Lineanongrata

Greece - The morning after

For those of you who are not European and maybe don't follow the political and financial drama that unfolds around us as closely as we do: Greece, broke if it were not for money coming from the European Union, voted last weekend. Understandably people are unhappy with their economic situation and the heavy budget cuts imposed by the rest of Europe. Both the extreme left- and the extreme right-wing parties profited from the situation, the ultra-right 'Golden Dawn' party gaining 6,97 % of votes.

If it weren't so sad I'd find the name pretty for a political party.

The way things stand I'm curious to see where things are headed, both for Greece and the rest of Europe.

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.

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.

 

although teasing you was fun...

I shall herewith reveal my secrets.

Not all of them maybe,

after all I do have siblings who could blackmail me,

but some of my professional secrets.

This weekend I have a SouleMama sponsorship interview, and in it I will announce...

Tataaaaa: The launching of a new series of pdf patterns (no shipping, I send them, you print them yourselves) for illustration quilts. They will be in the shop starting this weekend. There will also be special deals on many items in the shop for a couple of days and a chance to win a little something on the SouleMama blog, so do have a look.

This is a sort of a sneak preview.

Because I like you.

things I can't tell and things I can't show

The things you can see are those I can't tell.

And the things I want to tell I can't show.

Because I would love to show you what my students did and learned in the eCourse.

The first one has been over for a while and it was a fabulous experience. In six weeks the participants have made progress I wouldn't have thought possible. I was amazed both at that and at the kindness and support the group developed after just a week or so. Every evening when I looked in on our Flickr group I was dumbfounded by what I saw. Really. No kidding. Every one of them made progress. In their own way and their own time.

If you would like to read a bit more about the experience from the student's point of view you can visit with Kristy over at Various Joys and Musings. She has been, and continues to be, a wonderful person to work with. Have a look, you can see how her artwork changed throughout the course, changing style and feel. At the moment I can see her bringing all the new things and experiences together and it's an amazing process to watch.

If only I could share some of the other amazing illustrations I've seen. You'd be amazed.

The really gratifying thing is that many of my students actually got so much out of the illustration eCourse that they wanted to continue to work with me. We have a monthly subscription plan they can sign up for, with one new weekly assignment... until in fall there will be the follow-up course. Of course.

Were I a bird, I'd be preening now. As it is, I'm grinning wildly.

secrets

Yes my dears. I'm having secrets.

Things I'm not telling you.

It's a tiny bit like Christmas.

...Only in July.

And just in case you wonder: Not telling you is a lot of fun.

moments (the logistics of paint)

Paint is logistically magic.

Put it anywhere around your work area (the floor, in my case) and then sit back and pretend you're not watching from the corner of your eye.

In a matter of minutes it will sneak onto your hands, your pants, onto the floor, into the bathroom sink and quite possibly, if you really don't watch it, your hair. 

And all that without any legs.