Just for me... for you... from me.

After sewing clothes for over twenty years, I finally decided to get my own custom labels. I ordered them at Namensbaender and love them!



I actually thought about making a label that would work on both sides - but could only come up with AHA or OHO... if you have a better suggestion, feel free to share it with me.



Yap, I ordered plenty of them - now I only have to sew clothes to use them!

More drooling

I just have to share this with you - the latest German edition of AD:



and the house on the cover... Not to mention the garden in the Provence and the house on Bali that you cannot see. But one day, I swear, I'll have a nook in my house looking just like the one on the cover!

So what I'm doing when I'm not doing something else? Looking into other people's homes (only the ones who make it into AD) and wish I was rich!

More reading

I guess I must have fallen in the summer-laziness mood. Instead of actually doing something, I admire things that were done by others. So I just finished reading "Die Leber wächst mit ihren Aufgaben" by Eckart von Hirschhausen (no joke, this is his real name) and quite liked it. I'll roughly translate and describe some of the ideas given in this book.



1) I've learned that Aspirin is of natural origin - the salicylic acid can be found for example in willow bark. I learned later from Wikipedia that in 1853, acetylsalicylic acid was synthesized, which was less irritating than the original acid and just as effective. The compound was patented in 1899 under the name Aspirin.

2) The monks live in average five years longer than men outside of monasteries, living actually just as long as women.

3) I love this one: The best entertainer in the world is our own cerebral cortex.

4) I have to agree with the author when he claims that in the good ol' days of snail mail, we checked the mailbox once a day - and were disappointed once a day for not getting anything we hoped for. Now we constantly check our email mailbox - and get to live in constant disappointment.

So, drop me a line, reader, and make me happier :-)

Table-shelf

Recently, my little one discovered Lego and fell in love. Everywhere I looked, there were legos in the living room, legos in the kitchen, legos in the bedroom... That's when I decided to make a shelf for his toys that would at the same time be a table where he could build cars and trucks.

I opted for a very simple one. Here you can see work in progress,


a detail,


and the final product:



He's happy. I'm happy :-)

PS. In loving memory of my Dad. He taught me (among millions of wonderful, useful or silly things) that one shouldn't be afraid of grabbing a drill. Even as a girl.

Made in America

Made in America. A book. By Bill Bryson.

And I've just read it. It may sound as a cliche, but I think that the book has... too many words. Too many words following each other... If you know what I mean - but you probably don't.

The book is about the development of American English, from the first settlers to 1990s. It includes plenty of interesting facts - that are probably even more interesting if you know American history in detail. If you don't, you'll probably struggle through the first few chapters, but enjoy it afterwards. There are plenty of random things that I've learned reading this book. If you find them at least a bit interesting, I strongly recommend reading this book. I've learned that

Greenland's southern fringes are further south than Oslo. Which is obvious once you look at a map.

There was no standard time in the US until 1883. When it was midnight in New York, it was 11:47 in Washington, and 11:55 in Philadelphia. Oh, dear!

Revolving doors are necessary to avoid uncontrollable draughts in large buildings. Again, pretty obvious once you think about it.

Chutzpah is best defined by the old joke about the boy who kills his parents, then begs mercy form the court because he has only recently been orphaned. My favourite!

The New York Times predicted in 1939 that television would never be a serious competitor for radio because people must sit and keep their eyes glued on a screen; the average American family hasn't time for it. And then came Internet!

The word caucus dates from the early seventeenth century. As you probably guessed it, I only know the word because I'm watching Project Runway.

DOS originated as Q-DOS (a play on kudos) and stood for Quick and Dirty Operating . YAIJ (yet another inside joke).

Curtains

A pretty simple challenge this week: curtains.

I used three different (but matching) fabrics in beige, blue, and dark red. Since I used most of the fabric for pillows, I didn't have much fabric left for the curtains, so I had to combine the different fabrics. I think the combination creates a nice double curtain illusion.





As you can see, they still have to be ironed!

Soft-sole baby shoes

Coming back from the holidays (Italy, Lago di Garda), I don't have anything new to write about, so again I'll dig up some of the old stuff.

Baby shoes.

So far, I have made 7 pairs and probably will make some more when his feet grow. All my more experienced friends recommended Robeez shoes but they are so ridiculously expensive that I decided to make my own. Googling "how to make baby shoes" lead me to this pattern by Tanya Brown, www.tackyliving.com.

I always use leather for the sole and leather or polar fleece for the vamp. For lighter shoes, I use linen and for warmer shoes I use fleece lining. Yes, I have made all possible cominations. I don't have all of them documented, here just a few: