Wellness: Impressions

I'm actually quite surprised about how nice the pictures turned out, since I used the camera of my phone for them. A little sneekypeek into what we've enjoyed last week.

This morning I helped move some stuff which was great because I had to get up early and carrying things up and down stairs made me really awake. :o)

Now I'm typing to you from my lunchbreak and then will start a home office afternoon! Have a great Monday!

365 things - week 13

Phew, I totally forgot about the post yesterday, but here it is...

This is the last stone-post; there will be other things next week. ;o)
So here we go:

(Size: + acorn - ++++ chestnut)

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In the beginning of the project I sometimes had to go around hunting for the last of the seven things on Wednesdays, because I just hadn't found enough stuff I wanted to give away, or because I didn't get around thinking about it. At the moment I feel the other way round: I have bags and stacks of stuff that is waiting to be given away and the weeks seem to go by really slowly whilst they collect dust in every corner. Well, I guess these are minor worries and I am sure it will change as soon as I don't have whole areas of my life to sort through anymore.

Once a year...

... in February, it is time for the traditional girl's retreat. And that's where I'm going tomorrow. I'll be back on Friday and I'll try to post the 365 things on Wednesday. See you soon!

Project reStyle: Toesocks to armwarmers

Here's a little thing I made yesterday, before heading out to a coffee date. I sorted through my wardrobe the other day (one of the most emotional steps of pr365 so far) and realised I have a bunch of toesocks that I love because of their colors and motives, but never wear. I have never gotten used to the feeling of wearing them because I don't have much chance to do so. Since I wear at least two layers of tights/stockings/socks 99% of the time, toesocks are not so useful. (they would have to be the first layer where nobody can see them, I haven't tried it but I am almost sure wearing toesocks over normal socks is impossible. ^^)

Now I can wear them where everybody can see the cute reindeers and snowstars:

Under the sea

This is the most cleverly constructed hat I've ever knitted. (warning: knitting-language-ramblings ahead) It is knit sideways on straight needles and shaped with shortrows. It's so interesting but once you've memorized the principle it is a really mindless knit, and fast! Even though my gauge was much too small and I had way more stitches than in the original, overall knitting time was just a few hours. The provisional cast-on and the life stitches at the end are then grafted together, which was just the icing on the cake. It always seems strange to me that my lifetune doesn't play fanfares when I'm grafting something, and why other people can be in the same room without having their jaws dropping. It's just such a clever way of joining stitches!

So, thumbs up for Ysolda once more. The pattern is here and here, and my project is ravelled here.

This week I'm grateful for dresses!

 

Whenever life feels a bit small and mundane, I put on my green dress and enjoy standing at the window for a few minutes, listening to some dramatic music and feeling like the Lady of Shalott. 

No, seriously, dresses are just such a moodbooster. 

Other things I am grateful for:

-painkillers (! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!)

-cuddles

-fresh bedsheets

What are you grateful for? Follow the button to play along!

Self portrait Thursday - W7/11

I'm not soo happy with that one, but I don't bargain on the self portraits. It's one try with pen, no correcting and no throwing away. So there I am, ready, steady...

My creative space

Oh happy day! It's the first day of my summer-term-off and I am so excited! The last three days have been filled with an intensive sign language course which was ever so inspiring, but now I am totally happy to organise and plan my time of which won't be a vacation but time to work hard on personal projects, or so I hope. I'm trying to set everything on track for that now. Next week I'll be at the annual wellness-retreat in Austria for a few days, and after that I'll plunge right in!

My desk shows signs of anticipation, too: Staples of colorful socks waiting to become something else (but surely nothing less bright)...

A huge ball of yarn (finally) wound neatly and ready to turn into some last winter hats for friends...

and a (gasp!) pile of books!!! It feels like I haven't 'really' read a book in ages. That means, intentionally picked and joyfully endulged in a book. I've wolved down the odd haphazard volume that happened to cross my ways, but really going to the library, taking home a stack of novels... it felt divine!!

What's going on in your creative space? Join Kirsty at kootoyoo, drop your link to play along and enjoy all the posts from others.

365 things - week 12

Ooodeoooh, it's week 12 in giveaway-land! And there are still a few stones left, although you'll have to be fast if one strikes your fancy, there is quite a queue for them. Which pleases me, since it means my little treasures will all find a beautiful home.

Again, I'm trying to describe the size by x (~=acorn) - xxxx (~=chestnut)

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The last few stones here are already reserved for Corinne who asked for specific colors. ;o)
And Tali, as promised, you can have all of them that don't get claimed!

 

In other news, I've just created a button for the project that I can insert on every post and it links to a page where the project is explained shortly. Everybody has buttons to share what they do these days and they are always so pretty and cool, so now I have one of my own, yay!!  Feel free to post it on your webspace if you like the project so other people can come and see if they'd like something I have to offer.

Grateful for: Celebration

This friday, we had something big to celebrate.

My Dad turned 60 on Friday, and of course we wanted it to be an unforgettable birthday for him.

Everybody was responsible for something. My sisters took care of making the food.

Trev selected the wine. I organised the present. And my mom invited us to the zoo on Sunday. It was a great afternoon! The weather was splendid:

We had a lot of fun:

We saw many cool animals:

...and many fluffy things:

...and it was the first time in ages I was in the zoo for my own pleasure and not responsible to look after a hord of kids, so we could really take our time and enjoy all the great exhibitions and informations about the zoo's oecological engagement. Very inspiring!

I find it so important to celebrate important points in our lives... now that the church has more or less lost its importance of saying in these matters, rituals and celebrations often just go forgotten, but I am very convinced that we need them for a healthy mind and soul. It felt so great to enjoy this weekend as a family and devoting time to each other, actively planning to do these special things. I'm grateful for the human ability to celebrate.

What are you grateful for this week? Join the fun at Maxabella's: