Sketches of a Life

Not Your Typical Advent Candle Wreath

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
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Days of Autumn

love animals

3:12 pm
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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!