Follow my blog with Bloglovin

What I won and what I made

I was so lucky to win Barnlil's give away yesterday, a Themis mobile by Artecnica

Take a look at it, isn't it a beauty? 

I am really looking forward to next week, when it will be hanging in my living room... can't wait! 

Two or three weeks ago I made these fine crochet balls. I was quite happy with the result and making them was easy and fun.

Still, I couldn't decide how I wanted to use them.

I had numerous ideas in mind, but none of them really convinced me and quite honestly I really liked the way they looked on my Kaleido tray! ;)

(by HAY) 

In the meanwhile though, I bought some wooden spheres at the local Søstrene Grene and... ta-daaaa:

Two of those spheres became this fine ornament!

(You can find the Perfect Sphere pattern here, it's free and comes in 10 different sizes)

98 kr.!!

Yes ma'am: 98 kr. for these two wonderful NEW books!
More of that, please! :)

What I'm doing...

Tristan started at the new day care in january but still it is quite hard for him and he hasn't adjust to the new place yet, sigh! That is why he's at home a little more often and yes, he keeps me busy! (Love it!)

I've started various small projects and a big one, which is really kind of a tricky one... hmm...

Anyway here's what I am doing right now:

I fell in love with a mobile I've found on the internet and I'd love to see it in my children's room soon

I want to make 2 or 3 of these as well (free pattern here)

I started my first one yesterday evening, but had to frog it as I wasn't quite happy with that. I'm going to start a new one as soon as I finish my SECRET project (mwahahaha!) 

Here it is 

or not! Haha!

Well, the picture is in black and white because even the colour is quite revealing! Anyway, it is a gift for a loved one and will soon be revealed, until then, I'm sworn to full secrecy! 

Then there's this

and ARGH! 

I've been fiddling around with this one a lot lately... but I never seem to get it quite right. 

It is meant to become a new cushion for my sofa, inspired by this (gorgeous) ones

and all the triangles are ready (thanks Karen Elisabeth for the pattern!). 

I have big problems with sewing them together though as the result is always wavy and bulgy... I'll probably try to finish this side, damp it and put it to shape and see what happens! Sigh!

So simple... so tasty!

Pasteis de Nata

Happy New Year!

I just couldn't miss the "happy new year" post. Well, at least not THIS year!
2012 has been an amazing year for us, in particular the second half.
-We moved in june, to a cheaper, much smaller flat in Frederiksberg (an independent municipal "island" within the city of Copenhagen).
That required some major adjustments in the way we organized our everyday life.
Although we really could use (read: "are in desperately need of") some more space, cleaning is done in half a day (*yaay*) and the location is almost perfect ( I still think it's cool to have a partial seaview when we live so far away from the coast).

- I enrolled at Niels Brock Business College Online and got a HgS in 13 weeks, despite some nasty pelvic girdle pains and a quite hard pregnancy)

- We've been enriched with the cutest baby girl on the 27th of August:

Arya

She's four months now, happy, healthy and cute as a button! 

- In October, Daniele finally got the oh-so-longed-after job in IT... after more than 3 years in Denmark we were just about to give up the idea. I'm really happy about that and so proud of my husband: he's REALLY good at his job and extremely professional. He sincerely deserved that!

- And then there's out little big star! 

Tristan

He turned 2 in October. He's very intelligent, opinionated, charming and IMPOSSIBLE! <3 nbsp="nbsp" p="p">

He coped extremely well with the moving and the arrival of his little sister. In fact he's proven to be a sweet and caring big brother and he's always ready to give hugs and kisses to Arya.

He already reads numbers and letters in English, Italian AND Danish... he couldn't make us more proud!!

So here's to 2012! Goodbye!

Hello 2013! Hope you'll be at least half as good as your predecessor! 

This week's menu

I am so glad I have a menu plan! 

It is a super easy way to save time and money when it comes to food. Plus, it helps me keep track of what's in the freezer ( I tend to forget food in there for moths and months otherwise = not good!!)

I designed my own version with Microsoft Word, found some cute kitchen-related images on the web (via Google Images) to embellish it a little, printed it on a normal A4 piece of paper and eventually I laminated it... I guess it did not take more than half an hour! I use a whiteboard marker to write on it and it works really well!

It hangs on our fridge now and both Daniele and I love it! Everybody knows what's for dinner and we remind each other of some last minute shopping that needs to be done. An the smartest thing is that a post-it fits perfectly in the "shopping list" box. :D

If you don't have a menu plan yet, I can only say : what are you waiting for??? It does not have to be anything fancy... a piece of paper and a pen will do the trick (wink) and there's ton of inspiration to get on the web! I personally like Pinterest (here's my own Food board), foodgawker and Alletiders Kogebog (with Danish recipes) but once you start looking for new recipes, I'm quite sure it will be difficult to stop! 

For some more planning inspiration, you can take a look here.

Happy menu planning!

