deviantART: by:ValerianaSolaris http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:ValerianaSolaris&section=today deviantART RSS for by:ValerianaSolaris en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:57:15 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png Another feature http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/28190778/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/28190778/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:22:46 PST




Own works


http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/26818778/ Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:39:23 PDT




Own works





Clubs:

:iconsemi-sweeties: :iconartisancraft:http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/25841557/ Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:53:06 PDT :iconmonsterkookies: created a new Polymer Clay Club, so if you are a clay artist, come and join: :iconpolymer-clay-club:





Own works


http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/25062065/ Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:15:55 PDT

But I really want to take the time today to feature a very special artist I met here on DA.

Tom from savageworlds :iconsavageworlds: never ceases to amaze me with his outstanding talent and craftmanship, his unique ideas and his sense of humor. Just recently I also learned about his very generous side - he created a special set of acrylic stamps on his CNC router (please, don´t ask me what this is, but I am sure Tom will explain :-) ) to use for polymer clay, and I had the honor he named the set after me :-) He sent me the set to try out and give him my feedback, together with some more goodies made from acrylic:





I was so excited when I received this whole treasure set! I am now the proud owner of about 40 unique, hand-carved stamps with special textures to use in my steampunk-oriented artwork.

I tried them all out, and they were so much fun to use! I have some works in the making right now, and I promise I will post images as soon as I get the first ones finished. The stamps are very inspiring, and when Tom finally markets those (and hopefully more), I would not hesitate to get myself a set of these lovely stamps.

Here is a selection of Tom´s works. Hop over to his gallery to see more of his wonderful creations, and check out his website, too :-)





Own works


http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/24449004/ Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:01:45 PDT I got a bunch of the most beautiful red roses from my sweetheart, self-made hearts from the kids, and we went to see another house. We have been looking for a new house for two years now, and this one finally felt right! The process is still in its early stages, but I hope, if this house is meant for us, we will get it!

The estate is huge, the hugest I have seen in these two years, with a big pond with frogs and fish in it, lots of space for the kids to play, trees ... well, everything my heart desires! To get this beautiful land with a cute house would be a big dream come true for me, so everybody, please keep your fingers crossed :-)

After we had delicious self-made cake at my favorite café we witnessed the local sheep being sheared, and I could not resist and bought a huge bag of sheep-wool :-) Maybe I will have some time for needle-felting in the days to come.

We took a long walk in a lovely valley with the greatest weather one could hope for, sunny and warm, but not too hot, discovered pollywogs in a tiny river that runs through the valley, then went to see a soccer match from two local teams, and had a great day today!

I promised I would feature the winners from :iconsemi-sweeties: Semi-Sweetie´s latest contest about spring, and here are they :-)

KaciHPfanatic :iconkacihpfanatic: won with this adorable bee cake:



Cinnamonster´s :iconcinnamonster: cute cupcake won the second place:



The third place went to Jamoomers :iconjamoomers: for her lovely tea-party charms:



Some more images from the lucky winners:



I still would like to see my last feature for another week or two, so here they are again!

Feature

http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/23910265/ Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:03:07 PDT

As a way of giving back the support, I do features of artists whose work I like. Today, I chose works I discovered in the past weeks, and which did receive little or no attention. So, if you enjoy this feature, drop by those awesome artists who made these precious gems of artwork!

Feature


Some pieces from my gallery:

Own works


http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/23173644/ Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:38:52 PST
I just discovered this great club :iconurbanexploration: UrbanExploration - Photography centered around old, forgotten places or things in this great news article.

The first time I came in contact with this genre was last year around summer, when I stumbled over a picture taken at the Beelitz Heilstätten near Berlin, Germany. The "Heilstätten" (healing places) is an abandoned hospital complex which was built between 1898 and 1930, and consists of 60 buildings covering an area of 200 ha. (Not sure if ha is used in Britain and the US, a hectare is a unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres (107,639 sq ft)). So, it is really huge!

These pictures touch me in many ways. I find it very saddening to see beautiful places like this with lovely architecture slowly decaying. Abandoned, forgotten, water coming in, everything falling apart ... sad indeed. But then there is this strange beauty the photographers manage to convey in their pieces - a dark, grungy beauty which is hard to analyse.

