***Monday Friend*** - Happy Birthday Tali!

This week, I want to dedicate ***Monday Friend*** to Tali. She stayed in Zurich for a while and we became very good friends. Now last week she went back home to Brazil, and I miss her. Also, it was her birthday two days ago and since I couldn't send a present, I thought this would be a good one.
It is a surprise for her, so I did not ask her for five things. Instead I wrote a list of five things that I love about her and made an illustration with these:

1. Spontaneous and funny: I admire Tali for her ability of enjoying the moment. Even though she has a lot to think about in her life she has not lost her ability to jump on opportunities and laugh at life like a kid. I have had such funny moments with her. I think everybody needs a friend who will "cookiemonster" a sweet in a bar and wears squeaky-red heart-shaped sunglasses.

2. Self-confident: She has a bunch of fantastic piercings and tattoos. Even though the Brazilian ideal woman has long straight hair, Tali proudly stands by her gorgeous short curls and looks just fantastic with them. She is wise enough to listen to her guts and for example walk into a tattoo parlour and insist on a smiley face on her finger tip because she knows she needs one now, regardless of what people tell her.

3. Honest: I can talk to Tali about everything and we have had lengthy discussions about almost all sorts of topics in this world. Be it late at night, cuddled up under our blankets, drinking coffee on a sunny afternoon or on an early morning train to our next adventure. Tali has the ability to talk from her heart, however  hard the things going on in there might be and I am so grateful for this.

4. Patient: Although she never parts from her phone and likes to be in contact with people as much as possible, I have never heard a single scoulding word from her for being a social scatterbrain or just plain communicatively lazy. Another thing I am eternally grateful for. ^^

5. Courageous and curious: During the time that I knew her, Tali has taken so many risks and done so many adventurous things that another person might not to throughout their whole life. Be it everyday sillyness like no-pants tram rides or leaving silly post-it notes everywhere, or moving to some completely different places, leaving her family and friends on another continent, and learning to ride a bicycle after years of not using one... she's the girl!

Happy Birthday again, Tali. I hope you had a great party, because you deserve it! :o))
Love you!

Self portrait Thursday - W33/11

Hello world! :o)
Hehe, you don't wanna know where I am right now, but I'm gonna tell you anyways. I'm sitting in the Lounge of the Riverside Hotel Amsterdam in a nice leather armchair, next to a warm fire, looking out on the romantic square in front of the huge windows. We just ate reeeaally nice sushi, prepared before our eyes and enough to easily fill three girls or make immobile, smiling balls out of two.
Up the huge staircase with dark wooden walls and a soft turquoise carpet right in front of me is the restaurant "Waterkant" where we dined like queens yesterday... with a view right out on the harbour.
We took some aperitiv drinks at the bar on the 20th floor of the building - with a splendid view all over Hamburg and the harbour.
When we came back from our sightseeing and some shopping this afteroon I went for a quick sauna session in the Spa area of the hotel - I had it all for myself...
That's what you get when you ask for a 'nice, quiet hotel, not too expensive' at the tourist information in Hamburg...oO

I was a bit sceptical when my sister wanted me to come with her on a city trip, knowing that she is not the type for the kind of traveling that I am used to. We first agreed on some compromises (taking a rideshare for the way up, at least one night of couchsurfing), and then I just jumped in and tried to enjoy what we got as much as possible. I am doing quite well although I can't help adding up the money we're spending in my head all the time and sometimes thinking 'Gods, these four days will cost about as much as I spent in three weeks of my last tour...'
But what's the use, I agreed to come, so I won't complain.
If all goes well and the weather is good tomorrow we're planning on taking a day trip to Helgoland - might as well! ^^

So here's my portrait, with some of my impressions of the fancy fancy life we have here ;o)

On a not so bright note, I lost my camera yesterday, so I don't have my pictures from our first day (saved all the others, luckily), and it seems I'm back to using my phone for taking pictures. :o(
I'm mad at myself because I forgot it in the lounge and now it's gone and it's really just my fault. And it was a good camera and not so old. I seem to have bad luck with them. I will have to save a bit before I can buy a new one. That's ok though, I think it will do me well to suffer a bit and then I will maybe learn to take better care of my things.

