Swiss Side Jewellery etc

Initialed Fabric Key Thingy

2016-01-15T23:23:00.001+01:00

Just before Christmas, and using the new craft space, my daughter and I whipped up these key fobs as stocking fillers (I think fob is the right word, although it sounds very odd) from fabric scraps.

Well, the "fabric scraps" bit of that sentence is correct, but we didn't exactly "whip" them up, as they were quite fiddly and we made it up as we went along. Add to that my lack of skill with a sewing machine and...you get the picture.

First we cut out the circles of denim with pinking shears.
Then ironed a smaller circle of interfacing onto the wrong side of each circle to provide some "body".
Then I set about finding some scrap leather for the initials, but didn't have any in my stash and didn't think I could "borrow" a bit from our leather sofa. However, I remembered that many jeans have a leather-like badge/belt tab at the back and, sure enough, this was the case with the jeans we had used for the denim fabric. (They were old ones-panic not!). I made a rough template out of paper for the initials, laid it on the leather, then cut round the template.Without the template I would definitely have made a pig's ear of this bit!

After glueing the initials in place we used the straps from a summer dress for the flowery fabric attached to the ring. These bits were already hemmed, so we just had to fold them over the ring, then place the two ends between the 2 circles and pin everything in place. I then sewed twice all around each circle (note to self - practice sewing circles beforehand) and also sewed the edges of the "straps" together. Finally we glued on the star and stone as embellishments. Phew! It was fun, but I must say that paper is far more forgiving!

Before...and after....

2016-01-14T15:07:00.000+01:00

Before.........a mess!

After......a craft space! Yay!!

OK, so compared to some of those super swish craft rooms out there this is nothing much to look at, but to me, having a surface to work on which I don't have to clear away at mealtimes is....luxury!
Happy New Year!

DIY Clothes Voucher

2015-12-23T13:20:00.001+01:00

For my daughter's recent birthday I wanted to get her a voucher for a new dress, but didn't want to buy a voucher from a particular shop in case she didn't find anything she liked. So I decided to make my own, but it looked a bit plain. So then I jazzed things up a little with this origami dress.

You can find the tutorial I used here. It's very easy to follow. My dress is a bit crumpled-it obviously works best with origami paper, which I didn't have. I added a little sparkly flat-backed stone to the middle for decoration.

Quick Christmas Labels

2015-11-22T17:31:00.001+01:00

Although I haven't been writing on this blog much lately, I am still here and am still dabbling in crafty things when time and inspiration allow. My problem is that I have no dedicated crafting space to call my own, so am forever having to move my half-finished projects to make room for meals or homework on the dining table. However, that is set to change - more later.

It's that time of year when (hopefully) we are purchasing new clothes for the new season. I must say I find it hard to throw away those sturdy labels that hang on new clothes and have been ~~hoarding~~ collecting quite a few for a while now. Here are just a few:

Add a stamp and a bit of Distress ink (this was Evergreen Bough) and.........Bob's your uncle, or er... Rudolf's your reindeer!

Back soon!

2015-05-11T14:05:00.002+02:00

Two teenage girls, some nail polish, some water.....

Swirl it around with a cocktail stick and dip in tins and glass jars from the recycled bin and...voilà..

How cool is that?

A couple of tips if you're trying this out:

1. You won't want to use the container with the nail polish/water again, so choose something you can throw away.

2. Once you add different nail polishes to the water you want to work quickly, as they start to form a skin very soon.

3. Due to the fumes from the nail polish, it's advisable to do this activity outdoors.

The girls found that tin cans and glass worked the best, but they also jazzed up a plain plant pot and a polystyrene heart.

A fun couple of hours!

Mind your language!

2015-05-05T14:47:00.000+02:00

I pride myself on being a bit of a linguist. I mean, I've mastered German, understand Swiss German, can get by on Italian and can dredge up a few remnants of A-level French if needed. But Spanish. Spanish eludes me. On a recent visit to Barcelona (more on that another time) this slight impediment didn't stop me from reading all the signs and notices and making my own interpretation of them. So it was in a clothes shop with my daughter that I spotted an escalator going up and a sign announcing "HOME". Great, I said to my daughter. They do stuff for the home here too. Let's go up there afterwards. It was only whilst waiting for her outside the changing rooms that I saw the shop had changing rooms for men too. Marked "HOME". That's when the penny dropped. "HOME" is Catalan for man and the sign had been pointing to the men's department upstairs, not a home furnishings department for goodness sake. Duhh! Good job I didn't go up there asking for sangria glasses or paella dishes.....