I have a strange connection to hospitals (for astrologers: Moon in the 12th house), having been hospitalised quite a few times at an early age, and later working in a hospital for nine years. So, these pictures strike a chord with me on a deep level which is hard to explain.

Included in the feature are not only the Heilstätten, but also photos from other forgotten places. Well, enough talking, take a look at these awesome pictures and let them speak for themselves!

Feature

=ValerianaSolaris Funny CSS Bug http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/22995441/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/22995441/ Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:39:23 PST

I haven´t done much crafting at all, I really need to update my business websites, but can´t come up with anything decent right now. Guess it is time to take a break from Gimp and HTML and do something completely different. At least I finished the design for the blog and came to a point where I was content. Feedback is always appreciated!

Valeriana´s Blog

Since I am so busy with something else, just some random lovely pieces I found on DA in the past weeks:

Feature





Some pieces from my gallery:

Own works





Polymer Clay:

http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/22976923/ Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:58:00 PST
Just a little update, I feel a bit better. I took a few days off of work, had some terrible nausea late the night I started to feel bad, but the next morning luckily it was gone. I had been taking Propolis in masses, it is a natural antibiotic produced by bees to keep their hive clean, and obviously does wonders :-)

Tomorrow it is back to work, usually I really love my work, but these days I´d rather play with clay :-)

Yesterday was the first day I really felt like claying since I got ill in December, and I am quite content with the outcome. I have a few more things in the works, and might get around to doing it by the end of the week.

Ah, and I switched my blog to Blogspot, it has some nice features Wordpress doesn´t, and a few things which are a lot more difficult to understand. So, here is the new address, it is still in German :-)

Valeriana´s Blog


Now it is time for some shameless self-promotion :-)

Here are some pieces from my stock account, :iconvalerianastock:

Feature


If you like to manipulate pictures (like I do), you might find some useful stuff there!





Some pieces from my gallery:

Own works


http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/22652179/ Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:08:35 PST
Just a little update, I feel a bit better. I took a few days off of work, had some terrible nausea late the night I started to feel bad, but the next morning luckily it was gone. I had been taking Propolis in masses, it is a natural antibiotic produced by bees to keep their hive clean, and obviously does wonders :-)

Tomorrow it is back to work, usually I really love my work, but these days I´d rather play with clay :-)

Yesterday was the first day I really felt like claying since I got ill in December, and I am quite content with the outcome. I have a few more things in the works, and might get around to doing it by the end of the week.

Ah, and I switched my blog to Blogspot, it has some nice features Wordpress doesn´t, and a few things which are a lot more difficult to understand. So, here is the new address, it is still in German :-)

Valeriana´s Blog


Now it is time for some shameless self-promotion :-)

Here are some pieces from my stock account, :iconvalerianastock:

Feature


If you like to manipulate pictures (like I do), you might find some useful stuff there!





Some pieces from my gallery:

Own works


http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/22570517/ Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:24:59 PST

Well, and there is the NEXT bug going around our town these days. Argh, I am really fed up with this! I got a call from a mother whose son is in the same class as my sons, and she told me he has a high fever and a stomach flu :( Bad thing is, all kids were together on Sunday to celebrate my sons birthdays. Lo and behold, one of my sons started throwing up last night and now is sick in bed. Hypochondriac as I am, someone just needs to mention a bug, and I start worrying about getting it, paying close attention to how I feel, listening to my body, looking for signs of the disease ... It doesn´t help that my sweetheart started to feel bad last night, too, and decided to stay home for today.

The bad thing is, I have to work today, and teach in the evening, and canceling all this is a bit of a hassle, besides me really not wanting to get sick again. The flu from Christmas still hasn´t completely resolved, either, but I keep hearing this from all other people who had it, they still feel sort of slugghish, tired and keep on coughing, I even experience joint pains and headaches once in a while, three weeks after the bug hit me. I think this is due to the toxins a virus produces, they tend to stay in the body a whole while longer and take a few months to really go away completely.

All this made me think how very vulnerable humans really are. There are these diseases that hit you from out of nowhere, accidents, losses - it is not easy to be human sometimes.

Well, I decided to cancel the morning appointments and see how I feel in two hours, if the strange feeling that I have in my stomach is due to my hypochondria or the bug :-)

The other thing that kept me busy in the past days was starting a blog :-) It is in German, so not really interesting for all you English speaking people. I realized how nice it is to actually write in my own native language instead of struggling to express myself in English.

