croque-choux

Overdyed jeans experiment

I'm really excited about making a bag with recycled jeans and embellishments for Sharon's Bags of Fun Challenge. This is just an experiment and might not even make it into the finished bag, but it was interesting to try overdyeing the jeans fabric. I used Setacolor fabric paints, and with a little help from the sun and some hand stencils I sunprinted this piece of fabric.

Crochet cuteness

I stumbled upon this blog today: amigurumi-along. This makes me wish that I wasn't so hopeless at crochet! I'm fine with knitting, needle felting, or hand embroidery, but give me a crochet needle and disaster strikes. Anyway, check out all the eye candy here, and I'm sure you'll find an idea for a baby gift, stocking stuffer, or just something cute to brighten your day. Apparently there are several contributors to this blog and anyone who likes making these adorable crochet Softies can join in. Free patterns too!

Street Art

Street Art, Copenhagen. July 2005.

I just love it when I stumble upon things like this while I'm out walking around. I wonder who did this little graf? I get a childish sort of thrill out of finding things like this :o) I especially like these Space Invader mosaics you see in the street sometimes. I've only seen a couple of these in Paris, but this French artist has left his mark in lots of other big cities including my hometown (Los Angeles). Fun! So are the nifty tennis shoes he designed. And speaking of art in the streets, don't forget to look down sometimes. Look at this fantastic manhole cover I photographed in Odense!

Random personality test time!

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Which reminds me, I should hurry up and finish reading the Moonstone so I can start reading "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince", which I bought before going on vacation. I can hardly wait to find out "whodunit" in the Moonstone, so that I can curl up with 600 pages of Harry Potter!

Test found via Lisa's blog "Musings of a Procrastinator Extraordinaire".

Omiyage presents

Nice things I made for nice people. They know who they are :o)
(Waving to Lilou's mommy and my daughter's friend Sandra)
This is my favorite project in Kumiko Sudo's book. Easy, fun, and quick to make too!
I love these little bags. My daughter keeps hers on her dresser and puts jewelry in it.

Market day

I mentioned market day in Münster (Germany) in my previous post, so I thought I'd post a couple of photos. I stocked up on butter cheese, potato bread, and other goodies while I was there, but the whole time I kept thinking about my mom though. Maybe it was all that German comfort food I saw in every market stall, I don't know :o) Every time I saw a little old lady who looked like she might be about Mamma's age (if she was still alive) I had this urge to stop her and ask if she knew my mother, or if her family name rang a bell. But of course I didn't... I chickened out big time- and besides the little German I remembered from childhood retreated to a corner of my brain when I had to learn French in the '80s. Oh well.
As we were leaving the market and going over to Prinzipalmarkt, I saw this neat little 3D map of the town made in bronze, with the legend under it written in Braille. I thought this was wonderful! For a virtual visit (mit panoramafotos!) go here. Don't forget to click on 'Prinzipalmarkt' and see the gingerbread- like facades and the arches. I would have loved to stay longer!

Tagged: 5 things meme

Kim tagged me with the big 5, so here goes :o)

Five Albums on your iPod: (I don't have an iPod, but I'll be your new best friend if you get me one!): 5 CDs on top of the pile then=
"Kasabian" - Kasabian (my daughter and I fight over this CD)
"Dark Side of the Moon"- Pink Floyd
"Debut"- Bjork
"Me and Mr. Johnson"-Eric Clapton
"Brand New Day"- Sting

Five Movies You've seen recently: (or proof that 4 out of 5 times I go with the kids):
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Madagascar
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith (or whatever the last episode was called)
the Spongebob Squarepants Movie
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Five nice things that have happened to you recently:
- I found out that my brother is coming to Europe for a visit! (haven't seen him in 2 years)
- I got to visit my mother's old hometown in Germany, (Twice: going to and coming back from Denmark- both times on market day... yum!)
- Had a 2 week vacation in Denmark and spent a whole day in Legoland with my 2 kids
- I got together with 2 of my best friends
- My son told me that I make the BEST spinach & cheese omelettes on earth :o)

Five mp3’s on your playlist: (I use iTunes to listen to mp3s- oh, and did I mention the fact that I want an iPod?)
"L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)"- Kasabian (I love this one)
"Vertigo"- U2
"Wonderwall"- Oasis
"Pure Morning (Radio Edit)"- Placebo
"Waterloo Sunset"- David Bowie

I won't tag 5 other people with this, 'cause I think a lot of people have had this already... but I want to tag Sandy and Karoda because I'm wondering what they listen to when they quilt!

Line up if you like Anne-Claire Petit

This one is for all of you crochet/ softie/ zakka fans out there... Aren't these cute? Wanna see more? Then check out the website of Dutch designer Anne-Claire Petit. She also designs pretty bags, incredibly cute children's clothes, and accessories for the home too! I saw some of her soft toys in one of these little shops in Paris, nice places to find special toys and baby gifts if you ever come here for a visit.

Craft purchases

Please don't laugh, but these are the only craft items I bought in Denmark. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this, but I'm sure they will come in handy:
a) the next time I do any needle felting
b) the day I have to come up with a historical or Lord of the Rings costume.
I got a free booklet with my wool roving, about making felt beads and jewelry. I don't know about the earrings, but the other things look like they might have some possibilities. I hadn't thought about beading anything felted.
I am so stupid because I was so obsessed about finding a place to stay in Denmark that I didn't even think about looking for craft shops there. Well, duh. This means I'll have to go back, maybe next year? Well at least I had enough sense to buy a couple of pairs of Pilgrim earrings, since I've been obsessing about their jewelry for awhile (see earlier rant of mine)! I should have bought more... (on the ferry boat from Germany to Denmark the prices were great). I wonder what Pilgrim's Fall/Winter collection will be like?

Postcards from Denmark

I'm finally feeling better, and finally started organizing my holiday photos and stuff. I promised to upload a few photos from my trip to Denmark, but I also promise this won't turn into one of those "What I did during my Summer vacation" yarns. I'll eventually just add my pictures to my sadly neglected Flickr account...

Anyway, I really thought that Denmark was picture-postcard cute and very picturesque! This will probably not show up in my photos, but I like them anyway. I imagined the Little Mermaid less lonely, but she's beautiful and here she is calming looking out over the sea. You can see how little she seems compared to the big cruise ship in the background. The boat was from Sweden I think. Someday I would love to go on a cruise on a ship like this and see all of Scandinavia. Imagine the fjords, the food, the scenery... the shopping! The first week we stayed near Copenhagen, and one of the first things we did was take a stroll around Nyhaven. It was like walking in a postcard :o) Only colder. Did I mention that we had bad luck with the weather?