Nature Inspiration

During our beach walks our main mission is finding sea urchins. People might think that they are easy to find but actually it is quite an exercise along a rocky sea shore bending constantly. After a day of treasure hunting we are always exhausted. We try to go every week (as it is also a long mountain drive) but the weather doesn't always help us.

Sometimes we find other treasures beside the urchins, I found this seahorse a few weeks ago, the texture and fragile look is amazing.

I couldn't help myself my searching at Etsy to see who has been inspired by seahorses too:

1.sugarsusan, 2.HamjArt, 3.KathyMortonStanion, 4.papermoth

Seahorses are very rare actually this is only the second time in the 12 years we have been living here that we found one. Crabs on the other hand we find in many kinds of species, all gave up their struggles with the waves.

Isn't nature the best source of inspiration?

1.amefaust, 2.buttuglee, 3.alphabets, 4.jenkraska

The biggest kicks give the special urchins like the sputnik urchins but also this little guy, the tiniest one ever, and so pretty...


Unfortunatly we also are very often dissapointed to find broken pieces, detroyed often by nature, this one must have been huge, such a pitty.

Flickr Favorites, Kreativ Blogger Award and Storque

1. Scary Tree, 2. 1, 3. Hojitas, 4. Bridging the Gap

When searching for black and white on Flickr I was pleasantly suprised by the amazing pictures! You can find more beautiful mosaic at ArtMind's blog!

We´ve been honored with the Kreative Blogger Award by the sweet Maria aka LeelaBijou and we recieved the same award also by Elisa of Pesky Cat Designs. Thank you so much! I'm nominating: Kraplap, KathiRoussel, lamarquisedesanges, psarokokalo, Art Gratia Artis and Chichiboulie.

And last but not least we have been featured in the Etsy's Storque article, Etsy Finds: Pearls of Wisdom with our Classy Bride Necklace. You can check the article here, you'll find many pretties!

Little Sister: Handmade

If you are an Etsier, you must know that they always ask the featured sellers this question: 'What handmade possession do you most cherish?'

I always find it a pitty that they don't link to a picture somewhere to get a better idea. I would love to see your favorite handmade item in your home (not made by you). The one in the picture is mine, purchased in a beautiful shop in Madrid, El Arco Artesania. Unfortunatly I couldn't find the card where all information about the piece and artist is written, but I love the simplicity and character of the piece.

So, send me your picture, through Etsy's conversations or email, with any additional information you would like to give!

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Kreativlink: 'These are my two most favorite handmade items at the moment. The Olive Tree from Psarokokalo and the Free Feeling from Artmind.'

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Psarokokalo: This is one of my favorite handmade possession, I got it from Etsy, it was what made me enrol to Etsy! This piece is made from one of my favorite artists Danny Mansmith and is now in my living room (at the right side) as you can see in the first picture. And a picture of the piece itself:


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Vaisto: 'Here's something I cherish...hand made by at least Etsy standards. It's art by my hubby, taken with selftimer when I was expecting our child...he is standing behind me in the photo, one hand is his, the other is mine.
And a bit off topic, the funky lamp is one of my favorite objects, the shade is vintage from granny and it's supposed to be a ceiling lamp, the leg came from hubby's sister...ah creativity!'

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Kraplap: 'My favourite handmade piece in our house is a painting of an uncle of my hubby. He had been in a concentration camp during the war, and had to recover from TBC in a sanatorium. His room was looking at the chicken-run, and he started to paint them. He was very much intrigued by those hens, and painted them in all possible postures and colours. I was allowed to have a chicken painting of him at the cover of my PhD thesis, and we bought one of his largest pieces for our home, which is the one in the picture.'

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DeerLola: 'We spotted this photo print a few years ago at the exhibtion of a young Belgian photographer. He was showing several animal pictures and had printed his work on round plexiglass. He shot this photo on vacation in Indonesia. It's a tame deer that lived near the beach. And for those wondering, the deer is not yelling, it's yawning and staring at the sun coming up... It's a weird picture because it's shot from an unexpected angle. We came across the photographer and this photo last year and immediately fell in love with his work all over again. That's when we decided to buy this adorable piece...'

