April - A Summary

I'm not going to start this post again with stating the fact, that April ran by way too fast! Instead I'll instantly start with my summary. Here we go!

LIFE:
We received the first offers for the changes we want to make at our house. The price meet our expectations, so we didn't suffer any negative surprises there. As soon as my husband has a day off, we will visit the construction site. The outside of the house is finished (they just need to finish the facade) and they already started to work on the inside. My husband thinks that we will move this year, I think that we will be able to live in our own house by next spring. Be that as it may - we are more than excited!
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Die ersten Angebote für unsere Änderungswünsche sind so eingetrudelt und sind nicht höher, als von uns geschätzt. Also hier gibts schon mal keine bösen Überraschungen - zum Glück! Sobald der Liebste mal wieder frei hat, werden wir eine Baustellenbesichtigung machen. Der Rohbau steht, der Innenausbau ist bereits in vollem Gange und man kann jede Woche eine Veränderung sehen. Der Mann denkt, dass wir noch heuer umziehen werden - ich rechne eher erst nächsten Frühling damit. So oder so - wir freuen uns!

We visited my sister in law for a short weekend as our oldest nephew turned nine. NINE YEARS! He's so big already and right now in the middle of a defiance phase and a little difficult. But I still enjoyed the two days off and the fact, that we sat together till way after midnight and just talked and laughed and had fun.
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Wir waren wieder zu Besuch bei meiner Schwägerin in Salzburg, weil unser großer Neffe NEUN wurde. Unglaublich, wie groß der schon ist. Und momentan befindet er sich in einer vorpubertären Phase und ist dezent schwierig. Trotzdem war's toll mal alle wiederzusehen und bis weit in die Nacht zu quatschen und zu lachen!

CRAFT:
My crochet mojo is slowly coming back after being absent for quite a while. I finally finished the little lamb that just needed eyes stitched on and two ears. I immediately started a new project and have a million ideas inside my head!
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Meine Häkelmotivation ist wieder da! Endlich. Nach einer gefühlten Ewigkeit hab ich endlich mein Lämmchen fertig gemacht (haben ja nur noch die Augen und Ohren gefehlt) und gleich sofort mit einem neuen Projekt angefangen. Ich arbeite gerade an einem Sommerpulli!

a new Lupo!

SPORT:
It's reaaaally hard for me to motivate me to go for a run, although I'm still making progress. I managed to run for 6.5 kms last week and I never managed to run that far!
I bought new sport shoes this weekend, maybe this will help. I'm still ahead of my running goal for this year, let's see if that motivation's coming back soon. At least I can force myself to go for at least one run a week.
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Momentan fehlt's mir echt an Motivation und das, obwohl ich mich mit jedem Lauf steigern kann. Letzte Woche hab ich 6.5 Kilometer geschafft, so viel wie noch nie! Ich hab mir letzte Woche neue Sportschuhe zugelegt, vielleicht helfen die ja. Immerhin bin ich meinem Jahreslaufziel immer noch voraus. 

slightly ahead of my running goal!

BOOKS:
I finished Game of Thrones. Finally. Though I love the books and the plot and the characters, the fourth and the fifth volume were a little tiresome to read.
I managed to read 4 books since and I'm currently in the middle of the fifth one.

After not buying any books for a few months now, I got myself this baking book: It's called Sugar Orgasm and it is written by three women, who opened the "Guerilla bakery" in Vienna. They started with "pop up bakeries" - every two month they opened a little bakery for one afternoon in a abandoned building or an empty appartment in Vienna. That concept proved to be so successful that they opened a real bakery a few months ago and published this book. A colleague of mine ordered it and as I flipped through it I knew, that I HAD to have this book. Can't wait to try out my first recipe from it, I'll keep you posted!
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Ich bin endlich mit Game of Thrones fertig. Obwohl ich die Geschichte und Personen liebe haben sich die letzten beiden Bände dann doch seeeeehr gezogen. Seither hab ich gleich vier Bücher gelesen und bin grad mitten im Fünften. 

