Blog Anniversary

Oh boy, I totally didn't notice that my blog had its first birthday earlier this month! At the beginning of June last year I wrote my very first blog post! I just noticed it now when I looked for an older post. 
So - Happy blogiversary to me! ;)

And because I finally gave the baby blanket to my NIECE (after two nephews, we now have a GIRL in the family) I can show it to you here. We already visited the little bundle of joy when she was fresh out of the hospital and a mere 5 days old. Of course she's the prettiest baby I've ever seen! 

drops baby merino. I love the colors!

the first rows...

nearly finished!

Our little girl loves the blanket, her mother sends me pictures of her wrapped up in it constantly, but because I have to respect her privacy, you get the baby blanket pictures sans the baby.
I saw a similar pattern at little woollie and immediately fell in love with it! I started the blanket in January. At that time we didn't know if it would be a boy or a girl, so I tried to make it gender-neutral. And a rainbow is always nice. 
I used Drops Baby Merino wool and I loved it. It's not the smoothest or softest wool, but it's a natural fiber (which was important to me and the mother) and you can throw it in the waching machine which - in my opinion - is an important point when it comes to baby blankets!
I have lots of the colored yarn left so right now I'm thinking of making myself a colorful rainbow-ripple-cushion cover with it. I really fell in love with that colors and with Drops yarn. Won't be the last time that I'm working with it. In fact, I'm already working on a new Drops pattern which I'm sure I'm able to show you soon! :)

any tips as to why the edge curls up so much? What did I do wrong?

close up of the colors. I love those neat rows!

close up of the edge. a little rainbow!

Happy Weekend, everyone! 
Xoxo

P.S.: I'm thinking about subscribing to simply crochet magazine. Has anyone of you experience with a subscription outside the UK???

Taking Stock: June

Making : the first top.
Cooking : according to our meal plan that we made on Sunday. A MEAL PLAN! We try to save money and still eat and cook fresh everyday.
Drinking : Water with lemon and mint. So yummy.
Reading: T.C. Boyle - The Women. I read it at least once a year since I bought it in Paris in 2011. You can read more about it here
Wanting: nicer weather. It's raining and cold and dark.
Looking: at baby crochet patterns. We have a new niece since last Monday. After two sons my sister in law had her first baby girl! We already visited her, she's sooooo cute!
Playing: with ideas on how we get more space into our cramped and small appartment. I think a trip to Ikea might be necessary.
Deciding: Wether or not we're going to buy some new furniture for our appartment to get more space.
Wishing: that summer would come back for the weekend!
Enjoying: the memories of a wonderful weekend!
Waiting: for the next wonderful weekend.
Liking: the fact that I seem to find a nice work-life-balance. Finally.
Wondering: if we will ever build that house we're talking about all the time...
Loving: my new niece. I saw her, when she was just five days old. And she LOVES the blanket that I made for her. I will show it to you in a separate post.
Buying: Summer clothes. Because I had none. And now I can't wear them because it's too cold.
Watching: Orange is the new black, Season three. And Gilmore Girls. Whenever my man's not at home.
Hoping: that one day I will have kids of my own that are as sweet as my nephews and my niece!
Marvelling: on a lot of knitting designs. Time for me to conquer those needles!
Cringing: at the thought of the state of my appartment. Things need to be done!
Needing: sun! warmth!
Questioning: my money spending situation. There's so much room for improvement!
Smelling: lemon and mint in the water next to me.
Wearing: long trousers. a jacket. I would rather wear sandals and dresses.
Noticing: that it's good for me if I have repeating structures in my day. I managed to cook every evening this week and did a little housework every day, so my weekends well be completely free. I like my new system!
Knowing: that life is good!
Thinking: about what to do with my friend from Hamburg, who will visit me in September.
Admiring: my new niece. Babies always amaze me. The miracle of life!
Sorting: through stuff at home. We need to declutter!
Getting: in shape again. I went for a run yesterday, after a month long break. Exhausting but I felt so good afterwards! I hope I'm back on track now!
Bookmarking: crochet clothes pattern. I need to make more things to wear!
Disliking: the political situation in Austria right now. I really fear that something bad will happen!
Giggling: with my man. always nice to have a good laugh!
Feeling: happy and content.
Snacking: dried fruit and nuts. I love it.

What are you up to these days?

Travelling Austria: Stift Vorau

It was fathers day last Sunday here in Austria. I thought long and hard about which gift I wanted to give my father as he is - as any man in my opinion - complicated when it comes to presents. He has everything he needs and the things he wants are too expensive for me to get him. So I decided to give him something that money can't buy: TIME.

I called him a week earlier and told him, that for fathers day, I wanted to do something with him. What we would be doing would be his choice. We could go to the cinema. We could get dinner. We could go for a walk or a swim or a bike ride. Whatever he wants. 
In the end he decided that he wanted to do a little road trip with me. Getting out of the house for one day, spending time together, just me and him. So we drove two hours to Styria, where we visited the beautiful Stift Vorau. It's an old monastery. My dad visited it about 35 years ago and since then always wanted to see it again. We made a tour around it which ended in one of the most beautiful libraries I've ever seen. If my man and I ever get around to build that house we are talking about all the time - I expect my personal library to look rather similar to this one. I'm already buying tons of books to get it filled. 
Anyway - enough words. Here are some pictures. Enjoy.

Travelling Austria: Green Lake, Tragöß, Styria

Hello lovely readers. How are you? Did you have a nice weekend? I have to tell you, my weekend was absolutely fabolous! But let me tell you everything about it! 

