Craft Day for Jan!

Well, I won’t bore you with the details of my hoarding life. Just take my word for it. I stockpile hard to find items such as “good jars”, “good boxes” and the metal ends of the cresent rolls that come in a tube. I collect supplies for projects that never happen. Today was the day when I would do SOMETHING with my huge collection of sweaters. I was saving them (for when I have time) to make purses, totes, hats, cat beds and pillows.

I have had an idea for a pill hat that I got at the Tollwood festival in Munich. But also there are all the hat tutorials like the one on ThreadBanger, or this one on Do Stuff. I gathered up all of my sweaters and started in. The pill hat didn’t work out. But I’ll try again because I only got the measurements off and ended up with a childs hat. Here’s a picture of Flo helping me with the hat.

After working with such a bulky sweater, I learned that I don’t like to sew bulky sweaters. I was just about to toss the scraps when I remembered the kitty bed I had seen a while ago in a magazine. So instead of hats, I made this:

I’m calling it a Kitty Kozie. Korny, I know. My cat hasn’t used it yet. Ali, my other cat, would have liked it, but she is in Kitty Heaven now. I’m sure she is looking down and meowing. I started on another little thing, but I didn’t have time to finish.

Thanks for checking in!

Don’t for get to comment so you can get in on the give-away!

 

Shopping, it’s what I do

The shopping today was lot’s of fun. I stopped by my favorite thrift shop to pick up some jars I had seen the other day. I was thinking I would like to make this cool photo project.

While I was there I saw this awesome lamp and this amazing huge shade with a print of a city on it (oh my god, I just realized that’s MUNICH)!! I’m going to check back on the price of the shade. I thought the lamp was too expensive at 30euors (this store used to be CHEAP).

Now that I look at it, maybe I do NEED the giant lamp…..Hmmmmm.

Later I gathered up all of my courage and for the first time, went swimming at the Garmisch pool . To some, this may seem like a no brainer. But this is Germany and I was pretty sure there would be nudity involved. After I talked to the nice entrance lady, I paid my 4.50euro for three hours of swimming. It turned out that was the most complex part! It got easier after that. There were dressing rooms, showers and lockers, just like any other pool. The pool area itself had a giant Olympic sized pool, three diving boards (the really tall ones), two slides and a number of jaccuzi’s and saunas. I spent most of my time swimming. I had a good time. And then the shower. Ugh, THAT’S where the nudity was. I’m really not a prude, but I am just not accustomed to seeing so many boobs and things. Normally in Bavaria, when entering and exiting a room, train car or shop you say “Gruss Gott” or “Aufweidersehen”. I was thinking, should I say that to these naked ladies? What IS the appropriate shower greeting?

That’s a little peak into my life!

Thanks for checking in!

Life as I know it…

Oh! I almost went to bed without blogging today! Oopsy!

I had a million errands today and a bunch of really good things happened. But now it’s too late to share them all.

I will just share a crazy part of living in Europe. It’s the shopping carts!

You have to have a coin (normally .50 or one euro) which you place in the slot, push in the holder (like at a laundromat), then you can pull the cart away.

I hope this makes some visual sense!

To get your Euro back, you reverse the process. The first time I did this I was all in a wad that I had lost my euro!

Also the baskets are four wheel steer! That my friends, is hard on the back! It may be typical in big cities to take shopping carts in elevators, but until I moved to Europe, it was a totally foreign concept for me!

Now I understand that shopping cart and elevator can be friends.

And finally (before I go to bed), please comment!!

I hope to share more with you tomorrow!

Thrift Score!

Day Two of my promise to myself!

I am a collector, pack-rat, hoarder, re-user and recycler. I love shopping. Combine my love for shopping with “junk” and I am in heaven! Please, if you should visit my home, don’t look in my basement (boxes of “good Jars”, old clothes to re-fashion and amazing finds that had to be bought) In my Thrift Score posts, I will be sharing my finds like these Tupperware egg cups. Here in Europe, soft boiled eggs are fairly common, normally available at hotels for breakfast. I got a hankerin’ for soft boiled eggs and I knew just what to do! I thought I would show the cups with the eggs in them. But I had one of those days where the egg got stuck to the shell when I was peeling it, leaving behind and un-photogenic lump. But the eggs were tasty! Check out these fun Springtime colors and how ’bout the dedicated spoons!

Please note I created an About Me page and updated my links. Don’t forget to comment so I can include you in the Thanks for Visiting GIVE-AWAY!

Thanks for visiting GIVE-AWAY

As you can see on the right, my history with blogging is sporadic, at best. I have no shortage of ideas about which to blog, indeed I think about things to blog all the time. Photos I’ve shot, places I’ve visited, internet sites of interest; all these things and more go in one lobe of my brain and out the other. Nary is a word written.

I envy other’s blogs. They seem so interesting, have so many commenters and some have become superstars in their own way. Their blogs seem so well laid out with so many clickable links. My WordPress account has a statistics page that shows (amazingly) how many visitors I have, and where they came from. Interestingly, people DO visit my blog and most of them come from Regina’s blog Creative Kismet. Regina is one of my favorite bloggers and it is her post that motivated me to give blogging another go!

