Sketches of a Life: 2015

End of Chapter 12 /// 2015

I can’t believe this is my last 2015 post... The year’s been quite erratic and emotional for me: it set off with overcoming some of my greatest fears and starting this blog, and ended with moving to another town and having to swiftly adapt to a completely new lifestyle. Not to mention everything that happened in between, I can say it’s been a rather rough ride. But the year also had me strengthen some wonderful friendships, let go of other not-so-good ones, finally learn not to observe myself through other people’s eyes, appreciate things I never took notice of, and discover inspiration in the most peculiar of things. So, despite the ups and downs, I kind of enjoyed the ride and feel enriched by the lessons learned.

Now, before the countdown begins, I wanted to thank you guys for being on this journey with me. I can’t find the right words to express my deep gratitude to each and every one of you. Thank you for your encouragement, support and kind words; thank you for the time you "waste" on my blog; and thank you for being my unceasing inspiration. You are what makes me strive to work more, harder and better, and I can promise you that I’ll put all my efforts into bringing out the best of me and my blog during the upcoming year.

Finally, I wish you all tremendous fun in the last hours of 2015. May you fill the forthcoming Chapters 1-12 /// 2016 (and thereafter) with new, bold adventures, lots of fun and laughter, sincere love and friendship, unremitting health and success. May 2016 make all your dreams come true and bring you an abundance of good memories!

P.S. I also thought I might share with you guys some photos of my Christmas tree. I believe you might find it intresting for two reasons: saving forests and saving money. We've been decorating the same tree for three years now (it's a living plant, in a pot), keeping it alive and outside, as it should be, during the rest of the year. I also made most of the decorations myself. Did you know that wrapping old Christmas ornaments into a crepe paper of the desired colour is a wonderful way of saving money (and maybe even, in the Christmas spirit, donating it?) and giving that special touch to your Christmas tree? Just add some handmade bows and you are ready to show off your beautiful, unique tree!

How was your 2015?

3:53 pm
2 Comments

All I Want for Christmas...

gift guide

11:28 am
2 Comments

A Postcard from Zadar

travel and events

4:05 pm
0 Comments

Not Your Typical Advent Candle Wreath

tutorial

I know that all good bloggers put together inspiring posts before the season in question. Yet... Several days ago I moved to another town. It was something I had in mind for quite some time now, but the act itself was still sudden and rushed. Just to illustrate the chaos ruling my life at the moment, these are only some of the huge changes that took place in just a week: got a new job, agreed to keep the old ones (making it a total of three!), had to say goodbye to my dog for a week, found a new place to live (still in the process of moving), had to buy loads of “business-appropriate” clothes, went brunette, took out all my piercings... And now I have a feeling that everything is upside-down!

Anyway, the last day I spent in my hometown was the first Sunday of Advent. Of course, in all this mess, I had no time to create a proper Advent candle wreath (let alone to scribble a post on it and take some good photos!). But I really wanted to leave something behind, to give me that cosy, warm feeling of Christmas when I come back home for weekends. So I took out all my last year’s Christmas decorations and improvised.

This reminded me of the Advent candle wreath I had made the year before. As it wasn’t round, the Husband said it wasn’t really a wreath and called it an “Advent Rectangle” – which, logically, led to a long “not-talking-to-you” period. But, prompted by the untiring sulky expression on my face, he eventually had to agree that it was “the most beautiful Advent Rectangle he had ever seen”. To this very day, I am still not sure if I had won this one.

I think you can determine from the said that I don’t like traditional, purchasable and expensive Advent candle wreaths. I always make my own, often using some unconventional items and materials and making sure not to spend too much. For example, the only items I bought this time were some crape paper and gold candles, totalling a little more than €2. Also, the making of my last-minute Wreath only included cutting the crepe paper and arranging the items I had from before. So I am positive there is no need for a tutorial on this simplicity. I just wanted to share the idea and maybe even inspire some of you to experiment with your Christmas decorations because... why not?

The point is: now and again, in the bustle of life, you might need a few moments of peace to remind yourself of the reason for the season. You may or may not choose to create your own Advent candle wreath. You may even think there is no point in making one a week or two past the occasion. But let me reassure you. It is never too late - for the majority of things in life, as a matter of fact. Yes, you can start today... or even tomorrow. No one is keeping track.

