72. Pomegranate

A pomegranate is the perfect November fruit to me:

• First of all, winter is its high season (at least in the northern hemisphere as I just found out).
• The quite alarming red colour really is a relief for eyes that watch the world outside turn mostly grey.
• It contains rather a lot of vitamin C.
• It's one of the fruits that (according to some East Asian dietary principles) have warming instead of cooling qualities.
• It's very bittersweet - and you never know what the next one will taste like until you try it...

I turned one into a star today:

How amazing it was to sink my teeth into this mass of red seeds and find that this is probably the sweetest one I've ever tasted! Thank you, pomegranate, you just made my day. :)

63. Bascetta Lantern

I did it!! My very first Bascetta star! :D

 

And it's glowing!

The actual star was made 2 days ago, but today it is complete with stick and a light attached to it. I'm going to use it on Thursday for our own little Martinmas procession.

I used ordinary coloured printing paper (cut into squares of 21x21cm resulting in a star of approx. 35cm in diameter), but to give it a better shining quality I took the time to oil it - all of the 30 sheets... What was I thinking? Well, obviously not very much. I hadn't even thought about how or where I would dry them...

But what an amazement it was when it all finally worked and the star almost assembled itself! I really was somewhat proud. :)

P.S.: TWENTY spikes! This is a record on this project!^^

48. A Kite's Tail

Looks like we're in some kind of fever here... namely hiking fever. Today's trip was rather short compared to past ones but this one had a bonus: kite flying! We had a normal one and a stunt kite - the latter not being able to fly any good stunts due to lack of wind (I really need to get my old delta stunt kite next time I visit my parents!), the former having a long tail which I used to make a star before we left:

 

Yes, well, it's not the best star ever made, but it's colourful and it represents something which I haven't done in a (far too) long time and which is a lot of fun.^^

46. Pumpkin with Stars

Woohoo! I made my first ever jack-o'-lantern! I'll still have to work on it a bit tomorrow to make it shine brighter, but the basics are visible:

I'll probably update tomorrow night when it will hopefully be finished. There was not enough time today as my friend Tina and I were very busy not only with carving our pumpkins but also with preparing a pumpkin dinner for our friends - pumpkin soup, pumpkin apple pie and pumpkin waffles. So delicious! (I'm always amazed if kitchen experiments turn out well, since I'm not overly experienced in cooking or baking - I just try some new things every now and then.)

Also, this was actually the first time ever I took a look inside a pumpkin. And what an excitement that was! :D

Update 2011-10-22:
It's finished! And so am I - at least my back and my right hand and arm. But I'm happy with the result, so cut the whining, girl...^^

45. Autumn Leaves Star

Finally! I took the leaves I collected on last week's hiking trip out of the book and made some decoration that is actually appropriate for this time of the year. For some reason (which remains unknown to me), that is something I very rarely do. I decorate my rooms with all kinds of stuff and I never care about the season. But now...! I've got an Autumn Star on my balcony door:

 

Initially, I thought about cutting off all the parts that go over the borders, but then I remembered that I actually like a bit of irregularity - after all, how could I make a star out of nature materials and then destroy their natural shapes? That would simply be unnatural... Anyway, I prefere it like this. :)

18. White Tiger of the West

Today's project is the first to not depict an actual star-shaped 'star'. But it's still very star-related.

At 11:04 this morning (that's 10:04 GMT), the sun crossed the celestial equator into the southern hemisphere. This moment is know as autumnal equinox and marks the beginning of the autumn season in astronomy. So I - being an almost hobby astronomer and currently taking a one year star challenge - decided to pay my tribute to this season in an astronomical kind of way.

In traditional Chinese astronomy, the sky is divided into 28 'lunar mansions' which are again grouped into four symbols: the Azure Dragon of the East, the Black Tortoise of the North, the White Tiger of the West, and the Vermillion Bird of the South. They are all associated with a season as well, and I was quite delighted to find that the one for the upcoming autumn season is the White Tiger! :D

The tiger is a simple aquarelle painting (DIN A3). For the stars I used acrylic paint. (I would have liked to use my Chinese calligraphy set, but I don't have it with me, so I had to make due with a not so very traditional way of painting. It was fun non the less!)

P.S.: The first one to find a well known western constellation among those stars will get a big cyber-hug and a cheer in the next post! ;)

15. Dancing Chestnut

The next sign of autumn:

Cast in oder of appearence:

a Göttingen chestnust - lead role

my jacket pocket - transportation

my sister's kitchen knife and cutting board - costume

a fineliner pen - make-up

my sister's chair - set decoration

my camera - camera

12. Dinner is served!

This weekend was all about nature and everything that is a part of it - including myself. Those were wonderful days with wonderful people and impressive experiences - distressing and soothing all at the same time. Right next to where we were staying there was a beautiful forest which made it quite obvious that autumn is rapidly approaching. I don't know whether I've ever seen that many beechnuts! I spent almost 20 minutes collecting them and barely had to move from where I had first knelt down. I left them on a nearby stone as a star feast for birds and squirrels.

To the beeches!