4 easy goals

New Year, new goals?

As 2013 is coming to an end (I know it is another two months, but that seems like nothing, doesn’t it?) I am reminding myself of what I wanted to achieve. I definitely improved my knitting skills, still have to practice a lot of sewing. I started running on a regular basis again and am pretty satisfied with that.

BUT: I haven’t started learning Italian yet and haven’t taken Burlesque lessons. As I will have half of December and the first week of January off (yay!), I thought about starting then, but surprise, surprise! No one offers lessons in December or at least there is no course starting at the end of the year. But I will definitely do some research once I am on holiday and book the classes, so one could say I have accomplished that goal even a bit in 2013. 

While reading through my feedly I stumbled across the “Four simple goals”-post by Elsie and Emma from www.abeautifulmess.com. It is a great idea and I am definitely joining.

As everything is more fun when you share it, why don’t we do it together, so join in, think of four simple goals and take part in the challenge. The good thing, if you write it down, you can always remind yourself of what you wanted to do and get motivated by readers and followers.

So my goals for 2014:

beer-seat

... or alternative lemonade-seat of course.
Who does not know the situation? There is more people than seats at a party and finally some people take a cushion and sit down on a crate of beer. Highly uncomfortable, true. We have a solution.

Here you can see the cushioning I used.

Eva-Melina and me went to a housewarming-party of some friends and wondered about what to bring them. Weh thought about painted flower-boxes or homemade jam, but we decided to make a beer-crate seat, as this is a handy gift for a party, bringing your own beer and seat. A frozen joghurt shop beneath our apartment  uses these for their guests, but only with plain wood, so not very comfotable.

As you can see, we put four pieces of wood unter the seating area in order to prevent it from slipping from the beer crate. Then we took the staple gun and connected the oil cloth and the wood.  Be careful with your fingers, they are freakishly strong, those machines. 

So this is how we did it: We used a crate of beer we had all bought together in our holidays and which therefore is a reminder of this time. In a hardware store we got several pieces of wood, a staple gun and I had bought cute oil cloth on dawanda. To make the seat more comfortable, add some sort of cushioning.

Et voilá! Here it is! As you can imagine we filled it with beer before we brought it along to the party.

Knitting Season 2013 has begun

The last two weeks I have been on holiday, mostly visiting friends in various German cities. And as a lot of them have kids or will be having kids soon and as I happened to have a lot of time suddenly, especially on our long cross-country car-rides, I found great inspiration in all those small feet and heads to start serious knitting again. I am easily frustrated, so being done with a sock within an hour is making me very happy. So I started with socks. 

I proudly present the first sock I ever made (which look really odd):

I always thought they are too much work to knit, but it is actually a lot of fun. And baby socks are also so very cute. Next bigger project is a baby blanket. I am so much in the flow that I will be able to finish it soon and not make it another UFO. Plus the baby I am knitting for will be born in November, so there is a deadline. Creating all those little things in no time got me to thinking. And no, not about having a baby, but about a project I read about last year: knitting for preemies in hospitals. Baby clothes often don’t fit premature infants, as they are so very tiny. I bet parents, who are probably worried about their little ones, will be a bit happier, knowing there are people creating stuff for people they don’t even know. As soon as my baby blanket is finished, I will look out for hospitals that take donated clothes and will animate my friends to collect mini-socks and –hats. With fall approaching fast, time for knitting will increase for all of us, so if you feel like it, start such a project yourself, motivate your friends to help you and let’s make the world a tiny bit better.

Two heads, socks and I especially love the teeny tiny gloves

Fall is coming...

I don’t know if we can agree on that, but to me, every season is connected to a very special feeling and I could never understand those people who only love summer. (Although working fulltime now I can see why people care about all the darkness in the mornings and evenings, it can get depressing.) Summer is carefree, but also very exciting, busy, the feeling to have to be everywhere at the same time. Fall is wilder, winds and rain, great colours and also quieter, melancholic, great for deep thoughts, crafts and cuddling at home, cooking and watching series. I have to admit that after a summer with great weather like we had during the last weeks, I am looking forward to staying home more, being creative and lazy. Being lazy without feeling bad about it, that is fall and winter for me. And a feeling of slight sadness, which can be sweetly melancholic, as I said above.

