Photo of the Day: Best Pictures of December 2011, Gallery - National Geographic

Photo of the Day: Best Pictures of December 2011, Gallery - National Geographic

I just had to share this with you! 

(And how cool that national geographic includes in the galleries blogger buttons for sharing!)

What a beauty! And what a unbelieveable image...!

Lines and shadows

Some days are just not worth it. Not a moment of it... or so it seems at the first glance.

I am still happy to go into my bathtub now with some great bathing stuff smelling of wild roses and with a little bit of girly sparkles. I bought one but being at home it was not enough so I made some stuff by myself. It's a lot easier than most people think if you have the right ingredients at home. Some of them will be not really cheap but they'll last forever! And after the bath: Just go to bed! Cuddling with my cats, reading a little bit and then just falling asleep... and forget about the day.

On the good side there are the people who will be at your side at a day like this. Giving you some reassurance, helping out of the black hole, drink some champagne with you...

...or tell everyone that their earrings were made by me! ^^

But still... such days drains out every little bit of energy which I have.. and for which I had to fight for over the last days, weeks, months... just emotions but harder than any exercise... so the mind is sleepy but the body is wide awake. In some old evolutionary ways waiting for the attack to come which made the body so nervous.

In this "in between time" I crave to create things. A quote of me is that crafting or better creating keeps me sane. A lot of people smile or laughs when I say this and most of them never realize that I don't mean this in some figurative sense but just the way I said it.

It is like breathing very deep and hard, like getting this nervous energy of the body and the drained moments of the brain in a line. Both together are able to create and not only craft. Although the line between stuff and art is a very thin line and at least in my simple opinion also a very subjective line in a lot of aspects, if I am in a state like this I cross this line at least for myself.

I don't think about what I am making. It is more like looking at something which is already there and creates itself. Sounds strange? Try to image how it is to see and feel the creature which comes out of the broken and rough rubber-like material while you are carving.

They are just shadows, some lines, they are rough and cut within the quadrate... but they have life. They look at me, straight, quiet, watching, and in their own way they are a essential part of me.

I am not sure whether I like them. But I do love them.

Whispers in my ear

You can never have enough octopi.... or tentacles! This beauty is from Karen @graphics fairy (secretly I belive this one was just for me ^^). 

What else to do than to print it, cut it, glue it and put a thick layer of 3D laquer on top?! 

And what else to make out of it than earrings?!

You see how the octopus helps to get all his tentacles on the paper circle? ^^

If you are quiet you may hear what he whispers in my ear :)

Cardboard + Paper = Earrings

...and of course several layers of laquer. 

Yes, they even survive a heavy rainstorm. I tried it...!

(no, not by choice ^^)

It is a very sturdy cardboard. I was even asked whether this was some kind of wood.

For lisbonlioness :)

Years ago... my old silver stuff...

For a short explanation: my uncle (the brother from my father's side) is a silver smith and his wife a gold smith. During the 9th class (school) I had to do a work experience for three weeks. My aunt had a shop and studio with another artist in a little and also one of the oldest quarter in bremen (it is called "Schnoor" ). 

I learned how to work with metal... cut, sand, solder... It made a lot of fun! This little lizard is my final piece I made during my time in her studio. My design, my work... I was soooo proud (and I still love it!). It is a hollow body made out of silver.

Oh... is this long ago... I mean, huh, I was fifteen! 

This were my first practises... (yea, I still have them all ^^) 

Only a little silver UFO pin is missing... *sniff*

This was a present for my 16th birthday. It was from my aunt and my grandma (from my german family part / father's side) together. My aunt made it after my design and my grandma got the stone... a gorgeous and big precious opal... (no, I don't want to now how much it cost)

You see, my love for cephalopodaes and tentacles is an old one ;)

I tried to catch the beautiful play of lights... but in reality it is more stunning and intense colours :)

Starting the new year...

2011.

This year it is surprisingly easy to adapt to the new number. Maybe because I am really happy that the last year is over and there is a new, fresh one in front of me. Yes, I know, in the end it is only a human made calendar. But it is good to have defined end and start points. :) Okay, let's go over to the more crafting related things.

One of my christmas presents was a purple filofax (size: personal). A real beauty! I am now starting to put everything I need in it... dates, numbers, informations... etc. But there was still the need for something more personal in the filofax. Once using it there will be a lot stuff developing by itself... but... there had to be something from the start!

 So I created a new first side.

I just used old calender sites (the last half year of 2010 was still included) as my stencil. Just cut out a piece of cardboard (really just packaging stuff but cool one! Better than every kind I can buy), mark the little holes and punch them out. Yes, it is time consuming but doing just one side I didn't mind :)

I printed the zebra from graphics fairy (Ha, you would never have guessed ^^) with a laser printer out and transfered it with some aceton onto the cardboard. Just apply some aceton on the back of the paper, rub gently and peel the paper off. There it should be! The aceton will dry really fast :)

But have a try before because this only functions with some prints and not with all. It seems that the age of the printer is important. Don't ask me why.... but with old printers it doesn't function and with new ones it does. This is an example for an old print... you see, won't transfer very good *sniff*

After that I added the words and tentacles with artistic water colours.

This isn't black but a dark grey! Sometimes it is better to use a dark kind of grey than black.

I am thinking about carving a Z3 (mirror inverted) stamp... It's like a new little logo and I am somehow into it. Like a little word play. Strange because I only got the Z3 mirror inverted due to the aceton transfer ^^

I will add the brownie recipe for decembersong. I got an award for my blog from centi which says to give it to more cool and small blogs but since this is mostly german I'll have a little difficulty here (but I loved to get the one from centi! :) ).

