Endspurt? / final spurt?

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Woche 37 geht zu Ende und, wie wohl so ziemlich jede Schwangere nach dieser Zeit habe ich irgendwie "keine Lust" mehr, schwanger zu sein. Mir geht es soweit super, dem Zwerg ebenfalls, daran liegt es nicht, aber die Spannung steigt dann doch so langsam und ich mag ihn jetzt draußen haben ;). 

Was liegt da näher, als die selbst auferlegte "Noch für´s Baby nähen" Liste weiter ab zu arbeiten und, nebenbei, noch ein paar Kleinigkeiten für den Shop zu nähen? Genau: nichts, also, hier sind die Resultate der letzten Tage:

© 2010 panpancrafts

changing the little one? / Windeln wechseln?

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Die Windeltasche ist fertig :). Den Schnitt noch weiter von Sewfuns Version zu entfernen dauerte dann noch einmal eine Weile, aber letztlich bin ich sehr zufrieden:

© PanPanCrafts 2010

must be a nesting thingy/ irgendwie im Nestbau-Wahn

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Wie angekündigt hatte ich vor, den Schnitt für die Bauchtragenhülle zu verfeinern und mich zudem noch mit einem weiteren neuen Projekt zu befassen: einer kleinen Windeltasche, die für kurze Ausflüge die Große ersetzen kann und in eine normale Tasche/ einen Rücksack passen soll. 

Wir hatten heut zwar einige Termine, den ersten Teil der Geburtsvorbereitungskurses und die Anmeldung in der Klinik z.B., aber nichts desto trotz habe ich zwischendurch noch an der Necchi gesessen und das sogar recht produktiv: 

Baby Carrier Cover - update / Neues Projekt: Wecheslbezug für meine Babytrage -Update

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So, der erste Versuch steht. Bestehend aus einem alten Kinderstoff, Batik-Leinen und der Po-Tasche einer alten Jeans des werdenden Papas. Ich weiß jetzt auch, was ich beim nächsten anders machen werde: 
- für den äußeren Stoff ein noch festeres, schwereres Material nehmen
- eine zusätzliche Verstärkung aus Vlieseline/Schaumstoff innen anbringen, denn ein häufiger Kritikpunkt an den Baby Björns ist offenbar ihr schwacher Halt
- die Verschlüsse der Kopfstütze nicht aussparen, sondern den Bezug breiterr nähen, so dass man ihn vollständig drüber ziehen kann und den Originalbezug nirgends mehr sieht.
- eine Möglichkeit finden, den unten offenen Bezug zu verschließen, ich dachte da an Bändchen oder einen Druckknopf, mal schauen

Das lass ich mir mal durch den Kopf gehen und schau, wie sich das umsetzen lässt, aber ich denke, einen schaff ich heut noch ;)

Mit umgeklappter Kopfstütze

Kopfstütze hochgeklappt

Und hier mal ein Bild, das zeigt, weshalb ich so dermaßen in Nestbau verfalle: Viel Zeit ist nicht mehr ;)...

Ich, Bild von gestern abend, Ende 34 SSW

 

Nebenbei bastle ich auch noch 2 Medaillenständer für meinen Mann, die zeig ich dann aber mal ein anderes Mal :)

Bis denne dann, 

Mone

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OK, the first attempt is done. I used  old children fabric, batic linen and an old jeans´ bottom pocket which formerly belonged to the father-to-be. Now I also know, what I´ll make different the next time:
- use thicker and heavier fabric for the outside
- sew in an additional stabilizer made of fleece wool or foam,  since one of the main critics about the Baby Björn seems to be his lack of stabilization.
- not leave the buttons of the headrest uncovered, sew the cover big enough to cover them as well
- find a way to close the cover on the bottom end, I thought of using a press button or ribbons, we´ll see

I will think about that and we´ll see, how I can realize the points on that list, but I´m confident, that I´ll b able to make one more today ;)

headrest turned down

headrest turned up

And now a photo, which might explain, why the hell I´m nesting like a maniac these days: not much time left to do so ;)...

me, yesterday evening, 34 wop

 

Besides all this I also make some frames for medals for hubby, but these I´ll show some other time :) 

So long, 

Mone

It`s set! - Es ist beschlossen!

Eintrag in Deutsch lesen (pls refresh your browser after switching back to English)

Ok, it´s official, it´s set and now I´m finally allowed to shout it out into the aether: We will move to BERLIN!!!!!
(to learn more about this update... keep reading ;) )

So many things happened during the last few weeks, it´s hard to summarize all of them... ok, lest sort things out: one by one:

1. My colleague and so damned cute friend (at least from my site a fantastic ally in all crafty crimes ;) ) Tascha ordered a diaper bag, made of a diabetis causing cute baby-animal printed fabric by Buttinette. It´s going to be (oh my, am I allowed to tell it here?) for her own baby *girl*, who will meet the world in June. @ Tascha: I only know 2 folks who read this here and who know both of us (to tell names: Sonja and Kirsten), so please tell me, if I´d better should delete this ;) )

