New Artwork

I really love propaganda art. I know it was created for the purpose to manipulate or instill fear, but often it is really just great illustration. About a year ago our neighbors upstairs moved out of their apartment. Their son was born just a few months after our oldest daughter (who is now nearly two)and they decided as many do, that they would rather move somewhere where they could have a garden. Is it just me, or is this often a mistake? I mean, if they really wanted a quiet place with a garden wouldn't they (and all the others who did the same)already have one without a child? Having children is already stressful enough without trying to force yourself into a lifestyle you're not really interested in....

Anyway, when they moved they left a box of books in the stairwell. One of them was this big, coffee table book about propaganda art from World War II. Great stuff from both the allies and enemies. I used an image from it for the following collage.


Keep mum, she's not so dumb! Careless Talk Costs Lives. In other words, no battle plan talk in front of your German mistress!




Another thing I love are vintage photographs. In an earlier post, I presented some pictures of an old black and white photograph I had stitched with colored thread. Yesterday I completed a collage using the photograph.
I added a tongue
and cheek poem playing off of the nursery rhyme, Mary had a little lamb.




Mary longed to join the circus and wear a dress as
white as snow.









And everywhere that Mary went
the boys were sure to go.






The collage is two sided, with a lovely polynesian beauty pictured in a gilded frame on the back

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Happy Birthday To Me....

So today is my 34th birthday. It's been pretty low key. I hung out in bed and read with my baby Mia beside me while my husband brought me breakfast, cake and flowers. I don't think I got up before 2 o'clock which is impressive even for me, the queen of loungers. Sleep last night wasn't so great. Mia (and hubby Jasper) both have colds which means that she was restless and he snored. I also was hyped up, as I sometimes get, with thousands of ideas for a story I'm working on, stuff I want to make, stuff I want to add to my Etsy shop. Etsy is so addictive and I know I'm not alone! Anyway, we (hubby and I)wanted to go out to a restaurant tonight, maybe spontaneously invite a few friends, but the Austrian place I was dying to go to was all booked out and he really isn't feeling well, so we are doing the celebrating tomorrow. You'd think I would be bummed, but actually I feel great because my birthday wish came true: I got a sewing machine!! Originally I wanted to pick one up in my old neighborhood, the shabby, ill-famed Neukölln. There is a sewing machine shop near where I used to live and, since the area is very far from being posh, I figured the prices would be ok. The prices were good (I could have gotten a good beginners machine for about 163 Euros) but the shop closed at 1 o'clock (or 13 Uhr as they say here)and I didn't get there until 4. Damn you Germany with your archaic early closing hours on Saturdays!! Determined, I came home and started doing some Internet research. From what I gathered, some of the machines and manufacturers are iffy, but you can't go wrong with a Pfaff. I went on Ebay and saw several for sale. One of them, an older model, belonged to a Deutsche Oma (German grandmother.) German grandmas are amazing for their one most distinct features: analness in preserving things. That is why there are so many fabulous antiques here that you can buy for next to nothing. Thank you Deutsche Oma, for your industriousness and cleanliness! Anyway, because it belonged to a German grandma I could rely on the fact that it would be in mint condition. Even better, it came with a box of needles, thread, bobbins, the works. 13 people had already bid on it, but they didn't know that I, the queen of Ebay was watching (nearly all the furniture in my current and former apartment was bought on Ebay, cool 50s and 60s stuff that I got at a bargain!) I swept in at the last minute and got it for 76 Euros, which was exactly what I wanted to pay. My mother gave me 80 Euros for my birthday and I'm pretty broke right now, so it would have been unwise and frivilous (two very un-German traits!)to spend more than that. I can't wait to try it out! Besides altering vintage I also want to add hand sewn recycled bags and purses to my Etsy shop. I am taking a sewing class right now at the adult school and have learned two things: 1. I am very, very, very slow (slower than basically everyone in the class) 2. I am also very accurate. I have a knack for sewing and have wanted to do it pretty much ever since I can remember. And, in about a week when the sewing machine gets delivered, I finally can as much as I want. Hoorah! Happy birthday to me!!