Birthday Princess

I celebrated my Birthday greatly with my close friends on Tuesday. A friend of mine reserved a table at a Chinese hotpot restaurant. Because it was Tuesday, the restaurant was empty, when I came in. I felt special, as if my friends had reseved the whole restaurant for me. 

Every year on my birthday I miss my Mum so much. I wish she was by my side and we would cook something and eat at home like we used to do, when I was younger.

I believe, it doesn't matter, how old I am, I am always a little princess to my Mum and every year on my birthday she will surprise me with an unique present - her love but always in a very different way.

To my Mum: 

Thank you for loving me unconditionally!

 

To my friends:

Thank you for making my birthday a sweet one!

 

The magic of cherry blossom

All my exams are over. It's now time to draw again.

I made the sketch for this watercolor several days ago while learning for the last exam of this semester. What a relief hearing the sound of pencils scratching on paper! I always wonder, why some people disklike this wonderful scratching sound so much. It sounds so beautiful and promising, much nicer than the scratching sound of chalk on a blackboard or a knife on a plate. I assume, that is the sound of an idea.

I'm very sure, spring has arrived safe and sound. The sun shines again. Birds are tweeting merrily. Eagerly numerous flower buds are longing for blooming. And I feel the fragrance of love in the air. 

One of my favorite moments of spring is the blooming of cherry blossoms. The moment is just like magic.

And they lived happily ever after

My cousin, with whom I grew up and shared beautiful childhood memories, got married to his high school sweetheart at the end of December, three days before Christmas.What a brave decision to celebrate the wedding in such stressful time! 

Two months before the ceremony, he asked me for designing his wedding invitations. I felt touched for being asked. The invitation design will be a small present of mine to celebrate a new chapter in his life, since "we can do no great things; only small things with great love". I wish him all the best for the future.

This is how the official invitations and the other two options look like. 

Moleskine Sloth Limited Edition

Sloths are cute and seem to have a permanent smile on their face.

They move rarely, only when necessary and even then very slowly. Being lazy seems to be their specialty. Undoubtedly all sloths master the way of enjoying life.

The Moleskine Plain Cahier Journals with a simple cardboard cover are my favourite. They are small, thin, light, portable and have no lines or grids. You can have them in your bag or your pocket the whole day, and everyday your abstract ideas can be realised onto paper. You can also modify the cover the way you want. Theses small journals allow all flights of imagination.

These sloth drawings were done at break between two lectures at the university, with ball pen, Pentel brush pen and Faber Castell artist pen.

Tiny drawings about Love

I drew these tiny watercolors one month ago, inspired by some quotes sent to me from an acquaintance who works as an editor and was looking for an illustrator for the illustrations of her new quote books:

“I love you more than there are stars in the sky and fish in the sea.” ― Nicholas Sparks

“Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”― Mother Teresa

“Love is always patient and kind...Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.” ― Nicholas Sparks

“We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.” ― Tom Robbins

“Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it.” ― Nicholas Sparks

“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.” ― Alfred Tennyson

 

Happiness is a butterfly

Two close friends of mine wrote on their card, sent to me on my birthday, a beautiful quote of Nathaniel Hawthorne- an American short-story writer and novelist:
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you”.
The quote is just so lovely. I was very touched and inspired at the same time. It immediately made me feel like drawing again. Thank you so much, my dear friends!

 

 

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! <3

It may be not a bad idea to begin to post pictures of my drawings again on my birthday. Nothing could be as great as being a happy birthday girl.

My trip to Bruges, Belgium

It's time to pack my bags to leave home, discover the world and open up my mind.
The destination this time is Bruges- the capital city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Some friends of mine went there and adore the place so badly, that they suggested me to visit the city all the time.
I now also adore the city exactly the same as my friends do, after I came back home from there.
I spent one week in Bruges. Most of the time I strolled around, looked for a nice spot to make some sketches, stayed in the spot for several hours to sketch and got me later something tasty to eat. I didn't feel lonely at all while sketching, since there were always people coming to talk to me. They asked, if they were allowed to have a look at the sketches  I made, where I come from, and where I'm planning to go to on my journey. I'm really happy, since no one came and asked me stupid questions, such as why I don't just purchase a camera to take pictures, then go to other sight-seeing spots.
Everyday at breakfast, the owner of the B&B, where I stayed in Bruges, asked me, if I made some new sketches. I showed the sketches and we talked about the buildings I drew. She showed me a catalog of a Japanese landscape painter, who used to stay at her B&B one month and made a lot of  lovely sketches of landscape in Bruges. On my 3rd day in Bruges, while sketching, I met one old Belgian artist. He invited me to visit his atelier. What lovely paintings he has done! (AQUARELLE Lucien Vanden Steen- Peerdenstraat 17b, Bruges)
I enjoyed my time in Bruges. Good food. Good weather. Nice people.

