Lately...

...I've gotten into the habit of going running at least twice a week. The treadmill in our tiny gym was finally repaired so I don't have an excuse for not running on a rainy day anymore. Though I prefer to run outside, e.g. at the beach. I ran with friends a couple of times but I prefer to go alone, on my own pace.

... I wore  lipstick more often. Inspired by Meredith's Blogging for Confidence series, I made it a goal for March to wear lipstick everyday for a week. Since I only own three lipsticks and they are all pretty similar in color, I felt pretty much the same every day. Only two people noticed that something was different... I guess the colors weren't extreme enough?

Well, I've had fun doing it, the only awkward part was trying to take self-portraits with my phone in the public bathroom during break. Some girls might have stared at me but if you're the person who is known to knit in public/class you are used to it.

...I miss knitting! I'm not saying that I didn't knit at all but with several midterms, assignments and tons of readings for school, my time devoted to knitting has been very limited. Even the 2-3 hours at knitting club have no been very productive for me because people wanna learn new techniques, such as knitting cables, fair isle, in the round etc. which is great and a lot of fun to teach but I need some quiet evenings to catch up on my 52 Knits project.




... I drank a lot of tea. With a lot I mean like 6-8 cups a day. It's certainly a healthier addiction that eating ice cream but I'm ready for spring; I can't wait for the days to be longer again, fresh fruit smoothies and tea time in the garden.

Wreck Beach

My friend Katja and I went to Wreck Beach to capture the sunset. We've been planning to go there for quite a while but today was the first day that wasn't cloudy. We grabbed our cameras and headed down there. It's really nice to have a beach on campus that's only a ten minute walk away.

Unfortunately, there are 374 stairs between the lovely beach and the street. The stairs really wear me down everytime I go there. But I guess it's a good exercise.

We weren't the only ones who came to watch the sunset. This cute sea gull stayed there for about 5 minutes and enjoyed the view. Adorable!

There are always people at Wrack Beach so it's really hard to get a shot without people in it. But I really liked the texture of the drift wood!

Also, the drift wood is perfect for taking interesting shoe pictures.

And a silly portrait I took of Katja :)

And I started to teach her how my camera works so she can take pictures of me from time to time. Hopefully there won't be many awkward self-portraits in the future anymore.

I hope you had a great weekend and happy thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers! I'll edit some photos I took in Victoria and blog about our adventures in BC's capital tomorrow :)

Sooo...

Soo, my first trip to a Canadian thrift store was quite successful. I wanted to buy an electric kettle for my dorm and I found one! Although it was pretty dirty I managed to clean it up. The only downside is that it smells of vinegar now. Pretty badly. But I guess it will fade when I use it frequently.

I also found this super cute (pink!) tea pot. Of course I couldn't resist. And a matching cup for 25 Cents? Great deal!

Today we went to an Indian reservation for a BBQ and some information on the Indian's fishing technique. Or so we thought. It turned out to be a little get together of about 15 people with lots of fresh fish. But the location was quite nice :)

We also visited some of Gerd and Diana's friends who have a small llama farm in their backyard. The llamas were super cute and I got to feed them :) Apparently it's not very uncommon to breed llamas here. The wool they handspun and dyed was super soft and fluffy. Apparently llamas are not very difficult to raise. Soo if you've been thinking of getting a new pet, why not consider llamas? They are useful and cute - everything a knitter wants :D

First days in BC

My first days in British Columbia were full of beautiful landscapes, hikes and thrift shopping.

Lake Harrison is surrounded by beautiful mountains and it's just gorgerous to look at.

On Sunday, we went on a 22km hike to the First Brother Mountain in Manning Park.

The hike was beautiful, we got to see a huge variety of flowers (and mosquitos) and even some snow!

I could get used to seeing these gorgerous landscapes every day :)

Tomorrow we'll visit an Indian reservation and on Wednesday I'll move into my dorm :)

Goodbye...

... good old Germany! I've packed my entire life (or so it feels) into two suitcases, said good bye to all my beloved friends and family and shed many tears. But that's okay because life is changing and the unknown is pretty scary. My parents will bring me to the airport tomorrow morning and then I'll be on my own. I hope that Vancouver will treat me well. See you on the other side.

scrapbook goodies

My mom recently went to the states and she bought some lovely goodies for me. Scrapbook stuff is really expensive in Germany so I never buy any here. Also i'm not much of a 'traditional scrapper'; although I love stamps etc. I hardly ever use the expensive scrapbook materials. Old paper bags, catalogs and embellishments work just as fine as the materials one can buy. That being said I still love some of the scrapbook materials - like stamps and punches! My mom bought some of the cutest stamps ever - there's even a camera stamp and a cute vintage suitcase one! eeek. I can't wait to get my hands on these and create some pages. I also love the Martha Stewart punches. So versatile!

I'll meet with some friends to cook Asian food today! Yummy. I'll share some pictures when I get back :)

everyday life

I've been smitten with this post by Ali Edwards  and thought about joining the Week In The Life project. But after only half a day I realized that I forgot to document most aspects of my everyday life. So I decided to share a couple of pictures I took that day with you. Here are some glimpses into what my daily life looks like at the moment:

Waking up with a cat on my bed. 

Reading blogs while drinking a cup of tea.

Getting dressed, running some errands and taking awkward outfit photos.

Checking mails and facebook.

Some art journalling (+ more tea!)

Painting my nails

tea time in the afternoon: drinking tea and

Eating pastries and

home made chocolate cake.

the cat likes to watch us eat cake. Always hoping to get some crumbs. Or some tea [she somewhat adapted to our eating habits. She eats pretty much everything we eat.]

Working on a little project

The project involves pretty pattern papers!

The other cat likes to sleep wherever we are. He is seldom in a room on his own. He likes to sleep on suitcases and he enjoys soft hoodies as blankets.

The end...

...of my school career. Let's move on to uni life :)

Handmade/Homemade gifts

Today is my Dad's birthday and here's what I've made for him:

A mini book/gift card.

It's a gift card for a trip to IKEA to buy CD shelves and expedit shelves to store his vinyls. His CDs and LPs are all over the house and we wanna change that. We'll put them all into one room, neatly organized. I've been thinking about organizing them by artists. How to you store your CDs?

My sister made these delicious cupcakes. They taste like triple-chocolate cupcakes (I don't wanna know how many calories one has :D) and the topping is perfect!!

My mom sew this project bag for him. He loves orange (every time he sees orange shoes he wants to buy them. We always tell him not to. He usually listens to us :D) and as nobody in our family looks good in orange clothes, he has to be content with owning orange accessories. Did I mention that my dad knits, too? I love being part of a creative family :)

And handmade/homemade gifts are the best, aren't they?