Yay! I won!

Last friday I joined a give-away over at “small caps“. Sabrina posted a photo of her keychain and you had to guess what is it. As I grew up in a print shop that wasn‘t so hard for me: It‘s a linotype matrix.

So I joined in - just for the fun of it. AND I WON! That‘s so cool! Many Thanks!!!
So in the next couple of days I‘ll get a Surprise Package with some of her lovely stuff. I‘m so excited and really looking foward to it. Yay!
I'll let you know when it arrives here.


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Letzten Freitag hab bei einem Give-Away mitgemacht. Drüben bei "Small Caps". Sabrina hat ein Bild ihres Schlüsselanhänger gepostet und man durfte raten was es ist.
Da ich ja praktisch in einer Druckerei aufgewachsen bin fiel mir das nicht wirklich schwer: Es ist natürlich eine Liotype Matritze.
Also hab ich mitgemacht - und GEWONNEN! Das fetzt - Vielen Dank nochmal!!!!!
In den nächsten Tagen wird sich also ein Überraschungspäckchen mit wunderhübschen Sachen zu mir auf den Weg machen. Ich freu mich drauf!
Ich lass es euch wissen, wenn's hier ankommt.

My Italian Escape

Ciao!

Since monday evening I'm in Bologna/Italy. My boyfriend lives here so I come down here every now and then. Actually I wanted to write this post some days ago but I guess the lovely sunshine kept me from writing.

My trip started with a self initiated thrill at the airport. As I had to kill four hours at Frankfurt Airport I wanted to work on some of my crochet flower appliques. The yarn should not be problem to get through security check. I wasn't sure about the crochet hook though. So I didn't pack my favorite hook (in case they wouldn't let me take in on board). Instead I packed a different one, which I could buy again easily (in contrast to my favorite hook, which I found in my grandma's old sewing basket). Last, but not least I had to pack a pair scissors. Here I was very sure I am not allowed to take these through security check. I considered my options. Tearing the yarn was not option as I use cotton twist, which just cannot be torn. I searched my room for a cheap pair of scissors, which could be discarded in the worst case. But how to get them through security check? I could put them in my bag openly and then point out how harmless they are and that I could have done a lot more damage with my door key. My experience told me discussions are daunting and often meant to lose and should be avoided in the first place. So I went though my hand luggage to find a spot to place the scissors to maybe hide them (although I was sure they'd be detected when my stuff was scanned). I decided to place them in the back pocket of Moleskine journal. If they'd be found I could still I forgot to take them out. The journal itself is wrapped in a knitted sleeve I made some time ago to prevent it from looking worn. It's no master piece, but I do like it:

With the scissors packed into back of journal, the journal wrapped into the knitted sleeve and the sleeved stuffed into my overloaded hand luggage I approached the security check and handed over my stuff to be scanned. And of course it happened, what was supposed to happen (anything else would have worried me). The lady, who scanned my stuff detected the scissors. She called her boss, an older guy. He came over to me and told me there are scissors somewhere in my bag. I put on my most innocent face and asked him "oh really? where are they?". So I opened my bag and let me look for them. I looked into the little pouch with my pens, checked my makeup pouch, shuffled everything upside down and did not find the scissors. I suggest to scan the bag again (being cooperative is always a good sign of innocence, isn't it). He scanned my bag again and triumphantly declared he found the scissors. So he opened my bag again I tried to find the spot where he just saw the scissors on the screen.... but he did not find them. He just did not open knitted sleeve (and I felt no urge to suggest that). I'm not even sure whether he realized that this is pocket. I believe, he took it as a weird cushion. So he told me to pack up my stuff and catch my flight. They are small scissors after all. Yay! I may keep my scissors. I do look harmless enough to have scissors with me! Success! I really used the time at Frankfurt Airport to get busy. This is what my little work space looked like: 

When I finally arrived in Bologna I was stunned by the temperature. After weeks (which are feeling like years) of horrible weather I completely forgot about the fact that there might be different conditions in different areas. My first thought was that I did not really pack for temperatures above 20°C. It turned out that I wouldn't really need many summer clothes. No, the weather did change to "german conditions", but I found myself with a couple of t-shirts and a thin trousers well dressed. Most time of my stay I occupied the garden. What a lovely place to work on appliques, read or just surf the internet! 

Today was different though. After breakfast Francesco (my boyfriend) suggest to have a walk in the city center. I found this very odd since he avoids it whenever he can. I'm happy about the suggestion though. I had a lovely day and actually the chance to take one of my handmade purses for a walk. We went to the city center by bus and then walked around a little. I was strong enough not to enter this cute little fabric shop we passed by. Then we walked to my most favorite shop. A shop of which I don't know the name. It is a boutique of dog accessories. Thus it is heaven for me. Don't get me wrong. My dog does not run around fancily dressed. Though I do like to get him fun toys, unique leashes, comfy beds and stylish transport boxes. My dog is still a dog, but a dog with his very own style. This time I didn't buy any toys though. My poor dog had an accident some days ago and his paw got squeezed and bruised and a claw got torn out. So I just bought some fun snacks to comfort him (or rather to comfort me and calm my bad conscience). He is looking pretty pathetic, isn't he: 

After the stop at the dog boutique we walked on to my favorite ice cream place. I believe it is called "Stefino". I love, love, love their ice cream. I apologize for the bad photos. I took them with my phone and its camera isn't helpful at all. 

