week in the life // monday

Week in the life is a concept by Ali Edwards that focuses on documenting the everyday life for a week once a year. I've been smitten by the idea but last year I felt like my everyday life was rather mundane and there wasn't much 'worth documenting'. When I saw the dates for this year's WITL I had to participate because this week will be crazy and documenting it will give me lots to talk about. This week I'll: finish my first year of college, move back across the Atlantic to Germany, finish a wonderful week of vacation in the Fraser Valley and get to see my friends and family again after four months!

Since I was too tired to write a blog post yesterday evening here's my WITL monday post:





Wake up at 7:18am, being way too tired, make tea, wait for my mom to get up and have bagels for breakfast. We knitted and had some more tea. I'm knitting the Dryad scarf by Jared Flood and my mom is currently knitting socks. Next we packed a suitcase (only one more to go! hopefully all our stuff will fit in the last suitcase...), my mom neated the edges of a minky fabric I bought to use as my next quilt backing because it made a mess and I wanna use it as a blanket on the flight home. Since the weather was gorgeous and warm we decided to drive to Chiliwack for another quick trip to Hamels fabric, then we made a little detour to look at the cute houses and gardens in the area, drove up to the Bridal Veil Falls provincial park where we had a picnic and went on a very short hike to the falls. They are stunning!! Since the afternoon light was gorgeous we snapped some photos and headed to the Sasquatch provincial park from where you have a great view on Lake Harrison. It was peaceful and we looked at our newly bought fabrics (I bought a jelly roll with Aneela Hooey's 'A Walk in the Woods' collection. Loooove!). After a quick trip back to our friend's house where we're staying for the week we drove down to Chiliwack again to see 'The Lucky One'. My mom and I loved the movie although we were both glad we had read the book first.

A little bit of Hope

Pardon the silence, since my mom got here we've spent pretty much every day exploring the beauty of British Columbia. Yesterday we drove up to Hope, a small town full of charm, chainsaw wood carvings and elderly people.


Unfortunately, pretty much everything was closed for the winter so we decided to drive to the Kilby historic site in Harrison Mills. We didn't go into the museum because it was only open for about one more hour and it looked very small, but there was a cute restaurant with homemade pies and ice cream as well as a great selection of handmade pieces from the area - jewelry, quilts, toys, post cards, ...
My mom bought a cute little patchwork cosmetic bag for $4 and I bought a silver bracelet for $20 - I looove the prices in the Fraser Valley. Everything is so much cheaper than in Vancouver :)

Lynn Canyon

Last week we went on a day trip to the Lynn Canyon to see some of the beautiful landscape British Columbia has to offer. We hiked for about two hours and there were lots and lots of stairs. It was certainly a good workout ;)
Since it was Easter sunday and gorgeous weather it was very busy around the suspension bridge but as soon as we got off the main trail it was peaceful and quiet. It's great to live in a big city yet have the opportunity to go hiking after only a short bus ride!

Bedless in Seattle

My mom and I went to Seattle for three days in between two of my finals. We've had booked a room in the historic Moore hotel which is right downtown. I was skeptical because I've read rather bad reviews because there's a club right next to it, thus it's pretty loud at night. The building itself is over 100 years old and the atmosphere is amazing! We packed a pair of earplugs each and were excited because the lobby looked great, the staff was friendly and the location and weather were perfect. When we unlocked the door to our room we were surprised at what we saw:



No bed!?! Just dirty sheets on the floor. We've seen many strange hotel rooms but one without a bed was new to us. Luckily, we got upgraded to a huge room with an en suite bathroom (and a vintage clawfoot bathtub!!! LOVE!) so we could spend two comfortable nights in a bed ;)

Seattle itself was sooo different from Vancouver! I didn't think there would be too many differences between the two cities but oh boy was I wrong. Some things that surprised me? Police e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. I dunno how many police officers there are in Seattle but certainly more than Starbucks baristas in Vancouver, hah. Also, police officers riding horses downtown, lots and lots of homeless people, a strange public transportation system (e.g. busses driving in tunnels between streetcars, pay when you leave the bus, ...) and yarn stores hidden in an office building.

Out hotel was only a block away from the famous Pike Place market which, to be honest, was way too tourist-y for my taste.



Seattle has some wonderful old buildings and many cute shops with lots of curiosities, such as a crochet gangster hat :) Of course we also went to the very first Starbucks store and bought mugs for out family's Starbucks mug collection.


Of course we couldn't resist to check at least one of the local yarn stores and found 'So Much Yarn' on google maps. The store was hidden in an office building with a huge black gate. I guess they won't get much(any?) walk-in customers because it took us about five minutes to find the store, although we saw it on a map and knew the address! But it was definitely worth a visit because they had an anniversary sale and ALL yarns were on sale :)
I bought wool for my next project - the Mr. Fox stole my heart scarf.

twenty one

Today I'm twenty one. Crazy. I remember a family vacation when I was nine and we were in Las Vegas and how I thought it would take forever until I was legally allowed to go into a casino. The last year flew by. Graduating from high school, a summer full of traveling and fun, my departure for Vancouver and the first year of college - twenty was certainly an exciting year.

But I'm ready for a change. I'm ready to leave my dorm, Vancouver's rainy winter and bad cafeteria food behind. I'm ready to start something new, set myself challenging goals and enjoy the summer even though I'll (hopefully) have a 9-5 job. I'm excited for what's ahead.

52 Knits // Fluffy Bum Bunny

Pattern: Bunny Nuggets by Rebecca Danger 

Yarn Used: body: Cascade Yarns Ecological Wool(100% wool), tail: Katia Tupa(50% merino, 50% silk)

Needles:5mm DPNs

Modifications: I attempted to crochet a flat bottom but I realized that it might've been a better idea to follow the pattern or at least know the basics about crochet - whoops. Well it's closed and it stands (more or less) flat :)

Notes: This is one of those typical 'it's 11pm and you're suppose to go to bed soon but you'd much rather make something' projects. I looked through some patterns I bookmarked a while ago and this cute bunny was the perfect late-night project. It took me longer to make than I had expected (about two hours) but it was fun and easy. Also, it's perfect to get rid off some scrap yarns 

My bunny looks pregnant because I was a little generous with the stuffing but it just adds to his charm. When I finished the tail it reminded me of the "it's so fluffy I'm gonna die" video because it's sooooo soft. If you're looking for a gorgeous, soft yarn I highly recommend a merino/silk blend :)


ps: I just realized that this was the third 52Knits post within one week. Sorry I promise there will be a variety of fun posts this month because a) it's SPRING which means LESS RAIN and MORE PHOTOS, b) my mom will come here next week and we'll do lots of fun stuff, e.g. a road trip to the Rockies and lots of adventures in Vancouver and c) I'll go home in less than three weeks!!! crazy.

This is project #11 of 52.

As part of my 2012 goals, I want to finish 52 knitted items this year. You can see all the items I knitted so far on my blog or on ravelry.

See knits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10