Happy Holidays movie clip

I made a movie clip from my Advent calendar images of 2008 and 2009 which you can watch at YouTube.com or right here:

Advent calendar December 24

It's the Holy Evening -- Merry Christmas!

Advent calendar December 23

Just one more night until Christmas Eve! Here's the 23rd Advent image:

Advent calendar December 22

First of all, here's the Advent image for the today -- a little girl with her Christmas gifts:

Today is my late grandma's birthday. I lately made a digital collage using a photo of my grandma as a young woman in a traditional dress. I gave her dragonfly wings and put her on a mushroom -- now she is a fairy! I think she would have liked that.

Advent calendar December 21

When I went on a walk recently, I found Santa's secret villa. He even has a private bridge over a pond in his garden. At this time of the year it looks stunning with all those lights.

Advent calendar December 20 & an outing to Austria

First of all, the Advent calendar image for today:

It's the church in Hinterthiersee, a village near Kufstein in Austria. I took the photo on the way home from a visit with friends. We wanted to bring them some Christmas goodies before the holidays, so we seized this sunny day for an outing to Austria. Here's the view over Kufstein with its fortress:

Our friends have a new cat -- Sandy:

Our friend Lisi is a talented wood carver. She created those amazing crib figures:

On our Advent wreath there are four lit candles now -- it's really close to Christmas!

Advent calendar December 19

Nutcrackers from Munich's Christmas market at Marienplatz (Mary's square).

Advent calendar December 18

At the Christmas market was a booth with gingerbread of all kinds. The one on the right with the paper Santa Claus is honey gingerbread. It's what my mom got as Christmas gift in her childhood.

Advent calendar December 17

About two weeks ago I was at the Christkindlmarkt -- Christmas market -- at Munich's Marienplatz (Mary's Square). It was great to walk from booth to booth, checking out all the beautiful and sparkling Christmas ornaments. I even found Uncle Sam among them:

Advent calendar December 16

So far my artificial Christmas tree is still packaged and stored in the basement. I hope to put it up this weekend.

Advent calendar December 15

Something cute for today:

Painted mirror

Welcome to those of you who have come over from Domestic Witch's blog to check out my homemade gift project. Dawn had this great idea of collecting craft projects from bloggers. A big thanks to her for organizing this -- it has been great fun to visit everyone's blog and read about those fabulous projects -- talk about enough ideas to last for more than one holiday! For those of you who are first-time visitors, here's a short introduction of myself:

I enjoy taking photos as well as creating digital collages and Artist Trading Cards. Occasionally, when I have enough time at hand, I also love to use glue, scissors, papers, acrylic paint, rubber stamps, and all those neat odds and ends like brads, eyelets, ribbons, and charms. My creations often have a vintage or gothic touch. If had to name five fields which influence me creatively, I would choose Halloween, the Old West, southwestern design, Disney, and vintage images of all sorts. I live in Munich, Germany -- my hometown is called the "World City With Heart."

Anyway, now to my homemade gift -- it's a painted or decorated mirror. So what is a mirror? According to Wikipedia, it's "an object with at least one polished and therefore specularly reflective surface. Mirrors are commonly used for personal grooming (in which case the old-fashioned term 'looking-glass' can be used), decoration, and architecture." If you have some time, read the whole article at Wikipedia -- it's fascinating. In any case, let me just mention that mirrors have played a big role in entertainment, art, and literature for centuries, and that there are several myths, legends, and superstitions surrounding mirrors. All in all, a mirror is a common, yet intriguing object -- perfect for a personal gift.

One of the best -- and most inexpensive -- mirrors for painting and decorating is the Malma mirror by IKEA. It's available in three colors -- black-brown (which is definitely more black than brown), pine, and red, and has a size of 10 1/4 x 10 1/4 '' with a comparatively large frame.

