Pompoms #2

Some weeks ago, I made three of those pompons and hung them up over our guest bed. Everybody adores them and a friend of mine decided to make some for her new room as well. Having all the silky paper out again, the idea formed that I should do some more as well. 

With my boyfriends nephews birthday coming up (the birthday of the nephew of my boyfriend / the nephew of my boyfriend`s birthday), I thought I will make some of a little bit more colour. Too bad I couldn`t unfold them (due to shipping) to show them here in their full glory but I might get a picuture of them hanging out in their new home. At least you know now how small they are unfolded, so very easy to send them to a lovely person.

I just want you to know that I'm happy.

So this my work space! We moved in almost a year ago, but this little corner with all those ribbons and tapes and pens and scissors was only finsihed some weeks ago. Well, its still not finished really, but its in a good state. Quite pathetic but I think I sat there one or twice during the last weeks. 

When I do stuff and its in any way possible, I do it on our couch. And that applies to everything. On the couch I do more stuff than anywhere else. Stupid, when all the things I need to cut, glue and paint are in another room. Also stupid because I leave quite some marks behind... glitter, scraps and threads which makes my boyfriend crazy. But still, it feels good to have a place where all the things have its place and on top of all look nice because its location is in the guest room. Or the guest bed is located in our study. Either way, that is how it looks.

And then I was hooked.

In our bathroom at home we had these two big rugs made out of this textile yarn. Before it was cool. My mum made them. From yarn she bought at a big textile factory for I believe a very low price. Which is what the price should be considering that it's a waste product. I think it was a a year ago that I found this ball of yarn in a little store in France and bought it for not such a low price but well. Not soon after I finished my first little basket. I made one for my sister as well and then some time later did a huge one for... storing all my textile yarn!

So when I went home (the rugs are don't exist anymore), my mum told me to go up to the attic because there should still be in some corner some of the textile yarn that she bought some ten, fifteen years ago. Well, there was not only a little, but masses of this yarn in several different colours! Awesome! <3 

Books for long summer days.

Summer time is reading time. No, winter time is reading time. No, summer time! No, winter time! Alright, alright, both are! I just read some really nice books lately and I thought, as I'm always looking for some good one you might be doing the same. 

Jojo Moyes: Me before you

Quite a cheesy covet to be honest but it was highly recommended by the sales person at the book store. Not quite convinced at first, the book caught me and didn't let me go until I was through. Its about a girl that lives in a tiny british village. She has never been ambitious, lives with her parents, has the same boyfriend for the last 5 years and is quite happy with the job she has at the little cafe. Until she gets fired. Forced to find another job as everyone relies on her income, she starts taking care of this guy that quadriplegic. He is super grumpy, makes her feel uncomfortable and feels sorry for himself a lot. But after some time, he slowly... slowly... opens up to her... But of course there is catch and they don't have much time to find their ways, making choices, understanding choices, trying to change choices. 

John Green: Looking for Alaska

There is this boy, a teenager, leaving home to go to boarding school. For the first time, his life is interesting. He has friends, gets enganged in behaviour like smoking, breaking curfew and falling in love with the most fenomenal girl he has ever seen. She is smart, sexy, witty... and becomes a real friend that gets him girls, gets him out of trouble and gets him some adventures.  Then suddenly a tragedy happens and nothing will ever be the same for anyone. In the book, the days are counted. It starts with "...  days before" until it reaches 0 and time is counted as "... days after". I really loved that book and read it way to quickly that I ended up on holidays without anything to read and no bookstore with English books anywhere to be found. Also, I might call my daughter, if I will ever have one, Alaska. 

John Green: The fault in our stars. 

Just finished this book a few days ago. After reading "Looking for Alaska" I wanted to read some more by John Green and my choice fell on this one. Its about Hazel who has cancer and it will kill her at some point. But not at the moment. At the moment she is busy falling in love with Augustus, who also had cancer, lost a leg but is considered fine for several years now. When she has to stay in intensive care at the hospital for some days, she realizes that she is a grenande. One day she will explode and hurt everybody that is close to her. She tries to keep her distance to Augustus which is hard for her and him. In the end its not sure who is more at risk of getting hurt... God, I love this guy, next book is already ordered! By the way, the movie is coming out 2014 apparently, which is both cool and scary. 

