no, the curtains

aren't ready yet although the weather is awful

and I do have enough time...

I wish there were little fairies who came at night

and made them for me ;-)

Well, I spent it sewing a couple more bags for the

christmas fair in Niebuell:

and in the morning we made an apple cake - really easy:

just mix the dough (125g butter, 125g sugar, 3-4 eggs,

200g flour, 2tsp baking powder),

put it into a greased pan.

Find someone to peel 4-6 apples for you, cut them into quarters

and put them on top of the dough,

sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon - we use a lot of cinnamon!

Bake approx 45 min. at 180° C. Relish the smell!

Remove from oven and let it cool,

whip some cream if you like and enjoy!

This scary pile of fabric

needs to be turned into curtains - it's been around for a few weeks and we desperately need the curtains because I cannot work on the computer when the sun is shining. BUT it really scares me - it's just too much fabric for my taste. I prefer to sew little things, much easier and quicker, too!

I wanted to show some things I recently made. They are more bags for the shop.

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I also want to alert you to a christmas fair at the NIC in Niebuell, that's a small town near the Danish border. If you are close by or feel like spending some days at the sea, drop in and meet some of the nicest sellers from Dawanda (I will also be there ;-))! This is where the fair will be held: click . Hope to see you there on November 15!

Thank God ...

... the summer break is finally over! I've been going out of my mind with the twins constantly teasing one another and fighting nearly all the time!

We moved to Luebeck a few weeks ago and settling in quite well. The weather has been alright, it's still quite warm and mostly dry, so it's great fun to explore the little lanes and alleys of the old city.

I am still looking for a job and do have an appointment with the job agency tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed!

I did some sewing recently but didn't take any pictures yet. I will post them next time!

:: some crafting ::

Very little going on here.

I would like to plan our move to Luebeck but I recently applied for a job in Kiel and I am still waiting for the result. Moving to Luebeck without having a job there is kind of tricky, so the whole situation is very depressing and paralyzing!

I made a couple of purses and bags for the shop to distract myself.

:: dawanda fabric swap ::

While in Hamburg I had the opportunity to swap some fabric with other fabric lovers from dawanda. A huge parcel full of fabric and other goodies was waiting for me at Steffi's.


Here is what I took from the parcel:



And this is some fabric from my stash that I put into the parcel:
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:: on vacation ::

Last week we made a little trip to Lower Saxony to visit my sister and in between we went to Hamburg to visit Steffi. I met her through dawanda where she also has a shop.

Although Steffi did not know me she replied to a post of mine asking for information on Luebeck where we plan to move and she then very generously invited us to come to Hamburg. Her husband is from Luebeck so she knows the town quite well and wanted to take us there. Only then we got to know each other via mails and telephone.

As expected, we got along very well and had a marvellous time! The minute we arrived we took off again to drive to the North Sea. We visited the multimar wattforum in Toenning which was very interesting. Even my daughter who initially didn't want to go enjoyed the exhibition. They show an enormous skeleton of a whale but I liked the seahorses best!

Afterwards we went for some sandblasting on the beach (it was a tad windy) and of course the kids enjoyed the beach a lot! Our kids got along very well - as if they'd been friends for ages - which made it very easy for us.

And of course we went to Luebeck. It's a lovely town and we would really love to move there this summer. Keep your fingers crossed!

:: giraffe ::

It's a bit sad. I made a giraffe for a friend, using a pattern from my favorite Japanese craft book.

Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to like it very much so I am going to sell it on Dawanda.

She wanted it to have a bow but it can be taken off easily.

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Recently I made a couple of gamaguchi purses. The one with the cats has already been sold.

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:: SALE - Japanese craft books ::

I want to sell a couple of Japanese craft books that I don't need anymore. I actually didn't use them, so they are brandnew!! If you would like to get one or more, please drop me a line at ckebel at gmx.de! Again, I am sorry for the crappy pix but I had to use the flash. Please, see more books on sale here.

The first book on sale has 71 p of the cutest crochet amigurumi. It's unused. It will cost you 17,80 Eur plus shipping.

