The Actual 3

Actually I wanted to scan the “3″ picture I used for yesterday’s anniversary post, but then the workplace-I’m-finished picture came out so well… Well, here’s the “real” thing, the scan, linked from my new deviantArt portfolio account where I put everything I think portfolio-worthy. It’s rather empty – you may now guess if I’m sort of a perfectionist or not.

By the way, my song of the day is Washington Square by The Correspondents, and the picture was drawn with indian ink and water colours on 115 g/m² sketchbook paper.

I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!

Three Years

Wow. My third Hedgefairy anniversary!

I think of a blog as a very interesting project. Not only can I use it to show the world who I am – or who I’d like to be -, but also is it fascinating how it changes and evolves over the years, together with its writer. Sometimes I go back to my first posts from when I was 19 and wonder if I have changed notably for everyone else, too. As we rarely see change when we’re dealing with the changing person or project every day after a while…

As for the stats I’ve got roughly a 40 views average a day, in my first year it was only 6! My overall views for this year, however short it might be are about double of the overall views of my whole first year, 2009!
Which can only mean one thing:
There are actually people who are interested in what I write. Yay!

So: Thank you, all of you, my dear readers, for three years of Teaparties & Fairytales. May it grow during the next twelve months even more, and may you still be reading it when the title announces the next anniversary.

THANK YOU.

P.S.: AND this is my 401st post! So many reasonst for a giveaway… so you better watch out!

10 Adorables in February

1. Ribonita, an Etsy shop with the cutest Mori Girl designs and paper dolls. I especially love her woodland girls deer, fox and rabbit.
2. RIPTapparel. It’s pretty much the same concept as Teefury (their printing technique is not as perfect as Teefury’s, but still quite good), but if you check both, you’ve got two (most of the time) nerdy motives to choose from every day. I just got my most recent tee last week!
3. Our Washing Machine that’s working again! You don’t know what you’ve got in a working washing machine until it’s broken…
4. Take On Me, the song by a-ha, but not played by a-ha but by a North Korean accordeon quintet.
5. PrettyCute Magazine, a Lolita online magazine edited by a group of Dutch girls. There are two issues so far, but I think the mag has quite a future ahead. It was about time to fill the footsteps of Sucrerie magazine!
6. The Riddler from the Batman comics. Since the most known and loved Batman villains are the Joker and Catwoman to date, Riddler, Twoface and Poison Ivy get far less love than they deserve. Who couldn’t love a villain with a green bowler hat and a soft spot for conundrums? Well, riddle me that.
7. Apple Sauce. Especially with egg noodles with cooked ham fried in a pan (with the mandatory onion). Sounds strange, tastes wonderful. Actually it’s one of my favourite foods the whole year round, even though I usually don’t eat any kind of processed fruit (there are a few other exceptions, stress on “few”).
8. Gudrun Sjödén. I’ve been told several times that the designs of this Swedish label would really fit my style, and when I came into my mother’s kitchen about a week ago there was one of their old catalogues. I spent the rest of the evening reading it over and over again, and I think it’s a perfect source of inspiration (and clothing, of course) for Mori Girl fashion.
9. Drakensang. The fourth of to date six PC games set in the fantasy RPC world of The Dark Eye (also known as DSA in Germany), it has been out since 2008. I started playing about two years ago, and after a long break I’m back on track again. I just love the carefully constructed universe of DSA,  and Drakensang really made me wanna play the P&P version again.
10. Retro Rack, Gail Carriger’s witty, wonderful, awesome (retro) fashion blog. God, I love this woman. Make sure to read her Parasol Protectorate books, too!

A Walk At The Lake

A lake in winter is always a peculiar thing, except when frozen over. Sadly, we were too late this time, but the mood there was just too fine to be left unpictured.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I’m spending Valentine’s Day with and by myself, baking and drinking steaming hot tea and sewing and listening to swing music. For me, Valentine’s Day isn’t the commercial horror-that-should-be-erased-from-this-earth that everybody rants about (and I’m also a little bit tired of all the people referencing to “pagan horny werewolf day”. Yawn.). I take this day as a wonderful opportunity for radical self-love (thank you, Gala Darling, for this term!), and why not? Sending yourself holiday cards is one of the best things you can do.

