all the summer dillemas

When summer vacay hits in and you have so much time on your hands. What do you do to make the constant dillemas stop flowing your way? So much time to think about stuff is not so good. This year, unfortunately, I spend my summer at home, where the weather is very unpredictable. We get a lot of rain and rare truly summery days. I found the most comfortable place ever to pull through it, my bed. It's been so long since I wrote anything. It must be because I have this weird thing about not being able to reach perfection. Once I realize I cannot reach perfection, my motivation drops. This is very unhealthy to live such a life.

the forest & us

It was the second day of Christmas that snow finally appeared in my city. It was a very beautiful day, truly! We took a walk in the forest, the way I always wanted. I felt as if forest & I could for once be in unison. I always missed out on their winter walks, when they were engaged not yet married, and now I realize how much I had missed back there. Our city's beach had been renovated earlier that year, and it looked beautifully, covered with a thin layer of snow. It was just a few degrees below zero, yet my cheeks already experienced the soft kisses of frost. Just a few degrees and I was forced to warm my Canon with my breath, so it could capture the beauty of the moment. At some point I thought it died on me completely! What a terror! I've grown to feel that family time is important. And I cherish time with my sister like never before. She is a great model, although she always insists to photograph her without showing her face. She clearly thinks this is how you take photographs nowadays. Huge congrats to Betsy and Natalie, each of them got engaged during Christmas, how adorable! I am so excited for both of you and your hubbies-to-be. Also, today is the last day to grab the -60% promotion on ALL ads with code "December60". See you soon in 2015! :) 

summarizing

eng  It is a moment in the history of this blog, when I decided that I need to make some changes and start writing to you also in Polish. This diary of mine has loads of Polish readers and I wanted to do them all a favour. The text in Polish will be a free translation of this in the first column, and this is because Dipped in Rococo posts are mostly created inside of my head in English. Sometimes I will not write a literal translation, but things I will want to convey, you will be able to read in both languages :) After years of studying English, reading books and watching tv shows it's much easier for me to spread my wings when writing in that language. Frankly speaking, I've always had this dilemma, what language to write to you in. Of course, I recon that nowadays everyone is trying their hand at learning English, but I did not want to separate myself from readers, who just don't feel so comfortable speaking it. So here I am! :) I'll try to stick to such form of the posts. Thank you very much for a fairly large response below my last post (that I know wasn't anything special in the terms of analogue photography). Pictures come to an end, thoughts slowly pass onto a completely different track, associated with the university and how not to die this year. Several images in this post I still have from Olsztyn, when summer was still in full swing and we decided to go for a walk. Resolutions for fall? At least five hours of sleep a day. Buying a new camera.  If anyone is interested in exchanging banners, new free spots will be available soon, read more here.  T A L K   T O   Y O U   S O O N!

pl Nadszedł moment w historii tego bloga, kiedy zdecydowałam, że należy trochę się zmienić i zacząć pisać do Was także w języku polskim. Dużo osób z Polski tu zagląda i to właśnie dla nich. Teksty będą w wolnym tłumaczeniu z tego w pierwszej kolumnie, a to ponieważ zazwyczaj posty na Dipped in Rococo powstają w mojej głowie już po angielsku. Czasami nie będę pisać wszystkiego słowo w słowo, ale to co będę chciała przekazać, pojawi się w obu językach. Po latach nauki angielskiego, czytania książek i oglądania seriali, dużo łatwiej jest mi rozwinąć skrzydła podczas pisania właśnie w tym języku. Szczerze mówiąc, zawsze miałam ten dylemat, w jakim języku do Was pisać. Oczywiście myślę, że teraz już wszyscy próbują swoich sił w angielskim, ale nie chciałam zamykać sobie dojścia do czytelników, którzy po prostu nie czują się z nim dobrze. Tak więc jestem! :) I postaram się być w tej formie już zawsze. Bardzo dziękuję za dość duży odzew pod moim ostatnim postem, który dobrze wiem, że nie powalał pod analogowym względem. Zdjęcia się kończą, myśli powoli przechodzą na zupełnie inne tory, związane z uczelnią i tym, jak nie zginąć w tym roku. Kilka zdjęć w tym poście zostało mi jeszcze z Olsztyna, kiedy lato nadal trwało w najlepsze i zdecydowałyśmy się na spacer. Postanowienia na jesień? Przynajmniej 5 godzin snu dziennie. Kupienie nowego aparatu.  Jeśli ktoś jest zainteresowany wymianą banerów, to niedługo zwalniają się darmowe miejsca na taki barter, doczytajcie sobie tutaj. D O   U S Ł Y S Z E N I A !

postcards from O

I open my eyes each morning, often awaken after a bad dream, and I crave caffeine and you. I go downstairs to quickly make myself a dose of the first one, the latter need stays unfulfilled. The most probable is that I am going to go with the flow, wherever it may lead me. I miss you, my person, very much. 

