FO: Sunshine shawl

Done! I actually am done before Autumn is over! Who would have thought. I blocked the sunshine shawl and it came out as a lovely little shawlette, large enough to comfortably wrap around your neck and tuck into your coat but not so big that you can't close your coat up properly. Just warm enough that it protects you from the wind, but not too thick, so it's perfect for a chilly Autumn day!

I'm happier with how it turned out than this picture makes me look, I promise. (smile, Stef, smile! Come on! You can do it!) (I also discovered that I really need a tripod for my camera because I can't balance this one on a jar like I did with my old point-and-shoot! I got three good shots out of a whopping 15 because the camera wobbled!) I'm almost disappointed I had to give it away as it's so squishy and soft and nice.

As I had never really blocked knitting before, especially knitting with lace elements, I was surprised how it turned out. The fabric seemed a bit bouncy before blocking, the picot edge very scrunched up, but the resulting fabric was very supple and smooth and the picot edging really opened up and made the thing come together. And to think that I almost left it off because I was afraid of mucking it up! Yay for trying scary new techniques!

My friend was very happy with it and is now going to make sure that her still-to-buy winter coat will at least match the colours. Present well-received, I'd say.

Now I can finally really start on my Maroo mitts. I bought the needles and even started once, but I messed up on the fiddly first round of k1p1 before messing up because those DPNs sure can get in the way when you're trying to wrestle ribbing onto one of the needles. So I frogged in frustration and tossed it aside. It'll get picked up soon enough, though!

When life gives you mud, make... mud pies?

No, no recipe in this post. I know, bummer, right? I went for a nice long walk with my parents, brother and his girlfriend, and my sister last Sunday in the woods. It was a rare, sunny day in what has been an absolutely dreadful month of May, so the forest floor was muddy and the tracks hard to walk on at times, but we managed.

You could tell that we've had a crappy spring season so far: trees were just beginning to blossom or grow their leaves, barely any flowers anywhere, tons of dead leaves on the ground... But the greens were vibrant and alive, and when the sun was shining it was absolutely gorgeous. The temperature was nice, and we were under cover of the trees so we barely noticed the winds. Perfect weather for a wander through the woods. Plus, all the rain from the past week made the pine trees smell amazing!

Sometimes, we'd come across weird stuff, like this single bright orange-leafed tree in a sea of green. With the sun shining through, it almost looks like a flock of butterflies!

We slowly made our way uphill to the half-way mark and could see how much rain had fallen in the past few days: there were mud tracks like this one all along one side of the path, where the water had made its way downhill.

And then there were parts of the woods that looked like, well, this. Car tracks where the mud was still soppy and where you could easily sink down past your ankles if you weren't careful. We decided to not go that way. Nobody brought their bathing suit.

There we go, the top of the hill! This is the Austerlitz Pyramid, a monument built by the soldiers of Napoleon in 1804. Why build a monumental pyramid in the middle of a forest, you ask? Because the French general Auguste de Marmont, who had amassed an army on this site so they could fight back any invasion armies the British would send, was afraid his men might get bored. Yep. That's history, people. It's not all about epic battles and heroism. Most of it consisted of waiting, eating, sleeping and fighting off boredom.

Oh, hello, little sis. I wasn't the only one dragging a camera around. My partner in crime here and I were constantly lagging behind the others because we were taking pictures. On our way down the hill, I left my camera in my bag and enjoyed the scenery with my own eyes and not hidden behind a lens, but we still had to wait on occasion for this shutterbug to catch up. I guess it runs in the family!

Spring, please? Now?

I AM SO SICK AND TIRED OF WINTER! GAH! And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. In fact, the fact that I am saying it now should be something of note since I love winter. And snow. And cold, cold days. Love them. Or I should say 'loved', because frankly, they've really overstayed their welcome this year and should kindly bugger off now thank you very much.

Thanks to my health being stupid and childishly stubborn, I haven't been to the gym in weeks and have to be in the hospital for treatment twice a week. (Don't worry, nothing too serious, just light therapy, which basically means I have to go to the hospital twice a week to get naked and stand in a giant microwave for a minute or two.) I really miss going to the gym, so to still get some sort of exercise, I've been taking the long way home, cycling around town and taking detours. Today, it was sunny out all morning so I had hoped it would be nicer out than it had been all week.

