This is an illustration I have done last week, inspired by the techniques of Suzi Blu.

I love the combination of dreamy patterns with playful and gracious animals like cats.
As soon as there are more of them, you will find more about it on etsy or other shops. Informations will be posted here.
Enjoy!

It is so small that most of us don´t even notice. We just read it and accept it as a part of the typographical knickknack.
But how troublesome this little guy can be when writing yourself!
Remember the english teacher saying stuff like “Oh, I´m so sorry, but you´ll have to watch out for the small things too!” and
handing you back your test, that is one grade down from what it should be without the red circles around all the apostrophes?
There is a solution for this drama!

Oatmeal.com presents
HOW TO USE AN APOSTROPHE

I am really bad at maths. No, seriously REALLY REALLY bad.
Like on a scale from 0 to 10, I would be nowhere because numbers simply can´t describe.
Numbers hardly mean anything to me. So I somehow like sudokus, but I don´t concider them as pretty or artful.
9 goes into second row, because it´s already in the first and third one. That´s about it.

Much better and a little harder is the nonogram.
This is a nice puzzle game where you have to color fields in a grid.
Some fields you have to color, others you don´t. In the end you get some sort of pixel art as a result. Very nice.

Here is how it works. And here are the games. Better start off with the ones on the bottom or you might get frustrated.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hippie/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Sunday. After a well deserved sleep and breakfast at about 2 p.m. we decided it was about time to get some fresh air.
So grab the camera and out out out. We headed off at a random direction, wondering what will cross our way on the exploration.
To our excitement we found some very cute and special shops,
but due to the fact that it was sunday we were restrained to taking photos of the window display.

But we will get back there and have a post about these gorgeous locations too.
Until then have a look at some photos we took in the meantime.

[View with PicLens]

Good for all fans and geeks in Vienna: markets with thousands of comic, anime & manga stuff and merchandise!

Comic & Film Börse – 6.12.2009
Längenfeldgasse 13-15 | 1120 Vienna

Wiener Comic & Figuren Börse – 13.12.2009
Modecenterstraße 22 | 1030 Vienna

Comic & Film Börse - 6.12.2009 Vienna

Comic & Figuren Börse - 13.12.2009 Vienna

Midnight and clicking through a whole bunch of youtube videos, we found some stuff about the KORG KAOSS PAD 3 (which we also possess) and a guy named “Beardyman” (UK Beatbox 2006/2007 Champion) do a real go(o)d job with it: Beatboxing with his voice/mouth and resampling with hardware all in one.

The results are really professional, creative and rocking! His sound is a mixture from mostly DnB / Jungle to Techno with influences from a lot of other genres.

We really hope to see him in Vienna or around middle Europe in future. If you’re on a trip to England, you definitely have to check out his Beardyman @ MySpace account before. On our journey trip we’ll definitely get to see him live.

Count Basic (not Count Basie – but the name is related to them) are an Austria R&B, trip-hop, acid jazz & smooth jazz band. Band Leader Peter Legat, the wonderful vocalist Kelli Sae (both working together for 13 years now) and a really really good band crew kicked our ass at the Gasometer to move to their groove beats and lovely melodies. Luckily we got the chance to take photos from the press box in front of the stage and it was great fun but also quite hard to shoot good photos, because of that low (sometimes red) light.
We enjoyed ourselves!

Count Basic Website
Count Basic MySpace

external interview with Count Basic @ Jazzitalia.net

our photos:

[View with PicLens]

When it comes down to embroidery my mind goes back to the times in kindergarden,
where I spent hours with needle and thread to produce a quirky house and a sun.
Mothers tend to love their cildren´s work in general (or at least they pretend to),
but most of us have bad memories about this juvenile phase of handicraft.

Not so Cathy Cullis. Here work is honest, pure and filled with emotions.
She likes to experiment with dyes on linen, which makes her objects very vivid.
But have a look at it yourself.

autumn love

I don´t like dolls too much, but these ones are an exception.

octavia & rabbity friend

And by the way, this is her shop.

I have been craving to buy a Piu Piu by Pylones for ages! I always told myself that I actually don´t need it.
But hey: a singing, magnetic, bird-shaped paperclip-holder. How cool is that?

