Little Christmas Presents

Christmas is already over, so I am going to show you the presents that I got for my family and friends - in the wrapped state :)I bought lots of tea and cake cutters and some cosmetics this year.

Only the closest family and best friends got a bigger presents, the others got a little Christmas greeting card with a beaded decoration. Making these was really easy and fun - just some hard paper, funny crafty scissors, my handmade decorations, tw holes, wire or string to tie them to the card and golden gel pen to write the wish.

The larger presents I wrapped in  my handmade wrapping paper that did not cost anything - I talked about it before and I am talking about it now - every time I bought something at IKEA and carried it home wrapped in brown paper, I saved the paper and later stamped snowflake stamps all over it. At first, the snowflake pattern was much denser, but later, inspired by Unify and her Christmas wrapping paper, I only stamped a flake here and there and I was quite pleased with the result.

I enjoyed making and wrapping all this, but to be honest, I will not miss the Christmas-themed crafty clutter that filled half of my already disorganized room : )

Ice Sculptures in the Košice City Centre

Last year it was the first time that ice sculptures appeared in the Košice city centre. This year, they are here again, very beautiful and slightly melted as the temperatures go up and down. Unfortunately, I didn't see how they were made (which, as I am told, also happens directly in the city centre and people can come and watch), but even simple seeing them in the lights of festively lit city was quite an experience. The theme of most of them was "The End of the World".

The Singing Fountain is not working in winter, but the water in all
fountains is replaced by lights.

More photos of this amazing city of mine can be seen here.

Photos of fresh sculptures and video of their making can be seen here.

You can also take a little summer virtual tour here.

Cozy old home

So I'm at my old home in Slovakia. It's kind of cozy :)

Winter cardmaking

The tradition of giving Christmas cards to each other is not really a Slovak tradition. Of course, we do send Christmas cards to those who live far away from us, but it wasn't until I visited England in 2005-2006 that I fully got into giving Christmas cards. About one week before Christmas, suddenly cards came from everyone. Not only from my friends, but also from our teachers and even from students that did not talk to me very much. And the weirdest part of all - they did not come by post, people would just give them to us or leave them on our desk. Some cards I liked more, some less, but I was feeling really bad about not being able to get out of the (very isolated) school grounds to buy my own. So my and my friend decided to make some. They were made of white paper painted bright red with some acrylic paint, a piece of dark green paper with thin gold-painted trees cut out of something like polystyrene - all of which we got from our school's art room. I must admit, they were pretty horrible and I don't think I gave them out eventually (just thinking about them makes me go brrrrrr!).

These, I believe, are one step better than that. I am really thrilled about my snowflake stamps that have been bought from Lucy65 on Fler.cz and also about my funny crafty scissors. Right now, I am unable to cut anything resembling a regular shape with them, so I decided that rather than making it look like they are not done properly, I would make them look like they are irregularly cut on purpose.

Each card is made of four layers of paper, the three types of blue paper were bought in a craft store and the lined torn pieces are the remains of the old Papelote writing pad that I would throw away otherwise. Some of them even have writing on the other side.

They are not regular, they are not the same and they are all on their way to their new homes. Taking the current speed of the post offices into consideration, they will arrive in the new year. I am sorry, friends :)

What I brought home from Christmas origami workshop by Papelote

My friend and I have visited an origami workshop organised by Papelote - a Czech stationery shop - which was advertised on their Facebook fan page . The theme of the workshop was "Christmas stars", but we also learned how to fold a crane and how to make about three types of stars.

All of these can be stuck to cards or hung on the wall or Christmas tree. And made of some really nice Christmas wrapping paper, they could look really gorgeous. One more thing I can do during my Christmas holiday :)

Getting into the Christmas mood

When I said that I want to have all the presents bought long before Christmas and then just sit at home and bake and sip hot tea, I didn't really think about all the work- and uni-related stress that was about to come. Things need to get done before everyone leaves and people started to stress. The post offices are full, shops are crowded, people worry about not having the presents yet, about messy homes, not having baked yet... And it sometimes makes me wonder why is Christmas still considered to be a holiday of joy and peace, when eighty per cent of the people that I encounter daily are not happy nor peaceful.

So right now, as most of work is finished, I decided to spend more time at home, tidy up, bake and decorate a bit. I do not have a tree this year, but I have put the lights up about a month ago and I hung all my pretty cards on a string above my desk. A few Christmas cards have come in the post and I believe I might be getting some more during the holidays, so I will have a nice display eventually.

