Beautiful Games: Humble Bundle

Last year I wrote a post about the beautiful games by Amanita Design and now their game Machinarium is available in the Humble Bundle! For those who've never heard of it: you get five games, you pay what you want and if you beat the average price, you get an extra game!

I couldn't let this chance pass by of course (the bundle is only available for nine more days), so I'm now the proud owner of Splice, Eufloria, Waking Mars, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery and of course Machinarium!

I bought them all two days ago, and I've already finished Machinarium. It was a wonderful game. Really hard puzzles, beautiful art and a great storyline.

I only played Crayon Physics and Eufloria for a couple of minutes, but it's clear they're both quite ingenious games as well. And another great thing: the games in this Humble Bundle are all playable on Android!

The average price is $6.17 at the moment, so I really can't think of a reason for you not to go play all these games! Even if only for Machinarium.

Fox dæmons

Just a drawing of a fox I finished yesterday. I can't decide whether I like the left or the right version better...

I think if we had dæmons in this world (as in Lyra's world in His Dark Materials) mine would have the shape of a fox. I you haven't read the Dark Materials trilogy yet, you really should. Seriously. Go buy it.

Oh Land & Cat Bag

I went to the concert of Oh Land tonight. I also went to see her the last time she was in Amsterdam (you can read my ramblings about Nanna and her band and listen to their music here and here). I'll have a full post ready next week, but for now I just want to share something really cool.
The last time I went I wore my catbag and Nanna said she really liked it, so I made her one (together with my mom, because I'm not that great with a sewing machine) and gave it to her tonight...
And she already put a picture of her wearing it on facebook!

I hope she'll wear it a lot :)

A not so Little List of Socks.

Have I ever mentioned I like socks? I don't think so. But the thing is, I really do. I really really like socks. I could probably ramble on forever about how amazing socks are (they keep your feet warm, they can be really weird without anyone noticing, you get two at a time, etc.) but I'm just going to share some of the ones I've been drooling over the past few weeks :)

These pairs are all from Ozone Socks and I really really love them. I think I've spent almost four hours on their website since I discovered it. (about ten days ago) And you know what the best part is? They offer a Single Sock Service! I doubt I'd ever let any of their socks out of my sight long enough to abandon me, but it's still pretty handy!

These are my absolute favorites! But they do ask me the question I've been asking myself a lot lately: green or blue?

(This goes on to me regretting not having bought a skirt in blue, but only in green about three years ago)

These ask me annoying questions too.

With these I tend to prefer the pinkish one, but I'll probably end up buying both because I can't decide in the end :)

And with these I just thank God they don't come in green...

The following are from Topshop. They have this everlasting Special Offer going on (three pairs for eight Pounds), so the last time I was in London I bought three pairs: one with flowers, one with a bear and one with little deer. They're still among my favorites, but they've got some pretty cool new ones...

These are pretty...

These are cute...

And these are just incredibly awesome. I want to meet the genius who though of koala geek socks and form a cult around him/her.

I think I have to buy some socks soon...

The pictures: Part 2

Here they are! The long awaited second part of my holiday pictures! You can find the first part here! Our next stop was the most beautiful city in the world: Venice! I have to live there someday... The narrow streets, the pretty bridges, the charmingly dilapidated houses, the gondolas... I get all nostalgic when I think back :)

We took the boat from the airport straight to the San Marco square. This is the doge's palace...

...and the San Marco Basilica.

The square was flooded and the water reflected the lights from the buildings while the orchestra under the canopy played romantic music... Venice by night is so magical...

Venice by day isn't too bad either though :)

We visited the San Marco in all it's glory...

...and went inside the Doge's Palace. (no pictures allowed though :( )

You know you're in Venice when you see the winged lions :)

When we had already booked our stay in Venice, I found out we were there with the Festa del Redentore, a feast to celebrate the end of the plague in 1576. There were so many people!

The best part of the celebrations was the fireworks. They went on for almost an hour! They were quite fond of the green/white/red combination :)

 The next day, we went to visit two of the islands: Murano and Burano.

Murano feels more like a village. The island is well known for the glass they make there. In 1291, all the glassmakers in Venice were moved to Murano due to the risk of fires. Now, almost half of the houses there are glass-shops and I bought a really pretty and really tiny glass swan :)

They also had this really cool glass sculpures...

...with a cute little owl :)

 The first thing we saw on Burano was this cute little restaurant with handmade signs :)

It seems to be a rule on Burano that no two houses can have the same colour. I only saw two white ones! All the colours make everything feel so happy :)

We sat here for a while to recover from the colourshock and look out over the lagoon...

 After a while we had to go back to the boat to Venice  to find some food, but not after a very long detour across the whole island :)

You can't really get anywhere on the island with a car, so the ambulance has to be a boat! You can also see the police (carabinieri) station  in the back.

We also met this sweet little cat!

He yawned every time I tickled him on a particular spot on his chin :)

And he was very very cuddly and sweet :)

 This tower was leaning so bad...

...it needed a strong guy to push it back straight! Of course he only needs one hand ;)

This little extension looked so dreamy in the sky! I would have loved to just sit there for a while...

I felt really sad our last day in Venice had come so soon... To ease the pain we took a traghetto (a gondola that takes you from one side of the Canal Grande to the other) which costs one euro if you look cute and smile a lot and two euros if you don't :P

We said our last goodbyes to the winged lion...

...and to the pigeons on the pink lanterns...

 ...and off we went...

Here's just one more picture of my sweetest guy :)

And a gif of me eating a cookie :) I didn't steal his, we had two ;) Also: I crumble a lot and I get distracted very easily...

Reminiscing makes me feel nostalgic... But I'm working on a new bag design which I'm very excited about! I'll keep you posted :)