Saturday, April 21, 2012

This weekend

This weekend this is my To Do List:


  •  Finish my art project (for Monday)
  •  Continue writing index cards for my math exam in - what two weeks??? 
  •  Make a perfect presentation about myself for my application (for Tuesday...leaving home on Monday afternoon!)
  •  Babysitting tonight and sleeping over...
  •  --> My plan for organizing my electronic drawer will not be carried out...
that basically means: no time for blogging whatsoever. Sorry...I'll be back after Wednesday seeing that my application process will be over for a bit, my art project will be handed in and I am even closer to my math exam. I should start writing the index cards for art as well...
But I'll be back with some projects soon!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Lack of ideas...

Sorry for not posting these last two days. I am suffering from a lack of ideas.

There is a new project for me coming in tonight. (Hint: Cape)

And I have a really awesome friend who just (I literally mean just...like five minutes ago) motivated me to organize my electronic drawer by doing this: Sewing pretty, cute little bags for cords etc!!!
I love it and I'm starting tonight!

And I am looking forward to something I am getting on May 1st!!! Sooo excited :)) I will let you know as soon as I have it...them...who knows ;)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Shopping for shoes...

Every woman loves shoes, right? Well, almost every woman. But keep in mind that this is NOT the same thing as shopping for shoes. Because I am positive that there are many women out there like me who barely ever find shoes. Not because they're picky, but because the stores never or barely ever sell their size. Excuse me? Why is that?

Am I the only woman in the world who has big feet? And by big I don't mean the size every store sells. I don't mean the size that a couple stores sell. I mean the size that you only find when you go into specific stores. or when you don't have money.  

I HATE SHOE STORES or shoe departments.

And I hate it when I ask for a size and the people just look at me thinking "Holy cow! Your feet are huge!!!" Believe me, I know that look. And I am not happy when I see it.

And I hate it when I complain about my big feet and people just go "Oh, you're right. They're humongous!" (Excuse me? Is it my frickin fault?)

And I hate it going into a store, seeing the most beautiful and perfect shoes...and then finding out they don't have my size. It gets me frustrated every single time, even though I exactly know they don't have my size.

And there is another problem. There are stores that specifically sell big sizes and small sizes. But the problem with those is that they only have these grandma shoes. Not cool vintage shoes but the ones old people get when they have problems with their feet and hips. You know what I mean? They don't have pretty shoes. All I want is the shoes they have in other sizes in my size...
But I won't stop believing that one day they will have my shoe size in every store.

And to make my dream come true, someday I might open up my own store. I might just have the business of ordering shoes for people when they order them. Just to be in touch with the good shoe brands and order them right from stock. And be able to order shoes whenever I want to knowing they have my size and I am going to own shoes :)

I don't mean to just complain. I just had to get it off my mind and wanted to see if there are other people out there who share my problem??  Anyone second my motion? Oh god, I love that movie - Princess Diaries 2 It's the best!!!!


Wow that was a long post. Hope I didn't bore you...

Monday, April 16, 2012

The little things in life...

I've always thought they were the most important.

I often tell my boyfriend how I love the little things he does.

Kisses on the forehead or the neck or the nose.

Loving smiles at me.

Little notes.

Tiny-mini-back rubs when he walks past behind me.

Asking me if I want to drink tea.

Him sneaking up, wrapping his arms around me and hugging me.

Taking my hand and holding it.

Calling me just to say good night.

Telling me he loves me and that he misses me.

Asking again and again even though I pretend I don't want to talk.

Just hugging me when I feel bad.

When he calls me his princess.

...and oh there are so many more things.

And the best things is that seeing it materialistic they are completely for free, but they mean so much more to me. They are things everyone can afford no matter their income . 

For me, they are the most beautiful things in life. There is a saying 

"The most beautiful thing in life is to love and to be loved" 

sadly I do not know who said it, but it is so true. 


I try to show people around me I care for them by writing little notes, hugging randomly and just giving warm smiles. I hope they appreciate it as much as I do. Because you can never show too much love :)


When it comes to presents I think the same way. The small things in life make the happiest. (At least that's what I think).
I'd rather receive a sweet little note with my favorite chocolate than some expensive thing I don't know what to do with. Of course I'm happy with (almost, haha) every present I receive, but sometimes less is indeed more ...


I hope you guys feel the same.. Think about what little things in life make you happy. Cherish them. :)



Saturday, April 14, 2012

Inspiration

Yesterday we found this awesome catalogue in our mail box. It has the most beautiful things in it. And you know what the best thing is? There are so many things you could DIY. You just look through this thing a find tons of inspiration. My favorite one until now is this beauty:


Instead of paying the completely crazy price of 199,00€(WHAT???!!!)  it would be so easy to find a thrifted little table or just the legs and add them to a sewing case!!! On my project list from now on :)

Or how about these other ones?

all pictures from http://www.impressionen.de/shop/home







Friday, April 13, 2012

Let Your Dreams Set Sail

Oh life, it's bigger - it's bigger than you...

