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.

currently.

Currently I'm working on a Noro Striped Scarf inspired by this one by Jared Flood. I love seeing how the colors interact and it's a super fun and easy knit. I'm about halfway done :)

I also started a pair of striped socks. This is my first pair of striped socks but certainly not the last! I love the bright and summer-like colors.

I also made this super simple pillow last week. The front is an Echino print and the back is was a super fluffy and soft fleece blanket. I love it and it's sooo soft. And the 1,90 x 2,00m blanket cost about half as much as one meter of a fleece fabric. Yay for cheap solutions! I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the blanket yet. Maybe use it as the back of a quilt? Or make some more pillows? We'll see :)

I've been busy seeing friends. It's weird how fast my departure is approaching. I'll go to Denmark for two weeks in August so there really isn't much time left before I leave for Vancouver. I have a super long to-do list that I'm working on with things I wanna get done/make before I leave.

I also have to come up with some fun dorm decoration. Any suggestions?

DIY Washi Tape Chart

My washi tape collection has grown quickly and keeping track of all the tapes I have is getting more and more difficult. Also, washi tape is very expensive (in Germany at least) and so I like to see how the finished product will look before I rip off a stripe. Also the translucency of the tape makes it sometimes hard to imagine what it will look like e.g. on a pattern paper.

This morning I came up with a quick and easy DIY to solve all the problems mentioned above.

What you'll need:

one transparency

a pair of scissors

your washi tape stash

a hole puncher

First, cut your transparency into rectangular tags. My tags measured 1" x 2.5".

Next, punch a hole into all of your tags. I used my crop-a-dile and hole punched all at once to make sure that the hole was at about the same spot on all pieces.

Next, stick a stripe of washi tape onto each tag. 

Put a binding ring through all of your tags et voilà, you have a washi tape chart!

You can add new tags as you buy new tapes. Your wahi tape chart can be easily stored - just hang it on a nail or some hook. You can lay a tag over a project you're working on to see how the washi tape will look like. You could also take the washi tape chart with you when you buy new tape, to see if the new tape will fit to other tapes you already own and to ensure that you don't buy a tape twice.

I hope you have fun making your own little washi tape chart :)

Knitting Needle Organizer

As my knitting needle collection is constantly growing, keeping the needles organized is getting more challenging. I wanted to make a needle case that would hold all of my DPs and interchangeable needles, as well as some crochet hooks and other bits and pieces a knitter needs.



After browsing the internet thoroughly, I didn't find anything that I really liked. So I had to come up with my own design. As it turned out, sewing this organizer was pretty time consuming. It turned out larger that I had expected, but I still love it :)

I used leftovers from this project for the outer fabric. I'm in love with Echino fabrics. One can make several projects from one piece of fabric, as the designs change and it feels like one gets a 3 in 1 fabric ;)



It opens up almost like a book. There's plenty of room for all my interchangeable needles, some crochet hooks, cable needles etc.



Next there are cables, stitch markers, DPNs and a zippered pocket for needles, more stitch markers etc.

This project took much longer to finish than I had expected. But! I love the outcome and it is big enough to hold many more needles. I definitely wouldn't recommend this for beginners, as some parts were quite tricky to sew. But there are many simple tutorials out there for needle organizers (one, two & three).

Knit-A-Bit // Large Project Bag & Noro Love

It has been perfect sewing weather lately (rainy & cold) so I decided to make a new project bag. I have blogged about these two already but they are only big enough to hold one skein of sock wool. I wanted a project bag that holds several skeins, so when I knit scarves or other bigger projects I don't have to use zipper bags anymore ;) 

I made several interior pockets to keep needles, scissors, patterns etc. organized inside the bag.

I used an Amy Butler fabric (from her Daisy Chain collection) and I used this tutorial. It was super easy to understand  and I only modified the interior pockets.

In other news, there was a sale on Noro yarns in this German online shop. Of course I couldn't resist the beauitful colors and had to buy a couple of skeins :)

I wanna knit a scarf, a hat with ear flaps didn't find a nice pattern yet) and matching mittens with a fleece lining. I'm preparing for winter in Vancouver :D

Sweet Summer 2011 - update!

while working on my sweet summer 2011 minibook, i realized that it was about time to share an update. the book is growing bigger pretty fast. i finally got some book binding rings, yay!

here's a quick tour:

left page: just a random picture of my vintage sugar collection i found at a flea market last year.

right page: we've had a breakfast date with our local ravelry group. it was in the middle of my finals and it great to have a break from all the exams and the studying.

i kinda spent all of april and may studying for my finals and taking the exams. this picture represents well how i felt during those months.

left page: after my finals the thing i enjoyed most was sleep :D

right page: hello june page

left page: a picture of my quilt. i love it so much and the colors are so inspiring.

right page: i wanted to make a minibook of our trip to egypt but i decided against it and just incorporated some bits and pieces in my sweet summer mini. this is a postcard.

left page: on the back of the postcard i wrote the dates of our trip.

right page: i cut off the top of an air sickness bag from the airplane and used it to put some bits and pieces from the flight and our first evening in egypt in there. i stapled my boarding pass to the front and closed the envelope with some washi tape so i can add more stuff to it.

left page: boarding passes of our flight back to germany

right page: another post card

left page: food labels to cover the back of the postcard

right page: our hotel's welcome card

left page: hotel's welcome card

right page: picture of the bread buffet

left page: another picture

right page: map of hurghada sticked to the front of the yellow envelope

left page: inside there are tickets etc. from our trip to luxor. i sticked some details on the day trip from a catalog to the back.

right page: our guide during the trip to luxor

left page & right page: more pictures!

even more...

and more! and a blank page to 'calm down' :D

left page: i cut open a protector sheet and used it to sew some egyptian pounds to the back of the tag.

right page: i did the same with a five pound bill. i sew it onto the pattern paper on one side. one can 'open' it and see the back of it (which, btw, is in english. most things over there are printed twice - once in arabic, once in english)

next up: details on our snorkeling trip (please ignore that i misspelled 'snorkeling')

right page: some pictures from this post and i machine stitched around the pictures. i used our cheap office printer to print these so the quality is very bad. but better than not adding any pictures at all, right?

left page: i had some leftover yarn from my calais shawl which i normally would've thrown away. i knitted a few rows to add some texture and give a feel for the shawl :)

right page: i used a hambly transparency to frame a photo of one of our cats.

here's a page on some of the food i had in june. i was quite uninspired to use the color chart in the beginning because of the holes/frames in it. but this seemed like the perfect opportunity :)

bottom right: a post card from the amélie movie. i fall in love with the movie every time i watch it - so beautiful and cute!

on the back of the post card i added some of the movies that inspired my this summer. i'll add more to the list throughout summer :)

it's quite impressive how quickly a minibook grows. i love watching it become thicker and thicker :)

last but not least, an outtake. every time i wanna take pictures of just about anything the cat wants to be in the picture, too. so cute :)