Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!


The large Christmas tree with plenty of presents waiting to be opened.

I got bags for my camera and lens plus two great books. Will write more about them later but just to make you curious: one is about interior design and one about fashion :-)


Our tiny Christmas tree was decorated with tiny seahorses, seashells and fish. If I haven't thanked you for the card yet, I'm doing it now.


And I even managed to bake six different kinds of cakes/pudding/dessert!

Christmas is just around the corner

So it's time to present this year's collection of Christmas cards!
First the materials:


Some trees from the back yard and dried flowers.


Derwent watercolour pencils. Wonderful stuff!

And the finished product:


They are pretty simple but I honestly did not have much time to create something more elaborate. Then again, I do think they are pretty. And something special :-)

Duvet

I never thought I would make a duvet, but I was wrong. See, our little one was constantly cold at night and we had to wrap him in two polar-fleece blankets plus a synthetic duvet. Even this was not enough (for him!) so I decided to make him a fleece overall (in the weeks to come) and a down feather filled duvet.

I got some wonderful cotton damask (it's the only fabric I can think of that is thick enough to keep the down) and the down feathers I found at my parents' house.


Sewing was somewhat tricky but everything worked out well and the little one is fast asleep as I'm writing this :-)

Four cats

Seriously now, how can you give me a jigsaw puzzle and expect me NOT to solve it right away?

Well, it took me six hours to solve this 1000 pieces puzzle.


Four golden cats by Rosina Wachtmeister (Momenti di Felicità):

Big Ben

When I'm not feeding the little one, doing the laundry, doing the dishes, ironing, cleaning or - doing the things I do when I'm not doing something else - I'm building houses. Well, not really. Just helping Bob the Builder :-)

MiniMojcek Nr.1 got this Construction set for Christmas last year and we still use it a lot (photos stolen from the Internet):

Mind you: these are real bricks not some cheap plastic stuff. I already bought some extensions (more bricks, more cement).


And the finished product:



Ha! I wish building real houses was as easy as this :-)

Classic Agatha

I had plenty of time to read in the previous month - and since I have to rest for at least five more weeks, be prepared for more reading posts.

18. NEMESIS (Miss Marple)
Miss Marple is invited to investigate a crime without knowing what the crime is, where and when it happened. She is also invited to the Famous Houses and Gardens of Britain tour, which is then interrupted by a tragic incident. But the hints and leads just keep on coming and the pieces of the puzzle slowly start to come together.

Memorable quotes:
-"...since doctors were usually moderately optimistic, knowing from experience that patients who ought to die within a certain period very often took an unexpected lease of life and lingered on, still doomed, but obstinately declining to take the final step. On the other hand, hospital nurses when in charge of patients, had ... always expected the patients to be dead the next day, and were much surprised when they were not."
-"I don't know what one would do without the younger generation... They are so kind, are they not?"
-"Boulders usually stay where they are, in my experience."

Favourite Guest Character: Mr. Rafiel, although dead through all the story.
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: *****
11/15


17. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Poirot)
Such a classic story doesn't need an introduction, does it? Anyhow, Poirot and a rather heterogeneous bunch of people ("of all classes, of all nationalities, of all ages") are stuck on the Orient Express train somewhere in Yugoslavia when one of the passengers is stabbed. With plenty of clues to go with, if one really wants to solve the problem, one has to speak foreign languages and be familiar with international affairs. But why is the town of Vinkovci spelled as Vincovci?

Memorable quotes:
-"She is cold. She has not emotions. She would not stab a man; she would sue him in the law courts."
-"The impossible cannot have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances."
-"Ce n'est rien. Je me suis trompe."

Favourite Guest Character: Well, none really. Maybe MacQueen?
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: *****
Entertainment: **
11/15


16. AT BERTRAM'S HOTEL (Miss Marple)
Miss Marple stays in a London hotel that seems to be frozen in the Edwardian times - even the guests. But are the guests really as innocent as they appear? The hotel seems to be just too perfect, there are too many strange coincidences and Miss Marple, as always, knows all the gossip. Although she, like the readers, hasn't got a clue what's going on. Just something isn't right.

Memorable quote:
-"I learned ... that one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back - that the essence of life is going forward. Life is really a one way street, isn't it?"

