not here

Dear readers,
for today I had planned to write a post with a bit of musing about not publishing posts in quite a while (having a rough time, mostly mentally speaking) and why I didn't write about it (too public; I kind of envy the people who write a lot of very private thoughts and get very interesting and supporting responses and discussions; but I couldn't do so) and musings about me and my reasons for blogging (focusing my attention on the good things in my life through writing, picture publishing and your comments). Of course I wanted to embellish this post with some photos, especially since yesterday I managed to pull myself a bit out of the not-so-happy-state.

But no nice post today - life got in my way. I'm very concerned about the state of health of a girl-friend (77 yrs). I spent all evening with her children talking and making plans how we could convince her seeing a doctor about last night problems. And stop her from driving her car. Quite frightening and embarrassing.

Tomorrow I'll go on a business trip. So no blogging for at least the coming week and weekend.

:-Tally-:

.

me - my game with flickr

In blogland this fun game goes around and here are the rules:
Go to flickr.com
Type into the search the answer to the following questions.
Choose a picture only from the first page that opens.
Copy the url of the picture and
paste it into the mosaic maker.
You than can upload your mosaic to flickr and/or whatever you got.

The credits for the chosen pictures you see when you click on the mosaic.

Here are the questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

I like it how my mosaic really is me, so not only the ansers to the questions: colorful, my wish for vastness, ocean, and more.

Enjoy and leave me a notice if you created a mosaic. They are also fun to look at.

*****

In Blogland kursiert gerade ein Spiel und hier sind die Regeln:
Gehe zu flickr.com
Tippe in die Suche die Antworten zu den folgenden Fragen.
Suche dir ein Bild nur von der ersten Seite, die sich öffnet, aus.
Kopiere die url-Adresse des Bildes und
füge sie im Mosaik-Macher ein.
Dein Bild kannst du dann in flickr oder sonstwo (glaube ich jedenfalls) hochladen.

Die Herkunft der Bilder siehst du, wenn du auf mein Mosaik klickst.

Hier sind die Fragen:
1. dein Vorname
2. dein Lieblingsessen
3. Auf welche Schule bist du gegangen?
4. Lieblingsfarbe
5. welche Berühmtheit bewunderst du
6. Lieblingsgetränk
7. Traumferien
8. Lieblingsnachtisch
9. Was willst du sein, wenn du erwachsen bist ;-)
10. Was liebst du am meisten im Leben
11. ein Wort, um dich zu beschreiben
12. dein flickr-Name (wenn ich nicht meine Bilder sowieso bei flickr hätte, würde ich meinen blog-Name angeben)

Ich finde es schon interessant, wie das Mosaik mich spiegelt: bunt, Weite, Wasser und mehr.

Viel Spaß und falls du ein Mosaik gepostet hast, hinterlasse mir gerne eine Nachricht. Ich schaue mir sie nämlich gerne an. :-)

So many ideas

The last weeks I have been flooded with so many ideas for creating - it has now gotten so much that my sleep gets quite influenced. Not only that I don't sleep enough hours, my mind is rambling.
For sure it has to do with the relaxing christmas vacations after a fall full of problems and is due to the fact that I had more time than usual due to physical causes. I was on sick leave for a week and couldn't do any sport at all for some weeks.
Most of my ideas are still ideas, or are in the planning state or have become works in progress in the different states of completion. Probably most of you, my dear readers, know what I'm talking about.
Many hours I spent at my notebook, dwelling in all your beautiful blogs, marveling at all those pictures on flickr or I go through the staple of books I brought from the library when I knew I was home-bound for some time.

One of the non-private blogs I discovered in January is from the lovely french mag Marie Claire Idees. This magazine is one of my favorite souveniers from France. I don't like all that's in it, same for the blog. Sometimes it's a bit too sweet for my taste. But before blogland it was THE eye-candy for me - and candy is allowed to be sweet. :-)
Having a MCI in my hand meant I'm in vaction, I'm in the French Alps, I'm in the Provence, I'm at the most beautiful ocean and climbing spots or other parts of South France. (Could be there maybe forever.)

