Well hello there
Long time no see, huh? Tbh, didn’t really feel like blogging anymore after I got back from my exchange abroad. Was too preoccupied with readjusting to normal life in Belgium again. But after a couple of months, I felt like it was time again. I really missed just blurring all my thoughts and likes and posting my attempts at artistic photography. I decided to start another blog here, with another name (’cause I never really like Hearts and Stripes, it’s just not very me). So without further ado, I present you my new blog: Road to Somewhere
La Diane a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point
This week I got my first Diana photo’s! They turned out much better than expected to be honest. Only four out of sixteen didn’t work out well (as in, they were dark). But I only took one picture out of four, the rest are from other people who borrowed my camera. Don’t know what they did wrong actually, maybe they didn’t pull the handle down enough?
Anyway, these aren’t perfect, I still need to practice on my aiming-skills to get everything nicely centered (or at least, to not chop of half of people’s heads). And I need to learn how to work with the lens, cause I kind of want to get the whole building on the frame. I also tried to take a picture inside using the B-stand. To my surprise it wasn’t dark at all! But it turned out very blurry. A tripod is definitely on my to-buy-list next semester! It would come in handy to take shots with my DSLR as well..
Anyway, here are some shots of which I think they aren’t too bad. If you want to see the rest, you can always check out my pictures on the lomography-community.
If you have some Lomo-shots as well, let me know and give me a link to them if you want! I would love to see them.
Sometimes, you just need a pop of pink
I’ve wanted to have pink hair for a while now. Not entirely pink, just to dye my ends pink. I looked for different dyes on the internet and I did found some that looked very promising. But I wasn’t very eager to buy them. My hair is pretty dark and I was afraid the color wouldn’t be as bright as I wanted it to be. Also, I didn’t want to damage my hair by bleaching it.
But then something other came my way. A Swedish friend of mine had a couple of pink strings in her hair . It looked so amazing and she didn’t even used dye! She used this new product called the colour.bug by Kevin Murphy. I’ll let the Australian hair stylist himself explain how this works:
The most important thing is probably the styling product you have to apply to your hair before adding the Color.Bug . Without it, the color will fade away in a couple of minutes. I find that the stickier the product, the better and the longer the color stays in your hair. Also, I like to end the whole coloring process by spraying a bit of hairspray over the colored parts of your hair, cause I feel that the color stays longer in your hair that way.
The thing I like the most about the Color.Bug is that it doesn’t damage your hair at all! You don’t have to bleach your hair beforehand or even dye your hair! Also, the color comes of straight away when you wash it, so you don’t have to walk around for days with faded dye in your hair. It’s the ideal product if you feel like adding a bit of color to your hair!
What I don’t really like is the little amount of product you get. I used mine only two times and I can already see the bottom of the bug. Also, when I apply it, I feel like there’s more product onto my hands and on the floor than on my hair. You lose a lot of product, which is normal with a powder I guess. But then I would’ve like to have a bigger ‘Bug’ with more product in it (using the word product a lot in this paragraph) to compensate for the amount you lose while using it. (Or maybe I’m applying it incorrectly, ha).
I found the Color.Bug in a hair salon in Gothenburg, but you can easily order it online! Or you can find salons in your area where they sell Kevin Murphy hair products! I bought mine for 140kr (which is like 16 euros), but prices may vary!
Happy coloring!
Yes, I got one as well
I guess most of you know the infamous Lomography-camera’s? Well, if you don’t, better check out their website and drool over all of their cool camera’s and gadgets they have!
The Lomography Society was founded in the 90s and has grown ever since. It has tons of cameras to choose from: La Sardina, Fisheye, Actionsampler and many many more. The most famous one, judging by the many times I’ve seen this cute little thing pass on blogs, is the Diana F+. And after months of debating which camera I should get, I went for the Diana as well:
Originally I was planning to save up for the Lomo LCA-camera, which is a lot more expensive than most lomo-cameras. As I saw my budget shrinking during my stay in Sweden, I knew I couldn’t wait until I got back home and work till I got enough money to buy it. I really wanted to try out this new (well, actually old) way of photography, so when I saw this pretty mintgreen edition of the Diana F+ in Urban Outfitters, I instantly knew I had to have it. So I bought it, and I’m still happy I did!
