Believe

I just had to use the nice background from Art Creations Friday for another digital image -- this time in ATC format. It's a contribution to the current theme of Theme Thursday, yet another creative challenge blog. The theme is Santa -- just perfect to get into Christmas mode/mood:

Monkeys

Art Creations Friday provided a nice background for its new challenge. I used it in both moos I made for the Make a moo or two challenge blog with its new theme monkeys:

Among circus folk, Lizzie was affectionately known as Monkey.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks for being part of my life!

Majorie's lost love

Was it just yesterday that I found out all about moos? Today I happened to find another exciting challenge blog called Art Creations Friday. The organizers post a picture or background each Friday which you then have to use in your own project. I am thrilled that digital collages are welcome, too. I used the beautiful vintage photo of a woman for my digital collage:

Whenever Majorie took a stroll in fall, she thought of her lost love.

First snow

Over the weekend we had the first snow in Munich. This morning in the car while waiting for a train to pass, I took the first two photos of the snowy fields which are near my home.

Seraphine & Geraldine

Today I stumbled upon a website which asks you to "make a moo or two." Of course, I had to find out what a moo is -- except for the sound a cow makes that is. From the website:

"A Moo is a little card with the size of 2,8 x 7 centimeters or approximately 1,1 x 2,8 inches. Beside this fixed size it's what you make of it!"

That sounds interesting, doesn't it? Anyway, every Friday a theme is set to challenge you to make a moo. The most recent one is "pets," so I had to try my hand at it. So now I proudly present Seraphine & Geraldine:

Light & Shadow

Have you ever noticed how wonderfully November sunlight brings out the shadows? Amazing!

My first ATC swap

Normally, ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) are more like AKCs for me (Artist Keeping Cards). However, I finally decided to try out a digital ATC swap -- what fun that was! Earlier this week I received the five stunning cards below made by Victoria, Raven, Elinor (who had organized the swap), Paula, and Jeff. Cool, huh?

Halloween decoration

Before I put away all the Halloween and fall decoration, I want to show you some of the stuff:

Halloween Pumpkin

Isn't a Halloween pumpkin a truly splendid thing? You get a great Jack-o-lantern, pumpkin soup, spiced pumpkin bread, and roasted pumpkin seeds. Oh, the joys of autumn!

Walk On All Saints Day

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."
-- Albert Camus

How true is that?! Just have a look at the photos I took during a walk on All Saints Day:

The last Auer Dult of the year

The Auer Dult or Dult for short is a popular fair which can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It takes place three times a year -- the last one two weeks after the end of the Oktoberfest. There are lots of stands centered around the Mariahilf church offering pottery, all sorts of kitchenware and other odds and ends. Going there last week was a special treat for me -- I met my friend Martina whom I got to know when we took the same evening class in Swedish. In the meantime, Martina lives in Sweden, but comes back to Munich once in a while. Det var kul att träffa dig, Martina!

Getting ready for Halloween

Just two more days until Halloween! I already baked Halloween cookies -- pumpkins, skulls, ghosts, cats, bats and moons. Moreover, I finished my Halloween and dark art movie clip -- enjoy watching it and have a

Happy Halloween!

Dancing With Bats

We have a full moon tonight -- it's perfect for dancing with bats:

Ayinger Brewery

Near Munich there's the privately owned Ayinger Brewery which was founded in 1878. This Sunday there was a country fair with a farmer's and handicraft market. Moreover, it was a Doors Open Day -- you could visit the brewery and see how the beer bottles were washed, filled, labelled, and put into boxes which were finally stapled up to the ceiling. I guess I took photos of every single beer bottle in the huge room, so now I had a hard time choosing only a couple of photos to show here.

The machinery was impressing -- very modern and effective. Bottles travelled on conveyor belts at high speed -- watch out for the action photo below. It was also loud -- not only the machinery but also the beer bottles clinking whenever they reached a sort of meeting point on their way. At the side there were a few older beer-making machines to show the difference between now and then. Those machines had a charm of their own.

The farmers' and handicraft market was very neat. I especially loved the mouses made from pretzel dough -- so very cute and tasty as well! We brought home Rubinette apples (the best apples ever!) as well as a little souvenir -- a handmade little bowl with a mouse figurine sitting on the brim.

Vintage Halloween

Here's a bit of Halloween nostalgia:

Birkenstein

Today was one of those golden October days which is perfect for an outing in the alpine upland. A popular place of pilgrimage is Birkenstein which belongs to the community of Fischbachau, a town in the county of Miesbach in Upper Bavaria.

The pilgrimage chapel Maria Himmelfahrt was built in 1710. The altar of the small chapel is very impressing with the beautiful statue of Mary at the altar center surrounded by many other saints statues. Moreover, there is an open air altar opposite of the chapel.

Fall has definitely come to Bavaria now. The forest around Birkenstein was beautiful in the sun and the fallen leaves looked even more colorful against the still lush grass. I just love fall!