Spring Awakening

This week spring really came to Munich in full force -- it's wonderful! Seeing the beautiful painting Young Woman Of Popeii On A Terrace by Guillaume Seignac as challenge picture at Art Creations Friday, I just had to opt for a spring theme, using three of my own photos taken this month as background.

Happy Easter

Easter Sunday was a beautiful and sunny day in Munich. Now that spring is finally here, flowers are blooming and trees have fresh green leaves.

On Saturday I had colored eggs with special colors which promised a special shimmering. Lo and behold -- the eggs ended up shimmering nicely!

Below you see some of my Easter decorations including my Easter bouquet and a few treasured items.

Hope

Tacey is the guest designer at Artarazzi this week and kindly gave her own photo of a seagull for the challenge. Now Tacey's seagull is flying into Munich's sunset.

Alfred's Beard

Think Monday - Think ATC has a great challenge this week -- men with beards. Of course, I have to present Alfred:

Alfred's Beard was his whole pride.

Frozen Moments

Mind Wide Open has a new challenge for April. Gail provided the photo of a young woman with the word prompt "Moments." After some time playing I came up with my Frozen Moments. Enjoy!

Spring

Earlier this week it snowed. However, today is a beautiful spring day which inspired me to the little word collage below. The word cloud was made with the generator at Wordle, and then I worked with it in Paint Shop Pro. Great fun!

Think positive

For this digital ATC I used a background from Art Creations Friday and the beautiful photo of a vintage lady from Artarazzi.

Why the title Think Positive? Because I would like to see the first signs of spring instead of snowflakes whirling about when I look out of the window.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

"St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time,
a day to begin transforming winter's dreams
into summer's magic."
-- Adrienne Cook

Creative Journey

Mind Wide Open has a great new challenge this month. Gail provided a lovely image of a woman and the word prompt "journey." I wondered if I should go for the Journey of Life but while adding one layer after another until I ended up with a whooping 19 layers, Creative Journey had taken shape itself.

Flamingoes

In the end of January, I went to the zoo. I had won free tickets at a local radio station. It was a lovely winter day -- very cold with snow and ice, but the sun came out for some time. Now you probably wonder why you haven't seen any photos yet. My nightmare became reality that day -- my camera broke after I took only two photos. The camera still had full guarantee, so it's repaired in the meantime. However, now I have but two photos showing the flamingoes near the zoo entrance. Well, I guess it's better than nothing!

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.