Happy Mardi Gras

Today is the last day of carnival -- Mardi Gras or Faschingsdienstag as we say in Germany. I went to Munich's city center where a lot of costumed people celebrated, danced, sang, listened to music on various stages, ate yummy food and had lots of fun despite the cold weather and heavy snowfall. At the Viktualienmarkt, a great food market-place, I met people with really elaborated costumes.

The Marienplatz is probably Munich's most famous square with the Old and New Town Hall and golden St. Mary's statue.

There was a lot to see and hear and smell in the pedestrian zone today.

At the Karlsplatz or Stachus was another big stage. I was lucky to see a great performance of a dancing group.

Little Mermaid

I combined the last two provided images of Art Creations Friday and came up with a digital ATC of a little wannabe mermaid.

Ellie had always known that she was born for a life near the sea.

One World One Heart follow up

Diane sent me an email today that she had safely received the good luck symbols from the One World One Heart event. She wrote: "They are wonderful little good luck pieces & I love them! [...] I have to tell you...my luck started coming right after I won yours. I ended up winning three more right after that. Now that's good luck!" Yeah!

I also was a lucky winner and currently wait for all the fine goodies to arrive in the mail. That is so exciting! A BIG thanks to the following ladies for their fine prizes and generosity:

• Sharon (a beautiful rosary)
• Deryn (a wonderful necklace and bracelet set)
• Deci (a marvelous blue crystal and copper dolphin necklace)
• Letha (cute western stickers)
• Vanessa (a lovely hair clip)

Of course, I will let you know when the goodies arrive. Oh, I am one lucky winner for sure! I even see a theme there -- jewelry and a hair clip to dress up and western stickers for my love for the Old West. Another yeah!

Wonderland

Make a moo or two has the theme "playing cards" this week. That made me think of the wonderful illustrations by Sir John Tenniel for Alice in Wonderland which are now in the public domain. I combined one of the illustrations with a background provided by Art Creations Friday.

Hooray

This morning I had a wonderful surprise in my inbox -- Gail from Mind Wide Open informed me that I had won this month's challenge with this digital collage. Wow! :)

I want to thank everyone who took a moment to look at my creation -- no matter if you voted for it or not (but, of course, thanks to everyone who liked it enough to give it his or her vote!). I still marvel that my creations have the power to touch something within others -- that I can somehow convey a bit of the magic I always feel when I create. That is just awesome! :)

Moreover, I want to thank Gail for organizing these challenges and for always finding such interesting images. That makes it easy to come up with something unique -- as everyone can see looking through the wide array of outstanding artwork. Congrats to the other winners Stacey and Lilla. :)

I am happy that digital art is accepted at Mind Wide Open. There are quite a few challenge websites out there which don't allow digital art, often implying that digital creations are less worthy than handmade items. Don't get me wrong -- I love handmade art. When I have some time to play I love to make cards or ATCs and also to sketch and paint. However, I am always drawn back to the computer. I love working with my own photos whenever possible -- and I have loved to take photos since I was a child. A graphic software gives me the chance to bring even more life into my photos -- to show you a glimpse of my world with a bit of magic.

It's always exciting to get feedback via comments or emails. That makes sharing my photos and creations worthwhile. Even if you don't hear back (right away), rest assured that I enjoy hearing from you and appreciate the time you take.

As for the my collage, Gail had already provided a nearly complete image. I corrected its proportions a bit, changed the colors (lots of layers and blendings and color corrections), added the dragonfly wings (they are from one of my photos) and the scan of a lace, and finally wrote what is so very true today: "My dreams have wings."

A walk on a snowy Valentine's Day

We might not have had a white Christmas (just a hint of snow over the holidays), but this year we had a white Valentine's Day. With a friend I went for a walk in the woods, taking along my camera.

That afternoon we made new friends -- Doreen, the carrier pigeon and Hugh, the dachshund.

We also explored the old train station.

There was so much to see in the neighborhood.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

"What is uttered from the heart alone,
will win the hearts of others to your own."
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Have you ever looked around your place for hearts? I have -- here are a few of them:

Ghostly Ride

Art On The Darkside has a new challenge -- Carousel of Darkness. I used one of the photos I took a couple of years ago at Munich's world-famous Oktoberfest and added the vintage photo of a little girl.

"Lovely Eileen enjoyed riding on the carousel so much
that she now rides on her favorite horse in all eternity."

One World One Heart winner

First of all, I want to thank everyone who took part in the One World One Heart event which Lisa Swifka had created and organized. It's such a neat idea and a wonderful occasion to get to know other bloggers. I had so much fun visiting all those blogs.

Now it's time to announce the winner of my giveaway. The random integer generator came up with the number 128:

After some counting I saw that Diane is the lucky winner of the twelve luck symbols -- my heartiest congratulations, Diane, and thanks for the kind comment you left. I will soon put your goodies in the mail -- enjoy!

You are my number 1

Make a moo or two celebrates its first anniversary and thus picked the topic "the number 1." As Valentine's Day is not too far away, I opted for a romantic interpretation of the theme:

Digital ATC swap

I took part in another one of Elinor's digital ATC swaps -- so much fun! Look what wonderful cards I received:

Shadowy Twigs

Art On The Darkside's current theme is "shadows." I worked with two photos I took in January -- some twigs with dewdrops and a sunset. The latter provided just enough light to bring out the shadows.

Mad Smile

Art Creation Friday provided another vintage photo of a lady. Personally, I think her smile has something mad in it, thus I came up with this digital ATC:

"After Tamara had seen the eerie clown at the circus,
she could imitate his mad smile to perfection."

Illustration Friday: Time

Illustration Friday's current theme definitely struck a cord. So now here's a composition of two of my photos, and wouldn't you believe it -- time really did fly! Doesn't it always when you do things you love?

My dreams have wings

Mind Wide Open has a new challenge to use a given image and the word prompt "dream." After some playing around I came up with this digital creation:

On February 8th you can see everyone's entries at the Mind Wide Open website. Don't miss that eye candy!