in love with my new "pretty birds" jewelry

last month i took part in a giveaway (which i actually don't do that often) over at tartankiwi and i was really fortunate... i won!

the grand prize was a voucher to the handmade jewelry shop pretty birds creations. i had a hard time believing i actually was able to pick something for myself, and in addition also pick something for sylvia (who had also entered the giveaway but didn't win). so it turned out we were sort of both winners!

after days of waiting my package finally arrived. i'm not joking if i say i asked my husband every single day for over a week if my package had arrived yet, i was so excited about getting my jewelry all the way from new zealand!

aren't these just stunning? sylvia picked the earrings in the third picture. i find the ring especially gorgeous, i can't stop staring at it because it looks like it's glowing. when i saw all of these "pretty bird creations" at first, i thought "Ohhhh" - just as lee was hoping when she made this welcoming statement on her home page:

I love jewellery.  I love playing around with metals.  

I love finding patterns and pictures  

that make my mouth form that round "Ohhhh" of delight. 

I  love creating pieces to wear and I love creating pieces for others to wear.
I hope you find something that makes you go "Ohhhh",  

and I hope you love wearing it as much as I love creating it.
Enjoy,
Lee

to shop all the pretty birds collections click here.

if you like pretty birds on facebook you can keep up with new collections and have input into lee's ideas. that's also where you'd get updates on any clearance or discount offers every now and then. when you take a look at their prices (which are very reasonable), keep in mind that these are NZ dollars, for most of you that means that you'd be getting a really good deal after you've converted to your own currency! pretty birds offers worldwide shipping (which will have to go up soon–good reason to order within the next few days).

a strange but interesting part of this whole story is that when lee from pretty birds received my order she discovered that she used to live just a few miles from where i live now, shopping at the same places i shop!! what are the chances: i am from germany, lee is from new zealand, and we discover through weird coincidences that we crossed paths in a mid-size town in georgia, usa.  isn't that just a little bit very crazy?  the world is a big village...

capture everyday beauty - mixed media mini album

i recently attended a workshop here in Hamburg with Nathalie Kalbach. we used different media and materials of Prima Marketing and Tattered Angels to create a small album.  i decided to print out some instagram photos i took during the first months of this year and write a little about how i feel about everyday photography and documenting the little things in life.

i had to resize the photos and edit them in photoshop. unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a service in germany that lets you have your instragram photos printed for you (like postalpix, which is not available in germany at the moment).

anyway, i loved the workshop, Nat is a great host and the girls there are always fun to be around. i hope it won't be too long until i can attend one again!

how does summer look and feel like?

while browsing through some artwork i kept from my school days, i discovered this little painting. i used gouache paints for it.

the task was to use a color palette typical for each of the four seasons and to make one painting per season. this one here is my "summer" painting (with the saturated colors as we typically find them in summer). i'm sure you could've told which season is portrayed here without me giving it away, right?

the scene i came up with that would depict "summer" to me is of a warm, quiet, peaceful evening–perhaps in august–with laundry drying in the warm breeze. this is how i remember summers to be like, growing up.

does this also remind you of summer? 
what would you paint if you were to portray what a typical summer day feels like to you?

coming soon: a little bit of nesting

i hope you all had a great weekend! mine was quite productive, as i got some projects started to get things ready for the baby. a bit of re-arranging of furniture, a coat of paint, some new pictures on the wall... a few adjustments to make the room we have work for a family of four.

i will need a few days to finish things up, and then i'll share them here with you! until then, i hope you have a good start to the week (it's a short one for us here in germany, public holiday on thursday and a friday off for our family as well!) and a few creative days ahead!

licking it clean!

zooming in on the detail:

a friday ritual. one photo of the past week, with a moment i want to savour and remember. 

inspired by amanda soule. 

have a happy weekend!

spring on my balcony: green!

this season on my balcony, i am...

° happy about thriving edible greens that started as seeds in my hand

° amazed by little flowers growing from grass, that without my planning, survived the winter with snow and temperatures of -15°C/ 5°F

° inspired by things that just grow and grow without having been planted or sowed by any human, and look so pretty i won't tear them out!

° just delighted about all the fresh green emerging!

pencil portrait of hugging sisters

this last month i was working on a commissioned portrait. the whole time i was working on it i was dying to show you the progress. but in order to eliminate any possibility of the recipients of the drawing getting wind of this portrait being in the works, i wasn't able to post anything about it till now.
so here it finally is, my latest portrait of two sweet little sisters hugging.

isn't this such a cute, sisterly pose?


find out more about my custom portraits here.
linking up with: see here