Friday, April 27, 2012

Offline



We are moving this weekend. It will take a couple of days to get sorted and have an Internet connection installed. I will be back with news and pictures. Hope to see you around!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Schmusels

While Carolina is quite happy playing with her hands, feet, mama's hair and whatever she finds around her, this week she was in for a little handmade treat from a friend - a Schmusels cuddly blanket.



Designed by Petra, who is an artist (Clara used to go to her children's art classes) and sewn lovingly by her mother - true German quality gifts. The story behind those little cuddly elephants is quite interesting: 1,5 years ago Petra felt rather uninspired with her painting and those little elephants started to crowd her creative mind. The first elephant-shaped rattles were designed and sewn. And now the Schmusels family also includes musical clocks, dummy chains and cuddly blankets. And Petra herself is expecting her first baby soon. Her Schmusels are a real bestseller in my prenatal yoga class.



The cuddly blanket has two different beautiful fabric sides and is filled with crinkle paper, a bell, and little rattle to stimulate your baby's senses. Not because of the blanket, but while being photographed Carolina's sense of sneezing was stimulated:





Bless you!

You can find out more about the Schmusels on their website and at Petra's dawanda shop.

Book Stack

What I am currently reading :



"Homespun Style" by Selina Lake - for dreaming up our new home

"Expressive Photography by the Shutter Sisters" - for seeing and capturing pictures from the heart

"Yoga for Real Life" by Maya Fiennes - Star Kundalini Yoga teacher shares her life and gives some yoga advice amidst many beautiful pictures

"Alle sind erleuchtet" (All are enlightened) by Kristin Ruebesamen - well-written insights into the yoga scene by a German journalist and yoga teacher in New York, London, Berlin and India

"Kids" by Meredith F. Small - How biology and culture shape the way we raise young children - not as interesting as her book "Our babies, ourselves", but still makes you think and reflect

Geburt (Birth) by Birgit Baader - for empowering pregnant women in my prenatal yoga classes

"Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" and "Spiritual Midwifery" by Ina May Gaskin - known as the"world's most famous midwife" and laureate of the Right Livelihood Award 2011, she really knows something about natural birth. The black-and-white-hippy-photography and lifestyle on "The Farm" commune in the 70s just makes my day! And while I was not overly interested in reading books about pregnancy and birth while I was pregnant myself (except for Hypno-Birthing), I can't read enough of it now.

And oh wonder, still no knitting book... even though "Homespun Style" focuses a lot on handmade.

When we packed all my books for moving, my dear husband was kind of shocked at how many books I have acquired during the last two years... and remarked that the main part of moving is him getting my books from one place to the other. Thank you!
Even my Clara asked me yesterday, why do liked books so much? Soon she will know, I hope, school is starting in fall for her.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Baby Bridge

Carolina discovered her new way of movement. After turning over at three months and not making any real progress on her belly so far, she now likes coming into a yoga bridge position and then pushing and throwing herself back until she meets an obstacle. She can cover quite a distance on the bed moving like this.



All those mama and baby yoga classes we haven take together seem to inspire her. But truth be told, babies figure it out all by themselves.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Green Day

Moving into our new house gets serious!

While the man of the house does most of the hard moving work, I have the baby strapped in front of me or on my hip and are quite un-movable. But I can get inspired by Selina Lake's wonderful new interior design book and dream up our new home.



And I can provide some green energy in between backing and moving boxes. Some green salad of batavia lettuce, avocado and cucumber to accompany the inevitable sustaining pasta dish.



And once again inspired by Heidi Swanson and green asparagus - this ensemble.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Green and Red



Combining Romansco broccoli and cherry tomatoes.
The recipe came together with our weekly organic box of fruit & veg.
Precooked-for-5 minutes-Romanesco meets the cherry tomatoes, onion and garlic in the pan and is drizzled with a sauce of balsamico vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. Let it rest for 5 more minutes. Parm on top optional.



Serve with a good white bread or rice.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Go Green



... as in Spring Minestrone.

Another delicious way to incorporate the now available green asparagus which I so much prefer to the white version. Using Heidi Swanson's recipe as inspiration and basis (you can find it here). I substituted the brown rice with farro (or Einkorn in German), the pea snaps with zucchini and the shallots with regular onions - the things I had in my kitchen. Sprinkle with parmesan if you like. Fresh, light, hearty and - green.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Pink & Purple Glitzy & Healthy



After a springtime-second-hand-shopping-spree.

