30th September 2013 - Long break

Sorry for staying quiet for so long - I even got complaint emails. I started college again last week so it has been busy and the gym takes up a good bit of my time as well. Happy to report though that almost all Christmas presents are done. However, I have decided not come home during the reading week in Trinity College, the way I did last year. There are loads of things going on at the moment, really have to get myself sorted and settled back into college.

Looking forward to tomorrows lectures.

12th July 2013 - Glendalough - An Irish Beauty

I decided to bring my granddad out to Glendalough today. We took the car from Skerries and drove down the M1 and M50 and ended up on a very winding road within the Wicklow National Park. Weather was amazing. The water at the Upper Lake was warm so I dipped my feet in, all happy with myself.

Here are few pictures from Glendalough and surroundings:

The famous ruins in Glendalough, with the Tower of Glendalough in the background.

The Upper Lake, which is a good 30 minutes walk from the car park. We chose the path through the woods so we could enjoy the sun while walking in the shade.

"The Wicklow Heather" - a really cute restaurant/pub we went after our exhausting walk. We had tea and coffee and fresh scones with jam and cream. Amazing service - the waiter even spoke a little German.

We made our preparations for the BBQ tomorrow: German homemade burgers. The potatoes for the potato salad are boiling while my granddad is writing his postcards. We are enjoying the remaining sunshine, it's meant to be a bit colder tomorrow but we will see.

4th July 2013 - Leather!

Or at least that's what it looks and feels like ...

Went into Hickeys today to get a few notions: bought 2 zips for my bag projects and cord string - if that's what it's called. Bags sometimes have handles made from them.

However, when I approached they remnant bin, did I not just find another piece of that lovely violet rose fabric I did my first bag in ... I also found this leather-like material. And it's red!

It looks so pretty and feels so pretty!

The owl oilcloth fabric will be part of another project. I would like to replace my laptop bag with something new the owl fabric was pretty much what was left on the role.

I also started to lay out the material for my mothers beach bag, can't make a decision on the material that has to go inside colour-wise. I have some fabric left from curtains I made for my housemates - okay, I had to shortly ready-made curtains from IKEA but seriously - pushing through that amount of fabric takes it out of you. I sort of understand why people who sew don't like it - or at least some of them don't. It's just a very long line of stitches ...

Here a picture of my mum's beach bag material, hope she likes it:

Background colour is beige so I am thinking I have a look for something plain and bright. The curtain fabric is my way out if I can't find anything I like. The little piece of paper gives me the approximate size of the bag.

Still surprised the notes I took made it back in one piece to Ireland, although slightly creased.

Now, wish me luck. Pattern cutting starts on Saturday and I am still going to make cordial from elderflowers before they are gone but most of the cordial making process happens over night.

1st June 2013 - Exhausting but happy weekend!

Just coming back to terms with myself after an exhausting weekend at Launch48. I had a lot of fun and enjoyed working on a Start-Up idea. Not sure yet where this is taking us (that is me and the nice fellow I worked with) but we have a good feeling this could really become something. I will post more once I have more details - but the general idea is to get a business construct together, a revenue model and going to Launchpad to present it and who knows where it could take us from there.

I am really tired so keeping this post short. I went to college today to meet up with my team for our 2nd year development project and we luckily gained another team member which I believe is good news.

On Thursday I will get some notions for my upcoming sewing project and then I will get started working on my sewing projects before I get too entangled in the Start-Up idea, the college project and my online web development course. I feel bad that I haven't looked at it yet. However, I learnt from the college tonight that the material covered by the online course might be very useful for the project with regard to HTML, CSS and Javascript.

To finish off this post, I found this picture on the German Der Spiegel (sorry, can't find the exact link) today refering to the observation scandal. I was a bit cut off the news over the weekend. In exchange I regained my love for Powerpoint.

So what could go through their heads?

I leave it up to you to come up with something ...

26th June 2013 - Project "Viola"

I've to give another sewing project a try, a bit more difficult than the last one before I start working on my mum's summerbag, my laptop bag and the insane amount of cosmetic bags and clutch bags I am intending to sew for family and friends for birthdays and the upcoming Christmas season.

Thanks to Dropbox, I've uploaded the pictures from the book. While watching Coco Before Chanel  I started to trace the pattern piece from the book. Next step will be picking a fabric - not sure yet - and pinning the pattern piece to get the fabrics ready.

