This particular birthday involved a gift that I hurriedly came up with the week leading up to it, after a photo album project failed, but I'm satisfied with how it turned out and took lots of progress pictures along the way:
It's Hanna and Pascha :D
First, a rough sketched outline using a reference photo
Then, a thick layer of white acrylic plus finger-texture
Patterning in the background, obv
This reminded me very much of Setouchi lemons and brought back some happy nostalgic memories of what ended up being my favourite place in Japan. But, lemons these squared lines and leaves are not.
When I do have something going, I have multiple things going
Okay, dress pattern time, and a little bit of the same colour in splotches for the hydrangeas
Stem, leaf, and petal details
The rest of the blue for Pascha, though this doesn't really show up with acrylic, which is essentially plastic. I should really buy and try out oil paint and some point; I'm still using up an acrylic set I bought in Korea at least five years ago, though.
I should have mostly stopped with her face and hair at this point but I didn't.
Her dress is probably my favourite bit.
Made sure the pattern continued onto all the sides, because you can't frame a stop sign
I hate that I made her smushed cheek this prominent tbh. But the dress! Yas.
The finished product once again. What do you think? Very acceptable in my opinion, especially considering the short timeframe. Now if only I could just get myself to draw and paint more pieces from start to finish like this, I could actually improve, learn, and grow! Ah well. Goals.
Okay, on the train! At the time I was reading this, which I had given Hannes for his birthday, and which he had read first. His (and Lars' and Zac's, actually..) favourite was Mountain, while I particularly enjoyed Sun of China.
The party wasn't until Saturday night, so we had an entire day of chilling out and doing whatever. I'd requested another visit to Grüne Kombüse, so we went for lunch.
Soy cappuccino on point
Vegan, I believe, and very tasty. It's hard to go wrong with lightly-fried starchy things and mash.
And mine, which included yogurt but was also very nice.
We just wish this place didn't peddle homeopathic/esoteric bullshit along with their healthy, dietary restriction-friendly food. I mean like, no, Brenda, that ionic-whatever water is not going to realign the molecules in your body. Come on. Just drink water because water.
A lengthy conversation about how health food and pseudoscience often go hand-in-hand ensued, more specifically about how it's ridiculous, frustrating, and cringey for so many middle-aged people in a country this advanced, with this many food options, and mostly-free, accessible healthcare, to get taken in by such nonsense. It's bizarre and frightening to us that so many people have an inherent need for magical thinking, though some nonfiction that I've read recently has acknowledged this phenomenon as likely hereditary, having been useful prior to modern medicine, and unlikely ever to disappear completely.
I myself have enjoyed *～*New Age stuff*～*, as I refer to it broadly, for a long time, but it's an aesthetic? Tarot cards have a lot of ancient symbolism that spans continents and languages in a way that merits appreciation and study, and minerals and crystals are endlessly lovely. White sage smells good, incense burners are pretty, and bells and chimes sound nice. Sometimes these things can connect you to the culture and traditions of your ancestors or just a different culture that you admire, probably one closer to nature. Actually, I'll eventually write an entire post about this, since I just recently explained why being a witch is a thing to a guy I know online.
Point is, to wonder and marvel at nature and dreams and light and realise how much is out there that we have no idea about and don't understand and how little of our brains we use etc. etc. is one thing, but to actually and earnestly believe in nonsense - whether it's that negligible, minuscule amounts of benign substances can treat illness or pain despite an extensive and compelling medical literature that vehemently and repeatedly says otherwise, or that an Iron Age text written for barefoot and illiterate desert peasants is a guide to life and the afterlife gifted to humanity from the sky - is just embarrassing.
But look, no plastic packaging!
Homemade stuff in mason jars, Brenda, that's the ticket! No need to magic it all up with woowoo stuff, just keep the good vibes here on Earth.
It was pretty chilly, but we took a walk around the historic old city, and I took the opportunity to snap some pics with my nice camera. Because that's what I'm always doing, to the extent that I'm literally years behind posting about my travels, thoughts, and projects! ._.;
There are like no interesting slaps here, so this one is kind of a big deal!
Not really sure how I never noticed the Stop! In the name of love! griffin at one of the city gates before..
Early spring means crocuses suddenly popping up in huge numbers.
Mostly they're white or purple.
He often has pensive, taciturn moods like this, but it makes for nice quiet times and photos.
We went here because I insisted, once I realised that our walk was taking us in this direction.
There's an art museum in Rostock that I still haven't been to for lack of interesting exhibitions, but there are virtually no galleries. Both searching and trolling Google Maps while zoomed in pretty far, since I knew we were going to be in the center of town and had several hours to kill, unfortunately yielded very few results. Mostly there are just little cafés that hang up somebody's paintings or photos.
These were my favourite, especially this house one.
I think they were like 140 or 160 or something.
Super weird sea creature devil lady, check.
Unfortuntely I forgot to get the artist's name.
Hmm, maybe I do have another name somewhere? I'll have to look again..
The friendly lady running this quaint, tiny establishment told me all about this special series of seven prints made for the city, since that's the city's number, by a Manfred Kronenberg. If you start paying attention to things in sevens like an Internet conspiracy theorist you'll soon find it everywhere, especially in architecture.
I didn't buy one, but I did get the cutest one as a postcard!
Hannes was really not in the mood to browse tiny trinkety things
Neither of us can remember this guy's name! I read the Wiki page about him once and we both knew that he got most of his nose sliced off in a sword fight and wore a false gold one for the rest of his life like an absolute unit, but.. what the fuck was his name? Ten points to anyone who can tell me.
Oh! Well, it's something. This is what I mean about slaps and pasteups in Rostock: this is about as interesting as they get. It's nice though, I like it.
Just another absurdly beautiful doorway/façade, nbd
The waitress thought for some reason that Hannes wanting two pieces of cake and me wanting no pieces of cake was very weird. I know you live in a small town girlfriend, but like, come on. Just say "Okay, sure!" with a smile.
The hot cinnamon apple drink sounded perfect but it was straight-up stovetop-heated apple juice. I wish Europeans understood the North American concept of cider. Either way, still tasty, a very cute and quaint day, approved.
Time for more schmackos at the birthday party! She baked gluten-free cornbread for me!
It was absolutely delicious when I reheated slices of it in the oven and put not-butter and honey on them. -drooling noises-
Oh nooo! She also bought this cake/tart thingy that was basically just almonds and cream cheese (hence all the beautiful berries) and super delicious!
People keep making or getting special cakes for me on their birthdays!
It's like, the nicest thing ever!
Adorable, I love it
Hörk?
As usual, this lovely house was full of people, kids, dogs, drinks, snacks, and good times.
There were really a huge number of lovely gifts, and mine was a hit!
I'm really glad. Nico and Andrea have done so much for us and are really good friends.
It wasn't a wild and crazy night, but a colourful wholesome one, and most importantly, Andrea did have a really nice birthday. As usual, we had breakfast with Hannes' parents and headed home the next day.
P.S., there was someone breathing and sniffling loudly and weirdly on the train on the way home and I couldn't figure out who it was. Finally I bent down and looked under my seat, and... Mystery solved.
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