Endless Grey

Here are some more ghostly greyscale scans. The soothing simplicity of removing such a basic thing as colour makes me feel a strange kind of tranquil. Kinda like when you have a wardrobe of only black, white, and grey clothes - it just feels clear and calm and nice (or at least I think so). I used to wear more black, and I've been missing that lately. I think the next time I get some new clothes I'll make them black or grey. I already have something of a tendency to buy grey clothes. There's just something about grey.

I like when a dark grey is called "charcoal" - I guess because it makes me think about natural substances. Same thing with with deep "mustard" yellows and dark "rust" orange/red. There's something I like a lot about earthy colours too.

I love folding myself up into this serene, colourless space, and I like when clothes and colours and ideas can do the same thing. There's a potential endlessness to the limitations of greyscale. The colour is gone, but the depth, and motion, and feeling are neverending.

Diary: Firefly

It's been a pretty strange and baffling and emotional week for a lot of us here on the planet, but I'm gonna focus on the silly, fun stuff as usual. I'll just take a moment to say, since I did write about it in my diary, I'm definitely concerned about what's going to happen following the EU referendum. I keep feeling like I'm living in a dream world after everything that's happened this year.

I want to focus on passing on some kind of good feelings regardless. I do a lot of insular, arty stuff, and I say a lot of words and make jokes and all I hope for is to be some kind of positive force. Like a little firefly hovering over everyone, sprinkling a little bit of happy, hopefully.

I've been doodling lots, of course, and playing some cute video games, and reading some classic sci-fi. I've been thinking intermittently about my daily routine and ways to tweak it so that I can be the most efficient and well-fuelled and happy little bug. I've been selling some turnips in Animal Crossing, and I had some pizza. It's looking alright.

Book Review: Seven Brief Lessons On Physics - Carlo Rovelli

★★★★☆: A cute and poetic mini science guide for star lovers.

First of all, look at this snazzy, spacey cover! This is a very beautiful book. Secondly, Carlo Rovelli is very romantic about science. He's all stardust and magic and beauty, and I love that. He keeps occasionally making these sweeping asides - poetic monologues about the loveliness of science. It's very touching. As for the actual scientific content, I think it serves as a nice general overview of physics (if rather esoteric). The bits and pieces of history are woven through a narrative about the human relationship with science quite nicely, and there are little bits of appropriate humour and charming illustrations. The book feels very warm, like it wants to scoop you up in its arms and tell you science stories around a campfire.

It's not extensive by any means, and I wonder if it might work better if it was a bit more focused and a bit more bulked out with actual theory and knowledge, but it does its job nicely in explaining the history of the science and in making the reader ask big, philosophical questions. It's a very sweet book and probably a really nice little gift for someone. I definitely feel keen to read more extensive physics books after this.

Top 5 Pompompurin Items: A Happy Dog Wishlist

After my recent Gudetama wishlist, I thought I'd make another one for my favourite Sanrio character - Pompompurin. He is a cute little dog who seems to be a fan of hot beverages and pancakes. Me too, dear, sweet dog, me too.

Here are some of my favourite Pompompurin items.

1. Purin Flat Canvas Pouch: Sketch

This a super simple and nice little pouch. I like that our dear dog friend here has his initial written in his drink. A good idea.

2. Purin 12oz Ceramic Soup Mug: Brioche

Who doesn't need a cute soup mug? I'm a fan of wide mugs in general because I think they're kinda pleasing to hold, but there's something very cosy about drinking soup from a mug like this. The design is very sweet and I would love to see Pompompurin's various bread forms as I have my soup.

3. Purin Mini Sculpted Tote Bag: Hotcakes

This is a super tiny tote bag and I just think it's the cutest thing for quick errands or summer days out when you don't want to take much with you, but you do want to be accompanied by an adorable dog and his friends.

4. Purin Keyring: Five's a Charm

This is the cutest thing! Look, he's eating a baguette! Everyone has food (or a kettle - close enough)! I love it so much.

5. Purin Terrycloth Pouch: Chill Collection

A small bag which is also a dog? Yes. Store things in your tiny dog. A strong and good idea.

☆☆☆

I hope you enjoyed looking at all these cute dog merchandise options. May you have many delicious breakfasts and hot drinks with your initials in them. Like Pompompurin, you deserve it.

The Politics Of Being Alone

I found this quote on women being alone recently:

In popular culture we have “the bachelor pad,” and “the bachelor lifestyle,” but no such phrases for women. Women who live alone are objects of fear or pity, witches in the forest or Cathy comics. Even the current cultural popularity of female friendship still speaks to how unwilling we all are to accept women without a social framework; a woman who’s “alone” is a woman who’s having brunch with a bunch of other women. When a woman is truly alone, it is the result of a crisis—she is grieving, has lost something, is a problem to be fixed. The family, that fundamental social unit, dwells within the female body and emanates from it. Women are the anchors of social labor, the glue pulling the family, and then the community, together with small talk and good manners and social niceties. Living alone as a woman is not just a luxury but a refusal to bend into the shape of patriarchal assumption and expectation. 

