Studio Ghibli + Scenery

interiors in Genova, Italy, February 2018

Loneliness

the pantheon of modern witchcraft in music:

Stevie Nicks: The grand high witch, the regent of the coven. She oversees all and always will. Immortal and full of all-knowing wisdom, initially peaceful but also can (and will) kick your ass.

Florence + The Machine: Channels nature energy but isn’t afraid to dabble in the dark. Often found wandering through misty forests and open fields of goldenrod, singing lost tales of tortured spirits. Talks with Demeter from time to time.

Hozier: May be possessed by the spring goddess side of Persephone. Spends most of his time in the mossy bogs in the realm of the fae. Sometimes reappears in the human world for brief periods of time, spreading fae wisdom to the humble masses before leaving again.

Zella Day: Modern witch caught between rural and urban magic. Cavorts in the dry, desert planes of the Southwest. Frequently surrounded by crystals and succulent plants. Wears a lot of maxi dresses, wide hats, and combat boots.

AURORA: Actual dryad tree spirit. Lives deep in the woods whispering ageless melodies into waterfalls. Lives at one with nature and is friends with the deer and the wolves. Thrives off of empathy and kindness. Has plans to build a paradise haven for the exiled and rejected peoples of the world.

Zolita: Love witch, harnesses passion and desire for the forces of good. Full of sapphic energy and communicates with Aphrodite. Leader of a badass coven of LGBTQ+ witches and a slowly brewing feminist rebellion.

Elsa & Emilie: The spirits of Victorian witches reincarnated into younger forms. Literally mature beyond their years. Sing haunting harmonies of their lives and loves wrongfully lost. Reach their ultimate power when working together. Aren’t afraid to venture into the dark.

Lorde: Urban witch with untapped chaotic energy. Also mature beyond her years. Is still restless but now channels strong emotions. Uses synesthesia to literally see the spells. Kicks back with Athena from time to time.

Lana Del Rey: Fluctuates between light and dark witchcraft. Uses love magic but will also curse you. Talks to both Harmonia and Eris, also the devil. Keeps a grimoire passed down for generations in her purse.

Lola Blanc: Witch that managed to travel from an alternate jazz age steampunk timeline. Utilizes technological innovation in form mixed with traditional technique. May or may not have performed necromancy and hypnotism.

Banks: Perhaps the most chaotic dark witch of them all. Probably possessed by the queen of the dead side of Persephone, or maybe Hecate. Channels powerful energy from storms, lust, and conflict. Has a soft side she rarely lets anyone see.

That ended up a hella long. Did I miss anyone?

Homeschooler Culture:

The Top 7 Lies About Homeschoolers Video

Literally every lie from The Top 7 Lies About Homeschoolers Video

Shakespeare

The Iliad/The Odyssey

Getting to sleep in

Watching High School movies and thinking “Thank God I missed that”

Doing homework at the Library

Online Classes

That one classic book you will defend to the death

That other classic book you would rather burn in hell than read again

Minecraft

That feeling you get when an adult asks you “Why aren’t you in school?”

This might not be a universal experience, but one time my sister told someone she was homeschooled and he said, “Oh, Home School, that sounds nice, where is that?” and everyone in my family died inside

When a fictional character is homeschooled and they’re portrayed as having no friends/no socialization/overly-strict parents and also probably brainwashed and you just… why

idk if Life of Fred is homeschooler culture, but it should be

Calling vacations “field trips”

“What school do you go to?” uuuuuuugh

Bee Warmups

Klaus :: Pitchbook illustrations by Marcin Jakubowski

Tasseography

•Tea leaf reading•

You might be wondering where this unusual form of divination came from, so here’s a short history on tasseography. Shortly after tea was introduced to Europe, tea leaf reading, as it’s now recognized, was born. Similar divination tools had been used with an assortment of other materials. The art of tea leaf reading spread through Europe, and is now practiced throughout the world.

Doing a tea leaf reading involves you indulging in a delicious cup of tea and putting your sharp intuitive skills to work. After you enjoy your warm cup of loose leaf tea, you’ll leave the loose tea leaves at the bottom, where some of these leaves will form symbols, each having their own meaning. That’s where your keen intuitive abilities come in! Anyone can see a triangle at the bottom of a teacup, but your job is to intuit what it means for you or the person you’re reading for.

WHAT YOU NEED FOR A TEA LEAF READING

Tea cup with a wide brim that’s light enough to easily see your tea leaves.

Saucer

Loose leaf green or black tea, preferably organic.

Napkins

Pen and paper

Water

HOW TO PERFORM A TEA LEAF READING

1. BREW YOUR TEA

Gather all of your materials. Boil your water. Place about a teaspoon of loose tea in your cup. Pour your water in and steep tea to your preference.

For the next 3 steps, if you’re doing a reading for someone else, have them do the following steps.

2. SIP & SWIRL

Before you take your first sip, gently swirl tea counter clockwise three times. Sip and enjoy your tea, but don’t drink it all! When there’s about 1 tablespoon of tea left in your cup, swirl it again 3 times counter clockwise and think about or speak your query aloud.

3. CREATE YOUR TEA READING CANVAS

Turn your cup upside down onto your saucer to remove the remaining water, allow it a minute or so to drain, then turn it back up right.

4. LOOK FOR SYMBOLS

Look over your loose leaf tea pieces and see if any symbols or shapes jump out to you immediately. Don’t fret if you don’t see anything immediately, similar to scrying with a crystal ball, it can take some time for imagery to form for you. Try looking at the inside of the cup from different directions to see shapes. Keep in mind the images formed are formed from tea leaves, so you will really need to use your imagination.