Nachdem ich seit Mitte Dezember keine neuen Bücher mehr gekauft habe, bin ich jetzt wieder schwach geworden. "Zucker Orgasmus" von der Guerilla Bakery ist's geworden. Drei Schwestern haben in Wien "Pop Up Bakeries" eröffnet, das Konzept kam so gut an, dass sie jetzt eine Bäckerei/Caféhaus eröffnet haben und dazu ein Backbuch veröffentlicht. Eine Kollegin hat sich das Buch bestellt und nach kurzem Durchblättern wusste ich - das muss ich haben! Ich freu mich schon auf's Ausprobieren und werde dann berichten!

sugar orgasm! That's the prettiest cook book I own!

How was your April? Got any exciting news or experiences?
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Wie war euer April? Gab's gute Nachrichten oder tolle Erfahrungen?

Summer crochet

I really need to reduce my yarn stash and I really need to crochet something else than amigurumis. Don't get me wrong, I love making my little cute lalylala dolls and I love the fact that people order them from me to gift them to their nieces/nephews/friends/kids/cousins etc. But I've been making almost nothing else for weeks now and I'm yearning to create something different!

I really like the website of Drops Design to get some inspiration and to get some new patterns! I own some Drops yarn and so far I always had positive experiences with it.
I also made three different garments based on Drops patterns (this, this and this) and I love to wear all of them!
For my wedding (we just had our first anniversary, how crazy is that??) I made myself this shawl and every single item was quick and easy to make and I never had trouble following the instructions.

Crochet clothes are very in right now. It's this whole boho-hippie-gipsy-chique that makes those clothes so trendy. So I put two and two together.
- Hip clothes
- need of reducing my yarn stash
- being able to crochet
- want to make something for myself

I found some new patterns online and decided on two of them. For those items I have all the necessary yarn already at home so no new shopping is needed (sadly!).

I chose:

this sweater

Bildunterschrift hinzufügen

I have some deep red Safran Yarn at home, this should be perfect for this little summer sweater

and this sweater

As you can see, I really have a thing for those kind of pullovers - with holes in it and the ones, where you have to put a shirt underneath. But those are perfect for those slightly chilly summer nights (which hopefully will be there soon!)

While browsing through the patterns I also found this cute beach bag and  this adorable skirt.

I'm thinking about alternating between making an amigurumi and making things purely for myself. I lost my crochet-mojo in the past few weeks and it's slowly coming back to me. So let's see how many projects will make the way from an idea to a real piece of clothing. I vaguely remember a similar post from last year. Let's just say that I made ONE thing from that long list.

Well.

Better than nothing!

What are your crochet projects for the summer? Do you crochet yourself clothes as well? Or do you rather stick to blankets and toys?

on crocheting and books

I love books. If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I am an avid reader. When I was a kid, I didn't eat a single meal without reading a book at the same time. Drove my mother crazy. I love all kind of books. My biggest love are novels. I love diving into a story, vanishing into another world, submerging into other countries, other peoples, other lives. But I also love biographies. And guidebooks. And non-fiction.
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Ich liebe Bücher! Wer meinen Blog schon länger verfolgt weiß, dass ich ein leidenschaftlicher Leser bin. Als Kind konnte ich nie essen, ohne dabei zu lesen, das hat meine Mutter wahnsinnig gemacht. Ich liebe alle möglichen Bücher, wobei mein Herz aber immer noch den Romanen gehört. Ich liebe es, in einer Geschichte zu verschwinden und in neue Welten einzutauchen, gedanklich in andere Länder zu reisen, andere Menschen kennenzulernen und andere Leben zu leben. Ich mag aber auch Biographien, Rageber und Sachbücher.

And I love to crochet.
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Und ich liebe es zu häkeln.

So it's obvious that I love a book that deals with crochet.
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Da ist es selbstverständlich, dass ich Bücher liebe, die mit Häkeln zu tun haben.

"sweet forest minis". The animals in this books are really tiny.

but extremely cute!

For my birthday last month, my lovely husband gifted me three amigurumi books. (One is for knitted animals though. He doesn't really know the different and the book is in English, so it was even harder for him to distinguish between knitting and crochet. But it's the thought that count and I always wanted to learn to knit anyway). Those books are wonderful and I can't wait to try all those lovely animals! - Especially the little chamaeleon that you can turn inside out so it can change its color! What an awesome idea!
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Zu meinem Geburtstag hat mir mein toller Mann drei Amigurumi Bücher geschenkt (na gut, eins ist zum Stricken, aber er kennt den Unterschied schon auf Deutsch nicht und auf Englisch kann ich das erst recht nicht von ihm erwarten. Macht nix, wollt eh schon immer mal stricken lernen.)
Die Bücher sind ganz toll und ich kanns gar nicht mehr erwarten endlich mal was davon auszuprobieren. Besonders fasziniert mich das Chamäleon, das man von innen nach außen drehen kann, damit es seine Farbe ändert. Ganz großes Kino!

my newest addition. and my new favourite book!

i mean, just look at it!

those details and those amazing ideas!

my husband already claimed this little monkey for him. He wants to hang him onto his Harley! 