- Helena Fitzgerald, The Fierce Triumph of Loneliness

It made me have some THOUGHTS because I have always felt strongly connected with being alone and with myself. When I started school I was reluctant to play with the other children and share toys. I was probably already used to my insular world as an only child. I had probably already developed my own particular sense of humour and thought which somewhat excluded others. Later on I identified with the Bart Simpson brand of class clownery and coolness denoted through sunglasses and skateboards - also an interestingly gendered idea when you consider that often you can be either a Bart (charmingly disruptive boy joker) or a Lisa (nervously conscientious girl creative). I was both, in many ways, but I saw myself more readily in Bart, especially when my age matched his.

When I was seventeen I read Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse and found myself gasping and astonished at the intense level of myself I found in its protagonist - a lone man whose existential wonderings are the focus of the novel. I liked relating myself to the romantic concept of wolfishness - having a fierce, animal, outsider place inside my aloneness. It was around this age that I really began to love being alone, relishing in time spent with myself.

Of course, I'm not alone in that I have relationships with people. I don't live alone, I live amongst constant noise in a busily arranged area in a dense capital city. I talk to people every day. I have all sorts of different friendships and connections to different people. Yet my time to myself is precious and important to me. It's my natural state. It feels like the right way to be, always.

I notice an attitude to the concept of being alone that confuses me, because me alone is me at my most comfortable. My most tranquil, awake, focused, alive state. I love being alone. I love other people, but I love my space, I love my world, I love my insularity. There's nothing like it.

Meadow Journal

I'm very pleased to be starting another brand new journal. This one is an A4 school sketchbook type, and I love working in these because I get so nostalgic for school exercise books and they're so nice and flexible. I love decorating the covers on books like these.

Drawing on inside covers makes me feel like a little kid with a plan, too. Packing for a quest.

I have a feeling this journal might end up being a really cutesy one, but I guess I won't really know until the end. Maybe I'll decide to do endless collages of Slipknot halfway through, who knows? I can never really tell. I guess I just felt really peppy when I started this one.

It's funny, feeling peppy is one of the greatest moods for journaling. Also I think peppy sounds like a pretend word. It doesn't sound real at all.

I feel like I might want to draw lots of pleasant meadow backgrounds in this journal. Lots of meadows and wild thickets and grass and buttercups. Sounds like a plan.

Cute Blippo Goodies ☆ Review & Giveaway

✶✵ This post contains items gifted to me for review purposes. ✵✶

Blippo have once again very kindly sent me some cute little things and I am going to tell you about them. Scroll to the bottom of the post if you would like to win a few cute Blippo items of your own!

The items I was sent are as follows:

1. Kawaii Neko Plush Charm (white)
2. Kawaii Wooden Toast Coaster (style 1)
3. BK Glow-in-the-dark Nail Polish (style 11)
4. Coris Mizuame DIY Syrup Candy

My favourite item has to be the cat charm because it is a super cute little mascot and the material is really soft, which is so nice. I keep compulsively squeezing this little pal. I also really like that the coaster is wooden because it has such a nice feel and quality to it - y'know, the nice clunk sound when you put your mug down on a wooden coaster? I like that. It's the simple pleasures in life, right?

The nail polish is very bright and comes in this cute little bottle. I always enjoy mini bottles like this, so I was pretty happy about it. I've not come across such a colourful glow-in-the-dark nail polish before, so that's pretty fun!

These are the syrup packets from the DIY sweet set. This is interesting, because the concept is that you can experiment with mixing the three different syrup flavours to come up with your own flavour. I just mixed them all in together and it was a bit on the sickly side for me, so perhaps it's best to add a little bit of each one at a time.

Now it's time for the giveaway! Here's what you could win:

1. Kawaii 2016 Desk Calendar
2. OMG Keychain
3. Neon Bunny Ears Bobby Pin

Enter via the widget below for a chance to win. Entry is open worldwide and ends 30th June. Good luck!

The competition has now closed. Congratulations to the winner: Maisie Fleming!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Top 5 Gudetama Items: A Very Eggy Wishlist

I am a huge fan of this beautiful, troubled young egg, so I thought I would compile a wishlist of Gudetama goodies, taken directly from Sanrio's official shop. Gudetama is not quite my favourite Sanrio character (I think that title would go to Pompompurin - he is a DOG wearing a BERET!), but he is a very special egg and I love him very much.

Please look at all these incredible egg products.

1. Gudetama 6" Plush: Ukulele

I don't know how an egg can play a ukulele but I guess this is the Gudetama Dodie Clark, and I fully support that concept. I wouldn't be surprised if an egg had managed to successfully play chords better than me, after all.