So far I have painted two mirrors as gifts -- one for a friend who loves otters and the other for my mom in a southwestern design. You first have to find the right motif for the recipient. Think of what this person loves -- maybe a favorite animal or candy or book (e.g. Twilight). If drawing and painting isn't really your strength, you can always turn to easy symbols like stars, hearts or letters. Think also of the recipient's favorite color and maybe the style of his or her place -- pop art, elegant, only pastel colors, or a simply black and white. Other than painting the mirror, you can always take out your glue gun and decorate the mirror to your heart's desire with gemstones, sequins, buttons, scraps of paper or fabric, photos, and little trinkets which reflect the personality of the person to whom you want to give the mirror.

For the otter mirror, I started out with a sketch:

As you can see, I leaned towards the art style of Native Americans from the Northwest. I wanted a stylized look of the otter which wouldn't be too hard to paint four times all around the mirror's frame. To copy the image on the mirror, I first cut out the otter and made little holes in the sketch with a sharp pencil. I then placed the sketch on the first spot on the frame, tracing its outline and then using the pencil on the ready-made points. With the help of those reference points, I lightly re-drew the whole sketch with a pencil. Then it was time to repeat the procedure three times. Once all the four otters were chasing one another around the frame, I used deco markers by Edding (pens with permanent water-based pigment ink) in red, black, and white to color the sketches.

Finally, I ended up with this:

For the southwestern design, I used deco markers (yellow, red, blue, black) again, this time just drawing freehand on the mirror.

I hope my sample mirrors give you an idea how to create a mirror for a special friend or family member. Thanks for visiting my blog -- it would be nice to welcome you here again.

Advent calendar December 14

What can I say? "Baby, it's cold outside!"

Advent calendar December 13

Today is Sankta Lucia Day in Sweden, so here's an image with that theme:

I made traditional lussekatter (Lucia cats) -- Lucia buns -- for the occasion.

I well remember singing the Sankta Lucia song as a teen -- actually, I sang and hummed it yesterday while baking the buns. I learned it in Swedish evening classes. I found the lyrics as well as the English translation at Mama Lisa's World:

Natten går tunga fjät
rund gård och stuva;
kring jord, som sol förlät,
skuggorna ruva.
Då i vårt mörka hus,
stiger med tända ljus,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.

Natten går stor och stum
nu hörs dess vingar
i alla tysta rum
sus som av vingar.
Se, på vår tröskel står
vitklädd med ljus i hår
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.

Mörkret ska flykta snart
ur jordens dalar
så hon ett underbart
ord till oss talar.
Dagen ska åter ny
stiga ur rosig sky
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.

Translation:

Night walks with a heavy step
Round yard and hearth,
As the sun departs from earth,
Shadows are brooding.
There in our dark house,
Walking with lit candles,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

Night walks grand, yet silent,
Now hear its gentle wings,
In every room so hushed,
Whispering like wings.
Look, at our threshold stands,
White-clad with light in her hair,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

Darkness shall take flight soon,
From earth's valleys.
So she speaks
Wonderful words to us:
A new day will rise again
From the rosy sky…
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

Advent calendar December 12

Today I woke up to the first real snow of the season -- everything white and snow shoveling!

My Advent calendars

Do you remember me mentioning my Advent calendar which contains 24 semiprecious stones? It's such a delight to find a gemstone each day. My little collection is growing steadily. Below you see the first six stones.

When I was in the city center last week I found a lovely vintage Advent calendar with 24 chocolate pieces for half the price. The details of the vintage image are amazing, but have a look yourself:

Advent calendar December 11

Have you already bought your Christmas tree -- or have you even already put it up? My mom and I bought a tree for her place in late November. We plan to put it up shortly before Christmas Eve -- maybe on December 22nd or 23rd. I hope to put up my artificial tree a bit earlier. Moreover, there's the big Christmas tree on Munich's Marienplatz (Mary's Square). In an article I read that the fir tree is about 100 years old. Last week I took a couple of photos of the beautiful tree with its 2,500 lights which you can see below today's Advent image.

The building you see is Munich's New Town Hall with its famous carillon.