FEATURED!!!!

Remember back in January when i mentioned my preparations for my parents' anniversary surprise party?
I haven't posted any photos of the party yet beeeeecause... i submitted it to Hostess with the Mostess and it got FEATURED today!!!

Man, i am so excited to see my tiny event over at this amazing and inspiring super-blog!!! Even more so because i basically created everything out of nothing and materials i already had.

CLICK HERE

to see the feature

and 

HERE

to see all photos

And a photo of me hanging up those giant paper flowers:

DIY: Another Vase Makeover

Dark blue is so not my color, but IKEA had those vases on sale a while ago and two of them went home with me. One got a makeover today, the other one is still waiting for a brilliant idea.

I used a turquoise Edding and instead of spray paint a white acrylic paint that is at least ten years old and because of its age mostly dried out and crumbly, but i think that gives it an interesting texture.
The flowers are made of recycled plastic.

DIY: Vase Trio Makeover

I finally managed to restyle those 10-cents vases. At first i gave them a coat of white spray-paint, which looked quite nice. But as much as i enjoy all-white decor and furniture, this is just not the kind of interior i want to live with.

I need color in my life, lots of color, and most of all my favorite colors: turquoise and yellow.
So  i decided to transform the vases into something colorful, fun and imperfect instead. I'll probably repaint them in a few months, but for now i totally like that style.

The decoration is from last year: Billy Balls made of modelling clay, and denim roses

DIY: Dried Flower Canvas #2 - Tulips

Here's another tutorial about how to turn a dried flower bouquet into an individual piece of artwork.

Materials:

- dried tulip bouquet
- paint brush and sponge
- acrylic paint in turquoise, yellow, red and green
- Mod Podge ( or similar)
- large sheet of paper matching the size of the bouquet ( or a canvas)

The best way to dry tulips is to just let them sit in the vase until the blossoms are completely dry. Pay attention to the water though and pour away when it turns dull, otherwise it might mold.

1. To create a contrasting background, mix blue acrylic paint with a drob of water, dunk in a paintbrush and splash the paint onto the paper/ canvas. No need to be precise, just feel and act like a five-year-old again, whee!

2. Let dry, then use a sponge to cover the entire surface with Mod Podge.

3. Now carefully place the bouquet on top of the paper and immediately press it down with a flat and solid item. Smart people use a book, unprepared dummies grab the next best thing they can find ( e.g. a paint brush package).
Make sure all the petals get in contact with the Mod Podge

4. Up next, dab the flowers with Mod Podge. It is important that all the petals keep sticking to the paper/ canvas, otherwise they will fall down once you hang your piece of artwork.

Let dry completely for ca. 1-3 hours. In the meantime, wash your sponge and paintbrush.

4. Now you can paint the flowers.
Mix different hues to achieve a vivid and more realistic look. In addition to yellow i applied a red color to make my flowers look like parrot tulips.
For the stems, start with a dark green and put some highlights with a brighter shade.

5. Again, let the paint dry completely.

6. As a final step, insert the sheet of paper into a glassless frame and hang it up.

And that's it!

This project is linked up to my favorite Linky Parties

Living: Preparing for Emergency

A few months ago I noticed a smell of warm plastic coming from the area near our TV. But MisterT could not find anything unusual and he did not smell it either. The next night i smelled it again, but we could not locate it and assumed it might be the drying leaves from my birthday bouquet.

The next night our TV and the light in our living room suddenly turned off and on and off and on again. This time we assumed the problem was caused by a broken bulb in our uplight which then made the fuse jump out. MisterT switched off everything immediately and checked the breaker box, but everything was ok. Weird....

I noticed the smell again and this time could locate it. We had a vase full of chestnuts besides our TV and unfortunately they had started to mold. So we thought the problem was solved: Smelling chestnuts and a broken light bulb.

We went to the kitchen to throw away the chestnuts and wash the vase when the power in the living room went off and on again. At this point we started to panic a bit and MisterT  began to move our furniture to check all the power outlets. After we moved the new Billy cabinet, the smell ( that we thought was caused by the chestnuts) got more penetrant and we could hear a buzzing sound. 