5. RECORD & DECIPHER YOUR FINDINGS

If you do start to see some shapes, begin writing them down on your piece of paper so you can decipher them later, note where in the cup they are too. Now you’re ready to decipher your findings! Here’s a guide for the most common symbols found during tea leaf readings:

6. UNDERSTAND THE TIMELINE

Where your tea leaves are situated in your cup relate to when they will happen. This is why some of the tea leaf reading cups you find have circles inside of them. Timing is broken into thirds as follows:

Bottom third: farthest away from happening, think 3-5 years out.

Top third: will be happening in the near future, think within the next few weeks.

Middle third: will happen in about a year from now.

7. FORM YOUR READING

Like most divination tools, a honed intuition is key for success, so be sure to lean on any gut instincts as you form the story for your reading. Once you understand the meaning behind the symbols it’s time to put all of the information into a story that makes sense for you or the person you’re doing a reading for.

🌙

some outfit designs

How to prepare for a new semester/year:

So as you all know I’ve been back to uni for about two weeks now and I was NOT feeling it (to say the very least). So here is what I did to get out of that crappy omg I can’t believe school’s back mood:

Clean your room: Back to school shopping is a huge deal for me but personally I like to start by cleaning my room, that includes closet, desk .. etc. Not only does this give you kind of a fresh start but also you end up figuring out exactly what you have and don’t have so you buy way less stuff (and save more money)

And while you’re at it stop hoarding: I’ve had books just sitting there for nearly four years that I haven’t touched (hello histology), same goes for clothes. Get rid of the things you know you don’t use. If you haven’t used them in a year chances are you won’t magically change your mind and start using them. You can sell them or give them away.

Don’t throw away half used notebooks: This annoys me soooo much. Cut out the pages you’ve written in and RECYCLE them. Less is more people. You don’t have to use them for school, I use those for writing down workouts or tracking what I eat, making shopping lists, goals or whatever I feel like writing (so people won’t see you with the same notebook from last year, they probably won’t notice anyway but if that’s your excuse here you go) ALSO: For clothes that you like but are too long, too big or whatever get them tailored! Don’t throw those away too.

Now that we’ve decluttered, make a list of what you need: Tailor this to your schedule as much as possible. If you have long days at uni with a significant amount of walking maybe invest in comfy shoes, if you feel like a certain notebook would work really well for a certain class get it, if you know you’ll be carrying a lot of stuff around and don’t have a proper backpack get one. Write down everything you need before you go to the store.

Figure out what you’ll do regarding your meals: Do you have enough good quality tupperware? Do you have all the groceries? Watch a few videos on meal prepping and have a set list of quick and healthy meals that suit you and your schedule and your diet.

Optimize your study space: I’m not saying make it all white and aesthetically pleasing (unless that’s your thing), just make sure it’s a good environment for you to be productive. Figure out if you need to make any changes to it before school starts.

If you can rearrange the furniture in your room: You’d be surprised at how much this affects your mood, you don’t have to buy new stuff to feel renovated for back to school.

Take a look at all of your classes and try to work out a daily (& study) routine: SUPER IMPORTANT, before school starts try to plan out what your weeks will look like, what you’ll do for certain gaps (for example do you have enough time to go study off campus or get a workout in), which resources you’ll use for every class, how are you going to commute, what kind of notes you’ll take for every class ..etc. Distribute your workload evenly throughout the week (so days when you go home early, allocate more study time and vice versa)

Lurk at studyblrs and studygrams: or even start one, this community is super motivating (pretty sure you already know that)

One last pampering session: This is very very optional and not for everyone but I personally get a hair treatment done before uni so that I don’t spend as much time doing my hair in the morning. Same goes for body hair removal, face masks …etc. It just makes me feel like a new woman 💁🏼‍♀️

Things that have helped me (coding related)

jsfiddle - Helps you test out your code instead of using tumbr’s shitty customization page

cssportal - offers a variety of services,including: testing out your css code (gives you a live demo), generators (box-shadow etc) and others

dirtymarkup - Cleans up your code. Basically makes it legible

patternify - creates small patterns (it’s what I use to create my icons). This is honestly my favorite tool.

w3schools, codeacademy, learn-shayhowe, learnlayout - all of these websites help you learn the fundamentals of html/css and more

google - it is literally your best friend. It’ll answer any question you have no matter how vague

stackoverflow- very helpful website. Helps you answer any questions you may have (code related). BUT PLEASE, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SEARCHED YOUR QUESTIONS BEFORE ASKING. These are actual people who are taking their time to answer your questions, and they will take your “question asking” privilege away from you if you abuse it

tutorialzine  codrops- tutorials to help you with coding. It can go from very simple, to “that’s way too much time investment for me”

css-tricks - it’s like a combination of helping you code, to asking questions, to tutorials (this is my favorite website)

behance, dribbble, awwwards - great place to find inspiration

 validator - checks the validity of your code

iconfinder - holy grail of icons. Some are free some aren’t

fount - it can identify any font that a webpage is using

colourcode - just check it out. 

colorlovers- color palette galore 

caniuse- says in the name

Now if you’re trying to see how your code/theme etc looks on different screen resolutions this is how you do.

Google chrome

right click on page then click on inspect or (Ctrl + Shift + I) look for this (it’s the two ipad looking icons)

All you have to do now is input in whatever specs you want If you don’t want it anymore, just click it again and it’s gone.

Firefox

click on the menu icon (the 3 lines in the right hand corner)

click developer then responsive design view or (Ctrl + Shift + M)

I hope you found this helpful. Enjoy your day