Trees

When I was little, my family and I would go walking up in the woods. It surprises me to this day how so many families don't think of this as being a great day out. We'd go up to Castell Coch, and tramp through the woods there. With a picnic of sandwiches, salty crisps, slices of veg, and hard-boiled eggs, it made the whole day really great. We would also take a pack of cards, so that if it began to rain too hard to go out, we could stay in the car and play rummy.

It might not seem like a particularly common choice for favourite things, but I chose to create a post on trees because there are actually a great deal of tree-based items that sell very well. It seems that trees can be incredibly pliable in the name of art, with so many different ways to design them.

 ~♥~TREES ~♥~ 

         

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Steampunk

Science fiction captivated me from a really young age, and I loved alternate history stories. The Victorian era is ones that I also found very interesting, inspired in part by Jacqueline Wilson's The Lottie Project. (Though steampunk isn't just Victorian.) Still, I had never really thought to put the two together, so imagine my delight when I discovered a whole subculture devoted to re-imagining the past, complete with costumes, etiquette, machines and creativity.

It was only around four years ago that I discovered the steampunk movement, and I adore it. There are a heck of a lot of people who are just in it for the look, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I find the alternative history thing as a whole just infinitely more satisfying. Finding a look you like is great, but I love the fact that this whole thing comes from such a creative place, and you're really missing out if you haven't explored it properly. And there are far too many people snooty about getting the look right (as with many subcultures), which can be very expensive, and just isn't the point.

For those of you who have missed the steampunk thing, there's an informative page about it here ---> EtherEmporium. It makes me a little sad that there are so many people "into steampunk" who don't really know anything about the literature or the history behind it, because it really is fascinating, from a creative point of view. A bit of a bumper blog post today, as I really love this look. ^_^ While cogs and keys are the staples of most steampunk jewellery, I've tried to stick to genuinely hand-crafted steampunk gifts (may also include cogs).

 ~♥~ STEAMPUNK ~♥~

         

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