The graphic studio Young posts very interesting and funny informations every day.
Look at their lovely way to impart knowledge through their nice and simple illustration style.

www.learnsomethingeveryday.co.uk

As I have mentioned before: winter is fun! We also want doggies, kitties and birdies to have their joy.
If you want to help out, here is what you can do:

1. the doggie-shirt

Especially small dogs tend to get cold even inside the house, because their tummy is so close to the floor
and as long as you don´t have an underfloor heating, it might be a good idea to have an antidote.

Doggie-T shirt by edsobo

2. the acorn-birdfeeder

Watching those little sparrows and tits happily picking for food is just as relaxing as staring into an aquarium.
I don´t know wether I should say that this is a plus for birdies or kittens, but do make sure that the feeder is out of reach.

birdfeeder by Kate Pruitt

3. the cat-shelve

When it gets cold, our living hot-water bag tends to stay in the house and get bored.
Mostly the sofa and the armchair are victims of their claws.
Moderncat reader Eva has found a way to entertain her small friends and bring them to eye height.
Have a sore back? Then this is perfect for you.

Plan your next trip to IKEA

There is no better season to fill your tummy with delicious pumpkin than now.

So if you wanna be romantic and cook for 2, here´s what you need:
1 onion
1 tablespoon of butter
1/2 pumpkin (middle size)
1 cup of rice
1 soup cube
1/2 lime
a pinch of salt/pepper/nutmeg

1. Cut the onion and the pumpkin into small pieces, heat the butter in a pan and throw the stuff in.
Roast gently for 5 minutes (nothing should get brown).

2. Put the soup cube in a glass of warm water, stir and put it into the pan.
Let it simmer for 10 minutes
(you do not want to have your pumpkin too soft by now, otherwise the end result will be “le grand mud”.)

3. Add a cup of rice and give that half lime of yours a soft squeeze over all, so it adds a fresh note to everything, plus 2 cups of water.
Then add salt, pepper and nutmeg (not too much, it then tends to taste soapy).
Cook until rice is done.

I put in the peel of the lime too. I don´t recommend that, everything gets too bitter.

4. Add Parmesan and Grana Padano.

Hmmm, fresh cheese!

5. Et voila! Ready!

Make the yumm yumm!

“Feed me or I´ll jump at you!”
Our goldfish perform the hunger-ballet every morning. Never say only cats and dogs beg for food.

Can you resist these looks?

It rains. I can hear the soft sound of little drops against the window and their drumming
on the last colorful leaves of the hibiscus and small trees.
I dream of punsch, cinammon-honey chai and warm hugs with cold noses touching.
“I hate the cold. It´s awful!” my colleague tells me and sighs. I lift my head from my hands and wonder: Is it really awful?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidgardner/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Rain and snow are the best excuses to stay home for me. Drink hot chocolate. Read fabulous books.
The early darkness has its reason: candles. Soft light in the bedroom. Aroma therapy with romantic atmosphere.
Oh gosh, how I love autumn and winter. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I was born in decembre,
but the cold season hardly ever puts negative thoughts into my head.

I never paint as much as in these months now, because in summer and spring I rather go out and take photos,
swim and eat ice cream.
This may sound trivial, but I will have my word about that topic too.

When it is cold outside, I excessively listen to Fat Freddy´s Drop, especially to this song:

And come to think about ear muffs and scarfs! Most of the cute accessoires wait for me now as it turns freezy.

ear muffs for animal lovers by idolatre

Noby Noby Boy hat and scarf by ShadowsInTheNyte

Most of us are conditioned and influenced by others. Winter is bah, cold is bah, darkness is bah.
I don´t think so. Get your own opinion about this. Our friends, the trees and plants are on vacation, they need their break too.
Have some hot chocolate with cream and put your feet into hot water. Aaaah, winter is so good.

Hot Chocolate by Smaku

Here’s a list of our favourite picked iPhone apps & games. alle $ (US) prices with the ” ~ ” character are estimated prices, because we live in europe and the most prices on other review sites are not up to date.

1. Edge

One of my all-time favourite iPhone games. + 8bit-soundy electromusic with a really great visual style.

Navigate your cube over the next edge through over 30 levels.

Price: € 2,39 | ~ $ 3 .

(continue reading…)