Favourite Guest Character: Miss Marple was very enjoyable in this one, otherwise Lady Sedgwick.
Mystery: **
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: ***
7/15


15. 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON (Miss Marple)
Two trains overtaking each other: on one a friend of Miss Marple is sitting and on the other a woman is being strangled to death. As no body is found, police have their doubts on the story. But Miss Marple engages perfect domestic help, Lucy, to do a little research. She meets a large family, the local doctor and finds a recycled sarcophagus. Too many unnecessary deaths in the book but still a classic Agatha.

Memorable quote:
-"Feed the brutes!"

Favourite Guest Character: Lucy Eyelesbarrow, obviously.
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: *****
12/15

Welcome!

Now we're complete :-)


The settings (date and time) of this post have been slightly manipulated to match the arrival of Erik.

Oh, and this is the solution to the riddle posted exactly one month ago. The mystery motive was a stack of cards.

More Agatha

Being ordered to rest and 'do nothing' I believe that there will be many more Agatha Christie's post in the future...

14. SAD CYPRESS (Poirot)
Elinor would inherit a fortune after her aunt's death - unless maybe the aunt changed her will in the last moment giving everything to lovely Mary. When the aunt dies and Mary is found poisoned, Elinor is the prime suspect. But maybe the salmon sandwiches, served tea, broken glass and a rose tree tell a different story than only Poirot can solve.

Memorable quote:
-"To care passionately for another human creature brings always more sorrow than joy; but all the same, Elinor, one would not be without that experience. Anyone who has never really loved has never really lived..."

Favourite Guest Character: Mary Gerrard
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ***
9/15


13. DEAD MAN'S FOLLY (Poirot)
Ariadne Oliver organises a murder hunt that goes terribly wrong. A cousin arrives unannounced. A folly that was erected at an inappropriate location. There'll always be Folliats at Nasse House. Will say no more.

Memorable quotes:
-"You can't get away from facing truth just by running away from it."
-"Although a foreigner, I understand you are One of Us."
... brings back memories of Cambridge, when I was One of Them.

Favourite Guest Character: Etienne de Soussa
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ***
10/15


12. THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY (Miss Marple)
Colonel Bantry wakes up one morning with a dead platinum blonde in his library. The identity is established once an old guest of a neighbouring hotel reports a young show dancer missing. But there is another body found! Who could that be? Nosy Miss Marple solves the case by seeing what men do not notice and we learn that while plane crashes are dangerous, so can be adoptions.

Memorable quote:
-"Married people, I have noticed, quite enjoy their battles and the-er-appropriate reconciliations."

Favourite Guest Character: Hm... Raymond Starr?
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: **
8/15


11. THEY DO IT WITH MIRRORS (Miss Marple)
Miss Marple visits and old schoolfriend who runs a home for delinquent boys with her third husband. A row breaks out between the husband and his assistant - but the victim is actually someone else at the other end of the house! The beginning is interesting but it becomes quite obvious who the killer was quite early in the book. Besides, there are some unnecessary deaths and you have no idea what the title means until the very end of the book.

Favourite Guest Character: Gina, of course.
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: *
6/15

Fabric shopping

Don't you just love fabric shopping?
I ordered these wonderful pieces at Etsy (the shop no longer exists).


Now it's up to me to make something equally gorgeous out of them!




Update: Three zippered pouches

Dancing the night away

I've already written about the vector drawings I did for a 'client'. Now I had to do some more:


One day, I'll be one of the dancers. Again.

A zippered boxed pouch

Let's just say I desperately needed some distractions from my life. So I dug up some old fabrics that remained from last years Christmas cards and decided to make a new toiletry bag - that I will need in the following weeks :-)

I found and followed this very illustrative tutorial.

I did use a stiffer interfacing (I used Vlieseline H 250) but otherwise I pretty much followed the instructions.


When I realised that photographing everything I make would at least double the time needed to make the pouch... I stopped doing it.


So here's the final product:



I love it. So much that I decided to make a few more. I already ordered the fabric :-)

Cards on the table

Let's just call it a project... for another client, due shortly :-)

No, I will not give you any details yet, just a photograph I took while printing other photographs.



Can you guess the motive?

Here we go again...

10. THE SECRET ADVERSARY (Tommy & Tuppence)
An agent carrying important diplomatic documents is on a ship that sinks. Fast-forward. Tommy and Tuppence start The Young Adventurers, Ltd., "willing to do almost anything". Soon they find themselves in the middle of an action-adventure, actually looking for Jane Finn but finding that all leads lead to a mysterious Mr. Brown. He is everywhere - but than again nowhere. Almost like Keyser Söze.

