"I wanna be evil, little evil me, just as mean and evil as I can be."

There's no place like home, thought the ruby red bauble as it sat in the tree. Or, that's what I presume it would think if it could think, because the smell of pine tree and fresh baked muffins, the feeling of cuddles and a belly so full, that's what makes it feel like the holidays. The gifts don't hurt either ;)

*

I know I am starting to sound like my mother but damn, this year seems to have passed in a blur. I am happy because it was a good year, more or less, but at the same time I am starting to get that nagging feeling in the back of my head because I am this close to finishing medical school and then comes residency and then comes my master's degree and then maybe even a PhD and oh boy, actually growing up? So yeah, 2012 you will either be as amazing as the invention of sliced bread or you will kick my ass from here to Asgard. I'm still excited though :)

Because, even with some downs so down I might have scrapped rock bottom with my heeled boots, 2011 was nice, more than nice.

I finally found the people at my uni whom I love more than a fat kid loves a candy shop (yeah, my med school group rocks, our online chat group is not named Masterminds for nothing!) and that makes even the most tired days on whatever rotation a bit easier and a bit more fun.

I also got to spend sweet lazy days geeing out with Alice and nights chatting with the wonderful Smaranda, and meeting amazing beautiful girls for coffee and fabulous fairs, and even though my love for fashion in the conventional sense has dwindled a bit, I am glad to report my love for all these excellent blogs has just gotten stronger because of the people behind them. (I suck at commenting though so maybe this new year will keep my ADD under control :P)

I read amazing books and became one with the couch in my quest to watch as many movies and tv shows as possibly can (maybe I'll post my top favorites, if I can get my fingers typing and if my brain can narrow it down) and I came to finally accept that I am the kind of person who cannot simply just like something, it's either obsess or nothing - as my Tumblr could probably prove.

And also celebrated our 2 year anniversary with The Boy, so really life couldn't be better right now ♥

So this is me wishing you all a happy new year, and lets make this one kick-ass, okay?

*

One last photoshoot to end the year. With my perfect new Doctor Who t-shirt (from my boy who knows me so very well) and just out of the cinema after watching The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, so I was all sorts of giddy and all kinds of frozen.

You never forget your first doctor. I am so going to wear this shirt on my first day of residency, mark my words.

*

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever."

A bit of Neil Gaiman goes a long way. Happy New Year everyone ♥

*

Song of the Day: Eartha Kitt - I Want to Be Evil

"We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun."

When I die and my life flashes before my eyes, I think the only things I'll see will be books and tv shows and movies. And probably this exact end of the couch.

*

I know this might be just the exhaustion and the cold and the winter-which-is-bad (winter-which-is-good has reindeers and lights and fluffy Charlie Brown snow) and the hypoglycemic crash after the sugar high but: I cannot wait for the Christmas vacation to be here so I can do like a brain burrowing parasite and tunnel my way to the middle of my marshmallow soft duvet and take shelter there until February, only coming out for air or to change the show I am watching.

Yes, normal people's expectations and dreams are skyscrapers, mine are the tiny pebbles that inhabit the bottom of the Mariana Trench. But I heard it's nice down there, all quiet and most importantly a perfect place to sleep. Because I am sure that if I hear the words congenital heart malformation again I will act all PTSD and jump behind the first piece of furniture I see and curl up in a ball.

(For a person who doesn't get it, I sure do talk about sleep a lot, don't I? That would be sad if... no, wait, yeah, it's sad).

*

The Boy and I spent some time in the kitchen this week, either for cooking scrumptious, complex meals that we could pair up with a nice bottle of wine and a re-watch of The Boondock Saints (how completely amazing, silly with a hint of berserk and deranged is this movie? I love the Boondock Saints and you can roll your eyes at me but I can't help loving perfect movies with the perfect hint of gratuitous violence.) or lazying it out and eating cereal out of the box.

*

You know what works well when you're just a tiny bit hungover? Improvised photoshoot!