2. After my World of Warcraft Giuld Mistress and beloved friend Kio received the wonderfull message, that she had become a big sister, to my big surprise, she also ordered something made by me: a comfy big baby-supplies bag for her stepmothers buggy. After a Sunday´s afternoon full of pink fabrik googeling and eye hurting baby designs, we decided to go for a "Bambi" theme; with all it´s clishès. She immediately ordered a carious causing sweet fabric over Dawanda, designed by Michael Miller:

I don´t know the actual name of this design, but - despite of all the steampunk and gothic sceme I´m usually into - I totally adore it! The whole bag is set up around the bambi story thing, so we´ll have mushroms, little fawns and so on all over it. I believe this will be damned cute! Today I presented my first 2 thoughts of how the bag might look when finished to her and Kio decided to go for my 2nd draft. A brown-pinkish bag, together with a patch with the little girl´s name on it, which I will create in Gimp and print it out on fusable foil. The bag will be reversable to match both: mothers and daughters needs and favours. I so hope that my work will make Kio happy and she will be proud to give it as a present to them!
It´s the same with Tascha; I´m so nervous and I so desperately hope that she´ll love my work, because I really apreciate her opinion and also Kio´s. Perhaps it´s more difficult and delicate to work for friends, than it is for "customers", whom you don´t know in person, and with whom you don´t share a life. For customers you give all you can and all you have, and you a addicted to their feedback and you have sleepless nights untill you know, they like your work (or not). With your friends it´s much more difficult: you want them to love your work, and; worst case scenario (which is totally reality here, by the way) if they are awesome crafters by their own, you want your work to be stunning and making them say "WHOW!". They are your friends and you only want them to pay for the best stuff ever - not for something cheap. You know, they can judge your work. That´s a hard piece of work. I know, I can achieve this, but both, Tascha and Kio, are that much important to me, that I´m so damned afraid of not being good enough, because they know their crafts very well, that it´s frightening me a bit. But at the end, I´m indescribable honored to be asked to make their babies first gifts, and, as you know, I´d really love to have my own little bundle of joy, it really is bringing me to tears! Thank you 2 sweeties, I´ll do my really, really best to make both of you happy!

3rd: At the moment I have all my Opeth records running randomly, now "Burden" from the record "Watershed" is playing... A perfect backround to announce the other big news:
First of all, after nearly 2 years of lessons, desperate and break-ups, on February 16st I finally passed the final exam for my drivers licence! I went through it, only needing one try. Just like I did all the times before, when a final exam was ahead. I felt so fantastic afterwards! My sweet mom in law picked me up at the Wilhelmshavener Tüv (thats where the examiners for the practical examn are located locally here in Germany), we went for a late breakfast at a local bakery to celebrate this achivement and I just called hubby (who announced the big news with a "Oh no! My wife has her licence" to the audience in the backround) and to my workmates in the company by phone, who asked for gum trees at the roads imediatelly... but I was so damned proud of myself :) I took hubbies Mercedes and drove it to a supermarket of my favour and back again - without any issues. And since 2 weeks I finally can drive my own little cutie, which was dead because of an empty batterie and just got it´s winter wheels in time:
A little Opel Corsa B, I called him "James, the Auti" James after James *may the Gods bless him* Hetfield, who will ever be my absolute Master, and "Auti" which may mean "very little, but never the less damned cute car" in English, because it is so small - just like I am ;). I already tuned him up a little in nanshee-ways: with "MinRotta" a little plushie rat by IKEA, a plushie bat, also by IKEA, a plushie spider I had bought when I was in Ireland and a Wacken-flag on the hatrack. And, this wouldn´t be a topic fo the ChaosConCept-blog without it, I already found some fantastic sewing inspirations for it e.g in the book "sew&stow" by Betty Oppenheimer.
James had driven us to the last 2 Wacken Open Air´s but this year will defenitely be the 1st one, when I´ll drive him by my own! I´m so looking forward to this! Since this was nothing ever mentioned on my life´s plan - having a car and a licence- I´m double proud to have and to being allowed to drive it!

4th. as mentioned in my opener: we will move to our capital! It was planned and we (hubby and I) had discussed this in private since, oh my, I think, 2 years or so, I never was allowed to speak it out, but now the tables have turned.
I never mentioned it, because I was not sure about company policies and stuff like this, but, since I´m not ashamed to work for them (no, it´s quite he opposite: I´m happy to!) I think I can tell: Since 6 years I work for Sykes. They´re opening a new site in Berlin and hubby got the offer to work there. We had long and hard talks about this, but finally I decided: what do I have to loose? My position is something like a dead end, since "Mentors" (thats´s what I am at the moment) are a dying race in Sykes`new quality sceme, Berlin might offer some new opportunities for me as well, let´s give it a shot. And after all: family and my love come first - doesn´t matter what´s happening around them. I want to support my hubbies career, and if Berlin will bring him further, I´ll support him, what ever may come. So I will leave the local site at the end of this month - with both: a crying and a laughng eye. Laughing because of all the opportunities lying ahead of me and crying because of me being part of this company for 6 long years and all the friends I met during this time. I´m part of a really great bunch of people, the word "team" gets new definitions out of it! I´ll leave them behind for new chances, but I´ll always will remember the things they taught me! Thank you for that, folks! So, by the end of march, I´ll say farewell, but, if everything works out well, I´ll come back, only for a different project, but still Sykes :).
So, since last week we´re quite busy, packing boxes,arranging everything for the big move, we already resigned the rental agreement for our house, I started the search for a new home in Berlin already. I will keep you guy updated on the outcome. But these 2 orders will be done before we move!

