march

March is almost over. Did you notice, that I was VERY
chatty this month? 31 posts including this one - my
record!! So, I'll try to keep it short this time ;)

I wanna show you the video taken by my boy at the open
studio day we've visited last Saturday. He was attracted
by the feet :)


More photos are to be found here and here

I didn't take any photos of the inside of the studios, but
I do wanna share my most fave artists there:
Dale C. Schaefer (too bad his website is still empty),
Matthias Holländer and Susanne Kiebler. You can see
some photos taken by another visitor here.

a spring morning

I was in the mood of making a treasury, but of course
I missed the opening time. So, I thought, I will show
my finds here :) A click on the item will bring you to
the listing in a new window. Enjoy!






P.S. If you can't click on the items, please let me know
which browser you are using. Thanks!

a lucky girl

Look, what was in my mailbox today.



I've played along, as Heather started a game. She asked
us to guess, what she would arrange with the objects.
I guessed a bird and so I won this sweet bird :) Once
again, I'm such a lucky duck ^_^ Thank you, Heather!
You could get your own bird print in her shop.

My luck does not end in the virtual world. I just got
the news, I've been waiting for since Tuesday. Now
that it's over (for me at last), I can tell you about it :)

At the end of January there was a casting team in our
city, looking for people to play bit parts in the new film
of Roman Polanski. As I heard the names I adore, I
went there to try my luck (oh yes, sometimes I'm plain
crazy ^_^). I almost chickened out on that day, but I
did it, yes! We had to give them our data (some weird
ones too, e.g. the body size - who knows them by heart?)
and posed for some photos. They told us, that they
would start the production in February. I heard nothing.

Till last Monday. The agency called me and said, they
would recommend me, but only if everything is clear on
my side (accommodation, etc.). I was SO excited, but
also stressed out. Not only I had to reorganize everything,
but I know no one in Berlin. A bit later one person came
up to my mind - Iris, an Etsy friend (thank you for your
support, Iris!) and another Flickr friend. Later on I got
some more numbers from a choir friend. So there would
be no problem with accommodation.

On with some more things to reorganize. It's actually
my weekend with my son. A friend of mine would come
for a visit and we would go visiting the open studio day
on Neuwerk on Saturday. And I would work in the shop
on Sunday, as we'll have an Open Sunday in town (many
shops will be open and there will be a lot of actions in the
city). So, I reorganized all that without knowing, either
I'll get the 'job' or not... Waiting was the keyword (Oh,
the first waiting was because I've lost the phone number
of the lady - silly me! Luckily I could reach them again
with the help of the internet *phew*).



Today, a few hours ago they called again, telling me,
that I am in!!! Woww!! I can't believe it! But... as they
asked me about my dress size, I had to tell them, that
I'm a small girl with only 152cm and that they would
probably have to alter the costume in the length. So,
they had to talk again with the film people and... sadly,
I'm no longer in. I'm a few centimeters too small (oh
my!... eating long beans and spaghettis all my life didn't
help at all!! ;)). So, I just reorganized everything back
to my old plan. My friend has already another plan now,
but everything else is back in place *phew*

No, I'm not really sad about it. It was an opportunity
to do something extraordinary (in compare to my daily
life) and I took the chance, even if I was a bit afraid. I'm
happy and proud of myself, that I did it :) Now my life
is back to normal and I'm happy about it too :) I should
concentrate myself in looking for a new job (a job with
more working hours than in the shop at the moment).

Not so exciting, but a thing that really need to be done.
I hope, I have some luck hereby as well, so that I can
find a great job. A job with challenges, which compatible
with my competence and talents and which will help me
to grow. A job with neat colleagues and bosses to work
with. A job with enough money. A job, which will let me
have enough spare time to spend with my boy, friends,
singing and other thing which I love including crafting,
photographing and blogging. In short - a job to love
(hmm.. am I asking too much?). Oh dear universe, can
you hear me? :)

BTW if you want to have a peek in the outdoor film set,
you can watch some videos on YouTube.

i can't see

Withering flowers make me sad. It's one of the reason,
why I refused to have flowers in house for a long time.
I always try either to preserve or to extend the joy on
them in any way. I guess, I still need to learn about
letting loose...

good morning, tweet!

