At Least Something

I am still in the middle of Abitur madness. Next week, I will be the examiner in the oral exams for the first time. Uuh, I hope it works out well. (18 exams in three days...)

Anyway, between proofreading the tests and copying loads of task sheets and solutions, I managed to do some small things.

First I decorated my coffee to go-mugs. One contains a piece of scrapbook paper, the other a quote from Jonathan Franzen's Freedom.

Yesterday I finally finished embellishing my cupboard in my study. I bought a box with 100 Penguin covers when I was in England last year and I wanted to use them for this purpose for quite some time. My first attempt to stick them on the door was not successful however, after a few days they started to fall down. Only now I managed to get two roles of doubleface tape and made a new try. I hope it works better this time.

The empty space is for the doorknob, which I will probably fix some time next year...
Also I put some pictures on the wall in the corridor.

It is not a framecluster (after all, I am not one these hip home decoration bloggers...) but a random assortment of postcards and photos.

Too much to do, too little to tell

It is this time of the year again... I have so much to do for school, I feel like I am paralysed. After having finally finished correcting the Abitur tests, I now have to develop the tasks for the oral exams. Plus I have to plan the next tests in my four other classes - which I will also have to correct of course -  I have to attend several meetings about grades next week, I have to prepare my lessons about "The Great Gatsby", teach 24 lessons each week, have to answer e-mails from parents who are worried about their children's grades and a million things more...
I know, teachers complain a lot and quite often on a rather high level, but at the moment it is just so annoying to work about 50 hours a week and still not to feel well-prepared.
Ok, that's the reason why I do not write much here at the moment, I simply don't do anything worth blogging about. I hope this will change soon, but at the moment my creative life is in a hiatus.

Things I love in April

This time the list is a bit longer but without pictures...
1) Mangos
In a month without any fresh regional fruit I love eating mangos. Yet I am looking forward to the first strawberries...
2) Starbucks Coffee-To-Go-Mugs
I don't like Starbucks and I go there only rarely, but I have to admit that their Thermo-Mugs are the best I had so far. They are really thight and easy to clean, better than the ones I had before.
3) Playing "Dishonored"
I am a casual gamer and I am the least competitive person I know. I do not want to spend hours learning how to play a game, I do not want to die all the time because I do not push the buttons at the right moment and I have no patience for complicated skills-systems. But I love playing games where I can explore something and do something spectacular at the same time. That's why I loved "Dishonored". It is not difficult, you do not have to kill your opponents (but you can if you want to) and you save an entire city. Plus it has a nice, steampunky atmosphere. I started playing during the Christmas holidays, but now I have finally finished it.
4) Sitting outside in the beergarden in the evenings...
Just what I need at the moment.
5) Finally planning a LARP again
If everything works out, I will be hosting a LARP in October. I love small invitation-only LARPs in unusual settings - ours will take place in 1982 - and since I am not a great actor I prefer organizing them.
6) Listening to PJ Harvey
I am not really up to date in my taste in music, I usually wait till a CD (yes, I still buy CDs because I am old) is reduced below 8 Euros before I buy it and thus I have only recently purchased PJ Harvey' "Let England Shake". I have loved her music since I was 15, and though it has changed tremendously, I still adore it. This is my favourite song of the album.

New Edge

I like knitting socks and I like colourful yarn. Usually this is a good combination because... - yes, because I can use colourful yarn to knit socks. But sometimes there are gorgeous yarns that are unsuitable for socks. "Schoppel Zauberball" is an example for that. The yarn is really wonderful but although it has the right weight it is not really good for knitting footwear. The quality is just not sturdy enough. Thus I have used my two Zauberballs ("Wurzelsepp" and "Schokoladenseite") to knit a scarf instead. The pattern is "New Edge", which I found on Ravelry, and it is quite easy to knit.

 Below you can see the eyelet-pattern, which is one of my favourite design elements in knitting.

And you can even use it to disguise yourself...

Things I love in March

The list is pretty short this month, but if I wait to write more, March will be over....

1) Cupcakes and Macarons

To celebrate the beginning of the Easter holidays, I spent quite some money on cake. The macarons are from "L'art sucre" in Wiesbaden, I chose violet, pistachio-rasberry, lemon-ginger and caramel with salted butter. The cupcakes are from "Dale's cakes" and the flavours are lemon-walnut, strawberry-poppy, peanutbutter and chocolate-mint. I love these cakes because they look like a children's drawing of what a cake should look like.

