Spring fairy

Suffering from major surgery withdrawal and badly missing the Institute of Oncology, I thought I'd need a little dose of lectures last week. I even got myself out of bed on time, butstanding in front of the lecture hall I must have gotten cold feet... Thinking it might be considered sucking up - because one simply doesn't visits lectures if they're a) scheduled in the early morning b) not mandatory and c) not meant for studets in the first place - I ended up going home again. However, I had a little detour to the castle hill to get a view of the sunny Alps. 
With the morning being freezing cold (or me just not being dressed well enough) I'd definitely do better going to lectures, but the views were worth it anyway. 

Fog in the lowlands, clouds up above, and the Alps covered in gold somewhere in between. A little contribution to the gallery of sky images at Raumfee.

Not my usual way up the castle hill, but I thought I'd hop over to the Šance area this time.

A carpet of purple. Not as extensive as the one that blew me away last year, but after days of rain I decided not to go deeper in the forest mud.

More signs of spring. I've no idea what plant it is, but it certainly looks lovely and has a wonderful smell. 
edit: turns out it's winter honeysuckle, or fragrant honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima, Wohlriechende Heckenkirsche). I must say I also like the synonym January jasmin and Sweet breath of spring, which are quite a match :)

In fact, I thought the smell was so wonderful that I simply *had* to take some branches with me for the Friday-Flowerday at Holunderbluetchen. With no real sunshine outside - let alone in my kitchen - the lighting conditions couldn't be worse, but one day I'll (hopefully) too be able to make proper shots of my bouquets :)

Where is the fairy, you wonder? 
I've been peeking at my crafting stuff for quite a while, nevrously telling myself to finish my learning task before doing anything else. It went well for a while, until I couldn't hold back anymore last night. I just *had* to stitch those swirls with beige/soft pink shimmering yarn, print a lovely Flower fairy by Cicely Mary Baker and get crafty. 
By the morning, I managed to decide about the colour and size of the pearls and pick a matching beige/green background paper. 
Turns out I'm just in time to invite you to the March Fadengrafik Challenge called "Spring". Feel free to enter up to 3 spring themed crafting projects, given they feature paper embroidery.

After a sleepless night (and a little learning delay) only one question remained unanswered: Who is Olaf? :)

A little contribution to the February collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

challenge: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- as you like it: favourite occasion ("Just because" - as I usually create for the sake of creating only, with no recipiet in mind, most of my projects are not themed to fit one single special occasion)
- brown sugar: pearls
- basteltanten: no red
- C.R.A.F.T.: Mothers' day/female
- chocolate coffee cards: ATG
- craft-alnica: girls
- crafting from the heart: ATG
- crafty catz: special lady (mom - who else?)
- crafty gals corner: ATG
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative fingers: ATG
- creative fingers: ATG
- glitternsparkle: ATG
- robynsfetish: stitching real or faux
- inspiration destination: ATG
- pennys papertake: ATG
- wordartwednesday: ATG

Between winter and spring

Between winter and spring, another quick bookmark. I stitched it with yarn I got from my sister years ago, but as the colours are rather unusual to me, I never knew how to use it. Until I found this fantasy pattern. 
With a variety of shades is much broader as the one I used in my previous work, choosing the matching background colour took quite some time - in the end, neutral beige made the grade.
A little contribution to the February collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

challenges: 

- basteltanten: no red

- 613 avenue create: ATG

- crafty sentiments: ATG

- crafty gals corner: ATG

- glitternsparkle: ATG

- inspiration destination: ATG

- moving along with the times: no image

- pennys papercraft: ATG

- robyns fetish: stitching real or faux

- ooh la la: CAS

- wordartwednesday: ATG

- through the craftroom door: ATG

A splash of orange

Going through my stash lately, I re-discovered a couple of unfinished pickpoint patterns I have pricked quite a while ago, using a piece of cardboard that got a little wrinkled in some places. My idea was to make bookmarks, but I never finished them and forgot about the whole thing in the end. Now, I finally took time to start using them up. 

For the first one, I picked a yarn with shades of orange and yellow floating into each other. To cover the stitching on the back side, I used a matching orange cardboard. 

A little contribution to the February collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

challenges: 

- basteltanten: no red

- 613 avenue create: ATG

- crafty sentiments: ATG

- crafty catz: CAS

- crafty gals corner: ATG

- glitternsparkle: ATG

- inspiration destination: ATG

- moving along with the times: no image

- pennys papercraft: ATG

- robyns fetish: stitching real or faux

- ooh la la: CAS

- wordartwednesday: ATG

- through the craftroom door: ATG

A bouquet of white roses

A bouquet of white roses... 

In honour of the courage to see when others turn away, to think when others follow blindly, and to speak up when others remain silent.

In rememberance of how terribly wrong things can go, and that even in the midst of wrongdoing

there always is an option to choose humanity over fear-driven madness.

A bouquet of white roses...
In memory of the one White Rose that has touched me deeply when I got to know its story and remained dear to me ever since.
Accompanied with a wish that a sacrifice like this will never be necessary again.

Sophie Scholl (May 9, 1921 – February 22, 1943)

Hans Scholl (September 22, 1918 – February 22, 1943)

Christoph Probst (November 6, 1918 – February 22, 1943) 

Winter storm

From blue to black, or how a regular late afternoon walk up the castle hill turned into a spectacular light show (and the icy wind almost got me frostbites because I just *had* to stay a little longer to take some more shots).

View towards Ljubljana marshes. Half cloudy, half sunny - which one will prevail?

Rhapsody in blue, Trnovo church in the foreground.

Towards the North, mountains are still covered in sunshine.

Twilight above the castle courtyard

As the colours seem to indicate the storm hasn't passed yet, I threw my original plans overboard, heading to the other side of the castle instead of going home. Tranes of the storm have indeed been going on above the marshes, mixed with a colourful sky that tried to get through the tornado-like cloud formation. 

A little contribution to the gallery of sky images at Raumfee.