Into the fields

In spite of my getting better but persisting cold, I decided to go out today, for a walk around the neighbourhood. So far these days are the coldest that we have had this winter. There is still no snow, but all puddles and the pond are frozen and everything around is covered in frost. And in the sun, I swear it sparkled more than vampires from Stephenie Meyer's novel.

I met a woodpecker, some other birds that I did not know and even found tracks of some larger four-legged forest visitors in the field.

I even walked through the “alley” that I nicknamed “the undergrowth of dread” sooner in the year when I moved in. With no leaves on and sun shining onto them, the trees are much less scary.

And here comes Mikuláš

Today is a special day for all the kids and many adults in Slovakia, Czech republic and many other countries. Mikuláš is a Slovak/Czech name for the Greek saint Nikolaos of Myra – who is believed to bring sweets to children during the night from 5^th to 6^th December. Even American Santa Claus is based on this historical figure, although he brings presents at Christmas (in my country we say that the Christmas presents are brought by little Jesus).

According to Wikipedia, there are many versions (some quite rough, not really for kids) of the legend which resulted in this custom. The one told to me when I was a kid is this one:

There were three daughters in a very poor family. Because they were poor, the daughters could not marry. Every night the daughters cleaned their shoes and put them into a window. One night, as bishop Mikuláš passed their window and filled the shoes with money. The girls found out about this when they woke up, on the morning of the 6^th December. Therefore the girls did have enough money to get married and they were happy.

So nowadays every kid should put their shoe into the window on the evening of 5^th December and as Mikuláš will go around, he will fill it with sweets (usually he knows well which ones you like and even though he does not fly, does not come in though a chimney and does not have a reindeer, he will usually get to you, even if you live in a high floor of a block of flats).

Mikuláš is pictured dressed as a bishop with tall cap. Santa dressed in red and white is often getting into his place but I personally prefer to buy chocolates that look properly bishop-like.

He comes to people with two helpers : "anjel" (angel- the good one, usually pictured with wings and in a light dress, mostly with long light hair) and "čert" (the opposite of angel, he lives in Hell, has horns and tail, sometimes also hoofs and sometimes is pictured with long tongue), who is supposed to give coal to the bad kids. When I was a kid, we used to go to my Grandfather’s work and when Mikuláš came, we had to say a short rhyme, sing or play something to him and we were rewarded by a bag of candies, chocolates and nuts. “Čert” was spitting fire and everyone was scared of him, some even cried (even though we knew exactly which Grandpa's colleague it was).

Here in Prague, you can even order Mikuláš to come to your home, he puts many leaflets on bus stops and similar places.

This year, thanks to me, Mikuláš will come to England too (I gave him my boyfriends address). However, can you please give him my new address too?? He is probably lost, because I move so often now, so he always leaves my sweets at my parents place.

Stressless Sundays

I have recently established Sunday as a free and stressless day. Of course, I do the basic stuff around the flat, tidying up, doing the washing, cleaning the flat when it’s my turn, but I never go to work on Sunday, nor do I bring my work home. It’s my day, it’s free and lazy. It is a day that I look forward to all week. Now I am absolutely no expert and definitely not a person to give advice on relaxation, but setting one day aside for nice and enjoyable things, sleeping enough, meeting friends and finding enjoyment in the basic household chores works well for me : )

Today, I woke up ill, so all I do is drink ginger tea with honey and lemon and make bracelets. I finished the one pictured below and I would list it, if only the sun came out for a while, allowing me to take brighter photos.

An (extra)ordinary tree

There was a tree last weekend that I could not take my eyes off. A single tree, ordinary from the distance, but wonderful in a close-up, covered with mosses, lichens, even mushrooms and resting insects. I saw a lot and yet I probably only saw a fraction of what lived on it. And all of it looked even more charming in the light of afternoon autumn sun.

mosses just above the ground

higher up

different moss growing on a tree-trunk

resting on the tree-trunk

amazing combination of colours

where it splits into branches

the tree

Beyond civilization

•trees, grass, mud and water•

That is exactly where I spent this weekend. My friends and I have decided that the successful passing of our final uni exams needed to be celebrated, however, it took us 2-4 months to bring that celebration into reality. Eventually, this Friday, off we went to one of the most remote places that we have ever been.
Eight of us have journeyed to the big house, lost between the peat bog and the woods, surrounded by trees and muddy swampy meadow, where the floors are cold, the water in the well is not suitable for drinking and the fire has to burn at all times to keep us warm. Every urge to go to the outdoor dry toilet is followed by a series of careful thoughts and then supressed, because you'd rather be in urge than cold and if you have to go eventually, possibly accompanied by a good friend (who will possibly not talk to you about criminals hiding in the woods and not lead you into thinking horror movie thoughts like mine did) with head-torch as a necessary piece of equipment,
Nevertheless, cooking goulash on the stove, geocaching, playing board games in the light of gas lamps, sleeping in a sleeping bag near the cracking fire (unless you fail to wake up every two hours to put another log on there), talking absolute nonsense and drinking Cuba Libre until half past two in the morning was great.



