Entries by TATIANA

In Sweden we have something called Julkalendern, been around since I was a kid. In fact Julkalendern started in 1960 and it is like an advent calendar series made for tv, one episode per day starting December 1 and ending December 24. It is part of our Christmas tradition. This year's Julkalender is called Trolltider and the original version was shown 44 years ago. I decided to watch Trolltider yesterday and watched the last couple of episodes today. Of course I loved it - trolls, tomtar, witches, faeries......all the stories from childhood. I told a friend about it and he watched it too although he does not speak Swedish and then he decided to rewatch all the episodes.

I also watched the Swedish King's speech, very nicely delivered but with a serious tone. Because the situation in the world is grim. I am about to rewatch it tonight. The speech can be found translated on the web in case you want to know what he said. I can't help but to compare it to Trump's Christmas message he posted on Truth Social......talk about a difference in tone and content. I feel extra Swedish tonight and I usually consider myself a global citizen.
And that is my beautiful hometown Stockholm.

That's it from me for tonight this late December evening. I am in bed with two sleeping puppies. Exactly the company I want to have in my bed. And pink sheets, a warm electric blanket, soft blankets and plush pillows. Bliss. Happy Holidays.

I am wishing you all a nice and cozy Holiday season. I am spending the night at a friend's house, I am in bed with Kaya and about to sleep soon. So Goodnight from me.

I have been walking around in these woods a few times lately. There are lots of old twisted trees here on the coats.

Into the mushroom forest.

There are mushrooms growing everywhere and mushrooms are popping up on art everywhere too.

Well.......Christmas is just around the corner. Tomorrow. So enjoy. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, God Jul!

The result from yesterday's shoot arrived in my inbox today. One (retouched) image. 

Photographer DJ.

Today I did another photo shoot. No theme, I was told to bring myself and some tops to wear. A "trade for" shoot, I get one image out of the shoot. We took around 400 pictures and I narrowed them down to nine that I liked the best. In the end I had a difficult time picking out one image for the photographer to retouch for the final result.
He said the retouch won't be much, flyaway hair strands, whiten up eyes and teeth if needed, take out blemishes if needed.
I do not use much make up, no foundation, no contouring, no blush. I was not happy with the lip gloss color that I had on but I did not have much else to choose from in my make up bag. Also not happy with my hair.
Here are the nine I narrowed down to.

In the end after some undecisiveness I picked the one in the right hand corner at the bottom. 
I can say this......in some of the pictures that I discarded I looked terrible. Everybody ages....I know. I am trying to "embrace" getting older as in getting older visibly on my face, skin and body. There are worse problems to have, I am very well aware of that.
Last December I did a similar shoot. Like a head shot type shoot. Trade for. I was asked to bring myself and some sweaters.
I got a few images out of that shoot. Here is one of them.
Last December......one year went by so fast.

Photographer Davies Photo Arts.

I chopped off my hair! Well not really. A trim of about 3 inches. I get a trim once or max twice a year. I went almost two years without one a few years ago. It started to look pretty bad so it was time. I made an appointment at Aveda Institute where you get a student that needs practice to cut (or color) your hair, supervised by an instructor. They also offer face treatments and massages. 
So here is before.

And after.

My hair is very thin now compare to how it used to be. You can see through it now. Not a good look. Before I had a luxurious (somebody referred to my hair as luxurious once and that is stuck in my memory) mane, now it is starting to approach aging rocker territory.
But Mick Jagger is #goals so I will embrace the thinner looking hair for now. (Although Mick doesn't have long hair.....).
I really liked my hair cut at the Aveda Institute. $15 instead of some crazy amount. The student first washed my hair with Nutriplenish by Aveda shampoo and conditioner and then took her time cutting my hair. So worth it. I will not go to regular salons for two minute hair cuts anymore.
I also got a facial. The Tulasara facial. It was ok. $30, so for that price it was ok but far from a great facial. I am going to go in for their dual exfoliating facial as well and add on a facial massage, just to try it.
Nothing fancy, very basic but it works.