Wore this to my darlings Roxu's birthday party which was a great night of dancing and drinking and of food runs at 4am and saving pigeons. That last part if not a euphemism.

What's the point of having a long, flow-y skirt if you don't get to swish around in it?

The cardigan I bought just because it had sparkly pockets. I guess this is the reason why I am not allowed to have a credit card.

Wearing: Zara skirt, Mango tee and necklace, Kotton cardigan, Musette boots.

The purple hair I mentioned. I feel like the teenager me is proud right now. (Well, proud as she can be when she's not sulking in a corner listening to Linkin Park because no one gets me, god!)

These are the earrings I won in the MySelvagedLife and Pansy Lane giveaway. They are ridiculously gorgeous and I thoroughly recommend visiting both sites :) Thank you so very much again for making my jewelry box a happier place.

(Deep down, my mother regrets buying me this skirt as gift for St. Nick's.)

*

Speaking of hair, I was so pleased to be invited to test out a new hair care line from Newtone. I got a mail from the lovely Alina asking me if I wanted to try the new line of hair care - shampoo, conditioner, special lotion and vitamins - designed to help nourish and regenerate the hair. All the products contain special ingredients to help with any dry scalp problems or hair loss and make hair a little bit happier.

And the good part? They smell divine ;)

Hand written note. I am a sucker for hand written notes. Want me to do something? Just send me a card and I will be clinging to you like a leech to a warm body part :))

So I tried them out and really enjoyed it. Because I am the perfect example of a faker than fake red-head, my hair has suffered profoundly after two years of dyeing and my scalp is usually very dry and I am scared one day I will wake up with no hair because my hair follicles will just get up and leave instead of suffering through one more bleaching at the salon (my hair is very outspoken, you see.) so these weeks of treatment did it good.

The treatment really did wonders to my scalp, no more dandruff and dryness from the second washing. Though I will be honest with you, I have spent this time mostly inside the house, in my PJs with my hair in a tight bun and forgetting to comb it for days on end so I'm not sure about the hair loss (glamorous med student up in here!!) but I think I did notice less hair on the brush when I did have to leave the house and do my Rapunzel moves :))

The only thing it did not solve were my hair ends, which are usually dry as a mummy at the British Museum. But I do not think it was not for the lack of trying or from a bad product, but because my hair ends are the ones that have suffered the most bleaching and dyeing and are naturally either brittle most days or soft-ish in a good day. I am sure the treatment would be ace for people who don't put their hair through a blow-torching ever 4 weeks :) But I have to admit, my hair did feel a bit more smoother and shinier after a few washes so I do give it a thumbs up for breathing a bit of life in my fake fiery mane.

All in all, it's a very good product and would wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone out there who wants to take care of their hair better than I do. It's nourishing and I think perfect for your hair if it wants to survive the cold weather.

Check out their site here and enjoy: Laboratoarele Newtone.

*

To quote my mother: "If your hair didn't looks like a transvestite dancer's before, it sure looks like it belongs on stage now." And yes, I am taking that as a compliment because my mother always means well. Mostly(ish).

*

Song of the Day: Trent Reznor feat. Karen O - Immigrant Song

"I want to drive you through the night, down the hills."

Those awful mornings when you have to wake up really, really, ridiculously early to study but you end up shoving your phone under the bed and sleeping until half the city is already halfway through their to-do list while you are a groggy, comatose mess. Well, at least coffee tastes great regardless of the hour.

*

Pediatrics has been kicking my ass, that's all the news on this side of the blogosphere. The kids are adorable and it sometimes takes all I have to not pick one of them up and run away yelling "Mine mine mine mine!" (I'm looking at you, cute ginger kid from a few weeks ago, oh my god your tiny little nose and your cute freckles still make me melt in a pile of goo!) but I suddenly understand why my mother, with 30 years of medicine under her belt, still cringes when she hears the word pediatrics.