Back to Business

2015-04-30T15:49:00.001+02:00

I've recently got into using Distress Inks by Tim Holtz / Ranger and am really impressed with their quality and versatility. I had heard of Distress Inks, but thought they were just to darken the edges of paper when scrapbooking. I didn't realise you can stamp with them, make backgrounds, mix with water, colour ribbons etc, etc....There are many tutorials on how to use these inks and Tim Holtz has a great blog with very informative and entertaining step-by-step tutorials. Speaking of which, I decided to do his 12 Tags of 2015 challenge this month. You can read about it here. When I saw his tag for April (which you can find here) I was spellbound. When I saw the list of supplies required less so. But then I thought, what is it Tim always says? Embrace the imperfection? Yes! So with my imperfect supplies, I spent a happy couple of hours tinkering around and this is what I came up with:

Basically I had a few colours of Distress ink, a blending tool, water and a couple of stamps. I didn't have the spritzy thing Tim has to make the mottled background so just flicked the watered down ink from a paintbrush at the wet watercolour paper. I don't have a die cutting machine so punched the flower shape with a normal punch, then stamped the strip with my new text stamp - which I am very pleased with. Now the sewing round the edge thing stumped me and I laid the whole thing to one side for a day or two. Basically, the sewing machine and I are not good friends. In fact, we are barely on speaking terms. I considered drawing the lines in and pretending they were stitches, but in the end I thought about the imperfection thing and went for it. And, what do you know - it worked perfectly! No broken threads and not too wonky and so no cursing and swearing on my part. I added that metal button at the end as it fell out of my craft cupboard as I was rifling through my sparse supplies, so I took that as a sign!! Oh and the ribbon was a bit from some Easter packaging which I dyed with the Distress Ink.

It feels good to write on the blog again after such a long time.

Back soon!

Getting ready for Carnival...

2014-01-18T21:51:00.000+01:00

Last Monday, in preparation for our upcoming Children's Craft afternoon, we test drove some Venetian style masks and this is what happened:

On a dull, chilly January morning, this was so much fun. You can buy the masks in a "raw" state - they are a brown cardboardy thing. We then did a layer of white paint - not too thick - and then, well, the sky's the limit, or rather your craft supplies are the limit. And here's the thing - there are no rules to decorating these masks. We used feathers, paint, stones, glitter, beads - a great way to use up things you already have. The whole thing took under an hour to do. You can then either punch two holes, one each side of the eyes and thread elastic through to wear your mask, or leave it as it is and hang up as a wall decoration. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the children come up with in a couple of weeks' time...

Book Reviews

2013-09-27T15:02:00.000+02:00

I'm almost embarrassed to write on this blog after such a long absence. Almost. My creative output has been, of late, limited to a couple of cards and some fancy packaging (more on that another time), but there has been no shortage of book-reading on my agenda. So, as our half-term holidays approach here in Switzerland, I thought I would share a few of my recent good reads.

Scott Mariani's books are "unputdownable". Thrilling to the end, although some may find them gory in places and start to wonder if the hero, Ben Hope, is just a touch too, well, heroic! But I have thoroughly enjoyed every book so far.

I have read most of John Grisham's novels and really think that this is one of his best. It is a race against time to save an innocent man from the death penalty and I found myself reading faster and faster, as if that would help somehow:/

This is a book I picked up last week at the local library, a debut novel by Chris Pavone. Thought it was appropriate as I will soon be "celebrating" 25 years as an expat. I thought it would be a jolly story of an expat's life and some of the faux pas we make. I was wrong, It isn't. It's much better than that. It is a tale of deception and is utterly spell-binding. I'm a few pages from the end and have no clue how it will end. I'll be keeping a look-out for any more novels by this author.

Happy reading!

