the roses

kinda gives me chills

musical mashup

A few momentary favourites from around the world:

Bougere - Plaster [Montreal]
Quim manuel o espirito santo - Eme Lelu [Angola]
Compassion - Magenta Skycode [Finland]
Deixa Eu Dizer -Marcello D2 & Claudia [Brazil]
Dance Rock - Bunny Wailer [Jamaica]

chill out

wow slacking! life has been busy after leaving malta and coming home to surprisingly sunny nova scotia! i was only here for a month working my butt off before i took off to germany and switz to visit my best girl mate isabel. i just arrived home from a bit of an extended vacation...i will get back on blogging. especially because i've been meaning to document some lovely tracks.

and here is one of them!

vortex to another land

this is just so cool/beautiful/scary. i wish i was there to see it.

bunnies, bows & blossoms

a new favourite tee of mine. im not usually a tee shirt person, but i really couldn't help it when i saw this bunny wearing spectacles water colour print - she had to be mine! really one of the cutest [but not overly?] things ive seen for a long time!
found this bow necklace in valletta and the two make a wonderful pair. :)

a cute little song & vid: tiptoe through the tulips [1929 original]

colourblock

i needed some hanging around beach clothes. shorts are from zara SS10. picked up this blue side tie scoop neck shirt and it is quickly becoming a favourite. only 14 euros from new look - i know what you're thinking, however it's actually made very well, and it's super comfy too!

theme song &  my second favourite of new order: blue monday

sunrise swimming

i had such an amazing night that i feel the need to write about it so i can look back and remember it again and again and again. it was the wrap party for art show [when in rome] and there was a gathering with the 16 international artists and their friends and supporters on the island. the night started off as any other night with drinks [and some dancing!] at a bar [coach & horses], then at another. we started talking about night swims and decided hey, why not. warm maltese summer nights allow for midnight swims whenever one feels the need.

we headed to the shore in the dead of night. stripped. jumped. swam. floated while gazing at the stars.

we all clambered out in an assortment of soggy undergarments and laid our wet bodies on the rocks.

but the night was still young and we decided to head now to a danceclub for the final hours of the night. wet hair became dry hair as we danced the night away to horrible cheesy pop music. as the dance floor cleared and the sky became lighter it was our cue for another swim. a sunrise swim.

the water was milky orange and there was a lone fishing boat silhouette on the horizon. still early enough that the hussle and bussle of the maltese bay was not yet. it was one of the most serene and wonderful moments i've experience here in malta. and the perfect way to end one's long night out. i wished i had a camera, but deep down i am glad i didn't as it would have taken away from absorbing everything around me.

though, i have found a photo of the maltese bay which is quite similar to what i was experiencing.

i love this island.



a bit of musical accompaniment or what would have been a good theme song for my night. breathing out - kurt vile, of philadelphia

the blue door

making use of the beautiful outdoor space.
hand made jasper conran chiffon tunic, zara leather gladiator sandal

you wish

such a great jam, just to kick back and relax to. quite needed after my last two days of work. every. single. muscle. is hurting. if i drank beer, this would be one song i would pour one out to.





not a huge electronic or experimental lover, but mixed with vibes of hiphop and soul, nightmares on wax, from ibiza, is one musical endeavor that i could totally come to know and love.

100 [lovely] things

at last. i have created my 100 things collage for my 100th post...only 12 posts later. they are a random collection of things i have found on the internet but all have some special meaning or represent me in someway. think of it also as one of those idea flow charts, or a brain map. i have always loved creating these sorts of collages but this is by far the biggest. so here it is: a giant jigsaw of my brain  - thoughts memories and feelings. [photo has been altered to fit blogger -__-]

3 sunny glasses hanging on a line

blessed to be out of canada for all its rainy weather this spring, im now trying to soak up as much of this maltese sun as possible. but with the blistering sun and amount of glare off the limestone buildings, having a pair of good sunglasses [or two..or three!] is a must.

i went with a few friends to gozo for easter weekend. on the small island, in the city of victoria, there is a pharmacy with a very heterogenous mixture of trinkets not normally associated with pharmacies. however they are also known for their good selection in new and vintage brand name sunglasses - with extremely reasonable prices!

when i visited i couldn't help myself and ended up getting three pairs. i picked up a great pair of vintage caravan style ray bans, another in some sort of signet style and rubbed bronze framed united colors of benetton ones.

here they are, hanging in the sunny courtyard.

