Sonia Focke

@soniafocke

SFF author & Egyptologist. Loves tiny 🫖, 🦋 & 🐙. Stories out in The Were-Traveler‘s „Women Destroy [Retro-] Sci-Fi“ edition, „Mirror, Mirror“, „Crunchy With Ketchup“, „Wyngraf #4“, „The Pelagic Zone: Uncharted Waters“, New Myths #70, GigaNotoSaurus 07/2025.

269 Following905 Followers1,427 Posts

Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and soniafocke.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· 18d

4. and also this chest from 1897 (it says so on the front) replacing a significantly less pretty chest (an old munitions box).

Lovely chest holding a TV and Xbox One. It is light brown wood with a naive-style floral decoration burned into it and painted with simple colours. At the centre, a heart flanked by the date „1897“. Very observant people might notice the edges of two steamer trunks flanking it.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· 19d

This gorgeous farmer‘s chest replacing the white bench that used to be under the swords, which itself replaced two IKEA nightstands. Now we just need a solution for the things stuffed around it. 😂

Beautiful wooden chest with a curved lid, wedged berwen a high-footed chest of drawers and a vacuum cleaner. The chest is painted a dark brown, with flowers in an urn on the lid and more strewn along the front.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· 22d

2. In our hallway, a nice long chest for storing shoe-cleaning stuff and bags, and sitting down when putting on shoes. Replaces a not-ugly but not exceptional white bench-chest we got from Lidl or Aldi or something. Yes, the swords are real, my husband made them. The one on the right is mine.

A hallway. Under a gold-framed mirror flanked by two swords in leather sheaths attached to wooden boards, a long oak-coloured chest with black metal hinges and octogonal paneling along the front.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· 22d

Various glow-ups to our furniture we have gotten for free on Kleinanzeigen (German Craigslist): 1. Actually not from Kleinanzeigen; our neighbours moved out & left this. Little magazine stand cum table on wheels, replaces an ugly white tea wagon as our living room table. Comes with storage!

Little table on wheels with 1980s style cream-coloured tiles, three of which have little flowers on them. Charming 1980s, not brown 1980s. Sitting on it is a tea-for-one set with strawberry pattern for scale.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· 23d

New tea set, summer themed!

Tea-for-one set with strawberry pattern on a white background. There is tea in the cup.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· 23d

Most Germans own one. They‘re terrifying & really practical; you can also slice hard cheeses & salami with it.

An Amazon entry for an electric bread to cutting machine. It‘s black with circular saw wheels and a plastc wedge to apply pressure on the poor, hapless bread.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· 28d

Another bookmark, with a lil‘ guy.

Bookmark with a purple dinosaur, with pink sunset-lighting highlights. It it standing on its hind legs snd has spikes running up its tail and spine. Above its nose horn, a tiny heart hovers. The background is light blue. Below, in cursive script, the word „Imagine“ in black with pink backlighting.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· 29d

Gaze in awe upon the bounty of our garden! (They need more space next year 😂)

My hand holding about half a dozen tiny zucchinis. Zucchininis. Zuchinnilets. Zucchinichens.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Jul 14

Moar art! I got a flower press because ADHD, and now I need to figure out what to do with the pressed flowers… Alcohol marker, felt pen and nature.

A bookmark with a brown rat or mouse drawn in alcohol marker. It’s standing on its hind legs and holding a deep blue, bell-like pressed flower. Underneath, in purple ligatured writing, the words „Sweet Adventures“

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Jul 12

More from the getting back into art front! A farmhouse at the Bauernhausmuseum Erding, in alcohol marker, coloured pencil, black pen, and accents in acrylic pen. Despite the shadows it still feels a bit flat. Will work on it.

Gable of a white farmhouse with a red roof. There are two floors of windows with green window frames and shutters on the two left windows of the ground floor. On the right, a wicker garden fence, with a wagon wheel leaning against the house wall next to it. Before the house, two more wagon wheels and a plow. In the foreground, a gravel path and meadow flowers.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Jul 11

I‘ve been getting back into art & experimenting with alcohol markers & coloured pencils. Accents with gel pen and acylic marker. I bought a pack of bookmarks as a small, low-stakes medium. I leave my bookmarks in books for the next time I read them, so the art won’t just sit around.

Bookmark with a marker painting of a pink-flowering bush at the edge of a path. There are yellow meadow flowers in the foreground.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Apr 5

Happy Easter!

Two Easter baskets on a marble floor. The baskets are cardboard, painted white, with potch decirations. The obe on the left has daffodils and butterflies, the one on the right cute lil bunnies. They are, of course, filled with Easter chocolate.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Feb 28

First picknick of the year! Plum-cinnamon tisane in one of my travel tea sets, because why have travel sets if you don’t travel with them?

On the grass, a scattering of small tupperwares filled with crackers, cheese and ham. In the foreground, an azure-blue travel tea set with a gaiwan-style pot and two small cups filled with a tisane.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Feb 17

Family crafts: kawaii creatures tutorial book. By me, Kid1 (10) & Kid2 (6). Guinea pig and bunny. Kid1 was so enthused he took the book to bed and drew a whole bunch more!

Three sketchbooks showing varyingly successful attempts at a kawaii-style guines pig and bunny. Mine also has a sugar glider, bat, and bunny side-view. They are all frickin‘ adorable.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Feb 13

Aaaand here they are.

