My thoughts on: Love

   Different post today. I'm here to talk about some things that I've been noticing and that have been important to me.

   Well, about a year and a half ago I met a guy. We became friends. Best friends. It was not very easy because there was this complication with a friend of mine and a friend of his. We barely talked the first time we saw. It was a small birthday party, and I most listened than said anything. The second time, there was much fewer people, so we engaged in conversation and surprisingly there was some things in common between us.

   He just made an inquisition with me and asked all the questions I've always wanted someone to ask me to know the nice things about me (like what kind of books/music/movies I liked) and hey, he was the first guy to not be shoved away by my "strange" passion for literature. Actually, he liked that.

   As I said, we became best friends. We chatted through the computer all they long - and by all they long I mean from after I got home from school to 3 a.m. We talked about everything. And then, we started going out together, as friends yet, and obviously that led to falling in love (I was scared at first), and to serious commitment the night we kissed. *-*

   As you see, nothing of the other world. Just a beautiful feeling that grew from true friendship.

   Reflecting from that, it saddens me truly that so much people banalize this feeling and the gestures that symbolize it. I don't mean to condemn any kind of philosophy or behavior here, just the lack of reflection and meaning people give to it these days.

   I think people lost their faith in true love and care, they think its a naive view that there is someone that is better for you than anyone else. But why wouldn't be? If everyone is unique, someone must gather all those things, all those traits and thoughts that will make you happy.

   I just think... people got used to immediate satisfaction, even if it is not a true one. And little by little they forgot that love, the companion of someone that understands you, cares about you, and will always be there for you, is worth waiting, is worth fighting, is worth your respect and dedication.

   I just wish everyone could understand that, and some women stopped treating men like they were slaves, and some men stopped treating women like a piece of meat, and all could find that special one that makes everything better and be happy. It would make life, and the world, so much more beautiful and enjoyable. I wish everyone could feel as I feel today. And I think everyone that deserves will.

   Don't loose faith in love, so don't loose faith on people. It might be hard seeing what we see today, but it pays.

   Just some thoughts and feelings I wanted to share, not meaning to disturb anyone.

The Perfect Oxford Shoes

   For a really long time I searched for oxford shoes that pleased me but all I found was no oxford shoes. At all. At any store. Not even in the US. They just don't seem to want me to have them.

   Well, the other day I was searching Plasticland and found these gorgeous all-I-ever-dreamed-of pair of oxfords. In black and light brown! Since I got some money from Christmas I thought I could import them here to Brazil. :)

   These are the ones. Aren't they marvelous? This is an idea of how to wear them I've put together.

   The sad thing is, I probably won't have them. Plasticland doesn't have them in my number anymore, and that was one problem I solved. I found them very cheap at another site. The thing is, is costs US$28 the shipping, plus 60% of brazilian taxes, plus transport costs in Brazil. And them, the very cheap shoe became the very, VERY expensive shoe.

  I'm telling you, achieving the vintage look here is nearly impossible. Truly vintage items simply do not exist, as it is culture here to throw old things away. And vintage-like stuff is hard to find, and often quite expensive. Every clothing item in Brazil is expensive.

   For example, in my last trip to the US, I bought I bunch of dresses, all cost between 15 and 25 dollars. In the same kind of shop, the same kind of manufacturing, the same kind of dress, here I pay the equivalent to 40 dollars at least. It is not fair. I'm sad.


   I'm going to wait, see if I can find a solution. But I really wish it was simple. I want the shoes, I have money for the shoes, I pay for the transportation, but taxes here drive everyone crazy. They are doing it to me too ;(

Five Audrey Hepburn looks you can easily do today

   I love Audrey Hepburn. Who doesn't? Only people that don't deserve our attention. She was so feminine and graceful and fun. I wish she was my best friend.

   She was a different kind of woman for the time. But anyone who loves vintage fashion looks up to her. Today disappoints me that she is kind of a fashionable thing right now, and some girls go and watch Breakfast at Tiffany's and call themselves her biggest fans and stuff. Well, they will never really know how she was like.

   So, as us mere mortals have not the pleasure of having Givenchy to design for ourselves, I reunited 5 easy things to do today inspired in her looks. Genuine things, not those pseudo-fan things.

Copying Audrey: she is doing it so wrong.

   1. Shirt + belt + skirt

   Easy and feminine. Everyone who loves vintage must have a A-line, high-waisted skirt. And everyone must have a nice fitted white shirt (and other colors are great too). The thick belt is great to create a silhouette. I really think this looks fancy and lovely.

