22 December 2011
Christmas in Paris
Shop windows, lights and streets - all things beautiful, festive and funny - for the right mood these days. And don't forget the French wine!
01 December 2011
25 November 2011
Crocheted arm warmers
I found the arm warmers pattern here (via pinterest, of course :)), and liked it so much that it took me only 3 evenings to make my own pair.
They are a little too loose, and there are some minor imperfections due to uneven distribution of stitches, but overall, not so bad for a first crochet project since childhood :)
I slightly altered original color pattern and used 50% wool 50% acryl yarn.
22 November 2011
http://wordcloud.pagemon.net - nice site that generates sort of tag cloud based on the most common words from a web page. Here's one for this blog:
Art & Craft shopping
There are not so many things that I love about living in megapolis, but shopping, and particularly big self-service stores, is definitely one of them. Yesterday I visited Hobby supermarket. Here are the results!
Paper:
- smooth for graphic pencil
- textured and very dense for watercolors
- less dense for watercolors (cheaper)
- in various neutral colors for pastels.
Guess it's enough for the rest of my life. :)
Drawing and painting accessories:
Yarn and thread (unfortunately, I haven't found very thick yarn that I wanted - probably, need to look in specialty store)...
...and crochet hooks for (almost) every occasion:
Gifts:
By the way, while shopping I learnt about kinds of hobbies that I didn't even know existed - for example, soap carving. Sometimes a store is more interesting than a museum :)
Paper:
- smooth for graphic pencil
- textured and very dense for watercolors
- less dense for watercolors (cheaper)
- in various neutral colors for pastels.
Guess it's enough for the rest of my life. :)
Drawing and painting accessories:
Yarn and thread (unfortunately, I haven't found very thick yarn that I wanted - probably, need to look in specialty store)...
...and crochet hooks for (almost) every occasion:
Gifts:
By the way, while shopping I learnt about kinds of hobbies that I didn't even know existed - for example, soap carving. Sometimes a store is more interesting than a museum :)
04 November 2011
29 September 2011
Nikon 1
I've been waiting for so long for some Canon 5D Mark II analog from Nikon, and sure I'm not the only one. And now... this.
Nikon 1 J1- mirrorless compact camera with interchangeable lenses. Main target group - young women.
Well, I understand that there are such things as competition and marketing strategy, but can't help feeling offended. Twice - as a Nikon user and as a woman.
And I simply don't see why anyone would upgrade from a point-and-shoot to this.
Crop factor 2.7, some sort of AI that picks the best picture instead of you, poor video quality... And pink color. Facepalm.
Where's Nikon D800?
Well, I understand that there are such things as competition and marketing strategy, but can't help feeling offended. Twice - as a Nikon user and as a woman.
And I simply don't see why anyone would upgrade from a point-and-shoot to this.
Crop factor 2.7, some sort of AI that picks the best picture instead of you, poor video quality... And pink color. Facepalm.
Where's Nikon D800?
19 August 2011
Comes the morning
When I can feel
That there's nothing left to be concealed
Moving on a scene surreal
No, my heart will never
Will never be far from here
Sure as I am breathing
Sure as I'm sad
I'll keep this wisdom in my flesh
I leave here believing more than I had
And there's a reason I'll be
A reason I'll be back
When I can feel
That there's nothing left to be concealed
Moving on a scene surreal
No, my heart will never
Will never be far from here
Sure as I am breathing
Sure as I'm sad
I'll keep this wisdom in my flesh
I leave here believing more than I had
And there's a reason I'll be
A reason I'll be back
09 August 2011
22 July 2011
08 July 2011
Stockholm, jag älskar dig. Part four - Just water
Stockholm is a sequence of beautiful water views, a city of islands and bridges, where salt water of Baltic sea meets sweet water of Mälaren lake.
No more words, only pictures.
28 June 2011
23 June 2011
Stockholm, jag älskar dig. Part three
Singing
There were more than one best moment.
- When Swedish conductor Karin taught us pronunciation and tried to make us reproduce necessary expression: "Men ut av alla... du... kärast mig är" - because prior to that moment we had been singing tender love song as a march =)
- When we sang Swedish folk songs together with kids at Music Gymnasium. It was really fun!
- And, of course, rehearsal at wonderful Sofia kyrkan: in its acoustics our voices sounded so heavenly (despite high notes gave the ringing in my ears).
Places
We visited 3 museums, although only one of them is the museum in full meaning of this word.
Vasa - the museum of Epic Fail: the 17th century ship had drowned during its first voyage, then was lifted, restored and now successfully contributes money to Swedish economics.
Skansen - open-air museum of authentic architecture and fauna.
Fotografiska - not a museum at all, just an excellent photo exhibition.
A real museum is its shop: sooo much to look at, everything at completely unaffordable prices. There I drooled over Anton Corbijn's In Control and many other books and albums.
Stadhuset (City hall) - most popular way to look at Gamla Stan (Old town) from above. Usually tourists shoot from the tower photos like these (I wasn't an exception):
Gröna lund - amusement park which we hadn't visited, just looked at it from outside. But, as it has 80 meter free-fall ride, I plan to visit it next time :)
Next time, huh... Damn I want to live there!
21 June 2011
Stockholm, jag älskar dig. Part two
Weather
We arrived by boat, and all I can say - we were really, really COLD.
We didn't get to see all the spectacular beauty of skärgarden (Stockholm archipelago), cause it was covered with a thick layer of fog. And it was SNOWING! On the 3rd of MAY! Probably, I have never taken such gray and cheerless photos:
Situation with the weather changed in three days, and it changed drastically. It looked like evil joke - sun came out in the end of our stay. However, I couldn't feel offended.