Finally, we walked to the street market. Actually, we didn't want to go there but somehow we ended up strolling through it. Nice clothes, nice shoes but I didn't lose myself... until I came across a little booth with fabric. I didn't spend a fortune (I had the weight of my luggage in mind). So I just bought one meter of blue/white checkered fabric. I think I'll just for lining small purses. 

Well, I believe that is it. I didn't get anything done today, but had a great day anyways. 

Ciao!

Gift Tags

After Kathrin already posted some things here, it‘s time for me to tell you what I‘ve been up to over the last couple of weeks.

Instead of dealing with my stuff for university I mostly did one thing: gift tags - big tags, small tags, many tags. If I‘d use all of them for myself I guess I‘d probably be having enough tags for the next three or four years.
However, I'm planning to add them to our Etsy-Store some time soon.



My first attempts in making tags kind of failed. The edges were frayed or the punching tie simply refused to work at all. Also I experimented with my hand-carved stamps. Some of those tags came out quite nicely, but I had trouble assesing how intense the colors would come out on the different kinds paper I used.



So for now I returned to making really simple tags without any frills and leave the embellishments to our customers.
For the tags I recycled invitation card from parents‘ printshop which otherwise would have been thrown away.



Oh and by the way: Sorry about the photos - They‘re not great. Guess we‘ll have to do them again.

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Nachdem Kathrin in den letzten Wochen schon fleißig war, wirds Zeit, dass ich hier auch mal was von mir hören, bzw. Sehen lasse.

Statt mich in den letzten Wochen mit meinem Studium zu befassen hab viel lieber eines gemacht: Gift Tags - Kleine Gift Tags, große Gift Tags, viele Gift Tags.
Wenn ich alle für mich selbst verwenden würde, hätte ich nach vorsichtigen Schätzungen genügend Geschenkanhänger für die nächsten 3 bis 4 Jahre.
Ich plane allerdings einige demnächst in unseren Etsy-Store zu setzen.

Die ersten Versuche in Sachen Geschenkanhängern waren sowohl in Ausführung als auch Gestaltung noch etwas „unbeholfen“. Ecken waren ausgefranst, oder die Stanzform versagte zwischenzeitlich den Dienst. Ich habe außerdem mit meinen selbstgestalteten Stempeln experimentiert, einige Anhänger sind auch ganz nett geworden, aber ich hatte Probleme einzuschätzen wie intensiv die Farben auf den verschiedenen Papieren färben würde.
Also bin ich erst einmal wieder dazu übergegangen ganz simple Ausführungen herzustellen. Und das gestalten den geneigten Käufern zu überlassen.

Ich habe für die Anhänger übrigens Hochzeits- und Einladungskarten aus der Druckerei meiner Eltern recycelt. Sie eignen sich dafür wirklich hervorragend.

Oh und sorry wegen der Bilder: Sie sind leider nicht so nett geworden wie erwartet, werden wir wohl doch noch mal machen müssen.

What Is Wrong With Me?!

Yesterday I drove to parents' place to stay there for a couple of days. Packing was interesting. It took about one hour: 15 minutes to pack my clothes, 20 minutes to pack to stuff my dog needs (food and such) and almost 30 minutes to pack fabric, wool and knitting/crocheting needles! What is wrong with me???

Oh, by the way: two days ago I finished a fabric notebook cover for Birgit's Moleskine notebook. It's not done nicely since I had troubles with the sewing machine to sew the layers of fabric. I like it anyways.

The Sock Travels London and Kathrin Sews Dewdrop Handbags

I'm actually back from London. The volcano decided not release more ash until I was back home. Pity. I wouldn't have minded some more days in London.

Anyways, we (my mum, my little cousin, the sock and me) had a great time. Rain only hit us on our last day so most of the time we actually had dry, but hurting feet. The sock's feet (?) were fine though. It only lost one eye. Oh, I didn't really say what "the sock" is all about!

Actually, it is pretty simple:

I borrowed a travel backpack from a friend. The night before we left I started to pack and went through all pockets of the backpack. In one tiny pocket I found a single sock. I showed it to Birgit and she suggested I should take the sock with me (since the sock was in the backpack we assumed it wanted to travel to London, too). Birgit handed me two plastic eyes and I attached them to the sock and we also added a little hat (a respirator). So this is what it looked like (I know, bad photo quality):

I took the time to make a "home" for the sock: a little paper bag. No big effort. I just printed "Sock Gone Wild" on a little paper bag:

I did my very best to take as many photos as possible with the sock. At times I felt a little weird standing in a crowd posing with the sock on my hand. The sock got around a lot: 

 

Unfortunately it lost one eye. I believe the eye got lost at Heathrow airport when I searched my handbag for my ID card. 

Even though I was sad to leave London, I looked forward to start sewing again. Since my sewing machine is still waiting to be fixed, Birgit gave me her old GDR sewing machine (which is just as good as a new one). As pointed out in the previous post, I altered the pattern of the reversible bag. Now it is about twice as big and with longer straps. This is the result: 

My next sewing project was real fun. I came across http://www.keykaloupatterns.com/ and instantly fell in love with the Dewdrop Handbags. I made two bags. The first one looks kinda out of shape. I'm more happy with the second one. Still, the seams are not sewn tidily. I'm still working on that. Anyways, I do love them and will make more of them!