Today I brought my first film to the photo shop. Now let’s hope I didn’t screw up my first roll and that I can show you some decent pictures in a couple of days! Fingers crossed!
Btw, do you guys have any lomo-cameras? Which ones? And are you also as obsessed with them as I am?
Quick update
Hi all!
So I know it’s been a long while since I’ve updated my blog. To be honest, I really didn’t feel like it. When I got back from my trip to Malta, I had to focus on completing my last exams and assignments of the semester. After that, people were starting to leave, goodbye parties were practically a daily habit and before I even realized, it was the 7th of June and I was already gone traveling on my road trip throughout Scandinavia and the Balkans.
Blogging was the last thing on my mind for several reasons. The most important one was probably that I’d rather spend time with all the new friends I’ve made the past six months, knowing that I wouldn’t see some of them for probably a couple of years… Also, so much has happened that I didn’t know where to start! I still have tons of pictures that I need to convert and resize, I just didn’t have the time to do it all.
Anyway, last month was pretty busy. As I already told you, I made a 10 day-road trip. I visited several cities: Oslo, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Riga, Tallinn and I ended in my beloved Stockholm. When I got back to Karlstad, campus life was so different than it used to be. More people have left and the whole community atmosphere was practically gone. But I still had a great last ten days there. I met up almost everyday with my friends who were still there, celebrated a fantastic Swedish midsommer together and ended the whole Erasmus-experience with one of the best spontaneous midnight strolls I ever had! But more on all of that later.
I arrived back home on Thursday afternoon. My mom got pie and wine and we celebrated my arrival back to Belgium. It was really nice to see my family again. I’m meeting up with the rest of them and my friends this weekend or later this week. In a way it feels good to be back home, to be back to the real life, because Erasmus is everything but real life. It’s like you’re living in a fairytale or a movie. University comes in second and it’s all about the ‘experience’, about meeting new people, broadening your senses and mind. This was probably one of the most fantastic experiences of my life, and I will never have one like that again. I’m glad it all ended on a good and perfect moment and that I didn’t try to prolong the whole experience and Erasmus-feeling by staying a couple of weeks longer. All good things come to an end, and so did this one.
Real life will start to get form next week. I’ll finally get to see my new place in Ghent, have an interview for a summer job and I’ll probably start working on my master thesis. My mom really wants to get started on my driving lessons, but I don’t know if I’ll have time (or any enthusiasm, haha) for it. Anyway, it’s going to be a busy summer, doing not so interesting things. That’s why I thought this would be the perfect time to catch up on all the Erasmus-travels and adventures I had the past six months. It’s also a nice way for me to reminiscence the whole experience. I’ll try and be more consequent in my updating though, ha!
This post has been too long already, so I’ll leave you with this nice song of a Swedish band called Den Svenska Björnstammen. Enjoy and talk to you soon!
The spontaneous ones are the best ones
click images for sources!
When you will read this post, I will be enjoying the sun on the island Malta!
To be honest with you, this trip wasn’t part of my travel plans at all. A couple of friends of mine were going, and after looking at the cheap price (yay Ryanair!) I thought: why the hell not? You only live once and the moment to go on spontaneous-and-not-really-necessary-trips is probably during your studies abroad, hah!
I’ll be seeing you in a week! With a huuuge update of course!
Janice
Stockholm Day 3!
We spent our last day just walking around, enjoying the city atmosphere and the Swedish sun. We were so lucky with the weather those three days! Right after we got back in Karlstad, no sun was to be seen.
We sat in parks, near the water, on docks, it was just the best chillaxing day ever.
My travel companions! Now I begin to realize that within a month this fantastic experience will be over and I’ll probably see most of the fantastic people I’ve met not for a long time. That’s the downside to the whole Erasmus-experience I guess..
New shoes I bought in Monki a while ago in sale. Right after I got my leopard print coat, my love for all things leopard has grown. The moment I saw these cuties, I knew I had to add to bring them home with me.
At 19:24 we took our train back to Karlstad, where I spent my last couple of days..studying. Yesterday I had my last exam for a while. Now I have some fun things planned, but more on that later!
Have a great week!
Janice
20-year-old from Belgium, currently living, studying and partying in Karlstad, Sweden.
-
-
