Tales of the Peculiar

Autumn arrived in the beginning of October, and since then it´s been awfully cold.

In my world that means only one thing: it is time to fill my already stuffed tea cupboard, take the soft blankets out of the wardrobe and curl up with a good book. I love books all year long, but somehow the cold months are my favourites for endless reading sessions. 

Consequently, this might be the period when I buy the most of my paper editions (the rest of the year I tend to download on my ebook, but when Winter comes I prefer the company of a good old paper specimen), as I take advantage from all the seasonal releases. One of the titles on my last book haul was Tales of the Peculiar by Ranssom Riggs.

Summer reads

At the beginning of the week I tried to organize my spare time a little bit, as I had no chance at all recently. I thought  sorting out my Summer reads could be a nice start, as this task seems to have lived in my to-do list like FOREVER. So last Monday I patiently sat on the bedroom, and started separating the unfinished books in a group that I called the "pile of shame"  almost immediately (as a philologist and a general bookworm it is quite rare to leave any unfinished stories to me. However, most of them happened to be short stories compendiums, which I tend not to read in strict chapter order. As a result, there´s always some story forgotten and left behind).  

 

Is that you, June?

This was supposed to be the first (summery) June week, a long-time awaited period of warm sunny days I expected to be full with pleasant walks, picnics and some delightful swimming. But of course June had its own plans.If you thought this post was about all of those beautiful things, I am sorry to disappoint you – please, feel free to blame that son of a biscuit. 

Naughty week.

It is an universally known truth that once in a while all that may go wrong will do. 

Now, before you all get worried about it and start kindly asking me if I am OK and so on, I am totally fine. I am just referring to that type of week when every single little thing seems to delay or twist, causing not serious but annoying trouble. It is just like we all enjoy our own dose of Murphy´s Law now and then, and this time it was my turn.

It is a bit too complicated to explain it here, but long story short: I spent half of the week trying to sort a bureaucratic process without any result, lost a delivery parcel because of being home absent, and had a couple of little irritating domestic accidents due to anxiety making me even more clumsy than usual. Well, c´est la vie, I suppose! 

Blogmas Day 9: My wish list.

Hello dear readers and welcome to Blogmas Day 9!

For today post I chose to tell you a bit about my December wish list. I should explain this is not a strict Christmas presents kind of inventory, and as a matter of fact I am not waiting for The Gentle One to go and shop all these items for me. There are many other things that have caught my eye around towm lately, and what I enjoy the most about holiday gifts is the mistery factor: being completely surprised by others is part of the seasonal magic. I can be like a child during holiday season, and then all I want is eating yummy food, watching movies, reading a lot and opening surprise presents on Christmas Eve. In spite of that, these are the objects I have been craving for the last couple of months (and sometimes even for a longer time). 

Are you curious about it? There we go then!

What I did in January

Oh, Jeez... February is on its last week already (WHAT? Is it almost over?)

and I can´t believe what a soft and nice Winter we had.

You see? There´s no way to complain about the weather anymore, as it has been quite warm comparing with last year around here...

Anyway, it´s time for another monthly round-up episode.

Do you want to know what I did in January?

Book review: Horns by Joe Hill.

Joe Hill has been on my list of to-read authors for ages.

Specifically since I was in my first university year and a I met a good friend of mine.

We instantly connected, as we shared the same passion for horror literature.

During our second coffee and "let´s-talk-about-all-the-horror-novels-we-like" date, she mentioned she totally hated Stephen King, but liked his son better.

A long time went by, and although I totally forgot about the connection with S. King, my memory withheld the name of Joe Hill.

Unfortunately, getting a copy of his works in Spanish was difficult by then, 

and I was not as familiar with English language as I am nowadays, so I didn´t feel confident enough to try.

However, I received a copy of Horns this Christmas,  and I could finally give it a chance.

Late Christmas loot (third edition)

It´s being a while, but I am back from my Spanish Christmas holiday (which consisted on

tons of social interaction, and food too. Actually, it also consisted on tons of drugs against influenza, but that´s a far less interesting story unless you enjoy fever & chills horror stories), and this means I am back to upload about my latest adventures too. Althought it´s been a while since Christmas Day, I thought following my old January tradition would be ok.

I already told you about my festive season presents back in 2013 and 2014, and for some reason people looked to like those, so I decided to go ahead this year.

What I did in October

 I found myself checking the calendar this morning just to get amazed about how quickly November is going by.
Yes, I know I mention this on a monthly basis, but I can't avoid a certain feeling of loss when I am busy. It looks like time behaves like water running through my hands.

 There is a couple of specific reasons for this making me feel a bit stressed, but I will be coming to it later.

