Off-Topic: A business trip to Bad Arolsen

Hello everyone,

about a week ago, I spent three days in Bad Arolsen. Reason for my trip was a seminar I had to attend which was great. It kept us busy for the major part of our stay but nevertheless we managed to take a walk through the city. Let me share a few pictures with you...

Stately Residence

Old building downtown

Chirch

Former Meridian Monument
(9th meridian east)

Downtown

Welcome Hotel Bad Arolsen

Yours
Uta

My New LAMY Safari is here :)

Hey all,

a couple of weeks ago I pre-ordered the new LAMY Safari 2016 special edition. Needless to say, waiting for it to arrive was a trial of patience :) Thus I couldn't be happier when it finally arrived!

Here's my new beauty:

I also ordered matching ink cartridges as you can see.

The nip is a standard size M (medium) like all my LAMY fountain pens have. But I'm thinking about switchin to an F (fine) eventhough I'm not sure yet.

This updates my LAMY fountain pen collection to the following:

► LAMY al-star  [ View @ Lamy.com ]
- Graphite, with blue LAMY cartridges
- Oceanblue, with the LAMY Z24 converter
► LAMY safari  [ View @ Lamy.com ]
- Red, currently not in use
- Yellow, currently not in use
- Dark Lilac, with dark lilac LAMY cartidges


Thanks for stopping by!

Yours
Uta

The Hogwarts Journal

Hey everyone!

I just recently switched from my black medium sized soft-cover Moleskine journal to a Harry Potter inspired journal and I thought it would be worth sharing some pictures and thoughts...

So my new journal is the Hogwarts journal - hardcover, about A5 size, ruled. The binding with the coat of arms of Hogwarts on the front cover looks as if its lether but in fact its not. Nevertheless, it has a nice texture and the overall quality of the binding looks great so I'm totally fine with that.

 

When you flip it open, the first thing you see is a wonderful painting of the landscape around Hogwarts.

Up next come a bookplate....

...as well as some pictures from the Harry Potter Movies together with some written information about the headmaster Professor Dumbledor, the quidditch pitch, the great hall as well as the forbitten forest.

As I said  before, the journal has ruled pages. And as every good journal it comes with a attached bookmark.

On the last page there is again the coat of arms of Hogwarts...

...followed by a painting of the quidditch pitch, which also covers a pocket at the end. Pockets always come in handy so another good thing.

So much for the plain journal itself. Now I have been using my journal since March and as far as I can see, the Hogwarts Journal is totally ink proof. No ghosting, no bleeding - as a huge lover of fountain pens (I prefer both pens and ink from LAMY) I couldn't be happier.

And I'm already looking forward to adding the Gryffindor, Slytherin and Deathly Hallows Journals to my collection as well :)

Alright, thanks for stopping buy, everyone!

Yours
Uta

Joining Granny Squares - just one out of a million methods...

Hey all,

I know I promised to post this one back in March. So little time, so much to do - I unfortunately couldn't find the time earlier to work out a proper tutorial. But finally here we go...

I started with adding an extra full round to one of the two granny squares I'd like to join:
One DC into each DC of the previous round and 2 DC + 2 CH + 2 DC into each corner

Now we basically start adding a quite similar round to the second square as well with which we are joining the squares as we go.
Start by attaching the yarn to one corner of the square, 2 DC into corner, 1 CH, 1 SL around corner of the other square (see below), 1 CH, 2 DC into corner.

Now loop the yarn through the third DC from the corner of the other Square (see below), 1 DC into each of the next 3 DC from the previous round.

Loop the yarn through the third DC from where you looped through before of the other Square (see below), 1 DC into each of the next 3 DC from the previous round.

And again, loop the yarn through the third DC from where you looped through before of the other Square (see below).

2 DC into corner of the square, 1 CH, 1 SL around corner of the other square, 2 DC into the corner of the square.

From there on just continue as descriped before. Et voilà, you're done:

As you can see, you will get some kind of zig-zag look when you join squares with two different colors using this method. Should you be using just one color, it will turn out spiral.

Alright everyone, happy hookin' and see you soon!

Yours
Uta

Animal Visitors

A little off-topic today - I caught some of the anipals that came to our neighborhood last weekend on camera and thought I might share the videos. Enjoy :)

Just around the corner from where we live this lovely couple was waddling along catching our attention on our way back home from the gym. They seem to be annual visitors as I am quite sure that I already saw them the year before...

Only minutes after I put my new tomato plants into our balcony box, this little bee flew by...

Thanks for stopping by!

Yours
Uta

Papercut Easter Cards

Good evening everyone!

It's Sunday and I'm posting new contenct? Whapt happened? Well, it's as easy as that: I actually planned to share this with you earlier but somehow forgot to enclose it in the blog post form last week :)

Inspired by Flow magazine I created some papercut Easter Cards this year.

The first one is about a A6 size. I made it for my friend Kristin and her lovely Family.

And I also made two small ones which are about 5 x 8 cm.

Have a great week, everyone!

Yours

Uta

This and That

Hey everyone,

today I'd like to share with you a couple of things that kept me busy lately. So randomly chosen and in now particular order....

Slowly my kitchen window still is turning into a little indoor garden. Just recently I planted some herbs - parsley, peppermint and basil. In addition to that I'm giving cress a try.

Walking down memory lane, I rediscovered my spirograph! And by drawing them on sticker sheets I turned them into simple but cute stickers :)

I set up my bullet journal for April at work. While doing so I made some changes compared to the March spreads. So this is how my current setup looks like.

 

Pacman! I'm sort of into retro gaming lately even though I'm not playing that much myself :) Just recently I planned to do a Super Mario related cake. Unfortunately, all the yellow fondant was sold out and coloring white fondant didn't work that well so I switched to a more basic pattern instead and it turned out to be a pacman cake. I'm not 100% happy with the result but well, it could be worse I guess.

Alright, that's it for today.
I hope you all head a great week so far!

Yours
Uta