Laura Ingalls

Last bunch of photos from Liz from our first Photoshoot a few months back. I'm digging the way my hair looks like in these shots hohoho. How do you like my wacko running/jumping in the flowery fields? I kinda have to think about the opening of The Little House on the Prairie-series..

I'm running out of music to listen to by the way. I cannot draw & sketch my homework without some nice tunes and lately I've gone through all of my CDs and bands I could think of. I've been through most ever greens and some random stuff from Björk to Vampire Weekend (desperate enough ?) 

If you have some cool recomendations, this is the point to finally write your first comment, please. At the moment I'm listening to Sixpence None The Richer, a band I'd totally forgotten into late 90's.

Ps. Liz you did a great job! I've gotten more than 30 likes on Facebook on my new profile photo within 2 hours of posting it!

Midsummer Night's Dream

 

"Jack shall have Jill;
  Nought shall go ill;
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well."

I was feeling slightly down about not being able to celebrate Midsummer this June in Finland with my friends but yet again my mighty knight rode to the rescue as the rest of Germany was keenly watching Football. For shits & giggles, like my darling would say, I dressed up pretty and headed with him to Havana Restaurant, where we then enjoyed cocktails and tortilla chips to each others company ♥

We then finised the night with a few episodes of  Lie to Me, a real cool american TV-series from a few years back. I highly recommend this series if you once liked CSI, The Mentalist or Dr. House. I promise you basic crime fighting through the means of science and psychology, with a predictable plot yet entertaining dialogue and the occasional manipulation tricks. Have a look if you've got the time!

On Saturday I found two tiny parcels crammed into my mailbox! What a lovely lovely surprise: my mom had sent me some Finnish sweets wrapped up in the local news from home! I just love random surprises like this. What's the big idea of birthdays and Christmas, when you could make the normal working days brighter with small gestures of love and care?

Super cool right?
Oh yeah, I recently visited a fleamarket in my neighbourhood and found a bunch of cool items again. I'll update that next time! Till then, wish you a Sunny Monday.

Stressed is desserts spelled backwards

I've been stealing off a bit too often to my own little drawing projects in the evenings. I should really study harder and spend more hours on sketching my homework but the aquarelle set and the empty drawing block scream for me to paint something fun for a change. It's just reeeeally difficult to get excited about geometrical forms or their shadows, when you're more into living beauty. Maybe my next object will actually be a building or some architectural space instead? Not.

My roomie noted, that I might be attracted to asymmetric and anorexic things after having a look at this lady. I agree. I didn't intend her to be so skinny, I just like exaggerating bones and lines I suppose. I'm happy with my work and I could practically feel the magic coming back to me and evolving myself while sketching her!

I haven't drawn for fun in ages and thus forgotten how much I infact enjoy it, how satisfactory this activity can be and have gotten quite out of touch with my skills. Gosh how much pleasure it is, closing up in my room, putting on music and drowning myself into the details! I'm actually looking forward to those hours everyday after University.

Keep safe my friends and family in Finland! Don't get too wasted this Midsummer without me ♥

Made of Sugar

I wanted to go party but failed to lift my butt as the sudden Thunderstorm ruined my plans. Spontanity insanity. I'm dissapointed with myself at the moment for being scared off by rain and wind. Hopefully I didn't miss out on anything else than Anna Lena :( Oh well, I'll meet her on Sunday!

Summer in the "City"

During the weekend when my Darling Duckling is visiting me, I like to take Sunday walks with him to some unknown closeby corner in Darmstadt. Sounds cheesy but that's me. I just can't wait to get old and stroll the streets with my Grandpa-lover one day!

Last time we took a cut through the Orangerie and up the hill to Bessungen. Google it, if you must. It's still ever exciting to discover new areas in here, as I mainly move between my room, University and the grocery store nowadays.

I'm happy that my Mister shares my interest in Architecture. It's very relaxing to walk around, comment the buildings and details, picture the rooms inside and discuss our studies and worries like this. I dunno how much he can relax, however, as I'm running around with my camra, dashing across the street to some shop window, digging through dumpster lorrys and the stuff-to-be-thrown-away people here bring to the streets on Sundays. Thanks honey, for being so patient with me!

I have to pay this cutsy shop a visit some sunny day now as it's practically around the corner from my door!

Oh wow another weekend is at the door! Are you guys celebrating the Midsummer's Eve on Friday?

Cooking Green

What, VEGAN? Like no milk, no eggs, no butter, no chocolate, no cakes, no cheese, no pizza, no NOTHING?!

