Nice Things

This is one of my set of five Lotta Jansdotter inspired place mats. I made them a little smaller because they are for outdoors and picnic dishes and cutlery are a little smaller too and they should fit perfectly in my picnic bag which is also in the works. The older I get, the more I see the importance of having nice things. I don´t mean expensive things or "in" things -I mean simple, useful and when possible, hand made things. Things that make me joyful and emotional and more alive and aware of the colour and beauty around me. I am so looking forward to hearing the children run up the stairs after school to have a lunch of ham and vegetable omelettes outside in the garden on our blue table and our new place mats.

A new book!

I was really torn between buying this book and one of Amy Butler´s books - I decided on this one because of the title, Simple Sewing and because I am an admirer of Lotta Jansdotter and Scandinavian style. The book seemed a little too simple at first glance but the more I look through it, the more I realise that the simplicity of it leaves room for my own imagination. It´s a little like Ikea furniture, the structure is there but you can make so much more out of it. The book has a lot of practical hints and instructions for sewing in general aswell as lovely photos and useful patterns in their own hard pocket so they can´t be lost. I started with some things that I needed, the sun hat (I had to adapt this pattern as it was much too big so I recommend that you make a test hat with a cheap fabric first) and a pot holder and I`m working on the all-day tote which will be used as a picnic bag and filled with a napkins and place-mats with cutlery pockets. We have booked our summer holiday to Italy in August and I can´t wait to have a picnic overlooking beautiful Lake Garda, wearing my sun hat with a lovely place-mat on my lap!

On my way to work....

I wanted to write this post days ago but spring cleaning and gardening got in the way. Megg inspired me by taking us along on her way to work...I don´t pass the amazing water views like Megg does...but after I get in my car, I drive for about 30 minutes past mountain views, castles and ruins. After I park my car I have a 10 minute walk along a river and through narrow alleys before I reach my office which has a lovely view of a church and market place. Like Megg, I often feel lonely and struggle to find friendships close-by. It took me a long time to find this creative blogging community and I want those of you who come here to know that you brighten my days and put a bounce in my step...even on my way to work.

Happy Easter!

Waiting for Spring...

Slowly, ever so slowly it´s getting warmer around here but just last week our garden was still full of snow. I´m having trouble keeping my spirits up in this gloomy weather so I´m crafting with all the spring colours I can find...Fernfern sent me some lovely paper and I used it to make a little paper quilt and I´ve started sewing a range of cheery bags. I hope it´s warm and sunny where you are!

Sunday Scribblings #53 - Deepest, darkest

I have been very lucky in my life but there have been some deep, dark moments when I have felt very vulnerable and frightened. When I look back I realise that it´s precisely those moments that have formed me and made me strong. It´s the deepest, darkest moments that have helped me to recognise and appreciate the light at the end of the tunnel.

More Scribblings here.

An Enjoyable Way To Get The Housework Done

I have been wanting to make my own inspiration cards for a while, a deck that´s a little more practical than the ones I´ve seen. I like housework and have learnt to keep my house in order but I leave some things too long and have to do a stressfull whirlwind clean-up when guests are coming over. I made a list of jobs and then cut out magazine and catalogue photos to suit them and glued them onto some thin cardboard. I have a part-time job for which I am quite well-paid and appreciated BUT I spend a lot more time working in my home and, as a lot of you know, this is not a well-paid and always appreciated job so it´s nice to see some rewards for the hard work. Of-course seeing the family happy and healthy is very rewarding but I often find that I´m spending my time and energy taking care of everyone else and forgetting to take care of myself. SO, on the back of my cards I have little rewards for myself. Once a job is done, I can shuffle the deck and pick a lovely treat. I am certainly going to enjoy housework a lot more in future!
To all those hardworking women out there - don´t forget to reward yourselves! You can adapt a deck like this to any chores OR make just a reward deck to shuffle whenever you need a little something to brighten your day.

Sunday Scribblings #52 - In the Kitchen

The kitchen I grew up in was my mother´s and the next 5 kitchens I cooked in were in rented apartments. I learnt to cook for a really big family in my mother in law´s kitchen but I didn´t feel really grown up until I cooked for my family on my stove in my kitchen. I have lived, laughed and cried in this kitchen. I have looked out the windows and watched my children play in the garden, seen visitors come and go and seasons come and go and watched my husband leave for good. In my kitchen I have surrounded myself with things I love and when friends visit it´s their favourite place too.
More Scribblings here,
more photos of my kitchen and my home here.