It is mostly a blog about my digital artwork and polymer clay, so nothing there that you haven´t already seen. It might be interesting for people who are starting to work with clay, I wrote an article about some experiences I made with Fimo, hints and tricks so people don´t have to repeat my mistakes :-) I will even try my hand at a tutorial or two.

It can be found here:

Valeriana´s Blog

So, thank you all for listening to my ramblings and complaints, it always feels good to express myself, and life looks a little brighter after I did it :-)


Ongoing Feature: Artisan Crafts

Feature


http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/22448442/ Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:59:34 PST
I am slowly recovering from a bad case of flu I got during the holidays :( My sweetheart got sick on Christmas day, and I fell a day later. But before that we managed to infect six more people from our family. Talk about a nasty bug :(

So, instead of enjoying the holidays and having time for my artwork, I just felt miserable. I am still feeling weak and tired and have some leftover cough. I really do hate feeling that sick! The last flu I got was about 12 years ago. Well, I don´t think that justifies any flu shots :-)

What always cheers me up is the beautiful artwork here on DA, especially in the Artisan Crafts gallery. Please check out these lovely pieces!

Feature: Artisan Crafts

Feature

Some pieces from... ]]> =ValerianaSolaris Life is hectic! http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21941527/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21941527/ Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:30:38 PST
I do not know, every year in December things seem to speed up at an amazing pace. As much as I do love Christmas, the weeks before the date really put me under pressure. Getting the gifts together, baking cookies for my huge family, decorating things - this is truly a full time job, and not good if you already have a job :-) Well, I already have 12 more days to go, and will hopefully be able to finish everything right in time and also find some more time to work with my beloved clay.

I finally got around to do a new feature, the theme is Steampunk. If you do not know what Steampunk is, check out this Wikipedia article:

[link]

In the past year or so, I stumbled over some amazing pieces of artwork that intrigued me right away. Here is my collection of these inspiring pieces!

Feature: Steampunk

Feature










=ValerianaSolaris Still there :-) http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21899948/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21899948/ Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:47:01 PST

I spent some time today to make steampunkish Christmas Ornaments. I will have to patinate them and will upload some pictures as soon as I am finished.

Oh, and I sold my first item today on Dawanda! I am really happy about it. It is one of my steampunk eggs, actually the only one I put online. I find it kind of hard to part with things I made :-)

You can find my shop here:
[link]

Still not too many things in the shop, but selling the first item after a few weeks online is really great.

I did not have time for a new feature, but I still like looking at this one :-)

Feature




And finally some paintings and pictures I love:
http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21674748/ Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:08:42 PST :iconluna1693: won the Kiriban :-) Scroll down to see some of her cute charms!

I finally managed to set up my new shop at Dawanda! [link]

I uploaded just a few items there, but it is a start :-)

More treasures from the Artisan Crafts Gallery. Some of these are really underappreciated, so please go and check them out!

Feature




And finally some paintings and pictures I love:
<... ]]> =ValerianaSolaris Kiriban again and new feature http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21390384/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21390384/ Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:55:11 PST

Besides that, nothing special is happening. I am still working on my taxes (slowly, slowly). I guess I would finish the whole thing faster if I stopped rewarding myself with hourlong sessions of playing with polymer clay :-) But it is just too much fun. I have so many ideas that I would like to try out it with clay. My recent obsession is with old things, artifacts, bone carvings. Hopefully I will finish a pendant tomorrow!

It is also time for another feature. I just picked my recent favorites from the Artisan Crafts gallery. People do such amazing things, and I would love to share these great pieces with you:

Feature




Some pieces from my gallery:

Own works


=ValerianaSolaris Kiriban and ongoing feature http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21260515/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21260515/ Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:36:12 PDT
I have been playing this silly dragon egg game, which is a lot of fun! Here are my eggs and hatchlings :-)

Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today! Adopt one today!

Molly, our lost and returned cat, is doing great, and we are so happy to have her back. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and comments, it meant a lot to me!

It is also time to wrap up the feature series, enjoy the final feature of my watchers!