I also will leave the last three and most important of my loves behind: Ines, Dani and Meli, my very best and deepest friends, the loves of my life and my anchors in bad times. But I stick to the believe, that the distance won´t kill the love and care for each other! I love you guys so much and I´m standing on this crossroad because of the confidence you´ve given me! I so much thank you and I so much want to keep you in my life! I so hope this will work!

Tons of love for all of you guys!
Mone
OK, nun ist es offiziell, es ist beschlossene Sache und endlich darf ich es ganz laut in den Aether posaunen: Wir ziehen nach Berlin um!!!
(Wenn Ihr mehr darüber erfahren wollt, lest weiter ;) )

Oh je, es sind in den letzten Wochen wieder einmal so unglaublich viele Dinge passiert, es ist schwer alle zusammen zu fassen; ok, versuchen wir´s: eins nach dem anderen:

1. Meine Arbeitskollegin und ganz nebenbei unglaublich süße Freundin und Verbündete in Sachen Crafts Tascha hat eine Windeltasche bei mir bestellt, die aus einem Diabetis-verursachenden Baby-Stoff mit superniedlichen Tierbabies drauf genäht werden wird. Die Tasche wird für ihr (Ohje, darf ich das hier überhaupt kundtun?) eigenes kleines Mädchen sein, das ich glaube im Juni ds Licht der Welt erblicken soll... ( @ Tascha: Ich kenne nur 2 Leute, die das hier lesen und uns beide kennen, um mal Namen zu nennen: Sonja und Kirsten, also sag mir bitte unbedingt, wenn ich das löschen soll!)

2. Nachedm meine World of Warcraft Gildenmeisterin und Freundin Kio die wunderbare Neuigkeit erhalten hatte, dass sie große Schwester gewrden sei, hat sie, zu meiner großen Überraschung und Freude, ebenfalls einen Auftrag bei mir gelassen: eine praktische, schön große Tasche für den Kinderwagen ihrer neuen kleinen Schwester Lilly. Nachdem wir uns einen Sonntagnachmittag lang unendlich viele und teilweise sehr gruselige Babystoffe und Pink-Anfälle angetan hatten, entschieden wir uns für ein Thema: Bambi, mit all seinen Klischees! Kio bestellte flugs einen Karies verursachenden Stoff über Dawanda, designed von Michael Miller:

Ich kenne den Namen des Designs leider nicht, aber trotz des ganzen Steampunk und Gothic Krams, den ich sonst so mache, ich finde diesen Stoff sowas von toll! Das gesamte Konzept der Tasche ist um die Bambigeschichte herum angesetzt, wir werden Pilze, Rehkitze, kleine Hasen und Stinktiere und und und haben, die Tasche wird voll damit sein. Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass sie verdammt niedlich werden wird! Ich habe Kio bereits meine ersten Entwürfe gezeigt und sie entschied sich spontan für meinen 2. Entwurf: eine braun-rosa Tasche, an der zudem ein selbstgestalteter Patch mit dem Namen der Kleinen angebracht werden wird. Den werde ich in Gimp erstellen, auf Transferfolie ausdrucken und nachdem er auf ein Stoffstück gebügelt wurde, werde ich ihn mit braun-rosa Pünktchenschleifenband und ein wenig Kitsch veredeln. Die Tasche soll irgendwie wendbar sein um beiden Geschmäckern und Bedürfnissen gerecht werden zu können: dem der Mutter und dem der Tochter. Um so mehr hoffe ich, dass meine Arbeit Kio gefallen wird und sie sie stolz und guten Gewissens verschenken mag!
Mit Tascha ist es exakt das Selbe; ich bin so dermaßen nervös und ich möchte so unbedingt, dass sie meine Arbeit liebt, weil ich ihre Meinung wirklich schätze und wichtig finde, wie auch Kio´s. Vielleicht ist es tatsächlich schwieriger für Freunde zu arbeiten, als es für "normale" Kunden ist, die man nicht persönlich kennt und mit denen man nicht alltäglich zu tun hat?
Für Kunden gibt man alles, man tut, was man kann und hat oft schlaflose Nächte, bis man schließlich ihr Feedback erhält. Mit Freunden ist es wesentlich komplizierter: man will, dass sie einfach lieben, was man für sie gemacht hat, und, wenn man den schlimmstmöglichen Fall nimmt, (der hier so ganz nebenbei bei beiden Damen eintrifft) wenn sie dann selbst ausgerechnet auch noch überaus talentierte Crafter sind, die ihr Handwerk verstehen und ein Auge für die Details haben, dann hat man gar keine andere Wahl, als zu wollen, dass das Ergebnis einfach umwerfend ist und sie sprachlos macht vor Begeisterung... ohjee... ich und meine Ansprüche ;)
Aber, hey, immrhin sind´s meine Freunde, und ich will, dass sie nur das Beste bekommen und nur für das absolut Beste zahlen.