Pesto this, Pesto that.

I could be called a rebell when it comes to following recipes. Cause I never do it. There is always something I leave out or put in. Mostly though because I don't have everything that would be required. Might also be the reason why I'm not an outstanding cook but only mediocre. 

But this time changing the recipe worked out so well that I will share it here. So I decided to do some pesto. We didn't have any parmesan cheese so I had to send my boyfriend to the store to get some. Pesto without parmesan is really hard to pull off and even me as a recipe-abandoning-chef would not try that. I actully did two types of pesto and although only one of them is truly heavenly, I will share both with you. If you ezpect a culinary miracle I would go somewhere else though :)

Pesto Rosso with tomatoes and walnuts

• a handful of walnuts
• 4-5 dried tomatoes
• 3 fresh tomatoes
• parmesano
• 100 ml of olive oil
• three basil leaves
• salt
• peper
• cayenne pepper

So I fried the nuts in the pan without any oil (they actually burned a little which was too bad). Then I put them into a tall bowl and mixed them with the rest of the ingredients. I have a hand blender that suceeds quite well in shredding everything into little pieces. Towards the end you can add some salt and pepper and other spices as you wish. 

Pesto Verde with mixed nuts

• a good handful of mixed nuts 
• two handfuls of basil leaved
• parmesano
• some parsley
• 150 ml of olive oil
• salt
• pepper

I had a package of mixed nuts which were meant for salads. There were some pumpkin seeds, some sunflower and some pine nuts in there. I also fried them (and this time didn't burn them), mixed them with the other ingredients and blended everything. Took me much more time to blend everything into a nice sauce but taking the time was worth it. Although I don't mind tasting little pieces of the nuts in the pesto. 

So now you probably wonder which of the two the truely amazing one and which the mediocre one is. Well, my boyfriend and I both like the green pesto much better. But yeah, thats just us :)

ERASMUS - The ultimate revival.

Three years ago I spent some time in Sweden and I met the most wonderful people there. Living with on of them for a year now, the two of us thought that its time to organize a revival and invite a bunch of people that made our time there so very special. Seven of them came and spent a crazy weekend with us in Ulm.

The first one that arrived, Michal from Bratislava, was able to enjoy some quite hours before all the rest invaded our appartment around midnight. Although I dragged him into chairoplane that made him a little sick. It didn't prevent him from joining me to the "Ballon Illumination" and taking great pictures with his old school analog camera that you can see below.

The next morning, after having a beer, we went up the Münster, which is the highest church tower in the world. Yes, its true. Okay, you don't have to believe me. No one ever does. Let me google that for you. The weather was perfect although we couldn't spot the alps. Afterwards we had some pizza, sharing stories about Erasmus, who is living where now, doing what, who made out with whom...

At night we packed a huge picknick basket, went over to Bavaria and watched the famous "Lightning Serenade". That's when they put 8000 little floating candles onto the Danube accompanied by some classical music. It was the first time I saw it and although we didn't choose such a good spot, it was very nice to watch.

The next day, we went to the lake to make good use of the most awesome summer weather. We had another picknick there, swam, played some games and finally left because most of our guests had to catch their trains, cars or flights.

Thank you all so much for coming! We had a blast <3

DIY - Pompoms

A quick and easy way to bring some summer feeling into your home are these great pompoms. I stumbled across the tutorial on www.puppenzimmer.de and felt an instant itch in my finger tips. So the next day I ordered the silk paper on amazon and started folding. Its really easy and even if you don`t fold everything in a very exact and orderly fashion you will still get a great result. And as I could only order a 12-colour package, I will make several more in every colour of the rainbow. 

I am really not a hero on writing and documenting the process but on this website you will find a step-by-step tutorial for awesome pompoms! Sorry its in German but if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment (hahaha, nobody ever leaves comments). 

And if you lay beneath them they turn ever so slightly which is very calming. So its also a great idea to hang them over the bed of your kid (if you happen to have one).