I used:

Gold snowflakes (10 pcs) – Kaufland (€0.65)

Gold branch with beads - Kaufland (€2)

Gold candles (4 pcs) – Kaufland (€1.50)

Gold bead chain garland - Kaufland (€1.50)

Fuchsia crepe paper – Kaufland (€0.65)

Angels (3 pcs) – Kaufland (€2)

Cristal plate – gift

Feeling caught up by the holiday cheer yet?

6:43 pm
0 Comments

Days of Autumn

love animals

3:12 pm
4 Comments

The Cure for Curiosity

makeup

"The cure for bordom is curiosity.
There is no cure for curiosity."
- Dorothy Parker

I have a folder on my laptop entitled “Halloween”. Throughout the year, instead of frantically looking for an inspiration only days before the occasion, I save the images I stumble upon and find inspiring in this folder. When the time comes, I simply choose among them the ones I like most and try to recreate them. What I am trying to say is: the makeup ideas featured in this post are not mine, and I really have no idea who to credit them to, because who knows where I got the photos. Unfortunately, this is the reason why I can’t publish the reference photos and make comparisons with my creations.

Anyway, although I had different plans for my Halloween costume this year, I eventually decided to put them off until Mardi Gras, simply for the reason they involved too much effort for the Croatian version of Halloween (discussed in my "Halloween on a Budget” post). So I had to find an alternative solution that involved no special effects makeup or any makeup products "out of the ordinary" whatsoever. But all the photos I had saved in the folder seemed quite professional, using liquid latex, colour contact lenses or FX colours. Curious as I am, I thought I might make an experiment to see if it is possible to achieve the same effect with only the makeup products I use daily. I can tell you right away that the answer I have found is: "yes, but..."

Please note that I am an absolute amateur in this, and that these were my first and only attempts at recreating the costumes. I have not practiced recreating the masks before, and all the photos illustrate the results obtained from a single try. Also, I have not based my work on any sort of tutorial, but simply on studying the relevant photos and making my own way of rendering the creations onto my face.

Makeup idea #1: ALIEN

I like to think of the creature in the first photo as some sort of alien. As you can see, creating it involves covering up a greater part of your nose and mouth, and creating an illusion that the nose is a lot smaller, and the mouth a lot bigger. I can say right away that achieving this was nothing but simple. For the sake of post length, I am not going to discuss the details here, but the hardest part was drawing the nose and teeth. I had to redo them at least five times. Although I am still not pleased with the way they turned out, I think the conclusion is that this particular Halloween makeup idea can be partially realized by only using ordinary makeup products. Still, it surely looks way better if you apply some black face paint on the mouth area because it really needs to be pitch black (in reality, it was not as shiny as the picture may make out; my camera flash is to blame for this).

If you would like to try this for yourself, all the products I used are listed below: you probably already own all of them, or you can at least buy them in the nearest drug store. The only “out of the ordinary” product is the black face paint, but I still wouldn’t refer to it as an FX item.

Makeup idea #2: SNAKE
The snake makeup was a piece of cake compared to the alien one. I really don't think anyone needs a tutorial for this one. The trick is simply to draw the nose and the mouth exactly as in the photo, everything else is just arbitrary. For example, the photo I used as the reference had a blue scale, but for some reason I decided I wanted mine to be golden. I also applied black face paint all around my eyes, but this wasn’t necessary at all. The conclusion is; this makeup idea can be fully realized by using only ordinary makeup products; also, it is cheap, simple, and looks very effective! And to put the finishing touch to it, you can cover your neck in scales, too.

What is extremely important for realizing both makeup ideas is using different size brushes for shading. And oh, yeah, I used some flour to fix the white face paint :)

Thank you very much for reading and happy Halloween!

P.S. please ignore my hair, I am aware I need to see a hairdresser ASAP!

1:54 pm
2 Comments

"I Have Nothing to Wear"

creative ideas

5:36 pm
0 Comments

Giveaway

personal

6:08 pm
4 Comments

Halloween on a Budget

makeup

Do you think September is too early for a Halloween post? Well, as far as I am concerned, it is never too early to start planning your costume, so here it goes!