3. Im Moment habe ich mal wieder meine Opeth Sammlung random laufen, aktuell höre ich grad "Burden" Vom Album "Watershed"... ein perfekter Rahmen, um eine weitere große Neuigkeit zu verkünden:
Nach fast 2 Jahren voll von unzähligen Übungsstunden, Unterbrechungen und nahender Verzweiflung habe ich am 16. Februar endlich mein Führerschein bekommen! Die Prüfung habe ich gleich im ersten ANlauf bestanden - so wie alle Prüfungen bisher in meinem Leben. Danach habe ich mich so unglaublich fantastisch und erleichtert gefühlt! Meine süße Schwiegermutter holte mich danach vom Tüv ab und wir feierten das Ereignis mit einem späten Frühstük bei einem Bäcker, von wo aus ich erst einmal meinen Mann anrufen musste (der die guten Neuigkeiten mit einem "Oh nein, meine Frau hat ihren Führerschein! den anderen Anwesenden kund tat), und meine Arbeitskollegen, die spontan nach Gummibäumen an den Straßen verlangten... Aber ich war dennoch so dermaßen stolz auf mich! Zu hause angekommen, nahm ich spontan unseren Mercedes und kutschierte ihn zu einem Supermarkt in der Nähe - ohne Schwierigkeiten. Und endlich kann und darf ich nun auch meinen Kleinen fahren, der so lang nutzos rumgestanden hat, dass er schon 2 mal die Batterie aufgladen bekommen musste und auf den letzten Drücker seine Winterreifen bekommen hat:

Ein kleiner Opel Corsa B, ich habe ihn "James das Aut" getauft, James nach James *mögen die Götter ihn schützen* Hetfield, welcher wohl auf ewig einer meiner Meister sein wird, und "Auti" weil er so klein (und süß) ist - genau wie ich ;) Er wurde auch schon nanstylemäßig gepimpt - mit "MinRotta", einer kleinen Plüschratte von IKEA, einer kleinen Plüschfledermaus, auch von IKEA, einer lilanen Plüschspinne, die ich seinerzeit in Irland gekauft hatte und der allseits beliebten Wacken Flagge. Das alles auf der Hutablage macht James definitiv zu meinem Auto :). Zudem würde das GAnze kein Thema für das ChaosConCept-Blog, wenn ich nich zu allem Überfluss auch schon einige tolle Ideen zu Selbernähen für ihn gefunden hätte, zum Beispiel im Buch "sew&stow" von Betty Oppenheimer.

James hat usn bereits zu 2 Wacken Open Air´s gebracht, aber i diesem Jahr werde ich ih höchstpersönlich da hin steuern und ich freu mich schon riesig darauf. Wenn man bedenkt, dass ein eigenes Auto zu haben und es auch fahren zu dürfen, nie Bestandteil meiner Lebensplanung war, weil ich einfach nie das Geld dafür hatte, bin ich doppelt stolz darauf!

4. Wie oben schon angekündigt: wir werden in unsere Hauptstadt ziehen! Es war schon länger im Gespräc und wier(mein Mann und ich) haben seit langen viele Diskussionen darüber geführt, ich denke, das geht jetzt schon bald 2 JAhre so. Ich konnte nie offiziell was dazu sagen, aber nun ist Bewegung in die Sache gekommen. Zwar hab ich es nie hier geagt, unter anderem, weil ich mir nicht sicher war, was die Firmenpolitik etc betraf, aber, da ich mich ja nicht schäme, ehr im Gegenteil, denke ich, ich kann´s wohl sagen: seit 6 Jehren arbeite ich für Sykes Enterprises, ein Callcenter Unternehmen. Sie eröffnen grad in Berlin einen neuen Standort und mein Mann bekam das Angebot, drt zu arbeiten. Wir haben lang darübe beraten,aber letztlich stellte ich mir die Frage: was hab ich zu verlieren? Meine Position ist ein ziemlich totes Gleis, da "Mentoren", das ist, was ich im Moment bin, im neuen Syke Schema nicht mehr vorkommen. Berlin kann mir sicher mehr Möglichkeiten bieten, als meine jetzige Stelle. Also versuchen wir es dort mal ;)
Und letzten Endes gehen Familei und vor allem: die Liebe immer vor, egal was drum herum passiert. Ich will, so gut ich kann, die Karriere meines Mannes unterstützn, und wenn Berlin ihm hilft, dann sll es eben so sein. Daher werde ich zum Monatsende hier in der Firma aufhören - mit einem lachenden und einem weinenden Auge: lachend wegen all der Möglichkeiten, die sich auch fpür mich in Berlin auftun und weinend, weil ich in 6 Jahren in der Firma einen wirklcih tollen Haufen Leute kennenlernen durfte, die mir ziemlich fehlen werden. Mein Team ist einfach toll, ich kann nur hoffen, dass ich in Berlin etas vergleichbaren finden werde.
Das erklärt sicher, weshalb wir in den letzten Wochen ziemlich beschäftigt waren, das Haus ist bereits gekündigt, ich habe bereits angefangen, in Berlin anch einer neuen Bleibe zu suchen. Ich halte euch auf dem Laufenden, aber erst einmal werde ich diese beiden Bestellungen fertigstellen, und zwar bevor wir umziehen!

