Christmas cards

All the Christmas cards are on their way, so I'm revealing this year's mystery.

I'll start with one of the initial designs:

By pulling the first string, the pattern folds into two separate presents:

By pulling the second string ...  

... the other paper piece folds into a decorated Christmas tree!

Pure Christmas magic :-) 

Fashion history

My local museum has an exhibition on the history of fashion.

The exhibition is not bad - but it reminded me so much of going through my mother's/grandmother's closets :-)

Some pieces are exceptional, like this "aristocratic dressing gown" from the Countess of Lichtenberg, late 19th century.

And another fancy coat:

That time of the year

It's that time of the year again.

It's sewing time:

It's crafting time:

It's woodworking time:

 

 

And it was totally worth it :-)

National day of culture

This year I celebrated the National cultural holiday abroad, in Ravenna, Italy.

Casually walking around mosaics dating from the year 450.

Yes, 450.

They did have a questionable fashion sense back then...

 

But with this calendar they could predict Easter for the years 532 to 626.

 

 

Plenty of new mosaics around the town.

 

And other sorts of modern art as well :-)

National Gallery

MiniMojcek Nr. 1 did really well on a science competition, so he got plenty of tickets for museums and galleries. 

No matter how often I visit the National Gallery, there is always something different that attracts my attention. 

Like this altar from 1530, or - as MiniMojcek Nr. 2 called it - a Hagrid choir :-)

 

Then there is the wonderful painting of Ljubljana in snow by Pavel Künl, 1847, which is one of my favourite paintings there. 

And this lake by Marko Pernhart (1852), which is in fact the same lake as where Mika's concert took place ;-)

Update

I just realised I haven't posted for a while... 

One of the reasons is that I've been away. Again :-)

Enjoying some classic Tuscany landscape... and some wonderful Tuscan art.

 

And some classic views:

Another reason is that after successfully avoiding covid for over two years, I now tested positive :-(

I've been away :-)

A lot of "aways" recently ;-)

This time to an interesting old town in Austria.

 

 

 I did say Austria, right?

Charity kayaking, again

I've been terribly neglecting this blog in the last months. It doesn't mean I'm not doing anything: I am just not writing about it.

For example: I was paddling for charity (unfortunately not as successful as last year, mostly due to my recent injury).

This is not me. But I was there.

This is not me either ;-)

Happy 2019!

Happy 2019 and all the best to you all!

Ad 1) There were many twigs left from the history school projects, so I used them to make a wreath.

Ad 3 & 4) I've always been a fan of candles and I had these from the Escape Room we organised not so long ago. You can still see one of the clues on one of the candles :-)

Oh, and I finally managed to read the Hygge book.
Well - it's not worth reading at all.
300 pages to tell you to light more candles :-)

And telling you the obvious - that the best thing you can do is spend time with people you like, doing things you like, eating food you like and be comfortable. Or should I say ... hygge.

Vienna

More pictures from Vienna...

Basilisk

Yes, this is a cow with glasses, playing Backgammon with a wolf.  But of course.

A lovely dome...

... but completely fake, just an illusion :-)

Aliens landing

615 € ?!?

 

 

Really?

Whales!

Well, we decided not to go to Garda this year but rather to explore what's in the neighbourhood. So we started with Arboretum, where an exhibition of whales took place.

The crazy clouds (slightly exaggerated by Gimp) looked ... heavenly.