Month: November 2016

Winter Bucket List 2016

- Tobia 4 Comments

It’s my favorite time of the year: Winter. And winter starts with the first snow or the 1. Advent. What ever comes first…

winter bucket list

It’s most whimsical season and it’s high time to make a winter bucket list. Listing all the fun stuff I am going to do and what I am looking forward too. Let’s get started:

  1. Taking a walk while it is snowing.
  2. Getting up early and taking my camera to capture the untouched fresh snow in the park or the cemetery.
  3. Cooking chestnut soup. I found this recipe I really want to try.
  4. Going ice skating on the lake with hubby. Maybe take dad too. He is crazy about ice hockey.
  5. Breath! And enjoy the cold winter air that smells of ice, snow and freshness and makes your lungs hurt a bit. It feels so cleaning when breathing winter air.
  6. Making snow lanterns. My dad used to make them in the garden, light a candle and then we could watch them from the window. A couple years ago my sister and I made some on Christmas Eve and it was magical.
  7. Watching Gilmore Girls. Nothing better than snow, coffee and the two of them.
  8. Buying a Christmas Tree.
  9. Decorating the apartment for Advent. Maybe making some new decorations. But also getting out my snowballs, my pine cones and my little wooden houses.
  10. Snuggling up with a blanket, hot tea and reading all day long.
  11.  Have a Starbucks Toffee Nut Latte.
  12. Spend an evening with my former boss now friend at the Christmas market drinking mulled wine and chat away.
  13. Listening to the Christmas Oratorio while baking a ton of Christmas Cookies.
  14. Having a Spa Day with myself. 12 hours relaxing, steaming, reading, dreaming and cat-nipping.

Pfff, so I guess I will be busy.

Join the fun and link your list!

Happy winter,

Tobia

And I’ll link this to sonntagsglück, nice little things.

My Favorite Instagram Accounts

- Tobia 2 Comments

Good Morning!
It’s Friday and the weekend almost upon us. Yeah! And you probably spent a ton of time on Instagram on your weekends, right? Please say yes and tell me I am not the only one scrolling my hours away…

Anyway during my 100 day challenge I found a ton of new Instagram Accounts to follow and figured why not make a post about the people/accounts I most like, the ones that inspire and the ones that make me miss adventure.

  1. Denise Lomas – I am truly in love with Denise’s work. There is only one word describing her art for me: whimsical. I never understood why people would want to buy art but I would get a tiny piece of Denise in a heartbeat. It just makes me happy seeing it in my feed. And I am catching myself wondering how she manages to make those ink backgrounds. But see for yourself and follow her.

  1. Jen Lashek / willowmarkworks – Jen is another artist and painter. I love her delicate watery paintings of flowers and ferns. And she has gorgeous patterns too. And then it isn’t too bad that  it is mainly blues and pinks and she lives in Vancouver.
    https://www.instagram.com/willowmarkworks/
  2. Emily Mann / inkindigo – This is the third account with blues. And gold. Emily paints on paper with rich blue ink and golden pens. But she also makes clay ornaments and frames. I love looking at them.
  3. Alex Strohl – Beware of his account it my induce a huge wanderlust. Many of his pictures show the rough outdoor of the north west of the United States and I have lost my heart a bit there as you know. The beauty is just breathtaking.
  4. Jenny / Jenn Adores – When I look at Jenny’s pictures it is always calming my mind. Her pictures are white and clean and beautiful. I could never have such a great apartment/house but I adore (pun intended) looking at them. But maybe the best part are her hashtags. They are hilarious and tell the real story.
  5. I have this thing with floors – Well, I do too. So it’s fun to see what people find around this crazy planet.
  6. Elise Cripe | Gettoworkbook – I love lists. I love planning. And I love sneaking a peak into other peoples planers. And Elise developed this amazing book and shares lots of fun pictures in use. Even though I don’t own one (yet) it is inspiring to look at.
  7. Remy | ragdoodles – Some little fun in my feed. It just makes me smile and most the time it involves coffee. Can’t do anything wrong there…

Now it’s your turn. What is your favorite account to follow. Please let me know because you can never have enough inspiration and pretty pictures in your feed.

Happy scrolling,

Tobia

I submit this list to the Freutag and Fridays are for Friendships linkup.

Challenging myself and being creative #100daysofcraftaliciouspatterns

- Tobia 4 Comments

Do you follow me on Instagram? If so, you might have seen I challenged myself for the last months and drew a little pattern for the last 100 days. Here you can check them out #100daysofcraftaliciouspattern.

I followed Elise on her endeavor of doing 100 pep talks and it was just so inspiring. Then I listened to her podcast about her journey. Immediately I knew I needed to start my own project. I could feel it in my gut that it would be right and somehow I also kinda knew I will manage to write the #100 on one of my paper slips.

And I am so glad I started my 100 day challenge. It was tough at times. I made a tiny list of my take aways. Because who doesn’t love lists…

  1. 100 different patterns is tough. I felt like I was drawn to paint similar patterns more than once.
  2. Circles, dots and triangles reappeared often.
  3. I like the bold pens better than the really fine ones.
  4. The drawing took place mostly right before bed. However that was more because toward the end it became a chore…
  5. The best patterns were created when I didn’t pressure myself (surprise right here, no?) and when I wasn’t tired and wanted to head to bed.
  6. Sometimes I felt like I didn’t give it my all.
  7. When I didn’t come up with an idea/inspiration I leaved through a magazine or looked around my craft lab.
  8. Sometimes inspiration hit me totally unprepared. Like my migraine inspired pattern – one of my faves.
  9. I came across a ton of interesting Instagram accounts during this challenge. I wrote about them here.