Was mir allerdings wirklich weh tut ist, dass ich die 3 wichtigsten Freunde hier oben im Norden zurücklassen muss und nicht einfach einpacken und mitnehmen kann: Ines, Dan und Meli; die Konstanten, Anker und wahren Lieben in meinem Leben bisher. Ich klammere mich an die Hoffnung, dass die Entfernung uns nicht trennen wird! Ich liebe euch zu sehr und ich kann heute solche Entscheidungen nur treffen, weil ihr mir so oft geholfen und mir Selbstvertrauen gegeben habt! Dafür danke ich Euch, und ichwill Euch allein schon deshalb unbedingt in meinem Leben behalten, ich hoffe einfach, dass das funktionieren wird.

*lieb Euch über alles!*
Mone

Visste du ha en god jul?

(this is Norwegian and if you´re curious, what it means, just follow the link and translate it)

It´s the 29t of December by now, forgive me that I write that late and less this season. This were quite busy days for me, so I´d better start off right away :)...

First of all let me show you some lovely pics, hubby took auround our house during the last few days:




It snowed for more than 3 days and I really hoped, that it would stay cold and white till Jul. And guess what? It did! After many years of rainy, warm or stormy holliday seasons, this year we finally had a white one! This was one of the best gifts I got this year (despite that I hated to drive the car the last days ;) ) Unfortunately it melted again allready, only some small white spots are left on the lawn. But the weather forecast expects another wave of frost and snow for new years eve.

Now let me show you some of the things I´ve made for Jul this year, some were orders, some were gifts:
a bag for mom, made of two incredible IKEA fabrics, with inside pocket for keys, wallet or tissues. When I bought this fabric mom and I stood before it for quite a long time, pondering and laughing, because we could not imagine, what the hell the squirrel plans to do with the cheese slicer on that bird´s cave... free the birdie perhaps? Maybe one day I´ll write an e-mail to the designer and ask ;).

I made lots of the good pasta oil for friends and colleagues, nearly 3 litres. The receipe (in German) you can find in one of my first posts ever... If someone is interested in an english translation, just leave a comment here and I´ll do it!

This is a very bright coloured waiter´s wallet, which was ordered by a colleague.

What else news to tell?

Since the 24th I work on getting all programms, applications and files I have stored on my new laptop, which is a fantastic fast and even good looking little cutie:

I wished for something like this for Jul, but now I´m still amazed, that I really should get rid of my old, slow and very noisy pc. Now more lagging in Dalaran (what a feeling! Even on a mount I was able to reach the bank in just one try and way below the usual 3 mintues!) , no more brewing another cup of tea, while the pc is starting or only saving a file...

I still use LAN, but that´s not a big deal, since I´m quite sure, we will need to buy a new router when we move latest, and that one will have WIFI.
The current setting (on which I´m actually writing this just right now) is the new laptop, my old additional desktop speakers, a 2nd. screen for better working with photoshop or even playing and chatting at the same time and my good old 5keys mouse, because I cannot imagine playing with the touchpad, despite it´s "intelligent": you can rezise windows with 2 fingers, right click with 3 and so on... charming :)

Today, among other things, I checked out some multi messengers, little programs that connect you with several instant messengers in one place at the same time. Since I used to use MSN, but my girls and some other friends use ICQ I did want to combine both, plus twitter if possible, in only one skin and one login. Another reason was MSN itself: under Windows 7, which is the pre-installed OS on the laptop, the login to MSN using the Live Messenger did not work and after 3 days of searching for a solution I simply have had enough of it.

So I played around a little with several freeware solutions: first trying pidgin and finding the options not sufficient for me (I´m impatient and wanted to find cute skins immediately for example), plus the login to MSN again did not work.
So I installed Trillian Astra as second choice and found it perfect instantly: adding new connections is very easy, it even supports twitter; I can tweet from there directly. I checked the pre-installed skins and choose "Baroque" with a transparency of 80%. Looks classy and georgeous! A chat with mom went through perfect, no lags or delays in transmission... I just love it!
Ok, you need to register an Astra account, which is just another IM, but you can install the program on your phone as well, e.g. it´s even available as an app on the iPHONE store. From what I have seen so far, I only can recommend it. If you´re accidentially searching for a multi messenger, just check out the Trillian homepage. OK, enough advertisement for now.

I will work on the next little gift tomorrow. I´ll have to send out a little care package to one of my dearest friends, so I have to start with it asap... As usual ;)

New Years eve will be quiet, I guess, but maybe you, Girls (yea! YOU!), decide, that my plan was the best at last? Then it won´t be that quiet, sorry dear neighbors ;).

