adventurous

Remember I told you I wanted to knit myself a
complete outfit using the gray wool, but that
my idea was still intangible? Well, I've been
browsing to look for some patterns and finally
I've bought these booklets. They are full of
lovely patterns!


Berroco Booklet #281 and Norah Gaughan Vol. 3

But I know myself quite well, that I'm not discipline
to follow a pattern thoroughly. So I start with
another wool - it's the same quality as the gray
one, but in olive. I'm a coward, I know :P

I've chosen a sweater model: Crotona. I love
the shape, but like I thought, I start to change
the pattern as soon as I start to knit.



First I wanted to make this pattern only on the
border, but then I couldn't decide the wide of the
border. I kept on knitting, opening and knitting
again *sigh* Finally I thought I should make it
thoroughly. I actually really love the texture,
when I look at it from near. But as I tried it in
front of a mirror with a little distance, I started
to think differently - aaarghhh!!! So, I continued
to change the pattern and now I don't know either
I like it or not :(

I really don't know, if I will ever manage to finish
it *sigh* It would be too pity, if I don't, as I have
some really nice buffalo horn buttons. Normally I
don't like horn as material, but they are so beautiful,
I felt in love with them immediately.



Oh well, that's the result when a beginner wants to
knit like a master :P Maybe I'll open the whole piece
again and start from the beginning. Do you think,
I've learned from the past then? ;)

christmas

This Christmas is surely an unusual one.

My boy was normally staying with me till 23rd,
but this time he's already gone to his dad on 21st
and will stay a day longer there than usual too.
A haberdashery in town is closing, which breaks
my heart. So sad to see older, nice shops are closing
one by one and this town is filled with junk shops
day by day.

Around me I've heard some sad news before
Christmas - about friends and relatives passing
away. Most of all I was somehow shocked, that
one of the EuropeanStreetTeam's members has
also passed away: MundoGominola, a very
talented illustrator from Spain. It's a sad start
to Christmas.



I realized, how short life can be. I felt depressive
and melancholic for two days, didn't feel like
talking to anybody. I just had no words. Today
I feel a bit better. So, here I am again. Life goes on.

Last night I started to open up the packages
I've received. My boy has made me herbs
mixed salt in a textile bag, handmade by himself.
Mmmhhh... it smells so good!! My boss has given
me a pair of earrings and a necklace - so pretty!
As I wanted to open up the packages from my EST
friends, I remember I should make photos, so
I postponed it till this morning (ok, it was later
this morning, as I woke up late ;)) to have better
light.

Gretchen has sent me a lovely lavender pillow with
an embroidered word "Love" on it. I simply love it!!
So sweet and mhhh.. smells good (I love lavender :)) .
And I love the card with her illustration on it. Thank
you so much, Gretchen!!



And last not least.. I opened up the package,
which has made some of you curious also ;)



Jetty has sent me her beautiful "In the cold light
of day" print, matted and framed. I'm so happy,
as it is one of my favorite among all her work!
It's - like she called it herself - food for thought.
Thank you so much, Jetty! I hope, I'll finished
organizing my home soon, so that I can find a
nice place for your lovely work.
And thank you, Mitsy, for choosing Jetty as my
Secret Santa!!



This is surely an unusual Christmas. I'm grateful
for all the presents, that I've got, but I'm also
very grateful for the friendship and love that I feel
in every little gesture, smile, word and thought that
many people have sent me each day. That makes
my life so much worth in this world. Thank you
so much, my friends!!!

Merry Christmas to you!!

geranium

Inspired by this, I've made another pattern.
It's my third one actually, but my second one
still needs a rework.

curious

Now my curiosity is getting even bigger. Yesterday
I've got one more package from another friend from
the European Street Team. I can hardly wait for
Christmas Eve!! Thank you!!!!

next step?

Three sides of the walls in my son's room are now
yellow. He wanted to have the slope in dark blue,
as if he lay under the night sky. I rejected it,
since it would make the whole room looks dark
and besides there are no straight edges, which
separate the ceiling, the slope and the wall.

First I got the idea to make a blue segment of
a circle or something similar on the sloop, which
would soften on the border. Maybe a 4 or 5 steps
gradation to white. Since I'm a visual person, I've
got to play with my idea in Photoshop.

Well, the idea was great as an idea, but in I didn't
like it in Photoshop. Not for a children's room.
So I try to make a hard edge. Simply a blue circle.
Still it's like something is missing. Then I tried
something. I like it a lot. Now I only need the okay
from my boy to make it real.



