Time sure flies...

Dear Friends, I thought I would blog more last week, but then my life suddenly got busy. This morning I am leaving for almost a month in Europe - Germany, France and Spain - to visit family, meet up with Daniel (can't wait!) and do a little sightseeing.

So I spent last week getting the house ready for our house/petsitter and myself ready to travel, which didn't leave much time for blogging.

I may post the occasional blog post while I am gone, but that depends on my amount of free time and my access to wifi. 

In the meantime, I leave you with this picture from Winslow's and my morning walk through the neighborhood. 

Happy trails... 

❧ Silke

Sunday Potpourri

Good morning, friends and Happy Sunday!!

1. For Christmas, my sister and her family gave me a Troll Bead charm bracelet with a very beautiful glass bead. Because the beads are somewhat pricey, it's going to take me a while to fill up the bracelet.

In the meantime, I found a youtube tutorial (click here for the link) on how to make beads from paper and made eight of them yesterday! I might make some more today. They aren't as stunning as the glass beads, of course, but they still look great I think.

2. The results of last weeks life drawing class. It was a whole different story to draw someone with glasses - so much more going on with the shadows: deep shadows, lighter shadows cast by the glass, shadows through the glass, etc.

I kept having to tell myself to just draw what I saw and not what my brain was telling me. In the end, the drawing pretty much looked like the model and I was very happy with it.

3. I did some more tweaking with my oil painting and it is now done. Signed and done!

 I am so pleased with it and enormously proud! She is hanging in our living room until she's completely dry and ready to be varnished.

After that she might wander into my Etsy shop or she might stay put in our living room. I'm still quite attached to her.

4. I had mentioned before that last year there was a lot of emotional upheaval in my life and for that reason I somehow felt I needed to hang on to everything, including my art. That energy has shifted and I listed most of my artwork in my Etsy Shop. I am ready for my babies to fly the coop... You can click here to have a look or on the Etsy links on my left sidebar. I'll be adding more as I create more.

5. I am also selling my knitting, crocheting and sewing again, but I have migrated that shop from Etsy to eBay. I seem to be doing better selling my scarves and things on eBay. If you want to have a look (there is lots to choose from, crazy knitter that I am!), click here or on the eBay link on my right sidebar. I'm adding new items all the time...

That was it for the potpourri of stuff on my mind...

I wish you a wonderful and relaxing Sunday!!

❧ Silke

Congratulations!

Today was the deadline for my Grow Your Blog Party giveaway and I finally decided what it would be that I would give away. As some of you know I've been on a dishcloth knitting spree and it is still ongoing.

So I'm going to give away two sets of dishcloths. I picked the winners via Random.org

The first set goes to Donna of Donna's Designs.

And this happy second set is going to Judy of Judy Cooper Textile Images.

I'll send you both e-mails to get your snail mail addresses so I can send these off.

Congratulations and thank you all for visiting!!!

❧ Silke

My first Oil Painting

Because of Kelly Berkey's online class I finally started painting with oil paints. I had wanted to try oils for months now, but never could quite get myself to do it because it seemed so overwhelming.

Well, it isn't overwhelming anymore once I've had Kelly explain to me what I needed and how I needed to work. Oil paints are really wonderful for the exact opposite acrylics are great. Acrylics dry so fast that you can easily do a very texture and layered piece in a day.

Oil paints dry so slowly that you can do wonderful blending with your colors and work into the them even after a couple of days. Plus, the sheen of oil paints is just gorgeous - there's a glow about them.

The only problem I had was that by the end I was as covered in paint as the canvas was... I hope that'll get better with practice. 

For this painting, I really wanted to practice working with light and shadow, going a bit darker with my shadows than I usually do. There are a couple of areas I might tweak with a little bit more, but overall I like it!! A lot!

As temperatures are dropping and rain is about to fall, I am grateful that we are not in the snow and ice path of this latest storm. Stay warm and safe, everyone!!

❧ Silke

Surprise!

Look what I found this morning in the garden!

Pure sunshine!!

Especially with everything else being so brown from the big freeze we had.

Wishing you a beautiful day filled with happiness and wonderful surprises...

❧ Silke

I feel inspired!

I almost didn't bring the camera on our walk this morning, but am I glad I did. It was another foggy morning, but the sun was shining through the fog and starting to burn it off.

The light was so beautifully golden.

I couldn't stop taking pictures.

It was so perfect.

Mysterious.

Inspiring!