Feature


:iconwonenownlee:


:iconkitra13:


:icongoddesspsyche:


:iconoptimisticxpessimist:


:iconjohnnata:


:iconcoldenhaulfield: =ValerianaSolaris Our cat is back! http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21158187/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21158187/ Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:00:19 PDT
Well, it is still hard to believe for me, but we got our cat Molly back! As I wrote yesterday, we lost her during our vacation in May, heard nothing for months, or got false alarms. A kind woman had finally seen her, and started feeding her, so we knew where we had to look. It took us a whole hour until Molly very shyly emerged from the bushes, so we could pick her up and take her home with us. I am so relieved and happy!

I expected her to be terrified and hide in the corner for the next few days, but she obviously was so happy to be back, remembered where everything was, and finally relaxed on the sofa :-)

Thank you all for your kind words and support!



It is also time to continue the feature series, enjoy this one!

Feature


:iconkweenchua:




:icon4everlove-sesshomaru:




:iconhellzbellz666:




:iconhalirita:




:iconcleody:




http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21142341/ Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:19:42 PDT
As some older watchers might remember, our cat Molly got lost during our vacation in May. We got a few phone calls from people, but nobody had actually found our cat. Then, after months, someone called and said she had seen our cat, very near to the house we had stayed in during the vacation. She said the cat was very shy, and she was not able to spot her again. I really wanted our cat back, but the way this woman described the circumstances, I felt it did not make sense to drive up to the place again.

We stayed in contact, though, and it now seems that Molly reliably comes to a certain place to get fed, and my sweetheart and me decided to give it a try and go to Friedrichskoog again and hopefully return with our cat. I am so excited, with a mixture of fear that we will not be able to catch her, and hope we will manage to get her back. Please, keep all your fingers crossed that we will succeed, I really miss having her back home.



It is also time to continue the feature series, enjoy this one!

Feature


:iconkweenchua:




:icon4everlove-sesshomaru:




:iconhellzbellz666:




:iconhalirita:




:iconcleody:

http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/21049642/ Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:28:30 PDT :iconvalerianastock:.

I will upload a few pictures here, but promised, I will refrain from mass uploads :-)

How have you all been doing?

It is also time to continue the feature series, enjoy this one!

Feature

Who watches the watchers, Feature 5

:iconpiggies-in-a-blanket:


:iconaquanina:


:iconlobotomized:


:iconhomeyggothess:


:iconamalym:


:iconartwyrd:
http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/20919162/ Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:53:00 PDT
I have been busy the past days with my work and enjoying myself with polymer clay in my free time. And I went to get a concession to sell my self-made stuff :-) Here in Germany everything is regulated, so you need to get that first, which I did, and I am very happy about it. I will set up a Dawanda shop in the next few months, and really look forward to that.

But first I will take another trip to the Schlei region in Schleswig-Holstein and visit the places I missed on my last trip, like Haithabu, were the Vikings settled ages ago, and the Gottorf castle museum with bog bodies, yeah :-)

In the meantime, enjoy part 4 of my Watcher´s Features!

Feature

Who watches the watchers, Feature 4

:icont3hdumi:


:iconskookyspry:


:iconjilliejakes:


:iconcraftyforeverdesigns:


:iconayumidesign:


:iconcandarama-crafts:
=ValerianaSolaris Winning a contest! and Features http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/20803631/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/20803631/ Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:56:54 PDT
I even catch myself thinking about setting up an online shop to sell some of my polymer clay pieces. I produce so much, I can hardly wear all this (unless I want to look like a christmas tree :-)) So, I would love your honest feedback, does it make sense to offer some pendants, brooches and necklaces etc? I would most likely put them up on Dawanda, an online shop similar to Etsy which is stationed in Europe.

Another great thing: I won my first contest here on DeviantArt, with this photomanipulation:



I am so happy about it! The lovely :iconclayette: was so kind to give out a one year subscription as a prize :-)

Now to the continuing feature of the nice people who watch me.

Feature


Who watches the watchers, Feature 3

:iconaurorephoenix:


:iconBattlestarGalacticat


:iconcitrus-wedding:


:iconprok-art:


:iconmothermayijewelry:
=ValerianaSolaris 4000 pageviews :-) and ongoing feature http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/20725496/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/20725496/ Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:23:34 PDT

andy3179 :iconandy3179: was the lucky one to be my 4000th visitor, and I would like to feature some of his photography! Check out his lovely gallery!