Later this night I will share some Jul photos, we had a great night with our family... and my self cooked dinner wasn´t that bad I hear ;)

Uh, before I forget: feel free to answer my question from this post´s title above and write it into a comment :) thanks a lot!

So long...
Mone

Followup: Recent work & random tales

I just reviewed the pictures I have taken over the last few weeks and saw, that 2 projects weren´t mentioned here so far.
But the most obvious thing I learned by sorting, reviewing and deleting unneded stuff, was, that since I work for Kodak´s digital support I have taken bazillions of pictures. Of course, because I work as a technical advisor for the support staff, I need to know the products around quiet well and if I´m honest, there is no better way to find out about digital photography and what functions you prefer. I can use all of the cams and learn, run tests and finally found out, which one I love most. I don´t need a reflex camera for my purposes, I think, for my needs the Z915 or Z950 are the chosen ones, while I guess, I´ll go for the first one. I defenitely love working in this job! :)

But back to OUR business ;) 2 months ago, my lovely mom in law had have her birthday. She dreams of having a special bed by IKEA, and since we cannot affort to buy it I decided to make a piggy bank as a gift at least. It´s dreaming of the one bed and wants to be feeded with money untill we can go back to this funiture store from heaven and buy it :)



It´s made of an air balloon and papermâché, the feet are made of egg-cartons, it´s painted and finally sprayed with clear varnish. The bedcap I sewed and taped it with 2sided carpet tape over one of the freehand modeled paper ears. An How To I will publish asap, it´s a funny thing, we made these in school when I was little and I remembered making these piggies was fun.

Now 2 pieces of random stuff...

1st: Finally A picture of me, which I actually like :):
It was taken at my bff´s birthday party (she is the left one). This was one of the first pictures after having the tonsils removed, not beeing able to eat afterwards for 2 weeks and then starting with WW, because I did not want to gain the allready lost pounds again. It´s pretty amazing, how obvious the lost of 26 pounds did change the face as well ;). So, I´m quiet happy about the result and (forgive me) a little bit proud of myself too. The aim is to loose another 12 pounds, just to reach a good BMI, and then I´m fine with it again :).

2nd: Lets do a little time-warp...
When I was 3 years old, one day my dad took me on a trip to the town (we lived in a small village back then). We went for shopping and so on. In front of a toy shop window I suddenly stucked and did not want to leave, because I had seen something, I wanted to have desperately. It was a little blue bunny with white trousers and a face made of rubber. These toys were some sort of modern back then in the GDR. After I had started to cry and acted up terribly for a while, my poor daddy saw no other choice than to buy the damned thing. I still remeber me schleping it the whole way home from the bus stop, holding it by it´s lugs. It was my best friend over many years. But years later I moved and somehow lost it. I searched all over, and finally... ok, it´s not HIM, my "Blauer" (this was his name, which means "blue one") had eyebrows I had painted with a ball pen, when I had have a flue aged 5; but I got his twinbrother at ebay:

Isn´t he adorable? Just think of how old he must be, they were produced back in the 70´s and 80´s. This one, I never, ever want to loose again, because, besides I still have some photos, it´s the only item I have to remind me of my childhood.

Ok, enough childhood memories, another crafty thing I sewed last month was this:


A tiny belt pouch. It´s that small, because only my cell phone and a locker key need to find place in there. I wanted to have one for the gym, since most of my sporty pants don´t have pockets. I need some music while running and lifting some weights and use the phone for this. It´s working well with the pouch, the inner lining is made of polar fleece, so the display of my nokia gets an extra polish each time:



Again, this was a complete "free style" pattern. I only decided, which fabric I wanted to use and the shape the pouch should have. The rest was fitted to the cell phone and to the last zipper I had on stock ;).

Ok, thats it for now, just let me check the pictures for the piggy bank how to and I´ll come back with that!

wishing you a wonderfull night,
Mone

Happy Samhain!

While searching the net for some Samhain/Halloween inspirations I tripped over this gorgeous blog: Vintage Pallette Art. Just look at those amazing old photos and the crazy artwork by Lori Davis; I love this!

Recently I re designed this blogs layout and started with the shop all over again. It´s a little frustrating, because I´m not good enough in php scripting to feel comfy with the fantastic os-commerce tools, so I need to stick with my very old sharewared xaran shop. All web based solutions for free I´ve seen so far did not match my needs. So, If you know a provider, who offers an online shop solution, where I can add more than 1 damned picture per product, where I can manage and offer more than 100 products plus where I can fit the layout matching my blog and website and, most important: who offers a shop solution for free - please let me know.

On wednesday this cute baby finally arrived:
Goodbye my old mechanical ones, hello automated times! I allready managed to check her out a little, but, of course I developed my annual tendinitis just in time, s that I have to wait a few days, before I can start all over again. My 2 old sewing machines will end up at ebay tomorrow. They are in good conditions and well kept, don´t hesitate to bid on them! :)

A new order came up last week as well, so I ´ll also work on a new wallet design this weekend. This will be a kind of waiter´s wallet, with lots of pockets for cards and photos and a huge change pocket. The patterns we agreed on are 2 beautyfully retro-syled fabrics by IKEA called Malena, the 2 below this stack (image by IKEA):
Inside I will use thin and soft lamb nappa in a matching red or pink. This will be quite a task for my new Necchi I´m really looking foreward!

green ... man!