Winter is similar, but also different, as there is Christmas. And snow (if you are lucky). Both tend to loose their magic a bit when you are older, but it is still there. Cookies, Glühwein, Feuerzangenbowle (I will post a great recipe, once the time is there. For some supermarkets, September seems to be the start of the Christmas season, but nope, not for me. Give fall some credit before winter comes.) gift-wrapping, gift-making…. I love it. 

Christmas markets can be magical, I like the songs. Bells ringing, glistening snow, cracking under your shoes. Coming home from the icy cold into a cozy warm home, drinking tea or taking a long bath. Taking baths is one of my major free-time activity in winter. (When I am not in the sauna, which is another perfect winter-activity).

Spring is romantic, everything comes to life, blossoms, buzzes. Now, outdoor activities become more appealing, think of feeling the warm sun on your skin, hearing the birds sing for the first time and realising how much you missed them. Smelling all the flowers, blossoms. You feel motivated for a fresh start. So does nature.

As you see, every season has it’s charm and every season can be your favourite, especially in the beginning. After a while I always feel tired of one season, looking forward to the new one, which is a great thing.

Here are two projects fitting into the coming fall:

Rumtopf (Fruit in Rum)

 I started a Rumtopf. Fruit in rum, leo translates. It is a rather old-fashioned tradition, I think in my grandparents’ generation it was quite common. You need a high pot you can close, best made of clay, like the original ones in the 60s and 70s. I got a vintage one on ebay for 4 Euros, so have a look if you’d like to have the original Rumtopf-feeling. Then you buy rum, dark rum with at least 59% alcohol, brown sugar and fruit. I don’t like how berries get slushy if you put them into liquid, especially strawberries, so I decided to use only stone fruit (except for the red currant my mother in law gave me, but I guess they will keep their texture. So far I used apricots, I will buy cherries, use the peaches from my terrace and plums will also be a great add I think. Every time a fruit is in season, you take the stones out and put it into the pot, adding rum and sugar, till all fruit is covered. (To prevent floating, you can put a plate on the fruit into the pot). It is important to only use clean fruit and put the pot somewhere cool, best solution is the basement, to make sure it doesn’t turn bad. In the last phase before Christmas you can add Christmassy herbs and spices and then drink it with good friends around Christmas time. You can eat the fruit along with pudding, or bake a cake with it. I don’t even know whether I will like it too much, as I am not a drinker of heavy alcohol, but I just liked the concept of making it. And I am sure that my friends and family will be glad to help.

Another project is connected to the first: if you take the stones out of your cherries, don’t throw them out, use them to make a cherry-stone-cushion. That means to eat and prepare a lot of cherries, but it is totally worth it, especially for cold fall- and winter-nights like mentioned above. Just put the cushion into the microwave for a short time or – if you don’t have one- into the oven and lie it on your feet / belly / neck, to enjoy the comfortable warmth.

To create one, you have to make sure the stones are really clean. Best is, letting them sit in vinegar for a night, then cook them for twenty minutes and afterwards, to dry them, bake them in the oven.

As fabric you can take anything that will not burst into flames in the microwave, best is cotton or another natural fabric. I have already seen all kinds of cushion-shapes, it probably depends a bit on what you want to do with it. I tend to create longer ones, that I can lie around my neck. For your belly you might want to sow a bigger one. Also a great gift for cold days J

Bouncing

The last two weeks have been great fun, Mr. Schön and me spent them travelling around Germany, visiting friends in Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen, we went canoeing in the area of the Spreewald and went to the Baltic as well as to the Northern Sea. Before starting the trip I did some research about what not to miss (including the Blutsgeschwister store in Hamburg, my moneybag is still in mourning) and found a store where you can try so-called Sieben Meilen Stiefel, I will call them bouncing boots, as bouncing is what you do with them.