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plainbananas: ''This is the handmade item I most cherish. It is a big star made out of magazine pages. I love it so much because when my sister came to visit me and stayed at my new apartment when I moved to Crete, the place was generally pretty bare -- especially my walls. One day, when I came back from work I found this on the wall! She said she couldn't take the bareness and decided to make me something to put up. It made the place so cosy and I just love it!''

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Alatvian: "This is not my favorite hand made thing I have in our home because I love everything I have around me equally. This is a small clay ... (vessel, dish, holder?) made by my youngest son about 3 years ago and gave it to me as a present."

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Inger: The frames are made by the kids when they where little. In one of the frames is the first written letter that Tom wrote when he learned to write. The necklace is a little turtle, one of my very first Etsy purchases bought at Marmar. And the ceramic Hate feeling by Artmind.

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Vadjutka: From February, I have been buying some pictures for my wall: mostly from my friends on Etsy. They all were love at first sight: I knew I have to buy them, no matter what. Finally, the last piece arrived, and now I can go and have them framed.
1) Floating on creative bubbles from Artmind.
2) Birdpool ACEO from Annarubyking.
3) Hungry dog from Kreativlink.

Challenge Review VII

Already the seventh Challenge review we have been having with the EuropeanStreetTeam, 42 themes, so much inspiration! You can see the previous reviews here.

The My Flowers Challenge by Karuski

The Insomnia Challenge by Binkaminka

The Inspired by a movie Challenge (Marie Antoinette) by Leelabijou

The Bird Challenge by Carmenesque

The La vita e bella Challenge (inspired by the song of Noa) by Antigoni

The Cheap and Gorgeous Challenge by Alatvian

Flickr Favorites and More

1. harrow, 2. Ravitaillement en vol (2), 3. Chillies Drying, 4. Lustre-de-glace

This week some deeper colors for the Flickr Favorites series, if you would like to join the fun or see more beautiful mosaics, visit ArtMind's blog!

Thursday was the opening of the exibition of the drawing class I have been going to for the past years. Every year there is an exibition at the end of the class year. The opening always starts with a dance of the Efeler (please check here to learn more about Efeler). With their traditional costumes, I always find their deaper style trousers a funny combination with their serious faces.

As the governor and other political people come at the opening it always get crowded.

Here you can see the governor, calling my mother, Medusa LOL. And on the left is me, the paintings you see are the ones I made this year you can see more of those here and here.

Little Sister: Collections

Don't we all love to collect 'things' during the years? Beside the regular things as stamps and foreign money there are many with interesting collections. Mum and I are both collectors of all kind of things, mums latest passion is vintage French beaded flowers. The old ones are so fine and sweet. I would love to see one of your collections! Send me a picture through Etsy's conversations or email with your story about how it started or whatever you would like to tell about your collection!

PetitPlat: ''I started a tiny bjd (ball-joinded-doll) collection. I only have two right now, but I guess there will be more. They are quite expensive so I won't have 50 but 10 is possible lol! Here are my current two: Eleonore is the white skinned, a pukipuki lily from fairyland. Alice is the tanned girl a lati white sp gloomy from latidolls.'' You can see them having a lovely breakfast, made by PetitPlat herself:

Kreativlink: ''The most important things I collect are experiences and memories. Yeah - maybe that sounds a bit sniffy but, it’s the truth. Wonderful things I collect in my head. Just for me. Ha! But - the other things I collect are books. It’s not so much that I collect them, they just pile up here in the house. They are everywhere. In the living room, on the stairs, in the bedroom, in the bathroom (yes!)… but the biggest piles are in that little guestroom upstairs. No more emtpy shelves to fill. I think, soon we’ll really have a problem …''

ArtMind: ''I have a lot of stuff but I don't really collect anything franticly.What I've been buying lots of lately is yarn! :)''

SwiedeBie: ''I have the main CD-Rom back in 2004, and have a growing number of extension packs (which most are left in Singapore), these that I have now are the most commonly played ones by me. I am still investing in more extension packs for my Sim. As it may seem like a childish collection, but the total graphical simulations never fails to amaze child within any adult. As you can see my interest and love for designing, building, construction, manipulating and executing the way my Sims will want to live their lives. I will pass on this game knowledge to my daughter when she is older, oh well, of course I have to wait 9 more years for that... You never know...''

