Sport socks

As I've shown you in this post I was yarn crafting a lot the last weeks. :)

One project on the top of my todo list were sport socks for my boyfriend, which I started to knit about a year ago. :)

I already finished the first sock last year, but it got too short at first and when I redid the end it got too long. After this I ran out of steam and put the project aside (I think it was also based on all the socks I've already knitted before that year).

This year I started to redo the first one. But I bought too little yarn last year and when I wanted to buy a second ball of wool in my local shop they didn't had the same wool. So I bought two balls of another wool and started right from the beginning and knitted two brand-new sport socks, which I'm now proud to present. :D

Have you tried knitting socks? I would've never thought how easy it is! At least the boomerang heel socks. :D I plan to knit some socks as christmas presents this year. ;)

Macrame bracelet

One yarn project I did the last week was a birthday gift for a good friend of mine. :)

I made her a macrame bracelet! :D I used to do macrame a lot when I was in school and it was so fun to knot again.

I had a pattern in mind I did years ago. But I didn't own the book with the pattern (I remember I got it from the library back then). So I had to figure out how to knot it and luckily I found pictures of already finished bracelets with this pattern in the internet. So I did some testing and figured it out! :) It wasn't that hard, but still... :)

So this is the bracelet I made.

Back then we used to wear those bracelets non-stop, but this time I wanted the bracelet to have a clasp. :)

How do you like the pattern of the bracelet? :) Do you also like macrame?

Blog header design

Today I would like to write about my blog header design. :) When I decided to start blogging I gave the layout a lot of thought. It was my very wish to design and draw everything by myself. :)

It was very hard to decide which kind of header to make. Sketches or clear outlines? Color or b/w? Colored by hand or on the computer?

So at first I started drawing various objects which came to my mind, when I thought about the name of my blog and things I like the most: a baobab trunk with various kinds of leafs, origami animals and objects, crocheted objects, books, snowflakes and jars, flowers producing soap bubbles and so on.

Not every one of them made it into the final header. :) This one just didn't fit into the entire image, even though I kind of like the bubbles and the origami flowers. ;)

I left out this "self portrait" too, since I had the feeling that it's too style defining. It reminds me of my drawings when I was younger and liked mangas a lot. ;) I still like to draw little funny figures, but I just didn't want it in the header of my blog. :)

So after matching everything to a final image, which took reaaaaaaaaally long by the way, I "colored" it on the computer with watercolor brushes. I was too self-conscious to color it by hand. (But watercoloring is something I MUST try out soon!)

I'm still not sure, if I'm content with my header, but I think I got kind of used to it. :) So I guess I'll leave it like this...at least for a while. ;)
What about you? I would love to hear about your experiences while designing your blog layout! :)

Working on some projects...

Last week I was busy working on different projects. :)

None of them is finished yet, but hopefully I can show them to you as soon as possible. :)

The little things -Strasbourg

Today I would like to show you some inspiring spots I found during a weekend trip to Strasbourg, when we visited a good friend of mine. While we were walking along the streets, I stopped every time I saw something beautiful and took a picture of it. :) I would love to share those pictures with you.

Isn't this house just too cute with its adorable decoration? I'm buy the way a lover of houses, for example half-timber houses. :)

I like the different roofs of the houses, the slightly different colors and the different shapes. :)

Look at this cute house! I love how small it is compared to its neighbours. Like a little child next to its parents. :D

I hope you like my little findings. :)

October project: Remaining things...

I gave a lot of thought into what my next monthly project could be. I love the start of a new month. There is so much energy, motivation and anticipation of how the next month is going to turn out. :) :)

I decided that in October I will concentrate on all the remaining crafty things I have on my imaginary and always growing todo list for decades, but never find the time to do! The year is going to end soon and in November and December I'm going to be busy with preparations for christmas, so this is my last chance to get some things done this year. ;)

Oh, by the way, I'm mainly talking about little things, which can be done in a short time, nothing big. And everything which relate to being creative, like writing some snail mail and preparing swaps, decorating our little home, ending a yarn craft project or ordering material I want to order since months.

Every time I do something out of the list, I'm going to show it to you. :) And my goal is to do as many things as possible. :)

I'm not sure if this is going to be a good project. But we'll see...:) What do you think of it?

Swap stamps

As promised before I want to show you the stamps I carved for my swap package to Singapore. :)

I carved this address frame stamp for decorating the envelopes:

And these flower stamps to embellish everything. I used them for the envelope and the stationery paper for instance:

I also carved three stamps with texts, one for the date in the header of a stationery paper, one ps stamp for extra ps paper and one mail stamp:

I made this bird love stamp for those cute little tags. :)

The last one is this origami crane stamp for the back of the post cards I made:

I love origami cranes! I've learnt how to fold them when I was a little girl. I was told if you fold 1000 of it, the gods grant you one wish. :) I never managed to fold 1000 of it, but maybe you want to give it a try? ;)

Travel journal update

Wow, it's already October! Time has flown, as always! :)

I just wanted to keep you updated on my travel journals.

I almost finished the Reutte travel journal yesterday (so still in September, yay! :D). One problem that occurred was that some pictures of our trip are missing. Basically all pictures I took with our small camera. So today I have to start looking for them, hoping we didn't lost them somehow...

I still have to develop all pictures (as soon as I find the missing ones), which will take a while. But as I've finished the entire layout, there isn't much to do, just glueing the picture to their right places.

So here is a little peek at the journal (cover's still missing too).

I realized that my system for travel journaling works perfect for me! It's so easy to put a page together. As you see, I didn't try to make fancy pages. No stickers, no extra drawings. When I include the final pictures, I'm sure I will decorate the pages a little, but I like to keep it that simple. :)

And I haven't started with our Sicily journal yet, but I prepared a lot: Wrote all the texts during our vacation and collected and sorted every memorable snippet! So putting everything together won't be such a big deal, I guess. :)

As soon as I finish the two travel journals (hopefully on Wednesday, as it's an official holiday in Germany), I will tell you about my October project! :)