My better half has been wanting to try them for a while now and I thought it would be a great opportunity to visit the store in Hamburg.

Zlatko helping me putting the boots on for the first time

http://zzet.de/

 I am really bad when it comes to sports done on anything other than my feet on the ground. It took me ages to learn how to rollerblade, I never tried skiing, for a reason and ice-skating for me means trying not to fall. So you can see why I was a bit sceptical about getting on the stilts.

In the shop a leaflet read that you need between 5 and 20 minutes to learn how to walk on them, so I thought, 20 minutes don’t sound so bad. Zlatko, the shop’s owner is a great, positive and interesting guy, who made me feel safe and comfortable from the first moment. The shop in Hamburg is ideal to test the boots, you can hold on to a ballet-like banister, a bit higher than in balletclass, as you are about 30 cm taller than usual and after a while, Zlatko takes your hands and winds them around to show you that you don’t need to hold onto anything. It is a great feeling. We spent two hours in the shop, learning to walk, to jump and to run, feeling a bit like kids learning to stand on their feet. It is a lot of fun, though very exhausting. Even when standing on one spot you are constantly moving a bit, which is a great challenge for you back and belly muscles.

Proud bouncers after two hours of trying

Now that we are back home we have used the boots almost every day and we get braver every time. The muscles are already getting used to all the training and it feels great to get fitter in such a fun way. If you happen to go to Hamburg, Zlatko’s store is definitely a good address to stop by, he is such a positive guy. Sundays hold a special treat: a long walk with other “bouncers”. Even as a beginner you can join them with rent boots from Zlatko’s shop and walk through the city of Hamburg. I guess with experience bouncers it is even easier as they have a lot of good advice and make you feel safer in the pack. You don’t need to buy them, Zlatko in no way urges you to, which may be a trick, as we bought them in the end, paying about 350 each. As we had our training on seven year old, heavily used boots, I am sure we will enjoy them for a long time. Try it! 

Running is even more fun than just walking. But twice as exhausting :)

Winning at losing Weight

… is the plan for this summer. Mr. and Fräulein Schön have a plan to get in shape for summer and as everything is more fun with a little bit of competition we have a bet going on: whoever is in better shape by the end of June / middle of July (we should really set a date here, shouldn’t we?) has to pay for a weekend trip for two. The one who loses can suggest the place, but the other person has to be ok with it. So just going to Cologne from Düsseldorf does not work. Although… could also be nice.

So far, sorry honey, I think I am a little ahead of you. Although we still have not the desirable middle-of-May-weather, at least it is not freezing anymore and the days are significantly longer, so being more active, doing exercise is much easier than it was during the horrible winter. As I cannot torture my peers and colleagues with a grumpy and hungry me, I definitely cannot do much of a diet. So plan 1 is: less sweet stuff, but other than that: eat healthy, not less but exercising more than before.

I installed a very nice app on my phone, shape up. The green design is refreshing and instantly makes me think of health and sports. You enter your personal data, plus the aspired weight and the program will calculate how many calories you can eat per day in order to loose weight. I know that it can only be a rough guide, as every metabolism differs hugely from another, but still it is a great motivator. Entering what you ate doesn’t take long, as everything is either there in the program or you can search it in their database. A plus is also that you can see how much protein, carbs and fat you consumed and can thereby decide what is still missing in your nutrition. Sadly, vitamins are not on the list, which should also be given some consideration. Every exercising shall be entered as well, which rewards you with a reduction of your calories, or leaves you with more calories yet able to eat. To be fair, I only started a few days ago, but I am always so motivated to put some nice food or exercise in there and see the effect, it is amazing. I don’t know whether I lost any weight yet, but I definitely feel better already.

