I hope you are having a nice weekend. 🙂 I just finished a book I was chewing on for a while and you’ll get a new review soon.
More than two weeks ago, my grandpa who lives in Canada had his birthday and I decided to make him an egg warmer and a birthday card. Grandpa loves fishing, so this was the overall theme of my crafts.
For his birthday card, I used all kinds of paper and I got inspired by this post by Scraps and Things and this is what it looks like:
The egg warmer I made for grandpa is a fish. I started making egg warmers this Easter. I make them out of felt and they come in all colors and shapes 🙂 So this is grandpa’s egg warmer, to keep his breakfast eggs warm:
I also sent my grandma a little something. More about that in another blog post 🙂
As I felt pretty crafty today, I thought I’d try to create one of those lovely little guys in Jane Bull’s Crafty Creatures. (I hope you all remember that digital ARC I got from DK Books a while ago) Well, the book was published last week (at least in the US. It will be out in the UK next week), so, if you like what you see, you’ll be able to buy it 🙂
Packed with more than 30 inspiring ideas, from fat felt cats, to dangly octopuses and zany pom-pom pals, Crafty Creatures and author Jane Bull help you create your own world of colorful, cuddly animals, as well as phone pouches, purses, jewelry, and more!
With helpful templates and patterns alongside basic sewing techniques, Crafty Creatures includes simple step-by-step instructions with detailed photographs to make sure everyone can accomplish any project in the book.
My Craft & My Thoughts
When I leafed through the book, I was instantly in love with one creature in particular. It was a little bunny made of an odd pair of old (or new if you like) gloves. The bunny (called Odd Bod in the book) looked so cute and it seemed like the perfect upcycling idea that wouldn’t be too hard to do. So I decided to make one. And after about one hour of work (well, I didn’t work constantly I guess), this is my result:
Now back to the book.
It is divided into 5 chapters: Woolly Animals, Friends in Felt, Sew Cute, Animals in Stitches and Sewing Kit and Useful Know-how
Woolly Animals features the following crafts: Woolly Octopus, Knittens, Koala Bear and Friends, Li’l Ted, Odd Bods, A Box of Monkeys, Ducklings
This is my favorite chapter. I think the creatures in it are big enough to play with. Plus, there is something for every difficulty level. And there are crafts that reuse material that would have otherwise been thrown away.
Friends in Felt includes: Pocket Pets, Big Pets, Mobile Owls, Cozy Cats, Minimals, Templates, Wild Ones, Bees and Bugs
The crafts in this chapter are cute and I love felt. They all are pretty flat though. And I don’t really know what to do with most of them. The mobile is an exception. And there is a tip to turn the small, flat animals into brooches, which is a nice idea.
Sew Cute features: Dog’s Best Friends, Pretty Birdies, Bunny Girls, Doodlephants, Your Little Pony, Jolly Giraffe, Cat’s Bed
This chapter has bigger designs than the last one. The Bunny Girls are made to play with and so is the Jolly Giraffe (which has a great design by the way). I also like the idea of the Doodlephants: They are plain elephants you can draw on, so you can create a unique creature. Great idea for a party!
Animals in Stitches shows you how to do: Pictures in Stitches, Pet Portraits, Stitch a Doodle, Doodle Decorations
There aren’t any real creatures to craft in this chapter. It just shows you how to stitch animals and how to use stitched things in your projects.
And Sewing Kit and Useful Know-how includes the chapters: Creating Creatures, How to Stitch, Spring Chickens, Mice Made Easy, How to Knit, Knit Stitch, Purl Stitch, Knitting Shapes
This chapter is very useful, as it explains steps that are the basis for some crafts.
To sum it up, I think that Crafty Creatures is a very nice book for people who are interested in starting to knit or sew cute little animals. There are some ideas to pick up for experienced crafters, but I think that beginners and less-experienced people will have more fun with this book (especially if they have an interest in knitting!). As I’ve mentioned before, some of the crafts are small and quite flat, so their purpose isn’t quite clear. I think they could make nice decorations for presents (if the gifted person appreciates the effort). So decide for yourself if this is the book for you. I definitely enjoyed making that cute little bunny!
