Bones And Lilies

A huge thank you to Saliearia, who tagged me on the Liebster Award on her blog! Sorry it took me so long to answer, but I suck at coming up with questions that are interesting ;P

Rules:

1) Post 11 facts about yourself.

2) Answer the questions the tagger has set for You.

3) Create 11 questions for the people You've tagged to answer.

4) Tag 11 people.

1. 11 Facts about me

1. I'm naturally blonde, my hair is almost see-through at my temples in summertime, when the sun bleaches it.

2. I like to pick mushrooms. Chanterelles, yellow foot mushrooms and boletes are very delicious and not so hard to find when you know the right places. I go to the forest with my mom, who has spied the best places ;) Yellow foot mushrooms are my favourite type to pick, since they grow in large groups, so when you find one, you'll find a dozen. And creamy soup made from them is super tasty!

3. I'm scared of deep water. I'm not a very good swimmer and I don't like it when I'm not sure if I can reach the bottom or not.

4. I have 215 eyeshadows and they've all been listed on an Excel sheet, so I can arrange them by colour, company or name. There's more coming soon, since I'll be getting some cosmetics in exchange for doing some labels!

5. I'm a trained graphic designer. I work as a game designer now, but I did some graphics for a few years and studied graphics for 3.5 years. I like to paint and sometimes do some minor graphics tasks at the office if I have time.

6. I'm going to buy an apartment with my other half, as soon as we find a suitable one (fingers crossed! I'm so impatient!), but I already own one apartment. I rent it, since it's a one room place and too small for us. I still miss the wallpaper I put on the walls there.

7. I love cheese! Currently we have edam, white cheese and smoked cheddar in the fridge. That's only because I already ate all the Finnish squeaky cheese just now ;P (That's a funny name for it, I had to check what it's called in English. In Finnish it's leipäjuusto, bread cheese.) I like to eat cheese with jam, cloudberry or cassis jam are the best!

8. My oldest kitty is named after the singer of Skinny Puppy, the Canadian industrial group. The cat and the singer are called Nivek. Nivek is probably the wussiest cat there is, he is scared of people with shoes on, plastic bags, silicone insoles and my other half walking. I'm not a big fan of the new Skinny Puppy stuff, but Nivek is now eight years old, so that's when I was a big fan.

9. I've been using an iPhone for over two years and wouldn't change it for anything! I had my old phone for two years and got a new one last month. It's the 4S and has a great camera and Shadow Cities doesn't lag anymore, so I'm super happy ;D I also like Mac computers, but since I play a lot of games, they are not a good choice. I still sometimes miss my Apple laptop I had at my last workplace.

10. Even though I've been in the goth scene for over ten years, I've never dyed my hair fully black. I've had black streaks and sections, but always some other colour with it. I like black hair, it looks awesome, but it's such a commitment! I want to be able to change my hair colour easily, so black is not an option.

11. I've never had a brand new bed. When I moved from my parent's place to live on my own, I got a bookcase, an office chair, a table and a mattress. Now I have my ex-boyfriend's old bed, since he didn't want it when we separated. One day I'm going to get a brand spanking new bed and choose just the type I want!

2. Tagger's questions

1) Which element do You feel like being? Air? Water? Fire? Earth? WHY?

I'd prefer fire, but I'm a cool, reserved type so I'll say water. Water has so many different forms and is everywhere! Almost like me ;P I do game design, model, make jewelry, DJ, make roleplaying games, paint, draw, take photos, test games and read books, just to name a few things! I feel like there's not enough hours in a day to get everything done.

2) Are You a social type, or a loner?

I'd say I'm a loner, I like to do things by myself so I can choose the pace freely. I do enjoy the company of my friends and meeting new people, but I need lots of alone-time too.

3) Have You ever been in love with a celebrity? Who was it?

I don't think I have. Or do fictional characters count? I had a HUGE crush on Elric the albino emperor of Melniboné when I first read the book by Michael Moorcock years back. Elric is such a tragic character!

4) If You have a nickname/pseudonym - how did You invent it?

I use my DJ name on the internet (it was the other way around at first), it's Siegelind. It's taken from the Niebelungenlied epic, she was a queen, mother to the hero of the story, Siegfried. I own a copy that's from the 30's and has cool pictures taken from the Fritz Lang film version. I like epics and wanted a name with a mysterious feel to it, and didn't want it to be one of the main characters because they have personalities.

5) What is You favourite kind of food?

Sushi! Or a juicy steak. I enjoy food and there's hardly anything I won't eat ;P I like trying out new dishes, but the sushi buffet near my office is to die for.

6) Do You believe in supernatural powers or creatures of any kind?