You all have a nice week, see you at the weekend with some pictures!
And if you're traveling, take care of your stuff! ;o)

Creating success around the world

Welcome to
Creating Success around the World

The worldwide blog hop tour, that introduces you to creative people from all corners of the globe.

Every Wednesday our hosts on each continent will introduce you to someone new whose creativity is inspiring!

Here's how you can take this worldwide tour with us:

You can follow all the hosts to support them and keep up to date with the fabulous posts they will share every week.  Then if you are inspired to join, just link up your own blog to make some new international friends.

Remember to leave us a comment when you follow us so we can follow you back! And of course we'd love if you added our button to your site to help spread the word!




<center><a href="http://theshinybubble.blogspot.com/search/label/creating%20success%20around%20the%20world"><img border="0" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5154/5885118262_70f75d2c7f_m.jpg"/></a></center>
Here are your hosts:
Make sure you visit them all to see the inspiration and creative people every continent has to add to our community.
Australasia - Jill @ Creating my way to Success
Europe - Yaga @ The Shiny Bubble
The Americas - Suzy @ Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom
Asia - Janelle @ Of Pinks and Fairytales
Africa - Adepeju @ Peekadot

---------------------------------------------------------------- Europe

Alison is a "Mummy, wife, hippy, environmentally friendly, craftaholic!" She blogs about her crafty adventures and other things going on at her home in Scotland at "Heavenly Handmades". She also has her own shop website where she sells beautiful handmade wedding stationery.

Tell us a bit about your trade: What do you create, how and where do you sell your things,

how long have you been doing this?

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I love to make things, I will have a go at anything! I love to sew and make things with fabric and I make and sell wedding stationery. I have made wedding stationery for a while but have only started selling it in the last few months! I am attending my first wedding fair in Edinburgh on the 28th August and after that I plan to advertise in some wedding mags and do wedding fairs (but they are sooo expensive!!). I have etsy and folksy shops but they don‘t have anything in them at the moment! 

 

Please, tell us a little bit about the place and the country that you live in.

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I am Scottish and have lived in Scotland my whole life, home of the midge and heeland coo!! I am proud to be Scottish even if it does mean people have trouble understanding my accent when I am abroad (and my accent isn’t even strong)! I live about 30 mins from Edinburgh city centre in a new town, we moved here because I needed a house with a garage for my Mini (real mini, not BMW!) but it is too built up for our liking so our long term goal is to build our own house in the country.

Do you think that your surroundings influence your creativity? How? 

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My surroundings definitely affect my creativity. I always feel more inspired to create when I have been out and about and Scotland is such a beautiful country it is hard not to be inspired! On a smaller scale I have been without a craft room for 2 years now as our house only has 3 bedrooms so my craft room turned in to my daughters bedroom. This is all about to change as we (hubby) built a small log cabin in our garden at the weekend which is to be my crafting space once it is wired and floored! I am so excited about having my own space again!

How and why did you 'pick' your creative outlet of choice?

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I suppose my main and original outlet of choice is cardmaking. My friend got married about 7 years ago and she made her stationery. I was amazed that she could make such fab stationery and was inspired to start making cards. She took me to her favourite craft shop that afternoon and that was it, I was addicted!

My Grandma was an amazing seamstress and my Mum is pretty good too so I have been surrounded by sewing my whole life. I eventually caught the bug about 2 years ago! I will try my hand at anything though so my creative outlet of choice changes frequently! I have just bought a book about jewellery making so that might be next!!

 

 Why did you decide to sell what you are creating?

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I made my sister’s wedding stationery and she had so many comments about it that I figured I might actually be able to sell it. I had tried selling my cards before without much luck as the handmade card market round here is pretty much saturated but there are not many people offering fully customisable wedding stationery!

How did you start your business?