It’s Thursday already. This week went by fast. 🙂
And this week, I really had a craving for chocolate brownies. While I was looking for a decent recipe on the Internet, I found an article by the Huffington Post that told me that there’s only one recipe I’d need and that I’d find it over at the Smitten Kitchen. I thought “Well, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of the Smitten Kitchen, I’ll give it a try.” Interestingly, the recipe does not contain chocolate. The brownie is made with cocoa powder. And the recipe comes with an explanation as to why this is a good thing (for all the people who have never thought of what chocolate consists of 😉 ). So I was easily convinced not to use my expensive 85% chocolate for baking (okay, at least not all of it) and try the recipe instead.
I did alter the ingredients a little bit. Here’s what I used:
10 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla sugar
2 large eggs, cold
1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup almond pieces
2/3 cup coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate pieces
For the instructions and the original recipe click here
The brownies turned out very good. I love them! They are very fudgy. If you like them cakey, this isn’t your recipe. The only thing I’ll make different the next time, is to reduce the sugar some more. I hope this doesn’t affect the consistency.
Today, I’ll review Laurie Frankel‘s novel Goodbye For Now. I have to admit that I’ve read the German translation called Der Algorithmus der Liebe as I’ve received a copy from Lovelybooks and Random House Germany to participate in a book discussion. Nevertheless, my review will be in English, and, if the translator has done a good job, there shouldn’t be any problem. 🙂
Sam Elling works for an internet dating company, but he still can’t get a date. So he creates an algorithm that will match you with your soul mate. Sam meets the love of his life, a coworker named Meredith, but he also gets fired when the company starts losing all their customers to Mr. and Ms. Right.
When Meredith’s grandmother, Livvie, dies suddenly, Sam uses his ample free time to create a computer program that will allow Meredith to have one last conversation with her grandmother. Mining from all her correspondence—email, Facebook, Skype, texts—Sam constructs a computer simulation of Livvie who can respond to email or video chat just as if she were still alive. It’s not supernatural, it’s computer science.
Meredith loves it, and the couple begins to wonder if this is something that could help more people through their grief. And thus, the company RePose is born. The business takes off, but for every person who just wants to say good-bye, there is someone who can’t let go.
My Thoughts:
Goodbye For Now is mainly set in Seattle, Washington but setting isn’t Ms. Frankel’s main focus. She rarely gives detailed descriptions of the characters’ surroundings. Only in the later chapters her writing becomes more pictorial and when it does, many things are left to the reader’s imagination. Either that, or the author expects the reader to know about the geography of Seattle. But I didn’t mind, because setting isn’t that important in this novel. The characters and the story are what make it worth reading.
The three main characters are Sam, Meredith and Dash. The reader sees almost everything through Sam’s eyes. He is a very likable character with a great sense of humor and is therefore easy to identify with. Meredith is a stereotypical woman. At first, she is very nice but later in the book she gets demanding and whiny. To make it short: She doesn’t know what she wants and she really got on my nerves. Dash completes the trio by being very positive and social. He is a funny guy without wanting to be funny. Dash is a wonderful addition to the book as he helps to lighten up the darker parts. In my opinion, this trio of main characters is very balanced. Sam, Meredith and Dash are surrounded by various other characters, each with their own little story to tell.
The plot of Goodbye For Now is new to me. I like that Ms. Frankel introduces the pros and cons of a computer program that enables people to communicate with the “dead”. She shows that this is not something that everyone would think of as good and she also points out that serious problems can arise. Goodbye For Now combines an easy to read writing style with a serious topic. This is not your usual love story. (Even if the German title suggests it) Goodbye For Now is a book that will make you laugh, cry and think.
I’ve just encountered this wonderful trailer of Saving Mr. Banks and I want to share with you. It really looks magical.
Did you see? They even go to Disneyland 🙂 I love Disneyland! We’ve been there last September and I haven’t stopped missing it since then.
I checked the release dates for Saving Mr. Banks on IMDB. It is released between December 2013 and February 2014 depending on where you live. Just click the link.
For me, this movie is a “must see”, what about you?
Today you’ll get a review of a book I’ve been wanting to read for a long time: Dewey by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter. I love cats and when I heard about Dewey’s story, I knew I had to read this book.
How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can’t even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa. – See more at: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/vicki-myron/dewey/9780446407410/#sthash.94H83mTs.dpuf
How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can’t even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.
My Thoughts:
Dewey is a biography, a non-fictional book, so this review will be a little different. The book was written by Dewey’s “mom” Vicki Myron and you can feel her love for Dewey throughout the book. This gives a nice touch to the book and it is probably the reason why it is so popular. At times, the book tells Dewey’s story so lively that I thought I was there myself.