 

 and a really elegant ant that found its way into the bedroom for good measure.

"old school" lovin'

with one of the most beautiful male singing voices i can think of, lucas santtana of brazil, will always have a special place in my heart. from the album eletro ben dodo (2000), mensagens de amor is probably one of my top 20 all time favourite songs. ever! it frequently was my goodnight lullaby played to me so lovingly by none other than my now seemingly retro 1gb original nano ipod. i suppose this post is turning out to be a bit of a shoutout to forever favourites, to oldies but goodies.. lucas santtana and 1st generation nanos.

 

the video i've chosen is of a seemingly aspiring photographer testing out his new nikon d90, so hey, why not give him a bit of space on dntl. there are also some extremely beautiful shots in the video for your eyes to feast upon.

revamped

finally taking the time to post a substantial update on this blog has encouraged me to revamp the website. a rejuvenation that was long over due. the website has a much softer feeling and natural colour pallet which i feel is much more inline with that i originally envisioned for this blog. so, for those of you who still meander back onto this blog from time to time i hope you enjoy the new Duchess Nonetheless  as much as i do.

realizing yesterday i've had the blog for over a year now, i'm happy it got the face-lift it deserved. it's so nice when you feel good about something, or like the way something turned out because it promotes you to do more and further it somehow. for example i've one million blog posts jumping around inside my brain now. i'm motivated all over again!

however, to post one million at this time would be quite difficult. so here is one. another kind of 'revampment'.

i felt like doing some arts and crafts the other night. once in a while i feel the strong need to draw, or paint or create something, anything. i remembered there were what seemed like hundreds of old, used and unused, postcards and cards in the desk in the old lija house. i wanted to do something with them and these are some of the results.

trouser socks & tree trunks

ow i've been slacking terribly with this blog! on the bright side, my photography blog is thriving, with sometimes as many as two posts a day! but i miss being able to post about whatever i feel at the time! so, i'm going to try and get back into it, with a few posts a week, at least.

we shall start the day up with a few photos of a lovely picnic-ey day in the old royal hunting grounds on malta. they are extremely beautiful grounds, one of the only places on malta where i have actually seen what most canadians would consider "trees". throughout the grounds there are old ruins and forgotten orchards. [i think i had posted some of the photos of the ruins from last summer in the same gardens somewhere.. i'll have to find them & link them!]

and to carry on with the sun, gardens and forest theme, here's one of my all time favourite videos.


Sigur Rós - Gobbledigook from Sigur Rós on Vimeo.

gangster tripping

a great vid/song mix..

i wanna be her

gosh i love peaches sometimes. peaches -  boys wanna be her.  to me there is nothing cooler than a girl who completely rocks out.

and the boys

great song. great vid. and the boys by angus and julia stone.

at a point of love, a slice of poetry

these beautifully crafted necklaces from comfort station in london hold pages of laser cut antique poetry books, the metal that hangs around them is engraved with the longitute and latitude of a town called love, in the bahamas.. how utterly romantic!

the shop also has a variety of other delicate and intricate jewelry using interesting snippets of things including barometers, hourglasses, and tiny globes.

senegal fast food

i've really always loved a huge selection of african music,from french, spanish, portuguese or creole influenced.. but recently re-discovered amadou and mariam of mali.

although their newer albums are absolutely lovely, i love the traditional influenced older albums.  this one is one of my favourites, and it's just so much fun!

a love story

it has been a while.. i need to get back into the swing of posting on both blogs.
recently got netflix, there is a surprising selection of really great movies anything from anime to bollywood , to silver screen classics and indie movies. tons ive never heard of before.
anyways i recently watched a great movie called wristcutters: a love story, a satirical or dry humoured love story about two people who meet in the after life. the place is no different than the real life they escaped, infact its a bit worse. it's bland, no smiling is possible, however, interesting small miracles do occur.  the movie also stars one of my favourite actresses shannyn sossamon.
a great movie, with an interesting soundtrack and odd selection in cast but they seem to mesh together perfectly.
if you want a quietly hilarious and quirky movie to watch, one that you're able to read into, or choose not to at all..then i highly suggest you watch this movie.