2) The "South Wing"
One room in our flat is called the "South Wing" because it is a multipurpose room and we did not know what else to call it. My partner's desk is in there, but it is also a room for crafting, sewing and playing board games. It is the room that got the least attention during the last year because we didn't really have the time to start decorating it, but this weekend we finally managed to transform the untidy, chaotic mess of a room into the place we always wanted it to be:

There are still some things to do but I already like it.

3) Watching Sons of Anarchy

So far, I have only seen the first five episodes but I enjoy it so much. Actually, I think this show is much more interesting than most shows I watched in the last months. The characters are not very likeable but well-developed with lots of layers, the episodes are entertaining and rather fast-paced and the show has an ambivalent attitude towards its characters’ criminal activities, which is something I really missed while watching Breaking Bad. In Breaking Bad, I always felt like I was expected to feel some form of sympathy for poor Walter, but in my opinion “I want to take care of my family” is no sufficient excuse for his behavior, especially after he is –almost – cured of his illness. That’s fine, I like to watch shows where people behave in totally inacceptable ways, after all I want to be entertained by the characters, I do not want to be friends with them. But if the show wants me to feel with a character who constantly abuses and manipulates people who do not belong to his family, I have a problem with that. All in all, Walter White is a character who has been exploited and mistreated all his life and when he gets ill and the system just does not care, he starts to exploit and mistreat people himself and is really successful. I like the show, but I miss the critical attitude towards a system that forces people to act like this.

Sons of Anarchy, on the other hand, shows the fun and the “outsider glamour” of being part of a criminal group, but it also indicates the hypocrisy and the shallow excuses these people use to justify their activities. Moreover, it is almost ironic that a show that is set in the most chauvinistic and male-centered environment imaginable has so many well-drawn female characters. There are at least three main female characters, and all of them have their own agenda and motivations apart from “Let’s see what the boys are doing and react to it.”

I hope the show continues to be that excellent.

Anleitung: Kindlehülle

Ich habe diese Anleitung ausnahmsweise in Deutsch geschrieben, wenn ich Zeit habe mache ich in den nächsten Tagen noch eine englische Übersetzung.

Nach dieser Anleitung kann man eine praktische Schutzhülle für den E-Reader oder andere Geräte, z.B. Tablet-PCs oder Schiefertafeln nähen. Dieses Projekt ist auch gut für Anfänger geeignet, man kann es theoretisch auch komplett von Hand nähen. Ich habe etwa 2 Stunden dafür gebraucht, es geht aber garantiert auch schneller, da ich normalerweise sehr langsam beim Nähen und Basteln bin.

Die Größenangaben beziehen sich auf einen simplen Kindle in der Standardausführung. Um das Schnittmuster an das eigene Gerät anzupassen, messt die Breite und die Höhe aus und addiert mindestens einen Zentimeter zur Breite und zwei zur Höhe, je nachdem wie eng die Hülle sitzen soll.

Materialien:       

- Stoff für die Außenseite, mindestens 25 x 40 cm (hier geht jede Art von Material)

- Stoff für die Innenseite, mindestens 25 x 40 cm (nehmt glatten Stoff, damit der Kindle gut rutscht)

- Synthetikfilz in 4 mm Stärke, mindestens 30 x 20 cm (die Farbe ist egal, man sieht ihn später nicht)

- Gummikordel, etwa 30 cm

- 3 Knöpfe (nehmt flache Knöpfe, sonst könnte sich der "Stiel" ins Display drücken)

- Garn, Nähnadel, Schere, Papier, Schneiderkreide, Lineal und Geodreieck

(Wenn man ein Bügeleisen hat ist das gut, es geht aber auch ohne Bügeln...)

 

Als erstes machen wir einen Papierschnitt. Die Oberkante ist bei meiner Version 13,5 cm lang, die Seitenlänge ist 19 cm. An der unteren Kante werden die beiden Ecken abgerundet. (Wundert euch nicht, die Maße auf dem Foto sind anders, ich habe die Hülle erst etwas zu groß gemacht.)