The next thing I would always sing was "...and you are nothing..." until I found out it was "and you are not me"...Oh well. Doesn't everybody have that experience once in a while? Finding out you have been singing the wrong lyrics all the time?

This i'm-almost-done-with-school time has me thinking about my future like never before.
What to do after school? Where to go? Study? Do an apprenticeship? Go abroad? Become an aupair?

Right now I am living by this motto:

































Of course I have my dreams of what to do. I really want to go back to the States and really live there. Not do any tourist things but go shopping in the stores all the awesome bloggers go to, visit old friends, visit places I remember and just feel like being a part of it. Maybe someday I'll move back and settle with my husband, have beautiful children and live happily ever after. haha, boy I do dream a lot...

Oh and not to forget: Have my dream wedding and build my dream house!

I want to save money (which I'm terrible at...probably the worst person on earth :( ), I want to learn new things, I want to do something useful in the future, I want to do things that are fun for me.

Dreaming is a very important part of life...it makes you happy. You should try it. Whenever you're down or in a really bad mood: Go onto Pinterest and repin or get some old magazines and cut pretty things, cool things, things that inspire you, things you want to have, things that make you smile. It feels good!

Dreams help you know what you want. What you want to reach, what you want to achieve in life.


Keep dreaming on and let your dreams set sail 

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Sneak Peek

I was creative again :)

Here is a little sneak peek for something coming up...


Tutorial is coming up!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Good day and Recipes

Today was a good day!

After I woke up being completely awake (doesn't happen very often...)  I made some frosting for the cupcakes slash muffins (I don't really know what they are, haha). Of course (as always) it didn't turn out right so I improvised and mine turned out having this recipe:

Original recipe is from Annie's Eats but I changed a bit:

Frosting

400g cream cheese
300g butter
4 cups confectioner's sugar (Puderzucker)
1 package vanilla sugar
100ml cream (don't ask why, but according to my friend it still tasted good :) )
(for German people: 1 package Sahnesteif)

Bottom Layer for Muffins 


125g butter
80g sugar
1 egg
250g flour
200ml cream
200g white baking chocolate
2 egg yolks

  1. Let butter melt in a pan and let it cool down.
  2. Mix fluid butter with sugar, egg and flour, wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about        30mins.
  3. Heat up cream in a pot.
  4. Chop chocolate into smaller pieces and let it melt in the cream on low temperature.
  5. Let it cool and add the egg yolks.
  6. Heat up oven to 180°C.
  7. After putting cupcake cups into the pan, add the dough as a thin bottom layer.
  8. Pour chocolate cream on top. 
Now you make the main dough:
Raspberry Muffins (main dough for 12 muffins)

375g flour
3 tbsp baking powder
3 pinches of salt
45g sugar
300ml milk
3 eggs
150ml sunflower oil
300g raspberries
(90g shredded hazelnuts -> I didn't add them due to allergies)
12 muffin cups

1. Mix flour with baking powder, salt and sugar.
2. Mix milk, eggs and oil separately.
3. Pour step 2 into step 1.
4. Wash raspberries and add carefully (with hazelnuts)
5. Pour mixture into muffin cups and bake at 200°C for about 25 min

Because it looked prettier, I put every muffin into a glass and poured my not-quite-right-frosting on top.
They ended up looking like this:


The recipe for the cupcakes is a mixture of different recipes I found.

Tip: They taste best when cooled!!

Everyone loved the cake (which is another reason why today was a good day). It made me very proud seeing that most of my attempts in baking fail miserably. Even though it didn't turn out the way I originally wanted it to it was really good (amazingly good) . It was the only cake that was empty at the end of the day (there were 6 cakes -- oooh yeah. including a store bought one).

Raspberry Cream Cake

dough:
4 eggs
2 tbsp warm water
150g sugar
1 pinch of salt
75g flour
75g cornstarch

cream:
500g curd
400g cream
1 package vanilla sugar
6 tbsp sugar
(for German people: 2 packages Sahnesteif)


on top:
400g raspberries
1 package of meringues

dough:
  1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
  2. Mix eggs, water, 120g sugar, salt, flour and cornstarch.
  3. Fill into a springform pan and bake for 30 mins.
  4. Let it cool down afterwards
cream:
  1. Mix curd with sugar and vanilla sugar.
  2. Separately mix whip the cream (with Sahnesteif if possible).
  3. Mix cream and curd and coat the cake dough.
top:
  1. Smoosh meringues until they are all chopped up (take out 12 pieces for decoration) , sprinkle them on top of the cream mixture.
  2. and last but definitely not least: Decorate the cake as you like with the raspberries. You can put them on top and stick some at the sides or whatever you feel like!
ENJOY!!!




art in progress

After I realized that I still have to finish painting my art project I decided to do it yesterday to make my day completely productive. (I already made a cake for a special birthday...pictures are going to be uploaded -> here is a little sneak peak:    )


My painting went through a couple different layers and steps with me being frustrated more every time I overpainted it. I'm not completely satisfied with the last layer, but I'm still trying to figure out what I'd have to do to be satisfied. I don't feel quite ready yet to make changes because I'm scared I'll destroy it AGAIN.  Like the last 5 times....