First of all, I have to say Halloween is not a very popular and widespread celebration in my country (we usually celebrate Mardi Gras in February or March), but there’s a handful of enthusiasts trying to make it a thing, including myself. This is the main reason why we don’t put as much work into our Halloween costumes as into our Mardi Gras get-ups, but we do make efforts at marking the occasion. These mostly revolve around organizing costumed parties and gatherings at local bars and clubs but, I regrettably must admit, there are still too many people attending these without a mask.

Anyway, anyone who knows me personally can tell that I’m crazy about costumed parties, and that I tend to spend much more money on my costumes than on several of my daily outfits combined (illustrating how I care much more about what I am wearing on Halloween and Mardi Gras than on any other occasion). They also know that I despise ready-made, purchasable costumes, and that I always - without exception - hand-make my own. However, last year I was absolutely broken at the time around Halloween, and it was just impossible for me to set aside a considerable amount of money for my costume. And since missing out on Halloween was not an option, I had to come up with a DIY costume that totalled less than €5.00. And you know what? I did it!

While browsing the Internet for inspiration, I stumbled upon an image of a face overgrown in branches, or burst out in veins (not sure actually, but it doesn’t even matter) on Pinterest. As soon as I saw it, I figured it was going to make an awesome, discernable and, above all, cheap solution to the question of what to wear that year. However, considering the mask was being made last-minute and on a budget, it was not half as simple as the photos may make out. On the contrary, it proved to be quite challenging and included a lot of improvisation.

But don’t be discouraged right away: the purpose of this post is to serve as a guideline for everyone who would like to try to create something similar on their own!

You'll need:

paper tissues

clear school glue

clear fake eyelashes glue (or liquid latex)

liquid foundation

pressed powder

matte eyeshadows (red, purple, yellow, brown)

As the original mask was made of liquid latex, the first problem I encountered was the general impossibility of finding it in stores in Croatia, and it was already too late to buy it online. So I had to improvise. I took some paper tissues, cut them into different length thin lines (no longer than 3-4 cm), rolled them, formed them into branchy-shapes and glued them all around with some school glue. The glue made the paper more rigid and easily shaped, and also prevented its disintegration when in contact with liquid (i.e. the foundation that I later applied). Note: I did this the night before Halloween to make sure the glue dried.

The second problem was how to attach them to my skin (please note that it has to be absolutely clean and dry!). Again, lacking liquid latex, I decided to try with some false eyelashes glue. This turned out to be the perfect solution: as it is designed to be applied to the skin, there’s only an insignificant probability of allergic reactions and other side-effects, and it really holds very well. But removing it takes a lot of rubbing, so bear this in mind before deciding on this solution!

After the glue had dried, I applied the liquid foundation in the colour similar to my skin tone all over my face, neck and the attached veins (using a brush). Then I applied some pressed powder all over my "creation” to cover up the shine and to even out the lines between the foundation and my skin. In the mentioned Pinterest image this was the end of the transformation: the veins had the same colour as the surrounding skin. However, I thought it would be more efficient to paint bruises all around my “skin mutation”. I achieved the effect with dark purple, brown, yellow and red eye shadows. And that was it!

The best thing of all: I only spent €2.50 on two small tubes of false eyelashes glue and €2.00 on the liquid glue I used to make the veins more rigid. Of course, I already had all the makeup I needed, and all that I still had to do was to tease my hair and to wear something black. I must say I am very proud of how it turned out: maybe even better than some of my way too expensive costumes!

Of course, you can cover different parts of your skin with these veins / branches and add more details to make it creepier. For the purpose of the Croatian Halloween, this was more than plenty. I am already planning my costume for this year and buying the things I'll need to make it. So I hope this post is just in time to inspire you and allow you to timely get whatever you may need for your awesome DIY costume!

P.S. sorry for the photo quality: these were taken by my cell-phone and not intended to be published at the time :)

3:48 pm
0 Comments

Sketches of a Life

End of Chapter 12 /// 2015

All I Want for Christmas...

A Postcard from Zadar

Not Your Typical Advent Candle Wreath

Days of Autumn

The Cure for Curiosity

"I Have Nothing to Wear"

Giveaway

Halloween on a Budget

About Me

Follow Me on Instagram

Like My Facebook Page

Contact Me

Blog Archive

Popular Posts