There was a fire in our wall!!

We did not see any flames but the power outlet cover plate was charred, as well as one of the cables inside the wall. Mister T secured everything and called the electricians emergency hotline to ask if we are save until the next day or if someone had to come here immediately. The electrician said MisterT had done everything right and we would be ok over night.

My dear readers, i am writing about this incident as a reminder. Something like this can happen anytime and we should all be prepared for emergencies, may it be a fire, a natural disaster or a medical emergency.  

Please, please, please be prepared!

I have a terrible fear of fire ever since i was a child and no matter where we lived i always created an emergency exit plan with an escape route out of each room, depending on the location of the fire.

Before this incident happened i had also been planning to pack an emergency kit but skipped it from day to day, thinking " Nah, i can still do it tomorrow".

I packed it right after the incident. This is what i included:

- Cash. Not much though, just enough to buy some food and stuff

- Our passports

- An external hard disk drive with the latest back-up of our digital photos and scanned documents.

- Our most important documents: marriage certificate, car documents, registration certificates, phone and electricity company letters and contracts, our rental contract

- Adresses and phone numbers of family and friends

- Spare Car Keys

A few more things to mention:

- make an emergency exit plan for your home and pack an emergency kit for your family and  pets 

- be sensible to any unusal scents and noises, take them seriously and investigate where they are coming from

- a cordless house telephone is totally useless when the power is switched off! It does not work hence it cannot be used to make an emergency call. Make sure your cellphone always has a fully charged battery to be able to call the police or fire rescue or medical rescue!

- Keep several flashlights at different points in your home and check their function regularly. We have a large one in our living room and a small one besides our bed. Never change their positions!! Everyone in your household MUST know where they and easily be able to find them in the dark!

- same with a fire extinguisher

- install smoke detectors in every room. We had inexpensive ones from the hardware store for several years but they were replaced after smoke detectors had become the law here last year. They are professionally maintained on a regular base.

Invest in high quality smoke detectors. They will save your life!

- have ICE contacts in your phone's adress book! Please read both links to the ICE function and decide which one works best for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.123

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_case_of_emergency

You can find more detailed lists about emergency preparations here:

http://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/epc.pdf

http://thetiffy.tumblr.com/post/10792235187/how-i-watched-my-apartment-burn-or-what-do-you-grab

So, this is all i can think of right now, hope it helps! Feel free to share your tips how to prepare and what to pack in case of fire.

The Cheeky Cockatoo or Our New Pillow Cover or My Dream House

Those who read my blog on a regular base might have noticed that i am mildly obsessed with blog giveaways. I am not purposely on the hunt for giveaways, they just happen to pop up in my Google Reader and if i really like the item i sign up. Hell, why not? That's what giveaways are for, right? If nobody participated, then what would be the purpose of hosting one?
I don't often write about it but since last fall i have won about eight or nine contests; the most recent ones were the Plaid Valentine's Twitter contest ( and they sent me awesome, awesome stuff!! Thanks again, Plaid!) and a Milk & Cookies giveaway hosted by the canadian design blog Damask et Dentelle, a great source of inspiration for everyone who loves design, decor and DIY.

I fell in love with Milk & cookies a few months ago and have been trying to win one of her beautiful pillow covers in every giveaway i could find, and so i was thrilled to find out i had won.
There is such a great selection of beautiful patterns in her Etsy shop that it was hard to choose only one, and although i had my favorite i decided to let the Mister pick his favorite style.
The pillow cover arrived yesterday and it is beautiful! The pattern is extra pretty with flowers, leaves and butterflies and the combination of pink and black is just perfect, not to mention the cheeky cockatoo.
So, here it is:

LOVE it! And wouldn't it be great to have matching curtains made of the same fabric??

Thank you so much Milk & Cookies and Damask et Dentelle!!