Finally here is the picture of a treat to myself blogged. After a doctor appointment in Hamburg I had a quick trip to a bead shop and found the most beautiful beads I can think of in the moment (and are affordable for a quick treat). They are from Svarowski and called crystal pearls. I like their non-obtrusive shine and their subtle hues. Some displayed necklaces inspired me to make myself a flying-pearl-necklace and so I did right after coming home. Good, otherwise this project might have gotten buried with all my so many ideas.
It looks lovely in real and matches most of my clothes perfect. The stones are from the gorgious beach where we spent most of our Analusion vacations.

I planned to write a tutorial for this blog, because it is an appropriate piece if one wants to begin with making jewelry. But later I found super tutorials online already so here are the links:
Perlenpaula shows exactly the way my necklace is done. On this page you find all the basics with very clear pictures. Both are in German but the pictures should be self explaining, I hope. "Quetschperlen" are crimps. If you have a question you are most welcome to mail me.

Besides crafting there is my everlasting wish to improve my little Photoshop and DTP- skills. For this and other reasons I deseperately need a new notebook (my good old one is bursting!!!) but I can't find any that I like. Just in case you have an idea: I want a non-glare display, a pretty case (not this shining black that is in fashion here right now), it must be very quite and has to be for Windows (no, I'm not a MS-fan, but I'm working with Windows in my job and can't separate between job and private a lot of times). I won't use it for games, but has to have a lot of ram for the graphic tasks.


(PS. I have a question-mark in my brain and maybe somebody can take it away: In my eyes the letters in the first paragraph are more apart, so that the words are better to read. All other paragraphs are slightly different. I can't find any difference in the html-code though. ????)

Knitting in a knit-along

This is what kept me away from blogging, away from sleeping, from being fit for my fulltime job, from household duties .....

When enrolling in SpringShawlSurprise I imagined myself doing a lot of relaxing knitting (blogged here) , sometimes figuring out harder parts of the pattern. But no, clue 1 was not relaxing and clue 2 let me doubt on my sanity ;-) ) Knitting two rows, finally being happy with myself about not giving up only to discover the next mistake.
Being ready to go on with mistakes, almost being ready to quit - only to go back the next morning, reknitting the last rows and going on.

It was worth it and here is the result at the end of clue 3:

What really kept me going was the community. I love the feeling being connected with friendly people all over the world, knitting, helping each other, struggling, going on again, learning from their mistakes, learning about themselves.

My goal for the first clues in January included being on schedule to enjoy this community without spoiling my surprise when other are posting their pictures. And I know myself, once I'm behind I tend to fall even more behind, maybe to the point where this projects gets crowded into the drawer with all other ufo's (unfinished objects).

At one point of my struggle I was thankful for pictures, that showed how it should come out. To help other I posted more pictures with details. If you go to my flickr account you can, if you want, click on the photo you are interested in. Next you can choose "All Sizes" above the photo.

As you can see in the first picture I played around with my camera to honor the beauty of Lul's pattern.

Blogging is the joy of bringing together my interests in travel, craft, photography and internet skills. So yesterday I practiced taking photos with a narrow depth of field. (That topic would be worth another blog-post, for now I refer you to Lolly's article.)

Ravelry

Instead of writing a post in this blog as planned and needed (yes, I do want to keep it up although I'm not posting frequently) I played with my new toy. Finally I received my invitation to Ravelry, a site for knitter/crocher to communicate and organise.

There are so many possibilities nowadays to connect via Internet, a lot of fun, but also the danger of getting lost. And of neglecting to necessary other things one wants to do. Besides Ravelry I got some invitations for Facebook.

I wonder how other persons are blogging long posts with many pictures almost everyday. If I'm on my notebook in my private time I spent so much time already reading all those beautiful, inspiring blogs and sites that I have hardly anytime writing myself. I bet, I'm not the only one. ;-)