I have to make two other amigurumis for a friend before I can start diving into these books (and my yarn stash) and so I put it on my crochet book pile. And then I noticed that this pile is rather high. (Not counting the two books that I currently lend to my mother!).
And then I shamefully noticed, that all those books are untouched. I never made a single thing from them.
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Ich muss noch zwei Auftragsarbeiten erledigen (die mich grad irgendwie so gar nicht freuen) und dann kann ich endlich loslegen. Zu meiner großen Schande muss ich gestehen dass ich - bis auf eine Tasche - noch GAR NICHTS aus diesen Büchern gehäkelt habe. Das muss sich doch ändern!

crochet bags

i love this one!

And that has to change.

that's a project I'm saving for later this year. My little niece will get that doll for christmas!

it has 45 (!) outfits and accessories, so you can change the doll into a farmer...

... or dress her up as a little red riding hood...

...or even as superwoman. and look at those little cute underpants!!!

So from now on (after I finished my two orders) I'll crochety myself across those lovely books.
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Für den Rest des Jahres werd ich mich nun durch diese Bücher häkeln. Ich freu mich schon.

there are also some small projects

like this little - not so scary - monsters!

Just need to decide which project I will start first.
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Jetzt muss ich nur noch entscheiden, mit welchem Projekt ich anfange...

chosing is hard!

Do you have favourite crochet books? Let me know in the comments below as I am always on the lookout for some new ones!
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Habt ihr Lieblings-Häkel-Bücher? Lasst es mich doch wissen, ich bin immer auf der Suche nach Neuen!

March: A Summary

It's getting ridiculous, but the first sentence that comes to mind, when I'm writing these summary posts is: How can another month have passed so fast??? How can time fly by? How can it be that it's APRIL already? But it IS April, and time HAS passed and so I'm sitting here to reflect and remember the past thirty days.

LIFE:
Things are moving on the house front. My husband and I started to visit several furniture stores and kitchen stores to get a plan for our new kitchen. It took us a while to come to an agreement regarding the looks of the kitchen, but we finally found one that we both like. We're still waiting for the offer. It definitely will be expensive, but we want to buy a good kitchen and we're ready to invest some money!
My sister in law visited us with our family for a few days. I haven't seen them since Christmas as they live in a different part of Austria. It was great to see them all again - especially my little niece. When I saw her last she was 6 months old and wasn't able to sit by herself. She always toppled over. Now she cralws and is able to pull herself up on the furniture. It's amazing how fast these little people learn and grow! And of course for days after my husband couldn't talk about anything else but babies. He would really be ready to have one but I think we will wait for a while with that! ;)

Schön langsam tut sich was beim Haus. Im März waren wir schon in Möbelhäusern und Küchenstudios um uns unsere Traumküche planen zu lassen. Es hat ein wenig gedauert bis wir uns auf das Aussehen einigen konnten, aber mittlerweile haben wir eine ziemlich klare Vorstellung darüber, wie unsere Traumküche aussehen soll. Wird zwar nicht ganz billig, aber wir sparen schon ganz fleißig und uns ist es auch wichtig, dass wir gleich von Anfang an eine hochwertige Küche haben. Das kostet dann halt auch.
Letzte Woche war meine Schwägerin + Familie zu Besuch. Zuletzt sah ich alle zu Weihnachten. Es war schön, sie wieder da zu haben. Vor allem war's nett, meine Nichte Lea wieder zu sehen. Seit Weihnachten ist sie ja schon ordentlich gewachsen. Damals kippte sie immer noch nach vorne über, wenn sie alleine sitzen wollte. Heute zieht sie sich schon an den Möbeln hoch und krabbelt in Windeseile durch die ZImmer. Unglaublich, wie schnell sich die Kids entwickeln! Der Babybesuch hat natürlich meinen Mann wieder dazu gebracht, über Nachwuchs zu reden. Er wäre schon so weit. Aber ich glaub, ich bin noch nicht so ganz bereit dafür.

