australian food recipes: February 2012

For the men out there.

Hi everyone! :) On the weekend Flo and I went to a friend's birthday and I sewed him this moustache pencil case. I still love the moustache trend and I thought it would be a nice gift for a man. :) How do you like it? I especially love the color contrast.
I still have plenty of this fabric left and I'm soon going to make a few more items for my shop with it. :) Let me know if you have any special wishes... :)
Happy Wednesday,
Lu

An easy sewing project.

Hello! ;) Today I wanna show you how to make such a pretty apron! :) It's pretty easy, and espacially for people with advanced sewing skills it is a project which can be sewed really fast. If you are a beginner, it won't be difficult, too. :)
You need conventional sewing supplies, packaging paper for the pattern, bias tape (for my pattern, I needed about 4,5m / 14,7 feet, but it depends on the apron's size) and two kinds of fabric. I chose a kitchen pattern for the front and white fabric for the back, so that the apron wouldn't become too thin.
My apron is about 55cm / 21,65" wide (the lower part of the apron) and about 70cm / 27,56" long (only the apron itself without the bias tape).

For sewing the apron, just make a pattern. Use packaging paper and vertically fold it in the middle so that your pattern will become symmetrically.
Cut out the shape of your apron (mine is really simple, this makes sewing easier) and pin it onto your two layers of fabric. Cut out the shape of your apron. Next. put the two layers onto each other, right sides facing. Then, sew around the whole apron, leaving a seam allowance of about 1cm / 0,39" and leave an opening at the bottom of your apron which you can use to turn the fabric inside out as a next step. Afterwards, iron your apron's edges and close the opening with a small seam.
Next, pin the bias tape to the apron's edges and sew. My bias tape goes around the whole apron. I also used it for binding the apron in the back and in the neck. :)

That's it, a short and easy tutorial. Let me know if you have some more questions! :)
Lu

All those pretty pouches...

Hey everyone! :) What have you been up to lately? :) I finished a lot of sewing projects (but I didn't manage to take photos of all of them, because either the light hasn't been good enough or I didn't have any time) and this is a pouch I made for my beloved friend Anja as a birthday present. :)
How do you like the pattern and the floral print? I love the fabric and I immediately had to think of her when I saw the fabric and its color combination. Can't get enough of sewing, there are so many pretty things to do. :)
By the way, check out Vivi's blog (although it's in German, there are lots of pretty photos), she has recently been featuring me and some of my items. :)
Wish you a lovely day!
Lu :)

Happy birthday, Anja!

Yaaaaaay, happy birthday, sweetheart! :)
Today's a special day, it's my friend Anja's birthday! :) I wish you all the best one can wish, but I'm gonna tell you this in person later today... :)

Anja and I have been 'knowing' each other for many years through the online forum of our common favourite band, but we really became friends about two years ago when we had our first date after I had moved to Potsdam. <3
The first fisheye photo above was taken exactly 2 years ago on her birthday, shortly after we started seeing each other. :) Since then, we spent a lot of time together and I love her as a friend! :)
I hope you are having an amazing day, see you later!! :) <3

Another tiny shop update.

My dearest readers, I hope you are having a lovely Sunday! :) After our weekly Sunday brunch, we went out for a walk in the forest and afterwards, I've been sewing for a while.
I made a whole bunch of new oven cloth and listed them on DaWanda. :) I love colorful kitchen textiles, what about you? :)
What have you been doing all weekend?
Lu

A tiny shop update.

Hey guys, happy Thursday! :) I just wanted to inform you about a little shop update. Because the old boards I made in autumn were nearly sold out, I decided to make some new mini pinboards and listed them on DaWanda just yesterday. :) I hope you like them and I already have a feeling that I know which one will be everybody's favourite... :)
Enjoy your day! :)
Lu

A new sewing DIY: How to make an easy skirt.

Hello eveyone! :) My friend Sarah gave me a gift card for Frau Tulpe as a birthday present and I bought fabric for this pretty skirt. :) I made it last weekend and here's the tutorial so that you can make such a skirt yourself. :) I love those simple skirts and I wear them with long shirts, under a dress and with tights and leggings. :)
It's pretty easy and you don't need much, only some elastic fabric which is enough for the size of your skirt, some paper for the pattern, a stretch needle for your sewing machine, the sewing machine itself and conventional sewing supplies.
Here's how it goes:

1. Take a skirt that perfectly fits you. This will help you to make a sewing pattern.
2. Vertically fold the skirt in half and put it onto some paper. Draw around the skirt for making a pattern. Don't forget to add the seam allowances.
3. + 4. The dashed lines indicate the actual size of the skirt, the normal line is the line of your actual pattern. The line where your skirt's middle fold has been now indicates the center fold of your pattern.