I tweet sometimes, but I just cannot keep it up.

still waiting

My mantra has worked! I managed to fix up the
mistake I did yesterday, which has cost me a lot of
nerve before *phew* But I still have to be patience.
I keep singing the mantra in my heart ;)

waiting and dancing

Aarghh.. I hate waiting. But this time it's my fault. I
think, I've ruined another opportunity. I wonder, how
I always manage to sabotage myself :( It could have
something to do with my fear of failing, I guess? *sigh*


The tulip I got after the concert among some cherry branches.

Talking about fear of failing... I just found Goodlife Zen.
There's a post about it. There are many, many more
interesting posts to read for me.


Watching the tree dancing with the snow and wind.

lazy sunday

I'm spending a lazy Sunday and hearing one of my fave
singers Joan Armatrading. I often hear her older CD at
work. I love her deep voice.



This song reminds me also on my other fave artist
Sarah Jane Morris. I so wish, I'd be able to hear her
singing live one day.



I've heard her for the first time in the BBC produced
film Summer In The Suburbs. The film itself is not the
best, but I always watched it, just to hear the music,
which is written by John Harle. I love his music!



Hmmm... this made me wanna watch a British film
now :)

hello spring!

Yesterday's concert was great! Full house! The tickets
were already sold out half an hour before the concert
begin and many more people wanted to come in, so
they started to sell tickets for standing places. We
were all very motivated and definitely in a good mood.
I was VERY nervous at the beginning (not quite normal,
but it must have something to do with my outfit *lol*),
but as we started to sing, all was forgotten. It was one
of out best concert, I think (despite all tiny mistakes :)).
I didn't take any photos, but just check out our site
often and keep an eye on changes there.


I didn't have time to make a bigger one like the last time
(the old application was ruined after the laundry). Even
this mini one was just ready on time - I finished stitching
it half an hour before the concert has begun. Ooops!!!

Meanwhile spring has taken over the mood in the house
(just like outside, even if it's still quite cold) :) I need
colors!!!

singing

If you wanna hear me singing with my choir, there's
a chance on Saturday ;)

Do you recognize me on the flyer? :)

The rehearsal was just finished about an hour ago *phew*
I need to go through the notes again tomorrow (we'll sing
about 18 songs by heart). I also need to take a look, either
the temporary application on my shirt from the last
concert is still looking okay after the laundry. Lots of work.
So, I'm wishing you a Happy Weekend now and (hopefully)
will be back on Sunday to tell you, how the concert goes :)

little cotton rabbits

If you are a knitter and you adore Julie's rabbits like
me, she's having a give-away of her new pattern for a
knitted egg cozy. Hurry up, left a comment on her post
- it's only a few hours left before it's morning in the UK
(the only reason, why I don't do it, is just because I've
been already so lucky for so many times in blogs and
I don't have time to knit at the moment, so it's your
turn! :)).

BTW Julie has a new shop for her knitted creations on
Etsy, which will also be updated with egg cozies soon.
In her old shop you can buy patterns, starting this
afternoon also those of the egg cozies.

P.S. Playing for Change is touring in Austin, Los Angeles,
San Francisco, Seattle and New York next week starting
tomorrow. Look for the dates on their site.

keep balancing

I'm still trying to keep the balance among all things I
want to do. (Almost) No compi on weekend (only
a quick look in the mailbox, if there's anything I should
reply immediately). Instead I spent more time with..


watching my boy playing soccer again,..


visiting the light installation by Markus Brenner
in the shopping mall,..


riding my bike to nearly every place I went to


and enjoyed every moment of it.

I'm also doing a bit gardening each day. It goes slower
than I'd love to. But I simply have no idea of gardening,
so I have to read books (I borrow piles of gardening
books from the library) and work carefully and slowly.
For example there's a big, old Cotoneaster horizontalis
in one corner of the front garden. It seems, nobody has
taken care of it for years (or it MUST grow like that
maybe??). The long wide branchy fan-shaped leafs
hung already over the pavement last year. I don't know,
how to cut it properly, so now it looks a bit uhm,.. sad :?
Hope, it will look a bit better, when the leaves come out.
(I should consider making bonsai out of it - they look
much more prettier as bonsai :P)

I hate that corner. Not only because of this sad tree. It's
because there are also 3 or 4 other plants (which I don't
know, what sort of plants they really are) growing into
each other under/among the Cotoneaster. Some of them
are growing too close to the roses in my opinion. I don't
like it. I want to remodel this part. Uhm, actually the
entire front garden need a bit more care. It needs e.g. a
fence, as some dogs as well as their owners don't have
manners (ok, it happened only once up to now, but that's
enough!!). The garden is so small though, a fence would
look ridiculous. As rose shrubs are growing there, I
thought, lavender as fence would look lovely. But first I
need to do that corner and weeding! Oh, I'm sure, I won't
get bored this year ;)


Mamoru Watanabe and Emil Schulthess,
"Japan - Gestern und Heute", 1960, Silva Verlag Zürich

Yesterday I visited the thrift store and bought a book
about Japan from 1960 for 1 Euro (some of you might
already know, that I'm crazy about Japan). Even if
Japan must be a lot different now, this book is very
inspiring in many ways. Esp. the end of the book is
really helpful to understand myself. This quote is only
one of it:
An American has written: "The Japanese seem to
expect, that foreigners would always point them
their mistakes and weakness out. If I made them
compliments, they were unsatisfied, as they heard
the contrary of that, what they would like to hear!"

Do you realize the green tablecloth? Ha! I finally got my
kitchen table free of stuff again ^_^

I also stumbled upon two new links through Jonathan's
tips in Zen Habits and Illuminated Mind, which I found,
would be helpful in my journey.
Although the inner me was starting to rebel, as I read
How To Be Awesome in Pace and Kyeli's blog category
(I don't want to be awesome!!), I was too curious, as
the first post I've read was really great. And I wasn't
disappointed. I found some similar thoughts to mine
and some others that lightening my way.
The second link was Productive Flourishing. Charlie
provides a great source for creative self-employed like
us. I'm digging (and craving to do something ;)).


Still playing with the magic ball ^_^

talking about inspiration

This post should have been yesterday's night post, but I
didn't manage to finish it. A short roundup of yesterday..
I manage to ride my bike to the places I had to as I
planned - yay! Then I wanted to pick up my son from
school to go to the doctor with him, but we missed each
other, since he forgot it. I ran and ran not to let him
waiting for too long in front of the door. Gosh, my thighs
were hurting afterwards! Sadly I didn't manage to fulfill
my other goal to clean a spot :( I was so tired, I didn't
even had the energy to wash the dishes or to put the
washed dishes in the cupboard. Chaos ruled again in my
kitchen.



I made this picture to show Inger, that if I say chaos, it is
for real (and this is nothing in compare to e.g. my kitchen
table ;)). I only don't really want you to see it ;) But anyway,
this chaos has served me well. You'll see why ;)

Yesterday morning I found a message from Leina, that I
won an award. That reminds me, that I also got another
award from Alecia just after I posted about the last award
thing and still haven't said a peep about it. Thank you, girls!
I always feel honored, if I'm awarded, but I also feel the
pressure at the same time ;) I know, some of you feel the
same. So, I won't pass the pressure to others this time. I
hope you understand... Thought, I heard some sighs of
relief? Instead I would encourage you all to talk about
inspiration (as requested by Leina's award) either in your
own blog (don't forget to let me know, once you did! I'm
curious, you know ^_^) or by commenting here.

I'm about to observe everything and anything of my life
in my journey. So, would you join me this time to get a
better understanding of how inspiration and creativity
work for me?

Every single thing, that I've seen, heard, feel, smelt, tasted
and experienced is memorized in my brain. While smells
and tastes (and a hungry stomach) inspire me mostly to
be a creative cook, all other things are my inspiration
materials for other things. Nature, landscape, music, film,
silence, art and craft, light, shadow, dirt on the wall, water
splashes while taking a shower, technique, waiting people,
voices of people, people and the way they simply are,... just
to mention a few. All those inspirations have to mature first.
It happens subconsciously. My brain and senses do it without
my command.

