quiet time

I’m working on my healthy eating posts, but as they take such a long time to write, here’s a jumble of some day to day shots.

I’m already looking forward to a quiet long weekend with hopefully some first spring gardening (please make my seeds arrive by then!) and reading. Always reading.
I’ve been buying second hand books, some old childhood favorites. Just finished reading the ‘Gulla’ Series, a swedish book series set in the late 19th century. I had this down for a girls book, but reading the whole series has made me realize it covers a range of topics, most prominently poverty, resourcefulness and class distinction. The author is Martha Sandwall-Bergström. The original swedish series goes by the name ‘Kulla-Gulla’ but it seems there’s an english translation where the name Gulla has been changed to Anna (‘Anna All Alone’ is one book in the series)

Found the perfect oat cakes recipe by experimenting. Like, healthy and yummy and filling and did I mention yummy? Recipe post coming soon!

I changed up the packaging of my prints and love the new look. More photos here!

Also:

• What inspires you in your work? I talk about my photography style and inspiration as well as the challenges of running an Etsy shop in an interview on Katie’s blog: Do have a look and let me know what you think!
• It’s totally spring here already but I know most of you still have snow, so here’s 10 tech chores for snow days
• Not very practical for me since I commute by car but for any of you commuting by train, bus etc. check out these 10 ways to make it better
• Our body language shapes who we are. Wow!

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documenting handmade

One of the things I love about having an Etsy shop is connecting with other artists and makers. The sense of community at Etsy is wonderful!
Having an online shop and working away for it at home can be a bit isolated and I find some of the teams incredibly helpful.
Up to now I’ve only been part in online teams and respective Facebook pages, but recently a team has formed in my hometown. It’s so nice to be able to meet in person and connect to people who know the unique challenges of selling in Germany.
Last december I had a photoshoot with two of the team members in a lovely studio space.

Manja from kandatsu sells beautiful handmade baby clothing. See her full photoshoot *here*.

Christiane from Nanoe’s Welt makes personalized stationary and candle covers. See her full photoshoot *here*.

I buy handmade whenever possible and documenting the process of things made by hand has been a real joy. Seeing and capturing all the little steps until a product is complete has really made me realize their value once again.

exhaling

I was so determined not to get caught up in the holiday rush this year, to bake cookies every sunday, to visit christmas markets and enjoy advent.
Yeah, that didn’t happen. It was a stressful time at work and the days just rushed by in a whirlwind, leaving me feeling completely tuckered out.
Yesterday was the last day at work and I am slowly starting to exhale and relax. I’m looking forward to the next few days, spending time with friends and family, going to the cinema, taking it slow and resting.

We did manage to bake one batch of cookies during the month and since I’m restricting myself to one item of sweets or chocolate a day (more on that soon), they’ve lasted us quite a while!

I got some orders in my Etsy shop and managed to send christmas cards to my portrait customers this year, so early mornings were spent packaging and shipping.


We had a christmas party at work, which was great fun.


The theme was “The night before Christmas – Pajama party” and the costumes were such fun! I serged together a blue jersey dress really quickly (as in, I didn’t even finish the hems) using the Grainline Scout pattern and went as starry sky.

I also started knitting my first ever cardigan! Well, I took about a month to decide on the yarn and then 2 weeks to knit a test swatch (got it right the first time, thank goodness) and finally cast on yesterday.
You’ll have seen these photos on Instagram if you follow me there. Looking forward to digging out my “real” camera again in the quieter days to come.
Have a wonderful, relaxing weekend!

shop news and a giveaway

Long time no shop update! With christmas looming, here’s the news all in one handy little post:

• I now offer poster sizes! In addition to 8×12’s I now offer most of my prints in the sizes 16×24 and 20×30. These are wonderful sizes to really make a statement art piece on any lonely wall.
• I’m having a Christmas Sale! If you’re ready to start shopping for christmas gifts, you can now take 20% off with the code CHRISTMAS13 during checkout until 8 December.
• Not very shop related but an update nevertheless: I’m now on Instagram. Just joined up this morning and I’d love to connect with all of you! My username is fotografiekoehler. Do say hi!

Finally, there’s a giveaway going on for one 8×12 print of the winner’s choice from my shop over at Thought and Sight Blog, if you want to hop over for a chance to win.

Can you believe christmas is only a month away? All the baking and making on cozy candlelit evenings, loving every minute of it. I’ll share a glimpse of what I’m working on very soon 🙂

summer sale

I am having a summer sale in my Etsy Shop! Take 20% off with the code SUMMER13 until 18 August and shop lovely beach landscapes, scottish forest prints, street photography from Italy and many more 🙂 Check it out now.

waiting for summer

A mish-mash of topics today…
I discovered my love of succulents a few years ago (RosaMaria may have been responsible because she always posts beautiful succulent shots). I’ve a small collection at home which is thriving and I’m always busy propagating little cuttings. They grow slowly but steadily and really are the easiest plants ever.


I don’t seem to be alone in this either, since this print of a blooming succulent, taken in Italy during a summer visit to friends of ours, is by far the most popular in my Etsy shop:

In other news, the strawberries on my balcony are putting out fruit like mad this year and I’m looking forward to harvesting. Nothing compares to the taste of a homegrown strawberry. Mine are just past the flowering stage but the farmer’s market carried some strawberries already so we made the first smoothie of the year.