I tried to catch all the dew drops with the sun shining through them.

The fort still in the fog.

The sun making everything sparkle.

If you click on the photo below to see it bigger, I bet you can see the beautiful stag watching us.

Winslow saw him, too, and was contemplating briefly if he felt like a chase. He didn't. I'm so glad he's not a hunting dog!

Just look at that light and the fog!

Some grazing...

...and more grazing.

 Wishing you an equally inspired Sunday!!

❧ Silke

Just because...

... it rained most of the day and the sky was gray and it was somewhat cold, I am thinking of soup and remembered that I hadn't yet shared with you the chicken & wild rice soup recipe I made the other day.

I found this slow cooker recipe on Pinterest. Remember what I told you how Pinterest always launches me into action?! What made me want to try this immediately was that this soup is made with coconut milk and turmeric, which I found intriguing. It was delicious!! The recipe made a lot, so I ate leftovers for a couple of days and then froze the rest. We'll see how it survives the freezer...

If you want to give it a try, you can find the recipe here.

Bon Appétit!

❧ Silke

Water

I have a somewhat weird relationship with water. I'm not a water person in that I don't like to be in the water all the time. I am perfectly fine going to the beach without swimming. I also don't enjoy drinking plain water. I have to make myself do so.

However, I find nothing as inspiring as being by the water. I love living so close to streams and rivers and the ocean. This morning, it was extra beautiful by the Savannah River. Even a couple of dolphins were swimming by us (unfortunately they didn't pose for the camera).

When we lived in New Mexico for 10 years before moving out here I loved the high desert (and still do), but I always craved being by the water. I remember being at work and having the Monterrey Bay Aquarium webcam open on the computer. I wouldn't watch it since I actually had work to do, but I loved listening to the seagulls and the other sounds of the ocean. There's not much else that feeds my soul in the same way... 

We are having some rare sunshine today after a night of rain. The weather sure has been strange around here, but the world looks fresh and clean this morning. 

Wishing you an equally beautiful and sunny day!

❧ Silke

From Class this Morning

I had my life drawing class this morning with a really great model. His face was a joy to draw. 

Here's the funny part I never share. Every class I have the same internal dialogue:

At the beginning of the class when I first see the model: "Oh, my god, I can draw him. No way. That's too hard."

Then I sit down completely overwhelmed by the empty paper in front of me and think: "Ok, start somewhere. Just start. You can't be the only one sitting at your easel not drawing." 

Ok, so I start somewhere, usually with a dark shadow. This time I started under the bottom lip and just observed and drew from there. 

And after about three minutes (3!!): "Oh, that looks awful. It doesn't look at all like him." Well, of course not! He didn't even have lips yet or eyes or a nose. 

Usually after that I get absorbed and the chatter in my head stops until the end of class. And that, dear friends, is how I constantly entertain myself... 

Wishing you a beautiful day filled with everything you love!

❧ Silke

Another Foggy Morning

How lucky can I get? So many foggy mornings in a row! And what's best, when it's foggy here it might look cold but it's really very mild. I only took picture of wildlife this morning and we saw quite a bit.

Don't you love that splash of red from the cardinal? He was signing his little heart out for us. Well, probably  not for us, but for his girl who was probably somewhere close by.

A great blue heron in full flight. They are such elegant looking birds. Until they start squawking with a gravely voice that does not go with the sleek look of them.

I think that was a red-winged blackbird on the tip of that tree but I'm not sure. I always marvel that they can sit so still on those tiny branches.

The photo above is looking out into the Savannah River. In the fog, you can't make out where the water ends and the fog begins. I think there were some birds sitting on those pilings.

Winslow, the biggest wildlife of all! :) He was wondering if he should chase the snowy egret that landed right in front of him. He decided he probably wouldn't stand a chance as he hasn't figured out how to fly yet...

And then there were the deer in the mist. There was actually a very majestic stag looking right at us a little earlier, but he was too fast in his getaway for me to get a picture. He was gorgeous! This group of deer didn't mind us walking by at all. They knew there was a nice-sized ditch between us and them.

As we got close to the parking lot, the heavens opened up for about 30 seconds of warm pouring rain. It's amazing how soaked we got in that short of a time. It reminded me of being a kid and going out to play in the warm summer rain. Winslow and I ran back to the car - me laughing and him jumping all around me. A very fun walk indeed!!

I wish you a beautiful day filled with everything that makes you happy and brings you joy!!

❧ Silke