2!!

So, before I don't blog because I haven't gotten the pictures onto my laptop that I took from a lot of things, I want to show you, I thought I write an entry anyway.

I'm making good progress with the 40 new recipes challenge. So far I made not 1 new recipe but two.

First I made carrot-coconut-ginger soup (not pumpkin :) ), which was a basic soup with carrots, some creme of coconut, cream and ginger in it. It was quiet good but I think I prefer pumpkin-soup.

The recipe came from the Hörzu Heimat magazine (which has an article about the Hamburg Knit Night, that's why I bought it :) ) There are a few interesting "Knödel" recipes in there, that I might try out too.

Second I made a chickpea-tomatoe-peanut casserole. Heiko liked that one but I thought it was kind of bland. I can't really tell what I did not like about it, since I really like the ingredients but I thought it was lacking something...

I will try the next recipe this week but will modify it, since I do have some "Stollen" (a sweet bread with nuts, candied oranges and raisins in it) that I want to use for that :)

Parting shot:

this time my knitting is the parting shot :) My friend Sarah-Jane got a pair of socks from me this year. The yarn was called "Rüdiger" which totally reminded me of "the little vampire", so these socks are my little-vampire-socks :)


Btw. Sarah-Jane is working on a sockyarn blanket. If you have leftover sock yarn or unwanted sockyarn, please contact me.

40 in 2011

Hi everyone,

so, we are already in the middle of January (o.k. nearly) and I haven't really made up New Years resolutions except that I want to get completely healthy :)

BUT I will be home until the 15th of October and I do cook a lot more than I used to, when I was working. But (again) I'm constantly making the same things over and over again. So I want to challenge myself to try out new recipes. I won't be making a new recipe every week I guess (since you can't really plan that much in advance with two little kids) but I want to try out 40 new recipes in 2011. That includes cooking and baking. I want to make more use of my cookbooks and the gazillion recipes online.

First up will be a carrot-ginger-coconut-soup that I will be making on wednesday. My in-laws are coming over on thursday and a warm soup will be great for lunch. The weather is wet and cold, so I love a good hearty soup.

The 1st annual christmas dress

Inspired by Summerset, who makes her daugther a new outfit for christmas every year, I decided, that I would do the same for the twins.

My Dad turned 60 in December and my FILs birthday is today, so I figured out, that a dress would be nice for the twins. And to be honest I did not want to spend 40 Euro on dresses, the two are going to wear 5-10 times before they grow out of them.

This December has been really really cold here, so I figured out, a pinafore dress, that can be worn over tights and trousers would be the best. SInce I do own quiet a few ottobre kids magazines, I knew, that there would be something in there plus I had some pink embroidered corduroy in my stash.

And surely I found a pattern in the winter 2003 issue of ottobre. It's a very simple pinafore dress with only 4 pattern pieces (Pattern no. 5). I've made some ottobre patterns so far and all of them did run large, so I cut a size 62 while omitted adding seam allowance to the side seams and sewed the front and back together with a 0.6 cm s.a.. For additional warmth I underlined the whole pinafore with cotton flanell.

All in all the sewing went without major problems. I didn't follow the instructions though and had to fiddle with the shoulder seams since I forgot to leave an opening at the side of the straps... Oh my... it's been some times since I last sewed something like that...

The dresses fit well and came out cute. Sorry for the crappy picture, it was taken on Christmas Day after the kids were entertained by various family members the whole time and were cranky at the end of the day...

2010 is over

Happy new year everyone!

Aren't you glad it's a new year? I am! 2010 has been a very tough year for me. I had really high hopes for it to be the best year of my life, with beeing pregant and having babies after all. It did not work out that way, I'm afraid.

Actually 2010 has been the most challenging year of my life. Facing cancer was a breeze compared to how I felt last year. I've never been so devasted in my whole life. But I got thru that rough patch with the help of my beloved husband, my great family, good friends and a good therapist. Lesson learned: If you are unwell, get help, even it that means to step out of your comfort zone. I'm so grateful that you all were with me during that time.

2011 just can get better. The kids are doing fine and handling them is routine by now. Of course there will be new challenges with the two ahead but I'm more comfortable in my new role of beeing a mother (plus they are not that tiny anymore). I'm already taking a lesser dosis of my medication, so I hope, that by the end of March I will be off meds. (Which will be great. As helpful as they are/were they have the side effect of making me hungry. All.the.time! Not that great!

Christmas was really nice but a tad too much for the kids. We had our close family over for lunch/tea on the first day of Christmas. We were 15 people and somehow nearly everybody was fuzzing over the twins, not leaving them alone for 5 minutes. Of course that meant, that the two were over the top at bedtime and for the next days ( I spend the monday after christmas at mit in-laws, so that my SIL could see the twins again before heading back to southern Germany) and that was entertaining the twins all the time too, even if they did not need any entertainment. I think, that is something they need to learn. Leave the kids to themself for some time.

I got some nice crafty stuff for christmas inclunding a selfmade storage box from Ute, but I forgot to take pictures... Sorry.

Between Christmas and New Years I got a big big parcel from Sarah and I remembered to take pictures.



And that is just half of the loot :) But isn't already great? Awesome totebags (from the Shetland Islands and Knit Nation!) A book on British Sheep breeds, some cool dyed yarn from Estonia, linen lace yarn on a cool metal cone and some Regia Sock yarn.


Funny christmastree ornaments were also in the parcel (they were put on our tree immediately), a lovely smelling soap, that is already in use, a sheep pin and stitch markers (since mine are disappearing all the time).

Last not least a shawl pin and some more lovely stitch markers. I'm so spoiled :)

I hope, you will all have a great 2011. May it be a happy and healthy year for all of us. And remember: if you are not well, get help! (and you ladies out there: get your annual mammogramm/check at the ob gyn. Mine first is on January 13th :) )