Obscure Journey

As I type this, Catholics celebrated Easter yesterday. Here, in the East of Europe, we'll celebrate on Sunday. 

The Jewish people started to celebrate/ovserve Passover/Pesach, on the 8th of April, in the evening. 

Muslims will start to celebrate or better said, observe Ramadan later in the month. However, Ramadan has nothing to do with Easter/Passover, as far as I know. I also don't know much about this holy month so, I can't talk about it. 

I only mentioned them because they say they believe in the same God. I don't know about that, I don't want to go into a discussion about this, not right now. I just wanted to acknowledge them. 

If you celebrate Easter, chances are you're going it wrong, if you do the following:

1. Eating chocolate

I have no idea where the idea to eat chocolate for Passover came from. It's probably something some chocolate maker decided to try and convince the public to do, in order to keep on selling chocolate. and it worked. 

I honestly don't have the power to search the reason why at this moment, but i might in the future. 

2. Rabbits ... eggs....Passover?

There is no connection between rabbits and Passover. Rabbits don't even lay eggs. I can't even say rabbits are a symbol for life.

Speaking of eggs, i have no idea why you have to search for them either. It is fun, yes, but this is a bitter-sweet celebration, for both Jews and Christians, if you ask me. 

If anything they could symbolize fertility because rabbits can give birth to many babies. Fertility has nothing to do with Passover. 

If you think the celebration is about rabbits or fertility, you might be celebrating Ostara instead, a Wiccan/Pagan celebration. In this case, you shouldn't call yourself a Christian, anymore, sorry. :(

3. Where is the Ressurection?

It appears that when Jesus was crucified, this happened during the Pesach observation. And Jesus was a Jew and he was killed by the Jewish priests, or something. Go read the Bible to know more. 

Please, don't go attack any Jewish person over this aspect. You better go thank them instead. Think about it: if Jesus didn't die for (y)our sins then, we'd be living in a different world. 

According to the Christian Bible, Jesus resurrected on the 3rd day.  And this is what you're supposed to celebrate, not the stupid rabbits. 

4. lambs are connected to Passover

Lambs are connected to this celebration because the Bible says (more or less) that Jesus was sacrificed like an (innocent) lamb. 

In fact, here in this Easterrn country, lamb is the traditional Passover meal/meat. It's rarely eaten outside of this celebration, and i don't why, and i don't mind it. 

5. "Easter" and not Passover or Resurrection

Easter is most likely related to Ostara, see above. 

As a Christian, you should probably use the term Resurrection for this celebration. If instead you want to be closer to the Jewish roots, you should use the term Passover. 

Jesus died to free us from sin. Passover commemorates the time the Jewish people spent in the desert, after being freed from slavery. This is the real connection between these holy days. And also the time at which Jesus was crucified, as mentioned earlier. 

If you're Catholic and already celebrated "Easter," try not to feel too bad about it. There's at least one reason this entry appeared today and not earlier: old habits die hard. HAd you read this before "Easter," your mood would have been ruined. 

Everyone has to stay at home, and most likely searching for chocolate eggs and eating them was the highlight of this nonsense going on, until we can go out again. 

You can't even cancel some things just because you just learned they're wrong. Lifestyle changes happen in time, if you want to change some things. Reading this article now, gives you 1 year to prepare for the next Passover in a more appropriate way. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Is it Halloween? No, it's the lent before Pascha (or Easter, depending on who you're asking), and pumpkin soup is a vegan dish. We're supposed to eat vegan dishes during lent. 

It's also one of the easiest dishes I came across! And honestly, i have no idea why I waited for so long to make it! No, I do know why: I thought it's sweet, since I associate pumpkin with the pie. I was wrong, or at least this soup didn't turn out sweet. 

INGREDIENTS:

• pumpkin
• carrots
• salt
• powder black pepper
• water (of course)
• the tool to mash potatoes (in this case, pumpkin)

METHOD:

You need to peel the carrots and dice them. 

Throw the carrot cubes in a large enough pot, with water and salt. Place the pot on fire. Carrots cook slower than many other vegetables, hence it's ok to have them on the fire for a little longer.