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I first set up a Wordpress blog to use as my Heavenly Handmades website but could not get to grips with Wordpress so changed to a weebly web site (www.heavenlyhandmades.co.uk) which I designed / am designing. Hopefully it will be fully up to date soon! I now have to sort out where I am going to advertise and see if I get any interest at my first wedding fair!

What, in your opinion is your biggest strength in your creative life and how does it

influence your work?

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Ooh this is a hard one! My biggest strength is probably that I am precise. I have a Physics degree so the scientist in me likes things to be right. I make things from scratch and if I am making a large batch of an item I like them to all be as good as the first.

What would you regard as your greatest weakness in terms of your creativity and how do

you deal with it?

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I am not very creative! I was AWFUL at creative subjects at school and have never felt particularly creative. New ideas I have normally come from things I have seen that I then modify to make my own. Often my creation is nothing like the initial idea but I rarely have a totally original idea! I am also not very patient and like quick projects. As I create more though I am getting a wee bit more patient. My latest creation is a dress and it really will take a while to finish as I need to loose about a stone to fit in to it !

How do you stay motivated and inspired?

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My main motivation is that this is the only thing I do for me and gradually I am getting more interest in my stationery and followers on my blog (althoug that is still an embarassingly low number!). I normally find inspiration very easily. I love to read all different types of blog and that really motivates me to keep creating, there are so many fantastic ideas out there! I have been blogging for about 7 months and really enjoy it, I am not a writer but like to document the things I have done. I also have a thing for craft books, I have about 20 books about everything, including a couple of vintage ones from the 60’s and 70’s, they have some fab projects in them!!

Where do you see yourself and your creative life in two years? Do you have any plans?

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Personally I hope that as a family we are closer to living in our ideal home. My son started school this week and in 2 years my daughter will go to school so I hope that Heavenly Handmades wedding stationery is getting a good number of orders to keep me busy, I will miss the company!

What are your 5 hottest tips for people who want to be more successful with

creating?
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1. Give it a go! Don‘t be afraid to try something new!
2. If it doesn’t work the first time don’t give up!
3. If you want to sell your creations make sure there are not already too many folk doing the same thing.
4. If you are making clothing for yourself it is worth making a muslin first, you wouldn‘t want to make a dress that was too small for you...............!!
5. Make time for creating. I always make mistakes and feel guilty if I sneak in some creating when the kids are playing and I should be joining in so normally craft after bed time.

Thank you so much for your openness, Alison!  

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I found Alison through our linky list. Link up your blog and you might be the next artist featured in our interviews!

Now it's your turn! Link up your posts: Inspiration, craftsy blahs, tutorials, tips or business talk: We wanna know!

Have fun hopping, reading, linking, connecting... take some time to share your love and inspiration by following, leaving comments and visiting each other.
Happy Wednesday! ;o)

New to the world tour? Check our previous tours here!

***Monday Friend*** - Krista

Hello and happy Monday!! I'm so excited about today's Friend because she is one of the artist girls out on the Webbs that I absolutely adore! Meet Krista from Saturated Canary. Krista makes illustrations of cute little girls that she sells in her etsy shop.

On her blog you can read about her family life, see her great outfits and more of her crafty side. Krista is also a big pro in keeping fit and her posts about working out are really inspiring. 

Here are Krista's five things:

1.  The Lord and my family.  I've been married for 9+ years and have two children, a girl and a boy.  My church and family mean the world to me.  I am so thankful God gave me two beautiful, fun, healthy kids to enjoy and a great husband who makes the best dad.  And, bonus (!), he's easy on the eyes;).

2.  Keeping in shape.  I feel like it is the most selfless thing I can do for my family-- working out keeps me feeling good and that makes me a better mom and wife.  I love to run and play sports.  We play tennis and golf...I love to lift weights.  It just feels good to stay active and set myself up for a long, healthy future!

3.  Going on dates!!  Phil and I try to have a date night once a month.  Just go out and eat, talk, laugh-- just the two of us.  It sounds really cheesy, but we are best friends.  We love to go to ball games, movies, and the bookstore.  And we have occasionally dropped the kiddies off at my mom's and gone home to snuggle and watch movies for hours:).  It's so nice to just talk and chill out together.  I love him so much! 