One of the exercises I have been doing lately is Zumba. We used to do a lot of running and I still like it a lot, but I have to admit that I am a bit of a clear-blue-sky runner and as there is so little of that lately I am very grateful for my Wii-Zumba. I also considered a gym, but as I have very irregular office hours, plus always a full schedule of free-time activities as well I decided to at least start with the Wii game. And what can I say, I love it! Me, who has never enjoyed videogames or computergames. But dancing in front of the tv, hoping that no neighbours will see you, because it might look really stupid, is a lot of fun and very exhausting. I always knew with my background of ballroom and Latin dancing I would enjoy Zumba for sure, but hey, it is not only fun, but an even better training than running. Cardio, muscles, fun! Plus, you definitely improve your dancing skills, handy in your free-time as well. I sometimes meet up with Eva-Melina to dance and I don’t need to tell you that this is even more fun. Although I will probably never have a body like the zumba-trainers, for the obvious reason that I am not a Zumba-trainer, I am already looking forward to the next training. 

I have never been someone that uses new media excessively, funny being a media scientist, which is why I came to blogging quite late, I guess I am a bit conservative when it comes to digital changes. Still, I love digital innovations when they have a positive effect in what I like to call the Real World. So I love that Maps on my phone help me find my way (necessarily a lot of times…), the Shape Up app, that helps me eating healthy, Zumba on the tv that makes me sweat so many times a week and many more. I will let you know about the weekend-trip I am going to win ;)

books... the best way to forget about reality for a while

The joy of reading has almost always been with me and I deeply pity everyone who doesn't feel the magic of books. I might sound shallow, that they can take you anywhere you want, without even leaving you cozy bed / livingroom / hanging basket, whatever. But it is true.
Being able to read was a pretty early desire in my life, probably as my mom is a big reader, and I somehow managed to learn it by myself, by always asking which word meant what. Since then it has been a great journey with everything from Enid Blyton to the three investigators (apparently only big in Germany) to Agatha Christie (oh, how I enjoyed the Miss Marple novels) and Thomas Harris. You can see from this list that I have been a big crime-novel fan and am to this day. (Although I also enjoy autobiographies, travel-literature, historic stories and much more, I want to dedicate this blog entry to crime thrillers I have read and enjoyed during the last years.

During the years of my studies I always had to read so much for university, books piling up everywhere in my room and never enough time, that reading for fun was not as fun anymore. I still did it from time to time, but mostly while traveling (also not a lot of free time) and always with a bit of a bad conscience, as I should have been reading Niklas Luhmann instead of Stephen King or others.

My first action after the writing of my Masterthesis: buying a novel, sitting down in a cafe and reading for hours and I still know which novel it was:

The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett

For along time no novel had gripped me that hard, not letting go till the end of the last page. Beckett describes the single parts of Britain his David Hunter-novels take place with such an energy, I always feel like I was there, tasting the sea, smelling Dartmoor, listening to the rural speech. As I have traveled some of England I could of course go back in time and just memorize everything, but Beckett takes you to England and in one case, the U.S., no matter whether you have been there or not. Suspense to the end, with a more than Hollywood-worth ending, that is what Simon Becketts novels are for me. Due to the job of their main character (forensic anthropologist) the books might be too gory for the thin-skinned, but growing up watching The X-Files I guess I have been toughened when it comes to this. The other novels of the series are just as - if nor even more - awesome. I guess my favourite so far is "The Calling of the Grave", which was released in 2010. I hope there will be another novel soon. Does anyone know about it?

Coming from that X-Files, Enid Blyton and Miss Marple background, I seem to prefer detective-series (although this old-fashioned term does not seem too accurate for Simon Beckett and the following:)

Due to coincidence I started reading novels by Mo Hayder: 

Birdman by Mo Hayder

Gruesome in almost the same way as the David Hunter models, if not more so. Detective Jack Caffery reminds me as well of the lone wolf, David Hunter is, although Hunter is maybe more likeable from the beginning. Hayder is also less shocking due to her visual desciptions, but I would say more due to her pervert ideas, playing with the emotion of characters and readers alike. Like the above series, Mo Hayders' novels are not recommended for people of a too sensitive kind. Plus they differ from Beckett's novels in depicting more of straightforward police work as Caffery works as a DI. The beauty of England again, I seem to go for these, as also my reading-biography suggests. The South of England seems to be a very dangerous place...

