Christmas Quilt

My mom posted a christmas quilt tutorial on her blog. She started making the quilt last winter so I got to see some of the cute fabrics she used but I didn't see the finished quilt yet. I love the fresh colors and the cute cat fabric! I imagine it to be super soft as she used a fleece blanket for the back.

I can't wait to cuddle up in it when I'm home for christmas!

You can see more photos of the quilt and the tutorial here :)

Fabulous Fall Treasures

It's no secret that I love handmade. And autumn. And of course everything that combines the two :) I love 'window shopping' on etsy - it's really addictive! So I thought why not share some of the beauties I found in the past days with you?

'Fabulous Fall' by FroggedDesigns

Autumn Beauty Geometric... ThePolkadotMag... $38.00	New York City photograp... Raceytay $10.00	Gift box of 16 Assorted... Bokolette $24.00	Manzanita - Handspun Ha... SierraFloraAlp... $32.00
Chevron Triangle Scallo... finestimaginar... $15.50	One of a kind Japanese ... BHiveDesign $85.00	Cute Owl for Macbook/Pr... bizzibdesign $11.00	Yarn bowl, mint green, ... DarriellesClay... $34.00
Japanese Sunrise Etchin... grandmaswooden... $15.00	Card holder - Grape dot... octopurse $12.50	note pad-let's do t... MichelleBruseg... $5.75	IN STOCK - Stripes and... PorteenGear $125.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Om

It's not a secret that I'm a rather lazy person regarding sports. My excuse is that I don't have a stereoscopic vision, thus I'm really bad at all sports where throwing or catching objects is involved because I can't see where the ball/... is exactly. But as my eating habits have changed quite a bit since I moved to Vancouver (hello unhealthy cafeteria food!) I figured it would be a good idea to do some kind of exercise.
I signed up for a weekly early morning yoga class. It's Hatha Yoga and my instructor Heather is really sweet. It's the perfect start in the day and I sometime wish there was a yoga instructor waiting for me with a smile on her face every morning.
The class is pretty intense and we're already practicing for a headstand which kind of scares me...

Anyways, if you don't like competitive sports or looking for a 'calm' sport, I highly recommend giving yoga a try :)

What's In My Bag? // Vol. 3

I'm delighted to share another What's In My Bag? post today. Lately I've been using my echino bag excessively because it's big, comfortable and goes with all my coats and jackets I have here. I used to have really messy bags and it would take me minutes to find anything. I love to use small cosmetic bags to help me stay organized :)

Here's what's in my bag... book I'm currently reading, my Moleskine daily journal, two cosmetic bags, my strawberry project bag containing my current knitting project, tissues, water bottle, apple(honey crips, my favorite!), pen, purse, cell phone, keys.



In the cosmetic bags:
blister cushions, tampon case, glasses cleaner, disinfectant, lip balm + gloss, elastic, mints, chewing gum, lens pen and a snack :)


Looking for more What's In My Bag posts?
Volume 1
Volume 2 // Knitting Bag Edition

Hello!

Hello and welcome to my new home!

I'm super excited to finally share this with you. There are still a couple of dead ends and I'll do some fine tuning in the next couple of days - please bear with me. I decided to move from here to blogger for financial reasons. I'm a poor college student now so I try to spend as little as possible on 'unnecessary' items (I'm not saying that my blog is unnecessary - but saving a couple of dollars a month and still having my blog, just under another address, seemed like a good solution).

I'm glad you found your way here - I have lots of posts coming up in the next couple of days - some recently finished knitting projects, more Christmas inspiration, some more autumn minibook pages...
If you have any questions you'd like me to answer in the FAQ, drop me an e-mail or leave me a comment here :)

Ways to stay in touch:

Twitter // Flickr // Ravelry // Bloglovin // FeedBurner // e-mail

Hand Stitching: Card

LA just posted a cute hand stitching tutorial and I decided to make a quick card using my own handwriting :)

I have to admit that this was pretty much the first hand stitching project I did in... years? I can't remember the last time I hand stitched but it's so much fun and truly addictive ;)

I'm really glad I stole some of my mom's embroidery floss and took it here - a major advantage of stitching is that you don't need many supplies!

Anyways, some quick tips when hand stitching on paper:

- get a cup of hot tea/coffee and listen to music while embroidering

- don't pierce the wholes too close to each other, otherwise the paper will tear and you'll have gaps in your motif

- follow this tutorial for the start & ending. It really helps and you won't end up with big bulks of knots on the back!

