Kleines Künstlern

Martha, Frieda, and I spend a lot of time together. And a good portion of that time is spent drawing, painting, and craft making. I love this bonding time. It's so great to color alongside them, help them when they need it, and spark their creativity. Art was a really big part of my childhood, and I'm always glad to pass it on to others. Especially in an electronic age when it's more exciting to color on your touch screen than it is to actually get paint on your hands. I love electronics, don't get me wrong, but when it comes down to it... I would rather have a pencil and paper any day. But I'm rambling. Point is, I love all this creativity that the three of us make together. It's been so cool to see how their artistic talent has grown over the months I've been here. I hope even after I go home they continue their desire to be creative. If I could leave one impression on these girls, that would be it. Use that imagination. It's there for a reason.

Now like any proud parent/sibling/etc, I feel the need to show off my favorites of the kiddos ever so awesome artwork. Which you will "ooo" and "ahh" at like the good people I know you are. Or else. (haha).

Martha. First drawing we ever did together. (crayon, marker, and colored pencil)

Frieda. Can you guess what her favorite color is? (watercolor)

Martha. This was during her Harry Potter craze. (marker)

Frieda. "Das ist ein Straße!"(marker)

Martha. She and her friend dressed up as witches trick-or-treating. (colored pencil)

Frieda. (watercolor)

Martha. Part of my Christmas present. (colored pencil)

Frieda. I spy a hand print! (watercolor)

Martha and Frieda. This is a Christmas cat... whatever that is haha. (marker and pencil)

Martha. The Easter bunny on his rounds. (colored pencil and marker)

Frieda. One of my favorites of her drawings. (pen and colored pencil)

Martha. A rainbow! (marker)

Frieda. (colored pencil)

Martha. This is my absolute favorite of Martha's. (watercolor)

Frieda. Reminds me of the world. (watercolor)

Martha. Self portrait of her kayaking. (watercolor and colored pencil)

It's a little ridiculous how proud I am of Martha and Frieda. My little art proteges, aww. Doesn't matter if they never pursue art later in life, I'm glad I was here to nurture love of art early on. Because life without art (or a love of it) would be a dreary place.

Dinosaurs, Bunnies, and Eggs, Oh My!

The idea that bunnies lay eggs is pretty hilarious. But for some reason we as a society have come up with an idea that a bunny hops around on Easter hiding eggs for children to find. I mean, if you think about it, it's a pretty hilariously crazy idea. But it's a big part of Easter celebrations in the States (and here in Germany as well). Of course the main reason for Easter is Jesus rising from the dead, buuut bunnies are much more fluffy and adorable that a crown of thorns, so society focuses on the bunny and his egg deliveries.

Bunnies are of course adorable, but I don't have a bunny. So when it comes to Easter I focus on eggs (and Jesus duhh. But this post shall be all about eggs). I love and hate them. They can be so delicious, but often if I eat too many within a couple months I can't eat them for several months after. Obviously Easter is a time were my belly sees a lot of eggs. And this year was no different. My friend Nacha and I did two different egg related crafts this Easter weekend, so we ate around 30 eggs collectively (with help from friends). But needless to say, I will be happy to not see any eggs for quite some time.

A very typical craft in the U.S. (and in Germany from what I've seen) is the dying and decorating of eggs. I can't remember an Easter that didn't involve said tradition of hard boiling eggs, dying them, and then adding various decorations like stickers. I loved getting dye all over my fingers and creating strange hybrid colors and patterns. I still do. So Nacha and I decided to dye 10 eggs one afternoon. She was super excited because she had never dyed eggs back home in Chile. Her boyfriend Bernie on the other hand, who is also from Chile, had dyed eggs before. So we set out the typical tools of the trade: hard boiled eggs, bowls filled with water, vinegar, and food dye tablets. Then we began dipping the eggs in the bowls; Nacha going for the tradition colors (yellow, green, blue, purple, pink/red), and I mixing and matching as usual. We set our newly dyed eggs on paper towels to dry. Once they were completely dry, we proceeded to draw on them with Sharpies. Which is something I have never done before, but it was extremely fun. We made designs, wrote things, drew pretty pictures; I even made one a dinosaur egg. Once finished, we decided that we had so much fun that we needed to decorate more eggs. So we decided to meet up the next day to be even more creative and try a craft that I've always done with my grandma for Easter.

