Mittwoch, 30. März 2011

bird's workout


Untitled from Barbara Böttcher on Vimeo.

Honestly, they do this all the time. Means that that our birds are just as crazy as we are?

Dienstag, 29. März 2011

Inspiration

Here another inspirational find from last year. Its off an old "Villa" in a river valley called "Wispertal". They have a nice terrace and phantastic homemade Cakes... yummy with a phantastic view to a huge garden.

I liked this creation in front of the house and was playing with the idea doing something like this for my frontdoor too, because a lot of people and especially temporary postman don't find my door or mailbox.


Montag, 28. März 2011

Impressions

After I couldn't work on my computer a couple of days and the weather was phantastic, I went along the rhine with my little fury friend. Here some impressions of our walk finds.





Samstag, 26. März 2011

Hi, I'm back!


I was'nt sick or on vacation, but I've managed to erase my entire hard drive a week ago. My personal nightmare. Of course, we have learned (Japan), that there are far worse things, but to me it was enough. One might simply call  it "the 7 steps of the disaster." I should delete my complete hard drive to solve a problem, I should first do a back-up with a time machine, which I did.
In retrospect, it is inexplicable that I have not checked again what was on my external back-up hard drive before I deleted. We will likely never know and can only be recorded under "How stupid can one be!" Restoring the back-up drive brought me the state from June 2009!
I knew that deleted data is not necessarily lost completely, so I called - again - on the Apple Support to get help how to get the data back.Meanwhile, I have also learned that you should not always listen to the advice of so-called experts!I spare you all intermediate disasters, but come to the point where I used the recommended "Disk Warrior" which I now learned is not in a position to restore deleted files because he "only" finds and repairs structural problems. This program was absolutely nothing. 

Big THANKS to Apple Support at this point!
I had almost resigned to the fact that as a whole unplanned "new beginning" to look at a almost empty computer.Until I finally discovered on my own research on the internet "Data Rescue 3". This program is really awesome and if you stand yourself some time before the problem, I can only say: "buy".
I probably would still have saved a lot more data, if I would have used this programm in the first place, but at least I recovered a lot photos, etc. and I'm very, very happy. 
The loss of pictures of my last exhibition would be very terrible to me or from the last holiday in Tunesia, where we went into the dessert close to the Algerian border, where I will probably never go again!
Although it will take me days (or weeks) to sort all out, because this programm finds everything, every picture of every internetpage you ever been! (Can you image?)

From this I learned several things:
1. Look after yourself well, all that is valuable for you 

(people, animals you love and data that you need)

2. Do not trust blindly on advice from "experts", 

but check everything twice and three times before you act.

3. If you are in panic, wait until at rest and go slow and considered before (fast acting in combination with second point leads to even more chaos)


4. Enjoy life (it can change quickly)


I wish you a very pleasant and calm weekend. Take care!
Barbara




Dienstag, 15. März 2011

My workspace today

I wasn't in the mood for posting lately because of the disaster in Japan! What a nightmare. On friday afternoon while I was checking what's up in blogland I discovered on Ai's blog about the earthquake. I can't even tell how sad and speechless I am.

But today is a wonderful spring day with unusual high temperatures that I had to go out with my cute little companion...



Freitag, 11. März 2011

All for free!!

Yesterday I was at the hardware store (Hornbach) and brought back wallpaper sample books  from last season. I asked in December  what they  do with the old books. They said that I could have them, that sometimes people from nursery school get some and that they are usually throw them away and I should ask in March again, when the new collection comes out. Fortunately, I remembered that yesterday! They had a range there, and I could choose as many as I wanted. I took "only " 8 and they weigh enough. But what ia absolutely blast! So many paper patterns and colors and all for FREE! I wanted to use them for collages for me and for my students because I do collage courses  soon and with all these papers we'll a lot of fun for sure!

So if you want them too, go NOW!

Mittwoch, 9. März 2011

What is that?

We wanted a dog, but I'm not quite sure what we got.

a dog?

a easter bunny?


or a bat?


Dienstag, 8. März 2011

10-minute journal instruction

I thought you might be interested to do an journal yourself, so here is the "how to"....

1 sheet (watercolour) paper 56 x 76 cm (22" x 30")

Fig1. Loosely roll the paper (horizontal) so it's divdided into thirds.

Fig.2 Press the folds with bone folder.

Fig 3. Fold in half, left to right in horizontal direction. Press the fold.

Fig. 4 Fold in half again lefto to right, press again.

Fig. 5 Open the book and lay flat. Poke 3 holes into the fold/spine using an awl or strong needle. One hole in the middle and the other two about 3,8 cm (1 1/2") from the top and bottom.

Fig. 6 Messure thread by doubling the width of open journal. Go through the middle hole (a) on the outside of the journal leaving a tail of about 15 cm (6"). Go through the bottom hole (b) on the inside running the thread up the back of the journal and into the top hole (c).

Fig. 7 Go through the inside middle hole and tie the two end together.

Fig. 8 Place the bne folder (or letter opener) inside a fold and gently rip the fold open as if you were opting a letter.

READY! Add paint, collage, buttons to the cover what ever you like (see yesterdays post).

GOOD LUCK!

Montag, 7. März 2011

Book binding

I always wanted to bind a journal by myself and I found a "recipe" to do a little one within 10 minutes! So I gave it a try on saturday. And indeed it was pretty easy and quick without having any experience and I'm pretty proud how I managed it! I used Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper and I'm curious how I go along with it.
Here how the front and back cover look like.

(I think would be also a nice gift for someone to fill it himself.)



Freitag, 4. März 2011

Friday

Sunny Friday!! Or better, the hole week was sunny, thats great after a long dark winter. Life is back! Wish you a nice and hopefully sunny weekend.

Donnerstag, 3. März 2011

My creative space

Before and after.
Rare moments where its nearly empty and cleaned up....and "Yumi" nearly invinsible, she has the perfect colour! hihi
but soon it starts to be crapy and chaotic again and this is only the first stage!


Mittwoch, 2. März 2011

3 Steps to a new table

Here a little make over of my streetfind table. I use the table as a storage  while painting or in the bathroom to stand up the water container and brushes. However, I found him even for that job too ugly, so it needed a change. First I painted the table with different colors of acrylic paint and collaged it with bird and circled map pieces, sealed it with Gel Gloss. Done!
I like it much better now. What do you think?








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