Christmas essentials

I can't believe it's a week till Christmas. TIME. FLIES.

I've been feeling super festive this year. Probably because I've been following vlogmas on YouTube, and I've got 3(three! can you believe it?!) literary advent calendars going on. So yes. Ever since the 1st of December, it's been Christmas! Christmas! Christmas! for me.

But, life throws pesky things like exams and stuff at you. So I haven't been able to go all out Christmassy and basically make my apartment look like an elf threw up in it (in a good way!) but things are slowly but surely coming along nicely. Emphasis on the slowly part.

Nothing gets my creative juices flowing like when my brain is procrastinating. Which is what I did today. Procrastinate. (Besides, nothing's a bigger incentive than last minute panic to really get the work done!)

Christmas essentials. TA-DAHHH! These are my personal "essentials" this year, and I'll just go through them from the bottom left corner in a clockwise direction.

Flat Lay All Day Err' Day!

Christmas jumper. It's the first one I've ever bought (yeah can you believe it?!) and I'm making everyone in my apartment wear a festive jumper for our Christmas dinner. (Because I can and so I will and so I did.) I just love the deep maroon and dark blue on this white one. Can't get over this jumper. It's festive-y but not too Christmassy so I can continue wearing it throughout winter if I want.

Pointe shoes, tickets, binoculars. Because what is December without Ballet season? (Actually it's ballet season all year round in Moscow, but there's just something a little extra special about going to the ballet at Christmastime.) Or go to the orchestra. Whatever floats your boat. Nuff' said.

My trusty old MacBookPro, because how else am I supposed to keep up with vlogmas, amirite? Plus there's all sorts of Christmas films to watch. (Side note, film rec: Arthur Christmas. Watch it. You will love it.)

Make up! 
Got some from my set of Stila brushes here, and a couple of face brushes from Real Techniques. They are amazingly wonderful to use, especially considering their price. Best. Purchase. Ever.

Got the basic powder, eyeshadow, blush, highlight, eyeliner and lipstick here, but I'd like to give a shoutout for my absolute favourite recent discoveries/products.

For cream eyeshadow/base, I cannot recommend anything but Maybelline's colour tattoos. It's so easy to apply, I just pop them on with my fingers and blend it out, dab eyeshadow on top if I'm feeling fancy, and I am good to go.

Nest up, blush. I've been really loving my Milani Baked Blushes. I've got quite a few, and I really love all the colours I own. If I'm too lazy to use highlight, I'll just slap on Luminoso or Rose d'Oro, and I swear they. give. you. cheekbone. goals.

Finally, I can't stop talking about my Rimmel 107 lipstick. It's from the collection they collaborated with Kate Moss, and it's just the most gorgeous deep, berry colour. Plus it smells yummilicious.

Perfume. These were a present from a few Christmas back (if I'm not mistaken these are from Dior), and I love these rollerball types because you can bring it along with you in a purse and just touch up whenever necessary.

Journal, Candle, Tumbler. Winter nights in Moscow are cold. Real cold. How can anyone say no to hot coffee or cocoa (or neslo) in a tumbler, candles burning (this is one of my favourite scents - Mahogany and Teakwood from Bath & Body Works) and a journal to pen your thoughts (or doodle) while you're snuggled up in a cocoon of cosy perfection?

Jewellery. I've taken to wearing multiple rings ever since I pilfered a bunch of midi rings from my sister, so I'm normally either wearing one, four, or more rings at a time.

So there you have it. Happy holidays and I'll see you on the flip side!

ponderings, musings, and basically rambling thoughts

So I just copied out some song lyrics on a piece of paper, and because I was in a mood, I decided to write it out the oldey-chinesey style(?) that being, Top to bottom, Right to left. And because of my mood, I also decided to do it in 繁体 instead of 简体, ergo the need to write it out in pencil. Because of course there were going to be mistakes and weirdly proportioned parts of unfamiliar words. ;p

Anyway, that's over and done with, but I'm left with a pencil smear along the lateral side of my right hand, something my left-handed friends are all too familiar with. Right handed people would get it too whenever we had 抄作文 homework or basically any work that involved pagefuls of words.

And it got me thinking: how in the world did our ancestors do it with ink and brush? Write such complex words with an unruly brush AND making sure those words don't smudge out as they move on. Calligraphy is hard enough when we write the sentences (or 成语s in most of our case,) Left to right, Top to bottom. And they wore robes with giant billowing sleeves. I guess that's why the left hand always supports the sleeves in movies/dramas that I've seen. (There's always some grand, swooping gesture, amirite?) But what a hassle that must be!

Then I realized it would've been easier for left-handers in that case, since "we" are working/writing the words from Top to bottom, Right to left. They wouldn't have a problem with smearing ink as they write. BUT, another thought then occurred to me. The structure of individual Chinese characters are generally written in parts, and we generally write those parts of the words from right to left then top to bottom. Left-handers would face the same problem all over again.

Why so hard, calligraphy?

But I guess the main question is, why so random, brain? Why do you always wonder about the weirdest things?

Side note, I remember a friend jokingly telling me she gets a full neck workout when she reads English and Chinese novels one after another, because her head would go side-to-side (English novel) and then work up-and-down (Chinese novels). And sometimes she just goes round and round confusing herself. Silly girl.