This is our guest room by the way, and yes, our guests have all reported a deep and very restorative sleep so far.

Rineke Dijstra - The Krazy House

When we were in Frankfurt we went to the Museum for Modern Art and saw the exhibition of Rineke Dijkstra. She took videos and pictures of people growing up, dancing, discussing, trying... She mostly did this in a well known club in Liverpool called the Krazy House. She took pieces from the collection of the museum of which she thought match or contrast her own approach and put them next to her own work. We had a little guided tour and the woman told us about the process of setting up an exibition. Rineke Dijkstra for example requested very special rooms to show her movies. Not being able to fullfill all her wishes, they had to build some spaces within their spaces. So the visitors would walk into a room to find another room that has been put in there. 

Friendly faces.

Traveling at the moment is driven almost entirely by the wish to see people rather than visiting places. I could take a week off before Easter so we made plans to visit my old student city Enschede in the Netherlands and catch up with my former housemate in Amsterdam. We were totally excited so it was kind of a downer when our car told us one day before we wanted to leave that something doens't feel right. A lot of calls, hours of waiting and several hundreds of euros later it seemed that we can finally pursue our plan and the next day we were in the car and on our way to the great country of cheese and tulips. After 400 km though our car began to heat up, temperature of the engine rose and some seconds later we found ourselves in the nearest rest area along the highway not knowing what to do. Unfortunately, we had two passengers with us who were equally devestated. After some calls, some talking to the other car drivers at the rest area and some waiting in a very cold car, our passengers found a woman that agreed to take them to the next trainstation and our insurance called us back to confirm that help is on the way. And some twenty minutes later help showed up in form of a big yellow truck from the German Automobile Club. He found out quite quickly that he couldn´t do anything for us right here so he took us for a little ride through the nice surrounding area, up and down the hills until we arrived at a garage. 

The yellow angel coming to save us. 

Beeing a local he knew all the garages and the owners so with a quick call he called them from the car to tell them that we are about to come which was very smart as it was getting dark and the garage was about to close. They fixed it within twenty minutes because as it turned out the garage that fixed our car in Ulm forgot to close on crucial valve. Pretty stupid and really not worth the trouble!! But at least it meant that we could continue driving and reached Enschede only with a three hour delay. 

It was great to see my dear friends there again! We had such a wonderful time strolling through the city, seeing everything that had changed and everything that is still the same. We went to the Paradijs which is a very special place. You could almost describe it as a very arty greenhouse. There are huge plants growing from the ground to the very high ceiling of the former ware house. There is a pond with tortoises and fishes and there are staird made out of old bathroom sinks filled with cement leading up the the ceiling. 

Paradijs.

 The next day all four of us went to Amsterdam to visit Moa. Moa and I lived together for almost four years and havn´t seen each other for more than two years. It was freezing when we arrived but we managed to see most of the sights just by wandering along the canals. It was so nice to see Moa again after all those years! Too much to catch up on, we lacked three more weeks in order to exchange everything that has been going on. 

Having fun on the "I AMSTERDAM" in front of the Rijksmuseum.

We heart.

For the next day we wanted to visit the country side and Moa told us about a great second-hand store in a place called Broek in Waterland, not too far out the city and close to the Ijsselmeer. The Netherlands are great for second-hand shopping! They have those great shops called "kringloopwinkel" and you can get furnitures, clothes, plates, pots, pans, type writers, sleighs and skis there. I found a seed box made out of dark brown wood where I can put all my crafting material in that usually fly around on my desk, in my drawers and everywhere else. Then we went to Marken which is a little village on an island in the Ijsselmeer. Its just wonderful and very picturesque, I believe is the right word here. Little houses painted a rich dark green and white, huddeled together as if to keep warm in the icy wind. 

We called them ice mushrooms.

The ferry taking Moa away again. 

Back in Enschede we continued our tour to all the local Kringloopwinkel and got some very cute things. I also bought tons of presents for my family who miss all the advantages of me living there: the market, the plants and flowers, the cute shops, the cheese, the sirup waffles and the great licorice. 

Cute little drawer, still too big to fit into our car.

