What now?

Mid February is an odd time to write about new years resolutions. Especially when I've only vaguely started figuring out what they might be.

Maybe they should be called something else?

The term itself has a temporary vibe to them. Sort of half-assed if you will. The kind where you're determined to lose weight but start secretly eating cinnamon rolls half way through January. Or sneak a smoke when out with your buddies, because it's just once and Saturday nights don't really count anyway.

"Making Changes in ones life" sounds too serious. Saying that "things need to change" imply that you're extremely unhappy or have just made some grave life decision. Don't get me even started about "decisions". Just writing things like this sounds a whole lot more serious that it really needs to be.

I'm making improvements. Things are good, but need a little tweaking.

There's not a whole lot of big things in the works, just many little ones. I spent new years eve moving furniture. It took three days into 2015 to get them where they needed to be. For now at least. I've been tossing things. There are a whole lot of things.

I've talked about it before, I like to keep stuff. I am a DIYer, so everything is raw material. Everything could be something else. I know, however, that when I have too many potential projects, nothing gets done. So, I've been going through my possessions.

I love fashion but hate shopping for clothes. So I have a lot of clothing that is almost what I wanted. Over the years I have fixed my habit of buying a lot of things for cheap and have started buying better quality. Unfortunately even if the quality is great, if the piece of clothing doesn't serve it's purpose, it's basically a waste of space.

I dream of a wardrobe where everything fits and a home where everything has it's place. I miss the ease of writing I enjoyed a few years ago with this blog. I over-think and under-perform on daily basis. I've talked about all this before, yet I'm still working on it.

I don't quite know where all of this is heading, but I'm quite interested to see. I'm really tempted to make promises about this blog. Things I'll write about and how often and what my goals are. Instead, let's just see if I can get the enjoyment back without setting too many deadlines and goals and milestones I have to reach.

That'll do for now. 

Happy Hobbit Day!

Wait! What?

Yes, you heard right. Today is Hobbit Day since it's mentioned in "The fellowship of the Ring" that September 22nd is the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. Also, consequently, it was the day of the 'long-expected party' that begins the Lord of the Rings and the day when Frodo became the sixth Ring-bearer, preceded by Sauron, Isildur, Déagol, Sméagol (also known as Gollum) and finally Bilbo.

welcome from Lothlorien,new version by breathing2004 on deviantART

The more you know...

You're welcome! I know you all were dying to know this! (Ok, I know at least some of you knew this already. I love you!)

Please direct any Lord of the Rings related questions to the comment section!

Finds from FanExpo

I'm so excited about the things I found at FanExpo. I could've bought so many things, but I was good and only got the things I absolutely wanted!

I got three books. The first one is the Pieces of Wonderland I already mentioned in the FanExpo post.

Next one is The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide. It's an amazing book with gorgeous illustrations. I mean, come on, all sorts of creatures from the Star Wars universe! The wildlife is divided into sections according to the planets they live on. The creatures include some obvious one like the Tauntauns (most notably seen in The Empire Strikes back) and Sarlaccs (Seen on Return of the Jedi) but also a little less known ones like Ottas and Urusai.

Finally, I found Fairy Quest: Outlaws. A friend told me about it and just like that, one copy happened to be there, on the table all by it's lonesome, just waiting for me. The art is beautiful and the topic is exactly what I love; new adaptations of old, traditional stories. In this case, fairytales.

Like I mentioned I met the illustrators behind Pieces of Wonderland and they both sketched on the book alongside with their autographs. How awesome is this?

I did collect a ton of business cards and brochures, here's just a few of them. Obviously the expo guide as well. That's the booklet with Batman on it, if it wasn't clear from the large friendly letters spelling FanExpo.

The other purchases is the print of Batmobile by Ron Gyuatt. It's the Tim Burton Batmobile (guys, these are important details!) and a part of a series of three Batmobiles.  I loved pretty much everything and could've easily bought half a dozen posters just to start. Very nice guy too. Once I have decided where to hang the poster, I'll share a better photo.

Below the Batmobile is a few small cards (A pet Narwhal for Max's room) and a couple of stickers from Rosey Cheekes. If you like cute things, you need to check her work out! She's just as cute as her illustrations! I had a nice chat with her about the Expo experience as a whole and it was so nice to get a small business owner's view on the whole experience.

Another purchase also for Max is the creature on the lower left corner. His name is Mr. Jefferson and he's from The Monster Factory. Picking out the right one was interesting...*)

And finally a whole lot more Star Wars! I bought 100 Star Wars postcards. So yeah... There will be many Star Wars filled letters...