But I feel okay about that, because even though I still can't hear anything when listening to their lungs - except for the waaaaaahhhh when they're freaked out from the stethoscope - and even though I am constantly nursing a cold because they always sneeze right in my face, I still love it. I think this is what Stockholm Syndrome is all about :))

*

Got to drop by the Absolutely Fabulous Fair and managed to not see any of the clothes but spend all the time giggling with Alice about our love for Supernatural. We even caught poor Anaivilo between our fangirling but she proved not just sweet but incredibly stoic and put up with us bravely ;))

Anaivilo's great shoes and tights combo that caught my eye.

Meet Andreea for the first time and ooh-ed and aahh-ed over her purchases. Alice managed to garner my respect again because, unlike my mental hangups when it comes to it, she can wear rings like it's n one's business.

Got to meet Costin M. for the first time and also saw the fabulous The Hearabouts girls and Laura, who all looked amazing - as always. Check out all their blog posts for more photos; trust me they're all worthy of your undivided attention!

*

A week spent in the house studying of course lead to other things. I read one glorious book (The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery - I recommend it!), cleaned my room almost every damn day and found pencils and books I though lost in the cave that I call my room, watched half a season of Firefly and cried when I remembered that's the only season (might have been sleep deprived by then, blah.) and enjoyed food like a medical student can only enjoy when she's sleepless and procrastinating.

Add to this a steady diet of spinach tagliatelle, fresh parmesan cheese and delicious Belgian chocolate my mother got as a gift from some friends who visited this November and you've got... well, to be honest a girl who thanks the lord she got blessed with good genes (thanks mom!).

*

Okay, so take a bunch of medical students bored out of their wits, add a couple of hours before a class where they learned more than they ever needed to know about schizophrenia (a.n.: dear mother nature, thank you for blessing me with a normal brain chemistry, I owe you one.) and then you just need to tell them they can visit the Antipa Natural History Museum for free and our collective IQ suddenly drops by exactly 43.7%. True story.

Giant giraffe. How could we not play with it? How, I ask you!

Wearing: Mango dress, H&M shirt, Accessorize tights, Musette boots.

It was also the last sunny day of the year. I think that fact will excuse our behavior, don't you agree?

*

As the weather cooled, I've moved from actually spending time outside to dedicating my winter to a permanent vegetative state. That includes getting snug as a bug in a rug with a good book or my Kindle, watching a lot of movies (Drive! The Boondock Saints! Crazy Stupid Love! The Incredibles! Tron!) or ridiculously bad-but-so-good tv shows (The Walking Dead, how I missed your discussing self!).

And of course Sunday brunch with The Boy :)

I was freezing here. But I had also a) drank a Mimosa at 11am and b) found out Mimosas are alcoholic so I was past the point of giving a tiny rat's ass :))

Wearing: Mango coat, Kotton dress, Musette boots, Zara bag, Alice & Sara headband, vintage bracelet.

(Got purple highlight. Cause that's how I roll. Will hopefully be able to show them off some more next time. If I don't turn into a giant sloth as soon as December knocks - or, more likely, bludgeons down my door in party hat demanding all my body heat and mental capabilities.)

Drool worthy American pancakes. And Mimosas. With alcohol. Before noon. My liver will one day sneakily leave my body while I'm having a food coma nap, I can just feel it.

♥

*

Song of the Day: Kavinsky feat. Lovefoxx - Nightcall

"Kill your heroes and fly, fly, baby don't cry."

How to enjoy a day of baking: buy all the ingredients, pop open a bottle of wine, find a good movie that you've already seen a couple of times so you won't feel like you're missing something (my choice was Iron Man, because you can never get too much of Robert Downey Jr.) and then keep your fingers crossed that you don't burn down the kitchen or drop the batch of brownies all over the floor and yourself and get 2nd degree burns (...not that that has ever happened to me, nope, never, I am a good baker, I swear! Ahem).

*

I have gone through the plague and survived, hear me roar with health!