London's Calling...(2)

2013-05-14T17:53:00.001+02:00

Our only full day in London and a bit of forward planning would not have gone amiss. My daughter really wanted to go to Madame Tussauds, while my son wanted to go on a city tour on a red, double decker bus. There were lots of leaflets at the hotel, but it was difficult to figure out how to do both things best. If I had spent a little time studying this online before we left, I would have seen that there is a combined CityTour/Tussauds ticket, which is cheaper than buying the 2 things separately. But what if my children had changed their minds before we arrived in London?? I had imagined there would be a concierge service at the hotel, but, maybe in these days of booking everything in advance online, that is very much a thing of the past. Please bear in mind the last time I was in London as a tourist was 1996! Yes, way back in the Olden Days when they probably didn't even have Starbucks, let alone WiFi! But, I digress. In the end we bought 1 day Travelcards for the Tube for zones 1 and 2 (from the man at the ticket window Jennifer, - not from the scary-looking machines) and zoomed off to Baker Street to see what the queue at Tussauds was like. It was a 3 hour wait:{ However, just along from Madame Tussauds was a souvenir shop with an office of "The Original Tour" inside, where we asked for advice on the best way to spend our ~~money~~, ermm, time. The lady there was very helpful and sold us tickets for the city tour with "free" river cruise, actually at the same price as the advanced booking price online.

She then told us to get off at Trafalgar Square, go into their office there and purchase Madame Tussauds tickets from them, slightly cheaper and with priority entrance, then hop on again and continue the tour. So, that's what we did and it worked out perfectly! After a couple of hours on the city tour bus, we hopped off and used our Tube tickets to take us back to Madame Tussauds, where, brandishing our tickets, we had the briefest of waits. After rubbing shoulders with all kinds of celebrities (albeit wax ones!) we hopped on the Tube again to Green Park and walked through a very green park to look at Buckingham Palace. Then back on the Tube again to Tower Hill, where we (and about 500 other tourists) boarded a river cruise down the Thames.

As the boat made a stop at the London Eye, we got off there

and 2 mins later were relaxing in our hotel room. We'd had a lovely stay and definitely want to return again soon to see some more of the sights. And go shopping!!

London's Calling....

2013-05-13T18:09:00.000+02:00

On a recent trip to the UK to visit family, I decided to treat the children (and myself, of course) to a couple of nights in London before flying back to Switzerland. As I was travelling on my own with the children, I reckoned that 2 nights would be plenty, but another night/day would have been nice, although I'm sure my credit card was glad I kept it short and sweet! We started by taking the train down to London from Telford, which is just north-west of Birmingham. Having heard all kinds of horror stories about trains in England being expensive and delayed by leaves on the line, or both, I decided to play safe and book online in advance here. And I was glad I did. The site is very easy to use and you can see the different prices at a glance i.e. the more off-peak the train, the lower the price. Once you book your train online and pay by credit card, you are sent a code. You can then print your own tickets at machines at the railway station using the code and the credit card you booked with. So, having arrived at Euston station in London, we took a black cab to the hotel, as we had our suitcases and wanted to save a bit of time. With hindsight, it would have been quicker and alot cheaper to use the Tube, as the roads were terribly congested and the journey took quite a long time. But anyway, the children got to travel in a black cab. We stayed at the Premier Inn County Hall (thanks for recommending that, Kim!) which is situated in a great location right next to the London Eye and about 3 mins walk from Waterloo tube station. I booked the hotel directly on the Premier Inn site. I couldn't fault the hotel - the rooms were clean, comfortable and modern and the hotel restaurant came in handy too. After settling into the room we set off literally around the corner to the London Eye. I hadn't managed to book this online, so we had to queue for tickets and again to get on, but we were so excited about going on it and the weather was so fabulous, it didn't seem to matter. You can book in advance online here. Well, what can I say? The whole experience was spectacular. I particularly liked the fact that they don't cram each "pod" full to capacity, so that you have plenty of room to move around and enjoy the view from all angles.

We had booked the "Day and Night Experience" where you can go on at night as well, so we simply popped out again after dinner at the hotel. And the "Night Experience" was arguably even better than the "Day Experience":

The next day was our only full day in London and in retrospect a bit of forward planning would have helped......more on that tomorrow!

Motivation

2013-04-04T16:15:00.000+02:00

What do you do if you are totally lacking confidence and motivation to create anything? Simple - invite one of your creative friends round to give you a gentle nudge. Monique is one of the most creative and productive people I know. Just look what she gave me as a birthday present.

These were once dark brown frames containing tapestry. Monique used a special technique to make the frames appear shabby chic and then added these lovely cups of tea to cover the tapestry - just my cup of tea! So when she visited last week and I casually mentioned this tutorial I had seen from How About Orange on how to make bows from magazine pages, she didn't need much persuasion (none actually) to try it out. We started out with this

A magazine in topical colours for Easter which I ~~had been hoarding~~ just happened to have on hand, and, after a happy half an hour spent cutting (she did that - no confidence you see), glueing and stapling, came up with these:

It was great fun and best of all used things I already had around the house. Can maybe feel a flicker of creativity returning...watch this space!

