Life as I know it

I've been asked a few times recently if I'm going to write a new blog post any time soon. I hadn't really planned on it. In fact, I kinda thought that I was done with blogging. I go through these blogging moods where I either love it or I hate it, kinda like cooking. Right now, I despise cooking. Three weeks ago I wanted to be the best damn cook my husband knew. True story.

Update!

My kid will be a year old tomorrow! What. The. Fuck. Time is flying. I'm currently watching him run around the living room with Husband. Oh yeah, he's a walker now! He started walking about 3 weeks ago. Crazy but I love watching him hobble around the house. Here's a playback of the few months that I missed on the blog.

Also? We moved! We finally decided that the old town we lived in was BORING and we needed more LIFE. We moved to Dresden, about 25 minutes away, and ironically Husband's commute to work is actually faster than before because now he can take the Autobahn not the small back roads. And I am SO much happier now! We are closer to our friends, shopping, entertainment, and I can take the tram, bus, or train with ease now. We moved into a 2 bedroom 1.5 bathroom apartment with an underground garage. Husband LOVES that part! No cleaning off snow and ice from the car every morning.

The sad part? Sami, our dog, doesn't live with us anymore. Nor does my older stepson. Kev moved out in November and into a place with a friend. They live in the country and the roommate also has two dogs, so it just made sense for Sami to go with him. At least she has more dog-friends there and when he leaves for work (yeah, he has a job!) he can leave her in the yard. And we have NO yard here at our new place. As much as I love and miss my dog, and Kev too of course (ha!), we know that she is better off where she currently is, as opposed to where we live.

What else? We're still active in the English speaking playgroups and I go to the gym 2-3 times per week, when child care is offered. William gets his German contact there, and I occasionally go to German playgroups as well. About two months ago we met a new acquaintance who, since then, has become pretty much our best friends! Our friend, we'll call her R*, is from Australia. She's also married to a German and her son, Mat, is almost 7 months old. Her and I meet up a couple times per week and the boys have become pretty good friends!  It's really good that William has a friend he see's as often as he does, because for a while there I was afraid he was going to grow up without friends. R* and I have very, very similar parenting styles and I already feel like I can talk with her about almost anything.

Also? I'm still crocheting. Remember I learned to crochet from YouTube videos when I was pregnant?! ha! Who thought I'd actually get somewhat good?! Even I doubted myself. I still think of it as a silly, hippie hobby, but I do it! And now I've started selling what I make! Okay, well I've only SOLD one, but I've given others away as gifts, and the ONE I sold was yesterday.. haha. But I have 5 "orders" as of last night! How exciting! Let's just hope I can get them all done in a timely manner. Luckily all the people ordering know I am a SAHM and William comes first. They told me to take my time. Whew!

I'll try to see if I can keep this blog alive by posting at least once a week. Feel free to message me to pester me to post again if it's been too long between this one and the next.

What I've learned from Pinterest

First of all, if you're not on Pinterest, you're missing out. There a million and one things on there that catch my eyes every day. Follow me if you're there, so I can stalk love all the things you love, too.

1. If you aren't the world's best cook, you can be! Well, maybe YOU can be, but I cannot because I despise spending more than about 10 minutes making food. But apparently if you're super handy in the kitchen, you can make things like this:

 

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2. If your hair sucks, you can make it amazing! I can assure you my hair sucks. It's super thin, very fine, straight, doesn't hold a curl without a bottle of hairspray, and even then it only lasts for about an hour. But don't worry! You're not me, so these MUST work:

The Infamous Sock Bun

 

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3. If your style sucks, you're in luck! That old ratty t-shirt of yours is now popular and if you just make these small little tweaks, you'll love it again! Let's just ignore that fact that we aren't all a size 0 with no boobs, and we can act like our big ol' titties won't fall out of these.

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Let it be known that I have tried this style many times, and it never turns out as pretty.

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4. If your house lacks decorations, you can just make them! I know everyone must have all of these simple things laying around their house. Amiright? Or if you don't, just go to that garage sale down the road and you'll be sure to find something amazing that you can fix up all on your own.

Note: This is awesome and I want one. 

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5. And last but not least, you most definitely can have a perfectly toned body with these simple exercises!

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Now if you're still alive after trying those last ones, congratulations! You're better than I am. As I have been "planning" on doing those exercises for weeks now. 

Instead I am here. Go figure.

Wordless Wednesday - I mustache you a question.

My must-have crochet mustache. Oh yes. Be jealous.

Do you crochet and/or knit? Join me on Ravelry!

Wordless (almost) Wednesday - Look what I can crochet!

So it's been about a month since I took up crocheting. I made two "scarves" - which weren't really scarves, more or less, they were shit. I then met up with my girl Lydia over at NoDayWithoutYarn and everything has been getting better since then!

Here are some photos of the things I've been making:

Cell phone cozy for me.

(Totally not perfect, but this was the first project I made and finished!)

Cell phone cozy for Husband.

(He requested his team colors. This was my first time using two colors at once!)

 

Valentine's Day project: Hearts for...

 

A Heart Garland!

So I've totally learned how to slip stitch, single crochet, double crochet, half-double crochet, and triple crochet. I'm so proud of myself! :))

Nursery deco: Name in frames

I've been scouring the internet for months now looking for the perfect decorations to add to the nursery. I decided sometime during those months that I wanted to add Pea Baby's name on the wall above his bed. I looked for ideas on Google and Pinterest at lot.

I finally decided that I needed to find the perfect picture frame that was long and skinny. Unfortunately whenever I found one that I liked, it cost way more than I wanted to spend! I ended up deciding on getting 7 frames that were the perfect size for each letter. (I even showed a "sneak preview" on my FB page sometime last week!) And SCORE! They were only 1€ each!

 

 That's 7 well spent euros! 

The next piece of this craft: Finding the perfect letters to go inside. I used a website that I've used for about 8 years now. (I used to make my own Myspace layouts! haha.) That website was: DaFont.com. They have a HUGE variety of fonts - for free! - that you can download and use for personal use. 

I went through probably 20 different fonts before finally deciding on 7 different ones that I thought would look good. I made each letter the size that I wanted it, and printed it off in high-quality ink on a thicker picture paper. 

 

As for the picture frames, I went to a small store right around the corner from my house and checked out what they had for wrapping paper. I found some striped green wrapping paper for 0.49€. Sweet! I wrapped the back of the picture frames with the wrapping paper and taped it on the back side. 

For the letters, I just used some trusty double-stick tape, and voila! Magic happens. 

And here's what they looked like when I finished:

Hanging them on the wall was Husband's job. He's a Carpenter so that is just his thing. He's also a perfectionist, so I knew that they'd be perfectly spaced out on the wall. 

What do you think?! 

Wordless (almost) Wednesday - Learning to Crochet

There's no doubt that I spend a lot of time on my ass doing, um, close to nothing. (AKA waiting for Pea Baby to pop out.) I decided that I needed some new hobbies. And something that I could do WITHOUT electronics. haha. I have a lot of things in mind, and learning to crochet is just one of the cheaper ones. (I spent a whopping 9€.)

Here are some photos of what I'm working with, attempts #1 and #2, and the last is #3 which is the scarf I'm working on. I'm pleasantly surprised how it's turning out. Enjoy!