Nope. It was freeeeezing outside, and windy! Despite the wind in my face and the sun hiding behind a dark cloud for most of my way back home, I still took the route I had in mind. I had hoped to take a picture or two here and there of little signs of Spring peaking through the dead bushes, little flower buds peaking through the dirt, defiant of the frosty conditions, like a herald of warmer times to come. But nope. All I found, was dead, or dying, foliage. Sigh.

Still pretty, though.

Winterwonderland

I lurve snow!

I heart snow. I big, cold, fluffy puffy heart snow. You may have heard this before. During the night, a veritable snow storm arrived on our shores, and now half the country is covered in a thick layer of crunchy, fluffy snow. Snow makes me giddy and makes me itch to go out and frolic about, so during my lunch break I hopped into an old pair of trainers, grabbed my camera, and ran out the door for a quick wander in the snow.

Prickly and cold

That stuff really gets everywhere!

Up to my ankles in the fluffy snow

Prickly and cold, part 2!

See how high it's piled on these little branches? The perfect snowball-snow!

Poor little blossoms. You never stood a chance...

Recipe: chocolate cranberry cookies

Christmas is already over! Wow, those days zoomed by, didn't they? Gone before I knew it. The days before Christmas were hectic and stressful, so I very much looked forward to the days off, even though the stress was partially to blame on something not work-related! You see, we had a special announcement to make this Christmas.

Who are engaged and freezing on a seaside cliff? These two!

We are getting married!

 

What does that have to do with cookies, you're probably wondering. Well, if I get stressed, I often find myself in the kitchen to bake cookies. As a form of stress relief, you see. Delicious, delicious stress relief. And seeing as we got engaged on the 15th of December but picked Christmas as the date to tell our families the big news, I got quite stressed in those 10 days of waiting! So I baked Christmas-appropriate cookies to go with the news!

I wanted to write 'We are getting married!' on the cookies in melted chocolate, but the melted chocolate was too thick for the nozzle on my squirt bottles (booh! I'm pretty sure I ruined one by clogging the nozzle with white chocolate!), so as a back-up plan, I covered them in the white chocolate and drizzled dark chocolate all over them. They were a big hit! And so was the news!

These relatively simple cookies are based on a recipe from the wonderful blog I Am Baker. In stead of adding white chocolate chunks to the dough, though, I added dried cranberries. In hindsight, I should have given them a chop, because the cranberries were rather large and impossible to cut through with a cookie cutter, making for some rather uneven and wonky cookies here and there, and I ended up with a lot of cookie dough crumbs and dough-covered cranberries on my workbench. Which is how I found out that the dough itself is absolutely delicious. Really, be careful you don't eat the whole batch raw because the chocolatey flavour from the cocoa powder and the somewhat acidic pop from the cranberries will make you go back for more!

But trust me when I say this: They're even better when actually baked.

Chocolate cranberry cookies

adapted from I am Baker
Makes a hell of a lot of cookies. I stopped at 60.

Ingredients:
-1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 sticks room temperature butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries (chopped)
- 150 gr. white chocolate (2 bars)
- 75 gr. dark chocolate (1 bar)

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Stir in the egg and the vanilla extract.
Stir in the flour in small quantities at a time, until fully incorporated.
Stir in the salt.
Stir in the cocoa. Be careful, it'll floosh up if you stir too roughly and coat EVERYTHING in cocoa powder. I speak from experience.
Stir in the cranberries until mixed throughout the dough.

Cover the dough in cling wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to firm up before you roll it out.
Pre-heat your oven to 175 C. Roll out your dough (it is quite sticky, so place it between two sheets of waxed paper to roll out) until it is about 1 cm. thick. Cut out your cookies using a cutter. Mine is scalloped and has a 5 cm. diameter.
Place your cookies on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for approximately 10-12 minutes. The original recipe says 8-11, but this depends heavily on your oven. My oven doesn't actually run as hot as it should, so I placed them in there for the full 12 minutes.

Once they are done, fish them off the sheet and place on a cooling rack to cool off completely before decorating them.

When it's time to decorate your cookies, melt your chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl or mug in short intervals, stirring in between each nuke until the chocolate is fully melted. Cover your cookies with chocolate, and allow the chocolate to dry at least half-way until you decide you can't control yourself. Only then can you eat one. Or two. Or five. I won't judge, I've eaten at least 20 on my own.

Enjoy!

First snow of the season

And it was gone before we knew it.

Birds behaving badly

When I was taking pictures of myself in a chicken leg hat and looking nice and ridiculous, I had an audience: two fluffy bundles of bouncing curiosity. I poked my camera into the cage for some random bird pics and, to my surprise... They weren't afraid of the camera anymore! In fact...

These cuties were hopping up on my hand to get a closer view of the camera! Curious little buggers! Being adorable and everything!

Of course, I knew it wouldn't last for long...

Dun-DUN! Dun-DUN! Dun-DUN-Dun-DUN-Dundundundundundundundun....

RAWR!

I am such a bad planner... Or: why I always pack an umbrella.

Last Sunday, I decided I wanted to go for a walk. I got up at 9 for the birds and my skin was giving me so much grief I couldn't go back to bed, so I got dressed, grabbed breakfast, grabbed my bag, left a note on the study door for the BF (who was still sound asleep), left the house... And went right back inside because I had failed to take notice of the torrential downpour of rain that was currently flushing our streets. I don't generally mind a bit of rain, but that was a bit much...

I tried again, after an hour, but it was raining even harder than before, and out of frustration, I got back into bed but couldn't sleep anymore anyway. I checked weather reports and radar images, but it seemed like my plan to get a bit of fresh air (and seeing as it was cold, some much-needed relief for my skin...) would have to be postponed. At 3 pm, it finally seemed dry enough to go out. I packed an umbrella, just in case, though.

There's quite a bit of green around where I live, and you can find little paths like these everywhere. You'd never guess that at the end of that path runs one of the main roads through our little city, or that not 50 metres to the left and right of me were residential areas.

I had hoped (and checked the radar before and that backed me up on this) that it would remain dry for the time being, but within 5 minutes of my departure I got gradually more drenched by a thin veil of rain that was already falling for a while before I truly took notice. By that time, though, the drops were getting bigger and bigger and I was glad I had packed an umbrella.



I happened upon some birds taking a bath in their roadside private pool, and a bit further, upon a family of swans on the (rather narrow) path that scared the crap out of me but thankfully they quickly moved into the water and left the road to me. I think swans are terrifying.. But that might have to do with me being attacked by one when I was young.



I followed a road I had never walked on before and it took me out to the back of the hockey fields and along a little track with football fields on the one, and a little fenced-off pasture on the other, until I crossed a bridge and ended up on a freshly paved road. There was a little overgrown lock to the side of the bridge and I don't know why, but it looked so pretty!

Onwards I went, following the path, since there was only one way for me to go besides back. (and there were still swans there, so onwards I went!) At one point I was sure I was lost, but since there was only straight on for me to go... I walked. And suddenly, I remembered exactly where I was and recognised a road I travel on at least once a week.

As I was nearing the end of the path and closer to crossing the road into a residential area again, the sun even came out for a bit and I even spotted some wildlife. Do you see him? Hiding to the right behind the overgrown lock? Yup, a stork. Fishing for little froggies.

I was glad to have gone out for a bit after all. I was only gone for about an hour, but it was very refreshing (literally, thanks to the rain) and relaxing to just get some fresh air and to clear my head. Supposedly, there are more of these tracks around the sports fields, so I think I need to head out and find some more soon!

Why I love sunsets

They're faded and dull, yet colourful at the same time. And they only grow more colourful the longer you stare out into the darkness, as all lights just fades away into the background and all you're left with, all that you see, is the growing intensity of those hues of blue and pink and orange and red.


(P.s. I have been messing about with my blog again, and have added three nifty little buttons underneath my blogposts: a Pinterest-pin-button, a Facebook-share-button and a Twitter-tweet-button! You know, just in case you ever feel the need to pin, share or tweet about something from my blog. So pin, share and tweet away, my friends!)

I'm a proud mama

Bird-update! It's been a while.

