*the last day of the year – happy list

This last day of the year I would like to end with a "happy list".

Not everything was so happy lately, but I really want to end this year with thinking of all the little moments that spoke to my heart:

• mist in the stillness of the forest

• a rainbow on Christmas day

• 7 flying swans

• crows, crows, crows

• preparing gifts

• drinking from my new handmade ceramic cup

• listening to the sound of Sunny's breathing

• sparkler

• reading poems

• winter light

• wholesome dreams

• feeling complete for a moment

• the smell of labdanum

• morning frost

• you and you and you and you!

I'm looking forward to a new blog year

and I hope you are having a Happy New Year!

☙

*The fourth Advent week & Christmas

{Music: White Winter Hymnal (Fleet Foxes cover) – Ocie Elliott}

The walk at the river was so nice,

I saw a flock of 7 flying swans that day,

but was only able to catch two on my camera in the end, but still! It's always so impressing!

And one morning I filmed the mist that was hovering over the fields in the early morning hours and on the 24. December we saw a huge rainbow. We did not have a white Christmas, but that's ok, as long as we get some snow here and there. The Christmas tree is really beautiful this year and I am very grateful to have my little furry companion still with me. The end of the year is near and I hope you are spending those last days in the most possible enjoyable way!

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*when the first snow came

Analogue memories from the first snow in November.

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#advent_challenge2022

01/12: Christmas dinner

07/12: Surprise visit

13/12: Grandparents

19/12: Elf

25/12: Snow globe

First of all:

Merry Christmas to you!

I can hardly believe that I managed to finish all paintings for this years "Advent challenge"! It was really against all odds! So much personal and painful things have been going on the last weeks. We also had to cancel our Christmas plans, were not able to visit my family, but sometimes life goes just different paths and since many years I feel that it is harder to plan anything at all. This feels sometimes bitter, but it also has it good sides like everything has two sides on this earth place.

Hopefully you like my interpretations of all the prompts we had been given for this years Advent challenge. First I thought some of them will be really tricky, but in the end I tried not to overthink it too much and see what comes out. I hope you had a nice celebration and are enjoying those days before New Year. I personally like them very much, they seem so calm and inviting to reflect about everything and making oneself ready for a new start.

☙

*The third Advent week

{Music: Fade Out – Layla Frost + Ker Yegu – Yann Tiersen}

In the third Advent week we went to a Christmas tree plantation in the forest to pick out our soon-to-be-Christmas tree. It was a misty, but beautiful atmosphere there and then not much later the snow came back. I enjoyed some cozy moments with tea and candle light at home and got some really nice packages from friends. One day we had this wonderful type of morning frost that I love so much. The early morning sun made everything shine in those gorgeous pastel shades and the smoke from our chimney turned pink!

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*a crescent moon on a day without light

Before the first snow came, we had the most gloomy days. I went out in the morning to take pictures of and with my ceramic moon brooch and I love how they turned out. It was almost too dark to be able to get some sharpness and this series actually fits these days so well as we are having the shortest days of the year. From now on the light will come back again every day a little more.

☙ 

*The first & the second Advent week

{Music: Chasing stars – Moux}

In this video:

Some of my ceramic work,

some more snow,

my handmade Advent wreath, 

a bag that I sewed for my mother,

time with wind, books &

home decoration

and birds of course! :)

☙

*forest mist

This day seems so long ago already, the forest was full of mist and there was actually a moment where I did not find my way back to the path leading home. All was looking similar and the mist made it hard to see any further than a few meters. But eventually I found my way back and I love how this little photo series turned out.

We had strong minus degrees on the weekend and we made some really nice walks out there. It was magical and did not even feel as cold since the strong winds decided to rest a bit, but today they are back again. We collected our Christmas tree and put it up, but I still need a calm moment to decorate it and also I want to still decorate our windows with all the paper stars that I crafted. I wish you a good start into the new week! Keep warm!

