Cow Freak Show

(Content Warning!!! Animal/body horror, mutation, animal death)

Last May I went to an exhibition held by the Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias de la Universidad Austral de Chile. It was a collection of rare mutations on cows, hence the Content Warning. Although this is extremely fascinating it is quite squeamish and even troubling for some. If you are interested please continue reading...

German Cemetery

Although these photos are from february 2014 I still wanted to upload them just to be able to keep register of the cemeteries I've visited, and because I really like them hahah. I live in a city that underwent a german colonisation which resulted in a cultural miscegenation that still persists to this day. This cemetery is one of the results of this process.

This has to be one of my favourite graves that I found, I mean just look at the detail!! And the colors!!

I love how well kept this cemetery was. It isn't all that big, and you can tell a small amount of people had access to it (you kept seeing the same last names). What I most liked about it was the beautiful angels and how it was filled with green and it looked great next to the river (something that I didn't really capture on film). 

♱   ♱   ♱

Blessed be,

~Rose

Monty & Americo

These are some photos that I took a ouple weeks back when my family and I went to visit some dear friends, Monty and Americo. Their country house is so cosy and nice, and they have an orchid and a garden, oh! and they have bees and sell honey!! They invited us over to go mushroom hunting so I was able to also take a few pictures of that.

These are some of the corn we were able to grow this year. I can't quite remember what they are called but they have this yellow/red tint. 

My camera is about to die, it has lost many functions and doesn't always work. So excuse the quality of the mushroom photos and that I had to use flash for a few of them. There were alot more mushrooms but I wasn't able to get decent photos of any more than what is shown here. I was, however, able to identify a few of them:

Marasmiellus alliodorus

Trametes versicolor

Ramaria flava

The rest I wasn't able to identify, (the ones shown above included) so if anyone has any ideas please comment down below!

♱   ♱   ♱

Blessed be,
~Rose

Crayon Lipstick

I'm a fan of nonconventional coloured lipstick and broke… not a good combination. So when I heard about this DIY for making your own lipstick I thought I'd give it a shot. 

*This is not a tutorial, since I'm not 100% happy with the how it all came out. I did, however, want to share the process with you guys because of the interesting results. Remember this is for fun and I'm no expert. *

After researching a couple of recipes online and looking in the cupboards I finally decided to use the following ingredients:

• coconut oil
• cocoa butter
• lanolin
• crayon (of desired colour)

I decided to make a black lipstick, so in a heat proof container I added 1/2 of my black crayon, 1 heaped tsp of coconut oil, almond sized amount of cocoa butter and a pea sized drop of lanolin.

I then improvised a bain-marie so I could melt the ingredients, stirring occasionally with a popsicle stick. 

Excuse the steam, but here you can see that the ingredients are all melted and mixed.

I then poured the liquid into two different lip-balm containers, and put them in the freezer for about 10 minutes for them to cool and solidify. And there you have it!! 

After trying it out I have to say that I was rather disappointed... although the pictures of tutorials I saw online showed something that resulted in lipstick consistency and results, this ended up much like the first result in this video. It ended up being like a lip gloss, and not so pigmented, so when I applied it it left my lips with a slight grey tone. After combining it with different lipstick and colours I discovered that although it can't really be used on it's own, it does work like an excellent lip top coat, darkening the base colour. It gives results much like the V'amped Up! Lip Top Coat from NYX (according to reviews). It darkens the colours and gives it a glossy finish. 

*   *   *

Overall, although the results were not what I was expecting I still ended up liking what came out and it was really fun to make. Sorry that I didn't include and photos of the lipstick on me or even swatches, but my camera broke so I didn't get the chance to take any. However I can get a hold of a camera, so if your are interested in seeing the results tell me in the comments below and I'll make a follow up post!

Blessed be,

~Rose

Birthday Wishlist

My birthday is coming up next month so I thought it'd be a good excuse to assemble a wishlist.

➊ Sweater with a print of this painting
➋ Mushroom Canvas Tote
➌ Nikon D3300
➍ The Natural Shadow Palette by NYX
➎Mac Lip Pencil in Nightmoth
➏Mac Lipstick in either Cyber or Heroine

Blessed be,
~Rose

Easter Morning

I guess it's always better late than never, so here are some of the shots of our Easter Morning breakfast. We aren't religious, but we do like to celebrate it due to tradition and as a way to commemorate the rebirth of nature through the start of the rainy season. 

Hope you all had a great time and enjoyed this day, whether you celebrate easter or not.

Blessed be,
~Rose

Films: Girl, Interrupted (1999)

(Content Warnings!! mentions of abuse, self-harm, eating disorders, mental illnesses, suicide attempt, descriptions/pictures of mental institution etc)

This has to be one of my favourite movies. I've seen it so many times that I can't quite remember how I first came across it, I do remember, however, that as soon I started watching it my eyes were glued to the screen.

Girl, Interrupted is a 1999 American Drama that follows the story of Susanna Kaysen's (Winona Ryder) 18 month stay in a mental institution during the 1960s. She checks herself in after a suicide attempt and was later on diagnosed with Bordeline Disorder. Based on the memoir by Susanna Kaysen of the same name, we explore the worlds of the sane and the insane in a time when the medical studies of the psyche are just beginning to bloom. 

There she meets Polly "Torch" Clark (Elisabeth Moss), a burn victim; Georgina Tuskin (Clea DuVall), a pathological liar; Daisy Randone (Brittany Murphy), a sexually abused girl who struggles with bulimia and self harm and Janet Webber (Angela Bettis), an anorexic. She is particularly enthralled by Lisa Rowe (Angelina Jolie), a sociopath who seems to run the place through her manipulation.
Along with her new friends Susanna discovers that there are liberties and comforts in the psychiatric hospital that she would never have access to in the normal world. Susanna growing comfortable with her new surroundings prolongs her stay in the ward. Will she be able to give up her new found liberties in order to continue her life in the world of the mentally sane?

I love this movie for a number of reasons, the first being that at the time I really related to the main character's struggles and fears. In other words, this movie really hit home. 

I could infinitely write about this movie, analysing every little detail, but I wouldn't want to bore you. So I will try to sum things up.

The movie, in my opinion, succeeds in portraying the alienation felt by an individual who does not follow society's set standards. It makes us question if it is this alienation that drives us to insanity, o whether it is society that labels us as insane. Either way we are forced to conform to these standards if we ever want to continue with our life. 

*Spoiler*

Either way we are forced to conform to these standards if we ever want to continue with our lives. Susanna discovers that the key element in her recovery was herself. The hospital couldn't cure you, it could only aid your recovery. Once Susanna decided that she wanted to recover and came to terms with societies standards, was she able to heal and move on with her life.

"Declared healthy, and sent back into the world. My final diagnosis "a recovered borderline". What that means I still don't know. Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is."

Blessed be,

~Rose