Mood & Music Mosaic #20

Christmas Waltz - Mindy Gledhill

cardigan - brooch - wax seal - christmas card - earrings

I'm finishing up my holiday shopping and gift wrapping everything. I actually haven't listened to any Christmas songs yet, but I think it's time to whip out my seasonal CDs too. Can't celebrate the holidays long enough, can you?

How is your holiday planning coming along? Almost done or are you a last-minute shopper?

Mood & Music Mosaic #16

Bloom - The Paper Kites

sweater - analog camera - camera scarf - rucksack

It's sweater weather and I am recovering from a serious cold. So it is unmistakably Fall! Hopefully in a few days I can go out and find myself some orange trees to marvel at and photograph. And maybe drink some hot chocolate after...

How are you holding up? And are the colors of Fall sparking your creativity as well?

Mood & Music Mosaic #15

Maybe - Isbells

rain boots - earrings - ring dish - journal

We've had some serious rain recently. Days like that make me want to light a candle and sit down with a journal. Journaling has been my new go-to pastime. As a blogger it makes sense to love it. It's a bit like blogging for yourself. Or perhaps blogs are just public journals. Either way, it seems that working on either one inspires the other too.

What have you been up to lately? Any new hobbies? Or… any pretty new notebooks?

Mood & Music Mosaic #14

Better Man - Leon Bridges

cardigan - notebook set - tea - watercolors - scented candle

Fall is here! Though I love the warmth of summer and am sad to see it go, I also adore the coziness Fall brings. It is perfect for creating your own bubble of music, tea and something creative. And I discovered Leon Bridges just in time!

What are you looking forward to about Fall?

Goodbye Old Look, Hello New Layout!

I finally did it! I gave my blog a makeover! The former one actually lasted me the better part of six years. I still like it quite a lot, but I wanted something fresher and cleaner. It took a while to get all the elements right, but today I did it!

It's a slightly narrower page, with a similar triangle theme and color scheme, only a little milder and sleeker. Instead of cork I went with a subtle woodgrain (yes, it is a picture of my own floor!). And though my faithful old owl is still making an appearance, I'm also introducing a new mascot. Oh, and I made all my own social media sidebar icons to match!

Funny story… this new layout is actually a mash-up of two layouts I made but never installed. The banner is from one I made one or two years back, but didn't like the background of. And the background is very recent, but was hard to find a proper banner for. However, last night it all came together wonderfully. Like it was made for each other.

I might continue to add a few elements or do some minor tweaking these next few weeks. Since my editing software is failing me, it's actually quite hard at the moment. That, however, is a tale for another time… Today we celebrate!

Mood & Music Mosaic #13

Paris Nights/New York Mornings - Corinne Bailey Rae

cardigan and pants - sunglasses - earrings - backpack

It is getting warmer and all of a sudden it is wonderful to be outside again. There is little I love more than exploring the city when the weather is nice. To not be in a rush, not be carrying a heavy coat around, but to just relax and go wherever I please. To lose track of time as I walk through unfamiliar streets and discover little gems along the way.

What do you like to do on those glorious warm-yet-not-too-hot spring days?

Birthday

So my birthday was quite recently. I had an adorable little birthday party that involved pastries, rose lemonade and a wonderful card game. And through the magic of snail mailed gifts I also celebrated with a dear friend from overseas.

Let's start with cake! Since I had a little party I decided to go with fancy pastries... One of the best decisions I've ever made. I got these adorable pastries with red fruit and chocolate mousse. They were as divine as they were adorable!

But my day started with opening some amazing birthday mail that was beautiful inside and out, so let's take a peek.

I received these amazing animal hair pins and brooches. The three cats I've had in my life so far have been black, grey and kind of white, so it seems this set was pretty much made for me! I also adore the wooden bobby pins.

This amazing owl package held an Alice in Wonderland coloring book! I already did one page, which I posted here.

I also received a gorgeous monogrammed journal I'd been eyeing. And some pencils that are a perfect match for it!

This golden package held a stunning book called the Vintage Tea Party Treasury; which I'm sure I'll show you soon.

One of the friends at my party gave me these adorable stamps. There's an owl, a penguin and a cute little heart. I also received an ink pad in one of my favorite colors, so I'm good to go and can start stamping whenever I want.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of my birthday! There are actually still a few more things I hope to show you later...