Nun schneiden wir die Teile aus. Achtung: Bei Außen- und Innenstoff brauchen wir eine Nahtzugabe von einem cm, d.h. wir malen rund um den Papierschnitt die Linien in 1 cm Entfernung nochmal auf und schneiden die Teile auf dieser Linie aus, beim Filz brauchen wir keine Nahtzugabe.
Wir brauchen von jedem Stoff zwei Teile, also insgesamt sechs.

 Jetzt befestigen wir den Filz auf dem Innenstoff. Ich nähe dafür einmal rundherum, man könnte aber z.B. auch doppelseitiges Bügelflies verwenden. Hauptsache ist, dass der Filz und der Innenstoff verbunden werden.

 Beim nächsten Schritt werden die beiden Außenstoffteile und die beiden Innenstoffteile jeweils an einer Seitennacht zu einem Teil verbunden. Wir haben jetzt also insgesamt nur noch zwei Teile.

 Jetzt kommt der seltsame Teil. Ich habe ein mieses räumliches und abstraktes Vorstellungsvermögen, ich habe keinen Schimmer warum diese Art, die Hülle zusammenzunähen funktioniert, aber es klappt wenn man sich stur an diese Reihenfolge hält:
Wir legen die beiden Teile rechts auf rechts aufeinander und nähen Innen- und Außenstoff an der Oberkante zusammen. Wir haben jetzt also nur noch ein Teil.
Dann falten wir dieses Teil an der Seitenkante (an der, die wir schon vorhin zusammengenäht haben).
An der Unterkante des Innenstoffs markieren wir die "Stülpöffnung". Lasst diese lieber zu groß als zu klein, das macht das Stülpen gleich viel einfacher.
Jetzt nähen wir einmal rundherum, nur die Stülpöffnung bleibt offen.

 Jetzt wird gestülpt. Das heißt, wir ziehen alles was momentan auf der Innenseite liegt, durch die Stülpöffnung nach außen. Das erfordert etwas Kraft, da der Filz ziemlich unflexibel ist.

 Jetzt sollte eure Hülle etwa so aussehen:

Die Stülpöffnung nähen wir jetzt zu. Das geht am besten von Hand, aber keine Sorge wenn es nicht sehr ordentlich wird, diese Naht sehen wir vermutlich nie wieder. Dann wird ein letztes Mal gestülpt. Wir klappen jetzt nämlich den Außenstoff nach außen und den Innenstoff nach innen. Neht am besten ein stabiles Lineal oder ähnliches, um die Ecken richtig auszubeulen.

So, jetzt haben wir etwas, das schon ungefähr wie eine Kindlehülle aussieht, aber vermutlich ziemlich verkrumpelt ist. Darum bügeln wir das ganze jetzt und dann sieht die Hülle etwa so aus:

Jetzt brauchen wir nur noch einen Verschluss. Dafür markiert ihr zuerst auf der Rückseite, wo die Knöpfe, die die Gummikordel verdecken, sitzen sollen.

Dann macht ihr einen Knoten in ein Ende der Kordel und näht dieses Ende fest. Jetzt könnt ihr ausprobieren, wo der Verschlussknopf an der Vorderseite sitzen soll. Schneidet die Kordel entsprechend zu, macht einen Knoten und näht dieses Ende an der Rückseite fest. Die Stellen, wo ihr das Gummi festgenäht habt, könnt ihr mit den Knöpfen verdecken.

Als letztes näht ihr den Verschlussknopf an die Vorderseite.
Fertig! Ich hoffe, die Anleitung hilft euch und viel Spaß beim Selbernähen!

 

Pictures Behind Glass

A few months ago I bought a nice amulet with a tree on it. Now I have finally learned how to make my own amulets and have thus acchieved independence from the amulet-making industry....
The most difficult thing was to find out what these glass nuggets are called ("cabochon") in order to find a shop that sells them.
These two are a first experiment because I heard that some kinds of colours or inks don't work well with the glue and can get discoloured after some time. Because of that I will wait for some days before I make more of them in order to see whether there are any changes in colour.

The butterfly is a piece of scrapbook paper, the little devil - which is not as pale in reality but my camera cannot catch its true colour - is an inkjet copy from an illustration in a fairytale book. I sealed the printout from both sides with bookbinder's glue before I glued it on the cabochon, maybe this will prevent discoloration.