In any case, as November is almost over, my electronic agenda rang again to remind me it is time to write about what I did last month.

 There we go!

What I did in September

Yes, yes, I know. In this ocassion my monthly series is very delayed.

I bet you even thought I was not posting this month (and to be honest I was about to consider it, but I finaly managed to find some unexpected spare time to do it, after all).

The reason is my lack of luck, in other words, October has been a terrible period.

I mentioned I got sick at the very beginning of the month, and as fool as I am, I thought things could just improve afterwards.

HA.

Halloween countdown

As I already mentioned, my last two weeks and half consisted on long couch and blanket seasons, hot lemon tea, fever and chills.

Nevertheless, I decided not to let my spirits down, and spent my forced extra spare time by syntonizing with the season and oficially starting my Halloween countdown.

In other words, as I had to stay at home as much as possible,  I would download a ton of horror movies, selected half a dozen of ghost and ghoul stories from our bookshelves, dusted the Autumn decor, and listened to some (low volume) music.

Third blog anniversary give away

Happy Sunday, everyone!

This week I was having my normal routine of work, early Halloween rituals 

(basically consisting on horror movies marathons, book and decor shopping, pie baking...) and my typical seasonal chills, when I suddenly remember this month is 

the third blog anniversary!

I can´t believe I almost forgot about it. Well, I actually do.

Not only because I am really clueless, but also because this week my health is 

playing hyde and seek with me, and I am partially inside my own little bubble...

On Saturn days we used to sleep

For most people Sundays are the typical resting day.
A day linked to late breakfast, newspaper, family lunch and all that jazz.
I share that vission, but Saturdays can be as lazy as Sundays for me.
The reason is simple: I am quite lazy homely myself.

What I did in June

When I first posted the June roundup, I received a couple of messages from readers suggesting me to continue with this section on a monthly basis. Positively, I think it is a good idea, mainly because I can be a bit lazy about setting posts together sometimes, and this is a non-stressful-way-at-all  to stay stuned.

Late Christmas Loot (second edition)

It begins to look like a tradition to me posting about my Christmas presents when the new year has already begun. 

But you know, I´m the kind of person who spends the holiday jumping from one to another, so planning a proper blog entry during Christmas is actually difficult.

So here I am again this year, merrily showing my Yule loot to you in the first fortnight of January.

I hope you enjoy it!

It was the radiance of an opium dream, an airy and spirit-lifting vision

It actually began like any other horror story.

I was at home with The Gentle One a couple of nights ago. The previous evening it had started snowing and since then the white flakes continued falling. Indeed, it was pretty cold and windy, so we decided to stay indoors and dedicate some time to read and just having some nice relaxing time together.

 To this point everything was right.

I don´t have all my books here at the moment (unfortunately, they rest in many boxes at my parent´s place) and consequently I chose the gorgeous brand new volume waiting on my library. A friend of mine gave it to me during my recent visit to Spain this month as a late birthday present. This very beautiful copy of Tales of the Macabre is illustrated by Benjamin Lacombe and also so stunning that I spent the first half an hour looking at the pictures. But then I started reading (or re-reading, like most of you, gothic ladies, would probably do with Poe).

 Is in this point when things went weird.

Didn´t you realize?

Ok, I´ll help you a bit.

 It was a dark and stormy night, the wind was howling around the house, the snow was lashing against the window, and we were all alone in our new apartment.

So, recap: stormy night, new house and bizarre tales... we were totally in a horror movie!

In fact, I had been feeling kind of conscious about it the whole day, maybe because I am not used to the new apartment (you never know if it is haunted until, I don´t know, six months or so? At least that´s the quantity of time that I need to feel comfortable at a new place), maybe because I was reading Poe and partially because I had been watching The Conjuring the previous evening and by then I was totally horrified...

And then, it happened.

Tap, Tap... went the window.

"OMG!" I shouted, jumping from the couch. "Here they are!"

"It´s just the wind" said The Gentle One (who had totally jumped out of his seat too, and was now adopting a reasonable attitude in the hopes that I hadn´t noticed.) "And who’s ‘They’ anyway?"

"I don´t know," I answered hidding myself behind the sofa. "It could be ghosts, psychos or those evil Romanian spirits I have been reading about" (and, in point of fact, I had been reading a bit too much about Romanian folklore and the Vârcolac too, which actually didn´t help either). "I have watched too many horror movies, dude, I can recognize it when I´m in one!"

 

"I think YOU´ve watched too many of those movies now" he observed. "But seriously, it was just the wind. Now come out from behind the sofa, please"

And I was about to do it when, believe or not, lights went off.

"Oh, God!" I screamed into complete panic then. "You see? I was right!"

