Selfie on Sylt

  

So this is me during my recent beachside holiday on Sylt, an island off the very north of Germany. There was snow on the beach. There was a lot of wool worn.

Also, this is just a wee illu practising using illustrator brushes. See ya later photoshop!

Christmas Cards 2013!

New designs for colour Christmas Cards this year!

Sorry I don't have a way for you to purchase them online yet, I'm working on it! Just send me an email if you want some (hello[@]judithcarnaby.com).

If you're in Berlin they will be available to buy from the 6th of December at The Dairy cafe in Prenzlauer Berg, and at Rag And Bone Man in Neukölln

Dog Poo Roulette

Inspired by my darling bud Conor, an observation on autumn in Berlin.

Better Work Stories.

So as I was wandering around the Gemäldegalerie on Sunday, I became interested in the gallery attendants. There was one in almost every room, and the gallery is BIG. All of them were clearly very bored in their jobs, standing around, waiting for the chance to tell off the visitors for daring to put a toe over the line in front of the paintings. Safe to say, I tried to place my foot halfway over the line at any opportunity, just to give them something to do. But the most curious of the attendants was the one I observerd, who was clearly SO BORED, that she was just standing there, between the Rembrandts and Botticellis, looking at the wall.

Always match your gloves to your hat.

So after an inspiring trip to the Kulturforum on Sunday I have learnt some new rules about fashion from amazing fashion illustrator René Gruau...
From now on I will coordinate my clothes and my accessories, at all times and during all activities. First example, when doing the dishes always match your gloves to your hat.

Anyone know an engineer/boxing glove manufacturer?

So Sam's away in Italy. Now when I call out 'Could you please make me a tea, dear?' all I hear is a deafening silence. A deafening silence of disappointment.

(which is a good lead-in to introduce you all to my favourite youtube clip)

Sleep like a baby

Our dear friends have recently had a baby. We enjoy babysitting the wee fellow, helped along by the system: frozen pizza, wine, tv, and a baby lulled to sleep by white noise played at loud volume (it has been known to lull adults to sleep too...).

Tea win!

 

Fellow NZ expats and tea lovers, imagine my delight in finding half a large packet of Dilmah in the back of our shelves....TEA WIN!

Sam slurps smoothies

Sam had a wisdom tooth out. There was a lot of slurping soups, smoothies and safts through straws.

Heavy lifting.

So our enormous old beast of a fridge died last week. We got the guys who dropped off the new one to take away the old one. If it had been Sam and I trying to get it out of our flat and down the stairs we would have pulled numerous tendons and had to sit down for a week. Those guys lifted it like it was a feather and basically skipped downstairs. Tough guys award 2013.

Martin in a bottle.

Last week Martin, Sam and I launched our new boats - Jenny Shipley and Judy Bailey.

Check out the blog of the Treptower Yacht Club to see our adventures as we explore the waterways of Berlin...

BARCELONA, CITY OF HAM

This week I went to Barcelona for a wee holiday and to support my partner Sam as he presented at the Open Design Conference in Barcelona. Our friend Georgie came and met us there and we all stayed in an apartment in the el Raval. It was hot, dusty, hazy and full of tapas and salty fish.


Here are a few observations of our time there...



Gaudi's architecture was a delightful mix of organic gothic and playful mosaic. 

   

Gin Tonics served at my favourite local bar Pescada Salada (Salty Fish) in El Raval opened my eyes to the ingredients that can go beautifully with gin.
Served in enormous glasses, my favourite was with lime, rosemary and small olives. Maybe it also had something to do with the size...

 

The multitude of colourful umbrellas of the locals and Spanish tourists relaxing on the beaches of the Costa Brava, to the north of Barcelona, showed they had some serious sun bathing skills.  

The variety of ways to eat Jamon Serrano was a symphony of hammy deliciousness.

When spinach attacks!

 

Conor, Sam and I are checking out our GIANT spinach. It survived the wintery ice blasts due to an experimental plastic-bottle-as-greenhouse technique. It. Just. Keeps. Growing.

Spargelzeit!

Just a quick sketch of the mountain of Spargel I ate when visiting Beelitz, the small hometown of Spargel just south of Berlin. Spargel is a Brandenburg obsession - it is a form of asparagas grown underground, and comes served with a healthy helping of butter sauce...

And here is a great illustration of it from Wikimedia Commons:

Pleasure Craft

Conor and I made a small Ausflug out of Berlin last weekend. We took the train out to Storkow and biked around the lake to the south side of Bad Saarow. We rowed a boat out on the lake for a turnabout, where we couldn't believe our eyes.... THIS is how you boat, people.

Snowtennis.

So here is my first drawing with my brand-spanking new Wacom tablet. No paper! No pens! Welcome to 2013, Judith. Do make yourself at home.

Also, it turns out that snow is not the ideal surface for playing table tennis on.

Also, here is a drawing of trying to find the table tennis ball in the snow:






























But really, it was lots of fun once we chipped the ice off the table!

BikeSurf Berlin, re-cycle styles...

Another illustration in support of BikeSurf Berlin, and biking in general.
I'm looking forward to when I no longer have to wear gloves on, or chip icicles off, my bike!

BikeSurf Berlin

A wee illustration to promote the great idea that is BikeSurf Berlin. Kind of like couchsurfing, but with bikes!

Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the human race. ~ H.G. Wells

Mahogany

My first gif!

Inspired in equal part by my journey into the Amazonian basin when I was in Bolivia, and a recent episode of Parks and Recreation. If you haven't watched Parks and Rec, you're missing out on some belly laughs.

(Ben: "I really like helping people. Running the new Sweetums Foundation charity allows me to do that... and work in an office with more mahogany wood than currently remains in the Amazon rainforest. So, win-win. Except for the rainforest.")

I feel the need... the need to knead!

Sam has a sourdough bug fermenting away in the corner of our kitchen. I can sense a sort of obsessive urgency that comes over him any time he wanders by the bug.

How long do chickens work?

Around the cluck!!

Anyway, yesterday I read a great article in the Economist about start-ups in Kenya, but became focused on one part of the article... 

"Will Nairobi then compete with other emerging tech hubs such as Bangalore and Tel Aviv? Not at once, says Joe Mucheru, head of Google in Kenya. Nairobi has exported two notable innovations: M-PESA (which began life in London) and Ushahidi, a non-profit platform for crowdsourcing information during disasters. But most Kenyan tech firms are coming up with solutions to local problems. A team at Pivot East has built a service to help poultry farmers, who waste hours sitting around watching their chickens, keep track of their brood with text-message alerts. “We need to solve the nitty-gritty first and then we can invent new things,” says Mr Mucheru."

My musings on chicken-related communication:

Lady Chatterley. Sexy shed times.

My spanking new website - look at that sexy header!

judithcarnaby.com

Die Wanderin über den Wäschebergen

On Sunday I went to the Alte Nationalgalerie and spent some time looking at paintings by the German Romantic painters. Arriving home I felt somewhat less inspired. 

Two men, two hats.