Hey, how cool!

This december, the German branch of SciFi channel hosted an online drawing contest to celebrate the launch of the television series "Sanctuary" in Germany. You could draw simple "monsters" online in a small active drawing window. I participated under my name and my husband's name - well, I didn't know back then, that I could post more than one monster ... But as life is, always expect the unexpected!

One of the monsters, I drew and donated under my husband's name - the "Hey, it's me - monster" - actually made it into a real design for shirts, bags and so on which are now sold for a charity project! Just have a look at the SciFi shop.

How cool is that? It's so cool to see your own stuff somewhere in a real shop, on real objects. A nice late Christmas present.

Already over

And again, the Christmas season is over and gone too soon, as it always is. I hope, your holidays had been nice and peaceful. I could not post these photos before Christmas, so I am doing it now - let's just say as a silent goodbye with some impressions from the famous Striezelmarkt in Dresden - until next year.

Playing Christmas elf

In case anyone might have wondered where I have been the last week and what I have been doing, here are some photos. But be aware they are mostly sneaks, and not more than that because you know: Christmas and all those presents ... I don't want to risk anyone seeing the items I have been making for them too early.

;)

I hope you had a nice, creative and productive week, too.

Dreams

I once dreamt of being someone else in someone else's life, a wish burried deep inside me, hidden behind a daily routine - now I have stopped dreaming. From day to day, I am closer to be the person I always wanted to be ...

Never stop dreaming, never stop hoping to be able to create your own world. Your blank dream may grow to become something big one day.

Simplicity

Standing alone in the grey shades of autumn and winter silence, the plants have forgotten their lives and lost their colors. All is reduced, and what remains is pure simplicity.

The flower centers are actually accentuated with a golden color, because I like the appearance of such vivid colors that change their appearance depending on the angle of light. Only it's hard to take an appropriate photo without daylight.

- black ink on shoji paper with acrylic color details, mounted on heavy watercolor paper, size with white frame 14cm / 5.5" square -

On those, I just had to use such a reduced colorscale. In case anyone might have noticed that the drawing I showed in my post Lines is not included here: this is the second, white version. I tried to do the berries in red, too, but so far I am not that pleased with the result.

Too much playing around ...

Well, I have been doodling yesterday evening - again ... Originally, I intended to do something useful while I had to wait for some ink and water dyed papers to dry, but I ended up loosing focus - again ...

*sigh*

And the result itself? Way too swirly in my opinion - not really my style after all - too *unstraight*, but I was reminded of Christmas by the *deer* in the center so I went ahead with *kitsch*. But isn't doodling all about playing with a pencil while trying not to think about it too much? At least, I am still trying to get the concept behind *doodling*, since I only got in touch with it recently. So far, I only knew real sketches to train your view or your imagination, as a prepation stage in a process of creating art, or real artwork ... But where to put something like that? Well, personally, I used to put things like that into the waste bin, considered to be an embarrassment. The way you see it, will be left up to you.

Maybe a colored digital version in a cool color scheme might make it bearable, but I don't think there will be time for such a time consuming process soon.

I feel, like I drifted away too much lately, so I should start to get serious again.

Lines

Playing and experimenting with lines and shades ...

- doodling while watching a film, and well, what should I say ... the film was not *that* interesting to keep my eyes glued to the screen ... -

- black ink on shoji paper, mounted on heavy watercolor paper, but I think, it still needs some more work on it - therefore unfinished -

Blue

... is the color of december - at least when you are looking outside. The skies are blue with all different shades of white and grey in them, the snow and the ice are shining blue in the fading twilight of the evening hours ... With the bright summer colors gone and nearly no green left, blue sometimes seems to be the only color left. So, I tried to be inspired by all this blue ...

This was my view this weekend when I woke up at my parents in law's house - enjoying the misty morning light and a great december *winter wonder land* view. And here are some things I did the last days, besides making again *millions* of different cookies for my mother in law and painting some walls - no, not in blue this time ;):

 Words woven into water - a series of watercolor and ink drawings on heavy, nicely textured watercolor paper and a blue star, whose pattern I found on Ravelry, it is called Celestine Crochet. It will hopefully have found a new owner until Christmas since it will become a present.

I hope, you all had a nice weekend and you are not having a too blue monday ...

;)

Christmas cookie recipe

Today, I will share two recipes for the Christmas cookies I made last week since I was asked for the recipe :). The first one, you can use when you are in a hurry and need the cookies *quickly* - but if you have some time, try the second recipe. Those cookies are even better although they need much more time and have a quite higher content in butter - and we all know, what that means ;). All in all, both recipes are really simple and easy to make.