Still featuring the people who watch me. It is a Thank you! to all those nice people who care enough about my works to want to have them in their message box all the time, and who take the time to comment and fave my pieces.

In the weeks to come, I will feature my watchers as they appear in my list.


Feature


:iconrockyb123:


:icondannscreations:


:iconkirstipoo:


:iconmelina33:
=ValerianaSolaris Who watches the Watchers? Feature 2 http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/20697167/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/20697167/ Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:31:18 PDT
Seeing that I am close to 4000 pageviews (!wow!), I would like to give out a Kiriban to the one who takes a screenshot of the 4k pageview. Just in case the 4k gets missed, send in your 4001, or 4002, or even the 4003 :-)

I would like to feature the lucky winner in my journal!

Another feature of the people who watch me. It is a Thank you! to all those nice people who care enough about my works to want to have them in their message box all the time, and who take the time to comment and fave my pieces.

In the weeks to come, I will feature my watchers as they appear in my list.


Feature


:iconrockyb123:


:icondannscreations:


:iconkirstipoo:


:iconmelina33:


:iconroyal-purple:


:iconluna1693:
http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/20594630/ Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:41:07 PDT
In the weeks to come, I will feature my watchers as they appear in my list.

On a personal note, I have not been feeling well physically in the past weeks, sluggish and tired. Despite that, I am working on more polymer clay jewelry and hugely enjoy that :-)


Feature


:iconsalembaby:


:icontabbygirl01:


:iconjemnisimi:


:iconakascha:


:iconfebruarybornsuicide:


:iconsojourncuriosities:
http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/20319232/ Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:27:40 PDT
[link]

My sister, my sister-in-law and me took an organized bus trip from Hamburg and visited several beautiful places around the Schlei.

Of course I took my camera with me, and uploaded the best pics from the trip in my gallery.

It is also time for a new feature, subject is fabric, including some leather and bead works. I have been fascinated by textile and bead art for a while now, and would like to present some beautiful pieces. I especially like bead embroidered felt. Maybe I will take a try at this technique, even though I am really untalented when it comes to using a needle and a thread :-)

Feature

http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/20113077/ Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:30:20 PDT

We had a gorgeous time in France, driving more than 3800 km with our caravan, seeing lots of wonderful places and meeting really nice people. We stayed in the Provence, visited the Lac de St. Croix, the Verdon canyon where we took a small canoe trip on the Verdon, and went to towns like Sisteron, Valensole, Riez, Trigance and Buffard.

Very impressing was also the stay in the Abbey of Thoronet, built in 1146 by some Cistercien monks. It has wonderful acoustics, which were demonstrated by a guide who went through the whole church singing a religious chant, which simply blew me away.

We took advantage of a great program started by caravan enthusiasts called "France Passion". Local farmers, wine growers, beekeepers and lavender destilleries offer the opportunity to stay on their land for one night for free. To enter the program, all you have to pay is 28 Euros to get the catalog with the list of all places in France you can stay at.

This way, we went to places we would never have visited, far away from the tourist paths, and really got a nice insight into the rural life in France. Most places where just great, really calm, in a beautiful countryside.

Sadly, the lavender fields had just been harvested, but we got the chance to stay at a lavender destillery for one night and were surrounded by this wonderful scent :-)

Germany and Hamburg in particular greeted us with terrible weather, today it stopped raining for only 20 minutes.

And Lilly, our cat, brought home a tiny bunny last night. The poor thing was soaking wet and scared to death. It does not seem to have any injuries, and we kept it warm and dry in a cat box.

The vet recommended setting it free as soon as it had recovered, which we tried in the 20 minutes it stopped raining today. I set down the box in the small area in front of our house, no buildings are there, just trees and grass. After three hours, the bunny was still inside :(

So we organized a huge rabbit cage, filled it with hay and everything, and put the poor thing in there. It doesn´t do much, and I am really unsure what to do. I am hoping it will recover, so we can try to get it back outside again in the next days.