A .pdf version of this plan is available on request

Crochet hook case

Heartburns and pelvic pain really gave me a hard time last night...
Then I thought: "Dear body, you mess with me, alright... well, I just keep crocheting!!"
And here we have it: I finished this week project in two and a half days.
I got inspired by this wonderful blog and here is the pattern I followed (in danish), though I made some minor changes.
I can't wait for my Clover hooks to arrive!

I am quite happy with the result, as it is the first real "challenging" project I have ever crocheted.

Outing!

Here's a little videoclip of Tristan's baby brother/sister (w.11+0)

Isn't he/she just wonderful?!?

I made some Owlz!

You can find this pattern here

Here, take a look if you want to make a little cute owl like this one!

Feeling yellow

I'm home today... yes... and I've been home the last couple of days.

Got my right hand fixed last wednesday (because of an annoying carpal tunnel syndrome) and I'm going to be on sick leave for a fortnight because I cannot really use my hand that much and it would be impossible to get something done at work.

As a matter of fact I'm not doing that much at home either, I still cannot feel the tip my fingers and it is actually quite hard to type as well: the sutures feels a little tight and are right on the wrist... ever tried to keep you're right wrist completely still? It just isn't going to happen!!

And hey! What's the matter with that funky yellow thing they dip your hand with?!? It is actually impossible to get off...

As I had to keep my hand up all day, need I say how many people stared at me on the way home? Not the kind of attention one's eager to get really...

Another 15 months...

...have past!

Well, I've been busy, I guess.

I was actually quite surprise to discover, that there really was a crafter hidden deep inside of me. And I really have been busy making all sort of things: sewing, crocheting, embellishing boxes... making owls! Yes, I guess owls are my new passion.

Owls and somehow everything lilac and purple (in case you did not notice the new template... ehm ehm).

Picture of all the fine things I've made will soon be published.

But one thing I made in the last 15 months really can't compare to the rest and it's what I'm most proud of:

TRISTAN

He really is the loveliest of babies (actually "toddlers" since he turned one a couple of weeks ago) therefore I can't really use him as an excuse for not being able to write a couple of line in the blog.

I am aware of the fact that a post a year isn't enough to keep this blog alive and that is why I have decided to really make an effort in giving my new crafter identity a place to show off and maybe a little reading material for Tristan, something he can laugh about when he grows up!

Oh well... let's try again...

and again... and again... and again... and again... and again...

Let's be frank, I am not the kind of person who is able to keep writing a blog.

It always ends up being a short-lived project. I will give it another try though and this time I thought it would be nice to write it in English, so that it could be understandable for all the people I know, both in Italy and in Denmark or wherever they are.

There will be loads of mistakes and funny-looking sentences, but hey! I am trying to please everybody here so don't make my task harder than it is, 'kay? A long time has passed since I have been writing in English, actually since I have been writing at all...

The old posts of this blog have been deleted, I wanted to start anew... but then I couldn't really get myself to delete the last one, so it will stay there even if it is in Italian - I will probably find the time to translate it one day.

19 months have past since that post and - gee- so many things have happened, so much has changed - I have changed!

I now am a married woman (who would have thought), bearing the child of the man I love above anything else in this world.

I am happy.

And it is a strange kind of happiness or probably it is the real kind of happiness, it is something I have never experienced before anyway.

Of course not everything is perfect - far, far from it! - we surely could use a bit more of this and that (read: money - LOL), I have to endure almost every "side-effect" pregnancy can cause and Daniele has to go through all my ups and downs ( I feel terrible about it by the way) but I AM HAPPY... I am fulfilled. I know that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else and with anybody else and that's a loooooong way from where I was 19 months ago.

And well, let's give this blog a chance and try to keep it alive... at least until I have to get back to work again...

It's hard to explain...

No, non è difficile: è impossibile spiegare...

Impossibile spiegare quanto sia bello risvegliarsi da un torpore di cui si ignorava l'esistenza.

Impossibile spiegare quanto ti possa mancare una persona con cui hai passato solo 5 giorni.

Impossibile spiegare che proprio quei 5 giorni siano stati i più belli della tua vita, nonostante tutto e tutti.

Impossibile spiegare quanto ci si possa sentire appagati e soddisfatti pur soffrendo di una mancanza cui nessuno, tranne quell'unica persona,  può porre rimedio.

Impossibile spiegare quanto pochissime parole scritte possano valere più di anni ed anni di discorsi inutili.

Impossibile spiegare quanto tutto quello che è stato in passato sia diventato  di colpo insignificante.

Impossibile spiegare cosa si provi quando, inaspettatamente, si trova l'altra metà del proprio essere.

Impossibile spiegare che finalmente hai trovato tutto quello che cercavi da sempre e che adesso è tuo.

Impossibile spiegare...  quando di cose ne vorresti dire mille, ma si fermano tutte in quel piccolo spazio tra cuore e cervello e si incastrano in quel nodo alla gola. 

Impossibile spiegare perché NON C'È BISOGNO DI SPIEGARE. 

Cosí è...  e nessuno può capire.