Pants, A Year Later

 This is a gift that took a year to come together.

Carolina has a little friend, whose birthday is one day after hers. For the friend's last year's birthday she got a voucher for a pair of pants. It was the time when I made a lot of these kinds of pants for Carolina and the little friend's mama really liked them.

We decided to go to special fabric store and choose some fabric for the little friend. But then winter came and one of the girls or mamas was sick or the shop or was closed and or whatever got into the way and we never made it to the store. Eventually in October this year we bought some fabric (the little friend's mama chose the blue ribbing, guess what I would have taken...). It is still klimperklein's pattern for "baby pants" - but size 92 is so large, it still fits 3-year-olds.

Sat Nam

Oh, my dear yoga students!

Always up for a surprise

and a little crafty cheer-me-up

amidst this challenging month of May for me.

I got this beautiful envelope last night.

And it had a message inside.

(I have also worked with this mantra before)

So as I am packing for a weekend of teaching a prenatal yoga training

I am pinkly reminded of truth, beauty, kindness and essence.

Thank you so much, Mareike!

Final Cut

 ... is the name of the new exhibition at the Oldenburg Horst Janssen Museum (they have just had a Chagall exhibition which was the most successful since the museum opened in 2000). "Final Cut" shows contemporary paper cutting art.

Last Friday night the doors were open for an "Art Lounge".

Everybody could come and start cutting paper to hang in the staircase, hang around with a drink and pretzel, have a look at the exhibition, they even hired a DJ. As this was just on my way back home from my prenatal yoga class, I happily joined the crowd. One of my lovely friends/artist/yoga students also came (hello, Doris!).

A quick glance at the exhibition:

For warming-up you (I) can never go wrong with pink and flowers.

 

 

Then I felt more like origami.

The whole wall:

Teenagers did great stuff:

I also played some more:

So did Doris:

What a great night!

Angel Wings

Yesterday I showed you the paper angel wings

 made by a super-nice yoga student of mine.

She gave them to everybody in the class 

at our Christmas yoga party.

I could fly home on pink wings.

I am not the only one who likes them.

I have a sneaky little angel in the house.

Let's go flying!

Yarn Graffiti Revisited

They have been up for a while, those two pieces of yarn graffiti that hang and great me where I teach my Tuesday night Kundalini yoga class. But either I had no camera or it was still too dark for taking pictures. Yesterday both conditions were met.

Made my a yoga student of mine.

Little Liselotte Strick spring flowers (remember those?)

Crunchy Sunday

Last week those yummy, crunchy, not-too-sweet, double-baked, sophisticated biscotti entered our lives. They made a great Italien-style breakfast together with a cup of coffee, a birthday present for a friend who likes exactly this kind of breakfast, a welcome after-dinner-treat, a just-so-pick-me-up and Sunday-afternoon-with-the-grandparents-snack. I even had to hide them from Hubby late at night when he came back from watching a basketball game (so we could offer something to the grandparents...). The girls liked them too (anise? yes!)

You can find the recipes here: Almond-Anise and Chocolate-Hazelnut from my favourite vegan cookbook Veganomicon. I substituted wheat with spelt, canola with sunflower oil and used whole cane sugar. But be warned: they are addictive!

Pink Moments of the Week

... still with the groupies. Supergroupie Pamela Des Barres this week. I am especially interested in her chapters on motherhood, where I also found the occasional "weensy booties knitted like a pair of cowboy boots" at the baby shower and her "embroidering Tinker Bell on a tooth-fairy pillowcase" when she was pregnant. Motherhood changes everything, a lot at least. Like buying home magazines.

Speaking of baby booties:

A good friend from school has just had her third baby, a girl, and a pair of baby booties went via mail to them. Those purple-pink ones in the middle, they were actually the last survivors of the baby bootie party.

Current knitting involved picking up the pink 2-at-once-socks again, just to realize that I had to rip back a couple of holiday-made rounds. Never mind. And quite a challenge when you work with two long circular needles at 11pm. Frog 'n' Roll.

Cat's Cradle

Last night in my Kundalini Yoga class I got a wonderful present - note the colours of the crochet strings (all intentional by the thoughtful giver, of course), which are part of the wrapping and the main part of the game.

Remember playing cat's cradle as a child? This is what this book from 33 years ago is about - and an immense number of other figures you can create with string - with poetic names like butterfly, lotus flower, starry sky, two islands connected with a bridge, birth of a child.

Did you know that this is an ancient international game with similar yarn

figures in Papua New Guinea, Siberia, Africa, Western Europe and among the Native Americans?

Carolina was fascinated with the book, as she is with most books.

And didn't want to give it back.

I hope, that the game will be something Clara likes - a game that practically takes up no space when going on vacation, with endless possibilities.

Thank you, steinreich. I love it.
(and your other well-chosen handmade gifts, too).

Two Winter Friends: Ribbing and Stockinette

My new cup got company.

On a stroll through the city center I discovered this red mug by Butlers. Just perfect for having a friend over for tea.

Giving

Hubby took the girls and gave me two hours of sewing time on Wednesday - I really needed some sewing zen to stabilize my inner balance. I whipped up a bunch of baby bibs as gifts for the baby girls that have arrived recently or are soon-to-come. I am a fan of practical gifts, what baby needs ten rattles? And this bib is useful (and baby-stylish) and very Carolina-tested (it is my pattern here) for its usefulness.

Clara asked me, whether she could have the fabric scraps. With the help of scissors and glue she whipped up her own little gifts (for me exclusively), and came out of her room happily again and again, with new makings every time - a scarf, a book, a flower and two little rolled gifts.

It really is true - the joy is in the giving (and in the making).

Garden Parties

Savouring the last days of summer at friends' and family's gardens,



enjoying the beauty of small tortoiseshell



and red admiral butterflies.

The Pink Stripes

At home with the babes,
no kindergarten anymore, no school yet... summer holidays... long days.
What's going on?



a mermaid swimming through the living room sea



Clara completing her Frosch (frog) swimming course



staging a doll performance



a fairy in her untidy (play-in-progress) room



my sumo-baby wearing a mokomini in hot weather



and in baby Tuina massage class



having friends with babies over

drinking in summer



Mama-Me: very tired at the end of the day (no picture), but thankful for the beautiful and peaceful moments that occur now and then (and having someone to help with the cleaning, Thank you Siri Shakti!)