A Long Awaited Catch-Up

Spent a (much needed) full day of catching up with my bestest friend Marisa at her house yesterday....I know, it's like we're 12 yrs old, but what can you do? ;P

I loooove the retro style of this light (it came with the house), but she hates it:

My favourite artwork:

A lovely gift from England for one of her daughters:

And who can resist taxidermy?

Rain Rain...

..go away....
....please come back another day....(as in 2 months or sooo?) 

A Few Days Ago....

...we pretended it was Summer....

Hope your weekend was wonderful. :)

Happy Long Weekend!

Some nice things arrived this week.... :)

Happy Easter to you!

Finally Feels Like Home

When hanging things up in a typical apartment in this city, one has to have all the right drill bits, plugs and nails. It's always tricky to have to drill into concrete, and certain heavier items cannot go on dry wall if the studs are too far apart. I know I am stating the obvious, but I suppose this is all somewhat of a learning process.

It started with this mess:

But it was all worth it in the end....

"Beautiful Bacterium" ~ Kokeshi Doll #2

The concept of this was inspired by Maren's comment on my (Cyclical) Food Chain Matroyshka dolls, as well as waking up one morning, and feeling the need to make DNA strands out of Sculpey (um, perhaps this was slightly over ambitious I'm afraid...).
Regardless, it made me think that perhaps bacterium//bacteria can be perceived as something beautiful....with their wispy flagellum//flagella as an accessory, or resembling some sort of regal Elizabethan collar (right, Michelle & Sheena?!)! Ahhaahahahaaaaaa ;P

Here's the process!

Rough sketch...

Blank...

Base coat...

Pencil sketch and more paint...

Painting in progress...

(...Was not entirely satisfied - needs a little something more...)

Added more paint all around...and then applied varnish...

Sculpey DNA and Ribosome baked...

 Time to fit in the Sculpy DNA strands and Ribosome, and felt Cytoplasm...

Personalized message at the bottom...

Homemade card...

Tschüss, little one!

Sunday in the West End

It was a blustery gray day of hail and wet snow, however here are a few things that made the day a bit brighter....

A tree adorned with Easter eggs:

Fresh baked goods:

A (poor) chick who lost it's beak (awww):

Catching up with a good friend with a cup of tea and an orange blondie with cream cheese icing:

A 2 faced rock made by my friend's nephew (ohhhh how I wish I made this!):

Hope you had a happy Sunday too!

Package Exchange - "The Private Life of a Cat" ~ Kokeshi Doll #1

I was first introduced to Martin via Sandra, and immediately fell in love with his photographs.  His photos are inspiring - each one of them beautiful, tranquil and soft but with a tiny hint of melancholy moodiness.  Perhaps his photography resonates with me in how I perceive my own memories and my possible feelings towards Europe.

Please have a look at his recent self published magazine "Sova". He is an amazing photographer, and brilliant artist/designer and needless to say, when he asked to do a package exchange, I was delighted.

As part of the exchange, I decided to paint on a blank Japanese Kokeshi Doll.  I personalized the doll to Martin's blog, "The Private Life of a Cat", and literally used his idea of 'him being a cat'.

Please bear with me the (lengthy) process.

Rough sketch:

Blank doll:

Pencil sketched after the base coat:

Outlines:

Sooo, I need to fill the inside with some things...

Started with some felt (organs) and yarn (spine):

I sewed the lungs, heart and kidney to the yarn and glued it to the inside of the head:

First time experimenting with Sculpey:

Sculpted and baked items that Martin fancies (Sverige flag, pizza, a slice of cheese and kanelbullar):

Adding the red thready yarn for the insides (veins):

Assembled:

Homemade card....where I got a little carried away with the watercolour :P :

Varnished (multiple views here **except I forgot to take a pic of the personalized message on the bottom of the doll.... :S **):

Have a safe journey!

*meow*