Cut the pumpkin in smaller pieces, and remove the skin. I used my knife for this part. You might want to cut the pieces even smaller, to help with the cooking time.

Throw your smaller pumpkin pieces into the pot as well. Hopefully you can tell the pumpkin pieces in the pot are smaller than on the cutting board.

Turn the heat up, and make the whole think boil for some 20 minutes. You might want to adjust the time, depending on the quantity. You have to make sure the pumpkin is cooked. It has to be soft when you poke it with a fork.

Now you want to take the tool you use for mashing potatoes, and use it to mash the boiled carrots and pumpkin. 

When you're done, you might want to add more salt, and some pepper. You can serve hot or cold.

Bon appetit!

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Hello!

Today I have a solution for old clothes that don't fit anymore, and thus they sit in the closet, collecting dust. This solution will save your wallet, give a new life to both your clothes and wardrobe, and create a unique personal style, because YOU ARE unique!  

Most clothes that we buy come in standard sizes. They assume that if your hips measure 100cm, then perhaps your waist is around 80 or 90 cm. This is not always the case. they make clothes in standard proportion, but our bodies are not always proportionate. 

My body for instance, is as much as an hourglass as it can, hence there's a significant difference between my waist and bust, and waist and hips. However, if it wasn't for my chest, i could fit into tops that are sized Small because my rib cage is pretty small. 

So, back to topic. I had these 2 tshirts you can see below, but i can't wear them. The light green one is too transparent for my tastes :( The other one was extremely tight. 

I liked the beige one more than the greenish one, so i wanted to wear that one But i had to be larger.

I measured it against a tshirt with a fit that I liked. In my case, i needed about 32cm more fabric.

The idea was to find strips of fabric that were 16cm wide, cut the side seam on the beige tshirt, and attach the strips to the new edges. 

This is where the greenish tshirt came in handy. It provided it side seam, already had hems, and was a very similar fabric to the other one. At least in weight -very light weight, and feel - very soft and comfortable, breathable. 

I measured, marked, cut and proceeded to sew. the pieces in. I measured 8cm on each side of the greenish top. Since it's already folded, 8x2=16, 16x2=32. 

I think i should have used straight strips of fabric, and not the seam sides of another tshirt with a different cut. It turns out, the greenish fabric was somehow loner than the beige tshirt. I had to create some pleats, to make them match. 

When laid flat, the new tshirt looks off, but on me, it looks ok. 

So, to make it easier, the steps are:

1. find out how much room you need - measure your top and measure your body, and see the difference. OR, measure the smaller top against another one that fits good. substract the smaller from the bigger, and that's how much fabric you need (it's width). 

2. the easiest method would be to insert strips at the side seams. divide the width from above by 2, since there are 2 side seams in a top - the ones going from the armpits down to the waist and to the elbow/wrist. 

3. find a similar weight fabric or texture, and cut 2 strips equal in width - the value from point 2. Add some extra for seam allowance. Ideally, these strips would be the same length as your top, but feel free to be creative here. Don't forget about the hem on the lower part and at the sleeve, so they might need to be longer than your top. 

4. cut the side seams of your tshirt. 

5. sew the strips of fabric to the open edges of your top. And you're done!

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Hello World! 

The title says it all: today i want to show you 3 Romanian cakes. These cakes can be found in any cake shop and even at the supermarket. Or this was my experience so far.

If you ever find yourself in Romania, I think you should try these cakes, but try and make sure you buy them from a cake shop: they taste better there, for some reason, compared to the ones in supermarkets. Ana Pan is where you'll probably find the best tasting cakes, at least in Bucharest. 

i should mention that we do have many other types of cakes available, but i'll present the ones that are specific to Romania, and not imported. 

Ok, enough rambling: on to the cakes!

Cartof Cake

This is a pretty simple cake, and easy to recognize: it looks like a cocoa ball. It's also covered in cocoa powder and sits prettily on muffin-like baking paper. 

Besides cocoa, it also contains raisins, rum, butter, and of course sugar. It has a moist texture on the inside, though it looks dry on the outside. 

