my life in color

Saara is finishing her make-up artist studies in a few short weeks.

She knew at 15 that this was the career of her choice.

I've always known this girl has creativity and skillful hands, and it has been such a treat watching her get really good at it.

You can see more of her work on her professional instagram account.

A short while ago, she needed an (older) model for her exam and for her book photographs the next day.

The aim was to make me even older.

And then younger...

So I headed to Töölö.

In two hours she made me into a cinnamon bun baking granny.

Make-up and latex.

That stuff is pretty horrid really.

You tighten the skin, dab it on and dry with a hair dryer.

It feels particularly bad on your eyelids and lips.

Takes 15 minutes to take off.

And it grabs onto every fine hair you have on your face....

After this experience my hat goes off to those actors who have to endure this on a regular basis for movies...

The next day I was back.

The story evolved as she started. 

It starts with a Hollywood starlet, who desperately wants to stick to roles she got as a twentysomething. No Mommy roles for her thankyouverymuch. Sadly that means she's not getting many calls these days, but she is determined to still be glamorous.

15 years down the road and she's gone dark. Both her hair and attitude. Bitter about the unfairness of getting older. 

Add 20 more years and she has finally mellowed. She's a grandmother and has taken some character roles finally. Still waiting for the Academy Award though...

The three looks were professionally photographed for her Book (like a portfolio).

I'm looking forward to seeing the pro shots.

This was the first look.

This is all done with make-up shading and a wig.

Trust me when I say this was the best wig.. we tried a few..

Then it was time for latex again.

This time down my throat too. Blech.

Never again. Next time I'll be this wrinkly it'll all be natural :P

With the make-up Saara brought my eyebrows down and thinned my lips.

The youngest look was in fact the last, so I had a chance to go to work looking nice.

I believe the professionals dub this as an adult woman's (read well over forty) facelift by make-up. Hah.

Good to know I have these skills on call.

I have to confess having her take off the fake lashes right after this photo as they were making me tear up, I have ridiculously sensitive eyes.

She still owes me the color of that lip stick though ;)

A few weeks back we had the littles overnighting and I got to take Julia to her downhill skiing lessons at Talma on both days.

I injured my knee back in my late teen years and one of the sports the surgeon added to the 'never again-list' was this. I do still miss it. 

I have to say I got such a kick out of this 5-year old who was so pumped after skiing on the BIG hill  for two hours. 

Me? I sat in the café with the iPad and camera and copious cups of tea.

And wished I were skiing too...

It was a fun coincidence that this year my birthday fell on Chinese New Year.

We went downtown to check out the action.

And the lanterns.

Love the lanterns.

What I really liked though were these "terracotta" warriors made with the traditional lantern technique.

I went a bit shutternuts.

*grin*

And hey, fireworks!

I'll take birthday fireworks!

And you know what?

46 is a pretty good age.

A strange kind of February.

Very mild. Hardly any snow. Grey and overcast.

Blah. Really blah weather wise.

Oh well, there's nothing a bit of hot tea in a moomin mug to beat the grey.

At least there is color on my way to work.

We began our school yarn bombing project with our hallway clock.

I'll write a full post when we have finished everything.

Idle hands, you know... we just cannot handle that.

This has been one of those winters that taking the kids outside is hard. There is nothing to do with no snow, it is just ice. To add salt to our wounds the city decided to close the playpark close to the school. Well, the park with the swings and climbing gear is still there, but no bikes, sand toys or sleds and most importantly no bathroom facilities.

We've had to come up with a bunch of new activities.

This one they came up on their own :)

Our 3.30ish pm tea.

Knitting tends to happen.

My inner hobbit likes a bit of toast with honey in the morning.

I've embraced the honey doodler in me.

Luckily some color other than grey was seen in the sky.

The last days of school before winter break includes kicking out the seniors..

..and ringing in the juniors as the oldest in school at the Old's Dance.

As for Valentine's day, the kids made origami cats. Some really got into it and I think the record amount was 16 cats all fitted inside each other like a matryoshka doll.

The littles who were staying the night thought it was magic.

Do you know when you are in for a treat of a sunset?

When it paints the east pink too!

To the west.

I turned 46.

I have a whole post coming on that.

Went to see a few movies.

The peanutbutter brittle brownie was far superior to Mortdecai.

Johnny Depp's (so fake) British accent was far worse than the moustache.

However the week later I went to see Imitation Game (and delivered Instax film) and that I can recommend. Highly.

Do you see it?

It will only make sense to whovians.

Three for Niina, one for me.

He's pretty cute.