So insteadt of giving the award to more blogs I will just say here: Have a look at the blog of decembersong and her friends which is called "some nifty things" (and have a look at the so cool axolotl plushy! I hopefully will also get one in exchange for something from my stuff!). This is really something for lisbonlioness because decembersong is also an in the best way odd german ^^ We are out there! A lot of us... whether still living in germany or somewhere in the rest of the world. For some explanations of all these... just go over to lisbonlioness and her Three beds semi!

And also have a look at centis blog too and especially at her cute mushroom "collection" (fotos as well as crafted ones). Starting from centi you could have a look around some german crafting blogs and although they are mostly written in german I think the pictures are most of the time self-explaining.

Then let's end with my brownie recipe.

 (Which is not mine but the family one I only adapted a little bit... ^^)

The normal one is quite easy...

• 150 g (to be honest I always take 200 g) dark chocolate, but the real good dark chocolate with 70 % cacao or more! No chocolate for coating or milk chocolate or cheap chocolate... it makes so much of a difference in the taste!
• 250 g butter
• 1 3/4 cup demara sugar (the real one which is not processed and NOT just coloured ^^ this is also so important for the taste)
• 1 cup floor (in germany type 405, I think this would be like the all-purpose-floor?)
• 5 eggs (size M)
• a little bit vanilla or vanilla sugar 

•  let the butter soften at room temperature, mix it with the sugar and then with the eggs...
•  add the vanilla and the floor...
•  melt the chocolate and add it to the dough

At this time the dough is really fluid ^^ I normally use a spring form where I cover the bottom with baking paper. I use a little bit butter for the sides of the form to grease it and then cover it with really small breadcrumbs. You won't taste them but it will be so easy to remove the cake after baking! With the breadcrumbs it won't ever stick to the form. Love this method and use it for all kind of cakes ^^

•  preheat the oven to 180 °C
•  back it for 30 min (it will still be a little bit fluid inside, it will set while cooling down) for the original taste
•  back it for about 40 min to get a more dry normal chocolate cake consistency (but why make a brownie then? ^^)

For some time now I always add some highly concentrated coffee to the dough. Dark chocolate and coffee... normally I am not a person who can't get enough from dough but with this combination I could eat the whole dish!

But there is a lot of stuff which taste great and can be put inside the brownie... I love the taste with amaretto. Just all kind of nuts are great, whether powdered, chopped, roasted... marshmellows are also cool... dried fruits... Puh, no end to that!

And don't be worried about the amounts. No egg is the same, demara sugars from different companies also tend to be different and so on... The recipe always works whether the dough is a little bit more fluid or not :)

But never add baking soda! Never!

If you won't eat the brownie that day I hoghly recommend to cover the brownie with chocolate. Either with chocolate coating or with chocolate with some coconut oil added...

And then: Add tentacles formed out of marzipan! For this you just have to mix marzipan with a lot of powdered sugar until it is really "hard".

My latest one with tentacles (from this blog entry).

 You can find more of my tentacle cakes here.

 Brownies in a jar / Zebra brownies:

 For my zebra brownies I made a dark chocolate / coffee version and a white chocolate / vanilla version.

Then the real work started... I had to adapt the temperature and the baking time. Puh, the first ones where really fluid (although they still taste great ^^), for some I used way too much dough and during baking the whole brownie said hello over the edge of the jar!

In the end the best conditions (for my oven!) were the following ones:

•  Fill 1/2 to max. 2/3 of the jar with dough
•  use 175 °C
•  bake the whole stuff for about 40 min

Close the jars instantly! Be careful doing this because 175 °C can really burn your fingers...
If some brownie went over the edge just cut it away and then close it ^^

Okay... I don't like enter recipes in my blog. To make a brownie is such an easy recipe! But only to get this written down it took... some time.

Edit: The editing functions of blogger are today somewhat strange... and not doing what I want them to do. Grrrml... First time ever this happens so badly with blogger.

Tentacle note book...

...I nearly forgot to show you this one!

Of course, tentacles! It was a blank note book with a magnetic clasp. I just painted it black with acrylic paint. Over the black I added tentacles in white also with acrylic paint. I love the 3D texture you can get with acrylic paint! You can create effects although just working with one colour! I added some text with a white laquer pen. It says "TENCTALES... ...EVERYWHERE!!!"

Nothing surprising ^^

Afterwards it got a thick layer of high gloss varnish!

Sorry for the fotos... as you know, last minute shots with my digi just with electric light and no time to control ^^

Tentacle T-shirt!

This painted T-shirt was also part of the advent calender of my brother (like the "obey propaganda" T-shirt). Everone needs something with tentacles and since my sister already got her tentacles dress I though a tentacles T-shirt would be perfect for my brother (I hope he likes it :) ).

The different colours of the white are due to electric light vs. dark winter day light *sighs* I am hoping summer comes soon!

The procedure is the same for all fabrics I paint with stencils. I draw the tentacles free hand and then cut them out of freezer paper. I am carefull that every piece is connected with the others. And no, I never draw all the suckers anymore. I just add a little line for the height and then cut them freehand.

This was one of the teaser pictures for my advent calenders ^^

The cut stencil / freezer paper is then ironed onto the fabric and I just overlay the fabric with a gloves and my fingers! Better than any brush because you can work more carefully with your fingertips.

I had a basic layer of white and added some metallic blue but really only a little bit.

If your are layering different colours do so while all the colours are still wet! Otherwise the upper layer would not be connected to your fabric fibers and therefor could be washed out easily.

Oh, I will love the T-shirt when the colours are starting fading! Will look great :)

Did I ever mention that I need more tentacles for myself? ^^