Two costumes lying on the couch, emty, deflated, awaiting life. On the left, Thor: red cape, black t-shirt with silver-fishscale sleeves, a black faux-leather vest with six silver round things and silver fish-scale pants. On the right, Iron Man: red and gold mask, gold long-sleeved t-shirt, sparky red faux-leather vest with straps to simulate the armour parts and a LED for the Arc reactor. Pants are golds with red sparly bits sewn on. No gloves because I‘m not masochistic.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Jan 30

Tag yourself. I‘m REQUIRE A PILOT

Navy signalling flag from a book. The flag six vertical alternating yellow and black stripes. The legend below says in all caps „REQUIRE A PILOT“

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Jan 22

This is Huginn and Muginn. They came to the party late but are certified Cheeky Bastards™️. One time, since I had only seen them once or twice, I once gave Susan & Quothe the last of the treats. These two followed me halfway to work in indignant protest. They are very curious about me.

Two corvids on a patch of grass. One is feigning disinterest at some distance but the other is cocking their head at me only a few feet away, wondering if they beg more treats off of me.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Jan 22

In light of *gestures to the world in general* here are some Crow Friend pics. This is the 1st pair, Susan & Quothe. They are Suspicious Bastards ™️. They took a while to warm up to me & still aren‘t 100% convinced. Quothe is a bully who sends Susan to scout & then won’t let Susan eat. 1/2

Two corvids on a patch of grass. The left one is cawing, the right suspiciously eyeing the Weird Camera Thing.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Jan 21

I‘ve gotten help for both kids (yay!) but now stare at my appointments calender and weep. Here‘s more tea.

On a wrought-iron balcony table, a tray with a flower-patterned bowl of green grapes. Beside it, a small teapot with matching cup upside-down over its lid in the same pattern as the bowl and two spouted gaiwan sets wirh matching bowls in blue and green celadon respectively.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Jan 5

Iiiiiiiiiii! I saw a Europasaurus and am now obssessed with this pocket long-necked dinosaur. Found in northern Germany, it’s an example of island dwarfism!!!

Mounted skeleton of a Europasaurus in front of a painted backdrop. It is a long-necked sauropod only a bit taller than a tall person (but about as tall as a basketball player).

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Dec 22

Hope you like gingerbread!

Gingerbread men with Smartie buttons on a tray.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Dec 14

Chappy Channukah!

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Nov 1

My husband‘s Halloween costume this year! Bodysuit and mask are store-bought, the rest of the costumre by moi.

Man wearing a Skeletor costume from Masters of the Universe.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Oct 13

Okay, so I needed to organise my pens and sewing supplies. The shelves and the bottom left jars are from last month. I found the blue-patterned jars this time - 5€ for the spice jars (they‘re labelled in Plattdüütsch!) & 12€ for the onion & garlic jars, then 2€ for the jug. Total money spent: 20€

Dark brown wooden spice rack standing on a wooden surface against a tiled wall. The top shelf has five smallish round spice jars and a tall convex jar in a blue pattern of four-petaled flowers on long stalks, called „Indisch blau“. Scissors peek out of the top. The bottom shelf has a tall rectangular jar with a frieze of blue flowers just below the lid, then three with a pattern of wreatjs and roses with their lids off to show art pens. Then another convex jar in Indisch blau and a tea tin. Under the shelf are the lids of the open jars, in the foreground before it an orange vintage toy sewing machine and a milk jug in Indisch blau holding pens.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Oct 13

This pretty tub is perfect for my sketchbook and the books I‘m reading, which otherwise tend to colonise the couch armrests. This way I can still see them from the couch & remember to read! (ADHD hack) 2€, total money spent so far: 3€

Small dark brown wooden tub with folk art painted decoration, holding seceral books including „Glasgow Boys“ by Margaret Macdonald.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Oct 13

More finds: this little blue vase is perfect for our pens in the kitchen, AND it was in a „free to take“ box! Total money spent so far: 1€

On a kitchen counter, goblet-shaped vase in white glaze with blue flowers in a traditional „folk art“ style, between a tin decorated like Quimper ware and a copper tub.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Oct 12

Flea market finds! These three (+ a wall decal not pictured) for 1€! The little tin and ceramic saucer with the painted grapes will keep our pepper mill from spreading pepper dust all over the counter, the dish will be a plant tray and the hen egg cup will join our Easter decotation.

On a ceramic hot plate, a little tin saucer with a porcelain center painted with a bunch of grapes, a blue-and-white dish in the Chinese style with raised sides and a white egg cup in the shape of a hen with pink tail, wattle, and comb.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Oct 10

Both my kids are really creative. K1 invented the „Strawberryfant“ and we both had to draw him. This is my take 😁 Alcohol marker, acrylic marker and coloured pencil. The eye is felt-tipped pen.

A drawing of one of those big, flat strawberried with several tips - three in this case, forming the trunk and two legs. The ear and tail are bumps, the eye is shaped like a seed. His expression is slightly exasperated as he eyes the leaf hat on top of his head.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Sep 28

I kept meaning to post last year‘s book list - here it is! This year‘s is twice as look - I have my reading mojo back!

Page from a Journal. In the center „Books 2024“, the B and K looking like book spines. The titles are all in more or less fancy script: Harrow the 9th, Nons the 9th, Moon Called, Blood Bound, Ricer Marked, Night Broken, Alpha and Omega, Monstrous Regiment, Good Omens, Death‘s End, All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse, Arsène Lupin, Sorcerer to the Crown, Bookshops and Bonedust, Persuasion, Emma, Manfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Sense & Sensibility, Little White Lies, I have Your Nimber, Call of the Wild, Twelve Sharp, Death on the Nile, Mystic City, Have His Carcase, Murder Must Advertise and Gaudy Night.

Sonia Focke@soniafocke· Sep 9

Hello #GoodOmens fans - my Little Free Library had the (hetero) French equivalent! Sept jours pour une éternité (7 days for an eternity) by Marc Lévy. God & Satan have made a bet: 7 days to see if good or evil wins on earth. But what happens when their agents, Zofia & Lucas, fall for each other?