The idea came after we've visited an exposition
yesterday. We were on the way to get the bus, as
we saw something amazing in Galerie Geiger. They
always have interesting expositions - I normally
only watched it from outside (I knew, my heart
would cry and say "I want, I want", if I go in ;)).
But this time we went in, as my boy wanted to take
a closer look.

I didn't regret it at all. They are showing some
work of a talented artist, Marion Eichmann. Oh
well, of course my heart cried. Esp. the installation
and the collages were SO beautiful!! I love those
cartoon-like art and her work is simply filled with
so much love and details. I wish I have some Euros
left to spend... *crying*

If you have an opportunity to see her work live,
please do! So many lovely details to see, that you
couldn't see it online. The exposition in Konstanz
is going on till 14th Januar. Highly recommended!!

infected

Knitting is so highly infectious ;)

another wednesday

I'm enjoying knitting the last days. I knitted the
whole evening. No time for Etsy or surfing - which
an unusual habit ^_^ I'm on some larger project.
I want to knit a sweater for my boy and a whole
outfit for myself. I really hope, that I'll finish them
this time - that's the reason why I knitted till 3am
the last days. I have to use the energy as long
as I'm excited about it ;)

The outfit for myself is not really tangible at the
moment, so I started with knitting some patterns
with the yarn I want to use to see the effect.



Then I started to knit the first idea that came first.
This is a wrist warmer I've knitted without any
instruction. So I hope I still remember, how I did
it to make the pair of it ;) The color is a color I've
never worn before (oh, except once - but it was
a shirt my mom actually bought for my sister),
but as I saw the wool, I really love it and I think,
it suits the gray wool very well.



At this end I've tried to crochet a kind-of scallop
pattern (again my free-style ;)), but too bad it's
curling too, so that it's rather invisible.



I've knitted the whole evening, that I didn't even
realize, it was snowing outside. So, I was quite
surprise to see the new snow this morning.



I love this kind of winter (not looking forward
to shovel the snow next week, if it kept on snowing
like this, though)! It's the winter I used to during
my study time in the Black Forest.

Another goal this morning: to finish painting the
wall yellow in my son's room.

for art lovers

If you are also an art lover, you should watch the
Tiny Showcase site. Every Tuesday evening (EST)
they will upload a limited amount of new print.
I just found them last week and I'll keep an eye
for the letterpressed prints ;)

knitting

Last week I've helped to sell cards for UNICEF
as every year. My selling partner was a lady,
who loves to knit. She brought yarn to knit socks.
Watching her knitting made me wanna knit too.

I remember the lovely hats, ilikelemons has
shown on her Flickr gallery a while ago. So I
went to her blog and took her pattern to make
my own. I never finished to knit anything that
fast before - I'm so motivated ^_^


No button yet..

Yesterday I went to look for a button. Actually
I had something out of wood with asymmetrical
form in mind (I think, I've once made a bag for
my niece with such button), but I couldn't find
anything like that in town.

In the first shop I found this gorgeous MoP button,
but it's a bit too big. They don't have it smaller in
the color I want.



In the second shop I bought these leather buttons
(now I only need to find the needle in my chaos to
sew them onto the hat :P).



And of course I couldn't come out of the shop
without these..



.. bad, bad me *sigh*

one beautiful morning

This morning I took a lot of pictures before going
to work. I got off the bus two bus stop earlier than
usual to go to the lake. Amazing scenery! I felt
so blessed.



Then I walk through the old town, which always
makes me dream. The old houses are so lovely.



Most of the commercials there are also so sweet.
Look at that sweet buggy and those pastel colors.



And I simply love this cathedral. So many lovely
details. I could sit and stare at the art work inside
for hours.



If you want to see more pictures, please visit my
photo blog. As I said before, I've taken a LOT of
pictures today. Hope you enjoy them :)

snowing today

It has been snowing all day today (look what
I saw as I opened the window - so zen :)), but
I didn't care really, since I had a goal: finishing
my son's room - the last plastering.

I've started to plaster the room over 2 months
ago, but I was so frustrated as I saw the day after,
that there were new fine cracks on the ceiling.
So I did nothing in that room for over 2 months.
Last week I've reworked the cracks. Today I've
used fine decor plaster to hide my lousy plastering ;)



After working for over 6 hours, my right arm
nearly fell off and I was covered with white speckles.
Even if I've worn a cap and glasses, those splatters
got sometimes into my eyes - ouch!