It started looking like this:


Since I couldn't wait for spring to start I thought I'd use spring-ish colors :) I love green and lately I've become more and more fond of pink, haha. Every time someone in school asked which color he or she should use I just yelled "PINK!". I figured I need to make a pink painting myself after that...

I started doing some more work on my painting but somehow it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. (I missed some layers and steps I took by not taking pictures. Now I will take a picture after every single brush stroke I do!!!)  It ended looking like this and I was pretty much content with the outcome. But then I asked the teacher (Note: I am never ever going to listen to what a teacher says!!! Never. Ever!!)  And she said it looked unfinished and I'd have to work on it some more. 


So I took it home and left it in my craft room for more than a week. My family loved it, my dad even called dibs on one of my other paintings (yaaaaay :)) )
Then I took it out yesterday, got out all the colors I needed including brushes, water and little containers ... just what you need to paint!

...and I completely messed it up. I destroyed it. I thought I could start another painting. It looked so bad. Look at it!


After I calmed down again I decided to improve it a least a little and keep on painting the next day. I started by getting rid of the ugly mixed colors that turned out grey and brown-ish. I really liked the pastell green right bottom but it didn't match the rest of the painting. 
Then I went on and put on some dark green and blue tones. 
It didn't fit either.

I figured my favorite method should work again this time: Sprinkles and splashes of white! And it did work. I was so happy... It started looking better then.


And now this is my final outcome. I can't believe how it changed through the process. And I especially love what coincidence made. You can't see it in the bottom picture. But the next one. 


It's amazing.
I was doing my splashing and sprinkling and you know what was the result? I made a heart! Completely coincidently!!!!
I really like parts of the painting but somehow it doesn't seem right when you see the whole picture...



See what I mean?

I'm still figuring out what to do...

But right now I'm off to see a very good friend <3

Monday, April 9, 2012

DIY: Clutch

Once I managed to finish some projects in the beginning state, I decided to make a clutch. It turned out quite well and I figured I could make more. My family already said I should make a shop and sell them because I made so many...It was so fun and it actually worked out the way I wanted them to. And on top it was a really quick project once I figured it out! It took me 40 min for the last one. I was so proud! :))

Here they are:




I made two others: dark green velvet-ish and a bright red cord fabric
 Pictures coming soon.

I am planning to make some more. Color suggestions are welcome!

I also made a tutorial for them. If you want to see it, just tell me!


I hope everyone had a great easter like me full of family gatherings, eating, eating and eating and talking about the weirdest things!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

DIY: Thread Holder












Here is a new DIY tutorial for you guys:

really easy and looks pretty. you can individualize it the way you like it (any color, shape, amount...)




















Material:


piece of wood (at least 4mm thick)
nails
thread spools with a hole in the middle
paint (and other accessories you want to add)

I made it reeeeal simple because my bf promised me he'd make one in the shape of my initials for me (sounds good, doesn't it? too bad it wasn't my idea...) So that means it's just temporary!

I gathered all my material and went outside to spray paint the piece of wood. I chose white because I'm aiming for a "clean" look in my craft room. Long way till I have that...(someday :) )


Then, (if you're one of the perfectionists I wrote about in my last post,) you can mark the places where the nails should go by using a ruler and a pencil.


I skipped that step and just hammered them in the way I felt like it. (It works fine as long as you don't aim for a perfect outcome...)



And then I gathered all the old thread spools I had from my mom and my great-grandmother and sorted them by color.







And that makes the whole thing pretty. Just my color-coding everything. I just looove rainbows, haha

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Imperfection


Up to now, this was definitely something I could live by. Not anymore: (at least not completely. I probably still not going to end up as one these perfect people, but I don't want to :)) )

Everyone knows this one person that seems to get almost everything right. And not only right, but also perfectly done. Sometimes I want to be like this person.

Always getting everything right (most of the time on the first try!!) and ending up with an outcome that is nearly perfect.

When I do / make / craft / sew / bake / cook / say / try things they never some out the way they were supposed to. Maybe it's because at some point I'm frustrated too much because I wanted it to be perfect and then it isn't. I give up and either start something new or just walk away.