My weekend actually started on Thursday! It was a holiday on Thursday which meant - no work! How nice to have only a three-day-work-week. I could really get used to that!
Anyway, since both my man and I had the day off and since the weather was absolutely amazing, we decided to visit his grandmother. She has an amazing garden - flowers everywhere! We helped her get her pool ready for the summer. Not entirely an unselfish act since we like to come to her to swim in the pool! But it was a nice and fun afternoon! My man's cousin and his girlfriend joined us in helping her. While the men worked in the pool, us girls picked fresh strawberries. Which were devoured right there, without washing them, still warm from the sun. No strawberry from the supermarket can compete with that. 

the pool and HALF (!) of my grandmother-in-laws backyard!

her amazing flowers!

and the best strawberries ever!

I took the day off on Friday because I really needed a long and relaxing weekend. My man had to work, so I had a whole day for myself. I spend the morning finishing the baby blanket for my sister in law (3 more days until she's due, I'm so curious if it's gonna be a boy or a girl!!) and decided to spend the afternoon at the lake. I always dreamed about living near some water (lake, sea, river...whatever!) and now that I do, I hardly ever spend time at the lake. Which is a real shame, since it's just a 10 minute bike ride (with my gorgeous new bike) from my appartment to the lake. So I packed my bags and a really big book and did nothing but bathe in the sun (and the water) and read and eat ice cream all day long. What a beautiful time I had. I should do this more often!

a little duck that waddled around me the whole afternoon!

My man fulfilled his life-long dream and bought himself a Harly Davidson motorcycle two weeks ago. He loves it and as I love riding along with him, we decided to make a quick weekend-trip to Styria. (route here).
So we strapped our tent and our sleeping bags to the Harley and drove off to the Green Lake. As we arrived rather late on Saturday, we decided to spend the night at a camping site and visit the Green Lake first thing in the morning.

"our" Harley. And everything we needed for our trip strapped on the sissy-bar.

The camping site was gorgeous! It was just a small lawn near a small lake. There were cows all around as munching on the green grass. We put up our tent, drank a nice, cold and refreshing beer and settled in early as we were really tired from the day. 

Next thing in the morning we packed everything in and drove 3 km to the Green Lake. The Green Lake is surrounded by the Hochschwab Mountains. The name "Green Lake" originated because of its emerald green water. The clean and clear water comes from the snowmelt. During the winter, the lake is only 1-2 meters deep. During spring, when the temperature rises and the snow melts, the lake reaches a maximum depth of 12 meters!! It is very popular with divers as during its peak seasons, wandering trails, benches and trees can be found under water!

We had a little stroll around the lake before we got back on our Harley and drove back home. I won't write anything further, just let the pictures speak for themselves!

Did you have a nice (maybe long) weekend as well? How did you enjoy this fabulous weather?

The Year in Books: May

Oh boy, another month has passed? How did that happen? Where did May go? What did I do in the past 30 days? 
I read a lot, that's for sure. Though this time I have "only" three books to show you. "Only" because two of these three books are more about thousand pages thick. Each. So page-wise I read a lot. Book wise...well let's get started:

(As always, linking up with Laure from Circle of Pine Trees and her wonderful idea of The Year in Books)

Ken Follet - Sturz der Titanen (Fall of the Titans)

I read this book once before I went on my big journey around the world. I always had a big interest in history. As some of you might know I studied German literature some years ago. And literature is always deeply connected with history. So whenever I learned about an epoche, a time, a genre, I also learned about the historical circumstances regarding that certain period. 
Ken Follet manages to combine fiction with historical facts. I love that kind of writing! You have these stories about people that are fictional - but you know that stories like these might have happened in the past. And while you read this page turning story about a small number of people, Follet provides you with the historical facts about the first World War. 

If you haven't heard about Ken Follet and his century trilogy here are some words about it:
Fall of the Titans tells the reader about the circumstances and the historical and political events that eventually lead to the outbreak of World War 1. The story is told via several positions: Families and protagonists in England, Germany and Russia have to deal with the oncoming crisis that eventually draaws in the whole world in one cruel and bloody war. The protagnoists always cross each other during the 1000 pages that seem to fly by rather quickly. While the people in the book are fictional, the historical circumstances are real and so you learn about history while reading an interesting novel full of love and hate and life and death.

Vea Kaiser - Makarionissi oder Die Insel der Seligen

Vea Kaiser is an Austrian author. She's my age and she also studied German in Vienna. I don't personally know her but I'm sure that we had to come across each other at the University. Anyway, Makarionissi is Vea's second book. I talked about her first one, Blasmusikpop here. I loved her first novel and so of course I was really curios about her second one!
Makarionissi tells the tale of a Greek family throughout several generations. Kaiser writes beautifully and funny about the mistake a grandmother made and how here grandchildren had to live with the consequences. I won't tell you more about it as it's a complex story which starts in Greece, switches over to Austria only to come back to Greece in the end.
It wasn't quite as good as her first one but then it's said that the second book for an author is the hardest. Blasmusikpop was such a huge success here in Austria, that Makarionissi is a really, really, really good book as it has to live up such high expectations. If I know about translations, I let you know!

Ken Follet - Winter der Welt (Winter of the World)

This is the second book of the Trilogy and it deals now with the Second World War. The main protagonists from the first book now make place for their children. Still, the maintaining connections between the countries remain and so a lot of familiar people appear here.


Now you can guess which book I'm reading right now! ;)

What did you read in the last month? Do you have any good summer book recommendations? I really need a vacation novel! :)