The Gentle One didn´t look too secure by then, but he heroically found the value to go outside (against my will, you don´t want your boyfriend to leave you in the hunted house after saying "I´ll be back in a minute") and check what was happening. Apparently, it was a general blackout affecting the whole street. And darlings, I can tell you I am not a big fan of them. I mean, I do love horror films, but just because I like to know they are not happening to me. 

The thing is that my noble fiancé was brave enough to turn some candles on and prepared a delicious dinner all byhimself (I was too busy by casting suspicious glances around) and when the electric power was restored, well, he prescribed to me a good dose of non-horror movies for a time.

 Fair enough, don´t you think?

P.S: By the way, I keep receiving so many questions about me for the next Give Away on my mail, that I just decided to open an Ask Fm account in order to make it a bit tidier. 
Remember that every question is an extra chance to participate.

This is the link: www.ask.fm/Violettebaudelaire 

Good luck!

Late Christmas Loot Post

I dont´know if you think the same about yourselves, but sometimes I feel like a terrible blogger.
I mean, I seriously try to keep clear that very attractive post schedule that I continuously delineate in my mind, but it looks like, somehow, there´s always something trying to frustrate my golden plans.
Call it whatever you want: seminars, deadlines, job, academic reading timeline...
And finally, at the beginning of 2013, I decided I had enough of this.

I am not the kind of person who makes too serious New Year´s resolutions, but If I was, one of them would be stop complaining about the conspiration of the faerie of bad luck and start doing what I really want to.
In this case, honouring myself and my ideal post schedule (which would include, at least, one post a week).

So, in order to begin doing so (and after finding the perfect inspiration in Bella Morte´s lovely blog), I am going to tell a little bit about what was under the Christmas tree this year.
Because I have the cutest family ever, and even though many days passed through since Christmas´ Eve, it hasn´t been so long since 6th of January (which in Spain is another oficial date to be given presents) ♥

♥ This beautiful spiderweb necklance is one of my favourite gifts ever, not for its big value, but for it was given to me by my youngest sister. She is just thirteen years old (her birthday was last week) and she deeply knows my personal tastes and always does her best to find something genuine.

♥ Here you can see the precious ringstone that forms the body of the spider a little better, as well as the precious Venetian mask that The Gentle One bought for me. A girl cannot posibly have too many masks. Ok, I know I say that every single time about opera gloves, shoes and dresses but what?
Raise your hand if you don´t have one several personal fetishes. Shoes, pencil skirts, bags? Yes, then you know what I am speaking about. My man also got me a new blouse and a fake fur shrug. But I´ll show them to you in some future outfit post.

♥ Continuing with my legendary little sister´s contributions, she also got me a huge Yves Rocher Christmas pack. It basically consists on three awesome body milk lotions (vanilla, raspberry and Malasyan coconut) and three matching fragances. Once again: she is totally amazing! She knew I do love Yves Rocher organic products, not only beacuse they are free of any potential animal ingredients, but also because they leave a soft fresh touch in your skin.

♥ My mum, meanwhile, gave this great skin care regime products to me.
I have to confess that I am not a big fan of  L´oreal bussiness politics right now, however their products are still awesome and though I won´t be giving more money to them myself, I cannot reject a present like this from mum, right?

♥ This gorgeous pearl tiara is another gift from mummy.
She is always giving tiaras to me, mainly because (as she says) I am still a little princess to her eyes. Yes, my mum has to be the only one in the world for whom a grown up gothic lady is nothing but a little princess.
Yeah, you´re right, she´s the best!
Daddy contributed with a pair of wellies and a good quality vaccum bottle. Because if mum sees my like a little girl, for dad I am the girl with the eternal cold.
And do you know what? Damn, it´s true!

♥ Going back to The Gentle One he got these two second hand books to me. They are special because Anne Bronte´s works are really hard to find in Spanish, and the edition of Those Little Women is the one of my childhood, so many emotional memories are connected with it.

♥ And finally, my boss gave this cute box of handicraftsman soap just before holiday.
They smell SO good which is hard of define (strawberry, vanilla, lavender...).
I am still trying to avoid to eat them!

I have to say that I received an extra gift last week from my mother-in-law.
She got me a great coat with furry neckline, but ey, you´ll see it here someday, so no worries!

So tell me darlies, were you in Santa´s nice list?

My life lately (and giveaway winner)

This is a very vague testimony of my few last days this week.

As they were full with lots of twists I just could capture a couple of little impressions.

Be sure you fasten your seat belt! 

♥Last week has been kind of a madness since many changes burst into my life. 

The plans that I had built around a new job position collapsed, but a new (and unexpected) project showed up. 

Tarot is always a lighthouse in those ocassions.

 Well, I don´t trust it like an infallible orable; however, it always help to meditate about all my options.

