Leanne Shawler, Artist

This was a little something I made to send off to Jodie of everything vintage . This blog post has been on hold until I saw she got it and opened it. And then I had to get around to remembering to post it :) Yes, it's that Lillian Russell image from Mary of Green Paper again. My first attempt at making something for Jodie became this (and ended up as a gift for my sister-in-law for Christmas) and I decided those weren't really her colors, so I tried again. I played with a bunch of different titles but eventually came up with "Grace and Truth". I spent over an hour auditioning various pieces: buttons, pearls and what have you -- so much fun! It's also the first piece I've made that I've signed. (Admittedly on the back). Jodie, I hope you liked it!

I am inspired by Schloss Neuschwanstein. King Ludwig II used the castle to escape to a place where he could dream of being the absolute monarch he always wanted to be (it was a constitutional monarchy by this point). He did this by having a series of meditations or reminders in each room about purity: being pure enough to be worthy or acceptable to God. His ideal was the swan knight or Lohengrin. Here's a detail of a painting from an old hand-colored postcard (found on Wikimedia Commons): Other examples of the paintings are here at the castle's official website. (Take the tour and see more) Here's one with a closeup of one of the wall paintings. Scroll down 5 images for a detail of the throne room -- look at the borders and the floor! If you have ever visited Neuschwanstein you know that none of those photos even come close to do it justice, to seeing it up close. If you haven't, I hope you understand what I'm getting at. Leanne, what's your point? I'd li...

Where we did the church tour of the inner city. Most of the churches were actually closed, something I didn't factor on: one was for a wedding, a nun was cleaning another, and I think we just might've been too late in the afternoon for a third. Not all of them were closed, however. This is St. Anna's, where a wedding looked to be either in progress or about to start. There were caterers at the foot of the steps. And one more shot of a Christmas market -- this is the lights going into the one at Marienplatz. Now I think I'll hold off my absolute last post about Munich until after Christmas. So happy holidays all!

Springerle got scratched. I pulled the dough out of the fridge to roll flat and it crumbled. Crumbled! #^$#%$ Made a second batch of peanut butter fudge, although I think I forgot to add salt. It tastes different, but then I also used some low-fat p.b. Second batch of Milky Way Delight in progress. Both so that we have Christmas goodies on the actual Christmas. Made pumpkin whoopie pies today and um, rather enjoyed sitting in front of the tv and eating the last of the ginger-specked cream cheese frosting. Mmmm. And so I am waiting for the last ingredient to arrive for the brandied fruit mince tarts so it can have some time to party with the brandy before I make them Christmas Eve. I was hoping it would come today, but its made it as far as my post office so maybe tomorrow... And that's it. Aside from the tarts I am done!

I have tons of photos from this day, and I was gonna share them all, but surely you're tired of all this Munich stuff by now and want to hear how my Christmas baking is going, or something. Did you guess what my favorite place is? Except we saw it in the snow. We got a nice sunny day for the bus tour day trip. Here's a picture of it from the bus. I kinda like how I managed to make the tree look like a swirly frame for the castle. Pure accident, I assure you. The bus was not really slowing down for us to take pictures. And it was a good 35 minute slog up a hill that got steeper as we went in 24 deg Fahrenheit (approx) weather. (That's -6 for the Celcius folk.) This is in the courtyard before our walking tour, which involved many many curving stairs, began. I fell in love with the effect of light in the Bavarian Alps. Here's one that occurred before we made the last part of the trek to the gatehouse. And here's the delicate light of the sunset as we were walking ba...

I am all caught up with the #reverb10 daily prompts. Can't wait to see what tomorrow's is. Baking on the other hand. It's been interesting this year, to say the least. For example, even though I have made springerle before, this time the dough just crumbled when I tried to roll it. So, no springerle this year.... The lebkuchen got made, as did the peanut butter fudge (the latter is almost gone, so I'm making another batch of it and the Milky Way Delight tomorrow). Haven't tried it (the lebkuchen) yet. It's supposed to be good 2-3 days after making, so I'm making myself wait. I'm hoping the candied peel arrives from King Arthur Flour tomorrow so it has a chance to hang out with the brandy before I make the brandied fruit mince tarts. That happens on Friday morning. Tomorrow, I unveil my favorite part of my trip to Munich/Bavaria....

For her birthday party, Rebecca Ersfield wanted us to share something special we'd made for someone (not ourselves). Here are two of mine: I made this for a friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer. It's one of my "earlier works". Alcohol ink with beads, bird and plastic flowers embedded in wax. I made this for my Nana when she was transferred to a nursing home. I have a couple of other beading projects in the works, but haven't gotten around to them. The milagros are significant to what was going on with her. Happy Birthday, Rebecca! (I prewrote this post, so I will add the link to her birthday blog party as soon as I see it!)