Okay, might be a bit of a drama queen here, it was not exactly the plague (that is soooo 14th century), it was more like a tiny cold virus but the idea still stands: I kicked its ass and came out victorious with nothing more than the destruction of an entire community of handkerchiefs and probably a renal insufficiency because of the abnormal amounts of paracetamol I've been ingesting. But booyah!

It was a long week that I spent becoming one with the couch, where I acquired a nice shade of pasty white (think asylum white, with a touch of eggshell) and ate my weight in Cheerios. Also watched serious amounts E.R. and spent each episode yelling differential diagnostics at the laptop screen. I don't have issues, I'm just a really nerdy med student.

Also, this week I finally found the perfect subject for my doctorate. I am very excited if by excited you mean hyperventilating with happiness and scared out of my wits. Yay?!

*

Because I've been having a very close relationship with The Boy's couch, I've also been taking advantage of his things. Those things being wi-fi and his Old Spice. Really, I'm not the one to fall head over heels for products because of their comical and amazing ads, but I adore the smell of this deodorant. Also, he's on a horse :))

Made brownies again, two days in a row, mostly because on the first day I managed to drop the steaming hot batch of brownie batter on myself. I blame my lack of coordination and the wet floor but now that my burns are healed I can laugh about it. It might have also been because of the glass of wine I was savoring while cooking but how can I say no to such a cute wine bottle stopper?

The awkward moment of the week: when we realized that the only thing we had in the fridge, besides beer and mustard, was a giant ostrich egg. That made for some fun, albeit starving, times.

*

The day I started walking with the living again. The night before these photos were taken I was plagued by the last remains of a fever and high on drugs so I decided to watch Star Trek and, because I forgot J.J. Abrams is a vicious sadistic little twerp, I of course started crying within the first 10 minutes and petting the laptop screen while whispering "You tragic, beautiful human being!"

(I then decided it was all too sad so I changed to movie to The Hurt Locker. Of course, you can imagine how well that went. Not my brightest moment.)

Halloween has passed and I could, yet again, not be bothered to do anything so I took the opportunity to wear my American Psycho t-shirt and act like it was because I was feeling the All Hallow's Eve spirit.

Wearing: H&M trench, no brand tee & scarf, Mango jeans, Nine West boots.

I do love me some crazy Patrick Bateman.

*

Okay, so I did actually do something for Halloween. I ate delicious Cheerios and watched the best Halloween movie of all times: Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Now, if you're next thought is "Hey, I saw the Glee special episode!" I say Cease and Desist!, leave this page right now and immediately go and watch this fantastic, cheeky, fabulous cult classic movie and never, ever mention the Glee special in front of me ever again. No, really, if you do, I will have to use the dark side of the Force on you.

Because Rocky Horror is the kind of musical that would take Glee behind the school and kick it's cute little pig-tailed head in, using just one perfectly manicured pinky finger. While wearing heels. And with its eyes closed.

Rocky Horror is the cheesiest, kitschiest thing you shall ever see. It has enough glitter to choke a blue whale, enough gay to make Elton John blush and it tip-toes the line between cheap and fantastic like it's the show runner in a drag queen race. It's a like a sugary, vulgar bon-bon with a sparkly soft center.

Just superb 70s awesomeness at its best!

The movie stars Tim Curry who proves that mother nature is not fair because he rocks the high heels and garters better than most women, Susan Sarandon when she was a young fresh thing ready to be debauched and a guy in a pair of really skimpy gold shorts. That's really all you need to know for now, trust me :))

I'd tell you the plot but it's too ridiculous to even write down so I'll just say this: get the movie, get some popcorn and a sparkly top hat and get ready to sing Sweet Transvestite for the next week.

Collages made by me. Photos from Tumblr and WeHeartIt.

It's a memorable ride, witty and all raw, cutting (totally not straight) humor. It's a campy delight and I do hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. Just remember to take it with an open mind and not be too jealous of how perfect Tim Curry's legs look in those thigh highs ;)

*

Song of the Day: Awolnation - Kill Your Heroes