Friday is my day:Kraplap

Today we will fly to "a tiny village of 20 homes in the most northern part of Germany" as like Petronella aka Kraplap announces in her kraplap etsy shop. She is a real button queen, she designs the most incredible button jewelry and she makes bags and clothing too. I would love to see her button treasury one day :)

Please visit her etsy shop!

(click any photo to enter to the shop)

Non-Dissonant Feather Necklace
by kraplap

OK, here we go. I am warning you because it will be very unexciting…..
People who know me from earlier days do not understand that I can live here in the country without any entertainment. I used to be a university teacher and researcher, and I worked from 8 in the morning to 10 in the evening; giving courses, doing research, student consultancy etc. My office was always full of students, and my social life was centered around the studentship till deep into the night. I always said the students are my kids, and the research is what I am living for. Well, things change ….

I wake up somewhere between 9 and 11 in the morning; it depends when Peggy thinks it’s enough. She is making so much fuss, noises, licking, nosing that I have to get out of bed and let her out to do her thing.
It’s a pretty slow process to wake up, and important is my coffee. I have my own superfast mini coffee machine. Then I eat some plain yoghurt, shower, do my back gymnastics, and the day can begin.
Most of the time I am working for 1 or 2 hours on some project (i.e. computing and algebraic modelling) for a US based animal institute, and then later in the day or very late in the evening another 2 hours. This means sitting behind my PC and analyzing data, and performing some algebra on it, and then writing reports of it. A small remainder of my earlier university life. And I check Etsy of course ….

After lunch (which is only a few crackers and some cheese; not very showable because I am not making any fuss of it, not exciting to watch….) I am working a bit in the garden. Mostly weeding, but today also sowing. It’s time for the beans. I am glad hubby made such a nice high bed for my vegetables, because I must keep my back straight because of my back injury. I have some different salads in there, rhubarb, red radish and horseradish. Furthermore, lots of different squashes and carrots.

I am pretty proud of my herb garden with all kinds of mint, thyme, oregano, sage, tarragon, fennel, chives, rosemary etc. Hubby is the cook in the house, but I deliver the most delicious fresh vegetables and herbs ! I will give it a bit more water today, because we had such warm dry days (very exceptional for northern Germany in this season).

And I have a quick look if the offspring is already there; no, it’s pretty quiet. No little birdies yet.

Then I am going for a long walk along the fjord (i.e. the Schlei) with Peggy; but before that she needs to have her anti-tick treatment for this month. She is so sweet, standing very still when I am treating her (probably because she knows she get some sweets when done).

I go down to the fjord on a very dangerous, but very romantic path. It’s so beautiful down there, so quiet. And I always find great stones and shells etc. Peggy loves it there too, she even tries to catch the ducks. She jumps into the water and the poor beasts have to fly away.

And when the weather is fine I am going for a row. I love rowing, Peggy doesn’t, so she stays on the shore and enjoys herself with all the unseen but excitingly smelling animals.

Back home I am sewing a bag and making some new button-brooches today. There’s not much to do in my little shop because the holiday season must start here yet.
I could not take a picture of myself sewing, because I could not find out how to do that and hubby was not at home. So, here a pic of my sewing place in my little shop (the former garage rebuilt into my workspace).

When hubby comes home he makes a delicious vegetable and fish puff-pastry pie, and the weather is gorgeous so we eat outside. I love everything hubby cooks, that’s why I am an XL type… ahum hubby eats twice as much as me, is 30cm taller and about 20 kg lighter. What about that ???

After dinner he is working on the balcony that had to be replaced. It’s an ongoing building site here, first the garage, then the garden shed, now the balcony etc…

After playing with Peggy, who is always happy to have hubby back home again, I am sewing a bit more and work a bit more on my algebra project. Hubby and Peggy go to bed and I am looking a bit late TV, checking Etsy for the last time, and finally go to bed too. That’s it.

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P.S "Friday is my day" will leave on summer vacation now and will be back in about 1 month or so.

Wishing you all happy and warm summer :)

See you soon!

heli

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Friday is my day: Sigmosaics

Yey! Today we will ride to sunny Portugal and meet sweet Kerrin from Sigmosaics.etsy.com and her cute 3 little "musketeers". She makes, as you can guess, beautiful mosaic works from Portuguese ceramic tiles and found pieces of ceramic, stones, gems, mirror, glass...

Please visit her Etsy shop!

(click any photo to enter the shop)

Square mother of pearl mosaic hanging ball
by Sigmosaics

Well hello there .. I'm Kerrin. I'm a kiwi girl who has lived in Portugal for the past 7 years .. I'm 'mummy' to 3 wonderful children and well, here's my friday ..