Well, I'm proud of me and quite satisfied with the
result. Not perfect, but that's fine for me this time :)
I hope no new cracks coming till weekend, then
I'm going to paint it. My son want to have a yellow
room. I hope the paint will make the bumps less
spiky.


after the shower - still having the turban on ;)

It kept on snowing, as I closed the window. The
sky was so beautiful reddish orange, so I just
had to capture my surroundings. But now it's
enough for today. I'm going to bed now.

decorating

I'm always slow in decorating. Well, maybe because
my house is a mess at the moment (and almost
always :/) and I didn't feel like decorating the mess.

But yesterday I start to make something - orange
slices. It's easy to make. These are all you need:


After you cut the orange in slices (mine are about
5mm thick), hang them on a thread to let them
dry. They look very fresh and smell good. I think,
I'll make some more today and look for some
cinnamon stick and star anise.


Edit 10th Dec 2008: Thanks, folks! But this is not my
own idea. I was inspired by the potpourri I once had.
And I think, I've seen orange slices for purchase
somewhere too.

playing for change

I just watched this YouTube's featured video
and am so touched.


Playing For Change - a multimedia movement,
created to inspire, connect, and bring peace
to the world through music.

face and heart

Do you remember those pictures, where you
either see faces of two men or a goblet? Not
a long time ago I've read somewhere, that it's
kind of a prove, that our brains cannot do multi-
tasking (... or was it the eyes? Hmmm.. I'm SO
forgetful!). The brain (or the eyes) can only
concentrate at one thing. So, you will either see
the faces or the goblet.

Inspired by this memory, I've made a pattern.
The idea of making the patterns came from my
new addiction - COLOURlovers. An addiction
should result in something good, shouldn't it? ;)


What did you see first - the heart, the face or the goblet?

bad mood

I was very uncreative today, as my mind was
only winding around some decisions in my life,
that I have to take. I hate decisions! It seems,
I'm again stuck between a rock and hard place.
I've been there 2 years ago. Arrgghhhh!!! Why
can some people be so full of hate after 2 years?!


Wish, I had a photo of stormy sky with lots
of thunderbolts...

Let's talk about something different for a while.
I just found a great project on YouTube:
YouTube Symphony Orchestra. So, if you play
an instrument - go and take your chance!!

surfing II

As I've feeded my RSS reader with some new
links last night, I've found another cool site
this morning mentioned in kulturbanause:
keyboardr. It's very clean, simple and effective
- I love it!

surfing

I should have gone to bed last night, but I didn't
even if I was dead tired. First I just couldn't stop
to surf the WWW. I don't even know anymore,
where I've really started, but here are some cool
sites I wanna share with you:

• I first found Kristofer Ström at You Tube
  as I saw the day's suggestion through
  iGoogle, when I thought "WOW!" and start
  to digg and found even more great videos.

• Following links after links I've found an
  unusual fashion presentation of Alyson Fox.

• And finally I landed on a site I've bookmarked
  a long time ago: COLOURlovers. But this time
  I've registered myself and made a couple of
  palettes and patterns. This site is so funny.
  Look - I was cooler than a cucumber *lol*
  
  

dancer

Instead of going to bed I've made another
sculpture on Friday night. It begun again
without any direction. As the face was finished,
I thought, it looked a bit like a Wayang golek.
It became quite manly, even if I wanted to make
a woman's face.


See more photos in my Flickr gallery

I have to think of Olive as I made the hair, so
as my son said, "it looks a bit funny" :D
Well, I need to study ears and nose better for
the next time - not really happy about them.


See more photos in my Flickr gallery

I think, it's a man, who is in disguise as a woman.
Maybe he's dancing a traditional Javanese dance.
Maybe someone, whom I've met in the past.
Who knows - the clay always took it's own life :)
My hands was only the instruments...

BIG surprise

I was preparing myself to go to the city this
noon, as suddenly the door bell rang. My son
pick up the phone and said, it was the postman.

I was surprised - I opened up the door and
waited for him to come up. My brain started to
browse all corners in my memory, but couldn't
tell me, which supply I've ordered and has not
yet arrived. As he was upstairs, I was even
more surprised to see how big it was!!! The big
question mark on my face has even confused
the postman for a minute *lol*
After looking at the sender address, my brain
slowly began to understand (still very amazed,
that the Secret Santa is becoming real :)) and
a BIG smile replaced the question mark on my
face.



