Distance

Distance can not only be measured in kilometers, you can also measure in the time your heart needs to arrive.

Vegemite!

I have lovely friends. They visited Australia this year and brought me back a tube of Vegemite! They did it with good thoughts, because I asked them to do so!

Suddenly Vegemite was a desired good! So, it has travelled from Australia to Germany and then this little jar travelled on to Peru! Here it was seen the last time alive: Dan's Blog

New possibilities with polymer clay!

This pic looks really strange, eh? It is a way to work with polymer clay that is quite popular. You call it a cane. If you have a lot of canes waiting to be worked with you can work quite smoothly without having to care about new supplies.

After making a huge amount of Monarch-cane, I began making beads and other nice things out of it.

My first necklace.

A fake pauashell-bead. (Actually I made a lot more, but they still have to be worked with sandpaper...)

And an assortment of different pendants.

There is still heaps of the cane in my fridge, so there will be a lot more to come.

Matrix-t-shirt

Nothing more to say here... I think I watched to much TV...

Michiko

It was October, the 4th, a saturday. The first saturday after my birthday... I went to the animal shelter and fell in love with this adorable little dsungarian hamster.

She is about 1-2 years old, which is quite a good age for this hamster, as they usually reach 1,5-3 years. I didn't want a baby hamster. I like giving older animals a nice home. And Michiko surely diserved a nice home. She lives in an aquarium with the sizes: 130x50x50, but it still seems too small for her. I let her run around in the living room from time to time (hard to see her in wake moments) and then I notice how much a hamster should run.

In the wild they run on the search for food about 8km per night. In the cage she has a running wheel, the same one as my mice have and she uses it a lot.

She is such an adorable little thing! Very interested in everything!

As for her running around I built a little bridge to the living room. She knows how to use it, that's not the problem. Unfortunatly she turned out to be sleeping for long into the night so I don't see her much and can't let her running around as much as I would like to.
Still she gives me the feeling to be a happy hamster.

Fledermaus-Maus

I made this little fellow under the motto: gothic!
As bats are sometimes mistaken for mice with wings, this one is truly a vampire-mouse with batwings.

In the flashlight visible: the use of fur, still the same method as with the fur-mice before.

The base is simply a painted piece of wood covered with stones and pebbles.

Pirat-Shirt

My second attempt to paint a t-shirt. The t-shirt is 100% cotton and was much nicer to work on than the first one. As I already knew that the colour is staying on the shirt after washes I was also more daring in painting something bigger and more complicated.


After colouring the shirt the colour needs to dry, overnight is a good time for that. Then I throw the shirt carefully into my oven and bake it at 150°C for about 10 minutes. The kitchen gets a nice smell of fresh ironed clothing! It's very nice!

Hope you like it!

My first t-shirt!

I am always curious about my abilities of painting. I have painted a lot as a teenager, heaps of pictures are stacked away in folders at home. But it got a bit boring one day as I have hardly any more use for pictures.

Then I started painting cups. A few paintings with effects, like the coloured paper from the horse pics.

One day I decided to try painting on t-shirts. My first one was unfortunatly on the wrong fabric. The letters started to tear out a bit, but the paint is strong. I can wash it with other clothes in the mashine, no problem.
It was my first try! No wonders expected!

For the letters I cut out the pattern on cardboard. Same as the stripes on the sleeves.

NaNoWriMo-Resume

The november has ended and so has the NaNo. I have managed nearly 18.000 words, that is about 57 pages à 1.800 characters. (In Germany it is more common to count in chars, not in words)

I am way away from the actual goal. But I am very happy! I have written a good 57 pages, my story has got a face and I will continue writing it as soon as I have time.

Lots of horses!

I have always loved horses! And I have always painted, drawn and written about horses...
These are some recent pics. They are all about DIN A, but not accuratly. I mostly start on bigger papers and cut them afterwards.

A pinto.

A zebra.

An arabian horse.

And my favorite. A haflinger (German breed) called Dumbledore! It is about lifesize.

Some videos of my pets!

Davy and the cucumber



Mice everywhere!

Blacky und Flöckchen

Two adorable little mice! They live together in a nice home with a lot of other mice - real ones and fake ones!

Little Corinna

Once upon a time... The drawing was made by myself, I think 1995...
On the pic itself I am three years old.

Squirrels

After watching "Over the hedge" this week and seeing Hammy, the adorable squirrel in it, I found these pics on my computer.
As they are searching for food and are most times used to have humans around, they lost their fear. Well, this fellow lives in a nice park with hundreds of other squirrels, they are not looked after and not in cages. But they got the trick to beg for some nuts!

They are a bit older. But I still love them! I love squirrels! You can see the pics are taken in winter because it has furry ears.

"The red squirrel or Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is a species of tree squirrel (genus Sciurus). A tree-dwelling omnivorous rodent, the red squirrel is common throughout Eurasia. "
Source: Wikipedia

My couch!

My dear lovely couch! The first one I bought in my life! This post is dedicated to you!
I am very fond of it... Place enough to relax in the evenings, to lay down for a rest or simply sitting there waiting for the next thing to happen!

Finally: real mice!

In June 2008 I invited some new fellows to live with me. The castrato San and his girls Ichi, Ni, Nana and Hachi. Did you notice? I love Japan!