CRAFT:
To be honest - I didn't do any crochet this past few weeks. I finished little Josefine to hand her over to my niece. She squealed with joy when she saw here and laughed a lot but I forgot to take some pictures. I will hand them in later ;)
The weather is finally nice and warm outside so I don't spend much time at home with my crochet hook. I really want to change that in April though. There is a little lamb that I have to finish for a friend and my husband gave me the most amazing amigurumi books for my birthday in March. I'm really looking forward to try those things out. A review of these books will follow as well, I'm already working on several posts.

by now my little lamb has all two hands and already a part of its head

my pile of birthday gifts including my new amigurumi books!

Im März war ich total häkelfaul. Ich hab lediglich Josefine fertig gemacht, weil ich sie Lea persönlich übergeben wollte. Die kleine Maus hat sich auch total darüber gefreut und gleich mal herzhaft losgequietscht, als sie den rosa Drachen gesehen hatte. Leider hab ich vergessen, die Übergabe zu fotografieren. Mir wurde aber versprochen, dass ich noch Fotos zum Nachreichen bekomme. Diese Woche werd ich auch noch ein Auftragsschaf fertighäkeln. Mein Mann hat mir zu meinem Geburtstag ein paar tolle Amigurumi Bücher geschenkt und ich kann es schon gar nicht mehr erwarten, endlich mal ein paar Tiere davon nachzuhäkeln. Rezensionen über diese Bücher hab ich auch schon in Arbeit, die folgen dann so nach und nach.

SPORT:
Motivation got me again. I use the runtastic app to track my running. I wasn't running very often in 2016. Now you can set yourself a running goal for the year and runtastic tells you, how many kilometres you have to run every week to fulfill this goal. I set myself the goal of 300 kilometers. I ran 25 so far and until now I'm ahead of my running goal. I have to say that this feature is highly motivating and I can't wait to go for my next run - although I've just been running today!
I started with regular homeworkouts as well. I'm nearly able to do a push-up. My arms are my weakest part of the body and I really want to work on them. Just for myself, because I want to prove myself that I'm able to keep being determined!

I'm ahead of my goal. And highly motivated!

Die Motivation hat mich wieder gefunden. Ich benutze beim Laufen die Runtastic App. Seit Anfang 2016 war ich nicht wirklich oft laufen. Jetzt gibt's bei der App eine neue Funktion, mit der man sich ein Jahreslaufziel setzen kann. Runtastic sagt einem dann, wie viele Kilometer pro Woche man laufen muss, um das Ziel zu erreich. Ich hab mir 300 km als Ziel gesetzt, dafür muss ich 7 km die Woche laufen. Bis jetzt hab ich schon 25 Kilometer geschafft und bin meinem Ziel sogar voraus. Das muss ich aber auch sein, weil ich ja nicht davon ausgehen kann, dass ich jede Woche zum Laufen komme. Darüber hinaus mache ich nun auch öfter wieder Home Workouts. Die Liegestütze schaffe ich auch schon fast, da fehlt nicht mehr viel.

BOOKS:
I'm STILL reading the Game of Thrones series. I'm on book 5 now and this is the last volume I own. After the fifth book I will switch to reading something else for a while - I have a few books (that I borrowed or got as a present - I still haven't bought any books this year!) on my to-be-read pile that I can't wait to dig into! So for March there will finally a non-fantasy-book in this section!

books and coffee. the perfect combination. 

Ich bin immer noch bei Game of Thrones. Gerade arbeite ich mich durch Teil 5. Das ist auch der letzte Teil, den ich besitze. Danach werd ich mal wieder etwas anderes lesen. Ich habe schon ein paar Bücher auf meinem "muss ich noch lesen" Stapel, die schon auf mich warten. Und die wurden alle NICHT gekauft. Seit Mitte Dezember hab ich nun wirklich keine neuen Bücher gekauft und bin deshalb auch ganz stolz auf mich!


How was your March? Did you have nice weather? I had my birthday as well on the 20th. 28 years old already...I can't believe that I'm already that "old"!

