Patience

Please excuse the silence around here lately - I still don't have internet access at my new apartment. Hopefully the technician will get it up and running by next Wednesday. In the meantime I spend the evenings knitting, re-watching The Office for the gazillion's time and enjoying the last summer nights outside. I love summer but I can't wait for fall to arrive!

Anyone else craving long walks, cozy evenings at home with lots of time for crafts and of course lots of apple pie and tea?

life lately

After several stressful weeks months, life has finally calmed down a little. I'm at my parent's for a couple of days cat sitting while they're on vacation. I haven't had much time to decorate my apartment yet but as soon as it looks home-y I'll show you a couple of pictures.

Today I realized that I haven't had a chance to pick up my camera for days weeks, so I took some quick shots of our cats while they were soaking up the last bits of sunshine in our backyard. I'm gonna miss these two cuties badly but I'm starting to look into adopting a kitten - an apartment/house without a cat simply doesn't feel like home to me. I wish I could take my cat with me but it would break his heart not to be able to go outside anymore - and not having another cat to chase.

I'll be back soon with something crafty to make up for the past months of knitting abstinence.

Life Is Good

- bought an AWESOME sewing machine. It's pure love. I can't wait for the weekend when I get to sew a cute project or two :)
- lots of baking going on here. Yumm!
- homegrown zucchini and basil. So good!!
- hunting for a cute lamp shade knitting pattern. I wanna restyle this simple lamp and turn it into something lacy and stylish!

Sorry for being so quiet lately, but life has been full of time-consuming surprises lately. It's been exhausting, but good.

Summer Lovin'

picture taken in June 2010 for Kara's 'Summer of Love' e-course.

We've had a couple of beautiful summer days - heat, lots of sunshine and of course ice cream. I started my job on Monday and we're lucky to have an office on the 1st floor - no direct sunshine = it's always fairly cold in the office. And yes, I still wear woolen sweaters daily because it's freezing in the office in the morning. My job is really great so far; my coworkers are really nice, both my supervisors are really nice and fun and the work itself is very interesting. I work for an insurance company in the health care section and it's my job to migrate the client's pre-existing conditions into the new IT system.

 In other news, my apartment is allllmost ready! Yay. I finally found a super nice roommate and I dream about home decor ideas already. Hah. Can't wait for my first paycheck next month so I can actually buy some stuff for the apartment (like a microwave... which is like one of the most important appliances in a kitchen... beside a KitchenAid and an oven of course!). Anyways, just here to check in to say that I'm still alive but busy with work and I've had at least a dozen 'potential roommate interviews' in the past days.

I'll be back soon with some crafty stuff that I've wanted to share for weeks! :)

One happy cat (+mama)

It's not a secret that cats love boxes. My cat is no exception. Usually he tries to fit into the smallest box. Yesterday we got a couple of biiig boxes and he managed to find the smallest of all. After some chewing, scratching and playing he fell asleep.

As some of you might have guessed, the boxes are from my mom's longarm sewing machine. It was delivered yesterday on a pallet. We had to unpack all the boxes from the frame because they were huge and heavy. The cat welcomed the pile of boxes that took over our entire kitchen. I'm sure he's gonna love the machine even more once it's assembled and doubles as an almost 4m(/13 feet) long bed for him.

on IKEA

Before I start, let me say one sentence: I LOVE IKEA!
Now you'll probably ask why? Although the company tries to promote sustainability, there are certainly many downsides to buying ikea stuff(many controversies about where they get their wood from, about the bad working conditions in the factories etc.). I'm not saying that it's a 'good' company but if we were to start that discussion we shouldn't be buying at a regular supermarket, nor shop at H&M/Forever21/... (basically any 'big, bad company).

So why do I love ikea so much?



1. Food. We all love food and the food at ikea is simply amazing. Free coffee(+refills!) for ikea family members is amazing. It has saved us literally hundreds of dollars! Oh and did I mention that the coffee at French ikeas is  a-m-a-z-i-n-g ? Seriously, if you're in France and see an ikea, go there just for the coffee. It's delicious and free!
Also, they have pretty good organic pasta and it's only 1€! Okay, it's officially a kid's meal but the servings are big and they never refused to serve me a children's dish :)
Oh and some of their seasonal dishes are amazing... like asparagus. Sooo yummy and cheap! :)

2. Expedit. Hands down, it's the best bookcase in the world. The range of sizes is amazing, the price is great and it's perfect for everything. Your fabric stash needs a new home? Go get an expedit. You don't know where to store your 12x12 scrapbook papers? Expedit fits perfectly! You love reading books but some of your books are too big for a regular book case? Expedit is your solution.
I've seen expedits in nearly all rooms and they're always perfect! Whether it's in the bathroom, kitchen, basement, hallway, craft room, office, living room, bedroom, ... it's so versatile I could furnish my entire apartment with it and I'd be happy :)

3. Free workout. Now, is it just my family or does a visit at ikea always take at least two hours? Two hours of constant walking, lifting heavy packages and millions of new decorating ideas streaming through your head. Comfy shoes, an ikea family membership card for free drinks and some good music in the car for a relaxed ride home are a must!

4. People watching. Have you ever sat down on a comfy couch at ikea and watched the people around you? Ikea does something funny to people; they start arguing about the most ridiculous things in the world, their body language often says more than 1000 words and seeing people 'test' furniture is very entertaining! I also recommend sitting down in the restaurant with a view over the parking lot, watching how people attempt to fit huge packages into tiny cars.

5. Occupational therapy. Once the ikea visit is over, the fun part begins: getting all the packages into your home, unpacking all the packages and assembling the furniture. It can be pretty frustrating but I recommend buying the same article several times because there's a steep learning curve to assembling ikea furniture ;)

What's your opinion on ikea? Do you have a lot of ikea stuff? Do you love it or hate it?

Little helper

As we're waiting for the painter to finish papering and painting my apartment, we're using the time to furnish and organize my mom's new sewing studio. She'll get her longarm sewing machine next week and in the meantime we're busy organizing all her fabrics, threads, ribbons, etc. The cat helps us by always sleeping wherever we wanna put something, thus forcing us to take regular breaks to drool over his cuteness.