Yay! We Were Featured!

Last friday Birgit and me were featured on Crafts Missus D! How exciting! Click here to read the interview.

Sending a big "thank you" and lots of smiles to Kathleen of Craft Missus D! =)

What Is On My Wall?

Crafty MissusD just wrote a blog post and asked what her readers have on their wall. I quickly took a shot of a particular part of my wall:

The post card in the middle shows Martin Luther  and famous quote of him: "Das gedruckte Wort hat Macht" ("the printed word has power"). I love this quote a lot and believe it is true. Once something is written it is kinda "official".

The ever-developing collage

I haven‘t been posting much in the last time as I have been busy with exams, holidays and my mum‘s birthday. But now I‘m back and I would like to show you our ever-developing collage.
It's put on our kitchen wall next to a little table which we already had when we were kids.
Kathrin started the about 3 years ago by taping newspaper clippings on the backside of an old calendar.

I loved the idea and joined in developing it. So every couple of months one of us takes out the scissors and some old magazines and spends an hour or two with our collage.
Yesterday it hit me again. This is what it looked like before I started:
Two hours and later and a messy kitchen floor later ...

... it looked like this:Now after 3 years the poster is almost full. I guess I should start thinking about what to do when it is finally filled.

Recap And Weekend Outlook

What a day! Today our printable To-Do list got featured in the printable roundup on OnePrettyThing! How exciting! I'm so happy I can share my list with so many people!

In the early afternoon I listed a crochet circle brooch on Etsy which I just finished this morning.

I like the brooch a lot as the circles are tightly sewn together and stay in shape nicely. The choice of colors was rather random. Usually I just grab into my yarn box and let destiny decide. Sometimes I grab one color randomly and match the other colors. Lately I also started to collect pictures which nice colors. I put them in a folder on my computer screen use them for inspiration.

Some minutes ago I listed my first bag. The type of bag I named "Happy Bag".  I know, it's a pretty stupid name but it makes me so happy to make them! The listed bag is ready-to-ship and it needs all my strength not to use it myself. I felt I had to point out in the product description that I could not sell anything I wouldn't use myself. It is true! I still use the first prototype of the "Happy Bag". I'm still amazed how much can be put into the bag... and how nice it looks on my arm!

Now it is almost bedtime but one last thing I gotta say: I'm so excited for the weekend! Two lovely markets will take place in Leipzig and I just can't wait to visit them. The bigger and little bit more exciting one will take place on saturday and is called "Westpaket". I hope to write more about it next week. I'm planning to take my camera (and my prototype bag) with me. On sunday I'll be quite busy. In the late morning I'll visit the "Daschendiescher" market with is a small but very well selected craft market. In the afternoon I'll have to split myself in half as I got two BBQ invitations. I hope I'll make it to both! 

Challenging Shots – Dog and Toddler Taking Over The Set

Long time no post! What happened? Well, weather is nice and work spirits are high (not so high for Birgit as she preparing for exams). I've been a busy bee though. During the last week I made some of my favorite bags (oh, how much I love to make them!). I can make one bag a day. If my dog would require my attention I could make two. No way to blame him though. He is just too cute and lovely. I mean, could you mad at a doggie which is interested in dog magazines:

But back to bags! After I made some last week Birgit and me went to our parents' place for the weekend. My parents have a lovely garden and I hoped for nice weather so I could take photos oft the bags in their garden. Friday and saturday sucked. The weather wasn't really bad but no proper sunshine.  I prefer sunshine because the light and atmosphere are a lot more relaxing. Sunday compensated though. For lunch our aunt and cousin with his girlfriend and baby son were invited for lunch. We had a lovely BBQ and went from lunch to coffee and spent all afternoon in the garden. 

After lunch I wanted to take the photos. Some years ago our dad built a little bridge over the "trench" in our garden. Why we have a trench in our garden? Don't ask! Endless story! Anyways, we have a cute little bridge surrounded by trees. The trees filter the light and create a lovely atmosphere. I wanted Birgit to sit on the bridge and just put the bag next to her. So far, so good. Somehow my dog Edmund like the scene and decided to join Birgit.