Wie war euer März? Ich finds ja toll, dass das Wetter endlich schöner wird. An meinem Geburtstag am 20 März (wie kann ich denn bitte schon 28 sein???) tranken wir den Kaffee schon draußen in der Sonne. Herrlich ist das!

7 Sachen Sonntag - Birthday Edition

Hello lovely readers,

Another week has passed and I remembered to take enough photos to participate in Seven Things Sunday. Every Sunday, GrinseStern collects links to blogs that show seven things that were done with the hands that day. 

As today is my 28th birthday, I did some lovely things today. Here we go! 

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Hallo meine Lieben! Wieder ist eine Woche rum und ich habs wieder geschafft, beim Sieben Sachen Sonntag mitzumachen. Jede Woche sammelt GrinseStern Links von Blogs, auf denen sieben Sachen mit den Händen erledigt wurden. Da heute mein 28ster Geburtstag ist, hatte ich ein paar tolle Sachen in den Händen. Und los gehts! 

getting ready for my birthday lunch
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Fertig machen für's Essen mit der Familie

Yummy Ravioli
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Steinpilz Ravioli an Paprikasauce. Das war sooo lecker!

The weather was nice so we went for a walk on the lake
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Und weil das Wetter endlich mal ein wenig schöner war, sind wir noch eine kleine Runde am See spazieren gegangen

birthday presents
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GESCHENKE! :)

already fell in love with this project
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gleich mal durchgeblättert und ein tolles Projekt entdeckt. Dazu gibt's sicher bald mehr!

Spending the rest of the day wrapped up in my crochet blankets and my husband on the couch
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Den Rest des Tages werden der Mann und ich unter den Häkeldecken kuscheln

and going through all my wonderful birthday messages
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Und noch die letzten Geburtstagsnachrichten gelesen. War ein toller Tag!

P.S.: This was the 100th posts that I wrote for this blog. Another reason to celebrate! wohooo! :)

sunburst flower granny blanket

 Hey guys,

guess what - today I'm writing a post about crochet! Because I actually wanted to make a blog to post about all my crochet adventures. Well, there hasn't been that much crochet lately, so I took some time everyday to finally be able to show you something.

About a year ago I made this baby blanket for my lovely niece. After finishing it, I had a lot of colorful Baby Merino Yarn left, so I decided to start a Sunburst Flower Granny Square Baby Blanket. Wow. What a name!
(If you don't know how to crochet the SFGS - I used this pattern - it's in German though, but there are hundreds of good patterns to be found on the internet)
I tried to chose the colors random. I hat 8 colors and tried to even the use of it. After 16 squares I repeated the color sequences in the hope, that the blanket would not be tooo crazy and unruly. 

the first squares

I started in early January, when a big bad cold tied me to my couch and I had a lot of time to crochet. I put the project aside from time to time to pick it up again a few days or weeks later.
Today I finished the 48th square. I played around with it for a while, before deciding on the final layout.

48 squares done!

For the next step I'll crochet the squares together. I decided to use green yarn for that, as I am slowly running out of the white one. It's a colorful baby blanket. There can't be too much color in it.

trying out different ways to arrange them

Let's see how long this will take me. I'm hoping for a rainy and cold weekend so there will be a lot of crochet time for me.

first row is joined!

Seven Things Sunday // Sieben Sachen Sonntag

Well, let's say that today is not my lucky day. I managed to burn a cake, fail my breakfast eggs and screw up a cup of tea (!), so I've retreated to my couch and will move as little as possible for the rest of the day. Just to be sure. 

Here are the weven things that I used my hands for today that I DIDN'T screw up. Enjoy. 

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Na heute ist mal alles andere als mein Glückstag. Ich hab einen Schokokuchen verbrannt, die Frühstückseier versemmelt und es doch tatsächlich geschafft, dass mir mein Tee-Ei in der Tasse aufgeht und überall loser Tee herumschwirrt. 

Trotzdem hab ich es geschafft, sieben Dinge mit meinen Händen zu machen, ohne dabei die Bude abzufackeln oder mir weh zu tun. Ich werd mich aber dennoch nur noch so wenig wie möglich von der Couch wegbewegen. Sicher ist sicher. 

Reading in bed after waking up. Something I enjoy every weekend! 

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Nach dem Aufwachen noch im Bett liegen bleiben und lesen. Genieß ich jedes Wochenende. 

I made Zucchini Risotto today. 

