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!

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!

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! 

Looking for a name

Hey guys, 

During the Christmas holidays, we visited my sister in law and her amazing family in Salzburg. She is married and has three children, two boys, aged 7 and 8 and a little baby girl, who's just a little over seven months right now. 

One evening, we sat together after the kids went to bed and we talked about my crochet work. As I told you before, I'd like to make a little extra money with my crochet work. So I showed my sil the lalylala dolls that I made so far. She was thrilled by the looks of it and asked me, if I would make one for my little niece. 

When we talked about whether I should crochet the cute kangaroo or the even cuter little lamb, her husband interfered. He said, that all the dolls and puppets are way too cute and wasn't there something more masculin? Like...a dragon? 

Well thank god that I bought the pattern for Dirk the Dragon a while ago but never got around to try it out. And when I asked about the colors, my sister in law immediatly said: PINK! 

I guess, finally having a little girl after living with a husband and two sons for ten years makes you really girly. 

So I bought the yarn. 

And started to crochet. 

A few days later I had all parts ready. 

And when it snowed really bad this Saturday, and we decided to stay in and have a lazy day on the couch I started to sew all the parts together. 

Whenever I make a doll for a baby, I rather stitch the eyes on, than use plastic eyes so that there is no choking hazars. And with every doll I'm getting better and better. 

I'm nearly finished now and I can't wakt to visit my sister in law again to give little Lea her little dragon. 

Probably not the kind of dragon my brohter in law had in mind, but I hope, my lovely niece will like it as much as I do and she'll play with it and treasure it for a very long time. 

Now all I need is a new name. "Dirk" isn't really fitting for my little pink baby. So I need your help. If you would have any suggestion for my nameless dragon please let me know. I'm thankul for your help! 

I finished something

It has been ages since I blogged the last time. Austria has suffered from a heatwave this past few weeks and my man and I have been on holiday. I've typed up the blogpost from our tour through the West of Austria, just need to add some pictures. I really plan to do this on the weekend to get back into the blogging world.

As for now I want to show you some pics that I snapped this morning before I left for work. I made myself a vest from dropsdesign. It's called Leona and I made it from Drops Paris yarn. Lovely yarn, lovely pattern. Not very complicated though I altered it a little bit. 

It was my third drops pattern and as the other two before I don't think it's suitable for crochet beginners, but if you have a little experience it's really quick and easy to manage.

I already began with my next vest, again a Drops Pattern. I'll keep you posted.