20.08.2012- My 1st day in Bruges
This sketch shows the view from my room upon the B&B's garden. I left it in the B&B's guestbook to acknowledge my visitation in Bruges.

21.08.2012- My 2nd day in Bruges
Belfort (13th century)- the bell tower in the historical centre of Bruges. Sketch done at the market square, at 00:40 am. I gave the sketch to a very good friend of mine as a birthday present.

Bonne Chiere windmill (1844, from 1911 in Bruges). Sketch done at 05:50 pm.

Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (The Church of Our Lady) (1220). Sketch done at Rozenhoedkaai, at 22:45.

22.08.2012- My 3rd day in Bruges
Kasteel Minnewater- a charming restaurant located at the "Lake of Love". Next time when I come back to Bruges, I'd like to have dinner by candlelight with my beloved at this restaurant. Sketch done at 04:30 pm.

Guesthouse Coté Canal- House of Fidel- the most photographed dog in Bruges. You can see Fidel in the trailer of the movie "In Bruges" directed by Martin McDonagh. Sketch done on Groenerei street, at 08:30 pm.

23.08.2012- I headed to the sea.
Mercator ship (1931) in Oostende, used by the Belgian Navy for the instruction of the military sailors and navy-men. Sketch done at 05:00 pm.

24.08.2012- My last night in Bruges. It rained all night long.
Blinde Ezelstraat ( Blind-Donkey-Street)- a narrow street runs from the Burg to the fish market. Sketch done at 11:00 pm.

P.S.: While I was sketching the Blinde Ezelstraat, I met Lies Ackaert- a blogger in Bruges, Belgium. She writes blog entries in Dutch about interesting things and people she encountered in her beautiful hometown. Check her blog entry about me here.

West Flanders on Dwellable

Wanna be a teen girl again!

I went to Heinerfest with a very good friend of mine two days ago.

Have you ever heard of this festival? It is an annual festival in Darmstadt, Germany, believed the second largest city festival in Germany, celebrated at the beginning of July and will take 5 days. On the last day of the festival, there will be a beautiful closing firework show. This time I enjoyed the show with my friend and we had lots of fun.

My friend, she brought hopes, inspiration, wise advice and lots of laughs. She and the festival made me feel like being a happy teenager again. Best friends forever! 

Max and I

At the moment I dearly want to look for an animal companion, such as a big tomcat.
I'd like to give him the name Maximilian- for use on paper- or just call him Max for short at home.

"To the Fairest"

After my attempt at embroidery and making Japanese cloth flowers, I tried to sew some other easy projects. This time I was inspired by a picture on the magazine Marie Clare Idees, in which some small cloth hand-sewed green apples are showed as decorative objects to bring a refreshing look to your house on spring days.
I made my cloth apples a bit more colorful and useful by adding some fruity fragrance beads to turn them into fragrance bags for my wardrobe to keep my clothes always smell as lovely as a fruit basket.

Sewing these apples reminded me of the Apple of Discord in the Greek mythology. Since I'm a peace-lover, I ensure that my sweet apples (and the pear, of course) won't lead anyone to the Trojan War.

Balloon Sky

The weather of April seems to be chameleonic.
This week's been grey, cold and rainy. It made me long for a perfect blue sky with thousands of colorful balloons.

A happy rainy Monday

The weather was beautiful 2 weeks ago. It has been cold again since three or four days before Easter and rained sometimes. The weather in April is always a big question to me.
I started to draw this rainy scene on Easter Monday and tried to finish it within the first week of this new summer semester, as long as I still have enough spare time. This semester is supposed to be a busy one. 
I remember listening to Carpenter's song "Rainy days and Mondays".
Actually, rainy days are fine to me. I just cannot stand boring cloudy days, when nothing happens- no sunshine, no wind, no rain or snow. Everything you have is a gloomy sky.
In summer, rainy days could be very fun. Just imagine, when it's hot and dried and the air is stuffy, suddenly a rain comes...What a delightful day!