2. Gudetama 2-Color Mini Pen: Thanks!

I'm not sure what's going on here. Gudetama seems to have ascended from a shell. Has he learned to fly? Gudetama truly outshines us all. I feel like writing scathing complaint letters with this pen would enhance the experience somehow.

3. Gudetama Screen Cleaner: Meh-ringue

First of all, "meh-ringue" is the greatest pun, and second of all: look at him, he's a meringue. I'm having an emotional response to this. Screen cleaner? More like eye cleaner, because I am weeping.

4. Gudetama Sticky Notes: Beige

I like cute sticky notes a lot, so of course I had to include some here. I like the beige tones, and the two different shapes provided. I would probably use these to write caring notes for Gudetama to show my support (and some eggy recipes, probably).

5. Gudetama Plush Coin Purse: Bee

Gudetama as a bee? This is astonishing. The cutest egg/insect combo I've ever seen. This is a strong favourite since I like both eggs and bees, so it covers all my top interests. I mean, if you wouldn't entrust your coins to a delightful egg/bee hybrid thing, then something's gone wrong for you, I think.

☆☆☆

I hope you have enjoyed looking at these lovely Gudetama things. I sure have. You might need to lie down for a moment to recover from this. That's normal. Have a little rest until you've recovered.

Diary: Developing

It's been another week already and this week the weather has been very erratic. Lots of rain and lots of sudden sun. I'm having trouble knowing what to wear. I guess I have to give up on trying to dress appropriately when the weather is flip-flopping like that.

I have had some fun outside though, with a forest walk, some goose-feeding (they like oats) and a delicious pub lunch. I also took three films to get developed, and after this I'm not going to shoot film any more. It's kinda sad, but it's become something I do less and less and I'm happy to finally switch to digital only. Besides, I can always grab a disposable camera if I really miss it. It'll be fun to see how my last pictures come out. The rolls I took to get developed were a black and white roll, an infra red roll, and a waterproof disposable.

I have felt pretty tranquil this past week. I've been reading Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson and it's full of ideas for alternative choices for household items and food and space. I'm finding it really interesting. There's a recipe for making your own mustard in there and now every time I look at something I wonder if I could make it myself. It's pretty cool.

Journal: Hearts & Goodbyes

I've come to the end of another journal and these are my last pages. Farewell, old journal. My yellow pen ran out at the same time, so a solemn goodbye to my yellow pen as well.

I seem to have been strongly influenced by my bedsheets to draw looping hearts. You gotta vary hearts a little, I guess. The loopy ones are nice and squishy looking, and erratic in their form in a different way to my regular hearts. I like them both a lot. Many hearts.

It seems like I also had a very important message to convey on the last page. Mud pies are very good. It's undeniably true. Come to the forest and I'll make you one.

Animal Crossing (The Very First One)

I decided to try playing the very first Animal Crossing game since I love both New Leaf and Happy Home Designer so much. I should probably get Wild World at some point in order to complete the series.

I very much liked that super cool dog musician K.K. Slider greeted me to start off the game. I'm a big fan, of course. He gave me some encouraging words of advice.

And then it was time for explaining my name and what I'm doing on the train to a strange cat who I don't even know. Nosy.

So I named the place I'm moving to Hell. Just for fun. I feel like the Animal Crossing series has managed to maintain a very consistent overall feel, even with Happy Home Designer, which approaches the game world from quite a different perspective. I think this original iteration is just as charming as the most recent games, and I think it has some unique charm of its own too.

I really like the slightly more impish design for the player character, as well as the acre and map system as they appear in this game. Here I am in my brand new house, complete with some default bits of furniture (Tom Nook generously gave me an unsellable radio).

Planting also feels different, and somehow freer. I also like the clock design a lot here. Man, it's all so cute.

I got a nice new sofa after running an errand for a villager, so my house is starting to look a little less empty already! I'm really impressed by the diary on the left here, which you can use to write real diary entries. I love writing stuff in games, apparently, and this one contains many options to do so - letters, the noticeboard, and my own diary!

I think we are all Belle. I went inside her house and she has gyroids that make mooing noises. Amazing.

I'm currently carrying a work uniform and two fossils. Just like in reality. I'm not going to start keeping a journal for this game like I do with New Leaf and Happy Home Designer, but I'm definitely going to play this one a lot because it is unique and lovely. Wish me luck in paying off my home loan and getting those fossils evaluated!

Golden & Wobbly

Here's my face. The scanner really evens out the tone of my hair into this lovely golden brown/blonde situation. I guess that's kinda what it looks like without light. How come I feel so well represented by scans that distort my body? My identity is in all the distortion just as much as it's in the shape of my fingers.

It's getting a bit difficult to arrange all of my hair for these. It keeps wanting to be everywhere. Please tell it to calm down.

I'm very glad I made the stylistic decision to give myself some wobbly fingers this time round.