"Cartof" actually means "potato" in Romanian, so i suppose the cake is meant to look like a potato, but it's just a ball. 

You can eat it with a spook or fork, or even directly with your hands, but holding it through the paper it sits on. 

I vaguely remember seeing log-like cartof cake. Besides the shape, there's no other difference. 

Savarina Cake

This cake is pretty similar to choux-a-la-creme, I guess. 

This cake has a pretty big chunk of sponge-like cake as the base. I think it is baked in a muffin shape, given that it has some ridges on the upper part.

As you can see, they partially cut a slice on the upper part which they cover with a red jelly. They then use a huge amount of syrup, and then they add a good dollop of whipped cream. 

Unlike the choux cake, this one doesn't have any other cream nor pudding inside. 

While it also comes on some paper or cake cardboard, it's best eaten with a teaspoon or fork, off a plate. Some place now sell them in a small but deep enough plastic container, to avoid the syrup leaking everywhere. 

Excelent Cake

This is another chocolate cake. This layered cake has generous amounts of chocolate cream layers.

This chocolate cream is made with butter, and thus it can be quite heavy for the stomach.  

It's best using some tool like a fork or teaspoon to eat it, though eating with the hands is also possible. This is because it is also served on that specific cake paper. 

The chocolate cream on top and bottom is a different type. The one on top is probably ganache. The slices are about as thick as 2 fingers. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

!!!!Trigger warning!!!!!

Please, if you are a victim of any type of abuse, AND the subject triggers you, it's best you stop reading now. The main type of abuse I will touch on is ra-pe. :( oh, and i dislike censoring myself.

I will add a picture to separate more the main/triggering part of this entry from this intro/warning.

 This article was triggered by the attitude/words/comments of a Youtube user who will stay anonymous. 

The subject of the video was neutral, peaceful, related to some degree to fashion. The user agreed with the video, but it was because of a wrong mindset, as the title (might) suggest. But perhaps you should not read further?

It's -September 2019- scratch that. January 2020 is here now because i didn't have enough power to write this to the end.

I didn't post in a very long time. And I honestly I can't believe I have to type this title in 2019. 

The truth is that there are still people out there that STILL blame the victims for what happened to them. 

As you already read I was watching a video on why it's important to wear modest clothing. The subject was in the right spot, nothing wrong with it -from what I could tell, nothing triggering. The author was saying BOTH men and women should wear modest clothing. There was no judgement passed towards those who don't. I literally can't recall anything wrong with the video - I really want to make this clear.

The idea was that non modest clothing gives away information about your body that others can use against you, usually through insults and body shaming. the author continued to say that insults make people feel bad (you don't have to be a genius to know this), and feeling bad can easily lead to sadness or depression and other bad stuff. On the other hand, modest clothing hides these flaws, people doesn't have such info to use against you, and will have to rely on other stuff, for instance your knowledge, personality, personal belongings, skills, so on. 

The idea is that the body is very personal and intimate, and this is why only our partners usually sees us naked - we're most vulnerable when naked. Many of us feel vulnerable in front of the doctor as well, hence some hospitals have those robes/gowns, to protect our privacy as much as possible. 

The user who triggered me was someone who answered to a comment whose author simply said they noticed how differently they (she) were (was) treated when wearing modest clothing VS when wearing more revealing outfits. I personally noticed a similar change, and i'd like to challenge those reading, to try dressing more modestly when going out or to work. 

The 2nd user came to say basically that when a woman dresses in a revealing manner, it means "she's asking for it." I honestly can't believe i just wrote that. It was 2019. it's 2020. i can't believe there are still people out there who STILL think this way. 

Men AND women are STILL guilty of thinking like that, and teaching their children to think the same. This is why the majority of sexual abuses go un-reported. How come are women thinking this way? I have no idea, but they do. Not believe me? just research the case of the 2 female tourists in Australia who almost got killed and one raped, but managed to escape and the culprit also got arrested. The judge was a woman, she found him guilty on several accounts, except rape! WHAAAT...? HOW??? 