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Heute gabs nach langer Zeit endlich mal wieder Risotto. Diesmal mit Zucchini. 

After burning the chocolate cake I had to male something else to fulfill my chocolate craving. Nothing can go wrong with muffins. 

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Nachdem ich meinen Schokokuchen ja versaut hatte, musste Schoko-Ersatz her. Und Muffins gehen ja immer. 

Yes. They taste great! 

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Gleich mal mit einer Tassee Kaffee verkosten. Yummy. 

Started a new crochet project. As it gets a little colder again, I decided to make myself a new beanie. 

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Neues Häkelprojekt. Nachdems grad wieder kälter wird, hab ich eine neue Beanie angefangen. 

Back to the couch with a steaming mug of tea. I bought this one when I spent five weeks in Peru, three years ago!

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Ab auf die Couch mit einer Tasse Tee. Die Tasse hab ich gekauft, als ich vor drei Jahren für fünf Wochen in Peru war! 

Painting my nails!

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Neue Farbe auf die Nägel! 

How was your weekend? Did you had a few failures yourself? Or did everyhing run smoothly? Have a lovely sunday evening! 

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Wie war euer Wochenende? Auch ein wenig Pech gehabt? Oder lief alles glatt? Habt noch einen schönen Sonntag abrnd! 

Sieben Sachen Sonntag // Seven Things Sunday

Hey guys,
and again it's Sunday evening. How can Sunday evening always come so fast? Didn't I just walk out of the office, like, an hour ago? Where did that weekend go? How come I have to get back to work tomorrow??

Anyway, a few weeks ago I discovered a new blog, GrinseStern and every Sunday she's hosting this amazing LinkUp where you link up your blog post, in which you post seven pictures of seven things that you did with your hands on that Sunday. I love that idea and wanted to create a seven things blogpost for the last two weeks but I always forgot to take pictures. Whoops.
But today I remembered. So here is - for the first time bilingual - my Sunday Summary:
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Hey Leute,
mal wieder Sonntag Abend und wie jede Woche die Frage - Wie kann's denn schon wieder Sonntag sein? Bin ich denn nicht erst aus dem Büro gegangen? Wo ist denn das Wochenende so schnell hin?
Wie auch immer, vor ein paar Wochen hab ich den wundervollen Blog der tollen GrinseStern entdeckt. Jeden Sonntag gibt's bei ihr ein LinkUp zum "Sieben Sachen Sonntag". Man verlinkt einen Blogpost in dem man in 7 Bildern Sachen zeigt, die man an diesem Sonntag mit seinen Händen gemacht hat. Ich finde die Idee ganz toll und hab mir die letzten paar Sonntage schon vorgenommen mitzumachen, dann aber vergessen, den Tag über Bilder zu schießen.
Aber heute hab ich daran gedacht und deswegen gibt's jetzt - zum ersten Mal zweisprachig - einen Überblick über meinen Sonntag:

1. Went to the couch after breakfast to read a few pages while the husband watched a movie. I started to read the Game of Throne Series. The books are as addictive as the series.
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Nach dem Frühstück erstmal zurück auf die Couch um ein paar Seiten, während der Mann einen Film ansieht. Ich hab die Woche mit den Game of Thrones Büchern angefangen und die machen genauso süchtig wie die Serie!

2. On the Weekends I try to make some time for sports. Did a thiry minute blogilates workout.
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Am Wochenende versuch ich immer, mir Zeit für Sport zu nehmen. Heute hab ich wieder ein 30-minütiges blogilates Workout geschafft.

3. It's carnival in our town and we went to watch the annual procession. I used my hands to catch the sweets that they threw out from their wagons.
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Jedes Jahr zu Fasching gibt es bei uns einen Umzug. Die Hände hab ich gebraucht um die Süßigkeiten aufzufangen, die von den Wägen geschmissen wurden.

4. Back at home I made a cup of coffee and ate a selfmade Faschingskrapfen, a sweet bakery, similar to a donut, which is traditionally made this time of year. I shared my recipe for it last year.
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Zurück zuhause gab's erstmal selbst gebackenen Faschingskrapfen. Das Rezept dazu hab ich letztes Jahr schon hier gepostet.

