I bought to much makeup. I read more this month, finally.
I planned to read one of her novels before, originally it would be American Appetites but didn't find it in my local library, I just might buy a copy. She's one of these writers who have insane amount of work published and it feel intimidating, like Simenon - I want to read his non-detective novels, but it's hard to choose. I ended up reading The Tattoed Girl as it found it randomly and it interested me somehow.
I plan on reviewing it soon, so I'll keep it short - it tells a story of two equally tragic characters - former prostitute Alma Busch, fleeing Pennsylvania, who ended up in upstate New York, who has stockholm syndrome type relation with her pimp-"boyfriend" ex-criminal Dimitri and (half)Jewish writer Joshua Seigl, a really academic type living in a sort of bubble, whose health started to fail due to neurodegenerative disease. The novel starts with Seigl trying to find an assistant who would help him with organize his literary output, instead of hiring a some guy with qualifications, he instead hired a random girl, which was Alma. He feels compassion for her, when she despises him for (as mistakenly she though that he was, when his mother was just a WASP type) being Jewish under influence of her "boyfriend" who treats her like a complete piece of trash.
Characters could feel a bit shallow sometimes, but the mood and bulding up tension were excellent, I really loved the vivid desriptions. I did enjoy narration style Oates uses, especially not much of distinct dialogue and pacing, use of limited 3rd person narrative and switching through points of view (I'm reading other novel by her right now and I also really enjoy that). I read it in a day and half, despite the ending which was tragic but lackluster, I did enjoy it a lot despite annoying people on internet writing it was mid. Translation didn't feel right, but I'd have to re-read it in original to see how many things got lost.
Western romcoms, glorified american ones especially bore me. The main character is always the high earning, attractive, young (late 20s or early 30s) and very perfect, never married, doesn't have children. Bridget Jones maybe can be exceptation, as Brit "chick lit" (balanced by "lad lit" of same time) was more down to earth, but it isn't like Judyta, the main character of Nigdy w Życiu, both Katarzyna Grochola's novel one and one in cinematic adaptation.
Judyta (Danuta Stenka) is different. She's nearing 40, has a teenage daughter and her husband (Jan Frycz) leaves her for a younger woman, who claims he fathered her child. She doesn't earn as much and her job isn't as glamorous, as her duty is replying to letters asking for advice for most random topics at women's magazine. She loses everything, a flat she lived for years with her husband and as compensation... she'd get an extremely rundown bedsit.
She decides to change her life completely, after her friend Ula (Joanna Brodzik) shows her a plot of land for sale in rural area where she lives, she decides to build her own house when everyone thinks she won't manage to get it done, especially her Parents. In meantime, she ends up privately exchanging letters with a guy, who wrote to the magazine. In book he was called Niebieski (due to blue paper he used for letters), in movie - Leon Zakrzewski, who was left by his wife and Judyta sharply replies to him. While exchanging letters, then e-mails, Judyta starts to date Adam (Artur Żmijewski), who works in same exact magazine after organizing sort of a housewarming party. Later on everything gets confusing, due to Judyta not checking her e-mail but it all ends with happy ending, as always.
Many funny and absurd storylines are gone from the movie and it's just the most basic one, though I didn't finish reading the novel (which has 3 more parts and was insanely popular, it was really relatable and probably more real than previously beloved Diary of Bridget Jones) It isn't something deep or artistic, but sometimes you just need to watch something nice and pleasant. It's visually clean and pleasant, but feels natural - the cleaned up post-transformation new millennium Poland of middle class was shown perfectly. Sets, especially interiors, are really beautiful and modern. Original score is very distinct, especially main theme and rest of it is state of the art pop music.
Pearls are fine for colder months, especially in colors I use (beige, browns, copper) but for spring I want something lighter. I started to use pearl beige (or light pearl pink) with more matte eyeshadow to define it - I really like Double Sparkle colors from Inglot, which are mattes with bit of particle that makes it more satin. I really like trio pans in this finish, now sadly discontinued, 124 (pink) and 140 (lilac). They hold pretty decently on my oily eyelids, better than most of pearls. I want to try coral and purple pans, probably will buy them online or will be lucky enough to find them in one of their physical stores.
I eased myself into pink eyeshadow really well, so I decided to get some lighter ones to finally try pink-grey eyeshadow looks from mid to late 90s. Which I wanted to try for ages, as I wanted to like grey eyeshadow - I think it's color that only looks good in matte or satin. I had one mid grey matte I never used, but since getting baby pink (pearl and DS) and one muted pink (new release one) from Inglot I've been using grey so often. It looks great together, but it needs to be blended well.
I was thinking about it a lot for last few months, but in more 60s way of 2000-2001 (despite magazines back then claiming it was a 40s reference, the execution echoed mid 60s way more with cut - prints were boldly 70s though). Mostly because I remembered about one thing. I finally bought, buried in my Vinted favorites for a year, a beautiful printed pink silk dress with neckline like this. Sadly, from a defunct brand popular in my country's luxury women's magazines at the time. In pristine condition and in my size (EU40, I got fatter) which isn't as common with vintage pieces from local brands - anything interesting over 36 is hard to find.
I was thinking about trying to sew something with neckline like this - though I don't want to spend money for american envelope patterns (yes, there's a Simplicity one which isn't as expensive as Vintage Vogue, but it will take a month to get it here anyway) and Burda has only one, even worse, intended for a knit (sizing up required) but I'll copy it to see how neckline was constructed to copy it - it can be done in two ways, as a straight strip of fabric or more contoured one. I want to try both and I want to use few more fluid fabrics I got for few variations. Definitely I want one with higher neck, basing on boat neckline and tied on side. One with scoop neckline and tied in the middle, like my pink dress (pictured).