☙

*birds, birds, birds

Ah, so wonderful! It snowed a lot over night and the whiteness of the world is giving me such inner calmness. And on top I had the most amazing night dream, I was on a beach and spotted a crowd of white dolphins and when I stepped closer to the ocean and went into the water one of the dolphins came closer and closer and I could touch his face and stroke him and he would wind his body around my body to be as close as possible and it was the most wonderful and wholesome moment. 

Here are some of my ceramic bird couples that I finished recently and one little bird with a fitting plate. They almost all have found a new home already, but a few are still available in my little Etsy store. I was also able to finish glazing all the remaining pieces for the high-firing and they are in the kiln now since yesterday morning. Tomorrow I will be able to see how they all turned out, so something to be looking forward to in any case! I hope you are enjoying this last Advent weekend!

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*raw ceramics

There is something so beautiful about raw ceramics, to see them all together in one place before glazing. I almost do not want to paint on them to keep this natural feeling about them and maybe I will create more ceramics in the future where I let them in a more natural state like the wall candle holders that I made. I have to share them here still, but you can see them in my movies already. I only glazed the part where the candle will be placed to make it easier to remove the wax, but the rest I left completely raw. There is still so much to explore in the field of ceramics!

☙

*reversible bag

 

This is the reversible bag that I sewed for my mother's Birthday. It took me a while to get into sewing bags again, I sewed so many about 15 years ago when I had my big sewing phase, but with all things that you are not regularly doing, you get kind of rusty, so I needed a whole day to finish it. Inside it has a little bag with zipper and I sewed everything three times to make it resilient, which a bag really needs to be in my opinion! And today I was painting and glazing some ceramic pieces, it took me seven hours for seven pieces, it was a bit of a shock when I realized this! They will be mostly gifts and I hope I am able to fire them in time before Christmas. I still have 12 bigger pieces to go and some little brooches. Now I have to get back into the kitchen, I am baking my first Christmas cookies. A new recipe (well, the recipe is actually very old, but new for me) and I am curious how they will taste. I can tell already that they are smelling wonderfully in any case!

☙

*The first snow

{Berry Bush – Ocie Elliott}

The first snow came early this year

and with it the memories of all winters of my life.

It is the same with every new season.

It seems to open a portal in me to all stored

memories, feelings and smells of that certain 

time of the year which are all floating through my

being at once.

☙ 

*almost black

When there is no snow at this time of the year, nature gets so incredibly dark, the trees are almost black and the lakes as well. Somehow it is comforting though, hard to describe. At the beginning of the cold season there still are sun reserves in me to bridge this time in a good way. But don't ask me in three or four months!

☙

*wild asters

Just a little autumn nature picture series. The wild asters in their soft purple shade have been so beautiful. Today we dug out our potatoes. We are quite late this year, but there came always something in between or the weather was too wet. I also rearranged my picture wall in my work room to have it more wintery and brought in a tree branch to decorate it with little Christmas lights. This weekend we will also go into the forest to pick out a Christmas tree. Last year we got to know some really nice people who are having a fir plantation and we are able to choose the tree before it gets cut and it will be cut only short before Christmas, so it will last longer. Also we found after a long search a farm where we can still get raw milk. They had a lot of little curious calves there and one was born on the same day we where there. It was so sweet!

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*playing with art graf again

Every now and then I am painting with "art graf", which is water-soluble graphite. It is even harder to tame than watercolor, but creates this charming softness and sometimes it's really nice to paint without having to think of color choices. I really like the personality of the last owl. He looks like he is totally happy with who he is, expressing his own individuality. We should all appreciate much more how unique we all are!

☙

*stormy days & sleeping pigeons

Happy 2. Advent!

We had such heavy storms yesterday that the whole night was so noisy and it is still stormy outside. We visited a Christmas market, but the weather was unbearable to be outside for a longer time and there were so many people, far more than expected, that it was hard to see anything! I guess I am cured for a period of time now again from such social events. Maybe we will find something more calm next time. But still it was nice to see how people enjoyed it to be able to make things like that again and all the lights that they put everywhere and my personal highlight was the flock of pigeons that was sleeping in the window sills of the clocktower of the church. They looked so peaceful above this crazy crowd of people.

☙