4.  My artwork.  Ever since I was little, I've loved to draw.  I enjoy creating characters.  Sometimes they are inspired by people I know.  Sometimes by a person I meet.  Other times, it is a song or a memory.  I'm so thrilled that my love for art has rubbed off on my daughter, too!  She sits for hours coloring and drawing.  Being creative is so important to me, and I'm so happy to see that desire grow in her, too!

5. Future goals.  I need to have things I'm striving for-- so setting goals and dreaming up new things to try is hugely important to me.  I want to always be moving forward.  And I hope that my kids grow up and remember this quality about me.  And that they have a piece of it, too.  Being a dreamer is a good thing!!

You might know this face from a previous post where I talked about how much I love Krista's dreadlocks. She is quite the extension queen and the next time I have some, I definitely wanna go for Rapunzel, too! ;o)

And of course, she is a big inspiration for me with her sweet little illustrations that she makes. She has so many ideas and styles for her girls, I am really amazed at how every time there is a new one - she looks just different and absolutely individual!

Thank you, Krista, for sharing your list with us!!
Have a nice Monday everyone, watch out, the weekend's zooming towards you! You might want to wear a helmet... ;o)





Check out my previous Monday Friends!

Do you wanna be a Monday Friend? Please contact me and I will be very happy to include you in a future post! Email me at little_yaga (at) gmx.ch

Like ***Monday Friend***? Please support me by grabbing the button from my sidebar for your blog. If you drop me a line I'll link back to you!
 

A birthday, a King, a fire and the black, black forest

We spent the weekend in the Black Forest. It was our friend Pia's 30est birthday on Saturday, so we made a big BBQ in the evening, sat by the fire and counted shooting stars.

We also had time for a little hike in the afternoon to enjoy the remote landscape. So close to Switzerland and still so different...

We finally had the opportunity to play Kubb - a game we've heard a lot about and that I've been wanting to try for a while. It's great!
There were other games, too, some silliness and of course, a lot of new and old friends. ;o)

 

I really loved going away again but still being out in the country - something completely different from Amsterdam and the other cities we've visited. We had quite some time to think and talk about all the things that are on our mind these days. Trev is defending on the 22nd of September and we are starting to organise another move soon afterwards... as always, there is a lot of bureaucratic stuff to sort out. I'm really looking forward to it all though, so most of the time, excitement wins over nervousness. :o)

Tomorrow I am going to Hamburg for a few days with Picoletta, my sister. So I'm unpacking and packing my bags once again... we will be back at the end of the week if all goes well. Whenever I have time I am busily sorting through and editing my photos, so don't worry: You will see more than just a few favourite pictures from my traveling time.
Thanks to all of you for being so patient with me whilst I am only halfway here and not really reliable. I still read each and every one of your comments and am very happy about them. Thank you!!

Tomorrow you will meet Krista, a Monday Friend whom I consider my hairstyle-sister - and that's not the only thing I think is awesome about her! ;o)
See you!




Ps: If you'd like to see more pictures from the weekend, click here to see the facebook album.

Let me show you my favourite movie!

Hello, today I wanna tell you about my newest faaaavourite movie!
We watched this film when we took out my dreads. I have never felt so captivated by the artwork of a movie - not even Lord of the Rings comes close to it, and if I say that, it means a lot.

 

It's called "The Secret of Kells" and tells the story of a young monk named Brendan who lives in Kells - a monastery and a village close to the forest in Ireland of the seventh century. Whilst the head of his order struggles to build a wall around the place to fight off raiding Vikings, Brendan discovers the beauty of the forest outside the walls.

He meets Aisling, a spirit of the forest, and the two become friends.

Then Aidan, an old monk from the island of Iona arrives and brings with him the unfinished Book of Iona. Brendan is fascinated and soon loses his heart to scripture and illustrating. Inspired by his adventrues with Aisling, Brendan continues work on the book under supervision of Aidan.

