gwinity

^ that's a really good way of picking colours - thanks, Mariesaffron!

Kathy, both the hot pink and the burgundy sound like they'd go well with your colouring, so if you have to choose just one, and there is no variation on the price, then I'd say it depends on what else you're wearing with it.

Personally, I'd choose the burgundy, but I'm a redhead; my best friend has similar colouring to you (except she tans!) and chooses pinks or purples over dark reds every time.

Sorry, not much help!

Moon

What's so wrong with a white skin? I can look just as beautiful as a tanned skin!

Suhad

Downwind of a still means that you're getting drunk from the 100% pure alcohol fumes on the wind...

In other words, we Americans butcher the language so badly no one would correct your English (at least from this side of the Atlantic) because we can't speak our Native Language ourselves!

And on that note, (punctuation aside) I really get tired of NOT being able to use multisyllabic words in everyday language due to the average person not being able to comprehend "Well!" as a response to "How are you doing?"

Freya

Suhad and Shanazel,

Regarding downwind of a still: Would I be right in assuming that "still" is short for "Distiller" or whatever the contraption to make "moonshine" is called? There is a lot of moonshine being made in barns around Norway, especially in the area where I go in the summer. Sometimes the barns blow up which is not so good... I think I will have to make a Norwegian translation/adaptation of this fine American expression.

Thanks,
Freya

Freya

Dear DancerAU,

Are you familiar with the Spring, Summer, Fall & Winter color theory? I think it was a fad in the 90's, and perhaps it's completely outmoded today. I think it had some sort of cheezy name "Color Me Beautiful" or something like that. The general idea is that your coloring (skintone, eyes, hair) can be placed in four different categories (Spring, Summer, Fall & Winter), and that certain colors are more suitable for the diffent "seasons" or types.

For example Summer and Winter look better in "cool" colors, while "warm" colors are more suitable for Spring and Fall. This does not mean that a Winter can not wear red (generally considered a warm color), but would look better if the red has a tinge of blue in it, as opposed to a tinge of orange which which would look better on a Fall person etc.

This might all sound a little bit silly but when I looked into it years ago I found it helpful in thinking about colors and developing more of an eye for what suited me or not. I would never advocate becoming a slave to this system, or any other for that matter, but perhaps it would help you deciding on costume colors etc.


Color is one of my favourite subjects so I could go on forever! It's probably a good thing that I have to run for an appointment!

Freya

Shanazel

Standing down wind of the still means you must've been breathing in fumes from an illegal liquor making place (a still) that made you drunk.

In the part of the world I come from, people used to make their own liquor, called among other things moonshine, corn likker, etc. My great grandfather was a bootlegger (maker and transporter of illegal liquor) way back when people thought it was dandy fun to match wits with the revenuers (tax agents). Bootleggers have now been largely superceded by marijuana growers, who are much higher tech and not nearly as interesting.

Freya, when my Poppa Woolsey was making beer, he kept it hidden in the barn, unbeknowst to all the good teetotaler Southern Baptists in the area (including his own family). It gets very hot in Arkansas. VERY hot. One VERY hot Sunday, the preacher came to dinner after church. While they were all sitting at the table, heads bowed for the blessing, the tops began to blow off the bottles because of the heat. My grandmother was a little girl then, and she said it sounded like gunfire.

Freya

Shanazel, I love your story about Poppa Woolsey! I hope he came up with some wild story and managed to save his beer from inquiring busybodies...

Although I grew up pretty much all over the place, home is a very small fishing and farming community in the North of Norway. I never actually lived there but we have a cabin up there and my whole family reconvenes there every summer, year after year. So yes, that is where my heart and home is. There are plenty of interesting local characters up there, although now most of them survive in stories such as yours about Poppa Wolsey.

In fact, up there, as in most of rural Norway, they still produce moonshine. Norway has a government-run wine and liquor monopoly, so it's hard to get a hold of alcohol when you live on some remote island, or on the other side of the fjord. A few years ago there was a real supply crisis as one of the big "burners" (as we call them) got busted when his barn blew up. The prices sky-rocketed and good booze was hard to find.

I've also been to parties where the "still," or "apparatus" as we call it, was in the bathroom. My cousin once reported that at a party she attended they ran out of liquor, so they had to fetch some directly from the still. It was still warm when served...

Freya

elle21

Hmmm, I would like to stand downwind of a still....

Hehehe, I've so got to introduce that into England! Gonna use it next time boss tries to give me more work to do, he'll look at me like I've been standing downwind of a still!

You with me fellow Brits?!