Bye bye

It's time to say goodbye to my english blog here.
I will not update on here anymore - but I will keep on blogging on my german site. Please change your bookmarks to: http://inspirationszauber.blogspot.com/

There will also be a new relaunch on my website http://creative-companion.org soon.

Thank you and bye bye.

Melanie

Fearless Girl

I just received my first blog award. Wow.
I never thought this would happen to my blog, I'm not a  a very "followed" blogger. I don't post that regularly, although I am always trying to.

It was given to me by Ashley - The Life of a fearless Girl Blog. Thank you :)
Please go check out her blog, I don't know her for long, but her blog touched me right away. Her life is an incredible story and her posts are always making me think.
She's now going through another rough time and could need some positive energy.

I really look up to her, 'cause I don't think I am that fearless.
Not yet.
I try to.
But when things get uncomfortable I want to run away, I just wish myself in another place... a bit like Alice, or Ally... yeah... I think I am more of a reality-escaping girl...

Anyways, here are the rules for receiving and giving an award:

1. Accept the award. Post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2. Pay it forward to 5 other bloggers that you have newly discovered.(I have the same problem as Ashley, most of the blogs have this award already been given to, so I am awarding 4...)  

 

3. Contact those blog owners and let them know they've been chosen. 

 

The people I am awarding this to are...

 

Denise @ bohogirl

Ann Marie @ Household Diva

Lisa @ Lisa Petrarca's Blog

Debbie @ Love the Decor

Have a great weekend.

Melanie

GERMAN BLOG

My latest Blog-Header Design.

So, the time has come, I am really starting a german blog. I thought about it a lot, I somehow had the feeling that I am not able to express myself in english as good as I used to. I can't help it - german is my mother language, although I love english and still will be international - it's time to write in german.
I found so many other beautiful german/austrian blogs, great artists and people.

So click right here to read all my creative stuff in german :-)


Love,
Melanie

My first knitted bag and getting in danger for not knowing which buttons to buy...

(C) Melanie Eichenauer, 2010. Straight out of camera :)

I proudly present... my first knitted bag.
This took me quite a time, but I am so happy with the result. There are 2 different structures. I first started this piece just to try out knitting again... I knitted before but that was years back in school. But then I thought... when I'm trying this out I could try out doing something beautiful.

(C) Melanie Eichenauer, 2010. Photographing this bag on a very windy day isn't easy...

(C) Melanie Eichenauer, 2010. Little Details.

The final touches have just been added today. I bought the buttons in a tiny old crafting shop. This shop is owned by two old (yes, I really mean old) sisters and I would say, this shop is cult. It's very small but full of wool, buttons, fabrics, and so on. And the ladies there... oh my they are strange. As I entered the shop, the old lady was talking to another customer. The customer said "Please serve this woman, I need more time." The lady gringed and turned to me, "What can I do for you?"
"Well, first I need a few buttons."
"Which colour?"
"I don't know, I just want to look at what you've got" (that was kinda lie, I knew I wanted pink ones, but I wanted to have a look at all the others too.)
So, I tried to have a look at the button wall. Yes, a wall. Full of buttons. I guess I've never seen that much stuff. But the lady wasn't happy with what I said.
"You have to know which colour."
"I need a few ones and I just want to have a look, there are so many."
"Don't touch this!" My heart stopped - thankfully she wasn't talking to me. She yelled at the other customer.
I was quite shocked and thought about leaving without buying anything. She was so unfriendly to the other woman.
But I did not leave. I then realized that I am not used to a shop like this. Normally I buy my stuff online or at big stores, but this was a very old tiny little shop. And as another customer got in and the old lady got even unfriendlier... I could not help myself, I started to laugh. It was so unreal, so strange. I felt like set back in time. Like in the 50s or something. Of course the old lady wasn't happy with us taking so much time to have a look at things and not knowing what exactly to buy.... when she was younger, people didn't have much money so they only got into a shop when they really needed something... they knew exactly what to buy, 'cause every Schilling (years before we had Euros) had to be turned twice.
As she left the shop shortly to look for needles I needed (strange word combination... haha)... the first customer whispered to me "She's not in a good mood today." She seemed to be used to this, so I think she is there often.

(C) Melanie Eichenauer, 2010. Structure I.

(C) Melanie Eichenauer, 2010. Structure II.

I hope my english was good enough to retell that story. Feel free to tell me what you think about my bag....

(C) Melanie Eichenauer, 2010. On the wall ... :)

Love,

Melanie

Creative Monday

(C) Melanie Eichenauer, 2010.  Taken during my walk to the yachting club.

My weekend reflection...
I so enjoyed my weekend off. No wedding to photograph and I really could sit down and breathe. I love what I do, I just don't like stress and having no time for my family. So on saturday I visited my dad at the yachting club. I took a long walk and it was so beautiful, a late summer day (although I hoped more for autumn...). It's always refreshing to take a walk there and especially spend some time in the woods. He was happy to see me and so was I. I felt reliefed. You know, it's good to have a job that you would call your dream job, it's good to do what you like, to really live your life and so on but there is nothing like family. Nothing is more worthy than that.
And so I spent the rest of the late evening and also a part of the night with very good friends of ours. We ate together and played some old games, like "guess who you are". Everyone has a post-it on the head and has to guess what person (alive or not, singer, actor, politican, etc.) he/she is. It was so much fun. It's always those simple things like playing an old game together that can bring so much joy. We laughed until late at night.
Sunday has been very lazy. We just went for a little walk outside the house and then spent the rest of the day in front of the telly watching LOST on DVD. We have to get prepared for season 6 which will be on television later that month.

A poem for the starting the week...

In autumn when the trees are brown
The little leaves come tumbling down
They do not make the slightest sound
But lie so quietly on the ground
Until the wind comes puffing by
And blows them off towards the sky. 

(by John Muir)

Creative things...

I think I will finally finish my knitted bag today and I can't wait to start all the others. I also brought a good friend of mine into knitting, she is now working on socks, that's so great!
And I did my first handmade soaps... lavender and rose. I will show you the results soon.

 And calling all Webdesigners...

... do you have time to create something special?
... are you into the shabby chic vintage style?
... are your prices under a few hundred dollars for private websites?

I'm really looking for someone who wants to be part of this website design. Who can help me with the technical programming stuff. Who is creative in designs.
I have a few ideas how I want it to look like, I just don't have the graphic or web programming skills to do it on my own.
Yeah... this thing with money... I hate it when it comes to that and when someone says right away - I can't pay you much. Of course you put effort of time and skills in it and I do honour that. It's not that I don't vallue this work, of course I do, I just don't have hundreds of dollars to pay for a private website. I visited so many sites, great artists, that would surely create a wonderful website for me... but prices starting at 800 dollars are just not realistic for my situation.
So, if you are interested please send me a note: photo@creative-companion.org
Along with some website/graphic examples you have done, so I know if you are into the same style.


Have a creative week...
Love,
Melanie

Catching a tiger

by Lissie.

This time I'm gonna write about my latest favourite CD.

 LISSIE - CATCHING A TIGER

Amazon was right - this artist is really something for my music taste.
For me, she is THE newcomer of the year... yes, before Ellie Goulding, sorry. I love Ellie but this girl rocks. American country girl from the Mississippi, Lissie impressed me not only with her gorgeous rough voice but also with her music talent. Her songs mostly start a bit slower but rock at the end. And I love it when she is playing and singing fast. 11 songs full of passion and honesty. Something that is really needed in those times when we are overflooded by wannabe-sexy musicvideos and stupid lyrics like "Give it to me, baby like boom, boom, boom, What I want, want, want is what you want, want, want" (Rihanna girl, who is writing that crap for you??)


Lissie seems to be a girl you can steal horses with. And she is showing us unknown possibilities. What I mean? Well, first I have to admit, I like the Gaga-Music, but what Lissie made out of "Bad Romance" is stunning!
Have a listen yourself:


And here is a gorgeous live version of her single "When I'm alone". She totally rocks live. Damn I can only tell it by the videos I've seen yet... hope she'll be playing live here in austria this winter.


I love to drive my car while listening to her. Perfect soundtrack for a roadtrip.
Lissie gets 5/5 tigers :-)

Wishing you a great weekend!
Love,
Melanie

just my ... 3 cents...

Image found via We(heart)it.com 

(C) Olafhausschulz.com

Just a little story from Melanies private life...

 I've been on a little shopping trip today with my boyfriends cousins. As we drove home with my car, I had to stop at a petrol station. I got out of the car, took that dispenser and wanted to get some petrol into my car but instead of doing that it flew everywhere else. So I figured out that the tube was broken. I went  into the shop to tell the service person about that, but she was just looking at me with a stupid face and said: "There are 3 cents to pay"

What the ... ?

"Yes," I said "but the dispenser is somehow broken, you should take a look at it. The petrol is flowing out."

Stupid face again then she shouted: "Christian, go out and have a look!"

I turned around and saw three man standing at the end of the shop drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. They all had that strange smile on their face... that smile that says "oh stupid little woman can't refuel her car"

So I said. "Who of you is Christian? Who is getting out with me and looking at the problem."

Then the supposed person Christian stood slowly up and went outside with me. Who was I to disturb him? While walking he said: 

"What did you say is the problem?" 

"The petrol is flowing out, the dispenser isn't working."

"(laughing) That can't be."