There are some countries where society is still very conservative, and perhaps the citizens can't think outside the box. Romania is one of them, sadly. But this is not a good excuse. It will never be an excuse. 

I want to make something clear:

The only thing people are asking for when putting clothes on, revealing or not, and then going out, is to be left the heck alone. not to be cat-called, followed around, flirt with or worse.  

There are the older generations who think like that, and i can accept we can't really change their way of thinking. But we can change the mind-set of the younger generations. We also have means of getting informed or of informing others. 

Both conservative men and women should understand once and for all that nobody wants to be abused. in any kind of way.

especially not sexually.

And you know what? men also get sexually abused -by women or other men. these abused men surely didn't ask for it, and some of the ones abused by other men, are not even gay.  

Victim blaming needs to stop. it needs to go back to where it came from because the 21st century doesn't need it. it doesn't belong here anymore. 

If you have a child, or know someone younger than yourself in your family, try and show and tell them that it is not OK to blame the victim for what happened to them. Nobody wants bad things to happen to them. Tell them it's also not OK to catcall or try and flirt with someone just because they dressed in a revealing way. Try to tell them that when they grow up, they should try and help those who are being harassed or pestered in any way. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Hello Everyone. Happy New Year!

I wish everyone reading this entry, a successful 2020 and decade, filled with love and a peaceful home! 

It's been a very long time and 2019 ended and I need to draw a line and see what I did and what is left to do. 

Before anything else, some little updates.

I mentioned a while back, I'll split the blog, and have a proper site for my reviews, for income purposes.

We do live on a single income, and we always have. We will also start a business, but other than this I can't even tell you what the domain will be. I do want to sell some handmade stuff -think of bookmarks, table runners maybe pillowcases, and i'm trying to improve my craft (sewing, embroidering) whenever i have some spare time. 

Since for now I really can't say anything more about this venture, I'll move on to the real topic of this entry.

So, the topic is what i bought this year. I didn't want to buy anything, but the reality is different...

What "A" bought or paid for has nothing to do with my challenge, and are stuff that are meant to last a longer period of time. Think winter boots and coats. Saving money for these was a process, and only made possible because of the 3 projects I had going on at the same time, during the past 4 months. 

As far as I'm concerned, I wanted to challenge myself NOT to buy anything this year, unless:

• i really need it -think undies, socks. 
• i really like it

The "no buy" rule applied to clothes, footwear, accessories, home related stuff. 

How did it go? I can say, it went quite well. :) This means I did pay for some stuff, other stuff I got for free, but these items met the above 2 rules. 

I can say I did buy some undergarments because those ARE needed. I don't think I need to explain more. 1 pair of woolen socks made it back with me last week, but I wanted them since last year. they're also hand-made, so i supported someone local who has few income possibilities. 

i also bought a sewing machine. another sewing machine. 

Last year in December I bought my first sewing machine, a Veritas Janis. It's a Singer copy-cat, but sews like a beast. I was using a large spool of thread for a project, and the stitches started to be very wonky - loose on the lower side. adjusting the tension did nothing :( so, naturally, i thought it's broken. i thought i could and should repair it, but i should buy a 2nd one, to be on the safe side. It turns out, that i tried using a normal spool and the stitches came back to normal. i still purchased another machine.

The new addition is another German machine, but for the life of me, i can't really tell what brand it is. All i know is that it came complete: instructions (in German, so I don't understand), 4 metal bobbins, screw driver, a few feet (for buttons, all-purpose x2, straight stitch, rolled hem) and that it works wonderfully. 

It is also very heavy. i think it's made of aluminum since magnets don't stick to it. It can do stretch stitches which the other one can't, it can also adjust the stitch length or width. She cost about $50, second hand so i can't say it's consumerism.

See her below in all her glory! 

Another important purchase was another pair of spectacles as my old pair broke in July. You can read more about how it happened in this entry. 

The new pair is similar in shape, if not identical to the old pair. While the old pair was dark blue and plastic, the new pair is metal and a dark brown/red color. I don't have a picture of them, sadly. Their lenses get dark in the sun or strong light, something i actually hoped for. 