•little bits of forest•

Pre-Christmas baking



Coconut cookies

Christmas is still one month away from now, but last week we made some Christmas-like cookies :)

First of all, because the next time that A and I will see each other will be after Christmas and second of all - because the supermarkets have already started selling pre-made cake doughs of different flavours. I know that it's the best to make your own mixture without all the additives and preservatives, but this time I decided not to gamble (my cooking skills are still nothing to boast about) and just enjoy the baking process with the good feeling that the result will not go crazy/melt/burn as soon as I put it in the oven.

First, I played with the coconut dough. As the only currently available cutters in my kitchen were a spider, a caterpillar, a fish, a seal, a shark and a snail - definitely no Christmas-related shapes, I decided to use a tiny little shot glass to cut the circles out of dough. Oh yes, I also used a mug to roll it, because you wouldn't find a rolling pin around here - students' flat, what more do I need to say... (We used to have a bottle of rum for that very purpose at the old place, but that got dumped somehow during the process of moving).

And now the best part comes - based on a magazine suggestion, I used old glasses with 3D bottoms to press shapes into the cookies. It's incredibly simple and the result is wonderful. The only thing you need to keep in your mind is that you need to work as quickly as you can and do the pressing just before putting the cookies in the oven - otherwise the shapes might be less distinct.

Some of the glasses also had the shapes on the sides, so I tried rolling them onto the dough before actually cutting out the cookies and the result was nice as well. There's nothing as old-fashioned as a cookie made with an old-fashioned glass.

A few days later we had a go at the gingerbread dough, this time using the aforementioned cookie cutters. It wasn't nearly as much fun, but the result was nice as well. Moreover, we had some sugar icing in a tube for decorating, so the evening turned into an on-floor cake decorating session : )

Yes, they do look a bit (all right then, a LOT) like they were made by a four-years old, but taste just the same and we blame it on the incredible sticiness of the icing  : -b



Newbies

My invertebrate family has grown considerably last week, when a friend presented me with ten little (actually - about two centimeters big) giant African land snail babies. They will add up nicely to the other snails that I already have and to a millipede, mantises and beetles that I keep too. They will also serve as source of education - my friend has already taken them to a high school biology lesson that she taught and I hope I will be able to do the same in the near future. Yay snails!!

One evening in Košice

Once last week, I managed to get out and wandered through my city freely, just by myself. I shopped, I walked and I visited a place I haven't set foot in for nearly six years. It smelt and looked just the same as in my high-school times, it brought lots of memories and evoked a feeling of reflection and re-evaluation of life decisions until eventually all felt good and in the right place.

November Trip to the Countryside

Last Thursday I took a nine hours long overnight bus ride to my parents’ home in Slovakia. They haven’t seen me for a while, Grandparents were eager to meet me again and it was my high school reunion as well. Unexcited about the tiring travel as I was, I journeyed straight into the arms of not-so-desired yet inevitable overload of social interactions and future carreer talks occuring at the rate of at least two per day. My desire and being used to solitude is misidentified as weirdness and longing for privacy is often misunderstood as rudeness. Surely, every time I’m here, there are moments when things get so impossible that my only option is to climb into the bath tub with a lot of cake and read Twilight all over again. However, I managed to let go at the 305th page and participate in a trip to my father’s cottage in the countryside, where I walked around the garden and picked the wet fallen walnuts covered by leaves (future Christmas cake ingredients) that the older people missed during the past few weeks.

❋ the field adjacent to our garden  ❋ the view of the house from the back garden ❋ mushrooms growing in the lawns❋
❋ wellies on and picking walnuts ❋ sunset ❋ grapes still out in November - very sweet

❇❆ Ready for Christmas ❆ ❇

Christmas will be here in something over a month and I have been busy. Not with making stuff, that was already done in August, but with taking photographs and listing - that's the harder part of the work.
All of these can be currently seen in the "Christmas" section of my Etsy shop.
Little sets of two or three decorations can be divided and stars can be sold individually, it is all up to you and I will be happy to create custom listing for you (even a mix from different sets, if you wish!).