Plans & Goals: April

I love April! It's the first whole month of Spring and I also have a birthday to celebrate. If that's not the recipe for a good month, I don't know what is! Even without planning things I'd probably have fun, but still… I'd love to:

• Throw a wonderful birthday party!
• Do a little bit of spring cleaning.
• Sit down and draw.
• Experiment with different lunch meals/sandwiches.
• Reconnect with a few people.
• Have fun on King's Day.
• Catch up on my reading goal for 2016.
• Eat watermelon again.
• And get into bullet journalling. With the cute set above! I'm so excited!

What do you hope April has in store for you? Did you already make some plans too?

Mood & Music Mosaic

Lavender - Ray LaMontagne

blanket - tissue holder - muscle balm - mug

Hello again! I'm getting to the part of my flu where I can do things that go slightly beyond pressing buttons on the remote control every now and then. Also, I just got my new Ray LaMontagne cd! So things are slowly looking up!

What's new with you? Oh, and let me know if you have any ingenious winter-survival tips!

Merry Christmas!

Do you celebrate Christmas as well? And if so, do you do huge family get-togethers or smaller celebrations, like I did? Either way, whether you have just finished or have yet to begin celebrating, I hope Christmas is amazing for you!

I just wrapped up my relaxed evening of exchanging gifts and eating chocolate, which was lovely! The things I received were wonderful and I was so thrilled to finally reveal the gifts I had bought too. If the light is bright enough for taking pictures I hope to be back quite soon to show you a few of the things I received. So stay tuned!

Plans & Goals: December

The final month of the year has started! Christmas will be here soon, with all its coziness, pretty decorations, gift giving, delicious things to eat… I just love it! And it makes up for the cold too! Anyway, this fun month I hope I get to:

• Write a few Christmas blogposts.
• Cast off my current knitting project.
• Read some wintery books.
• Re-learn some Christmas songs on guitar. A few… not all I knew last year.
• Take the time to do some wonderful gift wrapping.
• Try out this cool unopened card game I have.
• Finish a Christmas present I've been working on for a friend.
• Reach my Goodreads goal.
• And just enjoy the holiday season with the people -and cats!- I love!

Do you have any plans for the holidays? And is there anything you'd still like to do in 2015?

Making Things Better: Introduction

Lately I've been changing and consciously making some lifestyle changes. Since I find it important -for both me and you- to have Blue Eyed Night owl reflect the things that excite me in real life, this blog will have to change with me.

I won't do a complete 180 or say farewell to the topics I currently write about, but I will be introducing some new posts on top of that. About life, organizing, habits etc. Things that are making my life better or easier. Interviews and TedTalks that struck a chord with me. And probably a lot of other wonderful things I have yet to discover.

Hopefully it will inspire positive change in others that feel the need to shake things up as well.

Feel free to leave questions, tips or thoughts in the comments of any of these posts:)

Spinning: Charcoal Raspberry

It has been almost two years since I shared my first spinning project with you. I mentioned then that I was working on another one. I'm both embarrassed and proud to announce that that second project is now finally finished!

The reason it took so long was mostly that my first venture into plying turned out to be quite frustrating and complicated and I felt I needed help, yet waited ages to ask for it. But I recently had my spinning sensei over...

It was still kinda messy, but he helped me untangle it. Afterwards I wound it, tied it together, soaked it, rinsed it and, when it was dry, I wound it into a little ball. I now have about 100 yards of lace weight handspun yarn!

It's not a whole lot, but I could still turn it into something nice. Maybe a tiny summer scarf or perhaps some sort of hat if I'm lucky. We shall see. For now, I think I'll just keep it like this, look at it and weigh my options.

Or maybe you will think of something awesome that I haven't even considered yet... Any ideas?

Circle Songs #46

"I swear I will make myself tiny. I just have a guitar and a suitcase with me…"

No More Home, No More Love - Soko

{picture sources: 1 - 2 - 3}

I'm suffering from terrible wanderlust all of a sudden. I haven't decided whether or not to act on it yet. Somehow I have the feeling that traveling elsewhere will make me feel more grounded. Also, a trip is always nice of course!

