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.

Poppy Pillow

Remember my poppy seed pod printing from last summer here? The stamped linen fabric has been lying around in my studio, until one recent night before falling asleep, my creative synapses connected - poppy print, doilies, cushion!

I sewed a cushion with a flap using this great tutorial.

But actually the first step was sewing the doilies to the fabric, which was fiddly enough with a zig-zag stitch and my somewhat rusty sewing skills - only to discover when I was nearly done that I had sewed the doily to both sides of the fabric.

Enter my-friend-the-seam-ripper:

(that was about a third of the threads)

But then the rest went well.

The fabric was just enough and the flap looks nice:

And this year's poppies are already in stand-by position:

Bloom True

This post is about how this painting

transformed into this one over the last five weeks.

That was us six years ago.

 Sitting on our couch in the living room in Cologne,
Clara was nearly two years old.
Shortly after that we would sell or donate half of our household,
deposit the rest at my mother-in-law's house
and travel the world for half a year (here),
ending up in Oldenburg, Northern Germany,
at my mother-in-law's house.

We still have that couch.
The poppies painting would stay in her house
for the next years,
squeezed behind a big wardrobe.

I had painted it in a class in 2005 in Cologne,
I think I copied it as a lesson at this painting school.
And that was also about the last time
I took a paintbrush in my hand.

Until 2014.
With my newly-sparked appetite for painting,
I discovered Flora Bowley's art online
and without much hesitation signed up
for her e-course Bloom True.
I was fascinated by her vibrant and spiritual paintings
and wanted to learn more about her process.

So here we go.
It is a intuitive process about letting go and being bold.
With colour and in your life.

My first moves on the canvas.

At first I thought a large format (this is 1 meter x 1 meter)
would be intimidating,
but actually it is quite liberating.

I discovered my love for playing with a spray bottle
and dripping paint.

Fluorescent pink anyone?

adding some imagery

and bringing it all together.

The painting is still waiting for a new place,
it is now standing in my studio.

And I have another little one on my lap.

Thank you, Flora Bowley,
for all the inspiration and guidance.

Stone Graffiti

That's the building where I teach my Tuesday night Kundalini Yoga class in. It has been a site of yarn graffiti before. Do you see that little blue spot on the ground?

photos by steinreich

Will there be more rolling stones around town?

Pink Moment of the Week

... from my yoga students.

Thank you all.

For coming to my classes, also.

Yoga Stencils

If you come to my Friday night prenatal yoga classes, you know this little pink machine here. As it is only a limited circle of people you does, I'll tell you, this is the CD-player Clara is so generous to lend me for Friday nights. The yoga center where I teach is very beautiful (you can see some photos here) and tranquil place, so I need to bring my own little music maker to shake things up a bit.

The CD-player usually gets wrapped in the first bag I can somehow grab when I leave the house. So what about some yoga style, I thought and remembered those stencils here hibernating in my studio.

For this quick project I got a tote bag from the supermarket for 59 cents (probably produced under very bad conditions in a third world country, so if you can sew your own tote, go ahead) and used textile markers (use textile colours, if you prefer).

A couple of minutes later:

The music machine travels in yoga style from now on.

Market-ing around

The weekend has been busy with the start of the Handmade-before-Christmas-markets here in Oldenburg. Kicking off on Saturday - the "Koffermarkt", "case market", where everything was handmade and sold out of old nostalgic cases. 25 designers, 25 cases, organized by made-by-me.

The location was a trendy retro-bar. As you can see the trendy retro-furniture had to come out to accommodate all the cases, designers and guests.

Handmade stationary, crochet hats, jewelry, lots of sewed stuff and even distinguished coffee.

Amidst the cases I also met Lena of Bootshauskind again,

selling her colourful hats.

 

And I got a little something for me, for my new mobile phone:

 Can't wait till Christmas and can't be bothered to make it myself...

So that was only the beginning. Later that day I rode my bike with Carolina to the outskirts of town to a new market adventure, situated in the restaurant of a gun club. It was already dusky.

A hobby-market.

The place was double the size of the case market
and the people twice as old.

Handmade stationary, crochet hats, jewelry, lots of sewed stuff and even distinguished liqueur.

And Christmas decoration. I saw some ladies knitting in public.

Got a pair of socks for Hubby and one for me. 

Can't be bothered to knit them (despite my New Year Resolution).

Speaking of Christmas decoration. Last stop Sunday - Waldorf school.

And you know what? Traditions are traditions because we like things to be the same, and I couldn't describe the Martin's market better than in this good old post here. But I also promised you Christmas decoration, here is a fresh photo:

But actually I don't feel like Christmas yet, just enjoy the market season.

Pink Moments of the Week

... still with the groupies. Supergroupie Pamela Des Barres this week. I am especially interested in her chapters on motherhood, where I also found the occasional "weensy booties knitted like a pair of cowboy boots" at the baby shower and her "embroidering Tinker Bell on a tooth-fairy pillowcase" when she was pregnant. Motherhood changes everything, a lot at least. Like buying home magazines.

Speaking of baby booties:

A good friend from school has just had her third baby, a girl, and a pair of baby booties went via mail to them. Those purple-pink ones in the middle, they were actually the last survivors of the baby bootie party.

Current knitting involved picking up the pink 2-at-once-socks again, just to realize that I had to rip back a couple of holiday-made rounds. Never mind. And quite a challenge when you work with two long circular needles at 11pm. Frog 'n' Roll.

The Studio

It's been nearly four months now since we moved into our new home, and I still haven't shown you a view of my studio. Glimpses here and there, but not a proper view. I took a while to get sorted there, step by step and I never considered it finished enough to show it to you. But of what use is "perfect"? All the while, projects have been started and finished there and the studio has started to have its own rhythm. As the creative heart of the house. My creative heart and soul.



It is divided into two parts - the left is for crafting...



(it has a pink wall, of course)



...and the right side is for yoga.



(even though the crafting side spreads out more and more...)



I knew from the start that I wanted this to be my studio, with its lovely and relaxing view onto patio and garden (even though I can count the times I had/took the time to enjoy it yet).

Inviting it is.



Shine on.

Family Gallery

Even with new activities like pony riding and learning to swim, Clara still loves her fair amount of drawing and crafting.



Clara's drawings have not been on "public display" since I embroidered her drawings for Clara's Cushion before Carolina was born last November. When she whipped up some portraits of Carolina and me on Saturday after dinner, I just knew what I wanted to do with them. I still had some simple frames and another drawing of Clara and me flying a kite (all imaginative, we haven't done it yet). And her Papa? Riding a horse (which he hasn't done since childhood).



This little Family Gallery puts a smile on my face every time I walk by.

Wisteria Lane

Two new plant print pillows sit in harmony on my bedside couch now.
This set is in bolder colours then my first attempt.



One single twig of wisteria leaves lasted for five prints.



Wisteria, wild rye and fern.



Wishing you a cozy, crafty and creative start of the week!