We also did a thrift store round again recently and while also picking up some practical stuff like vases and sports clothes for hiking, I indulged in several vintage square scarves.
These silk scarves are hard to find new (old is so much cooler anyway) and I’ve wanted to try this 1940’s headscarf tutorial for ages.

Love this hairstyle, it’s just so “artsy” . I’m wearing my scarves all the time. I’ll just have to find a way to better secure them on my head…my hair is fine and very slippery so they just want to slip right off.
I got so many scarves that I almost have one for every outfit.

More random things I loved this week:

• I saw The Great Gatsby yesterday (really liked it) so I’m now considering getting even more scarves to wear them like lovely Carey does
• April from Blacksburg Belle always has great tipps for small business owners, I follow her blog religiously. This video post on time management particularly hit home and has some awesome tipps I will incorporate in my work schedule from now on!
• Sherrie wrote a very inspiring post about the concept of enough, which reminded me why I strive for minimalism in my life (ahem, thrift store shopping and compulsive accumulation of plants excluded)

shop opening

It’s finally open, my brand new print shop on Etsy!
Ever since I registered my photography business over a year ago I dreamed of being able to sell my travel photography as prints. I got quite busy last year and the shop idea took a back seat.
During the long winter months I was able work on it again and I have been very hard at work since christmas. Opening a shop is so much more time consuming than the shop front suggests, but I’m super proud to announce today that it’s open for business! I am still in the process of stocking it, but I didn’t want to wait another week or two with the announcement.
So hop over to my Etsy Print Shop to check out some stunning Travel and Landscape Photography, including some much loved prints I shared on this blog!
Also, to keep up with the shop and promo deals (and who knows, maybe even an opening discount…) sign up for my newsletter.

If you’re on Etsy too, let’s connect! I’ve been on Etsy with another username but decided to start afresh for this shop, so unfortunately I lost all of my feedback and connections and I’d love to get in touch with other Etsy users and seller.

yarn love

I have been knitting since I was about 12 and though I never really ventured into complicated patterns or making sweaters (though that is something I really want to learn sometime!) knitting in winter is second nature to me. I am always on the lookout for pretty, high quality yarns from natural fibers. Apart from buying some wonderful rustic local yarn (which knit up into this), Etsy is great for yarn shopping and I love how I can get pretty, handdyed yarn from all over the world shipped to my little home.

I am absolutely, madly in love with this yarn from Etsy seller atreehuggerswife. It’s the charcoal colorway and wonderfully soft. She was so kind to wind it into a ball for me at no extra charge, which is great, because winding yarn into a ball by hand is so not my favourite activity. This yarn is on the needles right now to become a nice pair of socks.

Also on the needles and another “bus project” (yes, I knit on the bus on my way to work. I am old enough not to care what people think and I wouldn’t want to waste a whole hour of knitting time a day). It’s beautiful and incredibly soft alpaca yarn from the alpacas of the farm I stayed on in Canada for a few weeks in 2009. I am making a cowl with it and hope to finish it in a couple of weeks. I would my projects would finish as quickly as new ideas tumble into my head 🙂

Another beautiful Etsy yarn, from seller onefatslug in Australia. Have I mentioned how much I love getting packages from all over the world? This year alone I have been getting packages from NY, Knoxville, Alaska and Australia, all from independent little businesses.

This sweet ice-blue knitting basket was found on a thrift store hunt and I love love love it. It is big enough to hold all of my current projects (in addition to the ones shown above there is always the odd other sock project and dishcloth on the needles).

And finally, cleaning out my yarn stuff from all the years I came across these wrist warmers. These were the first thing I ever knitted, at age 12 or 13, when my dad’s girlfriend taught me to knit. I don’t remember having had such style as a teenager but I love them and they still fit and now that I found them again I have been wearing them constantly. I remember knitting them like socks on 4 double pointed needles. A super quick project and they really keep you warm in winter and can be worn with just about anything.

some more knitting

One more cowl was in order and this Lana Grossa Baby Alpaca yarn is heavenly soft and wonderful to knit with:

Excuse the cheesy flower photo, but they were the last of my birthday flowers.
Not that I’m done with seed stitch though! I have a lovely teal scarf in the works right now.

I could knit all day in fall…if I didn’t have to go to work and if I didn’t fall asleep as soon as I come home. I have been getting up at 5.20am all of last week with the intention of getting house work done in the mornings, so I don’t have a big pile of washing and folding and ironing and cleaning to do at the weekend. So far, the only result of getting up early has been more blog reading though…

But back to knitting! I love love love these gorgeous socks that Jenny from wikstenmade knit. I think I need to go buy sock yarn (not that I don’t have sock yarn, but nothing I like enough colourwise to get me through a pair…you wouldn’t believe how many single knit socks I have).

And just yesterday these beautiful mittens arrived in the mail from Anniki of woolmint from Estonia:

This is her photo, it’s still dark here so I couldn’t yet take photos myself. I got them for my birthday and they are gorgeous and fit perfectly! I can’t wait for colder weather so I can wear them with my new light gray winter coat (no, I’m not fashion crazy, why do you ask?).

The only drawback of fall is that it gets dark so early…soon I won’t be able to take photos during the week because by the time I leave work it will already be dark. How will I get through whole weeks with taking photos only at the weekends? Maybe I should take the jump and become a full time photographer after all…if only there were the security that I could actually live on that 😉

featured

My photography, along with a little interview is featured on Melissas blog today!
She is a very talented pencil sketch artist and makes the most beautiful horse and cowboy portraits: