Received my Carnivale Mystere cards today! Added my contributions to “My Collab Deck Cards” page:
http://www.moonchild.ch/Tarot/mydecks/collab.html

And there are some wonderful pictures here. When I was young, I thought the expression “when the cows come home” meant when they returned to the barn at the end of the day. Now I know better. Those wonderful pictures are of French-Swiss cows, but even Seengen has seen the return of winter residents. I have a handful of new neighbors, in fact, whose clanging bells sound nice (for the first month or so). One thing I love about where I live is that there is a winery about a quarter of a mile down the road (just past the cow pasture) and a combination butcher shop/restaurant just a quarter of a mile past that. So, welcome home, cows!!!

It’s no surprise that cows have made their way into my project. Here is a sketch of a wall hanging I’m sewing together. It’s 5ft x 4.5ft (140 x 150), with four panels, of which the outside two are almost finished. Just have to sew the ivy on one tower. I haven’t gotten far enough along to sketch the fish and stuff on the bottom panel. The image is evolving as I work on the project, and it is surprising me. I found a yard of undersea fabric on ebay and bought it for eight bucks, just so I could cut out some sea creatures to applique. Anyway, I’ll post a photo when I finish the first two panels.

Here's my solstice window. I basteled it out of transparent paper, and the stars and earth's atmosphere are open. Can you see the newborn moon? I didn't have any white, so I used baking paper for it. It looked a lot better from the inside, and a lot less Christmassy than my neighbors had probably hoped for! FYI, the window is 6ft2 (185 cm2). I had to leave a few inches open at the bottom, because our new windows are so tight they build up condensation inside on cold nights. The paper would get damp every night, then cook out in the blazing sun during the day. It was a pain in the butt.
I took it down one section at a time, and used parts of the top section to make two lampions.