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.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

It really is. And here are some tips on how to stay warm, happy and cuddly on a dark winter’s night.

Clothing. One of the most basic (and that’s why it comes first) things you can do about being cold is of course to dress conciously. As often, the key is layering. I especially recommend wool or cotton tights, simple longsleeves over which you can wear your favourite T-shirts or cutsews, wristwarmers, legwarmers or gaiters, thick woolen socks, bloomers or cute shorts and additional hoodies or jumpers. This of course leaves out JSKs, onepieces, skirts and normal trousers, but I didn’t want mention the obvious neccessarily. In accessoires, the obvious – and here I can’t really avoid it – are scarves, fingerless gloves and all kinds of hats. Such things are often found in cute designs and even if you don’t find something to suite your taste they are easily decorated with bows, buttons and some lace.

Bathing (or hot showering if you don’t have a bathtub). One of my favourite ways to drive out the cold! Just make sure the water is hot enough (but not too hot) and you’ve got the heating on as well. I’d recommend chocolate or spice bath additives for winter especially. Something with orange might be nice, too. Combinable with other warming things, too, such as…

Tea. Any hot beverage will do (and you can also offer it to upset people), but spice tea such as chai is perfect. The spices don’t only add a certain autumnal or wintery feel to it but also will awaken your spirits a little bit (by stimulating your circuit). During the winter time most shops also offer some kind of mulled claret aroma tea or something cider-y.

Baking. If you don’t have heating in the kitchen just like us here in the little white house at the edge of the world it’s the perfect excuse to try a new walnut bread or cinnamon bisquit recipe. The heat that seeps out of the oven during the baking process will keep you warm and you’ve got something to nibble at afterwards.

Reading. One of my favourite activities during the coldest season is snuggling up in bed or my armchair with a blanket and reading out loud to the Scoundrel (and every other friend who happens to stop by). Reading out has become rather underestimated during the last eighty years, due to the high availability of other entertainment and media. As for the stories, we made it through the first Eddie Dickens book last year (read by Scoundrel) and The Exiles just recently and are thinking about the next book at the moment. I’d suggest nothing too serious, children’s books with a twist for grown-up readers (look for Neil Gaiman, Philipp Ardagh and Hillary McKay, for instance, the latter two being the authors of the aforementioned works) and children’s classics ( such as Anne of Green Gables, Huckleberry Finn or the ever-surreal Alice in Wonderland) are my favourites for reading out.

Cleaning. Another activity that I have found surprisingly sensible and quite handy. We’re talking the full program here, swab the decks (also known as floors) to dinnerplates, do the dishes, srcrub every corner of your home until it shines. It’s exercise and doing chores and avoiding additional heating all at once!

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On heating: Growing up in very green households makes me want to avoid heating as much as possible. But I’m a very, very girlish one when it comes to the temperature of the bathroom, and I’m even using the heating on a low level in my bedroom during the day. Just make sure to let in enough fresh air once in a while! I usually have my window tilted when I sleep (and consequently the heating shut down) as I’m under covers and blankets and have a very high sleeping temperature anyways. The other occasional airing is done at best when you just come home from the colder outsides and aren’t wont to the warmth that a heated room provides anymore. This is the moment when I tear my windows wide open to let in the fresh air, and I shut them again when I’m acclimatised again

Oh, something that I forgot: Cuddle someone, even if it’s “just” you favourite teddy bear.

 

P.S.: Happy Winter ILD!

New Old Things

As we were taking our old stuff to the flea market my mother told me to get another box full of china and other dinnerware from my grandmother’s sister. We couldn’t find everything a new home, but my great-aunt told us to keep as much as we wanted.

And now I’ve got some now dishes!

Aren’t those milk jugs the cutest? I kept the smallest one for Hollis and the largest for me, and my mother decided to take the rose-coloured. Which is pretty uncommon with her as she isn’t particularly fond of pink…

The mocha cups are heirlooms from my grandmother’s grandmother and incredibly fragile. I love hearing stories about the wonderful time my grandmother spent with this lady when she was a little girl.

It’s the most precious plate I got, isn’t it pretty? Luckily I just bought a cupcake recipe book, and this will be perfect for some presentation pictures. See the little glass enclosure at the rim? It only makes it more special to me.

Except the milk jugs the things are still back at my mother’s house as I didn’t want to risk them breaking when in my backpack on my way home.

So, with this milk jug, my tea set has grown a little! I’d say that I don’t really need my dinnerware to match perfectly as long as the colours and some of the style don’t look too awkward together. In my case that’s rounded shapes and off-shite and other rather natural or pastel colours. Butlers just released a new line of dishes, maybe I’ll have a closer look at them when I’m at Frankfurt or Cassel the next time.

Tea Treats

As you may have noticed I’m not going to rush through the drawing challenge in 30 continuous days.

Instead of drawings of my favourite place and favourite food (I haven’t even decided yet!) I’ll present you some of my other projects today.