They settled in a selfbuilt home made of an old rabbit-cage-bottom (100x50cm) and an aquarium (60x30x30cm). This kind of petmouse can be held in an open cage. They can't see very far and are too scared to jump down. Of course there are always some exceptions, but my five are very safe in here.

Very soon I noticed that they could be happier. I included a second tray and more possibilities to climb. They seem much more relaxed now and use their space happily. It is now in a total 210cm (incl. the aqua)!

I am totally against buying pets in pet stores. There are so many animals who wait in the animal shelter to find a new home. And most people in the shelters want to see their animals well looked-after. Pet stores only want to make profit. They sell a lot of rubbish for pets as well. You might think you can find there everything you need, but that's an illusion.

Mouse-cages that have the size of max. 50cm should only be a mere transporting cage. Running wheels with 15-20cm diagonally can cause a lot of illness and misshaping. Not to speak of all the plastic that could tear up their stumaches when they gnaw and swallow it.
The wheel I have is of gnaw-safe plastic and has a measure of 27cm. I have only found the German producer of the wheels: Rodenti
Everything else in their habitat is safe to gnaw. And they do it! The wood I built with is coloured with a paint that can be used for baby-toys.

So no plastic, better use wood, cartonages and ceramic. In facts, nearly everything you would also feel save to give a baby.

See you next time!

Simeon

This little boy has its origin in one of my fantasy stories. His mother is Dorn, a chaotic warrior lady and his father is Sgurr, a dragon. I like testing out my skills and thought about modelling a little baby that would hopefully match my imagining Simeon.

I used Puppenfimo(c) in the colour porcelain. My surprise about how he looked like after baking was big. But from the beginning.

The body shown above looked a bit like a young boy not like a baby. I had to change that.


The operation could beginn. Slicing up the body was able because this time I didn't use a core as I knew that he would only be lying down.

Mending the belly again and changing the proportions of the head. He really looked younger now. Not as young as I wanted him to be but it was the best I could do after this start.

Now I only had to reform his feet and fix his position. This was done after a good warm bake in my oven.

Tadaa! Out came a crispy little thing with a gorgeous colour. He was supposed to turn out white but this was ok as well. Not much paint work to do...

The wings are still loosily attached and I think I will make some better ones one day. But for now they do perfectly well.

NaNo beginns...

*Phew*
It did take some time to get back into writing! But it is also great fun and I see that I have missed it very much...

On the first day I wrote down the first sentence! Great! I can make it! This is going to be awsome! Now I only need some more to keep going...
Hey, thats an interesting spot on TV, I got to watch it. No, better go on writing. Hmm, I haven't checked my emails yet, and suddenly I am back surfing around on sites that aren't really interesting at the moment, but to do everything instead of writing.

Ok, I ended it there. In the evening I finally managed to come onto 1,406 words. That wasn't too bad!

The second day was even worse. I'm at a total of 1,745 words now. But the story is going forward and I think the further I go the more easy it will be!

I always knew I need some goal ahead to write! Here it is! Here I'm coming, watch out!

PS: Visit me!

Mushroom mouse

Starting a new project. I have seen so many beautiful mushrooms in the internet which were made out of polymer clay or something similar. I was curious if I, too, am able to make one. But only a mushroom is a bit boring. It should be decoration as well as needfull surrounding.


My heart and soul in polymer clay were my mice. So my mushroom had to be strong enough to hold one.



I cut some wire fence and formed it the way I wanted it to be. I covered the ground with all sorts of clay that was lying around and I couldn't use in another way. It was getting really colourful. But I intended to paint it with acrylic paint so that was no problem. My mushroom is made out of Puppenfimo (c) and the capillary out of normal Fimo (c).



The mouse was the easier part. This little chap was in an adventerous mood and climbed onto the mushroom but then he got scared of his own courage and wanted to climb down again. Still looking a bit naked though.



I coloured the mushroom with pastel chalk. Putting chalk on it with a brush and then fixing it. And then chalk again... until it had about the right colour. Adding a bit more decoration... violá: finished mushroom!

My little chap got some black fur. I used some powder that was thought for window colour and clued it simply onto his body. His eyes have some gloss finish and he is ready to see the world!

[sales promotion] This chap is for sale!
You can visit him here: Dawanda
He is ready for the German market, but I will ship him anywhere, so please contact me if interested! [/sales promotion]

Thank you for reading!

The NationalNovelWritingMonth

The NaNoWriMo starts on November 1.
In this month all over the world you might meet people hastily scribbling down notes or working until late at night on the computer. Writing. Writing all month. Because there is a goal. If you manage to write 50.000 words until November 30., you get a reward.

Well, it is a very idialistic competition. A good chance for people who always say: "One day I will write a novel." This is the posibility to push yourself forward and to really sit down and write. Of course you can cheat, of course nobody controls what rubbish you may write down. But winning like that wouldn't be winning for yourself.

I am taking part because I haven't written much over the last few months. I want to get back to my old condition. So I am taking my chance and start writing a novel in November which has been in the back of my head for quite a while now.
I don't necessarily want to reach the goal of 50.000 words, but no matter how far I come it will be a good start! I am optimistic!

More mice!

More mice made out of Fimo settled down in my home. They became more detailed and it was fun placing them in their surroundings. Here I used a wooden tunnel for real rodents from a pet store.

8 white albino mice settled down in this playground for budgies. They were burned in the oven with the whole wooden thing. It was a delicious smell!

Enjoy it!