Thank you, Mitsy, for organizing this so perfectly
and thank you, my Secret Santa, for this big
surprise!! I will wait. Yes, I'm VERY curious, but
I will wait. Maybe till Christmas, but maybe only
till Sinterklaas day (I remember visiting him as
I was still small :)). Let's see, how curious I am ;)
I know, some of the EuropeanStreetTeam members
are even more curious than me :D Ha! But you all
have to wait too!! It's more exciting, if you still
don't know, who my Secret Santa is at the moment
*cheeky grin*

a little guest

A sweet, little guest has come to visit me during
a photo session this afternoon :) First she was
shy and didn't move too much, as I start to take
photos of her. After a while she enjoyed it (well
at least I think so ;)), before she had enough of
it though. So, here's the photo story...

chocolate cookies

Don't you love chocolate cookies? I do!
You'd better learn some German to understand
the receipt or ask my best friend Leo for a help ;)



Edit 2008.11.19:
Music by: Wise Guys (there's also an English
version of this song on their CD)
Video by: smilingp@YouTube (his website seems
not to work at the moment)

alter ego

Inspired & motivated by Laura's words, I've
decided to make a second blog. A photo blog.
Colors 'n Patterns is about collecting inspirations,
which attract my eyes.

The reason why I don't put the photos just as
a new series in here is because I want to show
the photo as they are, not in square format as
here and to organize them differently. I'm
having fun to keep it alive these days and I
hope, I don't loose the fun too soon (I get
bored easily - you know that ;)).

The first photo was my organic waste of the
morning. The colors have attracted me.

Original in Colors 'n Patterns

aubrey

I was so excited, as the postman rang today.
It's not just because of the supplies I've been
waiting for. The main reason was a sweet little
guy - Aubrey.



I've found his brother and sister on Flickr last
year and felt in love. Since then I've been lurking
at littlecottonrabbits' Etsy shop and blog shop
to wait for my opportunity. Many times I've
failed - slow as I am -, but last Sunday I finally
succeeded to adopt Aubrey. I'm so happy to
have him! It's the sweetest gift I've made myself
since a long time. I used to collect plush (oh yes,
half of my bed was full of plush :D). And Julie
is simply one of the best toy knitters I know.

choir weekend

Last weekend I was away with my choir. We went
to the Northern Alps. I simply love the surroundings
of the house, where we lived. The mountain, the
valley, the air and not to forget the food!! We
have a member, who loves to cook. She always
prepared something special together with some
other members. It was Asian food this time -
a 6 course meal!!! Oh, so yummy - I
ate too much for sure ^_^


More pictures..

It's always like a short holiday for me, even if
we mostly worked very hard during those days
till late in the evening and went nowhere, but
only for a short walk. We worked on our songs
as well as on our choreography, as we'll be
having a concert next week.




I couldn't stand to take some pictures around
the house, as I saw some 'kitschy' motives.
Well, not kitschy actually, but I've seen them so
many times everywhere and still they are so
tempting :)



Before I left for the weekend, I've listed my
entry for the EST weekly challenge, which was
hosted by creationsbyeve. The theme was
Africa.

cut

At the end of last Thursday, I watched the DVD
Into Great Silence, a film about the Carthusian
Order. But I just couldn't really concentrate
myself on the movie - it's too quiet. So, I decided
to make another thing out of clay. It's a cut face
- like a mask - to hung on the wall.



In the morning my hair was cut too. Now I feel
like a school girl again ^_^

clay day

My son wanted to do pottery for a long time,
somehow we have never managed it though.
Yesterday we had invited a friend of my son
to play with clay, as we finally bought 10 kg
clay!


My son's creations (more photos).

First I only assisted them, when they needed
me. With toothpick, chopstick and cutlery they
made each 5 things. First some flat work, then
sculpturing and at last they even made mugs
(my son's friend decided to turn it into a bowl :)).

After they almost finished, I couldn't resist
any longer - my fingers were itching ^_^
Starting with no plan what to make, I finished
with a portrait of a woman. She won't be the
last of her art, I guess. It was so nice to start
sculpturing again after over 6-years break.

saying goodbye

I was really happy to see, that my favorite piece
of the new collection was sold yesterday, but
to part with it was not easy. So, I've made this
art card for my customer. The drawing and
stitching process was the process to say
goodbye internally. Afterwards I felt a lot easier
to take it to the post office. How sentimental I
was, uh? I really hope, my customer will love
the Time Machine as much as I do.