5. Now fold the fabric and place the pattern onto it. The center fold should be parallel to the selvage. Pin the pattern onto the fabric.
6. Cut out the fabric. Do this two times so that you have a front and a back piece.
7. These are the two pieces you've created from your pattern.
8. Pin the two pieces of fabric onto each other, right sides facing.

9. You now need a stretch needle for working with elastic fabric. It makes it easier to sew and helps the fabric to stay elastic.
10. + 11. Use a top stitch which is not too narrow and select a really narrow zig zag stitch.

12. Now sew the left and right sides onto each other. Leave a small seam allowance.
13. It should look like this.
14. Now select a normal zig zag stitch and use it to neaten the edges.
15. It should look like on the photo.

16. Next, fold down the top edge and pin it.
17. You can now topstitch the top edge.
18. Violà! :)
19. Finally, do the same with the lower edge and that's it! :)

Such an easy sewing project! :) I hope some of you will try this, too! :)

Feel free to post a link to your own skirt or ask me if you don't understand a point in this tutorial. :)

Lu

Sunday crafts.

Happy Sunday! :) After we had breakfast in bed and went outside for a walk in the snow, I've been working all day to finish some custom orders and to work on some new DIY projects and items for my shop.
Here are a few pretty lavender pillows I sewed and just listed in on DaWanda. :)
Now I'm gonna keep on working and later in the evening to reward myself, Flo and I will cook and watch a few episodes 'Big Bang Theory'. :)
What are you doing this Sunday?
Lu :)

A day in Berlin.

Hey, happy weekend!! :) Those of you who follow me on Facebook may have already read that I went on a Berlin shopping tour on Friday. :) It was a perfect way to spent the afternoon and I visited several shops. It was the first time that I visited Volksfaden, a totally new fabric store in Berlin-Schöneberg. They have lots of pretty fabric from American fabric designers like Michael Miller, Robert Kaufmann and Amy Butler and the shop owner is a lady from NYC. :) There I bought the new moustache fabric and the one with the pretty, floral pattern. Afterwards, I drove to Kreuzberg to go to a large vintage store. On my way there, I passed another second hand shop and spontaneously decided to go inside. Then it was love at first sight: I saw the prettiest vintage travel bag I've ever seen! :) It's condition is awesome, I simply love the color and it was a total bargain, I only had to pay 25€ for it and it looks sooooo good! A few seams have to be renewed, but that won't be a problem. :) I cleaned it yesterday evening and I'm soo in love with it. :) How do you like it? Can't wait for my next weekend trip to use it. :)

Afterwards, I went to colors, the huge second hand store in Berlin I wanted to visit. They have tons of vintage clothing. I tried on a few dresses and fell in love with these two ones. There were even a few more that I really liked, but they were too small for me, so I only bought these. Each cost 4€ and I love the floral patterns! :) They are both way too long, but I'll shorten them this weekend and I'm so much looking forward to spring so that I can wear them! :) I do not only love these dressed because they are pretty and I will hardly meet anybody with the same dress, but also because they have a history and because buying second hand includes a sustainable shopping behaviour, this feels good. :)

Finally, after having bought those dresses, I had a break at Milchschaum (= milk froth), a cute café in Berlin-Kreuzberg. They have delicious cakes and chai latte. <3
To end this day, I went to Frau Tulpe, one of my most favourite fabric stores ever. :) I could hardly decide which fabric to buy, but in the end, I chose some jersey fabric with white dots to make a stretch skirt, and I bought some pretty apple fabric. :)

I wish you a lovely weekend, I'm gonna spend mine at home, so much work to do, so many projects waiting for me. :) What are your plans?
Lu

New things in the shop.

Yay, I added some new pillows to the shop! :)

The birthday lady.

Hi everyone! :) Thank you again for all those lovely birthday wishes!! :) Although I haven't been throwing a big party this year (I normally throw a costume party and invite all of my friends, but they have just been here 4 weeks ago on New Year's Eve and unfortunately, they weren't able to visit us again, because my friends live in several different cities all over Germany, far away from Potsdam), I had such a beautiful day!

My mother has been staying with us for a few days and the night before my big day, she, Flo and I prepared some food and I made some birthday decor. :) I found the idea for the colorful accordion paper flowers on Pinterest and on the same site was an easy DIY for those cute party hats I immediately made. :)
We made my favourite chocolate cake (I'll share the recipe soon...) and I bought doughnuts and creampuffs. :)
Two of my girlfriends came over for afternoon coffee, I got some great presents and we ate a lot. :)

How do you like my decor? :)

I love tea parties, they are the perfect opportunity for using my pretty vintage dishes. :)

