Monday

the best outfit for Monday with all the meetings and bora outside.

I've been thinking the whole day of how I wish I was in Japan right now, in this particular temple in Kyoto or Miyajima...where I found peace that I kind of need now. I've been even thinking of going to the church, but I thought that it won't work, so just went to porto and imagined that I'm sitting in the beach of Naoshima. The freedom that I had during my trip in Japan is what I need now desperately - just to be on my own. It's funny, that Shoya visited me today and said how he misses the summer... I do too.

Anyway, listening to 'Alone in Kyoto' by Air (I remember, Sim gave this to me loooong time ago...) and preparing for my Italian oral presentation. Wish me luck.

P.S. I don't celebrate my blog's birthday, but I've just realised, that it's been 3 years since I started blogging. Wow. Time flies.

when bora doesn't ruin your day

Sunday afternoon and I'm finally starting to do my schoolwork. Such a weird weekend.

On Friday I went to Trieste for the award ceremony of one contest organised by an Italian school in Trieste. I got the 2nd place for my stop motion movie 'to the other side', which actually wasn't created for the contest, so I'm happy I was recognised.

That day was super windy with bora going crazy and I was really hesitant to go, since the wind in Trieste is always even worse than in Duino. It turned out nicely though, the sun was shining, so we didn't freeze that much. I went with a first year student from Vietnam, Thao, you can see her in the picture below with her drawing which is very cool, also considering the fact, that she started drawing only like half a year ago or so.

I don't really like openings and award ceremonies, but I was happy that they made a poster with all the works. Seeing your work printed is always awesome. By the way, they showed the other movies from the participants and I was quite surprised - they were good, but with so much negative energy, that I certainly wouldn't expect to come from someone of our age. The topic was 'The other' and as I would interpret it in a positive way, most of the others had in mind all the dark sides of us and so on. Interesting.

The other part of the weekend I was doing nothing or watching Korean dramas with my first year Seva. Haha, so much fun. Even though I think I had enough of them for a while, the stupidity is starting to bother me in spite of all those cool clothes and cool actors. I soooo wanna do some crafts actually...

This weekend's song "You don't understand me" by The Raconteurs. Love the piano part.

Mild corn-flower set

Orange and golden corn-flower brooch made from fimo clay, fabric, beads and leather.



And a matching ring.

I made these back at home and really thought about keeping both...but I already took lots of new made things with me, so these two had to stay in Lithuania.

I am introducing new picture size - hopefully more enjoyable for you guys and better to see the details that my creations have lots of. Just tell me if you have any other suggestions, since I think I will be moving to a new blog design soon...once I get the idea of how I want it to be.Life has been pretty busy thesedays, I literally sat at my desk writing all the assignments the whole week...and today my mood was in the state of if-you-don't-do-smth-for-yourself-you-are-gonna-explode, so I took my time and started learning hangul (Korean alphabet) along with some new kanji (Japanese characters). So much fun! Lately I'm really into kanji, I used to find it very confusing, but now things are getting better. Yay.

We are also starting to organise our project week and it seems that we will be able to spend almost a week in London just going around! I still have to find a place to stay, but I already saw some cool couchsurfers...we'll see. It's going to be only in March afterall.

I'm still waiting for the replies from the universities and this process is killing me. Just a bit, Ieva, and you'll be free (till trial exams in a few weeks, muhaha *sad laughter*). Anyway, there are other exciting things, for example this video with Gareth's Pugh's fashion pieces or Sartre's thoughts about existentialism that made my day on Tuesday. Cheers, everyone.

!!! P.S. Ok, I really randomly changed all blog design...I'll be brushing up some parts tomorrow, but let me know what you think about the main look!

Leopard dreamcatcher

This is an improvised dreamcatcher I made for Rajah, who is my friend, neighbour, stop-motion making partner and a very nice person in general. We always had jokes about leopards, dreams and him being a very b/w person compared to my colourful existence - so I've put all of that together into this creature. I might be making more dreamcatchers in the future, it's really a lot of fun.

This is what I wrote on the other side. It means "Sweet dreams" and I used the nickname that I'm calling Rajah by and I bet that Lithuanians will find it pretty funny. Laikykis, Radži, lai palieka tave žurnalistai ramybėj.