The black and white characters are stickers by Jesse Rayburn. I snatched up the last dark side one and got a few others too. Need I mention he was very nice?!

Since I'm on the topic... Every single person I talked to was great. Ultimately I felt extremely welcome and had a blast. 

So, what do you think of my finds? Any that appeal to you? Please share your nerd-loves!

*) Since Max is not yet able to articulate what he likes, we scoped his reactions to various monsters on the table by showing them to him one at a time. Interestingly enough, some were not interesting to him at all while other seemed to grab his attention. While we were picking up and putting down one monster after the other, the ladies at the booth were very patient with us, quite enjoying seeing Max's reactions, another lady at the booth also stopped to watch. Now, that's totally fine, she was quite lovely and showed one of her favorites to Max. It was one of those Max was not really interested in. It did get a little odd, though, as she kept picking up the same monster and kept saying how that is her favorite. After every monster we showed Max, she showed the same one. Over and over again. I'm not sure why she was so insistent. I guess she really liked that one...

FanExpo 2014

I briefly mentioned on Facebook that I was going to FanExpo. I was very excited to go and it surpassed my expectations by far! I figured it would be great, but it was so much fun that I came back a bit overwhelmed yet incredibly, tremendously inspired!

This was the smaller part of the expo... The other side was much bigger.

FanExpo is basically a gathering place for fangirls and -boys. Whatever your fandom is, you'll find others there too!

There's an incredible artists alley, where you can meet international and local artists, both already established and those new to the industry. You can get sketches drawn just for you and chat about your favorites.

I had a total fangirl moment meeting Kei Acedera and Bobby Chiu. I am a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland as well as Tim Burton, so you can imagine how excited I was to see the concept art from the people who designed characters for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland! I actually saw a book of their illustrations first, squeaked a little out of excitement and wanted to buy it immediately. Only then I realized I could actually get it signed. That the incredible artists were actually there! So, now I have the book with sketches from both of them!

Kei Acedera and Bobby Chiu

The selection of comic books is overwhelming! You can get hard-to-find artbooks at a really great price. Honestly, the affordable price is just a bonus though, some of this stuff is hard to find! Let's be honest though, a lot of the stuff I had no idea existed. But I did want it once I saw it... I did stay within reason with my purchases, but I got some great stuff! I'll share those in another post.

The entire spectrum of accuracy in one photo: Stormtroopers vs. Assassins

I didn't dress up, but I did wear an event-appropriate t-shirt. There were so many amazing costumes! I was a tad shy to ask people to pose for me, but I got some photos of some pretty impressive costumes. The photos don't do them justice. I did dress up my son Max in this incredible onesie gifted by his awesome aunt.

I love everything about this photo: Batman, Smaug and Legos! Does it get any better?

 There were also a ton of celebrities making appearances. As it so happened Norman Reedus, a.k.a Darryl from the Walking Dead, was there just as we walked in. There was quite a bit of screaming. The list of celebrities was quite impressive: Nathan Fillion, Patrick Stewart, Stan Lee, Elijah Wood, William Shatner and Adam West. Just check the whole lot HERE

Talk about crazy costumes...

I was enjoying myself and realized that the whole thing was bigger than I anticipated. Next year I will go for two days. I also decided that one day I will be an exhibitor there. Not sure what I'd sell, but I have time to figure it out. One day...

All in all, it was amazing. I want to do it again!

Friday Inspiration - Tattoos

I'm sure I've mentioned before my love for tattoos. I have a couple myself and big plans for more. This Friday I wanted to share a few amazing ones I've seen recently.

Source: closetonthego.com via Closet on the go on Pinterest

Source: fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net via Ton Araujo on Pinterest

Source: pinupgirlstattoos.com via Katri on Pinterest

Source: hideousstrength.tumblr.com via Ton Araujo on Pinterest

Source: stayg0ldkid.tumblr.com via Ton Araujo on Pinterest

Source: igotinked.com via IGotInked.com on Pinterest

Source: tattoostage.com via Tattoo Stage on Pinterest

This is one of my favorite topics and I could go on forever... I have so many plans... As you can see from the examples above, I love intricate details and play on light and shadows. I do love color as well. My first one is black and grey and the rest are in color. For some reason I expected to only get black and grey, but I think I'll stick with color.

Care to venture a guess as to why I am thinking of tattoos today?

Friday Inspiration - windows

I have a weakness for architectural details, such as windows, doors and fire escapes. I also go weak in the knees for beautiful, simplistic graphic design. You can only imagine how my heart fluttered when I found Windows of New York.

Source: windowsofnewyork.com via Katri on Pinterest

Source: windowsofnewyork.com via Katri on Pinterest

Source: windowsofnewyork.com via Katri on Pinterest

Source: windowsofnewyork.com via Katri on Pinterest

Pure love for your Friday! I hope you have an awesome weekend!

