Perspective

I'm currently changing my perspectives quite a lot. For instance I never used a personal budget to reach my goals, but since yesterday I'm working on my 2012 budget. Yesterday I drew up the rough draft and today I'm tweaking it so that it fits my goals for 2012. This way I'll know if I'm on track to my goals or if I lost orientation. Do you draw up a yearly budget?

A grass forest

Changing one's perspective is often quite helpful and in photography it leads to beauty such as this.

Sanssouci details

Good Morning. Isn't it fabulous? A new week has started. With possibilities abound. Let's make the best of it.

Thankfully I'm back on late shift, therefore I have more time on my hands to get my stuff done and check out your blogs.

How was your Sunday? I enjoyed mine thoroughly. Sleeping in, taking a looong shower, dressing up and going into town to enjoy Caffe Lattes and write down the epiphanies I had this Saturday. As a matter of fact I wrote so much, that I filled up my moleskine notebook and am now switching to my red knitted cover benetton notebook that Chris gave me as an early christmas present, one week early. Awesome.

Sanssouci geometry

Have a great weekend.

Circles

Fresh green! *happy sigh* In Leipzig fresh green has become quite scarce, in fact green in general has become scarce. But it's the cirlces that I really like about this picture.

Today, I went to another event of my club "Kreatives Leipzig e.V". We've had a tax consultant answering our questions. It was really interesting and his answers will help us all a lot. I tell you it is soooo helpful to have joined this club. I just love it.

Geometric Forms embedded into Nature and the joy of a full mailbox

Going through my pictures today, while preparing my next few posts, I just realized that I currently totally like photographies that show architectural structures and therefore geometric forms embedded into nature. Thus the new series on this blog that comes without a certain schedule.

Today I took the afternoon off, since I was pretty tired and that even with 7 hours of sleep last night! 
I seriously went to bed at 7:30 PM and turned of the light at 8:15 PM. However it didn't seem to matter, when my alarm clock rang at 4:33 AM, I nearly fell out of the bed. 

Yesterday was kinda interesting. Somehow the Universe seems to want me to befriend Tuesdays again. If you read this blog you probably know that Tuesdays and I aren't the best of friends. I have no problems with the other days of the week, but Tuesdays always tended to be a bit off. 
Sooo, during the last weeks, Tuesdays were the days when I found nice postcards in the mail. Yes, plural. However yesterday, the Universe had gotten out the big guns: 4 postcards, 1 letter and the second hand book I had ordered I found in my mailbox! I dare say this was a very happy day for my mailbox and me. *grinning from ear to ear* Especially since the letter contained a christmas calendar in card form from a dear friend. It seems as if all the letter- and cardwriting I do starts paying off and my friends are getting around to using snailmail again. ;-) Because last week I got a letter from another dear friend and the week before that I received a card from another friend who wasn't even on holiday but answered to the letter I had send her before.* After all she is checking her physical mailbox daily, but she checks her emails only every few weeks or so. So it's actually faster to use snailmail with her, how fun is that?!

* I'm not telling you that my letter was six pages long and she only used one postcard. Ahem...

Tree patterns

Aren't those trees amazing?

The curious pattern of tree bark

As a matter of fact I'm endlessly fascinated with tree bark and its patterns and trees growing patterns in itself.

Well there is a 6-day-workweek ahead of me, with lots of stuff on my to-do-list besides my job in logistics. Nevertheless my mood is astonishingly fantastic, might be that I've already became an active member at the creative club I've joined or that I had a beautiful and successful day yesterday or that I paid myself my first "fatmoney".

I hope you are in a good mood too and make the best of your new week. What have you planned to make it special? I'll have another pondering Sunday on my coffee shop with one free Caffe Latte. Wohoo.

Mmmh

Today I'm in a pondering mood. Going to a meeting of Kreatives Leipzig e.V., which is the local club of creative people that I've joined recently, yesterday evening gave me a lot to think about. And so did the meeting with DaWanda-Artisans on Monday. So the next few days I'll do exactly that: pondering things related to my art and what I want to do next and the big picture for the future.

Apropos picture, the one above I took in the Ozeaneum in Stralsund. Which is in my opinion way too expensive. But find out for yourself if you like it and if it is worth the fee.

Soon I'm meeting up with Chris for a stroll and chat and after that I have a chock full to do list.

Did you stumble upon things to ponder this past week or month?!

In need of comfort

You know: I literally HATE the month November. Its not a dislike but pure HATRED. It is grey, it's cold, what's even worse it is a wet cold that creeps into your bones, the days go unbearably shorter day by day by day, the people around us become irritable, the year end crazyness gets to everyone, this month plainly just SUCKS.