❇ ❈ ❅ ❄ ❆❇ ❈ ❅ ❄ ❆❇ ❈ ❅ ❄ ❆❇ ❈ ❅ ❄ ❆❇ ❈ ❅ ❄ ❆❇ ❈ ❅ ❄ ❆❇ ❈ ❅ ❄ ❆❇ ❈ ❅ ❄ ❆❇ ❈ ❅ ❄

You may have noticed that I am gone at the moment, however, I am still taking orders and your packages will be sent on Thursday 15th November - still arriving a long time before Christmas! :)

Farewell to the ZOO

Earlier this week, I had to say goodbye to my work at the zoo. I was leaving voluntarily, because I have a lot of other more urgent activities to perform (such as finally finishing uni etc.) and I desire to have a cozy and warm indoor winter rather than freezing my body parts somewhere out there, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of sadness off me. I had one great summer over there and I finished as I started- in temperatures under ten degrees, on an ugly dark day, wrapped up in about ten layers of sweaters, jackets, scarves and hats.

I took photos all the time that I worked there and I feel that right now is the right time to share. Hopefully I will be seen there again next year. If they will want me ;-)

 Pink flamingos and their not-so-colourful babies.

Ducks. Abundant and everpresent. They are not kept at the ZOO, but fly in and out from the river as they please. There are more males than females and they form bachelor raping groups and will not leave the Mums alone even when they already have babies. Females make nests in the exhibits and then walk around with their ducklings and happily swim in the water barriers.

 

 Goats. Oh, how much trouble and fun I had with these!!

Guinea pigs of all colours. Pear-shaped mothers who can hardly get into the guinea pig house with their big bellies give birth to much admired little piggies.

 

A happy hippo family that very rarely showed me their fronts, resting in their old exhibit. The baby hippo boy celebrated his first birthday in summer and all of them are now happily moved and getting used to their new home in the upper part of the zoo.

Pigeons. Rooftop-walking and fence-sitting are their favourite activities.

An old sloth lady. She enjoys sleeping and when she moves around and eats, she makes people say "awww". She also enjoys sunbathing under a light bulb and doesn't mind serving as a very slow taxi for tamarins.

One thing that the "Madagascar" movie was good for is that every child, even the smallest one, knows that lemurs are from Madagascar, even though they will not be able to tell you where it is if you ask. One thing the movie was NOT good for is "king Julian" and "I like to move it move it". Mentioned four hundred times a day, it wears off even the roughest personalities.

During all this time that I worked at the zoo, I have met many people and seen many attitudes towards animals and I came to a conclusion that most people who come to the zoo are not animal lovers. They come to have a look at how “funny” the animals are and to take some cool photos for their Facebook profile. Most people also still have a problem to see zoos as educational institutions and a places to learn. Sure, there were a few people who told their kids to behave nicely when contact between the humans and animals is allowed, to approach it from the front, not to feed it because the sign says so, not pull its tail and so on…

But I have also witnessed cases when people fed the goats with fries, then accused me of forbidding them to do so because we want to earn money on the goat food from vending machine, then purchasing the goat food and putting it into a transparent plastic bag and after being warned that those are not allowed because the goats might accidentaly eat them and even die, saying that if they are so stupid that they would actually eat them, they deserve to die. I also feel that a true animal lover will never hit a goat into the head because it punched him with its horns and so “it needs to know what it feels like”, will not try to put his/her four years old child onto the goat’s back to ride it, will not argue about taking a dog where dogs are not allowed and will not lock their dog in the car at the car park after realising that the dog admission fee has gone up. Also blowing a massive flash out of your camera in the dark part of the “Indonesian jungle” directly into the face of a nocturnal slow loris doesn’t seem like a bad idea to many people, just because “well, if you are so clever, tell me how am I supposed to get a good picture from here without a flash?!” I also understand that kids do not read the signs, but a parent must be totally ignorant to allow his child to throw rocks at animals, because "they are boring when they don't move" and then look surprised or yell at you when you tell them that this is not how you should treat animals.

Being in touch with people is hard work for both employees and animals. I swear, I could see the animals be fed up with people as the evening approached. Many people think that animals at the zoos are poor because they are “caged up”. Trust me, they are well taken care of. If they are poor, it’s only because they experience a bunch of STUPID people coming in day after day after day, workdays and holidays, all year long.