summer time

I skip over spring and hop directly to summer time ;)


A bit smaller than my usual flower focal necklace, as I was
trying to make it on a thinner, selfmade curved mandrel.

from my heart

In 2002 I traveled along the East Coast of Australia with
my (at that time still) hubby and my around 2 y.o. son.
We hired a camper (an OC) in Cairns and moved along
southwards till we reach Brisbane. I liked the journey
itself and I loved the landscapes, but even if I find camping
is cool, I have to face the truth that I'm not cool at all. I am
simply a big town girl who isn't made for camping. I was
stressed out every time we had to stop overnight. At that
time the connection between my ex and me had already a
crack. Deeper than we'd realize or admit. I thought, my
stress was only because of my issue with the camping thing.
But I guess, our problem summed it up. Anyway, at the end
of that journey I was psychically rather a wrack than relaxed!

Why do I tell you this? It might be not a highlight of a holiday
in general, but I did have some good time though. The days
on the Heron Island, for example, were unforgettable. I wanted
to take a diving lesson. But as they heard, that I have never
even snorkeled before, they told me to start with that first. So
I did and I loved it. I forgot time and space, when I followed
the fishes. Probably I was a dolphin in my past life (there was
a comic about a boy named Denny - half fish, half human -
that I read as I was little and at that time I often dreamed I
could swim like a fish LOL Sorry, I wander..). We made
friends with other travelers. A (German) family had invited
us to visit them, when we reached Brisbane. And there are
some more good memories about that time.

To make long story short.. I'm sure you have read, seen and
heard about the flood in Australiam which affected some of
the places I have been. And as you know, although I'm not
a fan of seasonal items, somehow I often manage to make
a few random heart items before the Valentine's day (which
must be a leftover of the "heart-giving" tradition during my
school days). So, this time those items will go to the shop
AusDisasterRelief to help the victims. The card will make the
start. Another item will follow, I hope (won't promise anything
though..).



I don't have contact with the family in Brisbane anymore (I'm
a bad contact keeper, as you might already know ;)). I don't
know, either they are still there or not. But I hope, they are
okay, where ever they are at the moment...

rocks

I listed the first of the new rocks necklaces a few days ago.
It's a simple design based on a simple idea. Like collecting
small troves while taking a walk and arranging those to get
photographed, I've chosen different glass beads ("leftovers"
from my experiments on the torch) and other kind of beads
(e.g. metalized ceramic bead) and strung them up on an
oxidized sterling silver chain.



The second of the series will be listed tonight. They have
actually both the same length (like the longer one) - just
to show that I could make them shorter if preferred, as
they have no extender on them.

higher and higher

Are you afraid of height? I love height, that's why I
love flying (in an airplane ;)). I love to live upstairs,
to sleep in a upper stage of a bunk bed and the list goes
on and on... But I wonder, how would I feel if I had to
stay on this balcony. The view is amazing, but I'm
pretty sure, I'd crawl on the glass floor as my knees
would tremble badly at first before I could enjoy it LOL



Last week we went to this park with my sis and her
family. This time my knees were not acting like jelly as
they did when I was there 5 or 6 years ago with the choir.
It was my first time and I was really nervous at first.
You have to concentrate yourself to clip and un-clip the
two carabiners. And with my short legs, I had difficulty
straight on the first stop of my first track. In front of me
there was a lady with her kids. I think, the boy was 11
and the girl 8 y.o. So if she could make it, why couldn't
I? I clenched my teeth and.. yayy :) The other stops
were easier as one get used to the clipping and unclipping.

If you had any chance to go to a ropes course park, I'd
encourage you to try it - it's such a great feeling to
overcome the anxiety that you might have at first! At
the end of a track you'd want to start the next till your
hands and brain finally got tired.

I hope, you aren't tired of my necklace though... ;)

babies

Yayy!! I become an auntie for a second time :) My dad
just sent me an SMS - my brother's wife gave birth to
their first son.

At this photo my son was just a few weeks old (he is ten
now - time flies!). I was SO in love with him, that I couldn't
do anything else but watching him while he's sleeping and
playing with him, when he's awake :)



I can hardly wait to see photos of my brother's baby boy.
I wish, I could meet him personally and of course all the
family, but flying to Oz is beyond my reach at the moment.
Luckily my sister and her family are coming next week
(my plan to visit them in August fell through because of
work :() - looking forward to see them!

Well, I have a new baby as well - in my shop ^_^

yesterday

I've been sanding pieces for new pieces I wanted to do
for a while. Hope to finish the project soon.



In the garden I found some scarlet pimpernel (I found
out the name after browsing the web). So sweet! But
since my garden is already full with allsort of weeds
I grab them out and plant them in a pot (they don't
seem to like it though, since they hang the heads today).

Oh, and I added these two to the shop.


Have a lovely Wednesday!

update

Just a quick update: Quiditty is in the shop now.