So, in celebration of my new found motivation I have promised myself that I will blog EVERY DAY for seven days, March 22^nd, through March 28^th. And to motivate my readers, on March 29^th, I will give away a little gifty to a randomly chosen commenter. All you have to do is comment {something nice please }. [sorry, family are excluded, I'm looking for NEW friends!]

The winner will receive this reusable gift bag made from recycled materials. Inside will be a special surprise, to be revealed later.

Thanks for reading and please visit again tomorrow!

I would like to thank…

I have been under a black cloud for a while.  Everything is wrong.  You know how that goes.  Despite my moping about, I managed to get a few craft projects off my to-do list!  Shocking!  On a whim I thought it would be nice to post my progress on this blog.  Low and behold, when I signed in I found that TWO (count them TWO!) people had linked to my blog!  Oh, I think I shall be overcome with joy!  Like Steve Martin in The Jerk I feel like shouting “I’m somebody, I’m somebody, I’m somebody!!”  Thanks toAlice and Marion for the link love and helping to lift the black cloud!

Now about my project.  About, um, a year and a half ago I thrifted a sweater during a clothing market where there was lots of grabbing going on.  I pawed the piles of sweater and looked with shifty eyes at the competition.  Surprisingly, no one had snatched up this awesome sweater!  I took my treasure home in a big sack, beaming with self-satisfied thrifty goodness.  Imagine my surprise when I found the one-buck-sweater was full of holes.  Oh.  That’s why it was a buck.  Not too worry, my mind immediately whipped up a number of solutions to hide this little foible.   Did I act on those ideas?  No.  Instead I moved the sweater from bin to box to corner.   It was never lonely, always surounded by my other unfinished or unstarted projects.  But today I felt the need to fix that sweater.  And I fixed it good!

Here are the holes.  One on the back and holey patches on both sleeves. Probably the result of Oktoberfest debautchery!

I shoulda known!

I had been wanting to try inkjet printing on fabric for a while.  I have had the printable fabric for about two years.  But I was afraid to use it.  This is where my mania comes in.  I don’t use my materials because, a) I will use it up and I won’t be able to get anymore or b) I will do it wrong, then be pissed at myself.  Today I gave myself permision to just go willy-nilly and use some supplies!!  I was out of control!  No not really.  So I scanned some old skiing photos and printed them on the fabric.  Voila!  Piece of cake, really!  I then cut out the images, ironed them onto scrap wool creating patches (nifty!).  Then I sewed the patches over the holes in the sweater.  I was blown away by how easy this was.  I had been dragging my feet for what reason??  I hope you don’t procrastinate like I do!

Here's the front

Here's the back

And a close up

Thanks for looking!

My Obsession

I obsess over all sorts of things.  Obsessing is fun!  I am currently obsessing over my hair.  Normally, when I find I no longer like my hair, I breakdown and go and get it cut.  But I did this already in the spring when I was in Cal.  There I spent $100 (!) to get highlights.  I still didn’t like my hair so I spent $65 on a barely-there light trim.  It was crap.  So when I got back home I got a 65 Euro “hair removal”.  There was no styling, just removal of about 2 inches of my hair.  Now let’s see, that’s $260 worth of haircare and my hair still looks like crap!  I had thought I would put off cutting my hair until Christmas.  But my sister is coming out and we are going to Oktoberfest and the opera in Vienna.  I don’t want to feel ugly.  So I decided it’s time to try again.  I am going for “wash and wear” hair.  Not fussy.  Here are my optional hairstyles with some added as suggestions for others.

I love how these highlight her eyes.

This for Mom or Mary, not me!

Probably too short, but I like the luxuriant look.

When I get disgusted, this is how I feel like cutting my hair!! Not this time though.

This is my favorite

I like BIG hair.

So Frickin’ Green

This morning I dropped off the Ford for service. It was leaking, that’s bad for the environment! Then I needed to mail a letter for my Scrap Paper Circle Swap {recycling!} for this Yahoo group. So I WALKED with my doggie, from the repair shop, 20 minutes to my nearest drop box (I live in a special community) {this is green behavior}. I then grabbed the BUS {also green}. I had hoped I could ride the bus all the way home, but due to inconsistent scheduling, I ended up using the bus for only about 1 mile. Frip! I would like my Green Brownie Points now. I would like to claim my “Walk therefore you are healthy” points, but I had to buy coffee and donuts in order to get change for the bus. Hey, no bodies perfect!

[i will post a photo when worpress fixes thier photo thingy, ugh!]

I did something too!

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Stitch, Rip and Repeat. She went to Seville and snapped some photos. Promptly upon her return, she created a watercolor of what she had seen. So I realized that I haven’t blogged about my trip to Malta or my latest creations. So here is my purse.

I wanted to use-up a skein of SweetHeart yarn (I know it’s not REAL yarn for “real” crocheters). So I started with a chain four and kept going until it was gone. Then I had this old leather jacket that I thrifted, so I made a cellphone sleeve. I think they came out great. I will write about Malta later.

very weird

I posted a long involved entry yesterday, with photos and everything. For some reason, it isn’t “posting”. I don’t know enough about blogs to understand. But I do understand that the help department of WordPress is only open M-F. So, I’ll wait and see. In the mean time, here is what I did today!

Before and After. Cheers!

P.S. I figured out the problem. My Norton “Identity Safe” application was putting a password on my posts. I think I made it all better now!