Switz Xmas Cookies

I have just recovered from this crazy cold. Just in time, it seems since it was high time we started our traditional Xmas cookies bakery. So we did and it was just so much fun as you can tell by the pictured mess. 

I've got the flu

I don't know how or where I got it but I'm doing pretty badly. It started yesterday in the morning. I have a mean sore throat and bad headaches, also some rhinitis which is the most tolerable of my ailments. I'm not too sure if ailment is the right expression since it's nothing serious. I mean, I do feel pretty awful but I guess I shall feel a lot better, soon. Hopefully tomorrow already. That would be real nice.
To get back some feeling of self efficacy, I have been drinking lots of hot water with slivered fresh ginger and dried peppermint leaves from my mother's garden. I guess you could call that tea until I pour some seabuckthorn (Hippophaë rhamnoides) jelly in it. Sounds strange, right? But I got pretty much used to it and now actually like it. Seabuckthorn contains lots of vitamine C and the jelly also some sugar so I makes a great brewage for the sick.
Just wished I wasn't too sick to get any sewing done. Sniffle. Oh, well.. I'll just wait and drink tea as the Swiss say.

My friend's trash is now my stash

Don't you just love rhymes? I do. And I love myself the newly organized view of below my working surface, where I never dared to inspect because it never was neat. But the other day, I was visiting a dear friend of mine and next to her door, she had piled up those wheeled plastic boxes. She explained, she was going to toss them. No. Way. I had to have them. I didn't even know yet when and where but I was pretty sure they were going to be used. Or maybe just one? Anyways, the next day, I realized they were all just perfect to fit below my sewing machine and now it's just so much easier to get hold of all the boxes and not having to lift them in a crouching position. Did I mention, I took them home by train and bike? What a journey!

Going mobile

Actually, I started this post in the train. I thought I had finally figured out how to blog with my android phone in the train. Thought this was great since most of my pics are taken with my cell phone anyways so I guessed this made sense.

I downloaded and installed the official blogger app. It looked quite nice to handle. So I went and took a pic from the interior of the train. Second class to first and a lil shaky coz the train was just rattling. Then I wrote a mini text and wanted to upload it. But the photo would be come lengthwise and couldn't be changed to heightwise. Very frustrating and annoying. And then, I couldn't publish the whole thing. It would have been so nice but no. Maybe I'll try some other time when I am really really bored in the train. Of course, I will not withhold the photo of the interior of the train, so here it is.

Ketchup Spill

Tablerunner

Usually, this would concern some topic about my man. But he was away on a business trip. So this time, I did it myself. Opened a new Ketchup bottle by removing the seal slowly and carefully... and holding the bottle itself so firmly that when the seal came off... well, see for yourself.

I shall be more patient with my man on the occasion of his next mishap.

Another Baby Quilt

So here's this baby quilt I've made for my best friends nice/nephew to come. Her sister, the mother, knows the gender of the baby but won't tell. Hence the green and equal use of red and blue in my quilt. The birthdate her sister has been given is 11.11.11 so we'll see if that will be it. But, for any case the quilt is finished. I machine appliqued and handquilted it. The design is a combination of 3 different patterns i found in the internet and then changed them to my gusto. As soon as the baby's born, I shall make a little patch for the back with the baby's name and the aunt's name and then my best friend will have to handstitch it because I will be sending it to her by mail. The quilt is already in her possession and we had a very nice dinner with lots of delicious wine at her house to celebrate it. She has the quilt lying on her bed everyday and she is very happy with the result. Me, too :-)

in progress

after pinning

A Walk around the Neighborhood

This weekend my partner and I didn't have a lot of time to ourselves so we just had a little walk around our neighborhood. We walked up to some farm, where we bought really good apples and pears. Hadn't we been by foot, I would also have bought some locally produced flour, but I wasn't too much into carrying the whole 5kg bag the whole time.

Anyways, we walked around and it was like we were in some kind of adventure park or zoo, there was so much to be seen and discovered. And all the lovely animals (even exotic ones!) were very nice, too.
On the way to the farm, we already met about 4 cats. Some stayed, some ran away. Then, just before we got to the farm, of course there were some cows, this one looked either really hungry or really mad, see for yourself.

Then, after we got to try (!) and buy the fruits, we met this one kitty. By the way she wanted to be only around my partner, I bet it was a female, I didn't check but this picture tells it all, doesn't it?





And last, but not least, just a few blocks away from our house, we spotted this exotic friend. I thought it was walking pretty fast, but after we were standing there marvelling, the owner looked out of the window and we had a friendly chat.

What a lovely walk!

Lots of new Projects

I have just read my last post from December 2008 and I really can't remember what secret project I was talking about in there. Probably some gift for someone.

So I am not going to whine about how sad it makes me when I see abandoned blogs and now it's happend to mine again and I shall never again do so. The thing is i have no idea if I will be sticking with posting or not. But let's surely hope so and time will tell.
Looking back, many things have changed. We have moved to another city. Our beloved cat passed away. She was old and we knew it was going to happen some day but we still miss her every single day. We have not gotten another cat.

Patchwork wise, I think practice has helped me getting somewhat better. I can now actually tell if a project is too difficult for me or doable. This is very nice and motivating.

One good example is this really nice quilt top I got at ebay and it had been started by some elder lady and she never got to finish it so her family placed it in ebay since nobody was interested in quilting. So I purchased it and when, after a long journey from the USA to Switzerland, I got it and instantly fell in love with it. It's called Tree of Life and must be from the 70s. Here's a picture of one corner. Since I didn't think I was going to be able to handapplique it, i started appliqueing it by machine. I have to say that my sewing machine has a really nice applique stitch. On first look you wouldn't think it isn't stitched by hand. Nevertheless, it wasn't going good at all and after several frustrating moments, I packed it nicely and kept it in a drawer, where I keep other UFOs.
And now comes the good part: This year, I have no idea why, I suddenly felt a strong urge to look at it again and when I did unpack it, I fell in love with it all over again. And this time I was more courageous: I tried and handstitched the tiny pieces. And it worked. Hello, Tree of Life. It might get me a lifetime to ever finish this, but you and I are <3.

So there's that. And remember this baby quilt? Well it's been delivered to my sister-in-law and she just threw it in some drawer and it was never seen again. Guess she didn't like it because it was handmade. She prefers (expensive) shop bought stuff. Oh well.
But the good thing is that meanwhile my lovely niece is big enough to terrorize her mother with what she wants to wear. And since she's into princess-stuff, I made her this dress. And she loved it right away. Lucky me, lucky my niece :-)

So I will not let this post get too long and boring, therefore wishing myself a big welcome back to your blog! and see you soon!