When the Vikings attack and raid Kells, the two of them escape through the forest and wander through the lands for many years before Breandan finally returns to Kells with the finished book.

The story of the film is intriguing and mixes historic facts with inspired imagination. One can feel the love for the land and culture of Ireland that was the makers motivation for the production.
The plot, however, is not exactly epic. It lacks a certain drive or focus point and since the story also has a mellow ending, it feels more like a snippet from somebody's life (which it is) than a dramatically constructed story.

That means you don't have to spend too much attention on the story and can fully endulge in the fantastic and breathtaking artwork of Ross Steward, an Irish artist and the art director of the film. His character portraits are hilarious and deep at the same time. He uses a very two-dimensional style that makes you feel as if you were looking into a storybook where everything moves. His style is very fantastic and surrealist but at the same time it captures the spirit of a situation or a place in a way that no photorealistic animation ever could.





If you have any sympathies for nature or the old culture of bookmaking and historic Ireland, do do do watch this movie - it's truly absolutely stunning!
You can also watch the official trailers on the website.
Oh, and the Book of Kells - how the Book of Iona was called later on - is real and is on display in Trinity College of Dublin, IR.

All picture credit to Ross Stewart, copyright by Cartoon Saloon.

Thanks for reading!

Self portrait Thursday - W32/11

As I said yesterday, coming home hasn't been the smoothest ride, together with us learning about what's going on in London and other parts of Britain this week and the colors of my life seem a bit muted by this and other sad things at the moment... I feel like water is slowly rising around me, water of things that I don't really have control over and I'm still undecided if there's sharks in the deep and confused by how pretty the background scenery is, despite a city burning in the distance.
If that made any sense to you, congratulations! ;o)
I just feel confused by a lot of things that are happening at the moment, some of which I like, some I don't some I feel frustrated with because they are out of my control, some I just have to get done, some are still uncertain, some I just can't get to a decision over... I feel swept here and there with the tide and don't see that the ride is going anywhere.
I also haven't had a good night's sleep in about three days, so I'm just trying to take it easy on myself and wait until the fog lifts a bit, doing what I can in the meanwhile.
Aaaawh, life! :o)

Well, one thing at a time. We're going to spend the afternoon and evening in Zürich with Tali and then going to the Schwarzwald for the weekend tomorrow, after saying goodbye to her in the morning.
I don't know if there will be intenet, but there is a "Let me show you..." scheduled for tomorrow and then on Sunday I'll post more pictures.

See you soon lovelies! :o)

Berlin-Brussels-Amsterdam: My favourite pictures!

I'm back home for a day or so, unpacking, washing, sorting out the most pressing paper stuff and already packing for and organising new trips... And I'm trying to sort through the many many photos I took during the last three weeks. It's quite some work... I think photo editing is like using makeup: Once you get used to it you don't feel comfortable without it in public. ^^
So I've been editing the pictures that I love the most for a quick round-up here for you guys. Enjoy!

I snapped this picture of Tom and me riding by a big mirroring window. I love it because I think it captures something of the lightness with whitch Dutch people use their bikes.

 Chairs, table and a view... this is one of the many 'blind shots' I took and I just really love the absolute sillyness of it!

Tali is blowing bubbles for Manneken Pis - and he's looking!!! <3

 Tali and me, experimenting with different colored lights in the photo museum near Brussels.

 Tali, 'cookiemonstering' a star. Don't ask...

 Hitchhiking... the biggest adventure on this trip!

 A very silly mirror, also in the photography museum.

 Nemo: Science museum in Amsterdam. I snapped like two thousand pictures of this building at all times of day. It just looks great all the fr*in' time.

 

This may well be the picture I am most proud of. I love having captured this moment - and having taken a pic of Tom without his mouth open! ^^

 "Smile! You're not on camera, but it's good for your health."

 Teddy convention in Berlin.

Tali's new tattoo. I'm such a fan of this. Although it's already fading, I still think it's a great idea! :o)

See you tomorrow with a fresh self portrait!
Much love