A much more American approach to the term "thriller" you find in the following series, which is already quite old, but I just discovered it about a year ago (A few months before the movie came out, with one of the worst castings in cinema history, which is why I haven't watched it till this day. Movies based on novels is a tricky chapter itself, probably worth a blog on it's own.) The Jack Reacher series by Lee Child consist of stunning stories, well researched and always of breathtaking speech. It is almost impossible to stop reading the novels. Characters aren't depicted deeply and all in all it feels a bit like Fast Food, but sometimes this is just what you need. Usually Reacher would be too much of a superhero for me, but the stories are so cunning, surprising and well written that I do not care much about his strength, height, power, skills. 

Killing Floor by Lee Child

Start with "Killing Floor" if you are interested. It is the first one and it makes sense to do so. My favourite so far - though I haven't read them all - is "Die Trying" the second one.

I like blogs with the one or other reading recommendation. Especially if you read blogs and you happen to have the same taste as the author in many things like fashion, food, decoration, a.s.o. taking reading advice probably is not a bad idea. So I might share some other great novels I love. As I infected many people with watching Louis Theroux's docus and as I consider this a very good achievement, why not bring the joy of reading into lifes of others as well... Any recommendations?

That 70s Nostalgia...

While I redesigned some aspects of my blog I realised how much the result reminded me of the 1970s. That is no coincidence, I love designs of the 60s and the 70s and am a highly nostalgic person. (Our roaring Twenties-Party a few months ago was a huge succeess, I will post some pics of the resulting photo-wall later) My love for the 70s was reinforced while working in a 70s clothing and design-shop as a student.

It used to be in Bochum, but apparently has just moved to Wuppertal, with more space and an additional lounge-bar. If you are interested in furniture and clothes from the era of the Bee Gees and ABBA go there. The owner is a crazy guy, always friendly and funny, a bit nerdy maybe. I can't wait to see their new shop:

It used to be great fun, help peole sorting out outfits for their parties, wallpapers for their living rooms and also meet people with the same taste in music and clothes as me.

For the same reason I enjoy watching Mad Men, the hairstyles, clothes, cars, furniture from the 60s are all so special and classy. People made an effort in looking nice. I can't help myself but I don't see it nowadays. It is great that everyone can dress as they like (at least when they are over 16 years old), but I still long for the more distinguished look of the 60s. There is no point in arguing that living in the 60s would be my dream, as I know I couldn't have lived the life I am living then. Women were even more supressed than they are now, so I probably would have hated it. But if we all dressed a bit nicer and a bit more like then, wouldn't that be nice? (Excuse my daydreaming....)

Banana Republic have made one step into this direction, with their Mad Men collection:

Hooray, Spring is here...

... at least in my projects. After I finished the knitting project for the baby daughter of friends of mine, I decided to make myself something with the same kind of wool, as it was so nice to knit. As we all need more colour in our life I chose mint green and dark green and did my first ever knitted "picture". (Maybe, if I practice, I might be able to create another "Alf Jumper" for Eva Melina, she told me she had one as a kid she really loved.)

Those are the tulips I did. I know, they are not perfect and not very detailed, but I am still so happy that it worked out without having any plan or advise. Plus, the red makes a nice contrst to the rest of the cardigan. I am knitting it in one piece and will sow the short arms to it afterwards. As it is supposed to be worn in spring and summer, I am optimistic and will do it without long arms. This is how far I have gotten to up to now. As there is a long weekend with shitty weather ahead I will try to finish it till next week:

Creating stuff with your own hands is so very satisfying and it doesn't matter whether you are planting, cooking, repairing, knitting, crocheting or painting anyhting. Just being "creative", meaning you are the active creator of things, changing your environment in your own way, is remarkable. It should be a very small thing, and yet it feels like the grandest things of all.