I am sort of in love with the top photograph. Old town is the only place in my city where something is happening. We don't get the loud & social evenings B has, but that view of that place makes me reminisce. We are so damn old already. I still need training when it comes to 800 iso film. It's a great challenge for me, I think. Just how you learn to focus properly, you have to learn what conditions to shoot under. It's not so easy peasy. How weird is that when I get a white coffee without any art on it, I am a little disappointed? One of my favourite coffee stores in B seriously spoiled me in that respect. They get you teddy bears, tigers, and much more. Even if you're, like us, crashing their place half an hour before closing, for a late night date of cappucino.

Next week we are going to Varsovie for a couple of days, and it's lovely how hard you try to make me travel through B while I'm on my way over there. Expect some photographs once I'm back. I still have some time in my beloved O, even though all my molecules dream to be somewhere else. Time flies, seriously. Soon enough new numbers will be welcomed into my life, 8 months, year three,  2015. 

If you're interested in advertising your blog on Dipped in Rococo, here is something for you. You can always swap a freebie (ad swap) or book it if it's currently taken.

brand new space

On one of hot July afternoons I visited my sis in her new flat, where she and her hubby moved in right after their June wedding. She served me delicious frappe and we spent some quality time on her couch, checking the wine etiquetes she got for the wedding and talking about how our lives have been lately.

I picked a Pull and Bear dress because of how hot it was outside and styled my hair in something braid-like. But don't laugh just yet, it was just a fancy way to make sure my long hair doesn't make the heat any worse. With Tudorcolor inside of my Praktica, I took a few snaps of what her living room looks like. It is so cool that she managed to get all these details that she had always wanted and we had always talked about. enjoy :)

Summer has started for good and temperatures are insane. I recently caught myself welcoming my school year habits back into my life. Never had I thought that I would be on energy drinks during the summer. This morning it was inevitable though. I had to get up at 5.45am, because my summer practice has began. It's a M.D. practice on a hematology ward, so far away from my dentistry stuff. I must say it's not very tough and if it wasn't for the early hours, I'd say it's a good experience. We have met some very talkative patients today, so the hours have just passed by so quickly. I have to say I am really enjoying my vacay so far. We're having desserts and cold beer way more often than during the academic year. We are having sleepovers way more often, which I absolutely adore, even if I hate being tickled by you, you monster.

Big news, on August 10th we are going to beautiful Budapest for a couple of days, and this time we are going by a plane. Saves time and actually, money, in that case. I have began stocking up for that trip, but I am still undecided what films to take. By the way, have you ever had problems with your films when going through customs? Is it true that if the film is below 1600iso, it's safe? I'd hate if all of my photographs were fried with that scanning machine they have there. Lots of you travel a lot, thought I'd ask :)

It's so abstract to ever leave this city. The parting time is coming though, but it just feels insane, because I won't last a week without you.

Speak soon! :)

Seriously, people just cannot photograph me in focus.

a little celebration.

The part of my winter break that I actually spent at home seems almost insignificant. I feel somehow torn between two cities. Each of which misses something crucial.This is my first real try shooting black & white film. It feels like exploring a completely different side of lomography. I had chosen some Ilford (XP2 400, to be exact), hoping the results will be enough to convince me and my biggest critics that colorless shooting has at least as much potential as full color.

The day after my arrival, my fam & I decided to celebrate my passed exam and my sister's new job by having dinner in one of the loveliest recently opened restaurants in our town. (Recently opened, duh. I guess it's been around for longer than you may think, but I don't visit home that often and we rarely eat outside, so yeah, definitely new experience for me). And since I always like a little spin in my regular favourite dishes, having a salmon salad with grapefruit, orange and almonds, was a highlight of the day. Casa is a place with cool people, fresh energy and great cuisine, so what's not to love?

Also, using my new 28mm lens gives me a different, fun perspective. Unscrewing and changing lenses does absorb some time, but for now I do have some extra minutes to spare. I was enjoying the last days of sweet, sweet freedom, before I was thrown into university life again. But on the other hand, huuraaay, I'm shooting and posting, how incredible is that??

And every once in awhile I stumble upon something that simple and esthetically pleasing as the video below. Enjoy :) (#12 Forget shit and move on) Oh how much I need number 12 in my life nowadays. Time to flee the scene of this incident, breathe in slowly and move on. There's no use in settling for second best. Not anymore. The truth is, I feel weaker than I've felt in a long time, but on the other hand I am stronger, because I've made the first step towards self preservation. Life has always been about forgetting. And well, I'm going to nail its techniques sooner or later. 

But what if it's not about forgetting but about accomodating? It is about some funny evolution process, which can be achieved only after your heart has been broken some certain number of times. Cutting ties is easy, it's a sharp cut between what we used to be and what we will be from this moment on. I am not proud of always burning my bridges. Not everyone is supposed to stay in your life and in your bed, but you're not the only deciding factor. Keeping your exes might be foolish, and sometimes it might just prolong the bleeding for some significant amount of time. But maybe at some point you will realize that you've grown fonder of having people around. Of having certain people around, not matter in what form. I miss X for our long conversations about music and cinema. I miss Y because of his 'fuck it ' attitude, that was always somehow uplifting and energetic. Z cooked well, and to be quite honest, I just wish I could have someone cook for me the way he did. Q gave me this incredible impression of a relationship, and just the first boost of any confidence in my life. And you, you have given me a bit of everything. A little bit of all that. 

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND from frohlocke on Vimeo.