After some great days there, we went to Frankfurt to see my family for Easter. On Saturday we wanted to go to the fleamarket but after two hours walking along the Main not catching a glimpse of it anywhere we gave up. Turned out that the fleamarket does not take place during Easter weekend. On Sunday we were a little luck with the weater and went to play miniature golf! My brother-in-law got into a fierce competition only to find out in the end that my mum beat us both! 

After this, we went back home, hearts filled with old and new memories of friendly faces. <3

Pop-Up Card

Special birthdays ask for special measures. Especially when you are not there to celebrate. So I made this little pop-up card which is a birthday card as well as a voucher for a nice weekend out and about. Making a pop-up card is not hard at all once you understood the concept. I used to do several some years ago but then kind of forgot about their wonderful effect and the endless possibilities that they offer. 

First I cut out little circles from different kinds of papers. Then I thought about where I want them to be on the card, which ones should be in the front, which in the back, which ones on the top and which ones more to the bottom. 

According to this plan I cut out paper stripes and folded them according to where I want them to be. The one you see below on the picure was one that was going towards the front and also quite high up. 

At last I put glue on both ends of the paper strip and glue it to the card while holding the both sides of it at a 90 degree angle. After putting all paper strips into place I attached the little circles with the choices for the weekend away.

Then I decorated it with some butterflies and the top with some white ribbon and some cardboard flowers. And yes, it turned out quite pinky and feminine, but also very happy and floral and this is what it is about on birthdays, right? 

I hope you suceed in creating your own pop-up card following this maybe not very thought-through instructions! :)

Enjoying the snow

The snow was falling, the sun was shining, the snow was falling. We didn't have much choice with this perfect weather. And that my sister and her family were here was more than just a lucky coincidence. So we had to get some skis and take benefit from the fact that Ulm is located very close to some mountains.  We chose to go to a very little ski "resort" with one hill and three lifts, one only for sleighs as it was the first time for my little nephew to get onto some skis. After five minutes in the kids ski park he was bored so my brother-in-law just took him up the mountain and going down he screamed with excitement thats how much he enjoyed it. 

After this he just called his father "the white flash"

We also enjoyed being in the snow, skiing in an interchange of snow flakes and sunshine. After some hours we took a nice break eating soup and sausages in the little cottage before my nephew just shooed us outside again because he wanted to continue. Clement and I discovered some little ways through the woods next to the slope and with a feeling between excitement and anxiety we went down between the trees bending left and right and down in order to avoid the branches as well as trying to not gather too much speed going down that we would have to hug a tree to make us stop. 

Taking a break.

After some time he switched to the sleigh though which I enjoyed almost more than he did! Being pulled up the mountain with a lift is just awesome and whoever pulled up a sleigh with a two-year old up the mountain can imagine how much fun it adds for the grown-up. So all in all a wonderful family-weekend-outing <3

Sleigh and sleigh lift! 

Winterwonderland

Preparations for a special birthday.

It's my god childs birthday next week and because I can't be there, I wanted to give her something extra special. When I asked her she said that she would either have MarioKart for her Nintendo or some colouring books from TopModel. And because I'm not such a big fan of supporting her playing with her Nintendo all day, I thought I will give her a little TopModel-Kit, because I guess that's what pre-teenage girls need to get through life.

The pink glittery explosion in our living room.

So I got her some nice pens, pencils, nail polish and two colouring books where she can create outfits and the make-up of models (which should make the dad happy, because then she doesn't have to try all the make-up on herself). I also got her a book which I heard from a colleague who has a daughter in the same age should be perfect for her. 

For the little artist. 

But besides I wanted to make her somethings special so I crafted a banner to say her "Happy Birthday". It took me quite some time but I could finally live out all my princess and barbie fantasies. The more pink and purple and glitter is involved, the better. Our coach is glittering a lot now, same as my clothes and my hair. 

Preparations for the banner.

It was a out of fun and totally worth it! Too bad I can't be there when she opens it... 

The girly box. 

DIY - Upcycle!