Post modern inglorious basterds

Have you ever heard of Louis Theroux?
Yesterday, while I had to kill some time, I searched the web for documentaries and I found one that really impressed me deeply. (I have mentioned how much I love movies, but I mostly watch nice, funny, or also scary movies, but usually I prefer the fun ones. But do you know what I mean when I say the deepest impressions leave the really not-fun movies?) Theroux's "The Nazis" is one example of that kind of deep impact. (Other movies that kind of freaked me out are e.g. "The Cube", "A clockwork Orange" or "Ajami", I recommend you to watch them.) It shows how Theroux meets some members of a Neonazi community of California. Watch it and then read on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqK2ILCq-do


As a German I might be supersensitive to the topic, but some scenes are so shocking to me, they give me goosebumps. Most of the guys are a bit stupid and hypoctritic, you could say and you can tell they know about it, the way they react when Theroux asks them about their Mexican friends or their Peruan clients, they get along so well. But a blonde woman, you see her right in the beginning of the movie, really scared the hell out of me. Her little daughters, not standing a chance of getting to know about the world, as they are hometaught and apparently have very little contact with the outside world, depress me. To me the woman's actions is close to child abuse and I am glad that in Germany she would not allowed to keep her children. One the one hand it is great that there is so much freedom in the US, on the other hand I almost get sick when I see a bunch of people Sieg-Heiling, adoring Hitler and supporting the Ku Klux Klan. When you grow up in Germany this seems so unreal and disgusting. Do you think they would feel any different if they had visited Auschwitz? I don't know. And there is no way denying that there are no Nazis in Germany anymore, not at all and I guess they are as scary and as deeply racist as the people in the BBC docu. But I guess most of them wouldn't speak to a camera that open and proud about it. At least most of them would be too ashamed and too scared to do so.

I will definitely check out more of Theroux's documentaries, his courage and the way he insists on the most akward topics, deeply impressed me.

Do you have any tips, any other impressing documentaries? For me, I have to say it, the BBC is and always will be the masters of documentaries. It is one of my dearest dreams to one day work for them. And although my career so far has turned into another direction, I will not give up my hope.

Selina

Creativity...

... probably is the most fulfilling aspect of life.
Think of the games we played as kids, how we could play a game for hours, completely forgetting about time and place. Whether you are pirate, scrubbing the ship and partying with you mates, a detective, investigating a case or imagining you had a talking dragon as a pet, imagination is a strong force and I think all of us need to dream more. I used to lie flat on the floor, watch at the ceiling and dream myself into another world. When was the last time we did that? Probably ages ago, so maybe we should try it more often.

Have you ever heard of the "flow"? It is a pyschological concept, meaning to immerse fully into your activity, forgetting about everything else, which usually goes along with a feeling of deep satisfaction. Funnily enough I got to know that concept through my studies of media science, but then again, a movie's mere cause of existence usually is getting you into a flow. But I guess, every action can give you a flow experience, it could be ironing as well as painting, you just have to do it with all your heart. Knitting actually has helped me a lot, evoking this kind of pleasure. The feeling of creating something durable, someone might use for ages, is a top-benefit. The first knitting I did was actually just for the purpose of knitting, I found it so relaxing. And nowadays, making gifts or something nice for myself makes it even more appealing. Learning something new and getting better at what you love to do is also some benefit I adore it for. Just like playing the guitar always makes me feeling good, knitting never fails to do so.

By now I have already finished some projects, below you see a jumper I did for the kid of a former colleague of mine. I did it with the pattern of the little elizza-book I mentioned in the first post. The buttons are little apples and I love them. The good thing about little kids is that you can dress them anyway you like to and though I wouldn't wear a jumper like that myself, I find it adorable on a kid.

Next Sunday we are invited to friends who also have a kid and I want to make a jumper for her as well, so keep your fingers crossed that I can do it in a week. I will keep you posted on my progress. Mr. Schön's hat is almost ready and it suits him well. (Acutally he looks a bit like a bandit with it, but of course I am proud that I could make something for him.)

Have a great Sunday and take care!

Selina

Schön, Frau Schön...

...Oh, it has been a while...

As many of my friends are writing blogs and much more of my friends are not able to speak any German, I will continue the blog in English. 

