25 before 25

okay, i know this is lame, or at least seems to be but somehow making lists is cool and somehow because i will turn a quarter of a century old in but a few months i should get down and accomplish something. as if being an expat by trade isn't an accomplishment but really. i saw mygirl.thursday's list the other day and thought, now i should really write down some goals too. now, let's see... i've got about 5 months to get on it. that's enough time, right?

so here you go.

1 - go to a new country. [UPDATE: ireland]
2 - go to another new country. [UPDATE: russia]
3 - make a dream catcher. [UPDATE: dreamcatcher]
4 - read charlotte brönte's jane eyre before i cave and see the movie. [reading + coffee]
5 - take my camera out for a date and use a whole roll of film in one day.
6 - start a knitting project... and finish it! [UPDATE: cosy hand warmers]
7 - visit Goldsmiths and apply for graduate school. (aaaah!)
8 - cook thanksgiving dinner for four... with 2 hobs and a microwave oven.
9 - buy cheap dining chairs and spruce them up! [UPDATE: IVAR]
10 - visit at least 15 english heritage sites in the uk. [UPDATE: 9 down, 6 to go]
11 - treat myself to a mani/pedi for the first time ever.
12 - draw more.
13 - visit a third new country? can i do that? [UPDATE: kazakhstan]
14 - make a brooch like this one.
15 - meet someone from the royal family. [david met princess anne, does that half-count?]
16 - surprise someone far away with a care package made by hand.
17 - see a painting i studied in art history in person. [manet's a bar at the folies-bergère]

18 - publish a zine. (ideas: illustrated guide to east sheen? diy? craft?)
19 - get my hands on another rad lomography camera. [UPDATE: welcome to the family diana mini]
20 - master cooking a new vegetable. kholrabi? romanesco broccoli? beets? [UPDATE: not a veg, but  as an ex-vegetarian i'd say i'm making big steps learning to cook creative meats like pigeon breasts and ox cheek]
21 - give high heels a try. (never have i ever)
22 - make a 5 minute short film!
23 - upgrade a dress following these easy steps.
24 - stick to my budget (so i can afford to travel to russia in january). [UPDATE: departing jan8!!!]
25 - by the time i do this one, i should be twenty-five. so i challenge myself to get all prettied up and go out on the town like a real londoner would. [UPDATE: celebrated in budapest, but wow, what a wild party!]

it actually took me at least a week to come up with this list. and to be honest, nothing on it is out of my reach (okay, except maybe the royal family bit) which is cool but really, should challenge myself to be wilder. one step at a time.

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wall art

here is my inspiration for introducing some colour into my radically neutral apartment. would my landlord go crazy if i painted a wall without asking. should i take the chance?

anyways, the blonde wood and white needs some sprucing up and i thought about recreating this painting for the wall above our bed. cool, no? i sketched it out in watercolour on graph paper. now, to get my hands on some cheap and large canvas, not an easy task even for those who know where to look!

finding countless inspiration at the park lately, in jane austin's short stories and by the bottom of my coffee cups.

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berger on drawing

"For the artist drawing is discovery. And that is not just a slick phrase, it is quite literally true. It is the actual act of drawing that forces the artist to look at the object in front of him, to dissect it in his mind's eye and pit it together again; or, if he is drawing from memory, that forces him to dredge his own mind, to discover the content of his own store of past observations." p3

Berger on Drawing // John Berger

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chiswick house

introducing chiswick house and gardens.

as far as i'm concerned, there are few places as beautiful in the south west of london (outside of richmond). how gorgeous is this house? the slow-moving river and the beautiful railings, a conservatory full of camellias which unfortunately don't bloom until february.
i realise, the more i go to these heritage houses and properties that i'm a hopeless romantic at heart. i've surprised myself how much i love the english gardens, how the ivy clings to the brick walls. how i can't help daydreaming about what i must have been like to live in a house like this.

does anyone else have the feeling sometimes that they were born in the wrong country and wrong era?

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re: revisiting the gaze and mr. berger

i've long been crushing on john berger's mind.

for a good while now and finally picked up another one of this books, about looking. because it's saturday morning and i'm feeling particularly intellectual at the moment (it's fleeting so i should grasp it while it's there) i wanted to share a quote from the book and something i jotted down in my notebook while on the go.

"The eyes of an animals when they consider a man are attentive and wary. The same animal may well look at other species in the same way. He does not reserve a special look for man. But by no other species except man will the animals' look be recognized as familiar. 

Other animals are held by the look. 

Man becomes aware of himself returning the look." (chapter one: why look at animals, p4)

an animal looks. their stare stops other animals in their tracks. they're stopped. arrested in time. yet man does something different. he meets an animal's stare but it's with a look of power and dominance. some argue the animals don't have a gaze, because they're not aware of themselves looking. man is the only species who sees himself in the reflection of the water and knows it's himself looking back.

we see ourselves looking and when confronted with an animal, we also recognize that we are being looked back at. does it all go back to when narcissus first saw his face in the pool's reflection?

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le parc richmond

i love going out for the first time in a place, a new neighbourhood when everything is fresh. it's so big because it's your first time. new shops, new cafes, new streets and new parks. i'm just getting to know east sheen and i already love it. it's got that small town feel to it, but is still just a 20 minute train ride from waterloo station.

the other bonus? our new home is minutes from richmond park. in 1637 good 'ol king charles the first decided he wanted a park, for his deer (both red and fallow) and so you have it, richmond park. it's so quiet in the evenings, last night we spotted more than 50 deer grazing. their huge antlers! i'm not entirely a city girl, but there's something so magical about being able to get so close to wild animals, and know that you can just walk and see deer in the forest and fields just a few minutes from your apartment. i like this a lot.

figures though, that i didn't bring my phone with me last night in case we ran into any rioters.

but here are some photos from a previous walk in the park, enjoy!

(as you can tell, i'm definitely into instagram right now, if you like, you can follow me, i'm kfar)

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hello london, it's nice to meet you

i'm very good at ignoring this blog. did you notice? or at least moving is such hard work that i've hardly had a moment to sit and contemplate. reflect or muse. until yesterday.

at last. a full afternoon to do things i think i never did in budapest but i remember so fondly doing when i was spending a lot of time in european capitals a few years ago. i took tan early afternoon train into the city and got off the tube at euston station. a friend recommended a trip to the wellcome collection, so i headed there to see what's the hype about.

you must go. honestly. there is no other place on earth that you can see a pair of florence nightingale's moccasins, napoleon's toothbrush and a lock of henry v's hair + some funny japanese sex aids all in one room. for real this guy, sir henry william wellcome, kept a collection of some pretty curious objects.

post-museum and a serious case of square eyes i made my way to a park for some fresh air, then to a very old bookstore where i perused. i picked up a copy of john berger's about looking. i'm already pulled into the way he writes about something so simple as a glance, as complicated as a gaze.

a tall flat white later, i headed back to euston station to pick up a friend i hadn't seen for ages. we found the tackiest and cheapest chinese buffet in camden town we could find and ate our hearts out. it was a perfect day. i miss just wandering around new streets, picking up new literature nad feeding my mind on art and philosophy. those were the good old uni days and i had another little taste of it yesterday. time to go for my masters? i reckon it is about that time.

image one: pretty scientific bottles
image two:canvas bag from the wellcome collection shop
image three: classicly british, on my walk

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