We also get to know a lot about Ms. Myron’s personal life. For some that might be interesting, for others not so much. It didn’t bother me. For my taste, it was just the right amount, so that was okay.
Ms. Myron co-wrote Dewey with Mr. Witter who is an experienced biography writer. I don’t know which parts of the book he wrote, but I can imagine that he might have written the parts about the history of Iowa or Spencer. But it doesn’t really matter who wrote them. They were perfectly written, but still, for me, they just didn’t fit. I understand why these parts were put into the book and I think this is an interesting topic, but all I wanted was to read more about Dewey and not about another downfall of Spencer.
Other than that, Dewey is a heartwarming biography of a very lucky cat. It is great book for cat-lovers, or people who like a special story.
I’m quite busy right now and the heat wave is still there. I just finished reading another book and you’ll get a review soon – pinky promise 🙂
Last week I won something awesome that I wanted to show you. Like many of my colleagues studying English, I struggle with Denglish, that is constantly mixing German (Deutsch) and English. It’s a wonderful language of its own, but stylistically, it’s terrible. So I was more than happy when I found out that I won an accessory that fits my terrible habit: a Denglish tote bag. And here it is (also included in the picture are all the great goodies that came with it. And please note the beautiful stamps)
I won this great bag at Lovelybooks and if you like it, you can get one for yourself, or your mom, or your friend at The Hipstery. They also have other great Germany related things. To promote the items at The Hipstery, Adam Fletcher, one of the owners of the store, even wrote a book. It’s called How To Be German In 50 Steps and it is written in German and English. He even works on another book called Denglish For Better Knowers. How awesome is that? (Yep another awesome there. I love Denglish)
If you have any questions concerning the meaning of any of the things written on the tote bag. Just ask me. I’d be happy to help. I’m sure they don’t make any sense to someone who doesn’t speak German 😀
Last week I received a review copy of Perfect by Rachel Joyce. Lovelybooks and RandomHouse UK (Doubleday) had another great cooperation (oh how I love them for these, I can’t say it enough) and I received the copy to participate in a Lovelybooks book discussion.
Summer, 1972: In the claustrophobic heat, eleven-year-old Byron and his friend begin ‘Operation Perfect’, a hapless mission to rescue Byron’s mother from impending crisis.
Little would seem to connect them except that two seconds can change everything.
And if your world can be shattered in an instant, can time also put it right?
My Thoughts:
Perfect is set in England in the 1970s and in the present. I really enjoyed how Rachel Joyce described different processes. Like for example the process of sugar cubes being dropped into cups of tea. She does that brilliantly.
The main characters are a boy called Byron and a man called Jim. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to connect that well with Byron. Maybe it also has to do with the storytelling. I’ll talk about that later on. I was however perfectly able to empathize with Jim. I was able to feel every single emotion he felt. And many of them weren’t that pleasant. So be aware that this book is only for people who aren’t depressed, because it will most probably make you feel depressed.
As I already mentioned above, Perfect features two main characters. There are two strings of storyline – one set in the 1970s and wrapping around Byron’s life, and one set in the present, telling us more about Jim. In my opinion Byron’s story, which seems to be the main plot, is really slow-paced. This might also have to do with it being written in past tense. More than once, I caught myself looking forward to another chapter about Jim. To me, Jim’s story seems much more lively, probably because it written in present tense and because it really is much more lively. There are things happening in Jim’s storyline, whereas a lot of Byron’s storyline is spent planning and waiting. I also missed a real climax in the book. As I mentioned before, I really liked how Ms. Joyce described processes. This is fine writing. Still, I was a little disappointed after all the praise I’ve read about Perfect. I’d recommend it to people who don’t mind a slow and depressing read.
I gotta tell you right at the start: It’s too darn hot here. Way too hot for me to think. So I spend my time working (yep, gotta do that on weekends too), reading and looking for something to share with you. And this is what I came up with:
I hope you all know that I looove food. And even though it’s really hot right now, people got to eat. I’m not terribly hungry, but there are a few things that will make my mouth water. So, while browsing the world-wide web, I came across some great recipes for days like these. And I’d like to share these recipes with you.