This book is a marvellous book for those of you who are interested in needle felting. There are loads of very cute zakka to felt (47 p, shipping in FRG would be 1,30 EUR, the book itself will go for 7,80 EUR). SOLD, thank you!!


This next book has a lot of very nice felting projects (bags, purses, containers). 48 p. I am selling it for 7,80 EUR plus shipping cost. SOLD, thank you!!


The last book on sale is also one of the Ondori handicraft series. 48 p of cute crochet amigurumi. Again, it's unused. It will go for 7,80 Eur plus shipping. SOLD, thank you!!

:: what we did ::

Well, we haven't been very crafty lately but I wanted to show you the little bracelet my daughter made for a friend. She used felt, a piece of sari fabric, some pearls and thread obviously, I think it's very well made (I only helped her with the lining)!





I made a couple of matryoshka keyrings and more piggy banks for my dawanda shop. How do you like them?






On Dawanda you can currently find an Advents calendar. The motto changes every day and products can be ordered with no shipping costs (on that day, for national delivery only). But beware, the calendar started early, so today you can open window no. 11! If you live in Germany, go to the German Adventskalender !

:: Dutch fabric market ::

On Saturday I went to the open air fabric market in Potsdam. It's been said that it's marvellous but I was a little bit disappointed.

Maybe there are more stalls when the weather is a bit better - it was raining in the morning, and maybe it's more interesting in summer. A lot of stalls had winter fabrics only which I am not interested in. There were maybe 3 or 4 stalls that sold interesting cottons but they were quite pricey, so I only bought a red polka dot fabric and some trims that cost me an arm and a leg.

My son who accompanied me was very brave and only nagged a little!

:: sock animals ::

Life is a bit difficult at the moment and I don't find enough time to craft and blog.

But I did finish an elephant some time ago.

The ears were quite a challenge.

I think she looks okay.

Yes, it's a girl and her name is Alisha. That's an Indian name and it means 'guarded by God'.

She's available on Dawanda! Sold! Thank you!

Today I managed to make this little dog named Bello.

He's also looking for a new home. If you want to adopt him, look here! SOLD, thank you! I could make a similar one for you!

:: sweet little present ::

I got these buttons from my son who bought them from a boy at school. Isn't that sweet?! Six of them are covered with fabric and the other three are shell buttons. The covered ones will make excellent eyes!

:: more bibs ::

...

I can't seem to stop making these little bibs. They are fun to make and don't take too much time. I really like the simple pattern from this Japanese craft book (ISBN 407246385X).

For the backs of all the bibs I used a chequered fabric in a light pink, they close with snaps.

Again, the bibs are available at Dawanda! Dawanda has a new look, by the way, check it out!

:: wips finished ::

I am suffering from lumbago. So I had the time to finish a couple of wips that have been around for ages.

I finished the sock monkey that I started on about a year ago.

Then I finished a couple of bips for my little dawanda-shoppe. I used the pattern from this marvellous little book (ISBN 407246385X).

I also stuffed a whale made from old jeans. I actually made two. One is for the christening of my niece's son. This second one is also for sale.

:: crafting and baking ::

What have I been up to? Very little crafting and yesterday I did some baking because today we are going to celebrate the end of the school term. The children will get a new teacher after the summer break - I am not sure if that's good or bad but hopefully it's just for one more year.

Well, crafting - I made a little cushion which I discovered in my favourite Japanese craft book, my sewing machine did not like it though.

It's from this book, but there is no pattern for it, it's in one of the photographs which are all very, very inspiring:

Yesterday I made some brownies and a quiche lorraine. If anyone would like a recipe, please leave a comment.

:: look what I made ! ::

..

I recently made this little sock piglet. OK, it does have devilish ears but I still think it's very sweet! If you want to see the sweetest (real) piglets on earth, head on over to mollychicken's blog!

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If you want to make a sock animal yourself, check out the instructions for the classic sock monkey here and here, there also is an elephant here. I love the sock dogs from this etsy-seller, e.g. I really like this dog, very sweet!

It's relatively easy to make different animals from the sock monkey patterns, be creative! There's also a brilliant looking Japanese craft book which I don't own. It's now available in English here and here (lots of pictures). It has patterns for a lot of different animals .