Multi-tasking

2013-01-31T17:14:00.001+01:00

We all know that us women can multi-task. The question is, should we? Take me, for example. My son and I popped to the local shopping centre yesterday by car. Didn't have a lot of time and a few things to get done, so zoomed into the nearest parking space and got out of the car brandishing reusable shopping bag and handbag containing money etc. In my mind I was obviously already sprinting through the shopping centre, ticking things off my list. My son was standing by the car and I noticed he was frowning and looking at me in a strange way. "But Mummy", he said, "you've left the engine running!"

Anyone need a getaway car, they know where to find me....or maybe I've just discovered the need for a drive-thru shopping centre??!!

Bargain Hunter

2013-01-13T00:52:00.001+01:00

It's that time of year again. Sales everywhere. Items 20%, 50%, even 70% reduced. I have to admit that I am not a bargain hunter. Even if I do find out which shops are having a sale, I just can't be bothered to traipse there and elbow my way to the bargains and often by the time I get there all the good stuff has gone anyway! So it was curious then, that this post from Crafty Helen at Home fascinated me. Now that's what you call organised. But I did surprise myself this week. We have a home furnishings shop here in Switzerland called Depot. They have some really nice things and at the end of November I wanted to make an advent decoration with 4 candles, so made a trip there. However, as the candles I liked were 13.95 CHF each (around 15 US$)and I still needed something to put them on and decorate them with, I decided to rustle up something with stuff I already had, so slunk out of the shop empty-handed. Calling in at the shop this week and the place was full of Spring decorations but...at the back of the shop was a section with Xmas things with at least 70% off! Well, I had the feeling that it was now or never and quickly filled 2 baskets with baubles and candles and lights and and and... This is what I got:

20 items worth 186.50.-CHF for 51.70.-CHF! Still reeling from the shock of such rash behaviour, I was hauling my purchases back to the car (thank goodness I hadn't taken the bus) when, wouldn't you know it, I managed to bump into someone I know from our village, so I'll probably have a reputation as a shopaholic now.. But I must say I was pleased with the things I bought. Some are wintry enough to go on show now, others have been squirreled away for use this Christmas. Just need to remember where I put them. What bargains have you picked up this year??

Twelve

2013-01-02T18:56:00.001+01:00

It seems that 12 is the order of the day at the moment. Not only did we celebrate my daughter's 12th birthday on 12.12.2012, but we will soon have been in Switzerland for 12 years. If you google the significance of the number 12, you come up with all kinds of weird and wonderful things - 12 apostles, 12 months of the year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 hours in the day and 12 hours in the night, to name but a few. But, I digress. Let's get back to that birthday. As soon as we realized it would be a significant date, we said we would do something special. As the day approached, I asked my daughter what she wanted to do, given that her birthday was in the middle of the week in the school term. I was thinking in terms of a party, a special meal out, a trip somewhere nice. I wasn't prepared for her absolute birthday wish: a trip to Paris! We tried to discourage her saying that Paris in winter would be cold, no leaves on the trees, can't sit outside at cafés etc. But she wouldn't budge. So, after extensive searching and researching (do you know how many hotels there are in Paris?), the trip was booked - 4 nights in Paris, leaving on....yes, 12.12.12!! Here are some of the highlights:

TGV
Although the TGV was as expensive as flights from Zurich, we decided to take the train to avoid Charles de Gaulle airport and having to travel into Central Paris with luggage in rush hour. The journey from Zurich is direct and takes 4 hours and 3 minutes, reaching top speeds of 318 km/h. You get a seat reservation with your booking which is great, as between Dijon and Paris the train is packed. A tip here is to book the TGV 3 months in advance to get cheaper fares.

Hotel
The train comes in to Gare de Lyon in Paris and we stayed at the Novotel Gare de Lyon. We chose it purely for ease of arrival and departure - you literally walk out of the station and across a square to the hotel. Plus, children under 16 stay free in the room - there is a pull-out sofa. We were actually pleasantly surprised by the Novotel. The room was fine and despite the location at the station, very quiet. The buffet breakfast was good and from Gare de Lyon you have several Metro and RER lines. On departure day it was a doddle to have a leisurely breakfast and then wander across to get the train home.

