Photo Album New York City

I can't believe I actually finished my New York City photo album! I've been working on this one for over a year now but never really brought it to an end (the trip was in 2009 btw.). But now I did it - finally!

That's how it turned out:

I hope you all had a good start this week! In case I won't get back on here before Christmas: I wish all of you Peaceful Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Yours

Uta

Tea Bag Inspired Gift Wrapping

I was looking for a creative way to wrap the handwarmer I made for Kristin. Somehow the idea of making an oversized tea bag came to my mind:

Yours

Uta

PS: Happy Friday the 13th :)

Self-Made Hand Warmer

This is another project inspired by a certain pin I found over at pinterest:

I also sewed a little cushion filled with rice. Furthermore I hooked a tine cozy for it. And that's how it turned out:

I gave that little hand warmer to Kristin for her birthday.

Yours

Uta

Embroidered Gift Wrap

I got inspired for this one over at pinterest. There were a couple of people pinning pictures of embroidered gift wrap, what a great idea!

Yours
Uta

Fall-inspired Card

This is the Fall-inspired birthday card I made for Kristin this year. For the leafs I used a Tim Holtz stencil and my Sizzix Big Shot machine.

Yours,

Uta

Egg Cozies

Hello everyone!

Sorry for being MIA again, I was on vacation for a little while, a 14-days cruise with AIDA - pics to come soon :) First some updates on what I hooked lately...

Just in time for her birthday I decided to crochet a new set of egg cozies for Kristin. This is how they turned out:

The wool is Woll Butt Versailles in orange and vanilla. It's a 100% acrylic yarn, soft and nice to crochet with.


Yours
Uta

Paper Trees

I found the instructions for those little guys over at pinterest:

They are so easy to fold, amazing :) I made five:

Yours
Uta

Paper Ornament

I found this one in a catalog for crafting supplies and thought it might we worth copying - without buying the crafting instructions of course :)

Well and that's the result:

Yours
Uta

Pinspired: Small Notebooks

This is the pin over at pinterest that inspired me for this little crafting project:

And that's what I made out of it - small and simple with just a tiny butterfly on the front:

Yours

Uta

Fall Bucket List: Cocoa with Cinnamon

Cocoa with cinnamon and my mother's self-made plum buns with marzipan - YUMYUM :)

Yours

Uta

Pinspired: Crochet Snowman

Kristin sent me this pin over at pinterest:

Well, those little guys were obviously knitted. As knitting is something I'm not that good at I decided to crochet a look-a-like and here it is:

Yours
Uta

Pinspired: Crochet Maple Leaf

I found these amazing crochet leafs over at pinterest and I think they were also on etsy but in a smaller version:

I wanted to make some myself but wasn't that keen on buying the pattern, therefore I improvised again. And that's the result:

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Yours
Uta

***UPDATE***

Here are the smaller ones I found via Google Picture search, those are the ones I actually tried to copy:

Source: http://www.etsy.com/listing/160997624/crocheted-maple-leaves-small-red-orange

Fall Bucket List: Make a Fall Playlist

Well, this one took me a while but I finally completed my Fall Playlist. And I choose...

1. Marry Poppins - Chim Chim Cheree
2. Michelle Branche - Everywhere
3. John Williams - Double Trouble (Harry Potter Soundtrack)
4. Stimulator - Mad World
5. P!nk - Just Give Me a Reason
6. Lindsey Stirling - Shadows
7. Amy MacDonald - 4th of July
8. Ryan Sheridan - Stand Up Tall
9. The Overtones - Gambling Man
10. Redlight King - Old Man

Fell free to listen to my playlist on YouTube right HERE!

Yours
Uta

Fall Bucket List: Paint Nails for Fall

Check :) I choose a metallic brown and I think gold is next...

XO
Uta

Fall Bucket List: Wear Comfy Sweaters

Now that's an easy one :) I like it cozy therefore comfy sweaters are a must in Fall!

Yours
Uta

Fall Bucket List: Read Classics

Reading is one of the best things to do in Fall and Winter. This time I chose Oscar Wilde.

My most favorite story is definitely The Canterville Ghost.

Yours,

Uta

Fall Bucket List: Get Cozy

Candles, scented oil, a nice blanket - love it :)

Yours
Uta

Mug Cozy

I hooked my first mug cozy :) It was more or less a spontaneous idea, coming to my mind in a moment of boredom while sitting on my lovely sofa one evening watching a couple of Charmed episodes.

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone!

Yours

Uta

Fall Bucket List: Watch Harry Potter Movies

Yes, I watched them all, it took me just one loooong weekend and I already feel like I could start all over again :) Watched them in the original version btw, the English version is so much better then the German one. I always have the feeling, something goes missing when they do the translation...

Yours,
Uta

Fall Bucket List: Visit the Botanical Garden

The botanical garden is definitely one of my most favorite places here in Kassel, now wonder I love to go there now and then. The last time I went there the leafs already started to change their colors, Fall is here!

Yours
Uta

Yet Another Scarf

I got yarn from my sister for my birthday this year :) She gave me two indigo colored balls of Schachenmayr Bravo Big. Of course it didn't took me long to figure out what to use it for - another scarf! And this is what came out:

Yours,

Uta

Fall Bucket List: Decorate for Fall

This is something I actually did pretty early but didn't share with you yet. As usual I decorated pith fake pumpkins and leafs.

I wish all of you a warm and sunny Sunday!

Yours,
Uta

Fall Bucket List: Drink Fancy Tea

It's officially Fall, time to start working off the points from my Fall Bucket List! The first one is definitely an easy one as I'm part of a tea loving family: Drink Fancy Tea!

Well, I definitely did so and here's exactly what I drank just recently...

Green tea No. 929 from TeeGschwendner, Apple Coriander (Website)

Herb tea No. 501 from Hall of Tea, Wellness Edition Cinnamon-Cocoa (Website)

Chai blend No. 946 from TeeGschwendner, Karl-Heinz the Autumn Tea (Website)

Yours
Uta

Stash-Busting Scarf

Just recently I realized the end of the year is coming nearer and nearer but my stash didn't really get any smaller so I thought it was about time to do some major stash-busting. The result? A colorful scarf :)

It measures 155 cm. Turned out quite nice :)


Yours
Uta

Fall Bucketlist 2013

I must confess, I stole this idea from my good friend Kristin. She shared her bucketlist over at pinterest:

I loved the idea and therefore created my own bucketlist for this year's Fall including some of Kristin's points as well as new ones:

Click on image to see a larger and more readable version

What are your plans for Fall? Do you maybe have some special crafting projects in mind?


Yours
Uta

Someone started to knit

I've got big plans for Fall and Winter: I want to learn how to knit plus then knit a scarf. Well, I started to work on this plan a couple of days ago. Thanks to YouTube I figured out a few basics already. But still, I'm everything but a fast knitter so I guess knitting that scarf will take me a couple of weeks...

I'll keep you updated, maybe at the end of Winter I'm able to show you the finished scarf ;)

Yours

Uta

Felt Owl Egg Cozy

While flipping through the pages of my favorite crafting supplies catalog I saw this:

And I so had to make my own! As there wasn't a pattern available I again had to improvise. And that's the result:

They are actually quite easy to make, it's just the sewing part that takes a lot of time. The pattern is also quite simple. Use mine if you like, but make sure you print it out at about 150%, otherwise the cozies will be too small.

I wish all of you a wonderful week!

Yours

Uta

From Shopping Tote to Shoe Bag

I just recently recycled on of my many many shopping totes by turning it into a shoe bag!
A not so easy task for me, as I don't sew that often but I made it. And I think the result is a good one even though it's not perfect!

Before...

...and after:

Yesterday night was awesome by the way! The orchestra played from 8 pm until about 11 pm with a 30 min break in between. While they played the last song at 11 pm fireworks started. Definitely a wonderful experience! Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera and therefore had to use my cell to take some (bad quality) pictures:

The building behind the stage is the Orangerie, one of the most famous historical places here in Kassel.