On days like this I need comfort. Comfort to me means: a warm cup of hot and awesome tea*, a thick and cosy planket to curl up in, a good book to read**, cooking and enjoying dinners with friends (in my own flat, so that I don't have to go out), watching good movies with friends including nice popcorn, watching Harry Potter 1 or 2***, warm footbaths, finding letters and postcards from friends in my mailbox or looking at pictures like this above and remembering the joy of the moment. This picture I took at the Teeschale Prerow, which is an awesome, cozy and really comforting teahouse on the Darss. The two balls aren't icecream but homemade whipped cream, in fact it was the best whipped cream I ever had in my life. I just LOVED it. The cake was good too, but the whipped cream certainly was the star. I loved the whole experience. My Dad and I were sitting in this little nook and thorougly enjoyed our tea and food. One word of advice if you want to visit the Teeschale and the Darss in general, go during the off-season. It has many advantages and you actually get a table at the Teeschale and can enjoy your food in relative quiet. During the season...

What is comfort to you? What helps you to wind down and losen up?

* currently I just loooove verbena tea
** for example "Elegance" by Kathleen Tessaro
*** the others are too cold and provide no comfort

Taking on a different point of view

Guerilla knitting in Leipzig.

Smiling Sunday: What makes ME smile

I've been thinking what is my goal for San's Visual Art, what is my calling and these days I think it is to make you smile.

So I'm starting this new series called "Smiling Sunday". I start with me today and next Sunday...

What makes me smile?
- Seeing kids on a freezing November day eating icescream
- Eating my first "Zimtdackel" of the season
- Finding a postcard in my mailbox
- Sitting down in a comfy chair with an awesome Caffe Latte at Coffee Culture on a Sunday morning to enjoy some thinking time
- Watching a beautiful sunset
- Dancing in front of the bathroom mirror while waiting for may clothes to soak
- Sending a postcard to friends and random people around the world
- Thinking of my phototours with Chris
- Finding new comments on this blog and reading them
- Thinking of my friends
- Looking up at a beautiful nightsky and seeing millions of stars
- Taking a stroll along the beach
- Playing Scrabble with friends
- Seeing someone with fantastic style or an awesome accessoire
- Finding the first "Christmas" apples (Red Chief) in stores and indulging in eating them
- Eating something really good
- Listening to "A marshmallow world" by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin
- Watching "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" and "Mary Poppins"
- Talking for hours with friends on the phone
- Writing a real letter to good friends
- Finding awesome handmade locally produced stuff on DaWanda, like this notebook
- Listening to Rupert Everetts and Colin Firths version of "Love is in the Air"
- ...

And what makes you smile?

Can I go to the sea please? Please? Pretty Please?

I think this speaks volumes.

The calm at the sea

Sometimes I need pictures like this. On the one hand yesterday was quite successful, I've made myself an amazing lunch, I clicked with my hairstylist and therefore have a cool hairstyle that fits me to a tee, I finally through out tons of garbage, I've succeeded in eating healthy grain- and sugar(!!!)-free, I got the ingredients for kimchi including korean hot pepper flakes. So yeah, quite a day. However my mood was rotten. Today will hopefully be better, well, I've started it with an awesome breakfast-omelette, so it should be a nice day.

How are you?

Fog city

Personally I really like fog. Fog that lets you see only 50 meters is my favourite. I like how it rolls in the light of lamps and how it obscures the world, how it makes the world slow down, how it turns down the noise. Therefore I really like this weather we have in Leipzig at the moment. It's quite unusual to have heavy fog several days in a row, but now we have an I love it.

The best experience I ever had with fog happened in Edinburgh. I was walking down Princess street. I walked from the southern end to North Bridge. When I started at the southern end it was sunny, coming up to North Bridge I could barely see the next 30 meters. It was truly amazing to see the fog rolling in. I was probably the only person to enjoy it.

New Product: Starting with Holiday Cards - PK 84

And this is another of my holiday- and K-inspired postcards.

You like it, then you can buy it here: San's Visual Art - DaWanda-Shop

Feel the fear and do it anyway

Let me get this straight: Tuesdays SUCK! I don't know what it is with Tuesdays and me, but we don't get along well. Yesterday was such a crappy Tuesday again. I had no energy whatsoever and my mood was truly rotten.

Even though I was in such a hole I finally gathered the courage to do something that I had wanted to do for years, but I just was to scared in the last moment to do so. Sometimes I need a last push, in my case it was this blogpost: http://www.postcrossing.com/blog/2011/11/07/swab-your-cheeks-for-amit
I'm probably not a match for Amit, but there is a chance that I can save another persons life with my bone marrow or stem cells. So yes, I've registered yesterday at the DKMS. After I did it I felt quite enthusiastic about it, but in the evening I was having second thoughts. Which is my normal time to start to fuss about things that I've done that day. This morning I'm feeling great and am still proud that I finally took this step, even though I'm a bit scared. I think Susan Jeffers, who wrote the book titled "Feel the fear and do it anyway", would be proud too.

What about you? Are you registered as a bone marrow donor? Or do you donate blood? I did donate blood once. Afterwards I was always prohibited because of some of the prescription drugs I had to take or had taken months before the donation. Anyhow, I'm excited of the prospect to might be abled to save somebody out there, just by being who I am.