Memorabe quotes:
-"Never tell all you know - not even to the person you know best."
-"Never underestimate your adversary."
-"The French, for instance, are much more sensible in the way they look at things. They keep romance and marriage apart."

Favourite Guest Character: besides Tuppence? Annette.
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: *****
12/15


9. THE UNEXPECTED GUEST (a play)
An almost literal transcript of a theater play. Michael's car breaks down one foggy night. As he is looking for help in a nearby house, he finds the owner dead and his wife holding a gun. Despite the circumstantial evidence she seems to be innocent and Michael, a complete stranger to the house, offers to help. Why does he do that?

Favourite Guest Character: hmmm, Starkwedder? Sergeant Cadwallader?
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: **
7/15


8. ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER (Poirot)
Ariadne Oliver is asked one question about one of her god-daughters: "Did her mother kill her father or was it the father who killed the mother?" Interviewing anyone who could know something, Poirot finds out that elephants do remember, just sometimes have different perception of the truth, and that dogs bite, but at least they do know whom they bite.

Memorabe quote:
-"Old sins have long shadows."

Favourite Guest Character: Celia
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: *
Entertainment: **
7/15

I'm getting repetitive...

More Agatha Christie's books:

7. BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS (Tommy & Tuppence)
Tommy and Tuppence, now in their sixties, visit his old aunt in a nursing home and talk to a fellow resident who rumbles about a child buried behind a fireplace. When the aunt dies, they inherit a painting with a country house that seems strangely familiar to Tuppence. What mystery lies buried in this house? A rather macabre Christie.

Memorable quote:
-"That's where all the trouble in life comes from. Thinking."

Favourite Guest Character: Mrs Boscowan, although I didn't really fancy anyone except Tommy and Tuppence.
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: **
7/15


6. PERIL AT THE END HOUSE (Poirot)
Poirot and Captain Hastings spend their holidays in Cornwall where they meet a girl, Nick, who claims that she had three near escapes from death in three days! Poirot finds out that a bee can be a bullet and a girl in a black dress can be another girl in a black dress. Or not.

Memorable quote:
-"And the fact that the boulder was dislodged at the wrong minute, and consequently missed Mademoiselle, is more suggestive of feminine agency." You just have to love Agatha!

Favourite Guest Character: Nick
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: **
7/15


5. HICKORY DICKORY DOCK (Poirot)
Auberge Espagnol a la Agatha Christie. A lot of students in one house, a lot of missing items, a lot of sub-plots, everyone suspects someone and everyone knows a bit too much. And Miss Lemon becomes human as we meet her sister.

Favourite Guest Character: Mrs Hubbard.
Mystery: **
Final Solution: *
Entertainment: *
4/15

Flying time

How quickly time flies!

I spent the last weeks sorting old family photographs. Plenty of them. Several shoeboxes of old photographs, with no date, no names... But now I'm finished. I scanned them all first and put them in a photoalbum. Here are two examples:

My great-aunt, 1930.

My grandmother and my mother, 1950.

I told you...

... once you start reading the books, you just cannot stop! I'll try to reduce the posts by combining several books into one post - like I did before - but this one deserves its own post. Such a brilliant book!

4. N OR M? (Tommy & Tuppence)
Tommy and Tuppence as undercover agents during the second World War! They are tracking down two German spies at Sans Souci guesthouse, so the book should actually be called N and M! A lot of action and one is never bored with Tommy and Tuppence!

Memorable quotes:
-"... we can win the war ... but only if we don't lost it first."
-"I'm in this to enjoy myself and I'm going to enjoy myself."
-"Women are all very well in their place, but not before breakfast."
-"I won't say "Take care of yourself", because I gather that the whole point is that you should do just the opposite. But don't go and be stupid."

Favourite Guest Character: Tuppence. If she's too regular, then Carl.
Mystery: *****
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: *****
14/15

I also managed to buy some new fabrics, so expect a sewing post soon!

Reading...

There will be plenty of reading posts in the future as I decided to read the complete collection of Agatha Christie's novels. Yes, my Mom had the books and once you start reading them it's so difficult to stop!

3. THREE ACT TRAGEDY (Poirot)
An actor hosts a cocktail party when a guest, a clergyman, suddenly dies. No poison and no motive. A while later the same guests meet at another party. Will something similar happen. Will there maybe be a third act? Could Poirot be one of the victims?