These two have been behaving so well lately! They've taken to preening our hair when we stick our head into the cage, they accept food from between our fingers when they're outside the cage, they're more relaxed outside the cage (well, mostly, apart from that one time that Anzu missed his landing and ended up in a tall vase. We had to tip the vase over before he realised what way was out.. Poor thing.), they have learned how to shred paper into longer and longer strips, which indicates that they're slowly leaning towards nesting behaviour...

We have had some scary, unpleasant moments too, though: Apart from that time that Anzu missed his landing (he was aiming for a roll of wrapping paper), the other day we let them fly loose for a while and then shut the cage again, but we forgot to close the top of the nesting box properly and Alar got out. I walked into the living room and she scared the living hell out of me, being on the other side of the room, all panicky, clinging to the curtains... However, we were able to lure her back to the right side of the room with nothing more than the wooden stick we use when we're playing with them outside the cage, so we got Al'ar back inside in no time at all. She's been much more outgoing since, though. It's pretty weird. Not that we're complaining, mind, just unexpected!

(I'm calling them him and her now, but we're still not sure what gender they are. Unless one starts laying eggs, I'm afraid we won't find out for a while, either! But I don't mind. )

KCBW2012: Something a bit different!

 (3KCBWDAY5)

 Today is already day 5 of Blog Week! Amazing, isn't it, how time flies! I have been enjoying all your blogposts a lot so far, and we've still got two days of blogging to go! Today's topic is always my favourite, because it gives so much space to create something fun and unexpected. Let's see today's description:

"This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.There are no rules of a topic to blog about but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog."

I've decided to push my creativity to a new high, Photoshop-wise. I taught myself how to make an animated gif, just for you guys! Oh, the ordeals I go through just for this blog.  It was fun to do, and surprisingly simple! Here it is. Enjoy!

(tiny edit: oh my gosh, thanks for all the wonderful comments! My mailbox hasn't been this busy in ages! If you really like my post, you can always nominate me for.. eh, I don't think there's a title involved. Just goodies. So this is a really selfish edit, really. But thanks anyway!)

KCBW2012: Photography challenge day!

(3KCBWDAY2)

 Today's topic should have been a doddle for me. A doddle! Why you ask? Well, let's start with Eskimimi's explanation of the topic, shall we?


"Photography Challenge Day!
Today challenges you to be creative with your photography, and get yourself in with the chance to win the photography prize. Taking interesting photographs in this instance isn't about flashy cameras or a great deal of technical know-how, it's about setting up a story or scene in a photograph and capturing something imaginative. Your photograph(s) should feature something related to your craft, so that might be either a knitted or crocheted item, yarn, or one of your craft tools. One example of setting a scene would be to photograph a girl in a knitted red cape walking through the woodlands with a basket of goodies, as in the Red Riding Hood tale, or you might photograph a knitted gnome hiding among the flowers in your garden. Photo editing is permitted for competition photos. Here are a few examples of my own photographs to illustrate an imaginative use of photography, but you can do much better than these..."


So, photography! I enjoy photography so this should be right up my alley. But I wanted to challenge myself, make a truly creative picture, a funny and thought-provoking picture, or even just a beautiful one. My plan was simple. I am in the process of starting a new project, and part of that is picking the right pattern for the yarn. I know, normally, it's the other way around, but I had the yarn already. I thought of the phrase 'picking my brain', and had an idea that I wanted to try out. It involved some posing, some crocheting, some sketches... But it was foiled by a problem that most creative bloggers will have encountered in one way or another. I suffered, once again, from an issue that seems almost impossible to solve. An issue that deserves national, if not international attention, so that awareness of this terrible problem can be raised in the hope that maybe, one day, a solution can be found and bloggers all over the world can breathe a little easier.

I am talking, of course, about the photo-bomber.

Without further ado, I give you my picture of the day, titled: "This is why we can't have nice pictures!"

Morning coffee

After a rough night, I like to take my time in making a coffee. It's the ritual that wakes you up more than the caffeine, wouldn't you agree?

A holiday in March

We went on holiday the last week of March. It was a well-needed break from the daily grind, since I've been working non-stop since the beginning of this year to get my job as a freelance translator going, and we haven't had a real break from work since August last year! Together with 4 friends, we headed out to the Cotswolds to stay in a cottage for a week.