♥As a consequence of those crazy news, now I have to deal with a narrower schedule 

which basically means a series of racing all through the city to be on time both at job and university seminars.

 On a practical level this means less time for lunch, so I try to ensure I have vitamins enough in my diet.

♥My seminars have already started but I refuse to admit that summer is over, so I keep

 reading child books just for pleasure.  

The Wind in the Willows is one of my favourite children´s literature classics ever.

Someday I´ll make an entire post about it! 

 ♥Beside all this, this week I started my pre-Halloween annual research.

 What does it consist on? Good question!

Every year at the beginning of the month I put my comfy shoes on and wander around the city

 in the want of cute stuff that I can use as Halloween stuff. 

At the moment I have been sneaking a peek at candy stores.

                 ♥I also tried to improve my origami skills with no success (the beautiful butteflies above are 

my friend Elisa´s old creations), and made lots of smothies for an extra energy dose. The smoothie in the picture was made of frozen blueberries and raspberries (no chance to get them fresh here). 

 ♥ And finally: the very expected winner of the Giveaway event.

Corresponding with the original order of participants the lucky lady is (drumroll, please):

Aoife

Congratulations, dear!

And to the rest of you, Thank you so much for participating.

I am sure you´ll have more opportunities in the future.

Do thou snatch treasures from my lips, and I'll take kingdoms from thine.

 Birthday presents have an interesting connotation, because they reflect the way in which we are perveived by our loved ones. Additionally they symbolize all the affection, respect and consideration about the honoree. And of course gifts always will have that kind of magic aura capable of transporting us back to childhood and transforming a reasonable grown-up in a laughing toddler.

This year (because I am always such a good girl) I have received lots of stunning treasures, those includying a luxury beauty treatment that I could probably not afford myself at the moment (thankie mum), a sparkling tiara, earrings, broochs and bracelet (yes, I am as a magpie fascinated by shinning stuff) , and a dinky customized ex-libris showing my name and a bunch of Art Noveau flowers ( I need to sign all my beloved books with a decorative sign).
Everything is so lovely!

The Gentle One gave me a long-term wanted set of straightener and curling irons. So yes, as you guessed lots of funny (and disastrous, I am sure) hair experiments are coming.

I also was gifted with an exquisite Elisabethan corset, a dainty lace top and a gorgeous silk scarf but I thought those would be better portrayed in many future outfit posts. 

This way all fun is not wasted, is it?

Tales from a Bookworm

 

This is how a wormbook looks on a Friday evening.

The last past weeks have been a madness.
Stuck on a metaphorical pillory of duties those including seminars, job, essays, private classes and a brand new little bussiness of my own, it has been kind of hard to find spare time for little pleasures. Sadly, this means no time for blogging at all. Modern times demand an unrealistic efficiency from everyone.

However, sometimes one have to stop and breath.
In my case, there is a huge breed of things I use to indulge myself. No eccentricities neccesarily but just small treats. From a luxury capuccino with floating marshmallows to a single walk under the autumn trees, everything may help to relax. One of my favourite things in the whole world consists on spending evenings in a library just for pleasure. On Friday night I had to go to the public library to pick one of the novels I previously booked for my American literature classes. So I decided to transform commitment into a chance to enjoy.

It´s kind of fascinating the way in which these places have changed in the last ten years.
As a curious child and a remarkably antisocial teen, I got used to see the same kind of people consulting books day by day. They were mainly retired people, undergraduates or just solitary kids like me. Nevertheless, the net grew up and computers were introduced even in the most conservative book stores. As a consequence, you can find hordes of teens checking their emails every Friday night nowadays. Little coffee shops have been even installed, offering a smart variety of sandwiches, tea and other refreshments to have while you´re reading your favourite novel. Funny thing this new and modern world.

Anyway, I exploited the opportunity and met my fiancé there.
Being another paper-eater, we simply toured the three level floor building snooping the shelves. What a delight! I like to learn the new material everytime and - oh, man!- in this occasion the horror department was full of shinning trasures. Somebody asked for the beautiful ( and expensive) gothic editions from the Spanish publishing house of Valdemar. And there they were! The complete works of H.P. Lovecraft on that very desirable edition. A chip on my shoulder. Actually, I do not have spare time to read random books now. I have a stressing reading schedule because of my classes at university, so I won´t be able to make it until Christmas.
I simply was a modelic school girl and picked my copy of The House of the Seven Gables by N. Hawthorne. Yes, Hawthorne is a genious and I know it but sometimes you are not happy reading the works that other people chose for you.

At the end of the day, The Gentle One and I got home carrying our paper provisions. And yes, I must confess he was happier than me about that.

 

Fuzzy and lovely reader looking for new treasures