Lineanongrata

Peppermint creams and Marshmallows (Advent calendar giveaway, days 9 and 10)

Advent is not only the right time for Advent wreaths (which are nice but look decidedly out of place at Easter) but also he absolutely right time for diabetics and hypoglycemics. They are easily recognized. Look around you. Who's the one producing treats and cookies with the most sugar? They'll tell you it's all to give away to family and friends. But don't be fooled. The question to ask is 'how many have you already eaten whilst making the marshmallows?' or the peppermint creams or the macarons or whatever else can be made out of icing sugar and egg whites.

Ugh well, the answer would be... a lot. But it could be worse. Because I did give most of what I made away today.

What? How many I have left still lurking in my cupboard? ... Enough. But it could be worse. Because you know, there's no icing sugar left so I can't make new marshmallows tomorrow. Right?

The marshmallow recipe I used comes from Smitten Kitchen and it worked like a charm.

My peppermint cream recipe goes as follows:

1 egg white

400 g icing sugar

1/2 tsp peppermint extract or oil

 

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add icing sugar and peppermint extract and beat until smooth and shiny. Form a ball from the sugar-egg white mixture and roll out until about 2 cm thick. Cut out circular shapes and put them on a tray dusted with icing sugar (I use a lot of icing sugar to dust because otherwise the peppermint creams have a tendency to stick and break). Let your peppermint creams dry.

Enjoy!

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This post will produce two lucky winners, one for today and one for yesterday, when I accidentally fell asleep on the sofa early in the evening and woke up early the next morning. Accidentally with a stiff neck.

For those of you who are new to the Lineanongrata blog and who would like to participate in the daily giveaway: Just leave a comment on each post until the 24th of December and you'll automatically enter the draw.

Like Brooms of Steel (Advent calendar giveaway, day 9)

Like brooms of Steel

Like Brooms of Steel 
The Snow and Wind 
Had swept the Winter Street -
The House was hooked 
The Sun sent out  
Faint Deputies of Heat -
Where rode the Bird 
The Silence tied 
His ample - plodding Steed
The Apple in the Cellar snug 
Was all the one that played.

- Emily Dickinson -

 

What's your favorite winter or fall poem?

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Janice, you won yesterday's advent gift. Will you write me an email and tell me your address, please?

Who else wants to participate in the advent giveaway? A gift a day until the 24th of December. Would you like to enter the draw? Just leave a comment each day. It's that easy.

 

Dance !

 

 

I have a secret. Until today only my family and my best friends knew: I started to dance. And because I'm not much into Tutus or any other kind of pink fluff, I took up Bollywood dancing. It goes without saying that I discovered I have a love for jingling and dangling jewellery, colorful clothing and maybe I want a tiara in the near future.

Next summer the dance studio I go to will have a public event. We will dance, too. Along with the belly dance mice (that's what I call the tiny little girls who do belly dancing at the same time we bollywood-dance), the tango dancers and the what-not-dancers. That's months ahead, luckily. Until then I might have made some progress. Because it turns out that I am seriously left-right-impaired. I'm able to dance-step to the right quite gracefully, but I'll have to hop back to the left because my brain doesn't do mirror-imaging.

Maybe there remains enough time until next summer for me to figure out (and please excuse my language) how the hell I'm supposed shimmy without any boobs!

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Lubaska, you won yesterday's advent gift. Would you please send me an email with your address so I can send it on it's merry way?

For all of you who are new to the Lineanongrata blog and who would like to participate in the advent calendar giveaway: Just leave a comment each day on that day's post and you'll automatically enter the draw.

 

 

How ?

Ok folks, time to own up. Who's got a spare key to my letterbox?

I didn't even remember I had one.

 

ps: Thank you !

 

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Sarah Jackson, you won yesterday's advent gift. What a pleasure. Will you send me an email with your new address, please?

For all of you who are new to the Lineanongrata blog and would like to participate in this year's advent calendar giveaway: Leave a comment on each post until the 24th of December and you'll automatically enter the draw.

Note to self (the advent calendar giveaway, day 6)

When I started teaching at the beginning of this year I didn't really know what to expect. Since then I have learned a lot. Other people have, too. They learned things about illustration, I learned things about people.

I'm 33 and ancient. What I say is rarely questioned although I am neither a loud nor an aggressive teacher. They just accept the wisdom such old age brings with it.