Friday Inspiration - Circus

Isn't it funny, how something can stay lodged in your brain for quite some time and then when the time is right, it just comes at you from all angles?

I've been fascinated about vintage circus posters and imagery for a long time, but it's only recently that I find myself bombarded with everything to do with the theme.

Besides the forever-long fascination with vintage posters and photos, I think it was when I started planning a circus tattoo that I really got swept up. I didn't end up getting the tattoo (yet!), but I'm fairly certain it'll come sooner or later. Until then I wanted to share some circus themed inspiration with you. I even created a circus pinboard, so follow me over at pinterest if you like the same things as I do!

Source: google.com via Katri on Pinterest

Source: vi.sualize.us via Katri on Pinterest

Source: rubypr.com via Katri on Pinterest

Source: thecarolinejohansson.com via Katri on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Katri on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Katri on Pinterest

Source: farm3.static.flickr.com via Katri on Pinterest

Do you have something fun planned for the weekend?

What's up Montreal - Nuit Blanche

Tonight is the 10th year of Nuit Blanche. It's one night of activities all over the city, with the metro going on all night and a ton different locations you can access for free.

Source: snapwidget.com via Katri on Pinterest

I snapped this photo last night walking though the Place des Arts area. I'll hopefully get some better ones tonight. This is a giant slide built from the Opera house, right between the concert hall and the museum of modern art. And yes, it's open for everyone, not just kids!

"For one spectacular night, visual arts, music, film, theatre, dance, literature, flights of fancy, and many other surprises invite you to share experiences and discoveries."

If you get a chance, you should check it out! More details HERE

If the weather is decent, I'll take my camera and can share some of the sights with you guys after.

New High Score

We've now been married for two years and one day, that's a new record!

This is an actual conversation we had this morning, it's what you get when two nerds get married.

Anyhow, that's not what I came here to talk to you about. I actually wanted to show you a project made for Chris as an anniversary present. Like I mentioned yesterday, we got married in Las Vegas.


This is the state of Nevada and the heart is roughly where Las Vegas is located on the map. I've been wanting to do this for a while and I'm really happy how it turned out. I certainly can't take credit for the idea as I've seen a few photos floating around the interwebs. Unfortunately I never saved/pinned any of the photos, the idea just stuck with me.

I guess the only part I didn't think until I started working on this, is the fact that the state of Nevada is one of the less excitingly shaped states. Imagine how this would've looked if it was California or Texas instead.

[Disclaimer: I love Vegas and the state of Nevada has been nothing but good to me. This is not a criticism towards either, merely an observation on the lack of visual interest in the shape of the state]

I have to assume Chris liked it as he hung it up on the wall immediately, it's there at the end, furthest away from the camera. We've been working on a picture wall for a while, so this added to it nicely. Right now, as you can see, the collection of pictures is still fairly small, but we have another batch going up soon. There's at least a great photo from a recent wedding with a whole group of our friends, there's naturally space for a photo of our new nephew and a few other snaps, mainly from our travels, that need to be hung up.

You can also see a bit of our condo from this photo, the photo wall is in a hallway that's between the office in the back and the open space that is our kitchen, dining area and living room.

All in all I have to say that I really like how the project turned out. I ran into some problems along the way, but it wasn't actually too bad, just time consuming. I like the outcome so much that I'm already thinking about a few other things I want to make with the same technique.

Tattooed

I might have mentioned already that I'm huge fan of tattoos. I have a few myself and what they say is true; once you get one, you keep wanting more.

Source: seinismonster.blogspot.com via Katri on Pinterest

I just recently had a discussion about tattoos with my awesome sister and since then I haven't really been able to stop thinking about them. Not that I *don't* think about them a lot as it is.

Source: ugliesttattoos.failblog.org via Katri on Pinterest

I have a few already planned out and I can't wait to get started. I've also realized that as the first one I got was a fairly small, black and grey tattoo on my ankle (drawn originally by said awesome sister), I've since progressed to more noticeable, colorful tattoos. Now, as I disclaimer I need to tell you that due to my choice of career, I am cautious of my tattoos and am still able to cover them up with ease as my work might sometimes require.

Source: seinismonster.blogspot.com via Katri on Pinterest

I can't help myself though. I am dreaming if bigger and better things. Right now, I need to find a tattoo artist here in Montreal. I don't yet have a tattoo taken here at home. Mine are collected from around the world, from Helsinki, from Honolulu, Hawaii and Las Vegas.

What's your take on tattoos? Do you have any?