Oh, let me tell you a funny story in between. My family and
I were once on the airport for a reason, that I don't remember
anymore. We were walking and chatting, as a group of persons
went by. One of them was talking in a strong Javanese dialect.
From one sentence to the next, I suddenly spoke in his dialect,
as if somebody else were talking through me!! I was so amazed
and a little bit embarrassed afterwards *lol*

Back to my journey.. To get me creative I need the right
impulse though. Often it is my feeling and mood. Different
than Leina, I can't create, when I'm in a bad mood or scared
or worried. Good and sad mood do the magic, as well as
colors, textures, patterns or shape of something. So, if I
want to make something, I either first need the right mood.
Or I take the material I want to use and look at it, feel it,...
Slowly the impulse comes up and also some tiny details of
the other memories come up like puzzle pieces of ideas and
my brain starts to match them around and build something
new. Sometimes the more ideas I implement, the more are
coming (I then get the problem, where to start and where
to stop - which is worth another observation for sure).

After the first photo above, I enjoyed some experiments.
Just for fun (BTW.. the inspiration of taking the out of focus
photo came from Heather's photo, as she was tagged on
Flickr). I sorted them. At the first sight, they were only
something blur. Colors, which would better suit for autumn.
But then after starring at it for a while, my mind has create
an imagination out of it.




Another example...

I first saw the chin, then the nose. As I draw the nose and
mouth, I wasn't really pleased with the mouth. So, I made
another layer and took a second try. You won't believe me -
the 2nd mouth has exactly the same shape as the first try.
Hmm.. I starred at it again. Finally I realized, it was the
form of the lips, which a sister of an old friend of mine has.
I haven't met my friend for a long time - over 20 years. But
just a few days ago, I saw her name and her avatar as I was
browsing a friend's profile on Facebook.


Another chaotic corner in my kitchen ^_^

As for jewelry, beads and other objects it is a similar process.
An object like art (of the same or of a totally different category)
or architecture or a flower could also give me an impulse to
create. It could be the shape or the color(s) or the technique
or the functionality. So it's only a tiny detail of a thing, which
makes my brain immediately browsing my own needs, habits,
feelings and other inspiration materials to form a new thing,
which I can call my creation.

So, now it's your turn to tell me about your inspiration :)


'the head must bow before the heart'

uncluttering

Do you also having this clutter problem? Do you know, that
you can see how is your mind and soul by looking at the
floor at your home (read it in Rita Pohle's book years ago)?
My floor needs uncluttering badly - at some corner I can't
see the floor anymore!! Imagine, how my mind & soul look
like... *cough* or better not!
So, I've browsed about uncluttering to help me get started.
Even if I know the basic principles, I need some motivations
and a good guide to follow.



I thought, knowing my own weakness is always helpful to
be more aware the next time. These are some of them:
1. I found out, that I've been trying to climb a glass hill with
socks and gloves on. What a funny image, but not fun in real
life though - it's rather frustrating.
2. After reading this I know, I've been putting the wrong
focus while doing my daily homework. I saw that homework
like cleaning and uncluttering as a burden. I often didn't see
the result, which would help me get more motivated.
3. I'm easily got disrupted by every little change. My life is
full of changes, starting with the time schedule about the
presents and absence of my boy in my day life (I still cannot
get use to it). I'll need to reprise this advice often.



So starting today I'll take another chance to un-/declutter
my home (and my mind & soul hopefully) with the baby
steps: unclutter a small spot a day :)

BTW Leo's post is right up my alley - I've thought often
about the same thing, but am often too convenient to be
honest. But hey, I've decided not to have a dishwasher nor
a microwave and I always make my own Spaetzle (and ice
cream lately) - so there's a hope, I think ;) My next goal is
to use my bicycle more often rather than taking the bus.
Big challenge!! This is a hard thing to do for me, as I've first
started to learn riding a bike at the age of 12 and only had
little chance to practice it - one of the disadvantages of living
in the big city. So, I'd still prefer to walk than to ride a bike
actually...

