Parties and bbqs - days 3&4

Having arrived here only 4 days ago I can say I have attended a birthday party, 2 BBQs and a wedding anniversary lunch. Can't say I'm complaining. On Sunday we first visited a lovely Chinese birthday party of a family friend. Not knowing we were attending it, I had put on my 10cm platforms. All I can say is that it was a bad decision. On top of being white, foreigner not even directly connected the person celebrating, I was about 30 to 40 cm higher than everyone there. After sitting down and getting familiar with some of the guests I got treated to the best Chinese food I've had in my life. Ater all it was all homemade <3

After that Tim's mom dropped us off at a BBQ party organised by Tim's friend. Well, mentioning food briefly - Indian dishes, grilled chicken and marshmallows with digestives in the evening. Nom. Even though I did not know anyone upon arrival by the end of the day I've managed to meet and talk to some super interesting, friendlyand really smart people - they are all studying physics, maths or medicine ;) Oh and Tim got thrown into the pool - apparently by now, it's a tradition.

I also got to try moonshoes - I'll refer to them as kangaroo shoes,they make you feel much more like a kangaroo, rather than a person walking on the moon - in my opinion. I've seen these online at some point ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtyCi-3qW9I ). I did like them, but I was sure I wasn't going to buy them any time soon, I also didn't know anyone who had them or even heard of the so I got them out of my head. Turns out their family had a pair... and I could try them on. I did. They were really fun and not that unstable at all, really cool to run with them and just be super tall ;D

Today was a special day, sine I was invited along to celebrate awedding anniversary in a really expensive restaurant. I don't think I would ever go there on my one let alone with my family. The service and the food were worth it though. Also got to enjoy a nice sunny walk along the Thames in Richmond, apparently a really expensive region popular amongst celebrities, well I sure felt like one :).

Miror shoes - well kind of

I've had a fascination with mirror shoes since I first spotted these bbys in ...well some time ago:  http://www.solestruck.com/andreia-chaves-invisible-shoe-mirror/index.html , but evidently they are out of my league (sadly). So I decided to make my own.

I planned everything. I had a pair of old ballerina shoes that I intended to secure on wooden platform soles (that I would make out of super light wood) and glue broken mirrors with my newly acquired super glue E6000. Dealing with the lack of time and money (wood can be really expensive), I have found an alternative.

I used a pair of old shoes. Vagabond - I dare to say that these are the most comfortable pair of shoes I own. they fit like a glove and they really feel more like slippers than shoes. Well I have worn them so much that I have managed to make a hole in the sole and made the shoe almost fall apart. I decided to bring them back to life by giving them a new sole (this has yet to happen), fixing anything that could be fixed (gluing parts of the sole back on) and adding drama with my mirror equivalents - old CDs.

First I broke the CDs in a box, so parts of them didn't get thrown all over the room. Then I separated the shiny and the transparent layer and got to work. It was all about matching the right pieces together to achieve a mosaic look. As mentioned I have used my new favorite glue E6000 which really glues anything to anything ... for good.

the shoes really only came to life when exposed to direct sunlight and I think the CDs have had an even better effect than the mirrors would, because of their rainbow like reflections. I am really pleased with how this project turned out and will be doing more CD DIYs in the future.

WALK ON IT

There is a channel on YouTube that I really love, and it's called The art assignment. Basically they get different interesting artists and interesting people in general, to set you a task, a challenge, an art assignment of sort. It is not always strictly traditional art - that's what I love about it, they are really creative and think outside of  the box. Anyway, I decided to take part in this challenge.

Always,I decided to shake thing up a bit and do something slightly different. I painted a square piece of plywood with acrylic colors and combined it with pieces of newspaper and old school assignments to make a collage. In the end sing pieces of wood, I stamped on the date of my project. Instead of walking on the board itself, I decided to cut it in  appropriate pieces, sew then to the soles of my shoes and actually walk on them for a day. This way, I was able to see the change, that my day made on the surface of the painting and compare it to the intact plywood piece left at home. I used an old pair of flats and some fishing line to secure the new soles.   Throughout the day, the fishing line in the front of the left shoe tore form me stepping on it so i had to re-sew the sole on multiple times. I also gout could in a small summer storm, hence the dilapidated wood. Strangely enough the shoes were not weird to walk in. The only noticeable thing was the sound they made when walking. This is the end result.

