Falling Leaves

The wine leaves turning red are my favourite plants in our garden in autumn. 

There is so much beauty and radience in those colours 

and they captivate me every time I pass by 

(and go to the compost). 

All through September and October I watch this spectacle, 

which is now nearly over.

My latest play with surface pattern design

(I am just taking this incredibly fabulous

e-course Pattern Camp with Jessica Swift at the moment)

made those wine leaves come back to life on the computer screen:

So this is my first-ever pattern design
(it is a straight tossed repeat to use the designer lingo) 

and I couldn't be more proud.
There is still a lot to learn,
but combining drawing, painting and new computer skills couldn't be more fun.

Thank you leaves for your inspiration.

Green or Red?

Hubby's first gardening attempt at tomatoes is looking very promising.

The question is now,

will they turn red before our vacation?

Speaking of green and red,

here comes Christmas in July:

Carolina's Garden Art

She asked for rose petals and collage paper, 

got herself some white paper and got to work.

the proud and happy artist:

Have you seen those amazing

flower mandalas here?

Beauty for the moment.

Oh May!

With all the colourful blooming outside

it's hard to be not inspired.

... and dream a bit of travelling:

Pink Moments of the Week

soo much flowery goodness!

the first rose in our garden

rhododendron abound

some purples

lilac in our garden

making flower essences 

from lilac and rhododendron

clematis

and other little pink flowers

chestnut candles:

a Maypole:

... and a little discovery inside a tree hole:

Sun Printing

 Do you know sun printing?

For this fun technique you need special nature print paper

(like here, here or here)

which is also called solar photo or sunprint paper.

You arrange your items on the paper

and expose it to the sun for a couple of minutes.

It will then look like this:

The exposed spots have turned very pale 

and where your items lay the blue remains.

Then follows a short water bath

that will "develop" your prints

and reverse the colours:

Magic, isn't it?

Pink Moments of the Week

outside:

wild cherry tree in bloom in Oma's garden

inside:

seldom & short moment of sisterly harmony

Spring Flowers

 Spring is really coming! 

A walk with Clara through our neighbourhood revealed 

that more early bloomers have joined the snowdrops.

Very appropriate for the month of March 

the so-called Märzenbecher in German -

"march cup". 

I found three English names for it - 

spring snowflake, wild daffodil and Lent lily.

More impressions:

Clara and me also had some craft time

and we made mini flower collage cards

with leftover paper scraps.

This fun project was inspired by a tutorial by Carla Sonheim.

Always in February

The first snowdrops,

 spotted on February 8 in Oma's garden.

2012 February 21 (here)
2011 February 8 (here)
(curious about 2013?,
me too...)

Inspiration Corner

Birds fuel my imagination at the moment. Maybe it's the mild winter (so far) that almost feels like a coming spring. Their connotation of freedom and flying. Their cuteness. Their chirpiness. I perk up my ears when I go outside the house and tell Carolina to do the same.