something different: horse show

This weekend there was an international horse show close to my hometown. I've never quite understood the fascination about horses - I'm more of a cat lady ;)
But my friend Julia(aka 'Julchen') asked(begged?) me to accompany her and it wasn't expensive so I agreed to go. Oh man, if I had known how dangerous it looks if those horses jump just about two meters away from you. It didn't look like a very healthy sport in my opinion - neither for the horse nor the rider. But it was quite fun to watch all those rich people. Hah. We got lost on our way in and ended up in the VIP area. Whoops. Let me tell you, dirty riding boots and a Burberry jacket don't go well together. Just saying...



Unfortunately, it started to rain when we wanted to go to the little market right next to the arena to get something to eat and take a look around. There were plants, some crafty stuff and lots of food for sale but we decided to go home because rain + crowded places = no fun.
Anyway, it was awesome to see how many famous riders from all over the world came to the small village right next to my hometown to see/participate in a horse show! It was good to have a horse expert right next to me who explained the rules and the atmosphere in the arena was fantastic. If you get the chance to see a horse show... I'd definitely encourage you to go, even if it's just to see people wearing ridiculously expensive clothes yet driving 20 year old cars and wearing dirty boots.

Project Life: Weeks 1 + 2

Oh man, this project is addictive. I decided to document my last three weeks in Canada in one spread because I didn't want to be really behind before I even started this project.



The first spread is pretty picture-heavy. I'll include more journaling in the future when I'll (hopefully) document throughout the week rather than whip everything together sunday evening.



This spread is pretty simple - just some glitter alphabet stickers to add some sparkle, some snippets like business cards, my boarding card, a movie ticket etc. and lots of pictures and some handwritten roundup of the week. I thought including a weekly quote was neat to I chose one I read on GoodReader a couple weeks ago. I first saw the idea of including weekly quotes on Elise's blog.



I finished the second spread on Saturday. There weren't enough pockets to include anything from sunday. Well, nothing important happened anyway so I didn't care ;)



The second spread shows more of what my life has been like since I got back to Germany - lots of baking (hey, I have to make use of having a KitchenAid mixer at my disposal before I move out.), crafting, meeting friends and taking pictures of my cat (mainly because he's the only family member who doesn't complain whenever I get my big camera out. And let's face it, he's a cutie!)



This week I included quite some instagram pictures although the quality isn't the best. Lots of handwriting because our regular printer refuses to print on cardstock. Ridiculous, right? I'm absolutely in love with the pink and white chevron pattern paper. It's adorable. I'd totally buy a wallpaper like that and cover my entire apartment in chevron wallpaper. Or maybe just one wall. Btw, did I mention that the bathroom in my new apartment is pink? You should've seen my reaction when my mom emailed me the pictures while we were talking on skype. Isn't a pink bathroom every girl's secret dream?

You don't know what Project Life is all about? Check out this website and see my cover page and supplies here. All my PL posts can be found here.

Echino Deer Handbag

I bought this cute Japanese Echino deer fabric at Frau Tulpe in Berlin last summer. It's a cute mix of colorful, playful flowers and animals. The pink fabric is a heavyweight cotton fabric from IKEA.



I came up with the pattern myself. I wanted a similar bag to this Echino bag I made last summer. I love the shape and the size and I've used it almost daily in the past year. I wanted a smaller bag that I can use for running errands etc.
It has an adjustable shoulder strap so it's convenient when I ride my bike.



It's very simple inside - a cute pink polka dot fabric I found in my mom's stash and a zippered inner pocket for my keys, wallet, etc.


ps: did I mention that my mom got published? She designed a Sashiko bag for a German patchwork magazine! :)

Project Life: getting started

The first time I heard about Project Life was last summer on a blog. I thought it was a great idea but moving to Canada and getting through the first year of college didn't leave much time(/money) for paper projects. When I saw PL pop up everywhere across the blogsphere in January I was intrigued to give it a try. But I decided to wait until my birthday in April because it meant that I'd be home soon with lots of supplies at hand.

How I'll tackle this project: I'll try my best to finish the spreads on sundays so I can post them either sunday evening or monday. As we all know, life is unpredictable and I don't see myself working on this project consistently until April next year. But I'll make an effort to document as much as possible in this album.



For the title page I used a photo I took on my 21st birthday. I used Photoshop Elements to divide it into six 6x4 inch pictures and had them printed at a drug store. Since photos are printed in a 10x15cm format rather than 4x6 inch the pockets are slightly too big. Oh well, it's only a couple of mm :)



I stapled a business card of the restaurant we had dinner at for my birthday to the picture and added the date in the bottom right corner.



Supplies I use: I got a American Crafts 12x12 D-ring binder from Michael's in Vancouver. It doesn't look as fancy as the official Project Life binders but it was much cheaper and it will do the job. I bought a Big Pack of Design A photo pocket pages. I'll have all my photos printed at a local drug store (DM) since I don't have a photo printer at home.



This is my current workspace. Some of the supplies I'll use every week are my advanced tape glider, a corner puncher, black ink, lots of washi tape, a cutting mat and a craft knife as well as lots of pens. I'm currently in love with American Crafts slick writers, Zig writers and Sakura micron pens. Also I'll use all kinds of scrapbook papers I've accumulated over the past years, the Journaling Cards and lots of stamps and craft punches.

Are you doing Project Life? Do you have any tips on staying on track with a project like this?
I'm so excited for this project!

52 Knits // Juneberry Triangle Shawl

Pattern: Juneberry Triangle Shawl by Jared Flood
Yarn Used: 2.3 skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca

Needles: 5.5mm DPNs

Modifications: none

Note: I knitted this shawl back in February as a birthday gift for my mom. It's fairly easy to knit yet it knits up quickly because the pattern changes all the time, thus you won't get bored until you're about halfway through the knitted-on border ;)
I'll definitely knit this pattern again!

This is project #12 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, 10 and 11

Baked // Russian Zupfkuchen

Although this cake is called 'Russian chocolate cheesecake' it really is a typical German recipe. It's a very smooth cheesecake with a chocolate crust - it's delicious!
There are some ingredients that are hard to find outside Germany, e.g. quark. Here's a similar recipe that's made for North American ingredients ;)

Ingredients
for the crust
90g      sugar
100g    butter
200g    flour
40g      cacao
1          egg
2 tsp    baking powder

for the filling
180g   sugar
160g   butter
4         eggs
500g   quark
1 pkg  vanilla pudding powder
2 tsp    vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit / 180° Celsius
Prepare the crust: mix sugar and butter. Add the other ingredients for the crust. Knead well.
Butter a springform pan and line it with about 1/2 - 3/4 of the chocolate dough.
Mix all the ingredients for the filling and pour the filling into the springform pan.
Pull little chunks of the remaining chocolate crust dough and randomly place them in the filling.
Bake for about 55 minutes.
Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. Enjoy!

a little bit of cuteness.

Just checking in to say that I'm still alive and busy catching up with friends, taking advantage of lots of free time to craft and taking hundreds of pictures of my cat.

Have a crafty weekend.