Those other pillow covers are by Esprit and their quality is anything but satisfying. While the fabric is nice and thick, the zippers are damaged and half of the seams have come loose after washing the covers once.
Does anyone else experience constant trouble with that brand? I used to be a frequent buyer, at least half of my wardrobe is by Esprit and i even had their platinum customer card, but since last year almost every item i ordered online had to be returned because it was either dirty or damaged or had a very weird fit. Not impressive at all for a relatively pricey company. But hey, the founder already owns her villa in sunny Florida, so why would she bother?
But i don't want to be mean. She built an empire and deserves it. Period.

And i will continue dreaming of being rich too. One day i will go to my favorite house right on A1A, knock on their front door, submit an offer that the owners simply cannot reject, and then MisterT and i spend the rest of our life in this beauty overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and wake up to the sound of the crashing waves every morning...

I wonder if Erin of House of Turquoise already knows about this darling?

DIY Weekend

This weekend will be full of DIY projects. I plan to make another dried flower canvas with the tulips i bought last week and i have a few ideas how to reuse old dryer sheets.

Last night i made another fabric cake topper for my Etsy shop and i think it turned out super cute. If no one buys it ( and that will most likely be the case) i'm going to include it in our wedding scrapbook album.

But i just cannot decide if i should make it a large book or a handy journal.

Can you belive that i have been living with MisterT for eight years now and he never mentioned that he owns an engraving tool??
It came up in a random conversation about our attic stuff a few days ago and i almost freaked out when he mentioned it. I already tested it on a piece of wood and it is amazing! The possibilities are endless and now i want to engrave everything!! I can't wait to try it on glass but have to buy some goggles first ( they are one of the very few items my husband does not own).

Looks like i will be quite busy the next two days. What are your plans for the weekend?

DIY: Easter Wreath

Who is in the mood for spring already? I am, and so i just went through my spring and easter decoration and found this door wreath that i made some years ago.

As a child i loved searching the hidden nest, but as non-religious adult i don't really care about easter and you won't find much decoration in our apartment. Just a few eggs, bunnies and cute little chicks here and there.
The worst thing about easter in my opinion? Those poor front yard trees decorated with terrible cheap-cheaper-the cheapest plastic eggs. Yuck!   Sorry, no offense to anyone ;-)
Other than that i usually like easter decoration and its sunny and cheerful colors.

So, i don't have a tutorial for my wreath but it was super easy to make. I cut a bamboo stem into four pieces and used my hot glue gun to construct a frame. Then i decorated the frame with all kinds of useless stuff and ribbons that i had kept from random gifts and attached everything with hot glue. Done.

Happy week-peak!

I want to thank everyone for your kind and encouraging comments regarding the robbery of my husband! The guys are released but we know that they used a fake gun and feel much better and safer now.

I realize it was a bit stupid to link up to the Blog Hop right after writing about this incident and that the scary story is the very first thing people read when they enter my blog.
So this post is mainly meant to override the previous one, but since i don't have any interesting to share i'll simply post this image i just pinned.

Pinned via this pin via tumblr 
If anyone knows the original artist or source please let me know so i can give proper credit

How cute is that cat? If it was real and looked exactly like that, would it still try to catch and eat the screechy-birds?

Last night I developed a fantastic idea for an upcoming living-room project. I don't want to reveal any details yet but it is going to include a lot of empty toilet paper tubes and little plants like succulents or similar. How does that sound?

So, like i said, this post doesn't really make sense and i better get some work done now.

Happy week-peak! ( This is not an actual word, is it?)

...

MisterT got carjacked this morning on his way to work.
Ok, technically it wasn't carjacking because they did not steal the car, but i don't know the right term for this. Two men threatened him with a gun and robbed him while he was sitting in the car, waiting at red traffic lights.

They got arrested by the police shortly after because MisterT was able to remember their license plate number, but we don't know if they have been rereleased already. They stole his wallet and probably know our address, and now we are terribly afraid that they might show up in our appartment at night trying to kill us or what.

Not sure how we are supposed to be able to sleep tonight.

I have read a lot of terrible stories lately of people being shot and robbed and it seems as if the crime rate in our city has increased a lot, yet we still felt safe. Until today.