That was my reaction some years ago when my boyfriend went through the same phase of trying this mysterious way of life out. Back then I thought the whole idea insane, and couldn't come up with a single dish without animal products. I am still not imagining this to be easy but it's definitely worth a try.

yellow curry with coconut milk in the making

Why do I do this? I'm not planning to become a vegan for the rest of my life. I have lost weight since I turned a vegetarian three years ago, have now lost a few more kilos and went down in bra size since the beginning of my studies. I love cheese, milkshakes and baking but I do want to change some of my eating habits permanently, however not with the risk of my health.

coconut-creamy mushroom sauce with rice

My big plan is just to minimize the usage of animal products in my everyday life. I think I will still eat them in the future but I want to cut down the amount and pay more attention to their origins. I am willing to pay more for organic products, knowing that the animals there hopefully get better treatment and attention than the ones in mass production. To get more into the scene I've decided to have a completely vegan month.

This way I have to spend more time and thought to keep my diet healthy. Talking from experience, I will now also develope a whole new view in food shopping and within 2-3 weeks see more variety and options in vegan cooking. I've been to my local supermarket last week to check out their supplies for vegans and believe it or not, they have made it actually quite easy for us!

pancakes from soy milk, water and egg substitute flour - as tasty as ever

Instead of cheap Ja!-cow milk, I now picked soy and oat milk into my basket and replaced cheese with tofu and got even soy yogurt for breakfast. As easy as that! If I had wanted, I could have taken tofu sausages, nuggets, burgers and gyros to fill my plate! The only obsticles till now have been a few cases of not being able to eat in a normal restaurant nor to buy something to eat at the University cafeteria. I have to plan my eating a bit more and double check everything I buy in case of half-innocent milk powder.

my vegan banana muffins look like shit but taste like heaven

I think I will have to go and check Habibi for their vegan ice cream this week! If you have any suggestions or nice receipes in mind, I'll gladly take any help I can get on my way in becoming a better person.

Have a great week buddies!

Evolution

News! Oh well, some of my friends & readers might already know but I turned vegan last week. I've been a successful vegetarian for about three years now and have given a lot of thought to the topic, eventho it all started as kind of an impulse then. Throughout my childhood and teen years I have been a passionate meat lover and into chicken and beef in any form. What can I say, food is my element!

Long Story Short:
The change came slowly as meat first started to repulse me in my year in China and later in school lunches, where the vegetarian dishes always turned out to be simply tastier than the grayish meat option. After giving the Theme a bit of thought and trying vegetarianism out, I no longer could find reasons to continue as a carnivore. This is my way to contribute in making the world a better place, slowing down the global warming  and stirking against overproduction and bad treating of animals in the food production. Nowadays you do have a choice and the responsibility to think matters thoroughly.

Leaving things at that, being a vegetarian has become slowly so easy that I kinda decided to face a new challenge and push myself to try harder. The milk production, even organic, is still not okay to the animals and as milk is not the only source of calcium, drinking milk is not a must to humans. Are eggs a must? Well I don't think so and neither is the unethical treatment of chicken and chics. I mean, I don't eat babys just cause they might taste good, right? Good taste is not an argument for eating meat and animal products. I don't want to get all evangelical about this, and as most of you possess a brain, I will not preach further about the reasons of becoming a vegan.

I'm now heading out to a laid-back garden party and will tell you further about this experiment and how it has turned out in everyday life later. With cooking photos!

Till then, enjoy the Sunday my chicadees.

Another 2 Euro Dress

 I think Liz liked the red dress the best but I felt positively naked in it. Oh well... I did try to photoshop my undylines away but quickly gave up due to my lazyness and not wanting to look like an alien. Everybody  Most people wear panties, and now you've seen mine. Big deal?

On these photos I gave extra concentration for some shots where I'm actually looking into the camera instead of my feet or the skies. It's really hard, I tell you. Mostly I'm just making strange faces or laughing my butt off.

Seclusion

G'day to yalls! I'm feeling a lot better today and am at the moment enjoying myself by switching between my Uni projects, homework and procastinating in internet. Sounds lame to be stuck inside on Sunday? Not to me. I enjoy being alone in my room, listening music, drawing, painting, googling, knitting and photoshopping whenever I choose to get bored with the previous activity.

I'm now getting shortly back to sketching a lake resort and might later get back to the photos from Liz. For photoshop I'm currently learning to use Adobe Lightroom 3.6 and think I'm making quite a process there! Before the weekend I could barely use Paint to crop my pictures, not to mention adding different textures or manipulating the lighting and colour.

Write to you later maybe!