oh, look

these past few weeks i have been showered with gifts - i'm feeling a bit like a child, stunned by that curious birthday-and-christmas-feeling rolled into one.

two of those gifts came from sweden.

my blogging friend kristina sent me this wonderful vintage book on portrait photography called 'the story of a face' by hillary g. bailey, published 1938 in san francisco. glamourama. a treasure trove of information on lighting, perspective, frame, pose and much more. i particulaly like the fabulous photos overlaid with diagrams, illustrating graceful poses. and also those images showing how easily a static pose can be turned into a dynamic one, just by moving a shoulder, by the turn of your head. i keep thinking who of my friends i will declare my next model to try out the graceful poses. watch out... - thank you so much, kristina, for this lovely gift! as if that wasn't enough, kristina also included some postcards made from her very own photographs, which are so lovely. i'm particularly in love with the orange that looks just like a detail from a flemish still-life. beautiful.

another parcel from sweden reached me a little while ago, this time from gothenburg. cecilia of vejacecilia had one of her amazing illustrations to give away and i was so very lucky to win! i was so excited when that cardboard tube with lovely swedish stamps was sitting on my table, waiting to be unpacked. and what a truly fabulous illustration i found inside, plus a moo mini card and some moo stickers. i'm still looking for a matching frame to put the print up on my wall. those green und purple colours make me really happy and i can simply get lost in those meandering lines, all drawn by hand. thank you again cecilia!

there are many other friends who spoilt me recently, too many, in fact, to name them all. let's just say i'm so grateful to be blessed with these special people who keep thinking of me and never cease to surprise and amaze me. you rock!