Accomodation
On arrival to Interhostel, we were shocked to get the rooms approximately the size of our boat cabins. They didn't have windows either!
The place was indeed international. All rooms were occupied, the kitchen was always crowded.
But, the hostel was clean, had free Internet, tea&coffee, and, more important, was located right in the city center. So, after all I can recommend it as the cheapest accomodation in Stockholm (which, as we all know, is a very expensive city). By the way, all the staff comes from Russia and Belarus.
People
So nice and polite. But could it be the other way in highly developed, social-oriented country?
And, for all the tall-and-blond-guy lovers out there: the guys are really tall and blond, although, to my regret, I don't have photo evidence of that fact. However, overall height of the population is not that giant as I had expected. It's just few certain ones that stand out :)
Almost everyone has at least one (considering amount of clothes at the moment) tattoo.
I liked very much the relaxed, casual style of Stockholm girls and women. You don't see them wearing high heels, but if you do, of course she's Russian (and you meet Russian speaking people very often in the streets).
to be continued...
We arrived by boat, and all I can say - we were really, really COLD.
We didn't get to see all the spectacular beauty of skärgarden (Stockholm archipelago), cause it was covered with a thick layer of fog. And it was SNOWING! On the 3rd of MAY! Probably, I have never taken such gray and cheerless photos:
Situation with the weather changed in three days, and it changed drastically. It looked like evil joke - sun came out in the end of our stay. However, I couldn't feel offended.
Accomodation
On arrival to Interhostel, we were shocked to get the rooms approximately the size of our boat cabins. They didn't have windows either!
The place was indeed international. All rooms were occupied, the kitchen was always crowded.
But, the hostel was clean, had free Internet, tea&coffee, and, more important, was located right in the city center. So, after all I can recommend it as the cheapest accomodation in Stockholm (which, as we all know, is a very expensive city). By the way, all the staff comes from Russia and Belarus.
People
So nice and polite. But could it be the other way in highly developed, social-oriented country?
And, for all the tall-and-blond-guy lovers out there: the guys are really tall and blond, although, to my regret, I don't have photo evidence of that fact. However, overall height of the population is not that giant as I had expected. It's just few certain ones that stand out :)
Almost everyone has at least one (considering amount of clothes at the moment) tattoo.
I liked very much the relaxed, casual style of Stockholm girls and women. You don't see them wearing high heels, but if you do, of course she's Russian (and you meet Russian speaking people very often in the streets).
to be continued...
07 June 2011
'cause I'm for real
are you for real?
I can't help myself
it's the way I feel
when you look me in the eyes like you did last night
I can't stand to hear you say goodbye
when it feels so right
'cause it feels so right just to have you standing by my side
so don't let me go
cause you have my soul
and I just wanted you to know...
are you for real?
I can't help myself
it's the way I feel
when you look me in the eyes like you did last night
I can't stand to hear you say goodbye
when it feels so right
'cause it feels so right just to have you standing by my side
so don't let me go
cause you have my soul
and I just wanted you to know...
05 June 2011
Stockholm, jag älskar dig. Part one - Intro
It was impossible for me not to fall in love with this city, and it happened so easily.
Important remark - we came there not as just tourists, but as culture bearers of our country. There was a negative side to it - we had much less time for sightseeing than we wanted. But cultural exchange, in my opinion, was quite successful, and of course gave us a great experience.
Nordic character of the city shows in pictures. Spring looks more like autumn there.
Weather might not be the best, but the atmosphere was incredibly warm anyway.
I started to learn Swedish before the journey. My knowledge was enough to find out, for example, that the name of the street on the picture below is Big New Street - very appropriate:
to be continued...
Important remark - we came there not as just tourists, but as culture bearers of our country. There was a negative side to it - we had much less time for sightseeing than we wanted. But cultural exchange, in my opinion, was quite successful, and of course gave us a great experience.
Nordic character of the city shows in pictures. Spring looks more like autumn there.
Weather might not be the best, but the atmosphere was incredibly warm anyway.
I started to learn Swedish before the journey. My knowledge was enough to find out, for example, that the name of the street on the picture below is Big New Street - very appropriate:
to be continued...
26 March 2011
Enchanted by song lyrics again
There'll never be a spring so perfect again
You'll never see a yellow so rich
The grass will never be quite as green
And there'll never be a kiss like your kiss.
There will never be a summer so complete
You'll never see a palette like this
The berries will never taste as sweet
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss.
There will never be an autumn so vivid and warm
So red, so golden, so crisp
You'll never see a color in aubergine
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss.
There'll never be a winter quite so true
When the sky was painted with gifts
There'll never be a moon so full & blue
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss...
You'll never see a yellow so rich
The grass will never be quite as green
And there'll never be a kiss like your kiss.
There will never be a summer so complete
You'll never see a palette like this
The berries will never taste as sweet
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss.
There will never be an autumn so vivid and warm
So red, so golden, so crisp
You'll never see a color in aubergine
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss.
There'll never be a winter quite so true
When the sky was painted with gifts
There'll never be a moon so full & blue
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss
There'll never be a kiss like your kiss...
17 February 2011
Innocent, they swim
I tell them no
They just dive right in
But do they know
It's a long way down
When you're alone
And there's no air or sound
Down below the surface
There's something in the water
I do not feel safe
It always feels like torture
To be this close
I wish that I was stronger
I'd separate the waves
Not just let the water
Take me away
I tell them no
They just dive right in
But do they know
It's a long way down
When you're alone
And there's no air or sound
Down below the surface
There's something in the water
I do not feel safe
It always feels like torture
To be this close
I wish that I was stronger
I'd separate the waves
Not just let the water
Take me away