Stripes

The best thing about sewing is choosing and matching fabrics. That's at least what I think. I get ridiculously excited when I see a lovely pattern or colour combination. Browsing through fat quarters and remnant baskets in craft shops is absolute bliss for me. I hardly ever leave my local craft shop without one ir two pieces of fabric. Usually I don't have a project in mind for them: I just like having a stack of lovely fabric around so I don't need to head out and buy fabric when I want to sew small projects. They're also great for inspiration: very often the fabric comes before the project. As it happened with my first finished project in 2017. I was lucky enough to come across a remnant piece of this adorable stripy fabric:

       

It was in a gift shop in Germany on the last day of our holidays. And I just had to buy it. Back home I had the idea to make a bag for Aidans building blocks and within three days I had it finished.

It's a very basic bag with very basic felt applications. I didn't want to make it too complicated as I wanted it finished quickly. And it does the job: the kitchen looks tidier and Aidan likes taking the blocks out of the bag and sometimes putting them in as well.

I really have a thing for striped fabric.

Add some little flowers and it can't get any better:

There is such a nice old-fashioned feel about it. I could imagine making this into an 18th century dress. Unfortunately this is only a small leftover bit that I was lucky enough to find in a remnant bag.

But I also like the comparatively modern pin stripes.

I got this material a few years ago with the vague intention of making a skirt but I never really found the right pattern. Now I decided to make it into this skirt:

This pattern has been lying around for a couple of years as well. I never dared to make it as the instructions warned me that you needed good sewing skills. But you never learn if you never dare to make something challenging. Ignoring the advice to make a trial skirt with cheap fabric first I daringly cut into my pinstripe fabric. I had to change the pattern slightly as the fabric wasn't wide enough for the train of the skirt. Probably another thing you shouldn't do without a mock up. We'll see how it will turn out. So far I haven't found it very difficult.

I'm not looking for a historically accurate look so I won't worry too much if it turns out a bit different than intended.

January Joy

There is something harsh and sobering about January as if December was a beautiful dream and on New Year's Day you wake up to everyday life. For me the fist day of the year always has this back to school feeling even though we never were back until after Epiphany on the sixth of January. Christmas is over and so are all the pleasant things that come with it: family and friends reunions, lovely food, candlelight, Christmas carols, lazy evenings by the fireside. The New Year means looking ahed again, planning, getting busy.
We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas this year. My sister got married just a few days before Christmas in our local town and we celebrated in the medieval castle afterwards. It was magical! There's something to be said for small weddings in December! The Newly Weds stayed around for Christmas, so my mum had all her daughters home for the festive season plus three sons in law and two grandsons.
I'm sad, that Christmas is over but I'm also happy to be back home again. The New Year, as young as it is, has already brought a number of good things and I am very thankful. While we missed out on a white Christmas, a sudden frost transformed the the landscape into a winter wonderland just before New Year's Eve. And on our last day in Germany it actually snowed, enough to make the ground white. I'm delighted that Aidan got to know the snow even though he probably won't remember it.

As much as I liked the snow I was a bit worried that it might affect our journey to the airport. But the roads were free of snow and we arrived safely at our house where our cat Branwell had a great welcome for us - after sulking for half an hour.

And the same evening my aunt phoned to tell us that my cousin had given birth to a baby boy!

Enough good things to keep the January blues away!

St. Nikolaus

Christmas always seems to sneak up and surprise me with being much nearer than I thought. It's not like I didn't get enough warning. Decorations in shops are up since the middle of November but I"m good at ignoring it. I always feel the start of December is early enough to start planning for Christmas and of course I'm always wrong. Maybe it's a relic from my childhood when December seemed endless and the little boxes on my Advent calendar were so numerous that I kept losing count. Now that I'm older 24 days are going by in a blast.

But I'm quite happy to report that I finally managed to be a bit more organized this year. For a start I judged more realistically how many presents I would be able to make myself and planned accordingly. Ok, there are still some unfinished projects but I'm not stressing over them.  I've also posted severals parcels and cards this afternoon which I'm really proud of. There's still a few more to write but most of them are done.