Past few days days were pretty nice, full of people and talks. My roommate came back on Saturday and we had a nice evening with lots of people coming to say hi and most of them staying for tea and talks. Sunday I took a nap for the second time during the week, which is weird, because usually I hate sleeping during the day. Today I had fun trying to put the darkroom together - I know nothing about that, so I was basically trying out the lights we have there (and we have cool ones!) and then helping Rajah because he was in the mood of destroying things. Our principal told us that one of my best friends (yes, MOJO, that's you!) who unfortunately has left the college is coming back to visit next month and I was in nirvana for a few minutes till I facebooked him and he said that it's not really happening...well, I still have hope. And the sunset was amazingly pretty today. Ok, enough blahblah'ing, should do something useful , right?

Picture by Seva of me being very unusually timid during the photography activity on Friday. I find my fingers pretty amusing in this picture.

suddenly studying is fun

I really don't know what happened but this whole week I was working and actually studying - and I like it a lot. Along with that there was some Asianness - I got my first year Seva into Japanese and Korean movies, dramas and music a bit. Yay. Finally someone to talk to about all the things that other people consider stupid. Pfft.

Yesterday we watched a really awesome movie "The King and The Clown" with very awesome Lee Jun Ki. It's been a while since I watched a normal movie, so I really enjoyed it. A bit of a change after all this time watching Kim Ki Duk's and Takeshi Kitano's movies.

I've been browsing some Lithuanian blogs recently and found some cool ones (will share my discoveries soon). I was also informed to have won some kind of Unesco contest with my little stop-motion "To the other shore", yet I guess that it wasn't a very big contest afterall. And I guess soon I will finally be able to post some info about the little feature in one Italian magazine...

Life is pretty cool recently, I'm fulfiling my New Year's resolution and before doing anything first of all asking if I WANT this or not. It really works. It has to always be YOU who is the most important person to yourself, because there is no one else who will take care of you, especially when your family is not here. I'm probably again going to the extremes, but this is what I want right now, hihi.

Green jacket extreme make-over

Ieva likes re-making or re-newing things, for example, shoes. This was the time for my aunt's green jacket that really needed some funky details on it. Here we go~

I took out all the fabrics and other supplies to try what could suit the bright green colour. An old blue skirt seemed like a good choice, as well as the blue weird hairy fabric I made my hat of long time ago.

A bit of beads for the sophisticated look.

And here we are - same, but different.

Don't worry, I didn't dye my hair back, these pictures were taken a few weeks ago.

Some fooling around with wide-angle lens. All those distortions, mmmm....

blond

well, that's me now. Blond and happy about it. I wanted to dye my hair like this for so long, but never got the courage/chance. So it really feels nice to have done something I wanted...plus I was feeling that I've gotten pretty boring with boring dark hair and a predictable life. Time to make the days more exciting. And I admit, I still get surprised everytime I look at the mirror.

People in the college were so surprised. I still get a lot of confused faces and people telling me that they didn't recognise me. Haha. So much fun.

aah, and I miss my cat already. I unconsciously see it everywhere.

P.S. My pictures from Japan featured in extraordinary globe blog.

the sky before i left

what a nice goodbye Lithuania has prepared for me.

I'm now sitting in my room in the school residence in Italy. The trip to the place was ok, except for the Italian buses everything went smoothly. The school starts tomorrow and I can't imagine how I am going to wake up early. Eek.

It's just so funny how startled everyone looks when they see me with blond hair. Pictures tomorrow~

Blue flower earrings and another blog award

another pair of blue flower earrings! I love using fabric for earrings - it makes it look very light, but still very sophisticated.

Rita and Ligita from Pasakon awarded me with the stylish blog award. Thank you very much! The rules are very similar to the award I got a in summer, since I have to write 7 things about myself and award other blogs. I thought that I'll share another 7 things because it's been a while since I wrote the previous entry. Well, 7 things about me (trying not to repeat myself):

• I have decided to learn sewing over the summer break
• I am again wasting my time watching Korean and Japanese TV shows and dramas. But I love them so much.
• I think that it is impossible to learn French with a good pronunciation
• I look calmer than I actually am. And sadder than I actually am.
• My secret dream for the future is to move to Korea or Japan and make music videos for pretty Asian boys and girls with pretty make-up, pretty clothes and unusual music
• I am desperately waiting for the answers from the universities because I need to know where I will be going next year, so that I can make up a nice dream and think about it everytime I need inspiration
• I think that this month in Lithuania has passed so quickly and I can't believe that I will be going back to Italy on Sunday!