Arrrrrgh, it's 7am and the sweet dulcet tones of my inbuilt etsy alarm clock goes off in my head (don't you have the same one? .. you know, it's been 7 or 8 hours since the last etsy fix and all)

I sneak downstairs (REALLY I do) and look forward to my half hour of 'etsy' time alone .. just me and the laptop .. oh and my BIG mug of coffee. So while the coffee perks in the machine I jump into Etsy feet first! Swing by the EST thread (gotta say hi to the team), check and see if any miracles have occured overnight .. sigh .. nothing today, then read wonderful convo's from gorgeous people all over the world (LOVE that part) .. have a quick check of my emails ..

Pitter patter .. pitter patter .. here comes a sleepy 3 year old girl .. BIG good morning cuddles and kisses, followed soon after by her 5 year old brother and then as per usual I have to go and wake his twin sister!!!!

'Mummy we are hungry!!!' 8.15am ('ish) we make the breakfast, we're a toast family .. I usually have my 2nd cup of coffee right about now (I have breakfast once I get back from dropping the kids at the kindy) .. oh and that's MY coffee alongside their toast (I usually grab the huge and enormous Noddy cup .. )

8.45am 'Are you dressed yet?' .. 'where are your shoes?' .. ' Get your pants on!' .. 'NO, put your undies on first!!!' .. all of this screamed out whilst showering.
9.00am ('ish) we are buckled up in our car seats and ready to go.

Everybody say 'bye house' .. 'BYE HOUSE' !!!

Kindy is a 5 minute drive up the road .. yay! This is us driving up the road .. good thing there are no police around this morning cause i'm driving like a mad crazy thing trying to take photo's at the same time!

Bye bye my dears .. now it's time to get the bread! Every single morning I go to our local cafe to buy the yummy freshly baked bread .. no i don't own a bread maker, that's just wishful thinking.

On the way back down the hill I notice an elderly woman doing her laundry at one of the public 'laundry' areas (yes, they do exist here and yes, there are people that use them) .. I notice she's got her bottle of wine lined up next to her washing powder (go figure) .. I've slowed to a stop to take this photo and she doesn't see me.

Home again .. usual time consuming and mundane chores to be done before I can get to do my work! No, i don't have a cleaner .. again wishful thinking!

Finally I have my time .. I am looking at the pile of new dishes and bowls that are just screaming to be mosaic'd and rub my hands together in glee ...

12.15pm and my tummy begins to rumble. Today my 5 year old daughter prepared me lunch because she knew I would be taking a photo of my lunch today .. she made me a pot of french fries AND a fried chicken leg .. ooh, it looks so much yummier than my cheese and tomato sandwich! I've sneaked a few treats from the kids lolly basket .. ha ha!

I have a bit of time to continue to chip away at a very long 'work in progress' project .. (and yep, another coffee .. with Noddy .. )

Today there's no time to grout any new pieces it's already kindy pick up time! (for the month of June they finish at 1.30pm) so i'm grabbing the keys and racing out the door to shoot up the road to get the kids.

Play time .. YAY! Anyone for a game of hide and seek?

OOoooooooh, family portrait time ..everybody say cheese ...

Would you like to meet my friend? His name is Henry and he's my octopus .. I made him around 3 years ago to adorn the wall beside the BBQ ..

Jeepers, it's crept up to 5.30 pm and that means inside time and dinner preparation time (and of course a quick Etsy check in time) .. ha ha .. go on admit it, you are as addicted as I am!

6.30pm .. I'm a HUGE fan of one pot (or in this case tonight, one pan) cooking .. so we are having a Fritatta with salad .. sooooooo easy and yummy!

7.15pm .. quick quick quick .. get those rascals upstair for a soak in the bath, scrubbed, out .. into Pj's .. read stories and now .. te he he .. they can have 1/2 an hour of watching 'Winx' while I have a quick chat with the gals (and occasional boys) on the thread ..

Time to brush your teeth kiddies!!! 'bathroom now!'

And now my 3 darlings have a little message they would like to share with you ...

8.30pm-9pm kids are sleeping .. yay!
9pm to midnight ('ish) it's my time to work, to catch up on emails, convo's, news, read the online New Zealand newspaper, chat with friends etc .. try to chip away at another mosaic project
Around midnight .. bedtime. Always without fail (I guess only because I don't have a man in my life at the moment ha ha!!) I read upon going to bed .. 2 minutes or 2 hours, it doesn't matter, reading my books is my way of unwinding from the day!!

Friday is my day: JaneBoFelt

Hello and good Friday to all! Today we will fly to Moscow, Russia and meet Jane from JaneBoFelt. She makes very beautiful felted accessories; scarves, brooches, necklaces, hats...I think you should visit her shop after this flight :)

(click any photo to go to the shop)

Felted flower brooch pin Orange brown yellow
by JaneBoFelt

Hello! My name is Jane. I live in Moscow, Russia. Two years ago I discovered felting technique and now I’m making felted accessories and cloths. And since January I start to sell my items on Etsy.
I’m mother of 2years 9months old son and my days are almost the same but I really like this.
Usually I wake up at 7-00. It takes me 15 minute to go to shower and then I go to wake my son up. He is so sweet when sleeping. But we have to bring him to kindergarden till 8-30... He wake up quickly and go to say “morning” to his toys –

Today hubby bring my son to kindergarden and I stay at home alone and have breakfast. It’s big cup of green tea, bread with cheese and youghurt. Today I add big almond cake).