Oh, and maybe I'll also manage to do more sport? I start with
this today :)

a new week

Eew.. what a start. I woke up, sat on my bed and I saw,
that the sun was shining on the frames with my son's
and Heather's artwork (Jetty's photograph was still in
the shadow). So I hurried stood up to take the frames
away from the table. Remember, how my bedroom
looks like? The frames stayed the same, only the plants
are changing.

I grabbed Heather's with my left hand and Jetty's with
my right one. The next moment I found myself lying on
the floor. I must be unconscious for a few second.
Heather's work was lying next to me. I stood up. Jetty's
work felt over the glass with a plant and pussy willow.
Luckily not much water in it, as it was of course spilled.
No glass of the frames was broken and I didn't hit
anything except the floor. Aubrey was also save and dry.
Only Gretchen's pillow got a bit wet (is now drying).
Phew... I was lucky, things didn't turn out worse (I've
been fainting a few times in my life and each time I got
a new mark for the rest of my life ;)).

Oh, look what I've successfully done last night (err.. this
morning at 3 am). Wooohooooo! :D




Origami is amazing. Look at Andrea Russo's work - I'm
stunned!!

OK, now I'm literally cooled down ;) I'll take a hot shower
and go to work. It'll be a long day today. 6 hours in the
shop and directly to the choir session afterwards - uff!!

I'm wishing you all a great start of the new week :)

last green of the week

Hi, all! How was your Sunday?

I've spent half of my Sunday with my 70 y.o. friend. I first
met her as we were working together for the local group
of UNICEF 10 years ago. Since then we meet each other
every now and then. I help her with her computer problems
and she helps me to move myself a bit more. She is a very
sportive woman! Not to strain my lazy bones too much
though, we mostly do only a long, speedy walk in the forest
together ;)

Today we first worked out on her computer problem,
than walked in the forest, had a lunch and tea and talked,
talked, talked... About her life, about my life, about life in
general. I really enjoyed the day with her. It gave me some
lights in my journey.


We've found a broken branch of pussy willow tree on our
walk, so we took some twigs home. The green rubber band
was on the cupboard of my kitchen. It was on the scallions
I bought some weeks ago.

The green week is over. Green is my old and new favorite color.
After this week I will surely go through my day life with more
open eyes for every details I'm working on. Thank you, Emily,
for this fun week!

green, green, green

Did I tell you the sun was shining today? So, get ready for
many greens today :)

The greens I carried in my backpack (Have you seen Estella
was taking a peek in bags of Anna, Minna, Ana, Bianca and
Karla yesterday? So fun! :)).

The folder for my project notes, the folder of my choir notes,
my passport, a pen, a reminder of my doc appointment.

I wore my green chemise at work. My fave one, although it's
getting old and the color's starting to wash off..


I saw this bicycle yesterday while waiting for the bus, but
didn't have my camera with me. I'm glad, it was still there
this afternoon. What a cool bike!!


I couldn't choose between the two following photos. Both
have their own charms, I think.



Ooooh, as I saw this, I saw a face and I had to laugh as it
reminded me of Swee's monsters somehow :D


I saw this sad gummy bear on the way to the bus station,
but didn't have the time to take a picture. So, on the way
back home I scanned the sidewalk thoroughly and saw a
red and a transparent ones first before I finally found him.


What a green Saturday! Now I'll drink some green tea.
How was your day?

a ball or not a ball

There's no ball yet, but soon (I hope & think ;)).

The sun is shining outside, so I've taken some photos to
show you my attempts so far. After the first mistakes,
I tried to make bigger ones, just to understand the pattern.



Once I understood, it's easy to do it (not with big fingers though
*lol*). This should be big enough to make a ball. Will have to cut
it smaller, I think.



