Ice Coffee deLuxe

I was melting in the heat.

Me: "I could really use an iced coffee!"

My husband: "I don't think vi have much milk, nor enough ice... let me think of something!"

Shortly after he handed me this. 😍

I knew I married the right one.

Braiding with willow at work

 It might look easy, but working with willow can be hard work.

Fortunately, our students had a blast. 

We were fortunate enough to get a visit from a professional wicker weaver. That means we teachers could have a go as well while helping the students along. They had a blast, and honestly, so did we.

It was a really wonderful day too, so nothing to complain about at all ;)

They were asked to make a small bread basket, and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

MVICW II comics

 That Conference left me with a lot on my mind. That's for sure.

I entered feeling like I was happening on an event, where people would all of a sudden realize I did not belong, and I left with a feeling of utter joy, and the knowledge, that being a writer is about writing, very little else. 

One of the workshops I signed up for was a little apart from the rest. 

This workshop was about daily comics with Robert J. Russel, and I felt like an intruder when I entered the zoom call. 

To my surprise, I ended up making something I felt proud of, proud enough to eagerly push the hand button when we were asked who wanted to share, while frantically finishing the lines on the paper.

I had an idea in mind, while Robert was talking about comics. I often hear the phrase "You are sick" when people see the things I do IRL, or when I arrange something creative and bring a ton of stuff to make it an even better event. I should state straight away, that I DO know that that phrase has been used affectionately, but while I do take to heart the intention of the person saying it, the phrase itself can be somewhat hurtful. 

So I thought I wanted to do a comic about that. To be honest, I even tried to sketch it out during the last part of the lecture (I listen way better when I have something to do with my hands, and I did look at all the comics during the lesson)

For some reason, it really didn't work out. The same day a kid had caught up to me in the schoolyard, telling me that I was her favorite teacher, and that art class was her favorite class. So we talked a little about why she liked art class and the like. Shortly after, she continued the list of her favorite subjects. They were as follows:

Art

Recess

Small breaks during lessons

gym class

....not really sure what to pick after that.

Since I could not make the dark comic work, I decided to go with the above instead, and I am SO happy I did. 

I seriously thought it would be too little, too mundane, too.... something not worthy. Instead, I found profound happiness about just drawing and my work-life in general.

The girl in question has seen and approved the above comic.

About a week ago, a boy approached me telling me I was a fair teacher. At least, that was his intention. but the way he told it, made it sound like I am punishing every single student I ever have. After laughing about this (while taking in the love that boy showed with his words) I decided that that was a comic in itself. Beneath you can see the comic, and this time I even decided to color it with markers :)

I hope you will enjoy it.

Truth be told, I'm hooked. These are so much fun to do.

MVICW I

This past week I have Joined the Marthas vineyard institut of creative writing, for a week long conference.

 

I am SO happy that I did, and even ended the Journey with tears in my eyes.

Since the pandemic is still a matter of concern, the conference was virtual, and let me be completely honest, thats why I had any chance of participating.

One of the Workshops was with Alexander Weinstein, whose book "universal love" I will be sure to buy. I got really inspired by a postcard exercise.

Troubble is, although things are opening up here in Denmark, I don't really see where I would get a bunch of postcard. 

So what to do?

Ill start make some instead 😉

I can't wait to see what stories these postcards will bring, and who will end up getting them ☺️

Painting, just for fun.

So, I wanted to do something fun with the kids. Stuck in the same house for Ages, have unfortunately not given me all the much more time with my kids that I had hoped for.

So I figured we could do a painting each. 

We had fun, but the kids lost interest when they felt they were done, but I kept going. 

All I used was: 

A canvas

paintbrushes (not even expensive ones)

Water

Ecoline colors

A picture for reference. 

Ill let the pictures tell the rest.

Im pretty happy with the result. Its way to work with. 

Painting

I love to paint. I know many think it a tidious task, but I love not just the finished product, but the proces itself. My arms and back? Not so much 😉

We Are currently waiting for People from the bank, visiting to see if they want to borrow us the money we need for a solar roof. Its all very exciting, but I realised it might not be the best impression, to lead a stranger into a room with a big hole in the plaster, really horrible decoration and No paint since way before we bought the house. 

I guess I could just have sealed up the hole, and given it a White coat of paint, but that would not have been me at All.

so instead I painted it a dark mystic color, and hand painted details on most of a whole wall.

Above is a better look at the details.

yes, its pretty dark, so I am looking into lighting next 😉

What a tomato year

 Ill let the pictures speak for themselves, ill just tell you, that we have nine sorts this year, and that we still, here in the end of October, still  have a ton of tomatoes on the way in the garden.

I'm afraid I have to harvest them without being completely ripe, since the frost is slowly creeping closer.

 

Coptic markers

I'm not going to say much about this. I finally gave in, and tried out coptic markers, mostly because a big box was on sale. I must say, I'm in love with the vibrant colors.

In the beginning I didn't know how to use them, and the result was as could be imagined. But after a bit of research I improved. One really important thing I learned, was that alcoholic colors don't respect the borders of the paper. At least two papers of good quality has to be glued together, unless you have the right kind of paper, made especially for coptic markers.

But look at those colors!

They make me so happy.

 

Nailed it.... or something

Some time ago, I saw a really talented Russian lady, who did cats portraits. For some reason that made me die to try it myself.

I'm not done yet, and to be honest, I'm not sure Ill ever be done. There's something about how I get the ears shaped which is teasing me like crazy.

 I'm happy enough with the result this far though. I never expected to be able to make as beautiful and lifelike portraits as her, who have years of experience, and if I have to admit it, I thought the result would have been far worse. But lets see when I'm done one day.... hopefully.

Munkeruphus with kids

When I got over my illness, I was looking forward to going back to work.

I'm not going to lie. Part of me was a bit scared about what would happen when returning.

What waited for me was wonderful. I was only to have one class, and that with another teacher. The kids behaved way better than normal, and although I missed the kids I was usually teaching, I was grateful to really get to learn the kids from this new class, that I thought I would be working with in the future as well.

The most wonderful thing was, that every Thursday we would go by bike to the museum Munkeruphus.

We did all sorts of artwork in cooperation with various artists. 

We were really really lucky with the weather. Since we was to be outside all day, it would have been really frustrating with heavy rain.

One of the projects was an architectural one. Below are some of the kids creations.

I love them, and the idea was to get the kids to think about new ways of making a house, and to look at the world with curious eyes, and see possibilities.

The kids also had the fun of making land art, with the artists from Studio thinking hand Mikkel and Rhoda guided the kids (and us teachers) through a process of making art right on the ground.

The artworks was really good, and I'm a bit frustrated that I can't find the pictures. They might show up, and I'll Share them.

We also got to see their exhibition, which were featuring bacteria and saltwater on metal. I loved it.

We also worked with capturing the nature in resin. It was so much fun, that I really wanted to do more of that kind of work at home, even though it clinches a bit with my view on the environmental crisis we are in. 

Since kids are not allowed to pour the resin, they made the art in petri dishes, and a grown up poured the resin while the kids watched from a distance. What a surprise when we came back next week, and it turned out that the resin had boiled all in the dishes. Some of the artworks had shells from a crap. those had been white when they came into the dish, but red the week after.