The Changing Seasons – Dec. 2018 – Or: What I´ve Been Up to During My Blog Break

First of all:

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!!! 🙂

 

And without further ado now to that new blog post. 😉

It´s time again for the wonderful challenge The Changing Season hosted by my dear friend Su from Zimmerbitch!

I urge you to visit her blog as it is simply one of the best out there and reading it will provide you with hours of well-spent time and bliss. 🙂

 

I spent most of the time of my blog break catching up with that ever-growing pile of books borrowed from the library, which was indeed a very nice treat for me. 🙂

 

I started with listening to the audio version of Lee Child´s latest Jack Reacher novel „Past Tense“ whilst knitting socks, because for some obscure reason they´ve decided all at the same moment that it was time for being canonized – i.e. becoming hol(e)y. 😉

The book was just as great as I had imagined it to be, the socks less so because I tried out a new knitting technique where you knit parts of the sock in rounds and the rest in rows. I´m not very proud of them, so no pictures this time. But at least they keep my feet warm and that´s what matters most.

 

Then I listened to another audio book, this time „The Girl From Venice“ by Martin Cruz Smith, read by Zach Appleman who did a wonderful job by the way.

The book promptly inspired me to paint a quick little water color of La Serenissima, as Venice is called by the Venetians, as it is viewed from the Lagoon.

I´ve never been to Venice, but have read lots of books about it and dream of visiting it one day soon before it might be swallowed up by the sea – Aqua Alta, high water or low-level flood, becomes more and more frequent.

As are those bloody cruise ships that not only cause the waters to rise as well, but immensely pollute the sea, making it impossible for the fishermen to do their job without poisoning themselves and the people who buy and eat their catch.

 

La Serenissima – inspired by The Girl From Venice by Martin Cruz Smith (water color on paper; Dec. 2018)

 

 

 

 

Next in line was John Grisham´s „The Rooster Bar“ – what else can I say than that he gets better and better with each book? I remember reading „The Firm“ oh-so-many-years ago and have been a loyal fan of his writing ever since.

 

 

And then there followed a huge disappointment when I started reading George R.R. Martin´s latest novel, „Fire And Blood“, a prequel to his A Song of Ice and Fire series, more commonly known as Game of Thrones. It does not happen often, but sometimes I just can´t go on reading a particular book, and I´m very sorry to say that this was one of the few times.

After about 79 pages I gave up, and returned it to the library. Yes, it does say on the front, that it´s a History about House Targaryen, but does it really have to read like a – I have to add – very boring history book? Surely not. I guess many fans will howl and rage should they ever happen to read this, but I´m only saying how I felt about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

„A Long Way From Home“ by Peter Carey was much more to my liking, although I have to add, that the ending was somewhat lacking from my point of view. But all in all, a very entertaining book that I enjoyed reading.

 

 

 

 

 

And at the moment I´m busy reading „The Floating Theatre“ by Martha Conway, which I´ll have to return to my library in two days!!

A mere 270 pages still to go, so what could go wrong? 😉

But it´s beautifully written and I really like the heroine of the story, so I´m confident I can do this. 🙂

 

 

 

 

Apart from reading, I also painted a little, mainly Christmas cards I sent to family and friends all over the world. Here are a couple of them, but more will follow in a separate post soon!

 

Two of many Christmas cards I made this December (Dec. 2018)

 

As I love making handmade gifts, I picked up on a new pastime: making little Amigurumi, which is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures.

 

Amigurumi fox – ready to be cuddled (Dec. 2018)

 

I made this little fox for my cousin´s baby to chew on…eh, cuddle with. 😉 (Don´t worry, I only use organic cotton for the outside as well as the inside, so it´s safe to put into baby´s mouth. 😉 ) It´s not perfect, but luckily the recipient isn´t much of a critic – yet. 😉

 

Amigurumi fox (Dec. 2018)

 

And I already started a new one, this time a Llama.

Amigurumi Llama – not quite ready to be cuddled, pins are holding the different pieces together until I can sew them on (Dec. 2018)

Amigurumi Llama (Dec. 2018)

Amigurumi Llama – Just 3 more legs to go plus the tail (Dec. 2018)

 

And because I´m knitting and crocheting so much these days, I thought it would be quite handy to have a yarn bowl, so I began working on one made of white clay:

 

Handmade yarn bowl made with white clay, still drying and yet to be fired in the kiln (Dec. 2018)

 

It still needs some fine tuning, like smoothening the edges with some sandpaper, but otherwise it will be ready to go into my kiln after the holidays.

 

Detail yarn bowl (Dec. 2018)

 

 

So, this was it, not as busy as usual but since it´s in the middle of winter, that was to be expected. 😉

 

And here are the guidelines for The Changing Season if you’re interested in participating:

The Changing Seasons Version One (photographic):

• Each month, post 5-20 photos in a gallery that you feel represent your month
• Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots.
• Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them

The Changing Seasons Version Two (you choose the format):

• Each month, post a photo, recipe, painting, drawing, video, whatever that you feel says something about your month
• Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material!
• Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so others can find them.

If you do a ping-back to Su´s original monthly post, she can update it with links to yours.