   2. Checked shirt + small loop earrings

   With a nice and simple hairdo, is perfect for days when you don't want to wear a skirt or dress (even though I love skirts and dresses, sometimes is not very practical). The good thing is also you can find this kind of shirt anywhere these days.

   3.Glittery eyes

   Audrey was quite ahead of her time in this. Well, if it is to put glitter, put a lot of it, and complete with nice eyeliner and mascara. Big full lashes were rule those days. But I think they kept it quite natural. I see some women today with ridiculously big fake lashes. Makes them look funny, not pretty.

   4. Cute ponytail

   Oh, hot sunny days. I'm suffering with them now. It is really hot here in Brazil between december and january. So hot you feel ill. The best thing these days is to put fresh clothes and put your hair up. So why not in this adorable ponytail? Just do a high one and add a ribbon to it. So simple.

   5. Where shoes you can walk on

   Girls do forget that lately. I see them stumbling around in 9 inch heels and it's so silly! The supposedly powerful and sexy effect is totally washed away. And it is so much fun to be with a woman which heels hurt so much she can barely stay up after half an hour and complain about it every 5 seconds, isn't it? So go and buy yourself comfortable and realistic heels. Nice guys prefer woman who can walk with them. For a long time. And dance too.

   No one can be like Audrey. She was so unique. But we can learn from her cheerful and ladylike personality, and try to be as stylish as she was. Just try, of course.

Celtic Mythology

   I've just finished reading a book about Celtic mythology. I find mythology fascinating, and know a good deal about the Greek one, and a bit less of the Norse. But Celtic has always fascinated me - you can't avoid being tempted to know more about them after reading The Mists of Avalon, which I did when I was eleven.

   Well, a few weekends ago I went to a bigger city nearby to find the perfect prom shoes for my dress and I couldn't resist to take a look at the bookshops. Jonas (my boyfriend) and I happily completed our Tolkien collection, thanks to the low prices on the books in English (the translated ones are scandalously expensive), and I found these rarities: books about mythology written by brazilians! Brazilians, if you don't know, generally don't pay any attention to it. Yet these two authors, a man and a woman who write together, have books on all kinds of myths: norse, celtic, hindi, greek and even our native's folklore.

   Due to short money, I bought only the Celtic and the Norse ones. The tone is not as documental as I would like (as it is in famous Tomas Bulfinch's The Golden Book of Mythology), but there's a fairly good range of myths.

   The celtic one presents myths from Ireland and Wales. The myths from Wales were better organised, I think because they were taken from a scottish woman's recollection of tales. It works fine as beginning material, but I'm thirsty for more detailed and numerous stories.

   Let's see about the norse one. Sometimes, I will share a piece of story with you - they are so entertaining and fun! The ancient really had a prodigious imagination!

Vintage Shoes from 40s and 50s, so lovely!

   I'm fascinated by vintage shoes and dream to have a decent oxford or t-strap heel! Drooling on the lovely shoes these girls wore:

   Aren't they adorable?

Freedom at last! And Prom.

  Hey! High School is totally over for me! I'm happy beyond description, really. I was so tired of my classes! I felt like sleeping made no difference this last month, so tired I was.

   Well, it is over for life! I will never have to wear an uniform again!

   The big question is: will I pass my exams to college? I'm optimistic. Here in Brazil, we have a peculiar way of selection. For most of colleges, there is a new form, which is a national test. For some, usually the best colleges, there is a two-step selection: a test of multiple choice, and a dissertative test. Candidates come and do the first test, and await results. They select the best of those to do the second test, which definitively selects the ones that can go to college.

    The colleges I'm trying follow the second model and I already have the results of the first test of the one I want the most. And I passed! In 15th place! I am soooo happy about it!

   So, I'm feeling that next year I probably am going to college, yes.

   There is one last thing related to school I must attend: my prom.

   Pretty excited about it. I love getting all dressed up. I bought the dress months ago, when I traveled to Orlando in the U.S. with my family. Dresses in Brazil are not much more expensive than dresses in the U.S., but they are much uglier. Too open and modern to me.  My dress is a nice tone of blue-green, in a shiny fabric, kind of a mermaid model, with little silver stones in the heart-shaped bust, with lacing (like a corset) on the back. I wanted something to match silver because I want to wear the Evenstar my boyfriend gave me last Christmas.

   

   This is the Evenstar, the necklace Arwen gives Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. Isn't it just perfect?