DAY 54

Acording to Oha-Asa horoscope my lucky colour today is red... so Im going full out wearing a self-made shirt, shorts and one of my bbys <3 An eagle ring is just the cherry on top. :D

DAY 27

Today a bunch of really awesome things happened.
In the morning I was able to present one part of Scientology to my class. Having worked on this presentation for a really long time and getting involved in the subject, I was super excited to talk about it. Even though my prezi presentation didn't work for some reason, google was a good enough source for all the things I needed. Thank you Scientologists for making really pretty LRH life-timelines with pictures. I've always been a perfectionist, but lately it has been showing more and more. If I decide to do something, it has to be good. It not only for the sake of others, but mostly for myself. And I feel that through spending hours and hours researching for example Scientology or Switzerland or any other matter, you just become much more open to new interesting ideas and information...the sheer knowledge absorbed in this kind of self-initiated learning is just amazing. Everything is in the mind. If you trick yourself into loving something, eventually you will start to actually enjoy what you do. That's what I did with French. No one can help you but yourself. Having been told by teachers, parents, friends...how important knowledge is, nothing changes until you tell it to yourself.
Anyway, after school, me and Vida were supposed to go for a coffee for her birthday (my treat), but we ended up going on lunch first. The salads were amazing and I really had a great time just talking to her and enjoying her company. She ended up paying for the lunch and Ii still owe her a coffee. Oh life. After that we had some time to kill, so we wondered the streets of Ljubljana, looking for nothing in particular. We stumbled across a photography exhibition, hidden in the first floor of an inconspicuous old building. There were some works that we really liked, like photographs by Roberto Kusterle, a Slovene photographer, living in Italy.  The idea behind his work and the execution were just astonishing. Later on I spotted a pair of unusual flats in a display window. It's structure reminded me strongly of the Lo Res Pump by United nude, a shoe that I have been obsessing over about a year ago. We went to the store and there they were. The shoes I have only seen on the internet. The reason why I was so startled and amazed is because this has been the first time i saw a designer shoe that I loved in a Slovenian store (there are no Jeffrey Campbell stores here D:). unfortunately they did not have them in mint colour, or my size, but I still tried them on. <3

Next thing was attending a recital of chosen  haikus in Slovene and English language and receiving an award for writing one of the best haikus in French. They even printed a book, publishing the haiku.

C'est tôt le matin

je suis partie avec mon chien

la calme nous plaît.

Rough translation, Its early in the morning - I left with the dog - the calm pleases us. Even though it was not written in a really emotional state or on an actual quiet morning, it was really amusing to read editors comment on my haiku, explaining it. They just made it sound much more deep and thought through, even though it was just a scribble during a period of French.
My last happy thing today would be obtaining a collection of 6 old Russian postcards, dating back to 1977. I bought them 50 cents each in a local antiquariat. They each represent a different flag of the Soviet Socialist Republic accompanied by their national patterns and symbols. I thought they were really beautiful, and I will definitely be able to use them in my Postcrossing project.

DAY 23

Today I had a classical girly shopping day. I really needed it, after studying and doing school-work most of my free time. Some time-off with my wife (best friend) really made a difference. It's funny how some people cheer you up just with their presence.
I didn't get a chance to panic or work myself over everything that I still needed to do, I could just forget reality for some time and enjoy the moment.
I just can't help but be incredibly thankful for the friends I have. Friends that I can trust and discuss anything with, that will help me no matter what and will always be there fore me..okay shit no I'm getting all sappy. Awesome things today: My wife, shoes, necklace that I can actually make at home, heart-shaped bags, sales, switching dresses, switching candy bear heads and pigeons.

DAY 20

Here we go again with experimentation, this time with shoes. Today, the third years have gone to the theatre to watch a Slovene drama by Ivan Cankar, Kralj na Betajnovi.
I already knew, in the morning, that I wanted to wear heels, I just couldn't decide on a pair. Excluding the ones I couldn't or didn't want to wear, I was left with my killer leather boots and my ( I'm not sure how to call them), thick-heeled-bitofplatform-simple-black-laceup shoes.
Because of the colour of my sweater, I thought of a fabric I had had lying around my house for about 2 years now. It was originally bought to make an Alice Madness Returns costume (its a computer game, and it's really pretty, if you haven't yet, CHECK IT OUT! :D). Anyhow I never ended up making the costume.
My initial idea included complicated pattern-making and sewing, but after a couple of minutes of staring into the shoes, I just went with my gut and chose a simple, yet still effective, option. I cut (actually ripped - some fabrics only need a small cut, and than if you pull 2 parts apart, it will rip in a perfectly straight line) 2 strips. 7 cm wide and 120 cm long (standard fabric). Since I was working with 100% polyester, all I had to do was warm up the sides of the strips with a lighter to prevent loose threads. Then I wrapped them around the heel of the shoe and my ankle, tied a bow in the back and...they were ready. I combined them with black leggings, a short fitted black dress - that in this case functioned as a skirt, pink-ish pullover, dark blue leather jacket and dark blue shoulder-strap bag.