"Oh you will see...stupid idiot!" Okay, I did not speak the last two words out loud.

So as we stood there, he saw the problem and just said: "Oh.. it really is broken"

OH HELL NO!! REALLY? man, you are fast!

He only said then "You have to try another dispenser."

I got into the car, used another dispenser to fill up the car and went inside the shop again to pay. And after I did that and sat again in my car, I saw that this stupid shop lady also billed me the 3 cents from the other broken dispenser!!!! 

Oh yeah, in these days you have to pay for every drop.

(sorry for any english-language mistakes, I tried my best)

Sweet little houshold things

First entry, in this new blog-layout. Do you like it?
I love it. It really fits what my blog is supposed to be about and I hope I can soon upload my new website. So, first, let me introduce you to this "new" blog.
I'm gonna post here about all the cute little things I find. I like to buy special things like books, cds, decoration stuff, household things... whatever. I love to go out shopping for these things but I also like to spend my hours on browsing through webshops.
What ever I think is inspiring - you'll gonna find it here.
I haven't written anything special in a while, so I'm gonna introduce myself shortly.
My name is Melanie, I'm from austria and I live with my long time boyfriend in a house on a hill... I thought about calling this blog "the girl from the house on the hill" ... hmm I still like that idea ;-) My 'child' is my cat "Emily"... but she likes more to be called "Baby". She really listens to that name. I'm a bohemian, nature, vintage-loving, country girl. I love my job as a photographer, which was my first step into living my creative and free soul. But there is much more in life to come, I'm sure. I also love the scandinavian lifestyle, my big dream these days is to visit Danmark, Sweden, and England.
So, although I'm austrian, I'm writing in english. I love the language, but I like to be international. I read so many other beautiful blogs, if they would not write in english - how could I enjoy them? That's my reason for not writing in german. But I may post once in a while in that language... we'll see.

Enough about me, here are the really interesting things...:

I received these beautiful towls a few days ago. Here they are in green, but they're also available in blue. They come in a package of three and their size is 50 cm x 70 cm which are about 19x27 inch I think.
They are by Livia and I ordered them via the beautiful online shop at "Nostalgie im Kinderzimmer".

Click here to order directly.
(C) Picture by Melanie Eichenauer, 2010.
No use without written permisson!

A close up of the fabric.
(C) Picture by Melanie Eichenauer, 2010.
No use without written permisson!

And I also ordered these funky cleaning towls by Rice. This package is available in purple&orange or in pink&turquoise and contains three of each colour. Size is 36 cm x 36 cm which is about 14 x 14 inches. With only 3,90 Euros, they are really cheap and look great in the kitchen or whereever you need it.

Click here to order them directly.
(C) Picture by Melanie Eichenauer, 2010.
No use without written permisson!

Wishing you a great weekend. I'm enjoying my cup of coffee and will have look at other beautfiul blogs now, to relax a bit. It's my day off today because it's my Daddys birthday (hip hip hooray!!) and we always celebrate it together. So I'll be at my parents home later.

Lots of love and inspiration,

Melanie

Website is on the way...

(C) Sundown by Melanie Eichenauer.

So, I have been very ill for the last week. I'm still having a bit of a cold, but it's getting better, I can finally feel it.
I was so in pain, that I even wasn't able to read. So I tried to lend my thoughts from the pain to a more positive thing, and I tried to think of my website and all this stuff. And I knew what I wanted to do with it before, but now it's even more concrete and I'm busy working on it.

It's all new.
It's a new Creative Companion.

It's what the name is about - it's ment to be your inspirational friend. A place where you come to, to be happy, sad, inspired, and whatsoever. You can read, you can look at, and you can also be a part of it.

The main thing is, that the website has changing topics.
What that means?
You'll have to wait a bit until I can reveal the secret.

It's only gonna take a few days... a week or so... I'm excited.

Love,
Melanie

Have yourself a very merry... lavender

(c) Melanie Eichenauer. 2010.

I bought myself a big lavender and two small ones. The smaller ones are special smelling lavender. I don't know the english word for them, sorry.
The big one is in a beautiful pot and is standing in the front of the house. the other two are in the bedroom and look so lovely on the windowsill.

So this is this weeks inspiration I have for you... go out and buy yourself flowers.

Have a great week.

Getting ready...

... for my artistic shooting sometime in august/september.
And also getting ready for my webpage to be back again. I really want to keep this blog alive now and to fill it with all the sweet little things in life.
So while my page is still under construction I'm gonna start with what it's gonna be about right here, right now.Inspiration.That's the main topic.
And I found this cute little book in a shop today. It's in german and the title goes something like this: "the secret of my encouraging-jam - the most beautiful receipts for life-artists"
I hope this is somehow correct. It's by Rosalie Tavernier and I just found out that she wrote a few other beautiful books too.

