVD-shop, so I can buy the latest "Harry Potter" and "Shrek", I´m too cheap to pay full price... And the Tim Burton "Alice in Wonderland" - it may be a while before that one´s out on DVD, but I will actually get it when it´s out, even at full price!
A little different, but a little bit the same: When I was little they showed "Solstollarna" och "Toffelhjältarna" on tv in the mornings (I sew they have released them on DVD, I´ll try to find it! Update ten minutes later: I found them and ordered them - yay!), and in the last one, there was a little ghost girl who wanted to be a real girl, and she sang this song in every episode - you Swedes born in the 70s should remember it fondly!
my favourite movies
are often movies made by Tim Burton. I love "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "Beetlejuice" and "Edward Scissorhands" (even though that one ends so sad, I can´t bare to watch it), just to mention a few. Imagine my delight, when I heard that he was doing "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter again) and (oh joy!) "Alice in Wonderland"! I can´t wait!
I love Alice in Wonderland!
done, finished, finito!
balm-oholic
One of each, berry, plum and vanilla-mint.
The green one, apple scented. I love this brand!
Peppermint and rosemary - isn´t the deer too cute? As you can see, I´m a sucker for cute packaging, and I love th little metal boxes with slide off lids. I save them, my plan is to sometimes make my own lip balm, and use the old boxes for it.
What I really hate though, is the bad lip balms that´s out there, you ever tried any of those? Those who could be used as paste for example, some of them so hard and sticky, you can´t even get them to stick to your lips. With my luck, I wouldn´t be surprised if all of the ones mentioned above suck... No, positive thoughts - they will all be amazingly wonderful!
pretty shopping!
Big disappointment though (ok, not that big, I´m rather over my Christmas mood) - I couldn´t find any nice Christmas decorations anywhere, only boring stuff everywhere. Which is very good for my purse!,
by the looks of it, I´m a terribly old-fashioned person!
When I think about it, you could easily take me for a 75-year-old granny! No, not how I look, people usually guess that I´m 8-10 years younger than I actually am. But my wardrobe contains several rather granny-ish skirts, my home is full of granny-things (crocheted throws, pressed glass, rose patterns, lavender scent...), and most of the things I like, most grannies like too - knitting, embroidery, music from the 40s and 50s, the odd cup of tea (very modern cup, though - I only drink rooibos and yogi tea), old movies (I love Swedish "pilsnerfilmer" (literally "beer movies") from the 40s)... If it wasn´t for my face, and the occasional kawaii spree, you´d swear i was 75!
she´s on the loose, and she´s shopping!
I shouldn´t be allowed to run loose with access to both money and the Internet - I shop recklessly! I almost don´t even dare to talk about it! Well, ok, I will. Yesterday I picked up some packages at the postoffice, a couple of sweaters (which fit ok now, and will fit even better with a few kilos less), a big bag (black and beige with medallions - almost like an old couch - nice, though), a housekeeping box, rose scented linen water, a blue tea towel with white polkadots. Then the kawaii stationary and deco tapes arrived in my mail slot, very, very nice they were! And three of the tapes were cram cream I didn´t have (at least I think one of them were cram cream), so I kept them for myself, the other ones (plus three from my collection, which makes them 16) are to be given away. One of the tapes was a pink one with a dog, so cute, and I´ve never seen it before, so that´s a catch! And finally, one of the Puppini Sisters CD´s had arrived, so for the last 24 hours, it´s been on repeat in my CD player.
Then, let me talk about what´s to arrive: my 50s glasses, a vintage tin (for my cold-tin), a new (white, very pretty!) CD player, a poo-pad and tooth stickers from Mo0fin, stationary and post-its from Ilovekawaii, pinup makeup bags, cram cream pouch (happiness frog), several lip balms (among other things) from Miss Smith, and it looks like I´m winning an auction on some hankies, lace gloves and a veil, all vintage (anyone getting married who needs it?). I think that´s it, but someone please cut off my fingers, so I can´t shop anymore online! I was going to save up some money, and to go to the dentist and get tattoos and pay some bills, not shop it all up. And I thought I was so over kawaii for a while - that stuff is lethal! Forget about crack-cocain, kawaii stationary gets you hooked much faster, and holds you in the jaws of life.