Eiffel Tower

What can I say? Absolute highlight. If you are travelling with children, be aware that they will want to buy half of the contents of the Eiffel Tower shop - i.e. mini towers, magnets, mugs etc. On our first evening, in freezing temperatures, we took the metro to Trocadero - from here you get a fantastic view of the Tower, in our case in all its glory illuminated and sparkling on the hour. Next day we went up - having pre-booked and printed our bar-coded tickets here - you get a specific time to go through the ticket barriers and save queuing up for hours. I can really recommend doing this and the website is very user-friendly.

Louvre
One word to sum this up - vast. We got in, via the pyramid entrance, fairly quickly and had to queue for about 15 mins for tickets - there are several ticket booths inside and machines as well, but I think in summer it would be wise to pre-book. Our main aim was to see the Mona Lisa - the route is well-signposted and basically you just follow the other thousand or so people making their way there. After that we decided to look at the artefacts from Ancient Egypt. There were so many and, again, the place is so vast, that this took a couple of hours. After that we were completely museumed out and called it a day. At 11 Euros per adult (children under 16 are free) I didn't feel we had seen too little for our money and the experience of being inside such a grand palace was well worth the price of the tickets.

Arc de Triomphe

Fabulous! There is no lift and the steps really take it out of you, but the view from the top is breathtaking. Get there early to avoid the queue.

Centre Pompidou
I remember being shown a film of Paris in French at school - say late seventies. Oh how we laughed when we saw the Pompidou Centre with its bright colours and escalators on the outside, for goodness sake. I didn't realize, but ever since then I've harboured a desire to go up those escalators and that's what we did. We had received tickets via our train/hotel package so got in fairly quickly. Due to the Dali exhibition being staged there until March, there was then a 90 minute queue to go into all parts of the centre. As we were not particulary bothered about Dali, we were able to go, thanks to a tip from a friendly member of staff, via those famous escalators, to the permanent modern art exhibition.

What I Could Have Done Without

Using the metro so much...we seemed to spend large amounts of time marching for what seemed like miles along grimy underground corridors and even more time sitting in dirty, run down trains - obviously been in CH too long, I'm sure it's just the same in any metropolis. Another time I would take a more centrally located hotel and walk more to the sights i.e. better to go when the weather is warm.
Sacre Coeur / Monmartre - teaming with people, you really had to watch your backs and your bags - better to admire Sacre Coeur from a distance e.g. from the Arc de Triomphe

After all that excitement we have enjoyed a very quiet and very relaxing Christmas and New Year. Now our batteries are recharged, we are looking forward to our next trip, wherever that may be. Happy New Year!!

Crocheted Rudolf Match Holder

2012-12-11T15:06:00.000+01:00

I'm constantly amazed at the things my children bring home from the handicrafts lessons at school. Part of the curriculum involves learning to knit and crochet - for the boys and the girls alike. My 9 year old son recently came home with this:

The "body" is a very long crocheted chain wound around a glass and glued in place.

A felt underside has been stuck on with the reindeer's feet an integral part!

The antlers, ears and face are cut out of felt and stuck/sewn together using blanket stitch and a bit of stuffing for the face.

There's a special strip at the back to strike the matches on...

...and my favourite bit - the glittery red nose. Mind you, I did raise an eyebrow a bit at the thought of twenty two 9 year olds bringing their Rudolfs full of matches home in their school bags....what a temptation that might have been for any potential arsonists in the class....

Tomorrow is the 12.12.12 - a very special date for us as it is our daughter's birthday and she will be.....12!!! We will be doing something special to celebrate - more about that later.

Picture this!