I have learned to let them talk. They don't need anyone to tell them about life's lessons. For many of them this is the first time they live away from home. They just finished Highschool. And now they can invent themselves all anew. So many possibilities. So many things to think about. So many things to talk about. So I listen.

I have learned that being firm is important. But one can say the same thing in a negative or a positive way. Beginning with the things that are good in an illustration, then talking about those things that could be better is much more helpfull and much less offending than being blunt and saying 'this isn't good'. It's rather hard to refuse making some changes or adjustments if you've just been paid a compliment.

But even with all this wisdom there are still times when I'm surprised, and, more often than not, humbled by something they do or say. Sometimes there are exceptional illustrations. Sometimes there is progress I wouldn't have expected.

And tonight there was a young girl from Georgia. The eastern european country, not the state. She's a tiny little bit, happy, friendly, a bit on the nervous side. She speaks very good German but is always a bit breathless. I knew she had studied German in school and had then been an Au Pair somewhere in Germany. Ours is a complex language and being as fluent as she is takes a lot of effort. I know that, and in my mind, had given her credit for it.

Tonight we were talking about this and that while she worked on a drawing. I asked things about Georgia, a country I know literally nothing about. She told me bits and pieces about politics, arts, how people live... I asked her if she missed it. Of course, she replied, but she'd always wanted to come to Germany. In school she had the choice between English and German. She was one of three pupils who chose German. When I wanted to know why (after all, English is the one language that makes things a lot easier in life for all of us), she looked at me with surprise. Because Germany has produced some of the greatest minds and artists! What a question, her face seemed to say. Musicians and philosophers, too. She had studied German because she had always wanted to read German literature. Not translations. The real deal.

Had she read the Germany philosophers, I asked. Some of them. Nietzsche she liked best. Although, and here she looked a bit puzzled, she doesn't understand why he so dislikes the old greek philosophers. They weren't bad, after all!

So tonight I need to write myself a note: Don't put people into convenient little boxes with convenient little labels. They might express their thoughts in funny ways and naive language. But at the same time they might be more widely read than I ever will be.

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Hanna, my favorite sister, you won yesterday's advent gift. You don't need to write me your address, it's one of three I actually know by heart.

To any of you who are new to this blog: There is a continuing giveaway until the 24th of December. Every day I give one little present to one of you readers. If you want to enter the draw, leave a comment each day on that day's post.

Sssht... (advent calendar giveaway, day 4)

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

 Ssshtt, tonight I'm too tired to present you with anything witty or funny.

But did you know that a flock of starlings is called a Murmuration?

Good night, friends. The market was good. I'm happy but tired.

 

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Dana T M, you won yesterday's advent gift. Would you write me  message with your address, please?

To all of you who are new here and would like to participate in the advent calendar giveaway: Just leave a comment daily on the blog posts here and you'll automatically enter the draw.

 

Who are you? (Third day of the advent giveaway)

This photo was taken at ten am today and I had already been up for hours. On a Saturday (and I am tempted to spell this in capitals only, just to convey the weight it deserves)! It's Christmas market time and sleep, oh sleep... I've heard of that. Highly overrated I'm told.

Without a solid eight hours sleep I'm not really good. - Understatement of the century.

Last night I worked until about 3 am. Today I had to get up at 7 am. My future family is lucky they're not yet living with me or are not yet born - remind them not to let me do the markets when the time comes.

The alarm shrilled, I sat upright in bed, my brain was struggling to wake up... and I honestly asked myself 'Ok. Who are you? - right: Julia. What do you do in life? Do you have a job you need to go to?'

I find the answer to be a bit complex. I'm Julia, that's for sure. Yes, I have a job. No, I don't usually have to go anywhere to do my job. But yes, today I had to get up to go to do my job.

How on earth is anyone supposed to cope with all that at 7 am?!

 

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Jane T. you won yesterday's advent gift! Will you write me an email to let me know your address, please?

To all of you who are new here and would like to participate in the Advent giveaway: Leave a comment daily and you'll automatically enter the draw.

A happy and peaceful Second Advent Sunday to all of you.

Oma & Bella (the Advent calendar giveaway, day 2)

A couple of days ago I came home after a long day and found a notice in my letterbox telling me that one of my neighbors had a package for me.