Sunday Scribblings #51 - Inspiration

The Crafter´s Companion projects : ALL DONE!
The prompt "Inspiration" urges me to talk about the shift in thinking that I mentioned a few weeks ago. The book The Crafter´s Companion came along at just the right time for me and I thought it would be fun to try to make all the projects in the book. I didn´t realise how moving all the stories about the bloggers in the book would be for me and while I went through making each item I thought about the experiences of the person who designed it, which role crafting, selling and creating plays in their life and also in my own life.

When I started this blog I hated my job, I thought that crafting would get me out of the rat race and enable me to earn money from home and have more time with my kids. I was unsatisfied with my appearance and with my surroundings and I felt more like I was "trying" ways to live rather than living. I used to spend a lot more time watching TV, dreaming about a life I could have, a figure I would be happier with and how I could change my job.

The steps I took - with the advice and encouragement of the people who leave comments here - were to try and make my working days more enjoyable by surrounding myself with music and things I love in my office and doing my work 100%. Now I am a lot more successful at teaching and it is such a joy to watch people understand and feel comfortable with a new language. I have made it an aim to help my students become more confident and recognise their strengths and I see that I have made a difference to many people. Now I love my job and I can finally really start to enjoy crafting as a hobby without putting pressure on myself just like many of the bloggers I read about in the book. There are many who have made their craft their occupation but there are also many who have a day job and I have come to realise that this is right for me too.

I look around me and see that the world is made up of people in all shapes and sizes. Taking care of my body, eating nourishing and delicious foods and enjoying eating without worrying about calories or my figure - that is how I have learnt to live. I don´t eat fast food and I don´t diet - over the last year I have stopped eating all those white and empty carbohydrates that had me feeling tired and heavy. I weigh myself only once a week and slowly but surely I am headed for my goal weight of 85kg (7kg to go!). I go for my walk/ride my indoor bike every day and I have found shops which sell lovely clothes in my size.

What I really want to say is that my inspiration is here...you, your blogs, your comments, your books and projects are my inspiration and have helped me to recognise my boundaries, make changes and learn to appreciate so many things that I felt negative about.

Sunday Scribblings #50 - Dream journey

When I was 3 my parents left Austria to start a new life in Australia and although these 2 countries share a similar spelling, they are very different from one another. I was lucky enough to come to Austria on holiday with my family when I was 12, we stayed for 3 months and I got to know my relatives and experience life here. When I was 16 I came to Austria for 5 weeks by myself and it was a real adventure, I felt very grown up checking in at airports and boarding planes alone. I always felt quite comfortable here as things seemed more small scale than in Sydney, it was cosier, people knew each other and everything was very old, there was history everywhere. When I was 22 I decided to come to Europe again on a dream journey, I planned, daydreamed and wrote about everything I wanted to do in Europe and although I travelled around a lot, Austria became the base where I sought refuge when travelling got too much or when I ran out of money. I stayed with my grandmothers who lived in the same town where I was born, I found work, met my future ex-husband and had babies, built a home and settled in. When I left Sydney and started my dream journey to Europe, I suspected that I may not be coming back but it wasn´t a strong thought in my mind. I was a drifter, a traveller, a free spirit. Now I see that I slipped easily into this life, there were obstacles but they seem small now. I live in the village where my father was born, 25 kilometers away from the town I was born in...so, you could say I have come full circle.

A Sunday Walk

We went for a walk around our neighbourhood yesterday, it was a gorgeous, almost spring day with sunshine and a blue sky. It´s starting to get more colourful around here as the greys and dull browns of winter are replaced with the fresher colours that spring brings with it. About half an hour´s walk from here through the forest there are some beautiful old ruins and after passing these you come to a lovely little road called Sommerau which leads you to the center of Reichenfels. Our little village is very small with a population of about 2000. It´s a bit of a ghost town on Sundays as everything is closed except the pubs and our only café. It was nice to take a look at our neighbourhood through the camera lense, it seemed very enchanting and I noticed a lot of little things that I don´t often see when I´m passing through in my car each day.