I don't want to think about what else could have happened.

My dear readers, please stay safe wherever you are. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Tulips

It is cold and gloomy outside; melting snow, rain, and grey in grey in grey. And so i could not resist buying those pretty yellow tulips from the grocery store this morning. I love tulips and i love how their color brightens up the room and puts me into a sunny spring mood already ( although i am still hoping for the real winter to arrive). 

RECIPE: Basil Bread

How to bake a fresh Basil Bread in ten quick and easy steps

Ingredients: ( serves 2)

235 ml ( 1 cup or 15 and 1/2 T) Water
15 g Basil ( ca. 2 handful of basil)

2 T Olive Oil
10 g ( 1T) Salt
1 Pk. Dry Yeast
375 g ( 3 cups and 1 T) Flour
--

20 ml ( 1 T and 1 tsp.) Milk 

1 T Olive Oil

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, mix water, basil, 2 T oil and salt and mash with an immersion blender

2. Add yeast and flour, knead and form a ball
3. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and allow the dough to rise at a warm place until the size of the ball has doubled. You can place it near the radiator or into the oven at a very low temperature, but keep an eye on the bowl to make sure it doesn't melt.
4. Form a loaf and place it on a baking pan covered with baking paper and a handful of flour
5. Mix milk with 1 T oil 

6. Brush the loaf with the milk/oil mixture

7. Dust with flour 

8. Bake 20-25 minutes at 220°C ( 428°F)
9. Let cool and 
10. Enjoy!

Fabric Bridal Bouquets

I have listed two new fabric bouquets in my Etsy shop, both very feminine in pink hues.
The first one is a pastel, light pink and blush creation to match a soft, romantic and vintage inspired wedding theme.

Blush Soft Pink Bridal Bouquet

The second bouquet is inspired by pink poenies and perfect for a cheerful wedding of any kind.

Pink Peony Bridal Bouquet

It looks so pretty in a vase, too.

Pink Peony Bridal Bouquet

I am constantly trying to learn new techniques and come up with fresh new creations, and i think these two bouquets show how much i have improved since i started my little business.

And now i am curious to hear: what are your wedding colors and what does your dream bouquet look like? Are you making your own flowers?

Drawings

My art teacher in school ( long time ago) lived a lonely life hidden deep in the countryside, spending his time carving faces into tree trunks. Spooky, right?
He was the kind of guy being referred to as crazy and we always made fun of him and called him all kinds of not so nice names. Today i would just call him eccentric and unique.
I don't remember the details but i do recall that we were an overly confident bunch of wanna-be adults and ended up with a letter from the principal being sent to our parents because we had left the teacher's classroom after a hefty debate about his inappropriate behaviour and refused to go to the local art gallery the same day.
 
So, this man made us draw and paint and create the weirdest things which i usually did not like at all but still managed to get a good result despite my aversion.

One day we entered the class room which he had already prepared for a new project and there were animal skulls everywhere. Skulls of cattle, monkeys and cute little creatures like squirrels or such. That seventeen-year old girl felt the urge to vomit but my disgust was immediately overpowered by fear: the fear of losing my hard earned 15 points ( A+ or 1+) that i had scored by creating a Plaster of Paris sculpture that was good enough to be exhibited in the art gallery mentioned before.

And so i grabbed my charcoal and began to draw skulls. And i got another 15 points and an exhibition for my drawings. And i hated them so much that i hid them in the backmost corner of my room for many years.

I rediscovered the drawings when MisterT and i moved into our previous appartment in 2008. And i liked them! So much that i put them into matching frames and displayed them on our wall.

Today I am grateful for being given the chance to draw something more sophisticated and challenging than the usual flowers and geometric shapes.

Thank you Mister G. for being my teacher. I still think you were a moron but thanks for standing out and staying true to yourself.

Valentine's Tree

My Valentine's day decoration: Three branches in a vase, decorated with tags made of hand-made paper.

Update: My tree won the Plaid Twitter Valentine's Contest, yay!!!