Not Enough Hours!

I can't believe another week has passed. There are just not enough hours in the day for all the things I plan to do, I have to do, I want to do and for all the "some day" kinds of projects.

I did a lot of painting last week and completed five small paintings, all of which can be seen in my Daily Paintworks Gallery.

I tried to take before and after shots for all of them, but I forgot to do so for one of them. The horse below has such a peaceful feeling. And I love how you can see some of the Gessobord texture through the paint.

The shapes below immediately suggested a stag to me. Do you see it? 

I just had to define it a little more.

The next little piece was interesting and an experiment. When I looked at it, it suggested the shape of a manatee. Very loosely, but I could see what it might look like. And the colors reminded me of the ocean.

I needed to darken the area around the manatee, but I wanted to preserve some of the fun bright colors (oh, how I love these colors!!). So, I used some masking fluid and painted bubbles with it (I have a fine-tip applicator, which works really well).

When the dark blue wash had dried, I rubbed off the masking fluid and was left with bright and colorful bubble. Fun!!

I thought I had taken a picture of the background for this lioness, but I didn't. However I changed very little of it when I painted her, just added a little teal and the features, but largely I wanted to preserved the gorgeous reds and pinks. 

This last one was a challenge. Sometimes the background is really busy. The colors don't mix well and they don't flow much and it's hard to see anything in it. However, I woke up that morning thinking about wolves (don't ask me why) and decided that's what I would paint.

I had to work a little harder at getting these busy color patches to read right, but I think it turned out really nicely!

Last weekend we went to see The Danish Girl. I can't believe that we've already seen three excellent movies this year! Usually we manage to see one a year at the theater if any at all. :) The costumes were beautiful, the art inspiring and the story, based on the life of Danish painter Einar Wegener (later known as Lili Elbe) and his wife Gerda Gottlieb, heartbreaking and courageous. All I can say is I am grateful for my easy life!

Head on over to Paint Party Friday for more inspiring art!! I'm always blown away by all the creativity!

I hope you all had a beautiful week and I wish you a relaxing and inspiring weekend!

❧ Silke

Movie in Savannah

While our friend, Sadia, was visiting we discovered that a movie was being filmed in Savannah about the famous (and now closed) CBGB music club in New York City. You can click here to find out more about the club and here to see who all is playing in the movie.

It was all very exciting, watching them transform Congress street into a little piece of the Bowery in New York, right down to the trash, the many cigarette butts and empty liquor bottles.

Because Congress street has many shops, they did not completely close it off, which allowed us to watch the happenings from quite close up!

That's Alan Rickman with the red curly hair
(by the time I realized it was him, I only got a photo from the back)

Most exciting for Sadia and I (we are both great Harry Potter fans) was that both Alan Rickman (Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) are in this movie. Alan Rickman plays Hilly Kristal, the owner of the club, and Rupert Grint is playing Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys.

Rupert Grint in the background. Not a great photo, but I'm keeping it!

We saw and heard them act and we had so much fun! For a few days I turned into a star-struck teenager again...

Besides the two big stars, we also got to see Stana Katic (she plays Kate Becket in Castle), Johnny Galecki (Leonard of the Big Bang Theory), Justin Bartha, Donal Logan and the real Cheetah Chrome.

They brought in cars from the 70s. Not very many and I'll be curious to see if the same five cars keep driving by in the movie.

Don't you love this old cab?

And there's Savannah's famous Paula Deen restaurant and store in the background.

They are still filming now, but inside the studio. I'm sure all the actors and the crew are happy to be out of the great heat and humidity. This is probably not a movie I would have watched, but of course after all of this I can't wait for it to come to the movie theaters!

❧ Silke

An afternoon in Savannah...

After a morning of cleaning and clearing out and a trip to Goodwill with a whole trunk of donations, Daniel convinced me to take the afternoon off and go to Savannah with him and Winslow.

You know you live in a beautiful place when you grab your camera to go on a simple walk and come home with 60 photos, of which I am only showing you the most beautiful.

The weather was beautiful and the flowers stunning. We walked by the Juliette Gordon Low house, the first headquarters of the Girl Scouts in America.

It is a gorgeous house,

but for some reason the lions look pitiful. Don't you think so? I wanted to pet their head and wipe away the tears...

The garden was beautiful and I got some nice photos.

Then we made our way to our favorite cafe in town, Gallery Espresso, sat outside, drank a coffee and looked into the giant live oaks. While sitting there, we noticed this parade of costumed people walking by. At first I thought there was a parade somewhere and then we realized it was the cast of some movie being filmed around there.

A very pretty young woman in a beautiful dress walked by at some point and really liked Winslow. We chatted for a bit and she left. Later she came back and asked if she could give Winslow a treat (some brisket from their buffet). Winslow LOVED her!!

When we got back home, I googled which movie was being filmed and it's a film called "Savannah." (You can click here for more info. Apparently it's about a true story.) And the pretty lady who was spoiling Winslow was Jamie Alexander, a talented young actress. Actually, I've seen her in a few TV shows, but do you think I would have recognized her? I've met a few quite famous people in my life, but I never (never!!) recognize them at the time. I am always thinking: "Oh, that person looks just like ____."

As we walked on, we saw streets being cleared of dirt,

old wagons,

carriages, and some of the film crew.

After all that excitement, we went in search of secret gardens,

beautiful houses,

and many more flowering trees,

I leave you with these two gates.

Aren't they fun?

Today, we are in Charleston and you know I am going to have lots of pictures to share with you when we get back...

Wishing you a Happy Friday!!

P.S. Since I wrote this last night, we decided to go to Charleston tomorrow (Saturday). It's supposed to rain today, but tomorrow it'll be sunny again. It's so much more fun to sightsee in the sunshine...

Loving right now...

1. Our aging hydrangeas.

2. Our blueberry bushes actually gifting us with a few blueberries in their first year.
3. Our fig tree growing enough figs this year for us AND the birds.

4. Still loving reading it - can't believe it took me so long!

5. I'm really loving some new German blogs!

Do you remember my good friend Verena? I wrote about her here.

Well, she has a really fun and interesting blog, Gerlindes Blog, about life with her girls (click here to visit). AND ... she's gotten several of her friends to start blogging as well.

So, my German-speaking friends, make sure you visit them.

They are:

Carmen's Stilgeflüster - an inspiring blog about fashion and style and how to find your own. It's and area where I can use some help and visits to Carmen's blog are always informative and inspiring!

Elisabeths Welt - a new and very active blog about the life and thoughts of two sisters in Germany!

Besonders Gewöhnlich - an endearing blog by another Elisabeth about life with her family. The really fun part is that some of her posts are written by her children! Just wonderful!!

This is connecting me back into life in Germany in a way that's different from being connected with my family. I love it!! Go visit them!

6. Yesterday we finally (what took us so long?!?) watched It's Complicated and it made us both laugh out loud. Meryl Streep is one amazing actress! Click here for the movie trailer.

7. Still loving:

Click here for the trailer. I love everything about this show - the beautiful people, country side, sense of humor, colors, their accents - just wonderful! (By the way, we are watching the DVD's of the show from Netflix, since we don't have cable TV. We are still on season 1!)

8. Ramses teaching me how to properly enjoy life.

9. All of your visits and sweet comments! How did I get to be so lucky?!?