I wish all of you a sunny Sunday! Mine is quite cloudy actually, I think the weather forcast said it is going to rain in the afternoon, let's see...


Yours
Uta

PS: Turns out, this can be counted as yet another project for my No-Buy Challenge :)

Granola Day

I love giving self-made gifts. One of my favorite ones is self-made granola. Just recently I gave some to friends. Luckily I found some cute mason jars for that purpose :)

I hope you are all having an amazing weekend so far! I'll be going to an open air concert tonight where the orchestra of the Staatstheater Kassel will be playing live and for free. Last time there were about 30.000 people there. Oh, I'm so looking forward to it, listening to music while having a picnic with friends, this is going to be wonderful :)
What are you up to this weekend? Any special plans?

Yours
Uta

Owl Post

Of course my owl twins had to travel in style. Unfortunately I ran out of appropriately sized envelopes lately. I therefore simply crafted one:

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

Yours
Uta

PS: No-Buy Challenge project #12 - mission accomplished :)

Owl Twins

A couple of weeks ago Kristin sent me the following pin via pinterest:

>>> Click on the picture to see Pin at Pinterest <<<

I wasn't really keen on paying something for the pattern so I improvised and that is what came out:

They are just 8 cm in height so not as huge as the original one.


Sending some love to all of you!

Yours
Uta

PS: No Buy Challenge & Stash-Buster Challenge project #11 :)

The Great Drapo: Making Dresses without Sewing

I just had to share this with you :)

Wish you all a joyful day!

Yours
Uta

Project "Light Bulb Switch"

You probably remember that I told you I read this guide about living eco-friendly called Living Like Ed by Ed Begley (see blog post from May right here). Ever since then I've been constantly working on giving a few things in my life some kind of environmental-friendly make-over.

Just lately I concentrated on the lamps I actually use all around my apartment. When I moved in about two years ago, I took over certain things from the previous tenant - certain lamps included. Well, retrospectively not the best idea I ever had. So a couple of weeks ago I went through my whole apartment compiling an inventory list of all that lamps. The result pretty much brought me back down to earth:

• office: 4 halogen lamps, 1 broken (didn't turn that one on that often, I'm an IT person, I work with computers...)
• bedroom: 1 light bulb
• living room: 1 light bulb
• kitchen: 1 light bulb
• entrance room: 3 light bulbs

Considering my lighting habits I definitely had to change that. So the first thing I did was research on the different kinds of illuminants out there, their energy footprint and of course their pros and cons.

Energy footprint:
- stinky normal light bulb < halogen lamp < CFL < LED

Stinky normal light bulb:
- forbidden in Germany
- needs way too much energy
- bright

Halogen lamp:
- saves about 20-30 percent of energy compared to the stinky normal light bulb
- bright
- medium expensive

CFL:
- save about 80 percent of energy compared to the stinky normal light bulb
- not that bright
- medium expensive
- Should be left switched on for a longer period of time

LED:
- saves about 90 percent of energy compared to the stinky normal light bulb
- medium bright
- definitely expensive

So I finally decided for the following:

• office: I replaced the broken lamp and decided not to replace the halogens in general with CFL or LED as I'm not really using them that often, maximum once a week for a couple of minutes
• bedroom: I replaced the light bulb with a 200lm LED as this is one of those lamps I probably use the most but it doesn't need to be that bright
• living room: I replaced this one with a 200lm LED as well as I'm using this one quite often but never leave it switched on that long
• kitchen: I replaced this one with a 600lm LED as this is a place where I need really bright light. Furthermore this one is the most used lamp in my whole apartment.
• entrance room: I decided not to replace them. At least for now. I only used these a couple of times during the last two years though.

Thanks for reading!

Yours

Uta

Strolling through the Botanical Garden

Kassel does have a few really cute parks. My favorite one is definitely the botanical garden. It takes me just 5 minutes to walk there, great for spontaneous trips. I went there this morning and took a few photos that I'd like to share with you.

I hope you're all having a sunny weekend :)

Yours
Uta