Here is the design for "Viola" by Miriam Dornemann from her book "Tolle Taschen selbst genäht":

Not the greatest picture but I think you can get the idea. I will replace the turquoise pieces of the bag with double-side fabric pieces. Not sure about leather yet.

And my pattern pieces

Have the feeling something is missing though. Will find out during the sewing process. The little arrows indicate the direction they need to be pinned on the farbic to follow the farbic's grain.

Will record my process. Wish me luck!

20th June 2013 - Back from holidays

I am back from holidays and straight away back into my daily routine. The last two days were a bit messy and I could feel that I was struggling to speak English and understand instructions. However, I think I almost back to normal.

This week I take it a bit easier. I have a facial booked for Saturday and I am thinking of hitting the Trinity gym afterwards. With the exception of yesterday, I have been going for walks since my return from Germany. Today, I managed to put in a few short joggs while listening to Three Days Grace.

I found another few bands over the last couple of days and bought a few albums: Rise Against - Endgame; Rise Against - Appeal to Reason and Three Days Grace - Life Starts Now. These albums are of older release date and again I am behind as usual with current music. I got them at Saturn for almost next to nothing and it fills my iPod for some time. Still, Breaking Benjamin are still running on a repeat shuffle too. Just love their music.

I started a couple of projects: 

• A short sleeved cardigan: in a silver merino-metallic yarn:

I am half-way through the back of the cardigan. Took me three attempts until it finally took off

• A crochet bag: in a dark pink I picked up somewhere ages ago.

I doubt thought that I have enough yarn. I have only three balls of it which is already less than the pattern asks for. It's 14 hexagon-shaped pieces and sides I have to make. So far I have completed one while watching "Kick Ass"

I bought a lot of fabric while I was on holidays and instead of running to IKEA again, I managed to clear a box of yarn which was only half-full and put my fabric in it. And guess what I have space for more. I might go to Hickeys und buy that cotton PVC-glued owl fabric I saw in Hickeys a few weeks ago. They should still have some and I saw yesterday that a few shops have the sales on ... so who knows, maybe I get it a bargain price.

And another photo shot ...

A picture of me in Helgoland. Praise to Dropbox - uploaded this picture without a cable or without emailing myself. Yeah!

Now, for something completely different ... a shower!

28th May 2013 - My first bag

I finally managed to sew my first bag from a pattern all by myself. Took me longer than expected and as my teacher once said: it takes longer to prepare everything from cutting out the pattern on tracing paper, cutting the fabric and ironing on the interfacing, before the actual sewing starts - which doesn't take you too long then.

Please admire my piece of work; I am really delighted with myself:

The fabric is actually curtain fabric which I bought in Hickeys. They had a big piece of it in the scrap basket. It came at a price of €10 for two meters and I still have material left, hopefully to make a matching rucksack. Overall costs: around €25, which includes fabric (the purple one above and a silver grey I picked up in Germany the last time I went over), a zip (can't see it here, it's at the top) and two different types of interfacing: a volume interfacing and a thinner one to stiffen the inner fabric.

The strap is a bit wider which makes it look a bit wonky but I am delighted that it turned out so well. The pattern was rated "2" on a scale of 1 to 3 and I even understand the instructions no problem. Only made the mistake of sewing in the zip wrongly first time around, but was able to fix that.

Overall time invested: about 8 to 10 hours, split over a couple of days.

10th May 2013 - Exams are over ...

and I am very tired. Almost fell asleep today in work. Can't believe I've finished the first year. Seems like it only started yesterday. Tells you how fast time goes.

I would like to thank everyone for their support. I really appreciate all the help I got.

Now, I will enjoy my well deserved break.

I've spoilt myself with a few little things for my birthday, and also to celebrate the end of the first year.

I bought this on GlenAran Irish Markets a couple of days ago. First time I fell for advertising on Facebook. Can't believe it, actually. It arrived with today's post in work and I am really delighted. And what's more, they sent me a €10 voucher for my next purchase when I spend €50 which might happen soon enough. There jewelry is just lovely.

I also bought a Pandora charm:

I took the picture of Google, as you are not able to see the colour properly on Pandora.net

I seriously spoilt myself this time but I feel I really deserved it.