2012-11-24T12:39:00.000+01:00

I work at a small English school in the Old Town of Winterthur. On the way to work I walk past a rather nice shop which sells posters, cards, picture frames and has a changing display of prints and pictures in the window. I've always thought that one day I would walk past this window and see THE picture, the one I`ve been looking for for about 2 years, to go on the red wall between our kitchen and dining area. Well, Saturday was that day. On a very rare trip to Winterthur with husband and children, we walked past the shop and I spotted it. The picture. Exactly the right size and shape, the right colours, in fact everything ticking all boxes. My husband thought it was OK too. Now, I should have rushed into the shop on the spot and bought the picture there and then, but not being an impulse buyer and having 2 children chomping at the bit to go and buy ingredients to bake biscuits (far more important than a silly old picture) I decided to think it over. On Monday morning I walked past the shop again on my way to work, but, as they don't open until 12 midday, I could only admire the picture again and the next couple of days I was too busy to go into town. Imagine my disappointment when, on my way to work on Wednesday evening, I walked past the shop after closing time to see a different picture hanging in place of "my" picture. That was it then. Sold. Too late. Should have bought it sooner. My own fault. Later that evening when my husband asked me how the evening had gone, I just told him "the picture's gone" :( Not one to give up too quickly I enquired at the shop next day and they said they could try to order the picture for me, but they couldn't promise to get it and certainly not this side of Christmas. Hmm. Back home I tried to track it down on the Internet, but it was just not available anywhere and I found out that there are only 95 of them and when they have been sold, the printing plates for this particular picture will be destroyed. Great! I even 'phoned my husband at work (very rare thing - me 'phoning I mean, not him working!) and asked him if I should order the picture, but he didn't seem particularly interested - probably interrupted him in an important strategic meeting....oooops! Anyway, I came home from tennis later that night to find the children very giggly, the husband with a Cheshire cat grin on his face and this propped up against the red wall:

Yes, you've guessed it. The reason the picture wasn't in the shop any more was that my husband had bought it and somehow managed to transport it home on the bus and hide it in the cellar. It was supposed to be my Christmas present but he thought he should put me out of my "misery" and give it to me now. Just need to hang it properly now...By the way, the picture is by Astrid Heinecke and is called "Alma".

Jewellery gifts

2012-11-22T14:58:00.000+01:00

It's been so long since I posted on this blog, I feel like I need to dust off the cobwebs first. That done, it feels good to write stuff again! Over the last few weeks I have been very fortunate to have been given 3 pieces of jewellery. Two of which are family heirlooms, but more of that another time. A few weeks ago I spent a very nice day with my friend Monique, one of the most creative people I know. She has even been able to make her passion and talent for creating into her job. Anyway, she very kindly gave me this heart pendant, which she made out of special ceramic jewellery clay I can't even begin to imagine how you can get the clay to form roses - but I love it and have worn it a few times already. So thanks again Monique and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Back soon!

Legoland

2012-06-07T18:18:00.000+02:00

A couple of weeks ago (ok, more like 3 now..) we had a short break for Ascension Day. For an explanation of what Ascension day is, see Jennifer's blog. Anyway, we spontaneously decided to go to Legoland in Germany, about a 2 hour drive away and meet up there with a family we knew from our time in Basel. Our friends had decided to camp at the Legoland Holiday Village, but, as we don't own a tent, that wasn't an option for us (my excuse anyway ;)). As we had left it pretty late to book, all (proper!) accomodation in the Holiday Village was full and as an alternative the Legoland website suggested a package for 342 Euros, staying at a hotel "in the area" and including 2 days' entrance to the park. Thinking this was kind of pricey, but maybe that's just what it cost, I looked a bit closer at the package. The hotel was over 40km from Legoland in a city and had mixed reviews from previous guests. Also we were not sure we really wanted 2 days at Legoland, as we didn't know if there would be enough to do there. So in the end I googled "hotels near Legoland" and made a reservation by 'phone for a 4-bedded room at this hotel in a small village 20km away for 119 Euros including breakfast. Well, what can I say? We had a fabulous time.

Entrance to Legoland cost us 76 Euros (2 x adults), as I had some vouchers from yoghurt pots (yes, really!) which got the children in free - a saving of 68 Euros. We found our friends and found there was loads to do - from rollercoasters and water rides to minature cities, airports and harbours all made from Lego to a huge Lego shop. Our children are aged 8 and 11 and enjoyed it so much that we decided to go back the next day. Fortunately, our eagle-eyed friends had spotted a poster that said if you bought your tickets for the next day before leaving today, they would only cost 10 Euros per person. So that's what we did.

This is what our DIY package cost:
Legoland entrance 1st day = 76 Euros
Legoland entrance 2nd day =40 Euros
Hotel with breakfast = 119 Euros
Total================235 Euros compared with 342 Euros via the Legoland website

Ok, so you have to take into consideration the saving we made with the yoghurt pot vouchers, but it just goes to show that it's worth taking a closer look at these packages and the alternatives available.

Anyway, it's a great place and we hope to go back there in the not-too-distant future....