When I picked it up the name on it sounded vaguely familiar - my own name, too, but I meant the name of the sender - maybe someone I ordered something from? Etsy or DaWanda? But I couldn't, for the life of me, remember what I had ordered. Every day tends to be a surprise when you have too many things to remember.

But it's not every day I receive neat little packages and I'll take what I can get.

Upon opening the box a card with the photo of two elderly ladies on it fell out and it was immediately clear whom the package came from.

Months ago I backed this project ('Oma und Bella' by Alexa Karolinski) with the tiny bit of money I could give. I found both the two women and the way the granddaughter portrayed them immensely touching.

The box I received was the equally touching thank you they sent.

Coming home after a really long day (who would have thought that adult students in their early twenties can be so challenging and so contrary sometimes!?), and not at my best when tired and worn out, I started to cry first. Too much humanity for one day.

Then I ate the sugar cookies that came with the recipe cards in the box and I do assure you the world looked a whole lot brighter after that. Thank you.

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Janet Clare, you are the winner of the first Advent gift. I have your address somewhere I'm sure but if you want to get your package this year you might want to write it down for me again. As I said, I'm not at my best or my most organized when tired.

 

For all of you who are new to the Lineanongrata blog, I will be giving away one gift each day to one of you readers. Just leave a comment each day and you'll automatically enter the draw.

 

The advent calendar giveaway 2012

('Dad, I'm too old to believe in Rudolph anymore!')

And there we are again: It's the first of December and thus the beginning of the Advent calendar giveaway 2012. I am amazed at how fast time goes once you've entered your thirties. Wasn't it so much longer and slower when we were little?

Today, while walking through the streets of Berlin in a grey drizzle, but marveling at all the decorations (more or less tasteful) and lights in every window, on the balconies, in the shops... even in the pharmacy, I thought that only the very young and the very old enjoy the Advent time as it should be enjoyed: With a lot of time and leisure at their hands.

I remember that when I was a small child I had hours (or so it felt) to look at and read books about Christmas. I dreamed of gifts I would receive and give, we would bake cookies, sing Christmas songs on Sundays... and every morning we would open another little door in our advent calendars, finding a piece of very bad but oh-so-sweet chocolate behind it.

I only opened one little door each day but I know that my brother had opening them up, eating all the chocolate and closing them again so that nobody would see down to an art. ...It's a matter of style. And of patience, I guess.

 

('The maternity clothing is beautiful this season. Don't you think?')

 

Now that we're all grown up it seems there's never enough time in a day, especially before Christmas, so many things to be done, to be organized, to be talked about... so many places to go, people to remember...

And one thing I do remember, every year, is the advent calendar giveaway here on the Lineanongrata blog.

Over the next 24 days (we Germans celebrate Christmas on Holy Night, on the 24th of December) there will be 24 posts here. Something unprecedented in about two years, I know. I'll be talking about my 'change it' list for 2012 later this month.

Every day for 24 days I'll be giving away a gift to one of you. All you have to do is leave a comment every day and you'll automatically enter the giveaway. Every day I'll draw one name, ask one of you for your address and send something your way. Via 'Real snail mail'. Because Advent is about looking forward to something, even though most of us don't have a lot of time to be calm and contemplative during the coming days and weeks.

(...The illustrations are the last two of the calendar that you haven't already seen. Or at least the December drawing you hadn't seen before. I changed the chicks since last I showed them to you so I thought you might want to see the final version.)

Illustrator's everyday (and Advent calendar revisited)

Who knows why I thought the new year might leave me more time for things like blogging. It's Febuary now and I can say with conviction that 2011 has started fast and furious.

For this reason I herewith invent a new category for this blog: Illustrator's everyday: Notes from the studio. Glimpses into my everyday life here at the Lineanongrata studio, probably often just photos or a sketch, no words. Because whenever I use words, I feel I have to tell a story. And my everyday is full of things that don't always want to tell a story. Or maybe I'm not listening. Or maybe I'm going deaf. But visually I'm alive and kicking, and that's what I would like to share with you, even though maybe I won't have the time to spell it out in so many words at the moment.

...On another note: For all of you Advent Calendar winners: Your gifts are almost on their way. The illustration above has been transformed into a limited edition print (24 prints), and each of you will receive the number of the day you won.

Please excuse me for being this late. And please do remind me in July that I need to get ready for Christmas. Will you promise me that?