Surprise in the mail

I found a lovely surprise in my mail box last week from the lovely Amy of happythings. It was a set of fabrics, buttons, ribbons and chocolates for Valentine´s Day. Thankyou Amy, how thoughtful! I was so inspired by how well the fabrics go with each other and immediately had to sew a pillow. I love how the black fabric stands out proudly amongst the patterns. My next finished project from The Crafter´s Companion is the book cover by Tania Ho (chocolateachuva). I mixed Amy´s fabrics with a couple of my own and it´s definately just the first of many book covers. I had such an AHA moment when I turned the cover inside out after sewing it, brilliant! It now adorns my organiser so I can admire it every day.

Sunday Scribblings # 48 puzzled

I love puzzles.

I have a Sudoku calendar and finish one puzzle every morning during my second cup of coffee. I love to make picture collages which resemble puzzles and I love a good crossword. I made my own crossword here, try it if you like!

The Crafter´s Companion cont´d

Summer Top - directions by Mariko, supereggplant.
Pin cushion - directions by Katey, onegoodbumblebee. (Katey´s design is for an ice cream pin cushion but I decided to make mine in a small shaker box).
Elephant Pouch - directions by Myra, mylittlemochi.
Fabric Basket - directions by Sarah, thesmallobject.
I am so enjoying these projects and the inspirational stories that the women featured in the book have shared. From the 17 projects I have now finished 13 and it´s been a kind of therapy for me. I have recognised similarities to many of the women aswell as differences and I have come to recognise my boundaries and the role that I want craft and my creativity to play in my life in the future. I can´t put all my thoughts into words right now but I´m getting there - I am looking forward to finishing the projects...stitching my quilt by hand is last on my list and every stitch will symbolise a new positive thought. I can feel a shift!

Sunday Scribblings #46 - Yummy

Yummy, yummy, yummy, I got love in my tummy,
and I feel like a-lovin you.
Love, you're such a sweet thing, good enough to eat thing,
and it's just a-what I'm gonna do.
(Arthur Resnick - Joey Levine)

Love and food, the 2 yummiest things I can think of. I remember the song yummy, yummy, yummy, from my childhood. There was an add that was on TV all the time showing kids eating soup, licking their lips with their eyeballs rolling back while the song was playing. When I was a kid I loved to eat but I was always worried that I wouldn´t get enough...food-love-food-love... while I ate, it felt good, like I was being rewarded, like I felt loved, cared for, nourished. In my teens I had a best friend, Bettina who did judo and could eat whatever she liked without gaining weight while I was labelled as chubby. When I look at photos of myself as a teen I see that I wasn´t chubby at all, just chubby compared to Bettina. I started to dislike my love of food and my body and the ups and downs of dieting started. That was such a long time ago and I wasted a lot of energy for a lot of years worrying about my weight and what I was eating.
When Erich got to know me and the tug-of-war that goes on in my head when it comes to eating, he said "hey, you are gorgeous! Stop worrying, just eat when you´re hungry!". Why is this so easy and logical for some and sooo difficult for others?

Other Sunday Scribbles here: http://sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/

The Crafter´s Companion Projects

I am having a love affair with pink - I adore that pink fabric with the flowers which was a bed linen set that I bought on sale last year. When I saw it amongst all the other boring bed linens I imagined all the lovely things I could make with it and right now it´s in almost every project I make so even when I run out of it, it´ll still be here. The checked pink fabric with the red ribbon is also bed linen found in a bag of old fabrics that Erich´s sister gave me - it reminds me of my Grandmother who had similar bed linen.

I used the pillow case for Hillary´s apron which I will be wearing when I do my gardening. The pockets will hold my little shovel and my garden cutters. Hillary is quite famous for her softy patterns in the blogging world - I especially loved her pointy kitty pattern. And that amazing photo of her fabric stash!

Square tissue boxes aren´t available here in Austria so I made a rectangular tissue box cover. I love Heidi´s little house tissue cover but mine looks nothing like it. I made a piece of crazy patchwork and followed Heidi´s instructions on how to put the cover together (without the roof). It looks great on my bathroom windowsill. I love the way Heidi writes about the paper dolls she played with as a child, I had those too and it certainly brought back old memories. I wonder if they are still available?

