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

Easy To Hook Potholders

This is one of the projects I started months ago without finishing it. Well, I finally found some time to hook the last rows :) The pattern is more than simple but I really like the way it turned out.

Yours
Uta

A Quick Update On The Bike Saddle Cozy

Hey all, Kristin sent me the following picture this morning! I'm so glad the cozy fits :)

Wish you all a weekend filled with sunbeams and happiness!

Yours
Uta

3 Things Eco

You know, it's the little things that matter. Even when it comes to being kind to our planet. So today let me bother you guys with a few tips on eco-friendly living!

1* After washing green salad I pour the water I used into the water can.

2* I always carry a reusable shopping tote in my purse.

3* I let bread that got old dry and give it to my cousin for feeding it to her horses and camels.

So what are the little things you are doing for the environment? Please let me know, I'm really interested!

Thanks for reading :)

Yours

Uta

Bike Saddle Cozy

A huge THANK YOU to my friend Kristin for finally making me crochet again!!! After weeks/months of not even looking at my crochet hooks I kinda found my way back to one of my favorite hobbies. All it took was Kristin asking me to hook a bike saddle cozy for her. This is how it turned out:

I used a pattern that is available in German right over here (altered it slightly though): Sattelkleider / Landlust

And right after finishing that cozy I went through a box of unfinished crochet projects...

Yours,
Uta

PS: Stash-Buster Challenge Project & No-Buy Challenge Project #10 :)

More Gift Wrapping

I bought my mum a pilates mat as part of her birthday present. Well, unfortunately those mats aren't really easy to wrap :) After trying out different things I finally went for this kind of gift wrapping style:

Hope you all had a great Monday!

Yours,

Uta

PS: I did some hooking lately so I'm quite positive about some new blog posts in the near future!