Allright, I guess I started a bad idea here, taking song titles as titles for my blog ;) but, since we lately had Liv Kristine here, let´s move on with TYPE O Negative, whom I adore totally... and one song from the album "October Rust" (one of my favorite albums ever) includes a matching song for todays post: Green man.

Yea, I´m totally on a "lets have everything green"- trip. But not only simlple green as out of Newtons or Goethes color circles, it has to be a soft, nice, quaint and romantic somewhere between olive and lime green. No kiwi, no neon green or mint green... ouch, don´t give me THAT ;)

So I redesigned this blog in a friendly green I liked (using photoshop to disclose th hex code for it). Just to make me more happy theese days. After not getting the anticipated job I quarrel a little with my working situation, but I´m quite sure, thats just passing. At the moment some new chances are showing up and I´m totally willing to take them.

Regarding my crafty life a big chance could be starting my own business. After I had some success with Dawanda I think it´s time to move foreward and open my own shop. So I was busy all over the last weekend finding an online shop tool I could work with, testing and playing around. At last I stucked with osCommerce, even I don´t know a damned thing about php scripting. I just tempted and I think it´s starting to look good and to work.

So, if you´d like to click the link on the rigtht side (my new store) and perhaps want to give me some advise? I really would appreciate it, because I just change this and that and try to finally get the shop I imagine ;)

First and most important thing to run your own shop is to have something, you can sell. So I spent the rest of my weekend and the 2 weeks of sickness with making new soaps, sewing, researching for new ideas and designs, reading and so on.

The new soaps are smelling quite delicous, but unfortunately they still need some weeks for drying. I made 2 different soaps out of the same base: an orange scented and a french vanilla scented bunch. My little studio smells all like this now... yummi!

I also made (and now we´re starting with showing pics again ;) ) some new wrappings for the already existing soaps, wrapped them and stored them in my (way too small) studio:

This is the new wrapping of the guest soaps I showed in my last post (with the soaps in the front)

I sold a lot of the other soaps during last december, thats the stock left: ( from left to right: the guest soaps, a pure olive oil soap scented with lavender; "Kalimpong Market" scented with Nag Champa, Amber and Cinnamon; and Lent Lily with Fresia and Orchid in big bars (also available as guest soap)

Maybe a better shot of the wrapping´s design. On the back side I added a word of thanks, a really short cuted overwiev about my product range, the ingediences and web links for more informations. Do you think, it´s ok this way?

It was dark allready, so I will take some better pics (for the shop as well) at the weekend.

Last week I also received an order from Amazon, inclouding this fantastic book:


It became a kind of bible meanwhile, I will visit all of the introduced blogs the next time. I simply love it, not only the crafters introduced in there, some of the patterns I definitively will reproduce, like the book cover or the little puoch shown on the cover.
If you didn´t have untill now, then I just can recommend: read it! If you´re unhappy and unsure sometimes if your crafting isn´t insane or way too much... here you read about guys, who were afraid of the same, who started their own thing, and, if we are honest, isn´t that what we crafty ones all want to have: our own thing and finding others, who love our stuff?
If you´re struggeling with these questions sometimes, or even if you´re thinking your are some kind of freak or insane somehow by collceting all that vintage fabric, whool or what else you need for your crafting: this book shows you, that you´re quite normal and healthy, you´re just creative and this is good :)!

I tought about using the questions used for interviewing the crafters in this adorable book for my own introducion on my website. I will ask Anna for permission after I have finished this post, I guess.

Ok, let´s finish this... I just read a comment from a girl at etsy´s community, that she preferes short blog posts (sorry for needing that amount of words ;) ).

Next time I will show you my findings at our local thrifting store, a social network, that offers cheap vintage and used stuff to people in need and lives from our donations "Wilhelmshavener helfen e.V".
I just need more daylight to take some better pictures of it all.

So, stay crafty and keep on ;)

Yours,
Mone

3 a.m

... thats a song from Liv Kristine I really like and by the way it perfectly fits right now, because it´s 3:38 in the night here, I´m still sitting in front of my PC and I´m not tired at all.

Meanwhile I asked at etsy for help regarding the international shiping issues and immediately I´ve got help from some cute guys, who told me, I should try it. So I will open a shop on Etsy tomorrow after taking some more pictures from the newest goodies.

