Great News!

My boyfriend brought me these cutsies back from his business trip to Asia last week (the frog is a pouch for my cell phone). I love them! Well, this is good news, but I also have some GREAT News:
The love of my life also proposed to me! So we are now officially engaged! I got a very beautiful ring! We plan on getting married next spring, maybe april or may. I am sooo happy!!!

Magical Birds!

Click on image to see a larger version

It´s that wonderful time of the year again, when our neighbor, living in the appartment below ours, is setting up a bird house on his balcony to feed the birds. Twice a day, these green parrots have their little get-together in the old chestnut tree in front of our house. They are not native to Germany, but originally come from Africa, and one thinks it must be too cold for them here. But along the rhine it is a very mild climate and somehow a few of these must have escaped from zoos or private owners and now live in colonies in Mannheim, Heidelberg, Wiesbaden and Neckarhausen. They are my little friends and I love when they sit chirping away in front of my window, curiously taking a peek at me sitting at my desk. That´s when I feel like I live in a truly magical place - a little bit like living in the fabulous world of Amelie.

Reality Strikes...

I´m sorry for not being very entertaining on my blog these days. I feel a little frustrated. I have a lot of ideas for different kinds of projects, pictures that pop up from nowhere in my head, ... but somehow I can´t get myself to actually realize any of them. I have started. Oh yes. But I gave up after the first little steps. What is wrong with me? Before my exams it was easier for me to make time for my projects. It was like I wanted to create all day long and never do anything else again. Was that just a means of procrastination? I don´t want to believe that.
Maybe my current situation is just so depressing that I think it makes no sense to sit at my desk painting or enjoying myself doing something crafty when that will never bring in any money. Or at least not any time soon. The job situation here is terrible. Not just for former law students, but also for anyone working in a more creative field.
When you are unemployed in Germany you get a certain amount of money (depending on the income you had before) from the state for a year (because I paid for social security from my income before). After that you´re on state welfare. Now, that´s all not too bad. At least you have some kind of financial security. But the amount of money I get is way below that of my friends, who passed their exams a year ago. So low that I can´t even go on paying my share of the rent. They changed some regulations and I am really angry about that. I can get the additional amount of money I need for paying the rent only when my boyfriend can´t pay for me. Because we live together, the state nowadays expects the more wealthy partner to come up for the expenses of the unemployed partner. This is so unfair. I would have to prove that we are not living as a couple. That´s impossible. And they know that. So they make me dependant on my partner wether or not I want that. I think it is okay when people are married. But when you are not married you normally do that because you still want to be independant... Oh, I hate it. Because now I feel guilty for being unemployed and being a financial burden for my boyfriend. I think he doesn´t hold any grudges against me. But I feel guilty anyway. So now I don´t just have the pressure of having to find a job, but of not burdening my boyfriend for too long either.
I need a job. It all drives me nuts. That´s probably the reason why I´m lacking the inner peace to sit here and just enjoy my day and create. Just in case you all have wondered what´s wrong with me. I need a goal again. Some kind of perspective for my life. Please wish me luck.

My Magical Friend Has Arrived!

See, how happy I am? My wonderful Artiste Soul Birdie Necklace from Tine has arrived in the mail today! Hooray! It is so delicate and sweet! I´m sure my new friend will help me tackle all creative obstacles in no time at all!

Finally!

One of my favorite botanical painters is Marjolein Bastin. And this is her new and improved site! Check it out!

Rome???

Roz inspired me ;-)) to take this quiz: Where do I belong?

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city girl with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian men - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

20 Random Things About Me, Myself, and I

I have been tagged by Tine (check out her new and wonderful store!). So here is my list:

1. I sleep for exactly nine and a half hours, if I don´t set my alarm clock.
2. I never seem to get enough sleep.
3. My favorite colors are green and pink.
4. I want to become a stay-at-home mom when I grow up.
5. I love, love, love looking at Oilily catalogues for inspiration.
6. I want to create all day long and earn my living that way.
7. I love to cook.
8. I love looking over the rooftops of the city.
9. I am a day-dreamer.
10. I was born in the beautiful city of Bremen in Northern Germany.
11. I never lived there.
12. I moved about every two and a half years until I was twenty.
13. I lived near Washington, DC for three years.
14. I´m too afraid to drive.
15. I promised to do it anyway as soon as we get our own car (so now I hope we don´t ever get one, hee, hee).
16. I am too sentimental.
17. When I´m an old lady, I want my own bed ´n breakfast by the North Sea!
18. I can laugh about myself.
19. I dream about our own house and garden, and want to grow our own food.
20. Looking at something beautiful can give me a natural high!

I tag those who read this and want to play along!

Illustration Friday: Night

You never know what crazy things might happen at night!

May I present to you: The Artistic Bird Company!