P.S. Cross your fingers with me for Germany tonight ;)

in my head

I'm not really creative the past months. In my head
there are lots of things waiting to get out. Two of them
are bugging me along my way to work yesterday -
painting portraits and a song.



I used to draw a lot of portraits. I'm out of practice.
I got some problems with the proportions and distance.
The noses look weird and even the eyes - which I always
loved to draw - don't seem right (so I don't dare to draw
ears - they were my weakness!). The pose of the girl on
the right pic was inspired by a passanger, who was
watching our window display.

Can you guess what it is on the bottom pic?

It is the Indonesian music notation. A quick way to
write down a melody since I don't have to care either
it's in C-dur or F-dur or whatever. I long to compose
a song for an ensemble, but I never manage to do it.
Sometimes I have a melody in my head, but it's gone
before I find the first note on the keyboard. Yesterday
I decided to write it down that way - at least I could
capture the base melody and some other parts.

We'll see, either it'll be a Midnight Blues - the one in
glass is already in my shop ;)

this week

I'm working on different things at the moment. It's hard
to concentrate myself on one project, when there are so
many things need to be done. So, sometimes I find myself
out of focus.



Then I realized, I need some kind of order to get things
done. Sometimes the most boring and unbeloved things
like ironing or washing dishes can help me to get focused
again. This time it's spooling the thread I use for my
packaging (up till now I had to search the end of the
thread in the chaos, if I forgot to let it hang out after
I cut a piece of it). It's kind of a meditation (and sport
for the biceps LOL).



Last task for today was listing my new Trifiori necklace.



I don't know why I didn't make the necklace earlier.
Probably because I didn't want to let loose the beads.
I love the colors so much and I was afraid, I couldn't
re-make them. I've been wanting to make them ever
since I watched the France film Brodeuses (Perlen-
stickerinnen in German), but I couldn't find the right
glass colors (now you might understand my obsession
in mixing blue and green glass last autumn ;)).

So, today is the day. Today I'm ready to let the beads
go. I might not be able to re-make them. But I'm sure,
there will be many other beautiful colors to come.

Have a beautiful weekend, friends!

shadows

The sun was out these two days - spring is finally here.
When I went home from school yesterday, the shadows
of some fences attracted my attention. So, I took the
camera with me today.

Just look at the right photo - isn't it amazing, how a
simple fence could make shadows with three different
patterns?



I miss crafting so much. The school takes away a good
amount of my energy each day. So, it's Euro week at
Etsy and I only managed to add two Furry Berries in
my shop.



I hope, I'll have more energy this weekend to finish some
new designs. Hopefully the weather will stay warm, so
that I can work on the torch again. My poor neglected
garden needs my attention as well. I need a better time
and energy management, I guess...

be my friend

Remember I told you I wasn't satisfied with some felt
items last Friday? Well, one of them was the hedgehog.
I first had his felted spines "combed" to the front. It
looked cute, but somehow I couldn't find the right stitches
for him. I felt so insecure about it, that I did some sketches
last night, before I ruined everything by directly stitching
him (the bear was directly stitched without sketching, for
example).



I like the left bottom stitches best, but it wouldn't fit
the punky spines. So, I "combed" them back. It looks
less cartoon-like, but as soon as I added the first stitched
spines I knew I'd love him.



I hope to get more muses for the other items ;)

wait for me

I'm late again. This time it's really a challenge to think
of a story for this one. I first tended to make a sad or an
open end, but then I thought, most people would rather
be able to identify themselves with a happy end. So,
here it is..

Long time ago there was a girl, who was waiting for
her fiancé to come back home from a long journey.
Each week he sent her a letter, telling her stories from
the cities he had visited and how much he missed her.
One day, she found a seed in the letter. It was a seed
of a magical plant, which a stranger he saved had given
to thank him. He told her to sow the seed and watch it
grow day by day. The first bud would come, when he'd
set sail to come home. And the day after the second bud
would start to flourish - he promised, on that day he
would be holding her in his arms...

No preview pictures for the next days. So, let me
surprised you (or not ;)).

coming #4 and more

I'm late. I've taken lots of pictures today (some are for
my neglected photoblog), but my computer is very slow
and as I already predicted yesterday, it wasn't easy to
tell a story about the bear. So, the photos will be edited
tomorrow. And here's the story to this listing..

Not so far away from the lonely garden, there is a forest.
An enchanted forest, in which a bear and his friends live.
Whenever the bear plays with his friend, they soon have
to look for him. The bear loves playing with his friends,
but he loves eating berries even more. And the enchanted
forest is full of berries...

First I wanted to let the bear "blank", without anything.
But it seemed so naked. Somehow I got an illustration in
mind, so I added the stitches. And the size.. I think, it'd
rather suit a man's finger.

The bear and his friend, the linnet.


.. as silhouettes..


And this one will be listed tomorrow.


I hope, today it won't be so windy like yesterday.

dance with me

Here's the story of the brooch.