The new pair cost about $100 after the 40% discount was applied. They had to be new, and it was a real need as i couldn't see well in the distance. 

I did buy some clothes as well - i forgot what it was, however it was all from second hand stores or from some clothes swap events, where i didn't have to pay. 

I also bought 2 new Burda Style magazines. i really wanted them and this is all i can say. They will be/are useful for my sewing though.

All in all, i'm pretty happy with the minimal purchases last year. I hope 2020 will continue on a similar note.  I do have to say that the end of the year with its gift-giving season did make me want to buy things and that i have to stop now. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

 In August, i wanted to adopt a cat from the 'cat gang'. I think the people 'running' it are scammers. They have many cats in their care. Most of them are being kept in a single room. None of the cats receives natural light or fresh air. The pee and poop stench is unbearable. Out of the 20-30 cats (i dont think there were 50 as they claim) ONLY about 3 were up for adoption. About 10 had 'sponsors' and while they didnt say up front, i understood they dont want to lose the sponsorships.

If this isnt scam, i dont know what is. These people exist and they give a bad rap to those who really want to find homes for the cats. She also didnt want to give any cats to those living in a house (vila) 'because it can escape'. Im sorry, the cat can escape from any place. While we visited, we had to make sure the cats didnt escape from their confinement in that stinky room - who wouldnt want to escape from there, though? No wonder people will go buy a pet instead of adopting: adoptions are being made nearly impossible. And they also wanted to neuter the cat themselves - why cant i neuter my own cat?! /rant and warning over.
Sorry for promoting the place earlier, but i was deceived by their chattines, and i dont want others to fall for the same scam.

I still wanted to offer a warm home to a cat who needed one. I contacted other people who had cats up for adoption, but their way of talking was condescending. Being close enough to 40 years old, I can't accept people to talk to me that way. So, i gave up the idea of adopting cats from people. 

Considering, our first baby, Whiskey who is now 9.5 years old, was found on the street, i decided that the 'right' cat will appear in front of me, on the streets yet again. On the last Thursday of November (Thanksgiving day in USA), we found a small cat colony who needed some help. 

We fed them, and I managed to catch the kitty in the picture above. Taking her to the vet, we learned she was about 3 months old, and suffering from a cold. She received injections for 3 days along with oral medicine at home for another 5 days. 

We named her Gin, but for some reason, I sometimes call her Milky. 

Gin's fur is very soft, she learned that petting her is nice, she learned how to ask for food when she's hungry, and which is her litter. She's also very fast at running, and she's very funny. 

My other 2 cats were not bothered she came, though I can't say she was happy she had 2 older brothers that look huge next to her. 

I think we did the right thing by not taking cats from people but waiting for one to cross our path in a 'natural' kind of way. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Hello all!

This is a short entry, and I want to talk about a cultural shock I had last year, regarding the use of the word "Hallelujah!"

In English, you'd say "Hallelujah!" when something good happened, or when something you hoped for turned out the way you wanted. 

You'd sometimes say "Hallelujah!" to perhaps mean 'Finally!"

In Romanian, though, "Hallelujah!" is used to mean "What's done is done."

It is usually said in bad situations - when you lose or break something, especially something expensive or that you cared about, for instance. 

So, last year, I shook the sheet on the window. Below, at the ground floor there is a commercial space and they have some sort of shades, made of metal, that stand out and away from the building, in a horizontal position. 

If things fall there, they can't be easily retrieved. 

My sweatpants were wrapped in the sheet, and I grabbed everything. 

Before I could do anything, my pants fell from inside the sheet and onto the shade-thing of the commercial space. 

A told their mother, and her reply was "Hallelujah!" 

The shock! the horror! I was wondering, why is she so happy about my misfortune?!? 

It appears she wasn't: she was just telling me to forget about my pants. 

Hello all! 

I had a thin Zara jacket with faux leather sleeves. I bought it several years back during the summer sales, if I'm not mistaken. But as it goes, faux leather started peeling and I don't like that. I don't know who likes peeling leatherette, to be honest.  So, I thought to myself that I won't be wearing the jacket anymore though I could try to change its sleeves now that I have some good fabric shears and a decent sewing machine. I also have a few books that teach how to make sleeves and attach them to the garment. The only downside was that I would be ruining the pretty (and very cheap) fabric A got me (from a second hand store. It was there because someone cut it twice on bias, and it probably wasn't enough for their project.) 