So here are my top ten patterns.

100 day challenge my top 10

And apparently those top three were the most loved ones on Instagram.

100 day challenge top 3 instagram

What is your fave? And have you ever done a challenge like this?

Happy day to you,

Tobia

PS: I just realized I must have messed up the count because I only got 98 pictures uploaded on Instagram and missing #15 and #58. Mhm… so did I really do the project or did I fail?!

PPS: And since this is another DIY and pattern project I will link up with Muster Mittwoch, Wow me Wednesday and creadienstag.

WOCHEN(GLÜCK)-RÜCKBLICK :: MY HAPPINESS REVIEW #22

- Tobia 8 Comments

Yeahh for the weekend. I really looked forward to this one. I need some couch time. The last week was so busy.

Hamburger Hafen

Lets see. It all started out with a trip to Hamburg for Blogst 2016. But first I spend 3 hours chatting away with a family friend before I made my way o the hotel.

It was my first Blogst conference and I wanted to go for the last years. 2016 I got lucky and managed to snag a ticket. And I was excited. And nervous. I don’t do really good in environments where I do not know a single soul. I tend to hide and read a book instead. That is what happened during the networking event Friday night. I showed up, I felt uncomfortable after a short while and so I disappeared and read in my room. But I was annoyed with myself because I did want to meet new people who share the love of blogging.

So next try on Saturday and I went down to breakfast even though I didn’t want to eat. And I met Dana who I already knew from a lettering workshop I attended in 2015. We ended up spending lot of time together and it was fun.

The conference itself was fun too. After my not so impressed experience in 2015 at Blogtacular I just had low expectations for the sessions. And being part of the online community (in my private and business life) I didn’t expect to be blown away with new knowledge. Still I learned a few things. But my main focus was to get back into the blogging habit, find new inspiration and meeting people. And I did talk to Lisa, Annalena, Nina, Sandra, Jessica, Julia and Sabine and a few others I am sure. Also I wanted to get a bit more insight on how cooperations work and how other bloggers are handling that.

So it was nice to have a few sponsors set up and getting to talk with them. I talked long with Schwartau. They also provided the most yummiest Gingerbread Cupcakes. Food and Beverages for pretty good in general. Lunch was mainly salad (sponsored by Bonduelle) and sandwiches which was fine by me but I didn’t get a sandwich the first day and didn’t have breakfast. Well I had a few cupcakes more. The plates and cups were sponsored by RICE and we could take ours at the end of the conference. I might keep my cup but will give my plate to my godchild for Christmas.

food at blogst 2016

My main focuses for the conference have a big check mark. Monday I sat down and wrote a blogpost, I also had a major inspiration overload and scribbled down lots of ideas. Wednesday I made an editorial calendar for the rest of the year and took a bunch of pictures. I am so motivated. I will not meet my years goal but I am (hopefully) back.

However this was only the weekend. I also spent a lot of time with my photography courses. I decided to sign up for a 9 months long class and a couple of special topic classes. One is low light photography where those pictures where taken.

low light photography

As you can see I have been busy. What have you been up too? I’ll  be heading over to Denise and Andrea to see how your week was. Will I meet you there?

Happy weekend

Tobia

Cozy French Knitted Advent Wreath :: Tutorial

- Tobia 20 Comments
french knitted adevent wreath

It’s this time of the year…

The crazy wreath making time of the year. I was going to show you a different one from what you see right now. The one I planned (for two years), made and then I realized I can’t show you because my mom reads along… So I had to come up with another idea.

Looking around in my chaos that is my craft lab the idea of a cozy advent wreath hit me. Well maybe it was because I am all crazy about my french knitting lately. So why not combine the two and make a nice simple french knitted advent wreath, right?

Let’s make this french knitted advent wreath:

1. You need: a wreath form, glue (gun), wool and a french knitting tool.

2. First you have to make your yearn thread (or as I call them sausage). I used a ball of 50 meter yarn for a xx cm wreath form.

3. Decide your layout. You could wrap it around the form or you could layer it starting in the middle. I decided on the latter.

french knitted advent wreath details

4. Next one is simple. Glue to the form. You can pull the thread a bit if you need. I did that towards the end because I thought it might not be enough. In the end I was left with a bit extra to make the little bow.

5. Time for decoration and candle attaching. You need four nails, candles and deco material to your liking.

6. I clipped of the nail heads with pliers. Then I heated the nail over a candle flame and drove them into the candle. I learned that the candle will not break as easily if you heat the nail. Due to the wick it is often tough to place it directly in the center. If you manage that would be preferable so that the candle will be straight on your wreath. Otherwise it could be a bit tilted.

french-knitted-adevent-wreath-details

Now comes the fun part of decorating your wreath. I already liked the clean look of the braided style of the thread so I just added a few sparkles by glueing little bells onto the wreath. (As you can see I didn’t use the lavender ribbon I originally intended.)

And done.

french-knitted-adevent-wreath_

As this wreath is made of wool and tall candles it’s really nothing I want to leave unattended in a room. So maybe I would add some metal candle holder in a future project.

Now I am curious. Have you made your advent wreath already? What does it look like? Please leave a link if it is on your blog/Instagram. I always love looking at other creations.

Lovely crafting y’all,

Tobia

Need more ideas for wreathes? Check out the 2015 Snow Wreath, 2014 Snowball Star Wreath or the 2013 Walnut Wreath. Still not enough? Here are some collections of inspirations with different themes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Submitted to creadienstag, Handmade on Tuesday, Dienstagsdinge, Herzlich eingeladen, Herzblut, sonntagsglück and Kreativas.