The Changing Seasons – December 2019

 

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

 

The month started with me having made prints from some of my watercolor paintings for this year’s Christmas cards to my dear (blogging) friends.

 

Printed Christmas cards (Dec. 2019)

 

This proved to be a more arduous task than I had anticipated because I wasn’t really happy with how most of the colors came out of the printer, being either to bright and dense or completely off target.

 

Christmas cards lining-up for Christmas (Dec. 2019)

 

What I learned from this lesson is that I should start with this around the beginning of November next year! 😀 (And probably learn more about calibrating cameras, scanners, printers… )

At least this time almost all of my cards seem to have arrived at their various destination which made me really happy! ( So far 7 out of 9 – or as Trekkies like to say: Seven of Nine 😉 )

 

Christmas cards ready to be posted (Dec. 2019)

 

More work was needed in the creative department when I noticed that many of my glazes had become either too mushy or dried-up for use. So I spent a whole afternoon grinding glazes with a mortar and pestle which is so not what I like most about being a potter! 😂

 

 

If you’d like to watch a little video of me mixing a glaze, follow the link to my Instagram account here!

 

My pottery students were extremely busy and spend the whole of December creating gifts for friends and family, some of which you can see here:

 

Christmas gifts created by my pottery students – do you see the little owl on the right? It was given to me as a gift from one of my students, I was the happiest of teachers that day! 🙂  (Dec. 2019)

 

 

Some of the kids decided to not have their pieces of art glazed because they liked it better that way. (Dec. 2019)

 

And this little reindeer stole my heart:

 

A clay reindeer by one of my pottery students (Dec. 2019)

 

Isn’t it cute? (Dec. 2019)

 

But the kids were not the only ones busy making handcrafted gifts, I was still busy being a little Christmas elf myself. 😉

 

Hand-painted voucher for a friend of mine (Dec. 2019)

 

Watercolor cake (Dec. 2019)

 

And because I wasn’t sure if my painting would be recognized as such, I added this little text on the back of the card. 😉 It also gave me an excuse to practice my hand lettering (which obviously requires more practicing 😉 ).

 

“Coupon for a cake of your choice” (Dec. 2019)

 

Some of you might already have seen my little crocheted Rudolph, but I thought I’d add here the before picture as well. This was also a handmade gift for a friend. 🙂

 

Amigurumi reindeer waiting to be sewn together (Dec. 2019)

 

Amigurumi Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (Dec. 2019)

 

There’s only one thing better than making gifts – and that’s getting them yourself! 😀  😉

My lovely friend from over at A wonderful sheep has send me one of her beautiful postcards and even added these awesome stickers:

 

Wonderful mail from a wonderful friend (Dec. 2019)

 

And my dear friend Su from over at Zimmerbitch has send me a hand-painted Christmas card – isn’t it the most beautiful Christmas tree?

 

Beautiful watercolor by my friend Su. Love my little Christmas tree! (Dec. 2019)

 

And there was even more mail in my mailbox this month: a beautiful Christmas card and calendar by my friend Chris from over at Milford Street!

 

Christmas card and calendar by Chris (Dec. 2019)

 

And one of the best Christmas gifts was this beautiful red squirrel that I had the privilege to take pictures from on Christmas Day:

 

Red squirrel enjoying a meal of peanuts (Dec. 2019)

 

Hope you had a lovely month as well!

 

 

 

If you would like to join in, here are the challenge guidelines:

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 post, she can update hers with links to all of yours.