I have already awarded the blogs I always read and there's only a few I have found during my busy time in the college: aitchmade, benconservato.

I was helping my mum at school today and realised how freaking noisy that place is! How did I manage to survive 11 years in that turmoil? Crazy. Anyway, the girls in the class were really nice and I enjoyed the lesson a lot. We were making fimo figures, so double fun.

I'm posting a picture of little bags I made for Ameli boutique a while ago. Nothing special, but each bag has a different word on it:)

katiu katiu

a new family member. We haven't agreed on the name yet, so I'm just calling it Katiu Katiu. It's funny how we're now entertained by all the small things that the kitten does. Cute.

It will be a big cat when I come home next time.

what makes me happy

I had a really wonderful time on Thursday and Friday meeting my friends in the capital city, as well as just wandering around in the snow storm and spending time with my aunt's family. I realised actually how much I was making myself feel down bringing up all the bad things and worrying too much...Those long talks (talked for 6 hours in the cafe with Noru and didn't even notice the time!) made me really inspired to make my life much more exciting next term in Italy. Next term is also the last term, I have to spend it nicely.

Ieva is happy because:

1) I have submitted portfolios for 3 universities today, yeepyy 2) which brings me to the fact that God knows where I am going to be at this time next year. Exciting! 3) I have some lovely friends who are all over the world doing great things and making me proud 4) I am eager to start learning Korean and practising my Japanese more 5) I am also eager to stop hating Italian as a language 6) I do want to continue making stop motion movies and maybe making a real music video oneday 7) The ideas of new accessories are bumping into my head every single day and the only obstacle is that I don't have my supplies in Italy. Yet, there's still a lot to be shown! 8) My lens will be repaired by Friday and that means TONS of new pictures when I'm back to Italy 9) We are probably getting a little kitten, vyyy 10) my family is happy 11) I have a full drawer of awesome paper in all the awesome textures and I can't wait to dig in when I'm back for the summer 12) yes yes yes, in summer the IB will be done! 13) I get lovely comments from various people almost everyday and this really keeps me going. Thank you! 14) I am going to UK in March to visit another UWC college and I just cannot wait! 15) candies make me happy, yum.

However random this entry might be, I just wanted to share. Now back to work:) or maybe chill a bit...:P

Moon stone

a necklace I made using this amazing stone...and I have no clue what's it called, so let's call it a moon stone. I'm getting back to my efficient mood...sadly only more than a week of winter break left and I have quite a bit of schoolwork waiting for me. Hurray.

Anyway, I'm going to Vilnius tomorrow, will try to have my lens repaired. I do hope that this is going to be the last time when I have to repair them and the last time when I find something inside...whether it's a screw, or some water, or something that is not supposed to be there. Apparently even the Canon center in Tokyo didn't manage to make it work *sad laughter*

I also hope to meet some of my friends while going around my beloved capital city. Haven't been outside that much either, so good way of getting some fresh air, especially when the winter is so beautiful this year. And snowy, by all means.

I'm incredibly stupid by watching so many Korean dramas and tv shows that my eyes are totally dying and also applying to universities that don't let international students apply for the financial aid. How ridiculous, Ieva.

I got to borrow wide-angle lens from my dad's friend and took some pictures of my working space when my accessory factory is working full load. I do clean everything up. Sometimes...

Green bunny

or a cat, of whatever you call it. Čiobrelis' brother, Danielius. Similar, but at the same time very different from Čiobrelis. Yet both of them have a secret message inside. And I don't think that I'm keeping Danielius for myself.

Talking about myself - I've been messing around with the wide-angle lens I got to borrow. Just look how distorted my face looks in the picture below, lovely.

Hope the New Year's celebration was fun for everyone!~ Happy Year of the Rabbit!