Okay, maybe you´ve already seen this before on my blog, but I want to participate in Illustration Friday again and have no time to start something new. So that´s why I post this again. Hope that´s okay.

Studio Friday: Secret(s)

There is a secret hidden in both of these books. But only one will be revealed now! I´ll reveal the one in the green notebook: I started to write down my memoirs, ha! Maybe you think that I´m still too young to do that, but I´m afraid that there will not be enough time for this once I´m old. Too many things I want to write down! And then I´m doing it only for myself. I moved so many times in my life, I met so many interesting people, been to interesting places - well, I still sometimes feel like I have a totally boring life. So I want to remind myself of this being bullshit. Because sometimes when I read autobiographies and such, I realize that I have at least as much to say, ha, ha! Like when I read "Paula" by Isabel Allende and I thought that my family is no less crazy ;-)) I just have to try writing about it! Just imagine all those crazy moments lost! Not with me, no!

Jewelery Box

Voilà! My new jewelry box.

Creativity Kitchen

Something is cooking in my creativity kitchen again! After two weeks of feeling depressed, lacking energy, things are getting better again. I realized, I put too much pressure on myself regarding the job hunt. It really bogged me down that I don´t know what kind of a job I want and all. And then I realized that I do know. It´s just that I don´t know HOW! So I decided to only take one little step at a time and not worry too much about problems that may arise in the future. I noticed a few more things. Like I only need to put on some classical music and I get in a creative mood faster than you can blink your eyes, ha, ha! And then I noticed that I´m really a visual chic! If I look at all the notes in my little notebook (which you can see peeking out from underneath the Oilily Catalogue), it doesn´t inspire me at all. Because I need to SEE them! I need an over"VIEW". Now, I finally got it why artists use sketchbooks for jotting down their ideas. I always thought it was a waste of time, even though I admired the look of other people´s sketchbooks. Why sketch something, when you can describe it? Ha! Now I know! I wonder why it took me so long! I did use a folder for inspiration, like you may remember (if you don´t, just take a look here). That´s where I collected all kinds of magazine cut-outs and such. But I hardly ever sketched down my own ideas. And you know what else gets me going again? The old plastic tablecloth you see on the photo. My mother gave it to me the last time I visited my parents. It´s a tablecloth she used as a protection from paint stains and other crafting side-effects, when my brother and I where little and working away! It still triggers something inside of me. Funny, eh?

FOOD for the Soul!

Yvonne tagged me!

"Name five foods, dishes or otherwise, that were a part of your childhood, and that you sometimes miss when nostalgia gets to you..."

1.
As a kid, whenever I recovered from some kind of stomach flu and was just starting to eat normally again, my mother used to make a thin broth with vegetables and these star shaped noodles in them (without the sausage). I LOVED star-shaped noodles! We didn´t have those too often, so it was really something special for me!

2.
But my favorite dish was "Hühnerfrikasse mit Reis". It´s chicken with rice made with a very tasty sauce. Unfortunately, I don´t have the right recipe here. I looked it up in the cookbook I mention below, but the way they do it is very different from how I know it. I don´t think I could translate it anyway. Well.

3.
Another favorite dish of mine, made with nearly the same sauce, is "Königsberger Klopse". It´s a dish with meat balls. As a child it always had to be something with meat in it for me! And although today, I don´t eat so much meat anymore, I could never become a vegetarian, I guess. I would be too tempted to eat meat again...

This is a detail of a picture from this great cookbook, where you can find the recipe! This is the German Original Version of the book.

4.
For breakfast it always had to be a cup of hot cocoa for me (made with milk), and toast with butter and Nutella on it! A chocolate-hazelnut spread. Yummy!!!

This is the little cup I drank from as a small child, whenever I was visiting my grandparents in Bremen. Isn´t it cute?

5.
Then there was no summer without the ice-cream man! An Italian selling ice-cream from his little van. You could always hear him driving through the neighborhood, his bell ringing, every afternoon. And when we were lucky my mother gave us the money to get us some ice-cream in a cone! My favorite was lemon sherbet.

I forgot to add this...

As I have to tag five other people, I am going to tag:

1. Tine , because I´m curious...

2. Hanna , because I want to learn about typical Swedish food.

3. Anette, because I´m also interested to see, what people eat in Norway.

4. Anke for some more German recipes.

5. Isay, because she probably nows some exotic (to me) dishes.

I copied this from Yvonne:

If you decide to play along (and I totally understand if you'd rather not), here's some directions to include after your trip down food-memory lane (feel free to skip this part): Remove the blog in the #1 slot from the following list and move the other blogs up one place; add your blog's name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross-pollination effect.

1. French Word-A-Day

2. Cucina Testa Rossa

3. Creature Bug

4. Yvestown

5. Journal of a Mouse