Watercolour painting

When you casually paint something.

And MiniMojcek Nr. 2 says 'it looks like a kid painted it'.

You accept the challenge and start practicing. 

 So here I am, practicing watercolour painting :-) 

Holidays

More family holidays. 

Enjoying the summer, 

 

kayaking,

visiting some great adventure parks,

 

renting a cosy cottage,

 

hiking the bogs,

 

admiring the architecture,

and the history.

Latvia.

And a day trip to Lithuania. 

 I've still got over 3000 photos to sort!

Music!

Call my musical taste eclectic or whatever you want. Because ...

I love Mika. 

And I love Nick Cave.

Indeed.

Away ... again

A short break at Lago di Garda. 

A bit of climbing, a bit of rain, a bit of swimming, a bit of history...  

I always like to go/return there.

Hooded Microfibre Poncho

Decathlon's got great hooded beach ponchos and we've been using them for years.

But they are quite big and get super-heavy when wet.

 

So I made a lightweight microfibre copy :-)

  

Of course I got the material from Decathlon: two large towels and one medium. And the elastic part was reused from come old cycling shorts.

Very happy :-)

Summer wreath

When I took down the Christmas wreath a while ago, I felt like there was something missing. A cosy welcome for all our visitors. So I made a summer wreath :-)

Welcome!

And we've been away

When temperatures hit 35+ degrees, it's time to go someplace else. 

 So we did :-)

There were also 35+ degrees, but we had this wonderful sea to cool down. 

And plenty of shade. And ice cream. And granita :-D

A new dress

When MiniMojcek No.1 - who, btw, is about 25 cm taller than me by now - finished high school and celebrated the ending with a lovely ball, I needed a new dress.

And I had to make it myself, of course ;-)

A few yards of fabric, no pattern, only an idea in my head how the finished dress should look like... How hard can it be? 

Well, it turned out very very beautiful. Butterfly sleeves and very flowy. So light and so comfortable to wear. Just the right dress for the opening waltz with their mothers :-D

Memories

To prepare two presents for two wonderful occasions, I scanned plenty of old photographs and made two photobooks. 

I inherited the photos from my parents (who unfortunately passed away way too soon), so going through the photos was quite emotional. 

But fun :-)

 

All these photos were taken between 1965 and 1967.

While I understand old skiing equipment, I cannot comprehend what my Dad was wearing for alpine hiking...

Away, again

Oh dear, I haven't posted anything in the last month because I've been extremely busy.

And I've been away. 

To Prague, obviously.

 

And I've visited the wonderful Strahov Library. This book from the early 17th century describes - and depicts - the itinerary of Friedrich von Dohna.

 

A lovely day for a walk

 Another lovely day to walk around my home town.

32.5 km.

One of the many thousands to do it.

Away ...

I've been away.

I spent a few days in ...

 

Austria, of course ;-)

Seeing a book title like this, I just had to order it. 

A shame they had a wine-tasting and not Marillenknödel :-)

And the chocolates are super-delicious!

A short break

We used a long weekend and went climbing, cycling, sight-seeing and relaxing ... to Croatia.

 

We stumbled upon a 6-th century church...

... admired a 2000-year-old foot...

... and had lunch with a view of a 2000-year-old arena.

 

 The scenery was fantastic, as always in this time of the year.

 

 

Physics!

Don't you just love physics?

Well, I do :-)

A bamboo desk

MiniMojcek needed a new desk and of all the materials, he chose bamboo. 

Not oak, not beech, not birch, not acacia, not even pine or spruce. Bamboo.

So we made him a bamboo desk. And it goes quite well with the other furniture in the room, so I'm happy. 

But what matters most is that he's happy :-)

Hmmm

Maybe I should stop using this paper for my to-do lists!

Because they truly seem endless :-/

Thank you!

In the past month, two of my favourite painters/illustrators passed away.

Although Ančka Gošnik Godec was actually my second favourite illustrator when I was a child, there is this image in a book that was just perfect. It still is, actually. 

The story is about three foxes who love life, eat delicious food, drive fancy cars and live in luxurious houses. What is not to like ;-)

The second was Jack Vettriano. I've got one of his paintings (a poster, obviously) in my study, I've had his calenders and agendas, I have jigsaw puzzles, books and postcards with this paintings. I just love his style!

A picture taken from one of his calendars is permanently on my 'feel-good' wall. I could so imagine the woman being me...