30. August 2007

Hooray!

It's over! Both of the writtens exams are over. I'm really relieved. I believe the second one was better than the first, but of course I can't be sure. Now just six (!) more oral exams... but hey, those won't start before October. I am not going to worry about them right now, because Carsten is taking me on a little surprise trip over the weekend! He's really keeping it top secret so far. I have absolutely no clue. All I know is that it's going to be great - except maybe for the time of travelling: we'll leave tomorrow morning at 5:30 and return at a similar time. Grrr. He's says it can't be any other way.

A huge thank you goes out to Cass, Ellie, Johanna, Karin, Riccarda and Sofia. Your comments really made my day and since I've been very lucky with my two exams I thought I should share with you. I decided to change the rules of my giveway:
First of all the pick-out-of-a-bowl method was changed into the pick-out-of-a-teeny-tiny-cup-method. The result of the official drawing... made Ellie the winner of the named goods! Second change: the rest of you will also receive a heart in the mail as soon as you e-mail me your address (nicole[at]suessstoffmacher[dot]de)! Thanks again, you are the best!



There are a couple of (great) news or simply stuff I would like to share, but right now I need to go pack my bag and then try to find some sleep. I'll be back on Monday or Tuesday!

16. August 2007

Wish me luck!

Here's the deal: I have my final written exams coming up. I should be studying like crazy, but I'm not. Instead I spend way too much time on the internet checking out all those great crafting blogs, thinking about stuff I would like to make, thinking about what my next post could be about, worrying about the fact that I didn't do anything creative. So I decided that I need a blogging brake until the exams are over. That way I won't feel any pressure and will have way more time to study.

Since this here is my 50th post, I thought I could do a blog giveaway. It will contain one of my (cloves + cedar chips filled) little hearts, the most wonderful lip balm there is: Brew - tea time for your lips (Ginger Peach Tea Balm) from Crazy Rumors and a secret little something.

All you have to do to enter the drawing is leaving a comment and wishing me luck (I'm really desperate!!!). Once the second and final written exam is over I'll let my mom pick a winner by the pick-out-of-a-bowl-method. I'll let you know right away who the winner is. So check again on the 1st of September. See you then.

Now start commenting already!


Edit: Okay, the first exam is over. It wasn't as awful as I expected it to be, so I'm quite happy. I wasn't sure about the date of the second one when I made the above post. Since it will be tomorrow (Thursday) and we are going on a short surprise trip over the weekend, I will announce the winner of the giveaway sooner than I planned or in other words: tomorrow! If there's still somebody out there who planned on waiting with his/her comment until the last minute, now's the time. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully just as happy as I am right now.


To all of you guys who left a comment already: Thank you so much. You are the greatest!

15. August 2007

Just great!

All of the time I wanted to take part in a swap and all of the time I was too late to sign up. Not anymore! This time I was there in time and I think that this swap is even more than perfect. I always worry if being a vegan will maybe make it too complicated for a swap partner. In this case the whole swap will be vegan! Crafting and veganism together - could it be any greater than this?!

There's still time to sign up for this swap and you don't have to be vegan to take part, so hurry over to Vegan Pal 2 and check it out!


Part of Vegan Pal 2 is a questionnaire. Here's mine:


1. What is/are your craft(s), & how long have you been doing it/them?
Right now I’m mostly into sewing, but I also love cross stitching, knitting and crocheting. Knitting and crocheting are the crafts I’ve been doing for the longest time. I think my grandmother taught me when I was about 5, but there were lots of times when I wasn’t into it at all. My big cross stitch phase started 3 years ago and sewing shortly after that.

2. Are you a vegan, vegetarian, veg-curious, veg-friendly or other?
I’m vegan.

3. Is this your first swap, or have you done previous swaps before? What makes a swap enjoyable for you?
This is my second swap (and hopefully the first one where I’ll receive something too). I love to go out and try to find things people might enjoy. Of course I also love receiving something nice, especially when it’s something I can’t get around here. I can get very exited about little stuff (like for example a package of baking power in a nice foreign tin!).