We've also baked some gingerbread and christmas cookies. Aidan had a lot of fun kneading the dough and licking the spoon. I was a bit worried letting him stand on the chair but he was a very good boy and was happy as long as he had something to do. Though he's still a bit young, I like to get him involved, especially when it's old German traditions like baking "Weihnachtsplätzchen". I have so many good memories of baking with my mum, sisters and aunt when we were young.

There's so many beautiful traditions around Christmas in Germany. It's something I really love about my home country. As I'm writing this, German children are placing their boots outside their doors for Nikolaus to fill them with gingerbread, nuts and fruits. The tradition can be traced back to a 4th century saint who gave plentifully to the poor. In the end, Santa Claus is none other than St. Nikolaus, though he did go through a few metamorphoses.

Sunny November Days

Winter has arrived! For the last two days we were greeted by this view out of our kitchen window in the morning:

November has been anything but dreary so far this year. The first few days were more like early autumn with mild temperatures and sunny days.

We're out on a walk nearly every day enjoying the autumn sun and until recently sampling the last blackberries which grow in abundance along the roads. I felt a bit guilty giving them to Aidan straight from the bushes without being able to wash them but he loved them and has been fine ever since.

Even though meteorologists tell us that 2016 has been the hottest year on record we haven't felt much of it this summer which was wet and cool. So I'm even happier about this lovely autumn. You hear a lot of complaints about the rain in Ireland and I haven't figured out so far if it's just another example of Irish modesty. I've been asked so many times how I like living in Ireland always followed with the question how I put up with the rain. Though I've never been a fan of hot weather I do sometimes miss a bit of summer and whenever I visit my home in Germany I'm grateful for the heat. On the other hand I do love living in Ireland and the rain is just part of it. There's nothing you can do about it anyway. And while it is sometimes depressing to hear people moan about the rain, there's also the other side to it which is probably an example of Irish optimism: whenever it's not raining you're greeted everywhere with a happy "Isn't it a fine day!!!". No matter how cloudy and cold it is. Such optimism always lifts my mood.

Tutorial: Felt Teddy Bear

Last week I needed a little gift that was quick and easy to make. Looking through some magazines I found instructions for making a teddy filled with rice to use as a heat pad. I liked the look of the teddy but wanted to simplify it as I needed to make three teddies for three kids. That's why I decided to use felt which has the advantage of not fraying at the edges and simply sew front and back parts together with a blanket stitch. It only took me about an hour and a half to make each teddy so I thought it would be nice to make it into a tutorial.

These teddies are an easy beginner's project, requiring only basic sewing skills and a minimum of materials. They make nice little Christmas gifts and are also a great way of using up scraps of fabric.

You will need:
paper pattern (I adapted mine from one I found in a magazine. It's easy to make your own: you won't be turning the teddy inside out after sewing so you don't need to worry about seam allowances)

Felt for the body of the teddy
Scrap of black or grey felt
Scraps of contrasting material ( I used printed cotton, but felt will work as well)
Stuffing material (or some wool yarn; you could even use left over bits of felt)
matching sewing thread
embroidery yarn
scissors
sewing needle
embroidery needle
pins

Cut out two identical pieces of felt by pinning your paper pattern on a double layer of felt and carefully cutting around it.

Using contrasting fabric, cut out an oval shape for the belly and two half circles for the inside of the ears.

Pin onto one of the felt pieces and stitch around the edges using blanket stitch. If your contrast fabric is felt you could use running stitch instead of blanket stitch.

Cut the nose out of black or grey felt and stitch onto teddy's face with a few running stitches.

Embroider the eyes and mouth: Make two French knots for the eyes and stitch two little lines for the mouth with another line connecting the mouth to the nose.

Pin the front and back of the teddy wrong sides together and stitch all around the edge using blanket stitch or running stitch. Leave a gap on one side between ear and arm.

Push a little stuffing through the gap and using a pencil push it into the arms and legs. Stuff the rest of the body.

Sew the gap closed.

All done!

They make nice little gifts in their own right or you could use them to spruce up a gift wrap.