Bag lady

2012-04-13T23:21:00.000+02:00

My friend Cathy is a bag lady. I mean that in the nicest possible way, of course. It's just that she has an eye for them, whereas I am useless with bags. Cathy has many bags and they are fun and bright, whereas I go for the safe (and dull) practical black kind. I also only have one bag at a time and I use it until it falls to pieces and I have to buy another, er black, bag. My current bag began disintegrating about 6 months ago and I have been putting off buying another as I am such a bag wimp. A couple of weeks ago I spent a morning in Winterthur and trailed round several shops, to no avail - too bright, too boring, too expensive, not big enough, too big etc etc. Imagine my surprise, delight, relief when I came home to find Cathy's birthday present waiting for me - yes, you've guessed it,

It's from Carpisa and it's perfect! New bag, new bag charm.....

I'd love to be able to say I made this myself but....I went to the bead shop to choose some beads, but found this all ready made instead.... Have a great weekend!

Night Out

2012-02-10T09:44:00.000+01:00

Fancy a night out but have no time/energy/babysitter at the moment? Then hop over to Jennifer's blog and read about her night out. I felt as if I'd been there after I'd read it.
Have a good weekend!

Kim's scarf

2012-01-27T08:46:00.000+01:00

Motivated by my post on the Knitted Ruffle Scarf, my good friend Kim from Basel battled against the odds, or rather several wool shops who were out of stock of this particular yarn, couldn't even get it from their suppliers and had a waiting list for it as long as your knitting needles. Not a woman to be deterred, Kim was given a tip by a local market trader, procured the yarn and whipped this up more or less in the course of an evening:

I think it's fabulous and the colours are lovely. Well done Kim!
Have a great weekend!

Recycled tin can

2012-01-20T13:37:00.002+01:00

What do you do with a bored daughter, off school with a bit of a cold? Yep, make something. One (washed and dried!) tin can, some denim and some wool and voilà (don't know why I thought I needed a French word there...):

I'd had this idea in my mind for a while as a solution to this:

This is much more pleasing:

It was really quick and easy and best of all used things we already had. First of all I measured the circumference of the tin, allowing for a bit of an overlap and also the height of the tin from just under the top "lip" to just above the bottom "lip". I transferred these measurements onto the back of my denim and cut out with pinking shears, allowing 1cm extra on one of the short sides

Then turned back that extra 1cm, top stitched it and added the button using a bit of the wool.

I stuck the denim to the tin using everyday white glue, then to finish I glued and wound the wool round the top and bottom of the tin, so hiding the edges of the denim.

After recycling my tin, I found loads of inspiration and instructions (duhh-why do I do things the wrong way round?) about recycling tin cans. You can find some ideas here. Have a great weekend!

Knitted Ruffle Scarf

2012-01-13T11:07:00.001+01:00

When my 11-year old daughter told me they were knitting scarves at school, I expected her to bring home the standard long oblong of knitting, odd stich dropped etc. I didn't expect her to bring home this:

Isn't it fabulous? And I was lucky enough to receive this as my Christmas present this year. You knit with a "ribbon" or "mesh" yarn, only 8-10 stiches, big needles, garter stitch all the way. There's a simple tutorial for this kind of yarn here:

Although I am not a knitter, I decided I would like to try my hand at this as it seemed fairly easy and so we made a couple more scarves for Christmas presents - they are really quick to make, literally a few nights whilst watching TV (photos are a bit naf, sorry, but you get the idea!!)

This yarn had integrated pompoms (!) and was called "Rocio" from Katia.

There's a tutorial for this yarn here:

And this black, grey and white one was made using a yarn called "Rete" from Lana Grossa.

There are lots of different ribbon or mesh yarns around, but you'll find instructions on the yarn label or, of course, from your local wool shop! Get those needles out!

Christmas Cards

2012-01-11T10:43:00.000+01:00

I love Christmas cards - getting them, displaying them and then RECYCLING them - more of that in a mo'. There was a time when I used to make most of my Christmas cards - unfortunately a lack of motivation and inspiration has prevailed of late. Until....two of my Swiss neighbours sent beautiful hand-made cards and I was encouraged to reciprocate. I didn't have any special supplies, but this is what I came up with:

And now to the recycling bit - I always think Christmas cards are too nice just to throw away, so I make labels out of them. Very quick and very easy. Start by cutting out the main pictures from the front of the cards like this:

Then grab a few supplies like this:

Add scissors and some glue and in about 60 seconds you can come up with this:

Alternatively grab a pair of fancy scissors and cut round the main picture like this (10 seconds!):

Back soon!