Nacha dying an egg pink.

Me drawing on an egg while Nacha shows off another of my creations.

Nacha and her finished eggs!

Nacha's polka dot egg.

Me and my finished eggs.

My dinosaur egg.

Our egg-tastic creations!

 My grandma is a creative genius. She is the one who fostered my love for all things artsy. So it's no surprise that she has a craft that we have done every Easter since I can remember. It involves eggs (surprise, surprise) and is quite simple, yet requires some skill for it turn out beautiful. Nacha and I felt up to the challenge, so we gathered the needed supplies and got to work.

Supplies:
1. Various types of paper napkins with cute patterns cut into medium sized squares (we got three different types)
2. Watered down white glue
3. White glitter (make sure it isn't too fine)
4. Ribbons (optional)
5. Something sharp to poke holes in eggs (we used a thumb tack)
6. Bowls to hold napkin pieces, glitter, and glue
7. As many eggs as you desire (just make sure to get proportional amount of other supplies, we made 20 eggs)

Our work station.

Directions:
1. Poke small hole in each end of egg.

Nacha poking holes in egg.

Eggs with holes.

 2. Blow egg white and egg yoke out of egg shell. Then rinse off with water and pat dry with paper towel.

Me blowing the egg white and egg yolk out of egg shell.

3. Apply watered down glue onto the egg with your finger. Then take a piece of napkin and gently place the napkin on the egg, smoothing it to be flush with the egg. Then repeat until the whole egg is covered with napkin.

Applying napkin squares onto egg.

 4. Once egg is covered, roll egg around in the bowl full of glitter. You can also just sprinkle the glitter on.

Our now very glittery eggs.

 5. Let egg dry. Once dry you have two options. With a hot glue gun you can add on a bow and create a little ribbon loop so you are able to hang the egg, or you can just leave it as is. Since we didn't have a hot glue gun, we opted for the second option.

A great place to let them dry is in their original egg carton.

 6. Display in a bowl somewhere (preferably with fake grass) so that all your friends will see your awesome craft skills.

See how awesome a basket makes these lil guys look?!

Ta-da! You have just created one of my favorite Easter memories. Yes, it's slightly a gluey glittery mess of a craft, but what's a good craft without a little mess? Nacha and I are very proud of our eggs. Of course they come no where near to how awesome my grandma makes them look, but that's okay. Hopefully someday I will be just as awesome, telling my grandkiddos how to make these eggs.

So that is all I have to say about eggs. I am egged out. My dear reader, I hope that you and your family and friends had a wonderful Easter. Frohe Ostern!

And remember... He is risen! He is risen indeed.

Four Seasons

Most Southern Californians will tell you we have four seasons. A gloriously hot Summer, a slightly breezy Fall, a chilly and rainy Winter, and a warm Spring. Don't let them lie to you. We don't have four seasons. We have two. A glorious season of sunshine and warm weather, and then a season of cloudy skies, chances of rain, and "cold" weather. We live for sunshine. When it actually goes and rains on us, we all freak out. We are a spoiled rotten bunch. So until I came to Germany, I had never really experienced "seasons" as a large portion of the world experiences them. Actual factual weather has really taken me by surprise.

I think it's quite hilarious how weather is considered a trivial topic of conversation. In fact, it's the thing you bring up when you have nothing else to say ("Uh, so I hear it's supposed to rain tomorrow..."). But considering how much weather effects us (our outfit choices, how we get to and from places, what activities we do, etc), you think we would rank it a little higher on the topic of conversation totem pole. I mean, we all talk about it all the time. I know I do. Even more so now that I have actual weather to talk about.

So after having several long months of a very, very cold Winter, I'll be honest, I've been extremely excited watching Spring arrive in all it's glory.

There is nothing more delightful than realizing it's warmed up enough to only wear one pair of socks. It's finally getting warmer (and when I say warmer I mean like in the 50's and 60's F, which is not warm at all for So Cal) and I'm so happy. I live off of warmth. But I'm also slightly freaking out. Because after wearing so many layers for so long, exposing even the slightest amount of skin (or just wearing less layers) makes me feel naked. An example my Cali friends can laugh at... I wore ballerina flats for the first time in several months yesterday. I was bike riding and I became extremely freaked by wind going across the bare tops of my feet. I bust up laughing, probably scarring the locals, and then tired my hardest not to be wishing for my boots.

