Friday 22 January 2016

{卷珠帘}

卷珠帘 {'Raise the pearl curtain'}, a beautiful traditional Chinese style song by young talented singer songwriter 霍尊 Huo Zun (also goes by Henry Huo) who came to fame on a Chinese singing talent contest a couple of years ago. The lyrics are written in old Chinese prose and describes a woman wistfully thinking of the person she loves as she sits by a window on a moonlit night.


I'm really loving the 古風 'gǔ fēng' ('style of the antiquity') and 中國風 'Zhōngguó fēng' ('Chinoiserie') art and music that can be found everywhere now by Chinese artists and musicians. Maybe it's just me getting older and that urge to look at your roots, but I'm rediscovering a great interest in all these traditional Chinese arts, the music, the dances, the clothing, the history and the folklore. Especially the 古風 aspect, which describes a style that conjures a Middle Kingdom of a time long ago, of myths and legends, when gods and spirits roamed, warlords clashed, heroes fought, and everything was that little bit more epic...

Sunday 6 December 2015

Be the Good

With so much sadness in the news recently, I've been finding it difficult not to feel helpless and a little despairing. I really liked this quote; it made me think that even though each of us on our own may not be able to do very much on a grand scale to change the upsetting situations we are seeing, I find some hope in the thought that each of us can still do good everyday in small ways. And lots of these little bits of good add up and spread and grow, and all will not be lost.


Friday 9 October 2015

A dance to The Unforgiven

Resurrected my ancient iPod touch this morning and was happily running through old playlists when the opening strings of the The Unforgiven as played by Apocalyptica came on. Aah I still get shivers from it.

I actually first heard this version on the inaugural Eurovision dance contest back in 2007 when the winning couple from Finland danced a Paso Doble to it. Their interpretation of the music and the beautifully balletic flow of their Paso were just magical. I loved the dance and the music.

(sidenote: what did we do before we could find everything on Youtube?!)

*Sigh*...isn't that just gorgeous?

I can't quite remember if it was from this that I looked up Apocalyptica or if it was after seeing the clip of Kseniya Simonova the sand artist's story telling, that moved the audience and judges on Ukraine's Got Talent to tears, which used music from Apocalyptica as well. I don't know what it is but I just love it when classical instruments are used to produce that rock/metal sound, I feel it adds a whole other level of awesome!

Sunday 20 September 2015

Earrings inspired by Chinese period dramas...

Well, I had to do it at some point. Between watching all those Chinese historical dramas, wanting to own their fabulous hairpins and earrings, and pinning beautiful photos of hanfu and qipao, kimbok and kimono, I don't know what took me so long to actually make some jewellery inspired by traditional clothing.

Here's the brainstorming... always the fun bit.


And here are the four earrings! I wanted to make them wearable everyday, not too grandiose.


Getting the listings ready to go in my Etsy shop. Watch out for the update =D

Edit: Live now in store!

Friday 18 September 2015

Things to give up if you want to be happy...

I love this, words to remember and a state of mind to strive for...

15 Things to Give Up If You Want to Be Happy
1. Give up your need to always be right
When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind. - Wayne Dyer
2. Give up your need for control
By letting it go, it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. When you try and try, the world is beyond winning. - Lau Tzu
3. Give up on blaming others
A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else - John Burroughs
4. Give up your self-defeating self-talk
The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. - Eckhart Tolle
5. Give up your limiting beliefs
A belief is not an idea held by the mind; it is an idea that holds the mind. - Elly Roselle
6. Give up complaining
You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. - Alphonse Karr
7. Give up the luxury of criticism
Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticise others. - Christian D Larson
8. Give up your need to impress others
Don't try to impress others. Let them have the fun of impressing you. - James R Fisher Jr
9.Give up your resistance to change
Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. - Joseph Campbell
10. Give up labels
The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about. - Wayne Dyer
11. Give up your fears
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
12. Give up your excuses
99% of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. - George Washington Carver
13. Give up the past
Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. - Christian D Larsen
14. Give up attachment
The wise individual doesn't get too attached to any of life's pleasures, knowing that wonderful science is hard a t work proving it's bad for him. - Bill Vaughan
15. Give up living your life to other people's expectations
The world is a mirror and reflects back your expectations. What you get is what you see. You create your own reality. - Denis Waitley


Original article by World Observer Online
Original Image via Pinterest