Favourite Guest Character: Egg.
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ** (***** for the last line!)
9/15


2. CARDS ON THE TABLE (Poirot)
Mr. Shaitana rounds up the usual suspects for a game of bridge: four suspected criminals and four sleuths. But before the game is over, a murder occurs. Four suspected, four (hi)stories and only one who did it. A proof that not playing bridge can be dangerous.

Favourite Guest Character: Mr Shaitana.
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ***
8/15


1. MRS McGINTY'S DEAD (Poirot)
Mrs. McGinty's murderer is about to be hanged. But the police have second doubts and they ask Poirot for help. He soon finds himself in a Miss-Marplesque village, full of "old pussies" where everyone seems to know something but noone tells everything. Poirot finds four photographs from a newspaper and it turns out that one has been seen someplace else. But where? Too many persons, too much digging up the past and some hilarious scenes at the village guesthouse.

Favourite Guest Character: Mrs Summerhayes.
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: ****
10/15

Bag shopping

Finally, a post about bags. But I didn't make them, I just bought them for my cousin and for me.




I LOVE these bags from Janine King on Etsy.

Swimwear

I made this a while ago: actually these were the last pieces I made before embarking on a trekking tour through the desert. Of course, the last thing one makes is swimwear :-)

Sewing such an extremely elastic fabric is challenging but definitely doable:




I made a one-piece swimsuit...


and a two-piece as well. This is the (out-of-focus) back of the top. I just love it!

Sewing time!

It's been a while since I made something interesting (say, not tent curtains) but now it's time for some boy's trousers again. Yesterday I first bought the new issue of Burda, loved the boy's surfer trousers so much that I bought some very light cotton fabrics and started sewing right away (after I washed the fabric, of course).






I was very pleased with the result - until MrMojcek said the trousers looked old-fashioned. Oh, well.

Peut-être we can ignore ziss Abwesenheit

I grew up in a country where people are used to watching films with subtitles. So I don't mind them - I actually quite like having them especially if you cannot turn up the volume due to a sleeping kid in the room next door.

However, the subtitles one finds in the Internet are often quite crappy. Painful to watch to the point where I decided they need to be improved. So I chose one of the films with the worst subtitle/film quality ratio and started correcting it.

Did you guess which film it was from the title of this post?
La Grande Vadrouille!
Aber natürlisch.



And yes, it is challenging to translate this tri-lingual film. Here some examples:

"Do you promise me que if I bring ici the Big Moustache, you partez avec lui ?"

- Qui êtes-vous ?
- Ich bin mari de la patronne, ich bin maître d’hôtel.
- Ah, comestible, gut, gut « guénéral »
- Non, non, non, je pas essen officier allemand.

The funny this is that after reading this melange of French, English and German, it takes me a few seconsd to realise which language I'm currently translating from. So confusing.

Currently...

... I'm not feeling well.

What helps me to get through these days are:
The Veils - The Leavers Dance
The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight
Madrugada - What's on your mind
Ludovico Einaudi - Primavera
Kronos Quartet - Kutambarara
Pink Panter - the complete series.

If you have any suggestions how to broaden my horizons, please share them with me.

Oh, and to add to my depression: my camera's got some dust on the sensor that needs to be cleaned before I take another picture. I guess high technology and desert do not go together that well.

Vector drawing

For quite some time I've been drawing for a friend of mine so it's about time I share some of my drawings with you... I know they're not perfect mainly because I don't have enough time to finish them properly - but they are not bad. I think ;-)

So embarrassing

It's not that I haven't been doing anything lately! On the contrary, mes amis!

I've been reading books:


I've been updating my webpage (although you can't seen anything yet it will be updated soon):

I've been watching films:

And no, I'm not converting.

Arabic writing

Well, Faux Arabic writing. I've spent quite some time figuring out how to write something that would look like Arabic without being Arabic. I think I managed it quite successfully.





I definitely fooled my cousin, who started reading the text from right to left (-:

My absence is excused!

Carnival is approaching

Carnival is rapidly approaching and although I won't be here next week (travelling, yeeah) I have to prepare a costume for MiniMojcek. It must be in my nature as I decided to make a costume that he would be able to wear afterwards, not just for one day.

Let's see at what stage you recognise the costume:

The basic trousers and the top:

The belt is added with a sword and magic potion:


... and a "sanglier"...


... with the helmet...


The perfect Asterix!



But I'm sure you knew that :-)