(c) picture by Melanie Eichenauer. Book by Rosalie Tavernier/Thiele Verlag.

Did I already mention that I looove the new blogger-layout-designer!? It totally rocks and helped me perfectly in changing the design of my blog exactly how I want it to be (at the moment...).

So, I did a bit of shopping today and bought clothes for the shooting I wrote about earlier. My gosh, I found so many great dresses, but it's hard to buy something without the model by my side to try it on. But I could not resist and bought these gorgeous pieces!
All clothes are by Zara. Hooray for summer sale :-)

So, to tell a little bit about my project:
It's going to be poetic. Very artistic. Romantic. Passionate.

For so now...
... be inspired...
xx love

Still there

Just a quick post to tell I am still there.

I'm looking for a website designer. I finally decided that I'm not able to create the website I want to. Whether you are a pro or not - please contact me via aquamarine@kt-net.at
I would love to create something magical with you :)

And I'm all into the FIFA WM 2010 - so excited, have to watch nearly every game. So that keeps me away from continuing here too ;-)

New Website comming!

just to show you something yummy :) (C) Melanie Eichenauer.

Yes, once again I changed the layout not only of this blog but also of my website.
It's not finished yet, I'm in the progress and it's gonna be wonderful. I have new plans for my site and for my artwork. Really big changes.
I'm excited.

If you want to be informed when the new site is online, please leave a comment here or send a mail to: photo@creative-companion.org

Time

Picture by Ana.Guerrero.

I've been listening a lot to "The Beekeeper" these days, by gorgeous Tori Amos. It's such a underrated album. Perfect for spring, yeah and totally different to all her other stuff but it's so poetic. It's good music to relax to.

And that's what I need now the most. I feel a bit restless, the last weeks have been hectic and I am no fan of living my life like that. I need silence, time for my loved ones, or otherwhise I'm getting sick. And I'm already having a cold now for weeks. Aah... I have to start listening to my body again.

My dad and I have been looking for a new car for me, and after weeks we found one. And just on the day we (well... he...) bought it, someone crashed into the back of my current car while I was driving. Not much happened but it's just more stress I don't need now.

So this blog is supposed to be about living a creative and free spirit... how can I feel free and creative when I'm just too lazy? Too lazy to even go outside when the sun is shining and it's depressing me that I'm too tired to go outside, so it's a circle of not feeling well.
And I wanna get out, just don't know how at the moment. And my age of 25 is not making it any easier. This is no complain about my age, it's just that I realize every now and then that ... I don't know how to say... time passes by. Now I'm having friends who are married, having babies, or are thinking about things like that. And then I'm asking myself again: would this be right for me? Working for a few years, and then getting married and having babies? Without having seen the world before?
But when I'm gonna do that? When do I have the time?

And the crazy thing about that is that it's easy. I know the answer, I think I'm just not ready yet. It's not the right time yet.
'Cause the answer is: I just have to do it.

New Layout... new Blog?

Maybe.

This blog was supposed to be about me on becoming a pro photographer. Well, now that I am a pro and I am working as one... I had to find a new topic for this journal. So as you may see, this is my first entry this year, a new start and a new way.
I will still be talking about photography and of course showing you pictures, but I thought this time, I'm gonna go deeper. I went for a walk today and met my topic in a wood while I stood there completely still and quiet. That's how I like to get new ideas. It then feels like they had searched for me and not the other way round. 'Cause you can't force yourself to be creative, to find something... it just has to happen and you have to let it happen. How?
It's different for everyone I guess. For me silence and nature, that's what I need to clean my head, to make space for new energy.

And as if I was standing too close... which is kinda funny when you think of "You can't see the forest for the trees"... and I was standing in the deepest forest... anyways... and as if I was standing too close I finally realized that this is my new plan. Topic. Target. Goal.
The next step.
Becoming that free soul I yearn to be, living creative freedom. Vacations, new people, ... getting to know the world, discovering new places, people and stories.

Maybe that's the reason why I am here.

I thought a lot about that question after I read the book my neighbour gave to me a few days ago:
The Why Are You Here Cafe by John Strelecky.
Read it, it's beautiful and so true.

You see a lot is going on in my head... I'll leave you with a few pictures of todays walk. Enjoy it... (all pictures are taken with my mobile-phone!)

I had just begun my walk as I discoverd this... I have been there often, but this house used to look different... now it's a beautiful tiny castle.

It's in the wood, but well seen from the street.I remember this house being used as "a bee house".

The writing above the door says: "Kinderschloss" (Kids Castle) and on the little board it says: "Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot" (Snow-White and Rose-Red)

A field... I actually don't know how this is called specifically.

Looking up.

There are several ways through the field.

Trees and Light.