I hadn´t been blogging for long when I stumbled upon the illustrator Tania Howells and I was thrilled when she asked me to do a swap with her. She sent me the most beautiful items -badges, a Home Companion, some emroidered fabrics and threads and the loveliest bits and pieces. The photo of her inspiration board is beautiful and her needle case pattern is perfect! I´ve been wanting to make one since I saw all these lovely ones on Flickr and I used one of the fabrics Tania sent me as the outside piece. I made some of the pockets wider so my round needles also fit inside. No more looking for my needles!

Lisa Congdon´s words about why she creates and the healing power of making things with your hands really touched me. Her log cabin pillows are beautiful but...her artwork, her blog, her lifestyle, the way she dresses, her apartment -they are all parts of the one big canvas called a bird in the hand.

That´s 9 projects finished, 8 to go!

Library tote & patchwork purse

I love to take little treats to work with me...collaging materials, magazines, a book or knitting, things to brighten my working day during the short breaks between classes. It´s not always easy to leave the house and spend the day teaching english when I´d rather be sitting at the sewing machine but having some inspiration with me brightens my mood. In future I will be using this library tote as my treat bag. It´s a perfect size and I love the quirky little pocket which I have decorated with (you guessed it!) yo yos. This bag was designed by Fiona of hopskipjump, who also makes the most beautiful soft toys. The pattern was well explained and very easy to follow. Everyone has their own tricks when it comes to putting a bag together and the more you make, the easier it becomes. Last week my trusty old money purse fell apart - Lyn from mollychicken included a lovely patchwork purse pattern in the book and I managed to add an inside pocket and coin compartment to mine. I painted on a fabric stiffener so the purse is more vinyl like and can be cleaned with a damp cloth. These little things certainly brighten my day and it´s lovely to get compliments for things I have made myself. Lyn´s blog is an endless source of inspiration and I love to look at all the ideas from Japanese craft books. The Crafter´s Companion is full of beautiful photos and inspirational stories...next on my list of projects are the pillow case apron and the tissue box cover.

YO YOS!

Cassi Griffin is the next blogger in the book The Crafter´s Companion and hers was one of the first blogs I ever read. She has an amazing collection of Japanese craft books and makes beautiful things. She is a home-schooling Mum to 3 kids and I can truly relate to her words "what I like least about it (housework) is that you never have much to show for your labor. When I craft I end up with something tangible. I have something that says, look what I did!".

Above you can see the scarf I made from her fabric scarf pattern. I used 2 different silks and it turned out very soft and summery. I used Cassi´s instructions and a yo yo tutorial by Heather to make some brooches and now I´m addicted to making those yo yos! I can´t stop !

Inspiration: The Crafter´s Companion

I want to do the projects in the order that they come in the book so I´ve started on a quilt but that´s going to take a while. I finished some log cabin squares a while back which I have incorporated into the top of the quilt and I´ll be using some old bed linen for underneath. I have yet to buy batting and do the real work which is very well outlined in the book by Amy Carol. Her instructions have finally given me the courage to start something that I´ve wanted to do for ages.

In the meantime... I do a lot of shopping as there are 5 mouths to feed in this household so I have gone on to make something practical, a market bag - designed by Anna Torborg, the mastermind behind this wonderful book. I added a crochet base to the bag to make it stronger and I made the handles a little longer so they would fit over my shoulder. I love how it fits into its little pouch so I can take it with me in my handbag and don´t have to buy plastic bags to carry my shopping home.

"6 weird things about you"

I have been tagged by Diana...

so here are 6 weird things about me:

1. I have a black spot on my right eye, next to my pupil. The kids say it´s my 3rd eye.

2. I often watch up to 3 tv shows at the same time because I hate advertising so I jump between channels.

3. I must sleep nearest to the bedroom door. It doesn´t have to be the left or the right side, just closest to the door.

4. I love to challenge myself to do different things with each hand that involve different motions, for example mix a cake batter with my right hand and wipe clean the stove with my left hand, or brush my hair with my left hand and clean my teeth with my right hand.

5. I get teary eyed at the drop of a hat...a sad movie, a beautiful magazine layout, watching my kids wait for the bus in the morning...

6. I can remember really small details about events or people, they just jump into my head - even if I haven´t seen someone for years I am often able to remember their phone number, address, what they wore at a wedding or party, their favourite colour, foods, movies and their star sign and who they dated. I can drive people crazy with this because I can remember things that they have long forgotten.

Alexandra, Laini, Jorth, Ihanna, Mijk and Mirre, you´re tagged. I dare you to write 6 weird things about yourselves.