4. What is/are your favorite color(s)? Do you particularly dislike any color(s)?
Tricky! It always depends on the purpose. In general I’d say I prefer softer colors and earthy tones. I love the natural shades of that great Pakucho yarn I keep seeing on various blogs and I also like variegated sock yarn.

5. Do you have any allergies (such as pets, foods, fibers or cigarette smoke)?
None that would matter here.

6. Do you have any companion animals? If so, name(s) and type(s)?
We share our house with Lale (a black lab-mix), Jury and Mücke (two cats)... or do they share the house with us?

7. Do you collect anything?
No, I don’t, but of course I do love yarn, fabric and trim. Plus I can never resist nice pens, rubber stamps and stickers (stuff for scrapbooking in general).

8. Do you have a favorite vegan food, snack or dish? If no fav that's vegan (for those who aren't vegan), what's your favorite food? (Hopefully your pal can find a vegan version!)
Cupcakes! I love them and any sweet stuff in general. Cakes, cookies, chocolate, candy... you name it.
I know Liquid Smoke ain’t food, but it’s something I’d love to get hold of, because I have a lot of vegan recipes that call for it and I’d love to try those out.

9. What are some of your favorite/least favorite tastes/flavors? (e.g. sweet, salty, chocolate, crunchy, smooth, tart, sour, spicy, thai, whatever - Help your pal get a feel for what kind of recipes you might like and/or never ever make.)
I love all of the above except for spicy and thai. Since the swap is fall related I think I should mention here that I can’t stand the taste or smell of pumpkins. Pumpkins look great and make very pretty decoration, but I’ll never ever eat them! Same with curry flavored food.

10. What tools/supplies/accessories for your craft(s) are you wishing you had but don't? Also, what do you have TOO many of? (basically a wish and anti-wish list)
TOO many? Is there such a thing? I think I’m pretty well stacked, but I don’t have any stitch markers and hardly any crocheting hooks in very small or large sizes.

11. Are you on Ravelry? What's your handle?
No, I’m not! I’m always the last to find out about nice stuff like that.

12. Is there anything else you would like your pal to know about you?
I’m really happy to be part of this swap. I’m sure I’ll love everything you choose. Just receiving a parcel (from a foreign place) is almost all it takes to make me happy! I’m glad I got you!

13. What scents do you like/dislike?
I like vanilla, chocolate and fruity scents. I don’t like mint, coco and banana that much. Pumpkin is probably the only no go. In general I prefer light and fresh scents.

14. Do you prefer fall or Halloween or some other Autumn theme?
Fall...

15. Just for fun - tell your favorite Halloween or Autumn related memory.
I used to like every season of the year and didn’t mind the darker times at all. That changed a bit in the last two years. What I love about fall is the wind, the pretty trees, getting comfy in the evening with candle light, cookies and crafts. What I really don’t like, is leaving the house when it’s still dark and returning when it’s dark already. That sometimes really gets me down. So getting cheered up by a parcel that’s waiting for me, will be perfect!

14. August 2007

Not in the mood!

Nothing much going on around here. I finished the wash cloth. I like it, but am not so pleased with the edges. Next one will be better.
Btw: I saw some very nice wash clothes over at the scent of water (a great blog I just discovered). They are made of an organic and FairTrade cotton. Someday I really need to check out if there is something similar available around here.

12. August 2007

Another dish rag (sort of)!

Last night I started another dish rag - except this time I think it's going to be a wash cloth. Instead of crocheting I felt more like knitting something. I think I could have used a smaller size of needles. For my feeling it's a bit loose, but therefore it's also very soft. The yarn is ONline, Linie 86, JUMP (color 35 - it doesn't really look like in the picture) - a cotton and synthetics mix.
The pattern is from this magazine:
Anna extra: Strickmuster (E805). I bought it in 2004 and I'm not sure if it is still available. It cost only € 3,50 and there are really lots and lots of patterns in it - about 210! A good investment I'd say.

11. August 2007

Go hunting!

No, don't worry! I'm not asking you to go out and hunt animals. Being a vegan I would never ever do that. Well, at least not with a gun. Maybe with a camera...