A long time has passed and I will try to write more regularly now (Probably the resolution of most bloggers) The inspiration for a blog of my own actually came from the big German handcrafts-blogger community. Sewing, knitting, crocheting, fantastic diy-products all over the web! They have given me so much inspiration and even when the first own projects were rather hard work sometimes, the motivation you can get out of a movement like the diy-blogger one is amazing. Three of my favourites are: 

http://jolijou.blogspot.com/

A very colourful blog full of ideas, mainly accessories and decoration. I love her tutorials and also the design of her blog, I really need to work on mine, once the weather is bad again. (It's actually sunny outside, I can hardly believe it.)

http://cat-und-kascha-rote-tupfen.blogspot.de/

This woman is really incredible, not only does she manage her family, her job and her blog, but she also frequently sews the most amazing vintage dresses. I hope that someday I will be able to make myself similiar clothes. Apart from her talent considering her wardrobe, she is also commenting about political issues, holding up the feminist's flag. I wouldn't call myself a feminist, but when it comes down to equal rights for everyone I am all for it.

http://frauburow.blogspot.de/

Again a mother, writing a blog, sowing. I love her way of writing, you have the feeling of communicating with a friend. Her kids are so lucky to have such a cool mum, creating nice things for them.

Although I do not have kids and am not planning to have any, it is a lot of fun to make clothes for them. For once, because they look so cute, second, you can take the most shocking colours, kids will love that, (although I admit that so far I have used colours I would wear myself for the kid's stuff.), plus you are finished just so much earlier. Luckily, there are already some people I know that have kids and are always grateful for something handmade, may it be as crooked as it is.

My next knitting project will be a hat for Mr. Schön. Difiicult thing as he is the most critical man I know. Whatever I make, I love in the end, I even love every little mistake in it (or that's what I'm telling myself), but my better half spots these little defects immediately and is always kind enough to point them out to me. So keep your fingers crossed he will like the hat.

Apart from my (hoped for) progress in handcrafts, I will also write about things that come to my mind. At the moment, due to the "fasting-project" of a good friend of mine, involving not to buy any plastic till Easter, I think a lot about how the little things we do every day can already help our environment. If just everyone always had a cotton bag with them, no plastic bags would be produced anymore. We actually already have enough of them on Earth, we could just let them circulate between us. To get more information on the issue, read Eva's blog, it is really inspiring.

http://ingloriousplastics.wordpress.com

Apart from making my own clothes, decoration, etc. I also appreciate good food. We get a box of organic fruits and vegetables delivered every week, which always gives us a lot of ideas about what to cook. Plus we live much healthier with all the veggies and we would never buy a frozen pizza or lasagne, not because we would never eat fast food or ready made food, but simply because with this box we have so much stuff we have to cook, we cannot afford to not cook in a way :). As a student and before that I used to not care much about what I ate or even if I ate. (which meant, I used to be a much skinnier than I am now and sometimes I miss my skinny state, but then again, giving up food is not an option), but within the last years, through friends I started caring, enjoying cooking, high quality ingredients, trying new recipes, it has changed a lot in my life, acutally it is a whole new way of life. Probably enjoying is the main aspect of being. That can mean good food, it can also mean making someone happy and enjoying it. From time to time, if I find a very good recipe or we have another food night at our home, I will let you know, sharing experiences with dishes and ingredients is always a good idea.
At the moment we are in the frantic bread-making phase. We bake a bread almost every day and it is so much fun, so good and also quite cheap.

Loving creating things, I use our huge balcony to grow plants. Pretty flowers live peacefully next to vegetables and fruits and as the season has just started and the first sunny days have pimped peaches and strawberries I will let you take part in the planting, caring and harvesting process. The satisfaction I gain from planting sometimes makes me wonder, whether I would be happiest on a farm, growing crops, having chicken and milk-cows... But then again, no. Cinemas, Ice Cream Parlours, Restaurants, shopping almost around the clock... I don't want to miss that, am too much of a city-girl.

Let the plants grow and let the sun shine till November. And may my blog grow just like my tomatoes!

(Wow, that sounds so solemnly, may the force be with you!)

Take care and try not to buy plastic!

Selina