Gooseflesh is an arist with a wonderful blog. She has just commissioned this stunning coral work - a light - for a private residence. All of her work is done in crochet. Crochet! I love it. It takes the world of crochet leap-years beyond granny squares and doilies. She has loads more pictures of her work on her blog - go over and have a look - it's beautiful.
22.1.10
21.1.10
baby, it's cold outside!
"I've got sunshine on a cloudy day
when it's cold outside I've got the month of May"
when it's cold outside I've got the month of May"
I'm told it's the Siberian wind, but Wow it's cold outside. Maximum of -8 today. *yikes*. I don't think I've seen the sun or the blue sky since I arrived two weeks ago. It's all grey and cloudy and even the snow has turned to compacted brown ice. I've taken to singing the 'My girl' song as I walk too and from work. It's become my "I'm cold and everything is a very monotone grey, but at least I can sing and imagine the winter away" song.
I'm still learning about this winter business. It's taken a while, but I'm getting better at picking the temperature when it falls below zero. Previously I had thought that 'cold' was 'cold'. Well, to my Australian friends, it's not. There is a noticable difference between zero (cold) and -8 (bloody cold). What I haven't learnt yet is how to dress stylishly for work when it's bloody cold. Thankfully Berlin has pretty slack dress codes. Today I'm wearing thick wollen socks under my jeans, snowboots, shirt, cardigan, jacket... and when I go outside... puffy winter jacket, hat, gloves, scarf. I look like a puffy green mushroon. What I want to look like is this:
But this is, unfortunately, is not warm enough. Not even close. Where are their hats, scarf and mittens? And... tights will never (ever) be enough warmth on your legs in this weather (trust me, I tried). And highheels !? That, my friends, is a one-way trip to the emergency department.
And while these two lovely ladies are not nearly well enough clad for winter either, I'm at least hoping to channel a bit more of them, with a touch of sophicated "business women" (aka previous picture) into my winter wardrobe and slowly, slowly become someone who not only understands the difference between cold and bloody cold, but can also dress fantastically for both occasions!
But this is, unfortunately, is not warm enough. Not even close. Where are their hats, scarf and mittens? And... tights will never (ever) be enough warmth on your legs in this weather (trust me, I tried). And highheels !? That, my friends, is a one-way trip to the emergency department.
And while these two lovely ladies are not nearly well enough clad for winter either, I'm at least hoping to channel a bit more of them, with a touch of sophicated "business women" (aka previous picture) into my winter wardrobe and slowly, slowly become someone who not only understands the difference between cold and bloody cold, but can also dress fantastically for both occasions!18.1.10
over-staying your welcome
A funny thing happened on the weekend. We had a guest - our first actually - and although we don't have much furniture yet, we do have coffee, a blow-up mattress, shower and oodles of love to give people who visit. So despite it being Matthias' birthday - and initially wanting to do something special together on Saturday - we invited this guest to our Oyster lunch at KaDeVe (which he ate with gusto) and then kindly offered to take his (heavy) suitcase back to our house while he visited some other friend of his in the afternoon.
Perhaps you can imagine where this sorry tale is going - but you will be surprised how badly our guest tripped up. You see, we also invited him to a dinner which was planned with a nice group of Matthias' colleagues. He came - but arrived 40 minutes late - by which stage we had already ordered and we all had to squash around the table to accommodate him. He then proceeded to talk exclusively to a very nice (but oh so impressionable) blonde. As the night went on it was clear that our guest would not be returning home with us. In fact, to be strictly correct, when we looked around for him he had disappeared without saying good-bye. Some rather cross text messages were sent with the suggestion of bags being left outside (Wie sind nicht ein Hotel!) but by morning we were feeling slightly less cross about the matter and let him into our appartment to collect his belongings.
Well, that in itself was a mistake as finally our guest had no where to go and would like to stay until his train departed - wouldn't it be nice if we had a chat since we didn't get to last night (!!) As you can well imagine I wasn't at all in the mood for chatting and declared that I would take a nap. To my complete shock and surprise our guest thought a nap would also be good for him. He would take one too - on the air mattress that was still blown up.
There are no words for my surprise. We are not off to an auspicious start in the guest department. But I'm interested - what are your house-guest horror stories?
Perhaps you can imagine where this sorry tale is going - but you will be surprised how badly our guest tripped up. You see, we also invited him to a dinner which was planned with a nice group of Matthias' colleagues. He came - but arrived 40 minutes late - by which stage we had already ordered and we all had to squash around the table to accommodate him. He then proceeded to talk exclusively to a very nice (but oh so impressionable) blonde. As the night went on it was clear that our guest would not be returning home with us. In fact, to be strictly correct, when we looked around for him he had disappeared without saying good-bye. Some rather cross text messages were sent with the suggestion of bags being left outside (Wie sind nicht ein Hotel!) but by morning we were feeling slightly less cross about the matter and let him into our appartment to collect his belongings.
Well, that in itself was a mistake as finally our guest had no where to go and would like to stay until his train departed - wouldn't it be nice if we had a chat since we didn't get to last night (!!) As you can well imagine I wasn't at all in the mood for chatting and declared that I would take a nap. To my complete shock and surprise our guest thought a nap would also be good for him. He would take one too - on the air mattress that was still blown up.
There are no words for my surprise. We are not off to an auspicious start in the guest department. But I'm interested - what are your house-guest horror stories?
17.1.10
KaDeVe
I have a new love in Berlin and she is called the 6th floor of the KaDeVe department store. Better than Lafayette, or Harrods or anything I went to in Japan - this is the mecca of all gourmet food floors. Beautifully arranged gourmet delicacies that had me literally salivating and wanting to make salads with elderberry infused vinegar, or Himalayan Salt flakes spiced with Saffron, or try some of their Apple juice - as if freshly pressed Apple juice was not enough, at KaDeVe you can choose between three different varieties of apple! Dinner anyone?
14.1.10
old-world romance
Matthias almost always helps me put on my winter coat when we go out. And when we get to whereever we're going he lets me sit down while he hangs our coats up. He also opens doors, carries my suitcase and brings me flowers. And while I consider myself to be an emancipated women in most respects, all the emancipation in the world can't stop me from loving the old-world romance of it all. Makes me feel all mushy inside.
13.1.10
what happens
This is what happens when you get very excited about knitting something because you need it. And instead of being methodical and thinking about yarn and needle selection you rush head first into the project with some wool you have on hand (which perfectly matches your beanie, and contrasts so elegantly with your winter coat and therefore will be *ahem* perfect no matter what you do).
A few hours later when you cast off, having convinced yourself that it looks small because all the ribbing will give it a lot of stretch, you find that it is, well, too small.
So then, you do what you actually should have done in the first place which is find a pattern that suits your yarn. So today I'm beginning this - Dashing - from Knitty Spring 2007. Hopefully it'll work.
11.1.10
twenty four hours
What a difference 24 hours makes! I always find long-haul flights slightly disorientating. You board a plane, spend countless hours watching movies and occasionally sleeping, have layovers in sticky, humid places that regardless of the time of day/night are, well, sticky and humid and then land in another time zone and climate. No matter how much mental preparation you do, nothing really prepares you for the change, especially when you jump from 38 degrees to -2.
I briefly ventured outside today to pick up my residence permit (yippee!), but I'm planning on spending the rest of the afternoon snuggled up inside drinking coffee and knitting some much needed mittens.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)