It’s not good but usually I eat breakfast in front of computer – checking Etsy, mails, news.
And then I’m ready to do some work. Yesterday I felted hat and now I take photo to send it to customer. Here, near light wall I make most of my photos (when I can not make it outside).

Ok, done, picture was sent to customer, hope she likes it. And it’s not all, she ordered the scarf as well! Summer here is not long (2.5-3 months) so people prepare for winter, I think:).We (me, hubby, our son) are living on the 14th floor of big house. Our flat is not big, so I make my felted projects on big table in the kitchen, it’s my workplace –

It takes time to do the scarf, time is passing and at 14 o’clock I’m hungry and prepare dinner for myself - some simple – “grechka” - buckwheat (I found this word in vocabulary, I heard that this “kasha” is popular only in Russia, it may be grown only in cold climate, it’s very healthy), cheese again ( I love it!), tomato and greens.

And you see, I’m again eating near computer... I’m checking mail, Etsy, my Russian shop, blog, Flickr, etc.After dinner I need to rest from felting the scarf . Look at my new projects – some felted and crocheted jewerly –

I usually have several project in progress – begin something new when I have got the idea and don’t finish previousJ. I must be more organized).Today I have not to go to PO (it’s bad) and to buy food (it’s well) so I’m working at home till 16-00. Before going out I look at the room, almost all is in order besides too many toys –

And I go to pick my son from kindergarden. The weather is fine and after this we go for a walk. There is big park (we call it ”small forest”) not far from our house

After short walking we go by metro (it’s near our house too) three station and we are on the outskirts of Moscow. My son by bike and I running after him by foot, we reach the place where we are hope to live soon, this will be our future house –

I hope in this house I’ll have my own studil for felting. Today hubby has spare day and he’s working there (now he’s going to make roof). And this is our “banya”- Russian sauna –

At 20-00 we come back home, having supper all together and then I go to put my son to bed. At 22-00 he is sweetly sleeping and we have calm time. This is the view from our window –

I want to edit some pictures before going to bed

At 23-30 my eyes are close and I go to bed. Friday is over. It’ll be Saturday today, we have not to go to kindergarden, job and we’ll rest all the day.

Friday is my day: LaTouchables

Today we will travel to sunny Germany and meet bag&pouch maker Dawn from LaTouchables. She makes very pretty and colorful bags you can't find anywhere else. And why is that everybody else has a cute cat or doggie except me?

(click any photo to go to the shop)

Free-Falling, large elegant bag with adjustable strap
by LaTouchables

Hi, my name is Dawn, and I live in the provences in one of the most beautiful regions of Southern Germany, the Rhine Valley, between the Palatine (close to Alsace, France) and Kraichgau (rolling hills to the east). This region is famous for it’s Rieslings and white asparagus.

Okay, in my life no two days are the same, so I take a bit of each day to be ‘my day’.

During the week, I get up at 6:00, an ungodly hour, and prepare my coffee and breakfast to have at the computer while my husband has ‘five more minutes’ of sleep.


Then I get ready for work. Three or four mornings a week, I travel to the city to teach English to some companies.


Meeting with students allows me to retain my social skills. Without the possibility of routinely correcting people’s grammar, I might be a bit odd.

I usually get home in time to inhale a late lunch, today a salad and bread.

Around now, my cat wakes up and talks to me, soaking up a little sun.

This is my sofa, a very enchanting place.

This is where I do most of my photo-shoots, next to the garden house.

My mom asked me if people might think I’m a bit odd modeling my bag with the cow’s skull. Hmmm…maybe she is right…it might be a whole lot easier to sell the cow’s skull without the bag.

Today, my niece is coming over, and we begin our photo-shoot in Great-Great Oma’s sitting room with the original wallpaper of a couple of lifetimes ago. First we pose next to the window, but not before we’ve removed all the ancestors from the wall.

Then I say, ‘Hey Sweety, put this doily on your head.’ Point and shoot. She is so delightful to work with, but very busy and hard to catch!

The last couple of weeks I’ve been renovating my studio, and this is during…

…and this is today…

…where I have a dozen different things going on, so I’ll work until my husband comes home…

I love warm dinners, so tonight we’re having Moroccan meatballs, fried potatoes, German style, green beans, and a radish salad.

After another visit to the computer, I fall into bed at around 11 pm.

As I said, each day is different, but the two constants are plenty of coffee and my cat. And my husband, of course, who more closely resembles Daniel Craig!