I wore my new asos dress, the color is awesome! <3

My friends who weren't here all sent me little packages (they know how I love unwrapping presents :)), the day was great and I felt special! <3
One of my best girlfriends sewed me a dress (it's sooo beautiful, I'm going to show it in an outfit post as soon as it is warm enough to wear it :)), another one made me a beachbag with a towel inside, using my favourite fabric, my mother gave me two wooden vintage chairs for our balcony, I got lots of organic seeds for the balcony, the cutest bird house, a DVD of one of my favourite bands, books, accessories, gift cards for different fabric stores (can't wait to pick out pretty fabric :)), a wooden vintage coat hook with a deer (my best friend sent it to me, I had it on my wishlist <3), kitchen crockery, handmade slippers, a DIY magazine and organic baked apple honey. <3
When I came to work two days later, my colleagues were waiting with a little surprise, how lovely!! :)

I think the best thing about this birthday was spending it with the two people I love most, my mum and my boyfriend. :) They anticipated all my wishes and made my day special. <3
Now I'm 25, a quarter of a century. Let's see what the next year will bring and if I'll be able to achieve my goals.
Thank you for reading and for always leaving comments! :)
Lu

My first patchwork project - a sewing tutorial.

Hello eveyone, thank you for the lovely birthday wishes!! :) I'll share some photos soon. :)
Here's a tutorial for a patchwork book cover. I have a new sketchbook where I sort and keep inspiration and make sketches for future DIY projects. Since black is not my favourite color, I wanted the book to look friendly and colorful and here's how I sewed the cover. :) You only need a book, some fabric scraps which are big enough to cover the book, a larger piece of fabric which is a bit bigger than the book itself, a sewing machine and sewing supplies.

1. Take some paper and make a draft of the cover. Therefore, put the book onto the paper, draw its outline onto the paper and leave some margins and make it wider so that you can fold it around the book.
2. Cut out fabric scraps.
3. Sew the scraps next to each other.
4. It should now look like this, you should now have a huge piece of fabric which is slightly bigger and wider than your book.

5. This is how the left side looks.
6. Now you have to iron the back so that the seams are neat.
7. The back now looks like this.
8. That's the front.

9. Now cut out the other piece of fabric for the 'inside' (you won't see it later, but using a secong layer of fabric or some lining makes the cover look prettier) which is as big as your patchwork piece. Put the two layers onto each other, right sides facing.
10. Put the book onto the layers in order to find out where to sew and how wide the seam allowances have to be.
11. Draw the line where you want to sew, leave a small seam allowance and make sure to make it wider at the sides of the book so that you can fold it around.
12. Now sew the two layers onto each other and leave an opening at one side so that you can later turn the fabric inside out.

13. Here's the opening, just big enough to turn the fabric inside out.
14. Cut off the corners (but be careful not to cut into the seam).
15. Turn the fabric inside out.
16. Now iron the edges.

17. This is how it should be looking.
18. Close the opening with pins.
19. Top stitch around the whole book cover and close the opening.
20. Finally, fold around the sides, fitting them to the book and adjusting them to the book's size.

21. That's it! :) You can now put the book inside the cover.
22.-24. Hasn't the cover become pretty? :)

25.-28. I love my new book cover! :) Are you gonna try to make one yourself? :)

This is the date I love most about each year... :)

Sources: the pretty cake and the beautiful floral image

Yayyyyyyy, while you are reading this, I'm probably busy with unwrapping presents, decorating my kitchen or eating tons of homemade cake, because today's my BIRTHDAY! :) Apart from Christmas, this is my favourite day of the year and each year I'm still as excited as I was when I was a little child... :) What do you most love about birthdays? :)
I hope your day is as great as mine,
happy Sunday,
Lu, the birthday girl :)

Wanna see who's the lucky winner? :)

Yayyyy, congrats, Anzouya!!! :) I'm happy for you and appreciate that you always leave comments and give me feedback on what I do! :)
Have a look at my shop over on DaWanda and let me know which item / items you want to have for 25€ and send me an e-mail with the link to the products and with your adress, okay!? :)
And thank you to all the other 22 people who took part and left so many lovely comments! :) Thanks for reading this blog! :)
Happy weekend to all of you! :)
Lu

Let's see what the future will bring...

The idea for this kind of list is by Hula Seventy.

Hey! Only a few days ago I posted the list of goals I wrote last year and these are my plans for the 26th year of my life. :) Because I'm going to turn 25 next weekend, I recently wrote this list (oh, how I love lists! :)) to make sure that I do not forget my most important goals. What is more, I love crossing things off my lists after I've done them. Are you as crazy for lists as I am? :)
Did you achieve all your goals last year? :)

Although I'm totally looking forward to my birthday, I'm not as excited as usual, because I normally throw a huge (costume) party each year with all of my friends. This year, all of them have already been here on New Year's Eve and cannot come to my birthday. :( It's somehow strange, because I normally have most of my beloved ones with me, but I think the day will even be good without having all of them around me. This year I'm throwing a tiny tea party with homemade cake and lots of kitschy dishes. :)

Lu