5. I lost my crochet mojo for a while and today it finally came back. Working on those squares for a colorful baby blanket.
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Mein Häkel-Mojo hat sich in letzter Zeit etwas verflüchtig, aber heute kam es wieder zurück. Hier mache ich grad Granny Squares für eine neue Babydecke.

6. As my husband is out to watch the Superbowl with his friend I wasn't keen on cooking just for myself, so I ate some leftover noodles from yesterday.
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Da mein Mann heute mit seinen Freunden Superbowl schaut, hatte ich keine Lust, nur für mich selbst zu kochen. Deshalb gibt's Restenudel von gestern.

7. And as the living room is mine for today I'll now sit back and watch this movie. In English, as the man hates watching movies in the original version and I love it.
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Und da das Wohnzimmer heute mir gehört, mache ich es mir nun auf der Couch gemütlich und schau mir diesen Film auf Englisch an. Der Mann hasst es, Originalversionen zu schauen - ich liebe es.

How was your Sunday? Was it as relaxed as mine?
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Wie war euer Sonntag? Genauso entspannt wie meiner?

January: A summary

Hey guys!

Oh boy, the first month of the year is already over! As I want this blog also to function as a diary, I'm planning to write little summaries at the end of the month. This is also part of my plan to blog on a more regular basis and generally to write more often.

LIFE:
January has started with a big bang and no, I don't mean fireworks on New Years Eve but rather with the disappointing news that we didn't get the dream house that we already counted on. It was really hard to get such negative news when we really thought, that we would get the house, as we were promised. I still get angry when I think about it but I'm trying my best to leave this thing behind and look forward.
We're appartment hunting right now and haven't really found the right place for us. It shouldn't really bother me, because we don't NEED to move, but we WANT to move. Our appartment is small, we don't have a balcony or a bathtub, both things, that are really important to us. And there's no place for a baby. Not that I'm pregnant, but we'll have to think about the future. So we'll how long it will take us to find the perfect (and affordable) place for us.

My man and I took a little time out in the thermae where we got married and enjoyed the time, that we had for us, a lot!

CRAFT:
I managed to do some crochet in January. I started a baby blanket which will only need a few more granny squares before I can start the joining and I nearly finished my little doll for my lovely niece.
I shared picture of little Josefine (as you know I've been looking for a name and my two nephews decided on the name for their little sister as she still has to learn to talk) on facebook and a friend of mine asked me, if I could make a lalylala doll for her as her sister is pregnant and she's still looking for a gift. Of course I can, I'm very delighted to have another order for my little prospering crochet business!

SPORT:
Since I went running on a regular basis back in September, I try to make sport as often as possible! I have an office job where I sit everyday and it relaxes me to go out for a run after work. As it has been really cold these past few weeks, I didn't run but I enjoyed doing pilates workouts at home. I manage at least 3 workouts a week and I already feel myself getting stronger. Cassey Ho is an amazing Pilates instructor and she keeps you motivated and I enjoy getting sweaty and out of breath with her!

My man gifted me a fitbit activity tracker and I try to manage 10.000 steps at least three times a week. So far it really motivates me. Since I own that little device I haven't used any escalators or elevators but I always used the stairs. And let me just tell you that my office is on the third floor of an old building and that I could use 8 escalators on my way to work at the train station and on the underground. Massive improvement!

BOOKS:
One of my new year resolutions was to read more classics. I tried, I really did. I started Ulysses, but didn't understand a word of the original version in English, and nobody I know has the german translation. Then I started with the Ilias from Homer. This one was a german translation as I don't speak and understand Greek, but I didn't understand a word either. All those names, all those gods and half-gods and sons and peoplese and cities and places...I pushed myself halfway through and then decided to quit. To me, reading is about enjoying a good story, about escaping the reality and fleeing into the fictional word, and reading for me is FUN! So I started the new John Irving novel instead.
Apart from that I read this month:
Jojo Moyes - Ein ganzes halbes Jahr (Me before you)
My sister in law borrowed me her kindle with that book because I wanted to know what the fuzz was all about. Nice story, quick read, but it didn't bring me to tears. I have to say that I have never read a book that made me cry, apparently I'm not that emotional..

Jo Nesbo - Die Fährte (Nemesis)
Jo Nesbo. A classic. I adore the Harry Hole thriller and I'm still collecting all ten of them.

So how was your January! Did you have bad news as well? What happy moments did you enjoy? I'd love to hear!