A coaster for my teapots. I use a teapot warmer most of the time, but I thought a coaster would be nice, too. No more tea stains on my tables! (Don’t get me wrong, tea stains can be charming, but not on my drawing table that I’ve got to keep as clean as possible for the paper, and on my other tables they just look messy.)

The fabric was a leftover from another never-finished project. I guess even I am influenced by the Alice Disney movie (the cartoon one, not that Burton thing) though I never watched it and so I came up with a Cheshire Cat-like creature for the stitching.

The back is made of black linen – sorry for the bad picture quality, it’s actually pitch black – and completely quilted, the inner layer being a piece of felt I had left. I did most of this coaster during my vacation in August.
No machines were hurt or used in the progress. ^^

The other thing I made for my tea board lately is a treats holder for loose tea bags. I’ve got plenty of them, from previous tea advent calendars, advertisements or packs with uneven numbers.

It’s the same linen as I used for the coaster, paired with an old cotton with an asian-looking print. I guess it’s some kind of costume material that my Grandmother bought some decades ago, and it used to be yellow, but I dyed it green for this part of the holder.

I used the original colour for the mostly unseen part and let the seams stay visible this time. This adds some stability and I thought it looked quite well with the chosen materials, too.

Look, the poll helped, this blog gets more arts & crafts! :)

I’m Sorry

… for the lack of updates at the moment. I’m a little busy and there are so many things to be done, like re-arranging my room, drawing for Splinterworld, starting and finishing DIY projects, writing RPG adventures and even planning a series of posts to be sent into the aethernet every Sunday from next week on – I didn’t make it in time this week. Also, I catched a cold last night, so I’m sitting here with a thick scarf around my neck, a very useful handkerchief and a pot of hot melissa-and-lemon juice tea.

I hope that all of you are well, my dear readers, and are not mad with me for not writing so much at the moment.

Love and best wishes,

Bonnie xxx

10 Things I Love In December

1. Blue Monday. I just recovered this comic after years of oblivion while cleaning up all my boxes at my mother’s house. And instantly I had to order the whole series in English, as I had only two volumes in German (it’s already out of print here and the last two books weren’t even in print anyway).
2. Eloise. Sadly, I haven’t read the books yet, but as far as I may say this, the movies are very, very heartwarming.
   
3. Snow. We had plenty in Marburg, and I do hope that it will last, no, be more!, at least until new year’s eve. I just can’t understand how one can’t like snow, except those folks that can’t get anywhere trough the white masses as the public transport tends to be a little weak at this point.
   
4. Vintage Christmas. I love old-fashioned Christmas cards! I’ve got a whole book full of examples of weird post cards featuring hog-riding hams, pillow fights and cherub jockeys on bats.
   
5. Chai Tea. When I first tried it I thought I wouldn’t like it, but since I discovered the Yogi Tea bags with their wise sayings (just like fortune cookies!), I somehow managed to drink my way though two boxes already.
   
6. The First Pictures of Bioshock Infinite. Absolutely Steampunk! There are not so many trailers around at the aethernet yet, but what they show is splendid!
   
7. Zinnober, the new album of Coppelius. What a surprise!
8. Gregorian Chants. I always had a soft spot for sacred music, and this is one of my favourite variations. It just has something epic to it, especially if you imagine an old church with a ceiling so high that you have to lay back your head to really see it, reverberating with the voices…
   
9. Hair, the song from the musical of the same name. I love the revival of the Broadway musical, too (and the leading actor, Gavin Creel, was in the Eloise films, too).
   
10. Merry-Go-Rounds. There’s an old-fashioned one at the Frankfurt Christmas market and I just love the motif! I think about making at least a carousel-themed t-shirt, if not a whole outfit.

10 Things I Love In September

1. Rose Hip Tea. I drink that stuff by the gallon for I love the slightly sour flavour and the dark red colour. And wild roses. It’s way better than the tap water here, at last.
   
2. Warmer Blankets. When it came to September this year I noticed that I needed some. At some days during the last weeks I was really tempted to turn on the heating. The Scoundrel was so nice to bring one of his woolen blankets here (when he stays over he wanted one of his own), so I don’t have to be cold anymore.
   
3. Chilly Air. Even though it demands thicker bedding and woolen pullover and socks, I love the weather here at the moment. The air is filled with that certain scent of falling leaves and cold water from the river and the fog rises in the streets in the evening…
   
4. Our New Spice Shelf. First I wanted to build one myself, but when I went though some of the old stuff in our attic I stumbled across one and now our spices don’t have to crowd the working surface in the kitchen anymore.
   
5. The Instrumental Parts of Black 47′s Funky Céilí. I’m having a folk phase again at the moment. Ignore the text, ignore the weird hair of the singer, just mind the instrumental parts. Did I mention that I want uilleann pipes? No? I want uillean pipes.
   