In a land nobody knows the name of, there's
a lonely garden full of weird plants with twirly,
green branches and red flowers. Once you open
the gate and place your step in the garden, they
soon become alive, trying to reach out for your
hands to lead you dancing to the music of the
whistling wind...

Telling stories to an artwork was one of the tasks I've
learned in the art class at high school. I'm digging out
the skill I've learned years ago with my new listings now.
Let's see, how far my imagination would go ;) I don't
have a preview for the next listing, since I couldn't make
up my mind, which one I should list first (anyway, it
would be harder to find a story to either..). So, I decided
to have a listing-free day tomorrow, as I'll be in the B&M
shop again ^_^

I found this video on top of the list, when I typed "dance
with me" on YouTube. Didn't know the song or the band
before, but it's sweet...

Nouvelle Vague

i feel pretty

No, not me! LOL It's the name of the ring I show you
the preview earlier today. This is the story along to it.

A cheeky little linnet was playing in the bushes,
as it was attracted by something bright. It was
a ranunculus at the neighbor's garden. The linnet
found it so pretty just by looking at the orange
flower, that it began to sing...

Still... I need to grub my Bernstein CD out now and
listen to it, while taking photos for the next listing. The
light is not so good today, but I'm not satisfied with the
photos I've taken yesterday - I'm gonna try with another
background. I'll show you a preview later this evening.


Ha! I just realized, Maria has a flower on her head, just
like my little linnet does ^_^

late

A new decade has started and I'm pretty late with my
first post of the new year. I've actually started this post
a while ago, but never managed to finish it. Oh, well..
no stress, right? ;)



New year's resolution? Well, I don't really make any,
cause I know, I'll soon forget about it. I do have things
I'd love to do better than in the past, but it's part of
the on-going learning process in my life. Doing, falling,
standing up, taking a break, stepping out of the track,
looking back (I often got the suggestion not to look back,
but I think looking back to learn is more than okay..),
looking forward, adjusting, continuing the old track or
maybe starting something new or maybe even going
back a little while before continuing, thinking, collecting
new things or perhaps cutting back of what I already
have, listening,... I'm open for any possibilities that lie
ahead :)



And so I started to felt again (while lampworking is on
hold because of the winter cold) - mostly for custom
orders. I also made some hearts just for fun and as I
saw them lying side by side with my last supply purchase,
I simply had to make the two items (I usually don't like to
follow trends or seasons or whatever, so those two will
be the only Valentine items in my shop).



Besides felting I've knitted a tiny pouch for a bead (will
make more of these for future purposes) and I'm working
on some paintings. Do you know, that I still use the colors
I brought with me from Indonesia, when I first came to
Germany over 20 years ago? So, I'm working with vintage
Japanese water colors :)



Last not least I want to share these photos from the
first Sunday in January, when we took care of Ella for
a day. She and my son became friends very soon.

more random things

It was my turn again to take care of the yard last
week. I got distracted by the light and the mood in
the basement - the reflection on the wall, the texture
on the floor,... I simply had to capture it.

The winter has finally arrived this week. Everything
was covered with hoar frost last Monday and it even
snowed later in the afternoon. So, what about cooking
another soup? I haven't cooked the sweet potato soup
for a while now, but I used to love it. The color combo
of the beads in my latest necklace reminds me of it. I
never wrote down the exact recipe of it, but you could
get the ingredients in the listing's description and
experiment with them ;) But if you have any questions,
just send me a convo.


BTW.. the butterfly on my older post died two days
later. Somehow I asked myself, either it would still
alive, if I didn't gave it the orange (which I took away
on the next day, as it didn't seem to want it)...

the next day

I should have posted this yesterday actually..

This is how the colors turned out, if I made flower
beads using the glass rods I've made on Wednesday -
the greens come out lighter.



I've used the darker green one in my Trifiori necklace
"into the ocean".




...

Guess what.. I of course couldn't ruin the arrangement
right away and look at that smiling face I've found on
the next morning...


I think, she's happy to stay there over the night ;)

And now I think, I'm going to bed early (earlier than
usual) tonight, since I feel like getting sick - headache,
muscle pain, stiff neck (which doesn't go even if I
already slept on the warm pillow last night) and
burning eyes. Well, surrounded by sick people I guess,
it was only a matter of time till I get the virus as well,
but let's hope I could keep it down.

Anyway... Happy Weekend, everyone!

coffee time

It was dark the last days and so was yesterday, when
I took some photos for the new necklace. But this one
reminded me of a Polaroid shot somehow. So, I added
a frame. It's not the style of my shop, but I'm just
loving it ;)

the truth

Do you wanna know the truth the reason why I've chosen
yellow for this necklace?



Well,.. I've picked the wrong glass rod - that easy LOL
I thought it was light green. On fire finally I realized,
I got the 'wrong' color. But 'coincidence' can be so
lucky - I'm really loving this electrifying yellow.