Special food love of the moment: red radicchio.
The sophisticated side of bitter.



Simply roasted with some olive oil and salt in the oven or as an elegant radicchio lasagna (similar to this one here). Something we first enjoyed at our favourite Venetian restaurant and at a family dinner with Italian friends in Follina (Veneto) seven years ago. I am just stunned how something so simple with so little effort can taste so sophisticated. And vegan. In my case.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Home 2012

May I invite you in?



We got the keys to our new house this week and the renovation has started. Five rooms, enough space for the four of us.



Dreaming of warm summer nights out on the veranda...



We leave the kitchen retro-style as it is.



Will I develop a green thumb?







We love it already.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Randomly with Baby, Doll, Flower and Lipstick



The colour of the Mollie Makes Crochet Flower was explicitly stated as "lipstick pink". And as I have only a darker red lipstick, I thought it would be fun getting another.



There you go. And I was very pleased when I found out the name of this lipstick colour - Blushing Bali, good marketing, guys!

As of late, that is as of last week, I was convinced that also mothers should put some effort in looking good and dressing well. Those two blogs by James and Katie helped me to come to this conclusion.



Is this still a knitting blog? Probably not at the moment... but life evolves. Those knitting posts will be back, I know. The time spent exclusively with a baby is just too precious and short.



So better enjoy it with chubby cheeks.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Cat Makes Mollie

Hurray!
I made something!
A mini-something, but a finished handmade object nonetheless.
The crochet flower brooch from the Mollie Makes March Kit. While knitting is tricky during nursing the baby, crocheting which needs just one hand is so much easier. Plus a little baby morning nap and ta-dah! Done. I placed the flower in a visible place for me to see all day and be just happy about it. The little things.

Decent photographing with one hand is rather impossible, though. If you want to put the flower in your hair (and go to San Francisco...).
You can also pin it to your dress or purse.



So Mini-Me has to stand in for the modeling.



A rose in lipstick pink. Perfect.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Young Reader



I am not the only one in this family who wants some Mollie Makes time...

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Mollie Makes Easter

My (eye) candy for the Easter Holidays - the new issue of British crafts magazine "Mollie Makes".



It focuses on "simple pleasures" like *making * thrifting * collecting * crafting. Like they say on the cover - Living & Loving Handmade - even though I am living more on the loving side of it right now. Launched last year in Great Britain I have heard that the crafty crowd raves about it.

I got my British issue from Ramona, who distributes Mollie Makes via her blog. I have found her blog incidentally and surprisingly enough she is a Kundalini Yoga teacher, vegan, pregnant with her third child right now, photographing her organic box of fruit & veggies every week, living an intentional life and living & loving the handmade - quite a resemblance to my blog... and life!

The Molly Makes pleasures also arrived in Germany in March - a German edition which sums up a couple of original issues.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Plastic Fantastic

Recently Clara has developed a growing interest in Playmobil toys. As I have learned, you can buy different theme-based rooms with dolls and all their tiny equipment. Very gender-biased Clara leaned toward a kitchen and a baby room. But what can I say, where does Clara see her own mother most of the time, doing what?

The baby does have her own room, her own bed and her own changing unit - stuff we don't have in real life. But amazingly, the baby doesn't come in a stroller, but in a sling. A happy Queen Mummy carries a smiling baby in it. (Did you know that another real queen, Queen Victoria made strollers/prams popular in the 19th century in England by using them?).



That is something we are familiar with.
And I have a friend, Monika, who can give you a lot of personal and professional advice on slings and baby carriers. If she isn't busy with her new passion for knitting.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

From the Baby Bubble

Not moving yet... life is busy enough right now with a 4-months-old baby, her 5-year-old older sister, having a home to pack and to have some kind of routine still, teaching yoga and not knitting.
Not many words about that.



But we are all busy, you know. All the mamas, and papas and children and babies out there. But that's great. That's Life. With a capital L.



Carolina is improving her grasping skills and checking mama's crochet. The first baby step to hand-eye-coordination. Very important for knitters, as we all know.