So, my thoughts were:

• I wanted to make something with the fabric
• I HAD to use it (the fabric) in the end, somehow
• the fabric was cheap - about $1 for a yard or so? I didn't measure it, sadly. 
• I wasn't going to wear the jacket anymore
• I would be learning something
• I received encouragement to "just go for it!"

I don't think I needed more excuses. So I started with ripping the seams apart because I wanted to use the existing sleeve as pattern for the new sleeve. 

• the sizing was the right one, especially the arm-hole
• the length was ok - i could always cut a few extra cm if needed, which I did anyway.
• I wasn't in the mood to learn how to make a sleeve pattern from scratch. That day will come, but it wasn't this day. 

Sadly, I don't have pictures for all the steps :( I thought of taking pictures when it was too late. Some steps don't even need pictures because anyone can do those with the right tool.

the process

I started by removing the sleeves from the body of the jacket using the seam ripper. My sleeves also had zippers, so I also removed those after. 

Once I had my sleeves, I took one and I placed it flat on some newspaper to make a sleeve pattern, so I can cut the new sleeve from some fabric. I placed the fabric folded over.  When I cut the fabric, I included more seam allowance vertically, but not for the width. 

I didn' like what the fabric felt against the skin, as I knew I would wear this jacket over a tshirt as well. This meant I had to find some fabric to make a lining. The fabric I found is brown and ugly, but serves the purpose just fine. 

You can't really tell from the picture, but first I sew the sleeve to the lining (former sleep wear i believe) at the wrist-end. I then pinned down the sleeve to the rest of the fabric, and then I cut the lining. (note 1)

I also sew the lining to the tartan, before assembling the sleeve together. I figured that shiny and slippery fabric would be difficult to work with if it's not attached. I also ran a zig-zag stitch. (note 2)

Originally, the previous sleeves did have lining as well. I couldn't use it though. The seam allowance was fraying badly. Additionally it was shorter, because the leatherette was folded over some, like the sleeves on suits and coats. 

As I said, I wasn't going to learn how to make such sleeves. This means that the brown lining can be seen at the wrist level, on my sleeves. It also looked ugly. I decided to run a top stitch to see if it looks any better, and it did! See the picture below.

If you do a sleeve like I did here, I highly recommend you do the same. In my opinion, the piece looks 'done more professionally.' You can do this top stitch AFTER sewing the sleeve, so that  the seams would lay flat against your wrist, and rub less. If I ever do this again, I'll know what I need to improve :)

 After my sleeves were complete, it was time I attached them to the body of the jacket. The sleeves I made were a bit larger than the arm holes of the jacket. I started pinning the sleeves starting at the armpit seams going to the top. At the shoulder part, I needed to create 2 pleats. Gathering the fabric is an option, but not for this lined tartan. The pleats give the sleeves a more structured, put-together, "professionally done" look, in my opinion.

And this is the final result! What do you think? 

extra step

However, before attaching the sleeves, I decided I wanted some lining for the back part of the jacket as well. I used the same ugly brown one as for the sleeves. The jacket is very thin, and the spring was cold this year. I wanted some protection from the wind, and the lining would provide just that. 

I used the back of the jacket to serve as guide for a pattern, drew it on paper, cut the brown fabric, and sew it onto the seams of the jacket. I don't have more pictures, sorry. :( 

 That's about it! Don't skip reading the notes below to learn what I wish I did differently.

See you soon! 

Note 1: The funny thing is that while I tried to sew the right side of the tartan fabric to the lining, i only managed with one sleeve. The other one, the tartan is on the wrong-side. I obviously saw too late. I didn't and won't go back to fix it. 

Note 2: I wish I assembled the tartan first into a sleeve, then the lining, and then attach the tartan to the lining at the wrist. I thought of this too late. 