Right now I'm not hunting animals with my camera, right now I'm hunting books. Most of you probably know about BookCrossing. Back in 2003 I was all into it, but never caught a book. Four years later I still haven't, but I'm now thinking about tracking down those that are left in a geocache. Geocaching sounds like so much fun! I know close to nothing about it and actually I don't have time do research now, because I really need to be studying.
Hmmh, maybe I'll try just one time with our TomTom? I already got my friend Johanna exited about the idea as well (sort of). She usually is really into hunting mushrooms, but loves books too, so there you go.


www.bookcrossing.com

Did you know that Germany is the second largest country to release books into the wild? Right after the US and before the UK! So, if I can't go hunting I will at least release a few.
So far I only released two books. One in 2003, which seemed to have disappeared (I hope it's still alive and sitting in someones bookshelf) and one yesterday. Three more are all ready to go, I just have to find good places for their release.


Oh, crafting... I crocheted a flower, but I can't find it and it's not that pretty anyway. You know: I really need to be studying! - Boy, I suck at studying!

5. August 2007

Haandarbejdets Fremme Exibition!

I received an "invitation" to an exibition of the "Association Haandarbejdets Fremme" - a Danish association that promotes artistic needlecraft. The exibition will be in the Dansk Design Galerie in Worpswede (Germany) from the 13th of August to the 2nd of September. I will definately go there! They will show highlights of Gerda Bengtsson and Ellen Marie Rodil (my two most favorite counted cross stitch designers) and others.
I got two old copies of Gerda Bengtsson booklets, which I treasure and I'm lucky enough to also own two of the three calenders Ellen Marie Rodil designed for the Haandarbejdets Fremme. Unfortunately I don't have "The Year in Cross Stitch 2001" though I think that one was mostly vegetables and if that's the case I'm not too sad, because I prefer the flower designs.

I've made quite a few things from the calender of 2003 and I'm pretty sure that I will make everything from the calender of 2007. Everything is just so beautiful!

Most of the time I end up making table runners. The one below shows the design for February 2003 - Allium. I think it's the largest table runner I've made. It's 11 count linen and I did a hem stitch all the way around, which seemed to take forever, but in the end I knew it was worth it. Stitching the whole thing by hand made it look perfect. I truly love it. Unfortunately it never gets to be on the table for long, because my two cats love to lay on it and so it always gets wrinkled very quickly and lots of cat's hair doesn't really make it any prettier either!
I always use Danish Flower Thread when stitching. It's the most wonderful embroidery floss. I have all of the 102 shades available and just looking at them makes me happy.

3. August 2007

Dish-cloth!

I think it started way back when I saw some crocheted flowers at Charlotta's. I thought that they would look nice on a dress or maybe make a nice accessoire on some doll's clothes I was knitting at the time (I'll show those some other time). I didn't get started on them because the sewing fever got really bad around here and I couldn't think of anything else at that time. Then I saw the beautiful things over at Moonstitches and one thing led to another. My friend got a knitted dish-cloth as a present from a friend and I was like "How can someone make something so pretty for doing the dishes?!" Obviously I was missing a trend here! Yesterday I finally ended up on Emily's Yarn Miracle where I read about the Dish Rag Tag and I got really exited. As usual I was too late to sign up, but reading all these nice ideas and looking at lots of patterns for dish-clothes, checking out lots of other blogs, I all of a sudden just had to start crocheting. And so I did. It's not the right time for big projects, because I definately should be busy studying, but a little dish-cloth? The first one is finished and I think I wanna make some more... and crochted flowers are in the center of my attention again, too!

2. August 2007

I'm not giving up!

Though I was (sort of) really disappointed with the two tops I've made so far, I'm determined to find a way of making the necessary changes to the patterns so I'll have something that will work for me. (Thank you Jana for encouraging me!)
To get started I bought this book:

"SEW U - The Built by Wendy Guide to Making Your Own Wardrobe" by Wendy Mullin with Eviana Hartman (ISBN 0-8212-5740-4).
So far I only had a quick look at it, but I think it was a very good choice - even if it's just for the the fabulous ideas and tips you can find throughout the book (like for example making a scrap chain).
We'll see what happens...