What a lovely week we had! We were so lucky with the weather, sun all week and only a few clouds here and there... We even barbecued twice! In March! Can you believe it? Well, just in case you can't, here's a brief overview of our week.

Naturally, you can't start the day in England without a proper English breakfast. Home-cooked, even. I normally eat a bowl of granola for breakfast, and if I'm really hungry, I throw in a chopped apple, so this whole plate for breakfast took some struggling. But I managed! And I'm glad I did, because it was delicious.

We were about an hour away from Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of one Mr. Shakespeare. To be precise, this birthplace. I enjoyed the city itself, which has a relatively small centre with a large pedestrian area surrounding the birthplace of William Shakespeare and the adjacent information centre. We took the tour, which was deceptively small, and enjoyed all the non-information they put out for the tourists. ("we found this ring that has 'SW' engraved on it, therefore, it is likely that this belonged to William Shakespeare!".. Yes, or to Wentworth Smith. Or Wendy Scott. Just sayin'.) It was impressive enough, though. If you kept in mind that you were walking in the same grounds as one of the most famous writers of all time.

Since you can't go to the UK without visiting at least one castle, we went to Warwick Castle, a gorgeous medieval castle-turned-themepark in Warwick.

There's even a Dungeon á la the London Dungeon. Naturally, we were out of luck, because it was closed for redecoration for the Easter event. Inside the castle, a whole host of rooms has been turned into the "Kingmaker"-event, which follows the preparations in the castle for the Battle of Barnet in 1471. All in all, not your average visit to a castle. The castle was gorgeous though, and we went on an impressive climb along the castle walls that offered views of the surroundings. It was amazing!


They also held a bird-show in the castle grounds, which was very cool. This gorgeous creature was one of three birds that came out for a few swoops around the grounds.

Our days were mostly filled with lounging around the house and enjoying the warmth of the sun, reading and playing games, and going out for ventures into nearby towns and places. We were staying just outside of Broadway, a small town with many hidden alleys and tucked-away shops. I can only imagine how crowded it must get in the summer, but we went there on Saturday and it was filled with people.

One of the other towns we visited was Bourton-on-the-water, "the Venice of the Cotswolds". We weren't sure they had ever been to Venice before deciding on that nickname, but it was a lovely town nonetheless, if not a bit dull. We sauntered around for a while, did some window- and actual shopping, until we came across a sign that holds up for March 2012 as well:

Then we stopped at a café for lunch and I had my first ever cream tea.


Even though much of our holiday was spent relaxing, I really enjoyed the Cotswolds. The yellow stone houses and towns are gorgeous and there's a ton of nature to enjoy and places to visit. It was definitely a trip worth repeating!

A tiny update to the tiny book necklace tutorial

First of all, thank you all for the great response to the tutorial! I had a great time making the step-by-step pictures, I'm glad you liked them!

Second, I got the question to show how it looks on a person. Here's a picture. Apologies, it's not the best, and I tried to remedy it but somehow all my actions have disappeared from Photoshop (I may have cried when I found this out)... And since most of my photo-editing skills come from clicking the 'Play'-button on an action, I suddenly found myself lost in the dark, not knowing how to work with my own trusty Photoshop! Sigh. I need to remedy this action-less situation soon, but for now, enjoy this not-so-actioned-up-action-shot of me, wearing the necklace.

Note that I have it hanging from a cord with two adjustable knots, meaning I can lower it and wear it waaay longer if I want to. I hope this helps! And if you have made a tiny book necklace, please, show me! I'm curious to see how they turn out!

Early bird

Catches the gorgeous sunrise. It was cold the past two nights! Finally! After a seriously disappointing winter, we finally got a glimpse of what everybody has been missing. Even the people that dislike winters. (seriously, what the hell, people-that-dislike-winters. What is wrong with you? How can you dislike winters?!)

And, something I learned when I had a paper route, if the night has been really cold and clear, the sunrises are even more spectacular than usual. Because I'm getting up earlier now that I'm a freelancer, I catch a lot more gorgeous sunrises than I did before. Just yet another perk of the job.

Today.. I shall feel pretentious.

And give this photograph a name. And it shall be.. 'After the Storm'.


Because it was taken after a storm, see. It all makes sense in the end.