Note 3: This project is from April 2019. I didn't get to watermark the images. Now with my arm in a cast, doing so is more difficult. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Hello all. 

This post is some sort of an update until I receive the instructions for my current writing gig. I have 2 part in this update: 

• health related
• found treasures

I want to write another entry about some of my adventures in the parks of Bucharest. I was also working on an entry about how I changed the sleeves on a jacket, a horror movie review and a TV show review. These last 3, I already started writing, but my writing gig and some lack of inspiration prevented me from actually sitting and finishing them. 

Health Related Updates

Those were my 'good' eyes. i'm nearsighted. Long story short, I tripped in my long pants, fell onto the asphalt, hit my head, broke my glasses, and injured my dominant hand. OUCH!

This happened on the evening of July 2nd. mostly because i didn't dare suggest A to withdraw money on the mastercard instead of the visa, when mother refused to pass by. 

Apparently the head is fine. Or as fine as it can be, given the circumstances. 

This is from that evening, in the hospital. Later on, the cheek was swollen a mile out! in the morning it was somewhat better. Ciel looked at me with very curious  eyes - he saw there was something wrong with my face. 

Today, the face looks pretty much the same. the bruise just started to form. I tried to drink more water than normal, to ensure my blood doesn't clot much, and so on. I had to sleep on my back or on my left side. (why is my left eye so fallen? o.o guess it's just the angle.) 

I have to stay with this cast on for a week. It ends before reaching the elbow, about where it doesn't fit in the picture anymore. I hurt a LOT the first night. Then i took some painkillers and it passed. I'm still getting some sharp pains when instinctively i try to move this hand in ways i'm not supposed to. 

The weird thing about all of this is that I could have prevented it. And i didn't listen to my gut feeling. AGAIN! will i ever learn my lesson?? So first, mother said she couldn't come, and i did think about the easier solution, i just kept silent. Then, I also had a supernatural experience - the first one i can remember. While being on the computer, in the morning, i SAW with the corner of my eyes, a brilliant entity sitting on the chair, looking at me and smirking. The whole corner where the entity was sitting, was engulfed in a VERY strong light. This was a sign/message to be careful. i was not. i pray next time, i will pay more attention. 

new found treasures

A while back, i talked about what's trash for someone, it's a treasure for someone else. Since then, my trash-found treasures increased. 

I found some Burda Style magazines and other vintage patterns, along with some crocheting tools and yarn. The yarn came later though. Also several books with knitting and crocheting. I gave some away, because knitting especially, didn't keep me interested. I got bored when i tried it. Crocheting seems easier, so I will practice with that. The crocheting yarn i will try give away as well, to the person who took the tools. 

Some of the books I found. Yes old - about 40 years old. The pics inside are not clear either. But I wouldn't go out of my way to buy these nor anything else similar. 

This is a pile of various things: 2 old notebooks, a photoalbum, a pile of various handmade crafts with 2 unfinished ones. In the plastic bag, there's some crocheting  yarn and some crocheted ropes that are used in the Romanian point lace needlework. You can see one peeking from under the blue cloth. The blue cloth has one of the unfinished handcrafts, with Romanian point lace. 

A close-up of the nearly finished work. The unfinished part is in the upper part in this image.

A close-up of the photo album. Covered in silk. I saw something similar sold for some 20 dollars (or was it euros?) I think it's gorgeous. It's brand new too, in a box. Can't wait to use it - I'd like to use it, I mean. The color is more vibrant in reality. golden.

Here I was boiling some cutlery I found at the same time with the handcrafts and photo album. It's a set for 12 people: 12 knives, 12 spoons, 12 teaspoons, 12 smaller forks (are these for fish or something? i have no idea), a soup ladle and a bigger serving spoon. They were made in Japan if I'm to believe the inscription on them. Stainless steel, not silver, though they're tarnished. :( 

I searched online and saw a similar set. It was dated around 1940s? 1950s? I forgot exactly, and sold for about 170 euros? I don't have the money to spend on cutlery. The cutlery we were using was all mismatched and ugly. Away it went. 

My injured hand prevented me from editing the images with watermarks. :/ 

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