The artwork of the Valentine’s card on the picture is by the incredibly talented Jolly Rotten, and you can find it here.
The muffins are standard with a bit of cocoa, even less clove and cinnamon and some lemon peel and grated chocolate. They make me think of My Father’s Glory and My Mother’s Castle, somehow.

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? And if yes, how?

Artwork Monday: Orph from The Sketchbook

This is Orph. Her full name is Orphea, after that guy who tried to save his girlfriend from the realms of the dead.

I hate it how her arms are too thin, but I drew this one or two years ago and didn’t want to change it anymore, it wouldn’t have been right. It also seems like I lost interest in the drawing after I had the head and hair done… Weird.
The little bit of colouring was done with tea and blush.

Orph belongs to an idea I’ve put into one of the “closed” files deep in the back of my head. She actually was a vampire-hunting witch, but nowadays one can’t tell tales with vampires without being accused of idea theft, something I’m not too fond of, surprisingly. Maybe the characters will be recycled one day, maybe I’ll find a way to tell their story differently, but I don’t think so.

It’s like a peaceful parting with the idea, putting this picture on deviantArt, finally, and here. I’m usually not very good at letting things go, and I’m even worse when it comes to letting ideas go. I’m even sad when I find and read notes for projects I planned and never brought to existence and know that I’m no longer fond of this style or colour or tale. But here it all worked, without remorse, without gloom.
I think that’s a good thing.

Last Bits of Daylight

My favourite river has frozen over, partly.

New Stuff

The post title might be a bit prosaic, but I’ll make up for that with the pictures I took of said new stuff.
Recently I made an order at Lederkram.de together with Bambi, Teli and another friend of mine, Konstantin (who’s currently in Ireland and hence hasn’t got his things yet).

I needed some leather for one or two projects to come, and Lederkram conveniently sells their leather scraps by the kilo. Bigger scraps than about the size of my hand would have been better and easier to work with, but it’s fine this way, too.

To satisfy my inner magpie – most of us have one, I think, but longing for different things, maybe – I also got two new pendants. The first one is a citrine crystal, not a good one, mind you, but it’s pretty and now it’s mine.

The other one is a hare trinity (or simply “three hares”, but I also like the term “Tinner’s Rabbits”). While I could go on now about what it means to me I’ll just state that I like it in an aesthetic way and it’s the thing tied around my neck most often at the moment.

And I also made a purchase at promod lately, as I needed a blouse to wear to Jules’ show as well as just because I liked it. It’s ivory coloured and still a little crumpled from being in my backpack, but I was too eager to write this post to iron it before I took the pictures.

I love the details in this collection. I’ve got several pieces in my wardrobe now and I’m stunned again every time when I look at them.

My First Bentō Post

It’s not an impressive one, but at least it is!

After I forgot to take pictures of my first bentō lunches I managed to remember in time last Saturday when I went off  to Frankfurt.*

But I haven’t shown you my bentō boxes yet! It’s the red and the blue Urara box from bentoshop, nothing too special, but I like them.

I was in a bit of a hurry, so the pictures aren’t so perfect. I’m sorry.

In my blue box I had an orange, chocolate-covered coffee beans and curry rice.

Matched I had another orange, mulled wine jelly stars (my favourites!) and the curry sauce in the red box.

While this is far from o-bentō, it’s a good start and I think I’ll get better at making these. Oh, and actually I found a picture of my first bentō somewhere on my computer!

Pasta, Grana Padano, apples and pesto.

I’m already thinking about getting a third “real” box and some smaller ones for extra fruit, and I got some really cure biscuit cutters around Yuletide, so expect more to come!

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* Jules had his second fashion show – well, the one he organises and provides several outfits for – and I modeled for him, the 1901 riding suit (with a skirt, of course, and I only call it a riding suit because I think the name fits) he made for me about two years ago. Sadly I don’t have any pictures yet, but surely they’ll come in soon.