Just walk away. I do that oh so often. It's definitely a problem I have to work on. Start something, if I don't get it right the first time, walk away but come BACK!

Another new project of mine (I just decided that...) I am going to work on myself. This month I will get done at least five of my projects I started.


DIY Summer Skirt



Since this kind of weather is gone... Well...the weather is only half gone. The sun is still out and no clouds and stuff, but the temperatures are gone. I hate that. Sooo looking forward to the summer!!


I figured I'd show a tutorial for an easy skirt I made a while ago. The pictures aren't the best quality because my sewing/crafting room is in the basement and there is only this horrible light down here... So please excuse the poor quality!



Material:

5-8cm wide elastic band (length: measure where you want the skirt to start and take away 10cm)
fabric of your choice: 45x160cm (150 is ok as well)
scissors
sewing machine
pins
...and time to gather the fabric around the elastic by hand!

so basically I measured my waist: 75cm
took away 10cm: 65cm --> length of elastic

the fabric needs a width depending on how long you want the skirt to be --> mine is 45cm
 and then you just take the width of your fabric (140/150/160) for the "length of the skirt" (around your waist)    god this sounds complicated! i'm so sorry, i'm so bad at this tutorial thing. i liked the way I had lots of ruffles because of my 160cm fabric, but I guess you could adjust a bit! (I always do that, haha)

So once you got the measuring and cutting done you can start pinning the fabric to the elastic. (If you had or have problems with the measuring: Feel free to ask me, I'll try to give you some advice :) )

First, you fold the elastic in half and mark that point. Then, you fold the fabric in half and pin that point to the marked point.
You continue folding every part in half (so when you folded the first half, start folding that in half and so on...get it? :S )
It should look something like this:



Once you finished pinning, you can start sewing on the fabric (I promise: Mine looks terrible, thank God it's on the inside and only I can see it !) 



After sewing it should look something like this


The last thing you'll do is sew the side seam with a regular stitch.


And then you're done! 


Hope you liked it! (And I hope it was at least halfway understandable...gosh, I'm really bad at this)

DIY Lace Scarf







After making this beauty (if I may say so myself!!, haha) everyone asked me where I got it from and said it was pretty.
I had never gotten so many compliments on something I made myself and it made me feel soooo good!

I got my inspiration from here. The jersey-ish fabric I used was on sale on stoffe.de and I got the lace from a gigantic fabric store I looove to go to - especially because it's comparably cheap!

I'm planning on making another one...maybe with dark blue lace, or pale pink. Something spring-ish or summer-ish :)

We'll see. Need to finish a whole lot of other projects first.

Edit: If you want a tutorial, please tell me. It'll make me make another one (and work on my tutorial skills...)

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sailors Knot Bracelet

After seeing a lot of pretty sailors knot bracelets with this pretty maritime feeling I thought I'd a really easy one.


Material:

needle
thread
scissors
leather pieces 3x1,5cm
2x 20 cm pieces of cord (color of your choice)
2 snap buttons (so four parts)

after cutting the leather strips, hand sew on the snap buttons 
(make sure you sew them on the right way -> learning by doing haha)

for the knot, lay out the cord pieces

cross them. i put the green one on top

and make a simple knot

take both strands and

cross over again, using the same cord on top again!

pull through

now you might have different lengths 

so nudge them until they are about the same length
and you're DONE!
This is what mine turned out like

Coffee Cream Cake

It was probably the first cake I made in my life that turned out the way it was supposed to. I was sooo happy! yaaay me, haha


Recipe:

For the cake part

4 eggs
4 tablespoons hot (!) water
200g white sugar
1 package of vanilla sugar
1 tablespoon amaretto
120g flour
1 package of baking powder
1 package of chocolate pudding powder (you can also use almond pudding powder)
100g chocolate chips
optional:
50g peeled and chopped almonds

for the cream part

750ml whipped cream
2 packages of instant coffee
cocoa powder to decorate

Mix eggs and water until it's all foamy.
 Mix the sugar and vanilla sugar together and add to the eggs and water foam. Shortly stir in the liquor.
Mix the baking powder with the pudding powder, stir it into the mixture on the lowest level.
Add almonds and chocolate chips.
Pour the dough in a round springform pan,  the bottom covered with parchment paper and the sides buttered (so it's easier to get out the cake in the end)
Bake for 30 min at 180°.

Take cake out of pan, let it cool down.

As soon as it's cooled down cut it in half so you end up with two bases.

Whip the cream with the coffee powder.
Spread about half of it onto the bottom base.
Carefully lay the top base on top.


Then add the rest of the cream mixture on top evenly.
Decorate as you like and add the cocoa powder.




For us it tasted best after being in the fridge for a day - amazing! I loved it!

Have fun :)