As much as I love cats, their hunting of small animals is a terrible habit. I lost count of how many mice I tried to save in the past two years. The last one managed to escape into the kitchen, and I found it two weeks later in a closet under the sink. It had built a small nest in an air humidifier I had stored there, chewed on every cleaning rag it could get its tiny paws on, and obviously had a great time there :-) Luckily, it still was in the humidifier, so I could easily move the small thing out.

The mouse before that one managed to climb up the curtains and looked down on me from the curtain rod.

So, keep your fingers crossed the little bunny will make it, and stay tuned as I will upload some pics from our vacation in France.

UPDATE: Sadly, the bunny passed away last night :(

Some pieces from my gallery:

Own works


Pictures from our France vacation this summer:


Polymer Clay Works:

=ValerianaSolaris Back and Feature http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/19728671/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/19728671/ Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:55:35 PDT
Next week, we will rent a caravan and head to France, mainly the Provence. I never tried caravaning, and am really excited about it. Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well, I just know a few French words and hope we will get along with that :-)

Time for a feature, too! The first work by :iconmelina33: inspired me to do a polymer clay/sculpture/3D arts thingie feature.

Features


=ValerianaSolaris Finally, Journal in CSS! http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/19041775/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/19041775/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:34:53 PDT CSS:
After months of being discontent with the style of the site´s layout, I finally spent some time today to research a bit of CSS!

I used coding ideas from TrashyDragons´s rainforest template and kuschelirmel-stock´s CSS tutorial, modified them to my needs and made my own little header and footer with a close-up of my turquoise mokume gane piece and some brushes from surfing-ant.

TrashyDragon and kuschelirmel-stock also have some very nice free complete CSS journals available for anybody who has a subscription.

Or browse DA in the following section:

Journal CSS


News about our lost cat
Besides that, a girl called today, she had seen a black and white cat in the place where we lost our cat Molly during our vacation in May.

She will check up on her tomorrow and give us a call. Please, keep all your fingers crossed that this cat is Molly!! I really had given up hope to find her again, and now there is a little chance we might get her back!

A few recent pictures I enjoyed:

Features







Finally, some pieces from me :-) :

Own works




Be blessed, everyone http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18916260/ Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:06:00 PDT
ValerianaSTOCK :iconvalerianastock:

Now I am really tired after uploading 80 pics :-)

A little feature of some great pet shots:



Clubs:
:iconsemi-sweeties: :iconartisancraft: :iconmadeby-me: :iconjewelryclub:

My stock account:
:iconvalerianastock: ]]> =ValerianaSolaris Majorelle Gardens - Jardin Majorelle http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18748133/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18748133/ Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:21:39 PDT
I was just blown away by these lovely pictures! Certainly a place I would like to see in real life in the future!



Clubs:
:iconsemi-sweeties: :iconartisancraft: ]]> =ValerianaSolaris Dragon Mood http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18646521/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18646521/ Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:25:39 PDT

Just a little feature about great artists showing great creatures!



Ah, and I forgot ... thanks so much you all for more than 2.000 pageviews!

Clubs:
:iconsemi-sweeties: :iconartisancraft: ]]> =ValerianaSolaris I got featured! http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18462393/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18462393/ Fri, 23 May 2008 11:50:18 PDT :iconchat-noir: for submitting the 100th entry for the Semi-Sweeties club :-)

Please, check out her lovely gallery, and if you like tiny polymer clay cakes and sweets, check out :iconsemi-sweeties: , too!

Clubs:
:iconsemi-sweeties: :iconartisancraft: ]]> =ValerianaSolaris Lost our cat :( http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18345757/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18345757/ Fri, 16 May 2008 02:15:19 PDT

We took our cats with us on a short trip to Friedrichskoog, where we spent a few nice and sunny days. She ran away shortly after we arrived, which really cast a sad shadow on the holidays.

Despite searching her everywhere, we had to leave the place without her after five days. Not knowing what happened is sad and frustrating.

I haven´t given up hope completely, we just sent some posters to some nice people there who promised to hang them up, and I made some online ads with pictures of her.

She was a very dear cat, following us around wherever we went, so it is particularly unusual of her to just vanish.

Please, keep your fingers crossed that someone will find her!