Oh, my Elle UK - Horoscope is also really good today: The planet of illusion and delusion {Neptune, in case you didn't know. I didn't know, until I checked some other signs.} is finally coming out of retrograde today. You’ll be delighted to feel a lifting of the spacey feeling you’ve been complaining about for the past several months. Yes, you can finally get back to your favored focus-and-finish mode. Distractions can’t hurt you now, Virgo.

Okay, now, since my world is getting back into the swing of things I'm off to finally post the birthday present of a dear friend of mine. Only one month late. Well, she knows why I'm late and doesn't mind. And she isn't the one who's getting it latest. I'm currently working on a birthday present for a friend whose birthday is exactly two months gone. Well, she gets it as a combined birthday-christmas present. Which leaves me still pondering the gift for Chris. Her birthday is next week and I'm pondering her present for three months now and haven't really come up with an idea that I really like. The real fun part is, she still hasn't gotten her gift for last year, but in that case it's our combined fault, we somehow don't make it to the shop where she is to choose her earrings. The one time we made it (9 months after her birthday, she got total information overload and couldn't decide what she wanted. Which was incidently my first reaction to the Perlentaucher too. Well, maybe we finally get this done next week.

The picture is from the Sanssouci Park in Potsdam. It was taken around 9 PM. Gee, I wish it was summer again.

New Product: Starting with Holiday Cards - PK 83

My friend K recently complained that my art is too pointy and sharp, since I felt that I had gotten into a creative rut I tried to get rounder and this is what I came up with. Since the holiday season is right ahead of us, I chose dark green and (what should have been) a dark red*.

You like it, then you can buy it here: San's Visual Art - DaWanda-Shop

* Yeah, I know it isn't dark at all.

Leipzig at Night series - University street

Gee, I'm having writers block. Nothing to say.

New Product: The Zen-Postcard-Set in Black

As I've already told you way back in October this set is a combination of calm and humour. Since my friend, who I gave it for his birthday, thought it's totally awesome, I sell it now on my shop. The circle means emptiness and completion and is often used as the symbol for Zen. Which, funnily enough, I only found out after I had created the set.

Now, there are three cards, three circles but endless uses. Naturally you can use those cards to send them to your loved ones, but you can also use them for meditation and decoration of your home. I will eventually put this set up in different colors. So if you want it in your favourite color just write me an email and I'll make a set in that chosen colour.

By the way, I photographed these pictures in a "new" way, meaning I put them on a black cardboard on my easel. This gives them a much more sophisticated touch as the scans that I used before.

You like it, then you can buy it here: San's Visual Art - DaWanda-Shop

Patterns

I might have said it before, I'm obsessed with pattern. In this case it is

chaos vs. order

nature vs. humanity

Initially I shot this for the shadows, but now I think the three different patterns are more fascinating to me.

Have a great new week.

Administration???

Ummm yes, it is the administrative building of Leipzigs North Graveyard. You know it is quite funny, most of the times I really like the architecture of the buildings on Leipzigs graveyards. I really would love to live in a house with this architecture.

Have a magical weekend everyone.

Sticking with it

If you followed my blog you probably have recognized my domain switches during the last weeks. Yes, it got on my nerves too.

However, after deleting my drawing blog today, I switched this blog to the adress of the drawing blog and this is the URL I'm sticking with, after all it is the blogs name. AND I PROMISE no more domain switches! (this year ;-)

The Sunshine Fountain

Good Morning.

It's Friday and that means the weekend is only a few hours away. I don't know about you, but my Thursday was brilliant. I've got tons of stuff done and therefore my to-do-list was shrinking away like a waterlily in the Sahara. I was also quite creative, I drew several new postcards* and I took a few pics when I went for a walk during the golden hour. And I finished my day off with watching a few nice movies.

Today, I have also tons of stuff to do, a lot of it is related to San's Visual Art. In any case I wish all of you a wonderful Friday. And if you are searching for holiday gifts check out Dawanda and etsy.

"The Sunshine Fountain" is on offer in my Dawanda-Shop and will be on offer in my etsy-shop shortly.

* some of them I might offer as a set in my shops**
** Yes, I've decided to give etsy a chance.

Castle Sanssouci + some new art of mine

seen from the fountain.

Being on the late shift is pretty good for me, enough sleep and creativity leading to this:

By the way my friend said he would join the better the world project for which I had the idea yesterday. XD

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone.

A Morning of ideas

Good MORNING!* It is surprising how fantastic I can feel when I sleep long enough. I had at least 9 hours this night and now I feel energetic and alive and am full of fabulous ideas. Some of them are for my art, one other is related to my art and has the goal to make this world better again and will include my friends. However I won't make the mistake of talking/writing about it too early, because it isn't ripe yet and when I talked about ideas too early before then I haven't put them into action. Since this one idea is really important to me and at least one of my friends and our lovely planet in general, I need to mull it over and talk to my friend before I share it here. However the picture above is a hint of the direction of this idea. By the way I think I took it in Wolkenburg in April this year, but I'm not sure.

When do you have your ideas? What projects do you support to make the world a better place? What do you do in day to day life to make this world a better place? Do you care about the environment?

* Sorry for the loud voice.