The Carnival is over!

The Carnival with parades and costume balls in Germany takes place on Rose Monday in February every year. Since I went to Germany to study, I haven't taken part in.
February is a hard month for students here. The university semester comes to the end and all students face tests or seminar papers and very often, both of them. Celebrating the Carnival seems to be a luxury that an international student cannot afford.
However, I like this event, which German people call "the fifth season". Having four seasons to enjoy themselves is obviously not enough. German people still need another occasion to have more fun. I remember a newspaper article telling that Germany is the world's most unfunny country. The cultural sense of humor is always different, isn't it?
In my opinion, the fact that they created "the fifth season" makes them very amusing people. :))

Now the Carnival is over. 

Moleskine Japanese Album- The story of Four Seasons- Winter Again- The End

I'm going to fly back home tomorrow. Before that, I finished the last pictures of my Moleskine Japanese Album- The Story of Four Seasons.

One year ago, I first saw a Japanese Album of Moleskine at a bookstore and wanted to make a picture story with it. It took me a little time, since I didn't want to finish the story of four seasons within a week, but waited for the change of seasons, enjoyed it and at last, tried to keep some memories back.
It was really fun, that I, for the first time, drew a sketchbook fully and pictures relate to each other. :)

Christmas is coming. A hand-made scarf can be a great present. I crocheted a very long scarf as a present to one friend of mine two years ago. What a hard work it was!

It's now time to exchange presents. Let's see what his present is.

Winter isn't boring anymore. Let's make hot chocolate and wait for the first snow of this year together!

Thank you! End. 

Part 1- Winter- Part 2- Spring- Part 3- Summer- Part 4- Autumn

Bottle postcards (3)

Let's see, what Grandma has in her garden: Strawberries, snow peas, daisies, yellow pansies and lavender. :)
The strawberries look yummy. Such a shame, because of an allergy, I cannot enjoy their tasty flavor.

Bottle postcards (2)

If we could put one's memories into bottles and lay them on a shelf, I wonder, how many bottles we would need? 

As child I used to live with my grandparents at the seaside. To me, memories of the sea are memories of the childhood at the same time. As teenager I was asked, if I were a thing, what I would like to be. I remember to have answered, that I'd like to be a lighthouse. :)
However, today's theme for the bottles of memories is Love. Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night" and a heart carved in a tree as symbol of puppy love were my inspiration.

Actually, I didn't have either memories of  a romantic starry night or a heart carved in a tree. How about you?

Bottle postcards (1)

Don't throw away empty bottles.
Let's fill them with a lot of beautiful memories that you're afraid you will forget.
These two belong to a set of postcards about my favorite motive: treasures in a glass bottle.

Moleskine Japanese Album- The story of Four Seasons- Autumn

Autumn is the time of the year for harvesting and spooking people in the neighborhood.
I've never had enough of tasty pumpkin cream soup and decided to dress me up in a witch costum on Halloween. "Meow!!!" Oop! My spoiled cat wants to join in this year. How about you?

The goddess of Autumn brought here rain, wind and made tree leaves change their colors.
It's now time to put on my favorite trench coat and admire charming falling leaves in the air.

What do you prefer doing: collect chestnuts or go mushrooming?
Ouch! Some nasty squirrels don't want to share mushrooms in "their" forest with me.

More of this series:

Summer- Spring- Winter

Sunflower wedding

On the way from Parndorf back to Vienna, I saw endless sunflower fields on the both sides of the street. It reminded me of a documentary film broadcast by NHK about wedding customs in Japan. In the film, there is a couple of young Japanese who love sunflowers deeply and decided to celebrate their special day in a field of sunflowers. What a dreamy start to married life!
I made the raw sketch in Vienna and added colors to it, after I came back to Germany.

This drawing will be a present to two friends of mine who are getting married in the next month. Although they won't celebrate in a field of sunflowers, I wish their married life will be as bright and lovely as these flowers.