I all but BFF with my blog at the moment. I have tons of things to write about, but absolutely no inspiration or lust to sit down and pour my thoughts into a something physical. I don’t feel like sharing my thoughts with anyone – or everyone. There’s so many things I want to do, and so many things I want to achieve, but I seem to be stuck at the moment. I seriously hope it’s a momentarily thing, or else I’m afraid I’ll go insane. I feel like I’m stuck in an enormous puddle of mud which is sucking me further and further down into the black nothingness.

Thankfully I have friends. Good friends. Friends I wouldn’t want to be without. And today Monica came over and brought Zita and her four puppies with her. Puppy therapy! I guess it’s meaningless to even mention, but I have a major crush on the single male of the litter, and it seems like it might be mutual. He’s completely and utterly adorable! Why is it that small, furry animals have such a therapeutic effect on people? Or at least on me? I’m forever grateful for today’s session of puppy cuddling, and it was so cool to watch Theo with the little ones. He was so sweet and gentle, trying to initiate play and running around checking up on them.

click for enlarged images

Aren’t they just adorable? One of the four puppies, the tricolor female, didn’t want to appear on any of my photos. I did however have a ton of the handsome little man, go figure. It’s almost impossible to get good photos of moving critters, but a few of them turned out good enough to share with the rest of the world. The first photo shows one of the white females in an awkward sleeping position – she was actually sleeping like that before we startled her by taking her picture – together with her mom, Zita. The second photo shows the other white female trying to hide inside their blanket, and doing a hell of a job! And the last photo shows Zita and her roaring little lion cub, while Theo is carefully sneaking up on them to be closer to the action.

Thank you, my dear Monica!

Photos © Øyvind H. ’10

I don’t always buy makeup when I’m on one of my shopping rampages, mind you. Yesterday I ordered the Canon Speedlite 430EX II for my EOS 450D SLR camera. I do love my camera, but I’ve been kind of disappointed in it ever since I bought it. The reason for this is that I always know how I want my pictures to turn out, and I’ve always been told that I have a “good eye” – but I never seem to get my photos exactly the way I want them with this camera. There’s always something wrong, like the colors being completely off or something like that, and it’s driving me insane. Insane! Thankfully I have good friends who are into photography and willing to help a clueless soul as myself, so now I’m hoping this flash will do the trick. Time will show!

The next time I buy something for my camera I think it’ll be a new objective, as I’ve been planning to buy the Canon EF 28mm F2.8 for quite some time now. I guess I’ll have to prioritize a new objective instead of all that tempting and oh so colorful makeup, so I’m actually able to shoot some acceptable EOTD’s for my blog.

One’s gotta love new gadgets!

Photo © Canon Inc.

Nå er det min tur til å be dere om å mobilisere dere for en god sak.

Norges Handikapforbund, Norsk Forbund for Utviklingshemmede og ULOBA har gått sammen i en allianse for å kjempe frem en individuell rettighetsfesting av Brukerstyrt Personlig Assistanse (BPA). Kampanjen kalles Mitt Liv, og handler om friheten til å leve selvstendig selv om man lever med nedsatt funksjonsevne. Jeg er en av de mange som er avhengige av å ha personlige assistenter i hverdagen for å kunne leve et selvstendig liv, og har derfor BPA gjennom Trondheim kommune. Selv om kommunene har lovbestemt plikt til å tilby BPA, har ingen rett til å kreve ordningen. Beklageligvis finnes det ingen tydelig definisjon på hva BPA er, og ordningen blir derfor praktisert ulikt over hele landet.

Vil du lese mer om kampanjen Mitt Liv?
Du finner den på FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/mittliv2010

“Hvis jag kan få assistans på det jag är dårlig på, kan jag göra det jag är bra på.”
David Lega

First of all, I absolutely LOVE the name. Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. I mean, hello! It’s maybe not politically correct, but I can’t help myself and I think it’s pretty perfect. I’m sure you’ve heard of these Lip Tars some time or another? They have been a pretty hot topic in the colorful world of makeup for quite some time now, and I’ve managed to steer clear – until now. I’m blaming VampyVarnish for that. She recently published a little review and some swatches of her six newly acquired Lip Tars, and when I saw them on her lips I was completely and utterly sold. I’ve seen people raving about these Lip Tars before, but they seemed so.. moist to me. Now I realized, after seeing VV’s pictures, that the trick was in the amount of product – and her application was flawless!

I therefore decided to invest in a few of these Lip Tars. They come in every color you can imagine, and if you by any chance should happen to imagine a color which isn’t part of their selection, well, then you’re free to mix it up yourself. Fantastic! I went looking for some good swatches, and ended up choosing five pretty neutral colors. These thumbnails doesn’t show the colors any justice at all, so you’ll have to use Google to really see how these fabulous lip colors work.

Each tube contains 8 ml, and costs $12.50 (which would be about 78,- NOK with today’s exchange rate) if you choose to order them directly from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics – and yes, OCC ships worldwide! You only need the tiniest little blob, and it should be applied with a lip brush. A tube of Lip Tar will pretty much last you a life time.

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Xina Cross Country
08/27/10

Photo © Shamini Thevarajah ’10