OK, time to go to catch the bus and go to work. I'll show my
green day tonight :) Have a lovely Saturday!

green week day 3

Boy oh boy! My forehead is as wrinkled as the paper I'm
using for the origami and yet I still didn't manage to fold
it. The one I started last night was wrong. I didn't follow
the instruction step by step, so I had it wrong in my
memory *bad, bad,..* Now (I think) I get it, but it feels
like my fingers are to thick LOL Oh well, time to relax
a bit and try it from scratch again. I'm not giving up :)
My jacket is another story..



The jacket I've started to knit a while ago, isn't finished
yet. Remember I've opened up the old pattern? I've redone
the back part. The left front side is almost finished - I kept
miscounting, so it took me ages already *sigh* And now I
can't continue at the moment because of my toes.



Huch?? What do my toes have to do with the jacket you ask?
It's the wool. I can't have warm at the moment at any part
of my body or my toes will start to itch. So, I'm always a bit
freezing at the moment (luckily not getting cold though).
Can't wear my beloved woolen clothes or socks anymore :(

bed time story

No, it's not really.. ;)

I only decided to go to bed instead of folding, as I suddenly
remember the author's name of the beautiful book I saw in
the book store today. It was illustrated in B/W in boxes like
comics, but without any single words. It is The Arrival by
Shaun Tan. So, I just browsed through his website. I love
what he has written about originality and creativity.
His style on the book reminds me somehow of one of my fave
artists Quint Buchholz (oh, that I still need to frame his print!).

Shaun Tan is currently working on the animation film of his
book The Lost Thing. Here's an interview with him, produced
by inframe.tv (make sure, you look around on this Australian
based site too - it's full of interesting vodcasts!). I hope, the
film will be shown in German theaters too, once it's finished.



So, good night for now! Wishing you a sweet dream. Maybe
about some penguins watching opera, like in this book ^_^


Some Folk Think the South Pole's Hot.
Story by Elke Heidenreich, illustrated by Quint Buchholz.

origami

I just can't stop to think of the origami I've seen in the
magazine this morning (more to see on the links I've
posted earlier today). So I browsed a bit. I've found
a TED talk with Robert Lang.



I also found many origami videos. I was especially amazed
by the magic ball, so I simply have to try it. This woman
from the Netherlands has made great origami tutorials.

I'm still busy folding the paper. Quite frustrating, as it often
won't do the way I want it to do (and of course I have to start
with DIN A4 paper :P) *lol* Let's see, either I can show you
a magic ball or rumpled paper ball ;)



BTW I'm a bit disappointed about the link of the institute
from my last post. I need infos online, but they only provided
links to some books and DVDs to buy. I'm such a web junkie ;)

day 2 of my green week

I've visited the internist today for my first general check-up.
The cardiogram result is ok, so is the blood test result. Yayy!!


Why are my old dictionaries all green except the German ones?

Now only waiting for the result of the skin test to know, why
my toes (and now also one of my fingers) are itching, if I'm
warm (no more wool jacket for me - too warm - boohooo!!).
It should come out in about two weeks.


The green, coarse wall in my kitchen.

I've read some magazines in the waiting room. Just managed
to read two interesting articles though (yayy for short waiting
time! :)). The first about amazing origami work e.g. of Robert
Lang and Joseph Wu. My hands felt itchy to start folding
papers right away :)
The second one about the pseudo democracy in the web and
the endangerment of this fact. Hmm... *no comment*


Growing cress sprout for sandwiches and soup.

I remember, I read also an interesting article last time I was
there. It was about neuroplasticity and Buddhism. Fascinating
brain we all have!! I've noted the link of Mind & Life Institute.

"The Mind & Life Institute is an independent, not-for-profit
organization devoted to establishing a mutually respectful
working collaboration and research partnerships between
modern science and Buddhism – two of the world's most
fruitful traditions for understanding the nature of reality
and promoting human well-being."

Well, that's a new link to dig for me!


I love any sort of teas, except black and peppermint tea.

green week

Last week I've read in Heather's blog about the yellow week,
which was hosted by Erin of the house on hill road. I was
curious, what's color is it all about in the following week -
thinking to play along.

This week is the green week and hosted by Emily of the
shining egg. Well, I was late again, but glad, I could still join
^_^ Thanks, Emily!




More green photos in the Flickr group. Join us! :)