]]> =ValerianaSolaris Jewelry Feature http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18048221/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/18048221/ Sun, 27 Apr 2008 03:21:09 PDT
Izile:

sojourncuriosities:

UniquelyYours:

Nambroth:

Lothlorienn:

Kiwiken:

catwhoplayswithglass:

zayday:

jemnisimi:

njadean:

Luna-Rose:

NycterisA:

SPIglassStudio:

I still don´t know how to add a nice background to my journal :( If someone could help me out, it would be greatly appreciated! ]]> =ValerianaSolaris Polymer Clay Feature http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17644859/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17644859/ Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:10:46 PDT
I would like to show some great polymer clay and sculpture artists, some just don´t get the attention they deserve, so please check out these wonderful submissions!



]]> =ValerianaSolaris Stand with Tibet - Support the Dalai Lama http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17536088/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17536088/ Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:21:09 PDT
I decided that supporting Tibet via featuring art here in my journal is worth a subscription, so look at some beautiful pictures of Tibet from various artists below. Also, if you would like to support the Dalai Lama, check the end of this journal for an online petition.




This site offers the opportunity to sign an online petition to the Chinese Government:

[link]

From the site:

"After decades of repression, Tibetans are crying out to the world for change. China's leaders are right now making a crucial choice between escalating brutality or dialogue that could determine the future of Tibet, and China.

We can affect this historic choice -- China does care about its international reputation. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get the government's attention. The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has called for restraint and dialogue: he needs the world's people to support him. Fill out the form below to sign the petition--and spread the word.

1,095,843 have signed - 1 million target reached in just 7 days! Petition delivery in 4 days - Help us get to 2,000,000"

]]> =ValerianaSolaris Another club! http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17397496/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17397496/ Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:33:40 PDT :iconartisancraft:

Besides that, not much to report - I didn´t feel like crafting the past days. I am waiting for the muse to kiss me to finish my Wizard´s Workshop.


Clubs:
:iconsemi-sweeties: :iconartisancraft:

]]> =ValerianaSolaris My first club http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17195620/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17195620/ Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:38:47 PST

"Semi-sweeties" is for all those cute little polymer clay cakes and sweets

:iconsemi-sweeties:

Check out the site at

[link]

]]> =ValerianaSolaris Pink! http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17142117/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17142117/ Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:55:57 PST One of these "I feel like an 11 year old"-days, I guess ...

So I decided to take some macro shots of my various polymer clay cakes. Hope they brighten your day like they did mine!

Maybe I should do some macro shots of my Polly Pockets? :-)

]]> =ValerianaSolaris Funny Game! http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17023220/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/17023220/ Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:06:06 PST

RULES:
1) Answer the questions below.
2) Take each answer and type it into dA search box.
3) Take a deviation from the first page of results (may use "popular" or "newest") and post the thumb (for subscribers) or link (non-subscribers).
4) You can't copy the answers of the person who posted this before you.

1. The age you will be on your next birthday: 46 [link]

2. A place you'd like to travel: Tibet [link]

3. Your favorite place: In my heart [link]

4. Your favorite object: Mokume gane - I love my recent jewelry :-)
[link]

5. Favorite food: Exotic food [link]

6. Your favorite animal: Cat [link]

7. Your favorite color: Pink [link] and Turquoise [link]

8. The town/state/etc. in which you live: Hamburg, Germany [link] and [link]

9. Name of past pet: Shiva [link]

10. A dream come true: Find my new house [link]

11. Your nickname/screenname: Valeriana [link]

12. Middle name: none [link]

13. Favorite Smell: Patchouli [link]

14. Bad habit of yours: Chocolate [link]

15. Your first job: Healing [link]

16. (Recent) Favourite Movie: Secondhand Lions [link]

17. What are you doing right now? Typing :-) [link]

18. What's the weather like? Mild and sunny [link]

19. Favourite Sport: Bicycling [link]

20. Favourite Music/Style/Band: Tibetan Singing Bowls [link]

]]> =ValerianaSolaris Sunshine! http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/16795511/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/16795511/ Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:50:15 PST

Hope you all enjoy yourself on this lovely day!

]]> =ValerianaSolaris Update http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/16390086/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/16390086/ Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:20:04 PST

Be blessed, everyone!

]]> =ValerianaSolaris Never trust the Weather report http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/9800806/ http://ValerianaSolaris.deviantart.com/journal/9800806/ Mon, 21 Aug 2006 05:50:10 PDT =ValerianaSolaris