Well, first I didn't mind since it looked funny and my bags are meant to be fun so a cute couldn't hurt. I took some shots to adjust the settings ..... 

.....then Edmund really seemed to relax ......... and joyfully licked (a chewed!) his "private parts"

Our giggling on the bridge caught the interest of my cousin's one-year old son. He just learned to walk came over to the bridge and kept Birgit busy....

... and apparently liked my bag so much that he tried to steal it:

I gave in to the fun and we played together. The photo session was postponed to later that afternoon. I'm quite happy with the result and hope to start listing the bags some time during this week. 

Mission Smile: The Piano Player

Birgit and me came up with SmileMolecules to cause smiles and thus help to make the world tiny bit better.  We try to achieve this with our goodies, but also with "random good deeds". I think we should start documenting our random good deeds and I think our blog is the perfect spot to do that. Let's call it "Mission Smile". I intend to have this as a (more or less) regular entry.
The idea behind this mission is pretty simple. Apparently it is darn easy for people to complain but it also seems close to impossible to point out anything good. I believe this habit causes so much bad energy and really is a killer for happiness. It is like being stuck in a doom loop and we are tired of it. So let's step up to break the doom loop and cause smiles!

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Mission Smile – The Piano Player

Case story:
Some time last year a young woman moved into our house. When I passed by her door I heard her playing piano. From what I could tell she played really well and professional. The walls in our house are rather thin and mutual respect is required. I never heard her playing during midday or in the evenings.

Earlier this year a letter was put up on the message board of the house. It was a letter of the young piano player. When I read it I couldn't believe my eyes. Apparently, someone put a letter with the rules of the house written in Russian in her mail box. I believe her name leads people to the assumption that she is from some eastern Europe country. She pointed out that she feels appalled since she is not Russian and does speak proper German. Moreover, she does not wish hear knocks on her wall when she plays piano since she never plays at inappropriate times. She wrote that she is a student of classical music and daily practice is mandatory for her. If anyone has a problem with her playing she wishes to be addressed in person so she can schedule her playing according to the needs of her neighbors.

I was shocked and sad that this happens in my house. I tried to guess which neighbor could be rude enough to behave like that and I really can't figure it out and this shocks me even more. Apparently nice people turn in such dicks (sorry, I really can't think of any other word).

So did we do?
At the weekend I sat with Birgit in her room for some crafting with the window open. It was a lovely day with nice warm (but not too warm) weather. We heard playing and it was lovely. She played light and cheerful while we crafted. She made us smile so we felt we have to let her know that she just did something nice. So we stopped with our actual projects to make a card. I took some photos of Birgit making it.

Over the flower we wrote "Thank you for the music" but forgot the take a photo of it. The back says "We enjoy your music. When you play our windows are open". I put the card into her mail box. Actually I wanted to push it under her door but we a have a small step in front of the door so there is no gap to push through the card. I hope we made her smile anyways! 

Tidy Up Entry - Monitor My Progress!

Today I want to try something new. I need to tidy my room. It is WAY too crammed. As I'm a rather lazy little bug, I think I'll need some supervision. I took photos of all the ugly corners that need to be sorted. As soon as I'll be done with one little task I'll log it in this post (at least I hope so). Will I managed to work it out within one day?

Here are my ugly corners:

Behind the door I keep most of my bags. At least half of them I don't need on a regular basis. They need to go somewhere else. 

This is where I usually drop things and never remove them. Time to find a better solution!

Would you believe there are only four hooks to hang stuff? I use this spot at I'm too lazy to put my stuff into the closet. Now I'm blushing. 

I really don't know what to do here! I'd like to keep the boxes (you never know what they might be good for!). But they can't stay there. 

Half of the stash of my magazines. Actually, I'd like to keep them (you never know what they might be good for! I said that before, didn't I?). They take up too much space so they need to go.

The space behind my sewing machine. I don't necessarily need that space but it looks so messy. I have a clue where to put it though.

Last, but not least: my desk. Constantly packed, constantly untidy. I have a feeling this one is going to be a failure today. Duh!