I’ll start with a starter that reminded me of a trip to Lucerne. WATERMELON SOUP WITH MINT. I had it in a restaurant in Lucerne and I have to admit, there are lots of versions of it on the internet. Here are two recipes that I think look great:
For dessert, I’d suggest HONEY YOGURT BERRY POPS. I think they look delicious. And I bet they also taste great. 🙂 When I was a child, we used to make yogurt pops, but we never put berries in them. This seems to be the adult version 😀
To bring back childhood memories, or to simply chill with a dessert, click here: Honey Yogurt Berry Pops
It’s Monday, and as most people don’t like Mondays, I thought I’d make this Monday a better Monday for some of you. Or at least I’ll try to do so. (Wow that were a lot of Mondays 😀 )
It’s review time for The Last Banquet by Jonathan Grimwood. I really enjoyed reading it 🙂
Jean-Marie Charles d’Aumout is many things.
Orphan, soldier, diplomat, spy, lover.
And chef.This is his story.We meet Jean-Marie d’Aumout as a penniless orphan eating beetles by the side of a road. His fate is changed after an unlikely encounter finds him patronage and he is sent to military academy. Despite his frugal roots, and thanks to wit and courage in great measure, he grows up to become a diplomat and spy.Rising through the ranks of eighteenth-century French society, he feasts with lords, ladies and eventually kings, at the Palace of Versailles itself.Passion, political intrigue and international adventure abound in Jean-Marie’s life, yet his drive stems from a single obsession: the pursuit of the perfect taste. Three-Snake Bouillabaisse, Pickled Wolf’s Heart and Flamingo Tongue are just some of the delicacies he devours on his journey toward the ultimate feast.But beyond the palace walls, revolution is in the air and the country is clamouring with hunger of a different kind. – See more at: http://www.canongate.tv/the-last-banquet.html#sthash.CGzKnrAu.dpuf
Jean-Marie Charles d’Aumout is many things.
Orphan, soldier, diplomat, spy, lover.
And chef.This is his story.We meet Jean-Marie d’Aumout as a penniless orphan eating beetles by the side of a road. His fate is changed after an unlikely encounter finds him patronage and he is sent to military academy. Despite his frugal roots, and thanks to wit and courage in great measure, he grows up to become a diplomat and spy.Rising through the ranks of eighteenth-century French society, he feasts with lords, ladies and eventually kings, at the Palace of Versailles itself.Passion, political intrigue and international adventure abound in Jean-Marie’s life, yet his drive stems from a single obsession: the pursuit of the perfect taste. Three-Snake Bouillabaisse, Pickled Wolf’s Heart and Flamingo Tongue are just some of the delicacies he devours on his journey toward the ultimate feast.But beyond the palace walls, revolution is in the air and the country is clamouring with hunger of a different kind.
My Thoughts:
The Last Banquet is set in 18th century France and I could really feel it. It doesn’t matter if it is young-boy-dung-heap France, or adventure-seeking-young-man-in-woods France, or middle-aged-man-at-fetid-Versailles France. Mr. Grimwood was able to create them all for me. And then he added food. Surprisingly, the descriptions of the tastes are often rather simple but there is something else that helps to whet the reader’s appetite. First, there are detailed recipes and if you read those, you’ll get hungry for sure. And second, Jean-Marie loves food and therefore, he thinks a lot about it. These two points, mixed with the descriptions of tastes make a fabulous banquet!
The main character, Jean-Marie Charles d’Aumout is very likeable. He narrates his story and I never felt like I didn’t want to follow him anymore. He does things that some readers will find hard to understand but he does them because he thinks them right. And I think they mostly are. The other characters were also interesting. There are far too many to talk about each of them in detail. I liked that Mr. Grimwood let his characters change in the course of the book. If you think about the huge time span the Banquet covers (almost a life time), this is only natural and it makes the book so much more dynamic.
The Last Banquet is not your usual story of a French aristocrat growing up and growing old in the 18th century. It is the story of a man and his love of food. I really enjoyed how Mr. Grimwood made Jean-Marie discover new tastes in the strangest places. This sometimes made me laugh out loud. Jean-Marie’s life never gets boring, he talks and writes to interesting people, to the outside world, he leads the life of a noble, he hunts, has friends over, gets into dangerous situations, and there are women of course,… (I really can’t tell you more). I enjoyed reading The Last Banquet and accompanying Jean-Marie Charles d’Aumout on his search for the perfect taste.
All That Magic 