   Well, as I love vintage, and my dress and even the necklace don't conflict with something 40-ish, I'm planning to do something vintage to my hair and makeup. My ideal was to wear gloves, but I seriously doubt my mother would let me. Let's see. I already have my brand new pair of shoes, which has kind of a retro feeling to it.

   About the hair, there's a youtube channel of a girl that teaches all kinds of vintage hairdos, she's really great. If you like to do all those vintage hairstyles, like me, but doesn't have much of an idea how, she is perfect for you. I've learned a lot from her videos. She can be found here.

   It's going to be a busy week, I have tons of things to study (and I'm quite slow and lazy at that), but I will survive and who knows maybe I show up again here before next week.

   Wish me luck.

    

The Count of Monte Cristo and Possession

   Note: This is an old post I had prepared, and never published. Since it was ready, decided to do it now.

   More movies I've watched since I've last been here

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002 version)

   I liked this movie so much I intend to buy it! By what I've read, it is not the most faithful adaptation of the book - by the way, I always wanted soooo much to read Alexandre Dumas' books, but they are just way too expensive here and I can't find any in used book shops - but it's a very nice movie.

   It tells the story of Edmond Dantes. He is not very rich, but conquers many good things in his life which causes envy to his friend and noble Fernand Mondego. Mondego finds a way to incriminate Dantes for treason (and after the Revolution it was a very tense political time) and he goes arrested to Chatêau d'If, in a distant and desolate isle.

   There he meets an old man, Abbe Faria. He is very cult and teaches Dantes how to read, fight, about economy, politics, and mankind in general. He is trying to dig a tunnel to freedom, and Edmond helps him. But he is very old, and before dying he gives Edmond a map to the treasure he'd been put in prision for hiding. Edmond hides in the sack they would use to throw Abbe's body in the sea, and so manages to escape.

   He meets a bunch of pirates and wins their trust. Jacopo becomes his servant and best friend and togheter, with the treasure and faking nobility, they revenge those who did Dantes wrong.

   Really really good movie. I think Dumas was brilliant.

Possession

   This movie is not very known, but I loved it and I think you'll understand why.

   Maud and Roland are specialists in two victorian poets - she, in Christabel LaMotte; he, in Henry Ash - join forces to find out if the poets had a secret love affair or not, after they come about a few letters they wrote each other.

 
   They travel through many places their poems and diaries mention looking for clues of this unknown connection. But there are other scholars who hope to find evidences before they do and get the fame - and this might become dangerous.

   Oh, I wish I could go to many places to find out if writers did this or that based on what they left. What a dream job!

   I very liked the way they show the past and the present simultaneously.

   There's a book in which the movie was based, by A. S. Byatt. Seems it is more dense than teh movie. Sounds pretty interesting!

   Well, that's all I have for now. More later,

Used Book Stores

   Gods, I know! It's been more than a year. So much has changed. That diary I posted about making is long finished and I've made a new one now. I've watched so many more movies. I even got myself a boyfriend! We've been togheter over a year! Something to talk about later.

   Well, I'm not here to talk about all the changes in my life at once. Today I'm here to talk about my new  acquisitions! All those darling books from a used book shop.

   Here in Brazil books are expensive. Very expensive. New books, from the bookshop, usually cost between R$35 and 45 - and that is just ridiculous. Fortunately my boyfriend and I got the habit of frequently checking these stores (they also sell comics and LPs) and if you like to read classics, that's the place for you.

   Friday was my 17 year old birthday and my dear mom gave me some money and told us to go there and buy some books. She was the one who made me like reading from very young.

   So we went there and I ended up with no less then 7 books! And it cost like 7,40 each!

   The best thing is you can find those beautiful old, hard cover editions. So lovely!

   My Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque by Poe. I find the name in English very peculiar.

   Those are new, but the covers are gorgeous! The Sorrows of Young Werther and the Inferno part in the Divine Comedy.

   Comedies and Sonnets by Shakespeare. Sorry about the awful light.

   Ivanhoe and Death in Venice. Just like they are in my school's library.

   I have also Jane Eyre, some of Agatha Chritie's, The Picture of Dorian Gray... my dream is to find The Three Musketeers. Really.

   Because of these stores me and my boyfriend we're being able to collect vinyls of our beloved band Iron Maiden. We have four already. And there are many others. It is very worthwhile to take time and look - because it requires a lot of patience. But it's fun, it's like treasure hunting!

   Kisses,