Updates:

10.02 AM:

Bag corner is tidied. Quicker than I thought. Yay! You don't really see a difference? The stuffy backpacks are gone! Where? Now they are hidden in a big trunk in the corridor. Not sure if that was a good idea. At least they are out of my tiny room.

10.21 AM:

The chest drawer looks tidier. I have a feeling I should be tiding the drawers as well. Hmm well, maybe not (now).

10.43 AM:

Way bigger challenge than I thought it would be. I took two photos of the pile I took of the hangers - and deleted them accidentally. Four hangers can actually hold 5 woolen cardigans, 6 sweaters, one dress, one small ironing board, one camera bag, one tripod, a small purse, two fabric bags, a medium size tote bag and a big plastic tote bag in which are 3 more plastic bags filled with kipple. This is what my door looks like now:

10.59 AM:
That was fast again. Birgit "offered" me some space under her bed for the boxes. Well, she didn't really offer the space. I rather begged her not to throw away the boxes.

11.50 AM:

Tough one! I packed my magazines (about 110 issues) to four heavy piles to throw them out later. This kinda hurts to throw them out but it made room for the stuff and is blocking the space behind my sewing machine. I left one box on the table and the rest went to the empty space below the desk. 

2.04 PM:

DONE!!!!! I even managed to tidy desk. Only a tiny pile is left but that's ok. Later I might move some furniture to find a new place for my giant yarn box. Lalala I'm done!!!!

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!

The Easter Post II

To finish my personal Easter roundup, I'd like to say a few words about the gift I made for my sister. In fact, the gift actually has a story.

It started on New Year's Eve 2009. We are not into New Year's Eve parties at all and decided to stay at home. From a I borrowed all ten seasons of Friends on DVD. We started with the first season on New Year's Eve and kept watching (last night we watched the last episode of season eight). In one episode in season seven, Monica bakes christmas candy. For baking she wears a pink apron. Apparently, Birgit fell in love with the pink apron. The scene was included into the intro of season seven so whenever Birgit saw the intro she started moaning about the pretty apron. I took a screen shot of the apron as it is shown in into of season seven:

I did some online research to find out whether someone else already noticed this apron and maybe knows where to get it. Of course, I wasn't successful. It came to my mind that it could not be too hard to sew an apron myself. I looked online for a suitable pattern and got lucky on Etsy. Jona Giammalva offered the almost perfect pattern. I gave it a try. I did everything I could to get Birgit out of the apartment for a weekend to have enough time and space to make the apron. I got some pink vintage fabric from my mum, but with now proper table to cut the fabric and a horrible pair of scissors this turned out to be rather challenging. Making the bias tape turned out to be an even greater challenge. Did I mention that I have no real experience in sewing and tried to do this on my own? The bias tape was meant to be rather slim and the fabric proofed to be pretty stiff. I'm also not too great in ironing. I think my little Ikea ironing board is only meant to be used to iron sleeves. I don't have any larger ironing board. So I set on my cold floor with the tiny board and the stiff fabric and tried to produce a halfway acceptable bias tape. After about three or four hours I gave up. I called my mom, stuffed all the pieces of the apron in a big bag and announced to come over as soon as possible to have her help me. The slim bias tape really freaked me out. Actually I did not even want a slim bias tape. Remember, I said "almost" perfect pattern?
When I came home and showed the pieces and pattern to my mom I decided that the bias tape has to become wider. Actually, I just wanted my mom to give me a little help and show me how to do it. Plans were changed though. We got a phone call and suddenly we expected nine more persons for our Easter brunch. I kinda panicked because I wanted everyone to have one of my knitted egg cozies and so far I had only finished four of them. So my mom took over the sewing of the apron while I sat there to knit some more egg cozies (in the end I only had seven of them).
In the end, Birgit's gift is handmade. Not really by me though. I am a little upset about that, but I'm determined to try it again some other time. Nevertheless, I believe she really likes her new apron. She can actually wear both sides. Ok, it does not really look like Monica's apron, but it is pretty close:

Actually, the reverse side looks more like the original apron, but I can't really find a photo of it. 

I think now I really rounded up my Easter Holidays.