But lets recall the last week first: I`m still suffering from bronchitis but with antibiotics, a lot of tea and a warm room it works somehow. Since I´m certified sick still but couldn´t stay in bed all day I did some sewing and some designing for new soap wrappings. I couldn´t manage to photograph it all by now, but here is, what I have right now:

Last week started with the idea to customize a pocket calandar I was given as a present from a former colleague, who happens to work for a health insurance now:


I don´t want to schlep around an insurance advertisement with me all the time, so I started thinking and sewing. Something matching to the adorable handbag artsy crafty babe sewed for me a year ago came to mind. So I used the same chandelier styled fabric:


It took me some days ( I needed to lift up some of my WoW characteres some levels in the meantime and sewed other stuff, I admid) but finally this former green beast looks like this:





Later last week I recognized, that my pin cushion was not big enough. The logical next step for me was sewing a bigger one, that would meet my needs:



(Sorry for the messy picture) The new one has got 18 cm in diameter and I can hang it on my inspiration shelf, nearby and reachable everytime while I sew something.

Last weekend also hubby reminded me, that I had promised to sew a clothespin bag some months ago. On Sunday I was in the mood, so I sewed this one, after researching the net and getting some help for my pattern from whip up´s incerdibele "Über collection of sewing tutorials":



The green fabric I had found at IKEA, quite frankly we never get to the checkout without any new fabric in the trolley ;). The bag has become a little crooked, what reminded me again of not drawing patterns freehand. The next one will be more exact, I promise!

This week was filled with doc visits once more and making more soap for the up coming shop. I designed, printed and glued together unique new wrappings for the already existing soaps, took new pictures of some of them, like the ones below and today made two new soaps, which, right now, are drying in the kitchen: one soap scented with french vanilla and another one scented with essential orange oil; both made from a base of olive oil, milk, shea butter and goat´s milk. Tomorrow I´ll know, if they came out well, but even after a few hours they began smelling fantastic! I´m totally looking foreward tomorrow, when I will put them out of their trays!

Below you can see a picture of the last soaps I made.

The white ones are made without any scent, they were made for allergic sufferers in the first place. The blue ones are scented with Lent Lily, Freesia and Orchid. The tray was a jul present from my mom in law. I love the look!

Both soaps are small "guest soaps" and, yes, I sell them. As long, as the shop is not updated and online again, just comment this post or send me an email if you´d like to buy some of these little ones. They come in a unique hand-crafted paper purse in a quantity of 4 soaps; you can choose if you´d like to have 4 unscented, 4 scented or an assorted pack of 4. Tomorrow I will post more new pictures from the new wrappings and the other soaps.


But that shall be everything for now, just the last, most joyfull and most important insight: spring is coming, at least the snowdrops in my garden are telling me this:




So long, have a peacefull and crafty night! I´d better go to bed now ;)

Yours, Mone

the box bag

Remember those?:

Although I´m getting a flue, should sew things for 2 current swaps and getting insane from waiting for invitation to an Accenssment Center, I finally managed to sew something using the purple fabric with the tiny golden stars and the striped one you see in the picture above.

I wanted to use both together but didn´t know for what kind of project. On the other hand I wanted to try out the tutorial, Kelly from dragon[knit]fly wrote for her box bag, in awhile too. I thought over it the last days and finally decided it would be fun and the fabrics could work for this project.

This morning I started, because our weekend trip starts on friday and I realized that I don´t have any bag to put my tootbrush into *sigh*. Buying a new toilet bag was not to be at issue, cause my pride as a DIY freak doesn´t allow me to buy things you can make yourself. And the toilet bags you can find in the ragular german shops are boring, ugly or made for visits at the hospital. nothing colorful and not ugly at the same time :(. So I used Kellys tutorial, added an inside pocket to it and worked up my left over xmas fabrics, black cotton fabric for the bottom, red ribbon and a bag named DIMPA.
OK, I used only a part of her, but for a good reason: Dimpa is made of some kind of canvas cover, which makes the bag leakproof inside.
Oh my, I don´t want to bore you ;), here are some pictures of my first selfmade toilet bag:

I think, I like it and, cause it was my first time (another ;) ) I´m a little proud of the result, too. What do you think? Should I sew more bags like this? While planing and sewing I realized, that Kellys pattern also is perfect to make a huge travel bag. I just would have to add some strap handles and perhaps a divided pocket inside. Guess what else is missing for our trip ... *grin*
So long, nanshee

die neuen Stoffe sind da

*hihi*
Heute sind meine bestellten Stoffe angekommen, oh wie schön, ich kann weitermachen:
Es handelt sich um einen Coupon bestickten schwarzen Cords, diversen kleineren Coupons (Baumwolle) mit Sternxen, Punkten oder Streifen, einem, mit Sonnen bestickten Meter Organza und 2 Meter kressroter Voíle.
Aus dem Cord werden entweder ein Rock oder eine Tasche, aus den kleinen Stoffstücken wird Weihnachtsdeko, die Voíle und der Organza werden zu unseren neuen Kühenvorhängen, bzw -gardienen werden.
Oh, da frei ich mich drauf!

Mit den Stoffen kamen auch, wie geordert 5 Knäule schicker Wolle, wir werden shen, ob ich damit ein Geschenk zusammengestrickt bekomme, das bringe ich mir grad nebenbei bei.

Aber die Planung für das Wochenende steht schon und lässt nicht viel Zeit zum Stricken: 3 unterschiedliche Geldörsen nähen, 2 bestellte, 1 für mich. An meiner Börse werde ich einen neuen Entwurf testen, ich bin gespannt!