Kraplap: ''I am a real collector from almost everything, so it's a bit difficult to choose... But the most striking part to be seen in our house are the traditional costume prints that hang everywhere. The picture shows the wall along the stairs. It's part of my traditional costume collection on stamps, coins, postcards, and also books about ir, and costume parts like hats, skirts, jewelry etc....''


LaTouchables: ''I love to collect books and strange art objects--a skull from a cow (I think of it as art), a gold-leaf-painted box from Mexico, and this enameled silver and copper brooch from my old metalsmithing teacher. I love very few possessions, but the few I have are of significant sentimental weight. But I always keep in mind that I may lose them, and if so, I would be able to live without.''

Vadjutka: ''I „collect” two things – this means that if I have a chance I buy them, but I do not search them all the time.
-Glass! I love vintage and/or colorful glasses. I collected quite a few throughout the years. I store them on my bookshelf: most of them are from the flea market in Budapest, but I have a few from Japan and Macau.


-Jewelry! I love traditional folk art jewelry and I always buy something when I am abroad – and I also get them as gifts.
Ont he picture: Seed necklace from the Caribbean sea, Necklace made of African pressed beads (the pink one), Carved bone bead necklace with Buddhas from Tibet (in themiddle), Plastic necklace from Paris (black-orange one), Belt embellishment from Turkey (hanging on a string), Earrings from Tibet, Necklace from Afganistan (at the bottom).

IngerMaaike: ''I collect but one thing and that is life. Every day one day more in my collection of unique, happy, intriguing, exasperating, wonderful life.''

TortillaGirl: ''I collect many things but the one that I cherish the most is my rosary collection. I am a practicing Catholic and I pray the rosary so it has significance for me, but I also appreciate rosary beads for their handmade beauty which is why I am always on the lookout for a new rosary to add to my collection.''

RavenHill: ''My husband laughs at me as I am always collecting things. My present passion is threads of all kinds for embroidery. I am just dreaming of finding time to use them all!''

Vilte: ''I don't collect something on purpose, but when thinking about this subject I just had to admit I have a habit of collecting stones everywhere and bringing it home. If I am travelling somewhere or just going sight seeing, I usually pick up stones I like. We have found some bigger stones in the land we are building our house (1st and 4th photo), I also want to make a stone river on the land there. Our table with glass top is all filled with stones from Lithuanian and Italian coast lines (3d photo). And I have stones put in decorative vessels everywhere in our home (these are stones from Tuscany in Italy on the 2nd photo).!!''

Meltemsem: 'I recently started a bell collection, it started when I heard that bells bring luck. I try to buy an interesting bell in every country I go, for now there are 6 of them.'



Alatvian: "I collect almost nothing since I lost everything when our house burned down and I realized that I don't need most of the things I had collected. But it is difficult for me to throw away the school-reports, awards of my children and gifts made by them. So one may say I am collecting them. :D"

DeerLola: ''I'm not really the type to collect stuff (unless boots count ? ;) but was thinking of items we have in or around the house in high(er) numbers. That's when I realized, and quickly noticed sitting out on our terrace today, we are the only ones in our street with half a forest in our backyard. We don't have a lawn or a nicely landscaped garden, we have trees. Lots of them. We love them. They offer protection and shade and provide housing to the birds and numerous squirrels. Unfortunately, trees have become something of a rarity in our neighborhood since people prefer grass over trees. And that's okay. But we love trees. I once read somewhere that one mature tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year… So there you go. We're very proud of our collection.''

Martice: ''I was thinking of things that I collect, and I actually think that I don't collect anything...BUT I have some things that are present in our house in more then average numbers. ;-)I can take a few things (partly) on my account. The green stuff on the balcony is very addictive... especially when you use your own seeds! And well, the yarns don't need any explanation. Then the books... this picture captures only a part of the collection... :S I dream of a in-house-library with library stairs etc etc etc... maybe one day? And last but not least: my pictures! I like to fill walls with pictures in different frames.''