Things I learnt this summer

I haven't posted the "Things I loved in..." list for a few months but I plan to start again soon. However, I believe I have learnt quite a lot of useful things during the summer months so I am just posting a list of them:
1) How to operate a power drill
2) How to make "Maultaschen" (small dumplings, a bit like Italian ravioli)
3) How to make lemon squares (the best cake ever)
4) 3 chords on the ukulele (I hope more will follow soon)
5) That I still like reading
6) That more expensive nail polish is sometimes really better
7) That I can still do a somersault
8) That it is fun to go to a festival in the rain
9) That I am not an awful babysitter (only a not very good one)
10) What it is like to use the Nerobergbahn
11) How to sew leggins
and hopefully some other things which I cannot remember at the moment because they have already becomeso natural to me.

Some Things About Myself

I've been tagged by the wonderful Bronwen and although this whole tag-thing is a bit weird in my opinion, her questions are really interesting and creative and therefore I a cannot help but answer them. If you are not interested just move along...

The rules of this tag are:

1) Link back to the tagger.

2) Answer their ten questions.

3) Think of ten questions yourself.

4) Link back to ten more bloggers with less than 200 followers. 

I can't think of ten more questions and ten more bloggers, so I will only use five...

But first about Bronwen's questions:

1. Do you like stargazing? If yes, what’s your favourite constellation?
I am a bit ashamed to say that I am not interested in stars whatsoever. Although I can be enthusiastic about almost everything, stars are just not my cup of tea. I can admire them as some form of nature's background decoration but that's it.

 2. What would be your house in Hogwarts? Sure, it’s a question asked hundreds of times, but I’m still curious.
I'd like to think of myself as Ravenclaw, but I suspect that I would end up in Slytherin or Hufflepuff. Especially if the Sorting Hat catches me before breakfast I'd be put into Slytherin. After some coffee I'd make a good Hufflepuff.
 
3. How came your blog name to be?
I love the word "stuff" or "Zeugs" because doing stuff can mean everything. When I started this blog I was not really sure what I would do here thus I used a more unspecific title. I used my nickname first when I joined the Natron&Soda Forum. Since this used to be a place for people from the goth community and I am not one of them, I wanted a nickname that made this clear. Otherwise I would have felt like an imposter, so I chose the most un-goth nickname I could think of.

4. When you were little, what was it that you wanted to become when you’re grown up?
Lots of things. At one point I wanted to drive a garbage truck.

 
5. “What would you be if you were an animal?” is an old question. What would you be if you were a folklore creature?
Since I am a really optimistic person, maybe a phoenix. But I am not one for great gestures (like bursting into flame and being reborn from the ashes), so maybe I would be a Wolpertinger. 

6. What’s you favourite time of day, and why?
For things I want to do by myself like reading, crafting or even working it's morning, mostly between 8 and 12, because then I feel like the whole day with all its great opportunities is still in front of me. For socializing I prefer evenings when I have done all my daily chores and can spend as much time as I want with my friends. 

7. Hollywood or Broadway?
Hollywood.  

8. Nearly everyone has a field they’re sort of a specialist in (silly as it may be), if only in their circle of friends. What is yours?
As an English teacher, I am considered an expert in proofreading. If my friends were interested in knitting, they would know that I would gladly answer all their questions about it, but they aren't knitting so they will never know. Also, I know a lot about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

9. Big headphones or in-ears?
Neither.  

10. Do you like rainy days?
If the overall temperature is below 20 °C, yes. I like rainy days in Autumn but I detest the hot, humid summer rains.

Ok, I guess know it's my turn.
My questions are:
1) Which historical person would you like to meet? And what would you do if you met him or her?
2) Which superpower would you like to have?
3) Would you tell people about your special power or would you keep it a secret?
4) Did you ever watch a movie or read a book which you regretted afterwards? Why?
5) If you could choose among all places in the universe, fictional as well as real, where would you like to live?

I feel a bit uncomfortable with tagging people since I am not especially active in the blogging community, therefore this selection is rather random:
I tag
Agnes
Hana and Nria
Telfe
Morgain
and that's it....

How to make Sirup

And here is the recipe for the blackcurrant sirup I made on Monday. I found several totally different recipes on the internet and in the end I just improvised. So the numbers in this list are by no means definite, I guess the amount of sugar influences how long the sirup will keep but since I don't intend to store this for years it is not that important. Too much sugar, however, could turn the juice into jam instead of sirup.

I used 900 gr of blackcurrants, about 500 gr of sugar and the juice of two lemons.
First I cooked the currants in a large pot together with 200 ml of water until they were soft and mushy. Then I used the "Flotte Lotte", a useful gadget which presses the berries through a sieve in order to get the juice out, but if you don't have one you can pour the berries through a sieve lined with cloth. In the end I got about 700 ml of juice. I added the sugar, the lemon juice and 150 ml of water and cooked it for about 10 minutes without a lid.

The sirup tastes great if you dilute it with water (1 part of sirup to 4 parts of water) or you can eat it with icecream or pancakes. Have fun!

A Day in the Kitchen

Aren't these bottles nice?

Today I spent the entire day sorting out the kitchen cupboards and producing new stuff to put into them.The results are two bottles of blackcurrant sirup...

 ... two jars of garlic in oil...

... and seven jars of currant jam. I didn't take any pictures of them because there are already too many pictures of jam on this blog.

A Bag I Made

This is not the spectacular project I mentioned in one of my last posts, it is just something I made recently as a birthday present for my brother.

I think it's pretty good although I destroyed the first clasp by accidentally hitting it with a hammer...

Fun, fun, fun!

The summer holidays have arrived. I' ve just come back from my holiday in Manchester and it was so much fun. The weather was great (although the British people are suffering from the "atrocious heatwave" - actually, we had about 26 degrees Celsius...) and I spent four days exploring, going to museums (I especially loved the Police Museum), shopping and having lots of cake.
These are some pictures of the "Northern Quartier" of Manchester.

And here you see my dinner back in my hotel room. When I travel by myself I like to save money by eating stuff from the supermarket in th evenings... (Don't worry, I didn't eat all of it. Since my room had a fridge, I could keep something for the next day.)

Meanwhile in the real world...

Since I haven't posted anything in quite some time, just a brief summary of the things that kept me busy.

First there were many celebrations connected with school. My first class graduated from school and thus I had to attend the graduation ceremony and the Abiball, as well as having a private good bye-party with my students. All these events were great fun and I am so proud of my students!

I haven't shown any creative projects for a while and the reason is a project that has turned out much more ambitious than I thought it would be. It is a lot of work and does not look very spectacular at the same time, so I will only show pictures when it is finally finished.

I have also made some jam before the end of the strawberry season, and I started to sew some steampunk-inspired clothing.

So there are things to come, the summer holidays have started and I hope to show some pictures of my finished projects very soon.