- straight lines are generally easier than curves and loops ;)

Residence

The residence I live in is mainly for first year students and exchange students. A major disadvantage is that there aren't kitchens, so there's a mandatory meal plan. And dining hall food is nothing you wanna eat for eight months in a row. Also, many students in my res are only 18 and 19 is the legal drinking age in Canada. As a result, most of the students hang around on the floor drinking instead of going out. Having to deal with noise, drunk people and dirty washrooms isn't much fun.



On the positive side, our dorms are generally spacious with big windows and the surroundings are nice.



In the residence I live in, all houses are named after indigenous people in Canada. The house I live in is called Shu :)



If you take a close look, you'll find some nature around the residences. I love walking by the same tree every day and noticing how fast the leaves' color changes :)



There are thousands of super cute squirrels on campus but they seem to be really shy - hopefully I'll get a good shot of one of them this fall :)



Although our Residential Advisor is super nice and puts up artsy signs all over our floor, I can't help but notice the cold light in our hallway whenever I step out of my bright and colorful room.

autumn minibook: first pages

After the 30 Days of Lists project I really missed journaling regularly. I was really happy when my autumn 2011 minibook arrived so I had an excuse to have a messy desk and lots of papers, washi tape rolls and glitter spread all over my room :)

Here are all the pages I made so far:

Apple Festival

Today I went to the annual Apple Festival at the UBC Botanical Gardens. We had so much fun seeing all the different variations of apples grown in BC, taking pictures at the 'pumpkin patch', eating delicious apple pie, drinking apple cider and wandering around, looking at stalls.



I found this beautiful and soft hand spun and dyed yarn and couldn't resist - it's 100% Alpaca and it's soooo gorgeous! The lady who sold the yarn also sold the cutest hand knitted muffin hats I've ever seen <3

I'm thinking about using the yarn to either knit a hat or a cowl or fingerless mittens? Decisions, decisions... for now it's sitting on my desk and I feel the urge to pick it up and cuddle it every five minutes. Alpaca yarn is addictive...

It's a good day

Today was a good day. It started very early with an early morning yoga class and afterwards a delicious (and rather healthy) breakfast at my favorite Starbucks store. It's been bright and sunny all day so I took a walk, collected leaves to dry and snapped some dreamy fall photos. I skyped with my mom and realized how great my life here in Canada is and that it feels like home already. I checked my mailbox and found this:



The autumn minibook I ordered from Elise arrived - I didn't expect it to arrive until next week! Also, I got the grade for my economics midterm and it's much better than expected. My friend Katja got a package from Germany that contained lots of tea, gingerbread, bread, etc. and she's willing to share it with me <3



And I ate lots of fruits today - I miss fresh food so so much! Is there anything more delicious than a fresh, ripe pomegranate? I started watching a new tv series today - 'New Girl' and it's hilarious. You should give it a try :) I'm gonna watch another episode now and make a couple of pages for my autumn minibook <3 Oh and I started a new shawl yesterday - I love working with soft yarns!

Hope you had a great day, too!

It's A Cowl!

pattern: Burberry Inspired Cowl by Julianne Smith

yarn used: Garnstudio Drops Andes color 519, almost two skeins

Needles: 7mm

my ravelry project page

When I was in Victoria last weekend I went to the Beehive Wool Shop and couldn't resist buying the drops Andes yarn. It is bulky and soft so I figured I could whip up a quick poject with it. When I bought it I didn't have a specific project in mind but I had to buy it anyway.

The same evening I browsed through my favorite projects on ravelry and came across a pattern for a cowl. As it's getting colder here and I couldn't bring many clothes and accessories from Germany I had a good excuse to make one :)



The cowl turned out to be pretty big and warm. I love it! It took me two evenings to knit it; the cowl itself was a quick knit but stitching it together took hours (at least it felt like hours); I used the kitchener stitch as suggested in the pattern. It was my first time using it  and I used an instructoral video (thank you for being patient and re-playing the video 20x for me, youtube!). It didn't turn out to be perfect but I probably just need a little more practice. This cowl would also make a perfect christmas gift! As soon as I buy some more wool I'll knit another one for a friend :)

I have one skein left so I'm thinking about making a matching hat or fingerless gloves? Have you finished any knitting projects lately?