I'm totally convinced there's an elf who hides socks. And another one who tangles necklaces and sprinkles kitty litter everywhere. And there must be one that makes paw prints on the kitchen table, since my cats are so well trained they would never jump on the table when no one's looking ;P

7) Heart or reason?

Both are good! I'm lead by my head and haven't really learned to listen to my heart, but I'm trying hard :)

8) What was Your favourite fairy tale when You were a child?

One of the Grimm brother's stories, I don't know what it's called in English (and can't even remember the Finnish name right now) but it was about a sorcerer who lives in a castle in the middle of a lake. He wanted a wife, so he went and wed the eldest of five sisters. After a few days, he came back and needed a new wife, so he took the second oldest. So it went until he wed the youngest sister, who he then took to the castle. The sorcerer gave her the keys to all the rooms in the castle and a small white egg. She must always keep the egg with her, and she can go where ever she likes, except for one room, the sorcerer told her. That one room must never be entered. As soon as the sorcerer left to do some sorcery stuff elsewhere, the girl went through all the rooms of the castle except for the forbidden one. Naturally, she checked it out in the end, and there were pools of blood with the bodies and decapitated heads of her sisters. And once she stepped in, she dropped the egg in the blood pool and it couldn't be washed clean. There was also a skull she put on the windowsill of the tallest tower, with a flower wreath on its head, so when the sorcerer peered to see if his bride was waiting for him eagerly, he saw the skull and thought she was at the tower window. In the end the girl joined the severed heads to the bodies and the evil sorcerer was killed.

9) What is You favourite brand of clothes? Why?

I'd say Lip Service or Hell Bunny, both have fabulous stuff! Lip Service sizing is a bit off and I'm not keen on all their collections, but things like Gangsta Pranksta are very wearable even as everyday wear and last well.

10) Do You have a pet? What is it?

I like pets ;P I have five cats (together with my boyfriend, he used to have two and I had three, so now we have a whole pack!), an aquarium with Siamese fighting fish, three leopard geckos and giant African land snails. I've also owned a turtle and a rabbit previously, and I had mice a few years back.

11) Who is Your favourite YouTuber (if You have one)?

I mainly use YouTube to watch silly videos when drinking beer with friends ;P So I can't really answer the question, but I'll recommend Robot Chicken Star Wars episodes, I think I've seen then over twenty times but still find them funny!

3. 11 questions from me

1. If you could be any fairytale character, who/what would you be?

2. What's your favourite dish to prepare?

3. Do you play games? If yes, what are your three favourite games and why?

4. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? Why? (And for how long?)

5. What are the best qualities in the area you live in?

6. What's your favourite piece of clothing?

7. How long have you blogged?

8. Who do you feel you write your blog for? What do you imagine your typical reader to be like?

9. Do you have one favourite band? If yes, why are they above all the rest for you?

10. What housework is your least favourite?

11. Do you have a favourite blog?

4. Tag 11 people

1. Lady Vampiric

2. Madam Noire

3. Madame Mari Mortem

4. Banshee Blackify

5. Demonita

6. Aino

7. Luna

8. Sary Walrus

9. Talvikettu

10. Chastel

11. Lady Satin

I returned home on Friday, but spent the whole Saturday with friends. A friend is leaving for a student exchange soon, so he needed to paint the walls of his apartment for the tenant who will be there when he's gone. So lots of painting and cleaning had to be done! In exchange he gave us pizza, absinthe and beer, a great trade ;P I really liked painting walls, it's been years since I last got to do it.

I didn't have that much free time in Cologne, but here are a few of the pictures I took. I worked ten hour days with presenting our new game project and it went really well! I'm super excited, since it's designed by me, I so hope the game will do well! In case someone is interested, here's the publisher's announcement of the game, Cities in Motion 2: The Modern Days.

We had a bug on Monday ;P

Me and the Cologne cathedral.

The Hohenzollernbrücke had tons of love locks, it looked so pretty! It's the big
bridge you can see in the picture above, just right of the cathedral.

The Hohenzollernbrücke, you can see how the whole fence is covered with locks!

Me and the cathedral again. I really liked it ;P It's huge! I went inside last year,
it was really pretty. And climbed the bell tower also!

They had really pretty lights up at night time.

The view from the hotel we stayed in. We showed the game in a lovely suite
by the river, but spent nights in another hotel further away. I just love the German
allotment garden's so nice and cosy! We have those in Finland too.

It's so nice to be home again, but it was fun to travel even with such a tight schedule. This was my sixth time in Germany! I'm hoping to go to Berlin again soon, since it's such a lovely city. I'm also planning to visit a friend in Oslo, Norway, when I have the time and money (Norway is super expensive!). I got some fabulous makeup stuff for a giveaway, so stay tuned! I'll post it in a few days :)