Creativity Burst

In the last few days I went through a burst of creativity and what's best, I actually sat down and carried out most of the things that popped into my head. Sometimes it can be hard to find the time for crafting and sometimes when there is time I just feel tired or not in the right mood. When I was pregnant I was worried that the next few years I'd have to stay away from crafting but the funny thing is that I'm doing much more than ever before. I've noticed that before: when there's only a little bit of time you learn to make the best of it. If I had only been that wise when I was younger! All that precious time squandered away!

Saying all this, I had a lot of help last week as my parents in law minded Aidan for a day, so I was able to get more things done than usually. Three hours undisturbed in my sewing room makes all the difference!

Firstly, I finished the scarf I was making for my friend:

It wasn't very hard as I decided to make it a bit shorter than I originally had in mind. All I had to do then was choosing and sewing on the buttons. I used two fabric covered buttons and a wooden one that has flowers painted on it.

As I needed some small gifts for the kids of a friend I sat down made this little guy:

He is the first of three that I since made as they're really quick and easy to do.

I also carved two pumpkins, made pumpkin bread from the Minimalist Baker Cookbook and did a little last minute Halloween decoration. I'm really bad at decorating the house! My friend is always doing a really great job with the outdoor decoration using just a few well selected items. I always get lost in detail and lose sight of the overall picture. But I managed to get the entrance a little bit decorated at least so the trick or treaters could see that they were welcome.

Apart from that I finished a few knitting projects that I had lying around... and started a few new ones. It's so exciting to start something new! It might make more sense to concentrate on one thing on a time but that's not how I do things. There's always at least two projects lying around.

I'll better publish this now and stop my son chasing the cat!

Recipe: Kale Salad with Chicken, Halloumi and Roast Vegetables

Kale seems to be everywhere at the moment. There are loads of recipes featuring kale on the internet and in recently published cookbooks. My local supermarket has big piles of curly kale in the middle of the vegetable section with blackboards advertising its many merits. It seems to be one of the new superfoods. The first time I consciously came across kale was on my sister's blog and I had to look up the German translation as I didn't know what it was. It doesn't seem to be very popular in Germany, or at least it wasn't a few years ago. I couldn't find it in the supermarket when I wanted to make the kale chips recipe my sister had given me.

There's plenty of it in Ireland though, and after we had moved here I started to use it now and again. But it's only recently that I really began to love kale salad. When I first tried to make it I made the mistake of not chopping the leaves small enough and as a result found the salad very hard to chew. It really makes all the difference to cut the leaves as thin as you can.

Anyway, here is my version of kale salad, inspired by Minimalist Baker (of course) and a lovely chicken kale salad I had at a coffee shop in Dublin. It's very filling thanks to the chicken, halloumi and the roast sweet potato and beetroot and it makes a great dinner. For a vegan version you could leave out the chicken and halloumi  and use more sweet potato and beetroot instead (and use maple syrup instead of honey).

Makes 2-3 portions

1 small sweet potato
1 small beetroot
olive oil and dried rosemary for roasting
2 chicken fillets
4 thick slices of halloumi cheese
2 handfuls of curly kale
1 handful of butterhead lettuce
1 handful of rocket

6 radishes
2 spring onions
2 tblsp sprouts
1 tblsp fresh basil
1 tblsp fresh coriander
6 cherry tomatoes
3 tblsp hummus
2 tblsp lemon juice
1 tsp honey
some almond milk
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).

Chop the sweet potato and beetroot into small cubes and mix with olive oil and rosemary.

Roast in preheated oven for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile cut the chicken and halloumi into small cubes and fry.

Wash the kale, butterhead lettuce and rocket. Chop the kale thinly making sure to cut out the stalks in the middle. Tear the lettuce and rocket into small pieces. Place into a salad bowl.

Wash and chop the radishes and onions. Add to the leaves.

Wash and chop the basil and coriander and add to the bowl together with the sprouts and tomatoes.

Mix the hummus with the lemon juice and honey and add almond milk to make it pourable. Season with salt and pepper and pour over salad.

Put the warm sweet potato, beetroot, chicken and halloumi on top of everything.

You could add pomegranate seeds if you wanted... But that might be pushing it over the edge...