But warmth isn't the only way Spring has shown its arrival. All over the city plants and animals are awakening. Every time I walk outside I feel like Mary watching The Secret Garden come to life. It's utterly magical and it takes my breath away. God really knows how to put on a show in the Spring time. There are green buds on all the previously grey looking trees, bird songs sweetly fill the air, wildflowers are popping up in all the green spaces, and little critters, like bunnies, are making their appearances in the parks.

I think my favorite thing is seeing all the dandelions sprouting up everywhere. Now, I realize dandelions are weeds. But I think they are beautiful weeds, and worthy of attention. They are lovely pop of color on normally very grey and dull walkways and sidewalks. And when they turn white, they provide quite the entertainment factor; I'll admit I still make a wish when I blow the seeds into a million different directions.

And it's not just the plants and animals that are awakening. The people are too. The sense of hope is tangible in the air, and people have a spring in their step. Everyone seems to find a reason to be outside as much as possible, especially on the clear, sunny days. After such a long Winter, everything and everyone feels a weight lifted off their shoulders. It's utterly lovely.

All this life just ties in so well with the Easter season. It's much more tangible to me now, seeing how life sprouting up around me and tie it all into finding new life in Jesus.

In celebration of Easter, Karlsruhe has an Easter market set up in Marktplatz. There are a bunch of little booths selling either craft items or food. And in the middle of all this is a giant blow up Easter egg. Nacha, Ivanka, and I decided that this was a must see and planned an afternoon around it.

Me in front of the giant egg. It says "We wish you all a happy Easter".

Ivanka and I met up and did some exploring of the booths while we waited for Nacha (who was to meet up with us a little later). It was lots of fun, and we had to restrain ourselves from buying a bunch of ridiculously cute things. But we did give in and buy a couple things. I bought a pot holder and Ivanka bought an egg warmer. Both from a cute little old lady who knitted them herself. After ripping ourselves away from the booths, we went and looked at the "petting zoo". Basically just a lot of animals in too small cages, which made me really sad. I love animals, and it was great to see them, but it wasn't really great to see them confined like that. Then we met Nacha in front of the big egg and went off on a shopping adventure in several stores on Kaiserstraße.

The Easter bunny apparently has a beer belly.

Frohe Ostern (Happy Easter)... "little" egg near the big blow up egg in Marktplatz.

Cutest lil bunnies ever.

Ivanka was excited to see the ferrets, the ferrets were excited to sleep.

 After our shopping fun, we ran into our friend Danilo, and then we all decided to go to the Karlsruher Schloss Gartens. The Gartens are my absolute favorite place in Karlsruhe because they are just so large and stunningly beautiful, no matter the season. Of course, Spring makes any garden more magical, and the castle gardens aren't immune to such magic.

Although the day was grey and quite cold, the time we spent at the castle was lovely. We walked across the large grassy lawn, making our way to the lake, while talking and people watching. The instant we made it to the edge of the lake all the ducks started swimming towards us, which was pretty funny, because they thought we had bread to feed them. But we only had chocolate with us, so we made our way over to the cement stepping stones near the lake shore and sat down. While the ducks eyed us hopefully, we ate our chocolate and talked while trying not to shiver as the wind picked up. Eventually we had to leave because Nacha had to go to a birthday party and Danilo had to go home. I think we were all quite thankful for a reason to start walking again because it was so cold.

"Omg they are coming!"

Stepping stones and the lake with the castle in the background.

Nacha and Ivanka sharing a stepping stone.

Ivanka and I decided that we would hang out a bit longer, so we strolled around the front of the castle, acting silly and talking. Then we decided to window shop at the mall. Which was a tortuous yet fun time. It's hard to see so many things that you can't/shouldn't buy. After the mall we got drinks and pizza at a nearby restaurant called Aposto. Ivanka and I can talk to the ends of time, so it was lots of fun chatting away and enjoying a good meal. A perfect way to end the day.

Ivanka striking a pose in front of the castle.

Me in front of the castle.

After several attempts we finally got both us and the castle in the picture. And our hair looking not crazy. Quite the incredible feat.

Most Germans will tell you they have four seasons. A lovely sunny and warm Summer, a cold and rainy Fall, a freezing snow filled Winter, and a warm, cold, and slightly rainy Spring. Believe them. There are definitely four seasons. And you can see them change. It's amazing.