Sick Day

Now that it's sunny and warmer outside I'm stuck with a massive cold, it's not fun but on the upside I've been reading, watching movies and making all sorts of new hot drinks. Like this orange-lemon-cinnamon-honey-ginger tea!

There's also an onion in the fridge with honey on it so that it makes a nice syrup, but if you have any other home remedies I'd love to hear about them! I hear nothing speeds colds up, but if it makes it any easier it's really welcome.

2013 in Books

My reading goal for 2013 was 50 books. At first it was easy and I was steadily reading one book a week, then life caught up with me and I found myself rushing to catch up and finishing the 50th in 45 minutes before 2014!

Anyway, I've been wanting to take a picture of "the pile" for a while now and finally did so today. If you wonder why there are three turned books, it's because I don't have the ones I read with me right now, but went with similar sized books. And in case you are wondering… they stand for:

• the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
• Old Magic by Marianne Curley
• the Borrowers by Mary Norton

It also makes sense to tell you about my favorites. I read many good books this year, but the two I keep thinking about and that I loved the most are: About a Girl by Joanne Horniman, because it was so poetic and simple and realistic. And the Clockwork Three by Matthew Kirby, the best middle grade adventure book anyone could ever ask for. It had a touch of magic, some suspense and some beautiful friendships.

Something else I thoroughly enjoyed was the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett. I hadn't read anything from him prior to these, but they really got me hooked!

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Did you read a lot last year? What were your favorites?

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Hopefully I'll do book posts more regularly again. And if you're interested in reading more about what I'm reading or being book-buddies, feel free to add me on Goodreads.

Little Luxuries

So I'm on a budget these days. I'm taking care of myself, doing my own groceries, the whole shebang. But I'm a firm believer of good quality food. You are what you eat, right? So I'd rather go for wholesome than for fake and chemicals.

Anyway, I discovered my local supermarket's artisan bread when it was on sale last week and it's so good! So much better than the bread I'd been eating prior to this discovery. I sometimes eat a slice just by itself.

Who says you can't have amazing bread and poached eggs for breakfast when you're living the "student life"?

Dear Bloggers, Followers and Commenters...

(:ISSUE NOW RESOLVED:)

The fact that I'm not really blogging or commenting, doesn't mean I'm purposefully ignoring you. The thing is... my shabby new wi-fi forces me to use my laptop, which sadly thinks it's a smartphone and tends to struggle with -or even block- most websites (like my photo-editor). And while I can see most blogs, I can't comment on them.

Of course I hope to fix this, but it might take some time. So bear with me.

P.S. I will try to work around this. So I edited some pictures while I was visiting someone and have few posts planned. And some of you I'll reach out to via other channels until this problem is solved. Which will hopefully be soon!

Busy busy, happy, happy...

Guess what? I've moved! Finally. After over a year of hard work and waiting, it is done. Well... I still have to take care of some stuff. One of which is get reliable internet on my computer, hence the continuance of silence on this blog.

Also, I don't have cable and I'll try to keep it that way as it should leave with me with a ton of extra time to be creative. In fact I've already started on a collage. I used to love making collages, but now I think I'll turn it into a proper hobby.

I think this new apartment will bring a lot of change into my life and it will probably reflect on my blog. I don't know what changes my blog will go through exactly, content-wise, but I'm guessing more pictures and more creative updates. Time will tell...

Will be back soon!

Merry Christmas! ...and an Update

First of all... I hope you're really enjoying Christmas! I know not everyone has big plans, but even a hint of Christmas can be enough to put you in that nice mood and have you enjoy the holiday a lot.

Also, I've been wanting do a tiny bit of explaining. If you're a regular follower you know I've been working on moving to my own place all year. It is finally nearly done. -And this time I really mean nearly, it actually looks like a home now. I have my bed made and everything!- But I needed this month to take care of the last errands. I'm guessing I won't do much blogging for the remainder of this year either, but I'm planning to be back with daily posts in 2014.
 I miss all of you, I miss writing about what I love and I definitely miss taking pictures too. If I can I'll whip up a post with what's in store for you if you continue to follow me next year, but now... I'm going back to join my mom on the couch and enjoy the rest of my last Christmas living with her.

Happy Holidays!