Oh, and I forgot - I´ve got some books on their way as well: "The Anti-Craft", "The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls", "The perfect Christmas" and "Rita´s Tips for Domestic Bliss". A lovely lot it is - something for all of the many facettes of my personality!
I love it when I get compliments on my clothes! The skirt I´m wearing now (pink and lacy) often get positive attention, and I´ve got a blue one who gets compiments, but as often I get remarks on my funny outfits. I think that´s what you get when you don´t look like the rest of the crowd. When I begin to fit into those 50s style clothes, I hope there´s more compliments than remarks!
thrifted!
I´ve been online shopping again, some kawaii stationary at Ilovekawaii and some birthday presents at Miss Smith (and a few things for me...). It´s quite dangerous, having all-day access to internet...
so very pretty tattoos!
yikes!
One thing that´s quite a big scare, is when you get home from work, and realise that you´ve had a candle buring the entire night, and then the whole day when you´ve been away at work. As I did yesterday. And the candle was still burning (definately a good buy!)! I coul´ve lost everything, my things, my cats, if a fire had started when I was sleeping, I could´ve even have gotten killed! Very scary! One of my biggest fears, is coming home, and finding the house on fire, my cats trapped in the flames, and everything I own gone. Next time I light a candle, I´ll definately make sure I´ve put it out before I go to sleep!
I´m practically a friggin´genious!
design for sale
new job!
...and today it´s spring!
It´s a funny thing, weather - a few days ago, it was snowing like crazy, and now, it´s like spring - all the snow is melting away (yay - I don´t want any snow until December), and it´s really warm outside. You could swear it´s March!
snow! and plenty of it!
bad back and great music!
Something more fun - yesterday I heard The Puppini Sisters for the first time, and I am in love. Unfortunately it´s difficult to buy their CDs here in Sweden, but the record store said they would try to find it (fingers crossed!). I hope they do, because I really, really want it! Go listen for yourself, and try not to fall head over heels!
(and if you wonder what Coca-Cola has to do with anything, I just found it very 50s, just like The Puppini SIsters!)
snow, disappointment and admiration, all in one!
Me and a couple of friends had movie night last night, and for once, I rented two movies (I don´t do that very often), but I don´t know if I´m too happy about them. I rented Pan´s labyrinth, expecting a fantasy movie, but found it to be mostly about the Franco years in Spain (in Spanish!), and found it very disappointing. I also rented Memoirs of a Geisha, and was a little disappointed on how they portrayed the world of geishas. I´ve read quite a few books on the subject, and didn´t recognize the Gion I´ve read about, I think the movie made the life of a geisha (or geiko as they are really called) much cheaper, much closer to the western thought of the geisha as being prostitutes. But it was beautiful, though - beautiful clothes, scenery, music, and with no expectations, I might have enjoyed it more.
My family was here last weekend, my sister stayed with me, and my parents stayed with my other sister. It´s such a treat to have my sister here - I think she might be the best person I know - great personality, fun, responsible, hardworking, pretty - she´s the kind of person I´d like to be. Maybe I should be grateful, to have such a good rolemodel so close to me.
last week...
Last week, I cut my hair much shorter and dyed it red - big improvement, even though my do needs some more cutting - it´s too "nice", and I don´t do nice.
I also went to visit my family up north for the weekend, very nice - we spent a lot of time with the horse (very long time no see!), visited my granny, went shopping at Dollar Store - had a nice weekend overall, even though a bit short. My parents are coming here this weekend, my sister left her children back home, and they need a ride here. It´s good, because we didn´t get to see my parents much, they had to leave on Saturday, because my sister had a horse jumping course that weekend as well.
I´ve applyed to a course, to get a truck driver´s licence, and I think that I´ll get accepted, but I´ve been thinking about it a lot, especially since spending the weekend in the car, and I don´t think my back and neck can survive a career driving trucks - I had to cancel work last Monday, bacause my back was aching so.
I made a decision, again. I really need to lose weight, all the kilos I lost last spring is back, and I really don´t need them.