6. Henna. I dyed my hair back, of more precisely, Teli did. Finally, I’m a redhead again! The henna is incredibly great for hair care, I even had my hair tips cut before and the hairdresser was baffled how strong and healthy my hair was after two years of no cutting at all.
   
7. Velvet. I definitely have to extend the velvet bodice part of my closet. The heavy fabric is just so lovely when the weather gets colder!
   
8. Beatrix Potter. I read through my copy of Peter Rabbit again at the beginning of the month, as the Scoundrel didn’t know it yet. I love the way Beatrix Potter illustrated her world, it’s just so full of details but not too brimming over. There is a quite new biographical film about her, too. I think I should watch it some day.
   
9. The Fabric For My New Curtains. They are to be sewn yet, but the fabric is covering my door at the moment where I hung it to dry.
   
10. Cover Buttons. Isn’t it nice to have buttons that match your clothing? I made some for the planned Honoria costume and think about using some more in upcoming projects of mine.
    

10 C°: Sheep and Tea Cups

It’s getting colder again. I embrace this change of weather towards autumn, but I definitely am ashamed that I didn’t go swimming once. Sure, there are indoor swimming pools, but it is just not the same. Well, maybe it will be a little bit warmer when I travel to the south to my mother’s the next time… anyway.

When I was there – in the south, at my mother’s – last weekend, it was also quite chilly. We originally wanted to go to the flea market but the weather didn’t want us to so we went into the blackberries instead. As my mother’s house is settled at the foot of a hill where vast amounts of blackberry shrubs grow we had not to go far to pick the richest fruits. It’s a kind of tradition for my mother and me to go to the hills for blackberries in late summer and early autumn.

On sunday when I awoke I heard the not-so-distant baa of sheep through my open window and when I went there and looked outside there was a nice, large flock of white, cloud-like wooly beings on the hayfield on the other side of the small path that leads into the woods.

I spent hours picking blackberries and apples and pears (And some of the apples I brought here to Marburg for Abigail and Kajal. They were delighted.). I could indeed show you even more and more pictures of sheep, but I think these three above are a pretty good choice to sum it up.

On Sunday when I returned together with my mother it was the last day of the medieval fair at the castle gardens here in Marburg. Sure, the fair was small, but nice and I met several acquaintances of mine. I also got me my first own bone folder (a bookbinding tool, for those of you who don’t know) and another mug. It seems that I can’t go from a fair without a tea-cup… it’s like other girls and shoes.

Maybe you know that normally I’m not a person for blue things, but I really like the glaze of my mug, as well as those three little legs.

Fervent Fermenters

Two days ago, after a visit at home, the Scoundrel brought me a preserving jar with something that looks like a pickled pancake in vinegar.

Actually, it was a Kombucha culture.

Kombucha – for those of you that don’t know – is a kind of yeast fungus that “feeds” on tea with sugar while fermenting the brew into a healthy and refreshing drink. The Scoundrel predicts that someday it will jump out of its jar and eat us all, but I don’t think so. ^^

For this first time I made brews of

• Black tea with Tigerente (that’s a “character” from German children’s books) herbal tea
• Black tea with peppermint tea
• Black tea with raspberry and strawberry tea
• Flavoured green tea by the name “Chinese Love Dream” (that tastes really good, by the way)
• Flavoured green tea that’s called “The Eight Treasures of Shaolin”

I’m really curious about the results!

There’s my witches’ brew for the moment, five jars, about three litres of tea and not even half the original mushroom I got from the Scoundrel’s mother. That’s another great thing about Kombucha: you don’t need much of it as it will always grow on and on, producing new layers that you can “harvest” for new fluids. The first harvest will presumably be in a week or so – I’ll surely keep you up to date.

Book Shelves and Witch Corners

I recently started to get my room more uncluttered. Which is pretty difficult as I’m a real pack rat and – even worse – a crafter. But I begin to succeed, at least a little bit! My two main achivements are the following two, and I hope there are some more to come, soon.

At first, there’s my new, small book shelf that has its place at the wall over my arm-chair. It once was an old drawer in which my grandparents used to keep some of the tools, but my grandmother kindly gave it to me that I could bring it to new glory while holding some of my favourite books and tea cups. The green bottle by the way is something that I found when I still lived at my father’s flat while the attic was made into another dwelling place. They had to open my room’s wall and there I found this bottle which stood there for over fifty years – I could identify the date with a small scrap of newspaper that I found in the wall too, presumably, like the bottle, left there during the last construction works in the house – that is pretty old – after the war.

I call the second “new” space in my chamber the “witches brew corner” for lack of a better name. It contains my dried herbs, rose leaves and other tea ingredients, some teacups, Koboldfeuer (that’s a wild rose wine sold at Renaissance fairs), self-made peppermint mead, the wild rose rock sugar Madmoiselle Merveille made for me in the tea swap at Natron & Soda and several mortar and pestle sets.