Two little projets that I did during the last weeks. The first one is a made from an old plastic jerrycan that once contained washing liquid. I saw this on another blog some time ago but had to wait patiently for the can to be empty so I could turn it into this:

We live in a rather old house and our sockets are at the most curious places resulting in some troubles to find a suitable place to recharge the cell phones without risking it falling down or one of us stepping on it. With this handy little container the phone can now hang right under the socket and recharge.  What I did is I cut off the top of the can and cut the rest into the shape you can see on the picture below. The hole was quite hard to make because it has to be big enough for the plug to fit through but also the left over plastic should not be too thin that it would rip easily. To make it a little pretty, I put a ribbon with polka dots around it. 

The second project is this fabric tube to collect old plastic bags. It was a Sunday and I woke up quite early with itchy fingers telling be that it's time for something creative. Getting annoyed by all the little plastic bags flying around in our flat and keeping the drawer where we decided to put them from closing, I remembered that we had such a thing in my student flat.

So I searched a bit on the internet, figured out how it could be done and half an hour later it was done. It was easy, really. And super handy! Every plastic bag is just crumbled up and stuffed in at the top. And if you need one, you just pull one out at the bottom.

It's an easy way to collect some plastic bags which then in a second step can be transformed into fabric. You might have seen this on other blogs: people that lay plastic bags on top of each other, put baking paper under and over it and iron that until they are sticking together. With the plastic you can do some cool things like little toilet bags or even big ones for shopping or the beach. I made some stuff out of ironed plastic bags, but I gave them away for christmas without taking pictures before :( 

Have fun upcycling your life! <3

Words are all we have...

And then you find this one song, that fills your hearts, stirrs up your emotions, makes you feel alive.

Bastille - Overjoyed - Acapella Version - L.O.V.E

Counterpart Travel - Uganda

In 2009 I went to Uganda to work there as a volunteer. It was by accident that I stumbled over an article in a dutch magazine for students where the work of Counterpart Travels was presented. Some days after reading the article I wrote a mail and some more days later I bought my ticket. I spent six wonderful weeks there, always felt save and connected. It couldn't have been a greater, more fullfilling time.

Africa.

Uganda has such a rich culture as well as a wonderful landscape. There are several national parks and nature and wild life whereever you look. Jinja with the source of the Nile, lake Bunyoni in the South, Gorillas in the mountains and the Big 5 in the national parks. 

The Source of the Nile.

Monkey in the tree.

For the first weeks I worked at Jessy-Johnny-Boarding School which is an elementary school just outside the center of Mukono. I was teaching English there and just blown away by the motivation, curiosity and thrist for knowledge. The kids were awesome, soaking up every information. 

Jessy-Johnny-Boarding School.

My class.

I went there in December and holidays started so the school closed down and I started working at an orphanage. It also has a school connected to it and takes special care for children with sight impairments. Together with the rest of the staff we tried to put up some activities for the holidays with almost zero money but those kids are experts and just know how to create something awesome out of nothing. 

The orphanage "Chain Foundation".

I know a lot of people who would love to go abroad and work as a volunteer but most organizations ask for a lot of money just for getting you a place to work without being paid. Counterpart Travel are located for several years now in Mukono, a town not far from the capital, Kampala. They are part of the town, employ local people and are by doing that in contact with local schools, hospitals, pharmacies, etc. That's why thay can find you a place to work as a volunteer that suits your profile in exchange for a donation to their foundation to fincance their projects there like mircro financing, building up a yoghurt company etc..

The local transport system in Uganda, bus stop in Kampala.

Upon my arrival I stayed some days in Kampala and got an introduction to the culture and the city and learned everything I needed to know to go on my first boda-boda drive. When I came to Mukono Charles, the coordinator, took me to schools so I could see where I want to spend my time. I stayed at the guest house of Counterpart Travels with other volunteers, which worked or to studied to become nurses, pharmacists, economists or lawyers.

The market in Mukono.

A friend of mine, Sylvie, went to Uganda just some months after my return. She worked as a teacher in the same orphanage I did and really enjoyed it. And now she is back since December 2012, taking over the management of Counterpart Travels with her boyfriend Maurits.

So if you got excited and you think that the Ugandan experience could be something for you, then don't hesitate to contact her and ask about your possibilities!

http://www.counterparttravels.com/en/

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