Summer Break! (Not really...)

That's it - all my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

On Thursday, June 28, John and I will be flying from Nuremberg via Amsterdam to Detroit, where we'll spend two weeks with John's family in Royal Oak, Michigan. On July 12, we'll leave for California to spend another two weeks there, travelling from San Diego to San Francisco. On July 26, we'll fly back to Detroit, and three days later back home to Germany. I'm dying of excitement!!! :)

Michigan 2010: Woodward Dream Cruise, Detroit Tigers, Mr. B's Pub, Great Lakes Crossing Mall, Henry Ford Museum, and Mackinac Island

Though I'll be gone til the end of July, it doesn't mean that you won't hear from me:

First of all, you're invited to visit our travel-diary it's 5 o'clock somewhere. But be warned: I'm writing this blog in German for our family and friends at home, and although it's got a translate-button it might be tricky to read (Using my mother tongue, I'm a fan of complex sentences, absurd phrases, and sometimes even typically franconian slang expressions). Nevertheless you can look at the pictures and guess what we're doing - that is, only if you want to, of course :)

I've also pre-scheduled lots of new motifs for the Challenge that will be posted automatically here on my crochet-blog (there's still a long way to go to reach my goal of 100+ this year, and the next month is a great opportunity to get ahead).

Last but not least, there's still The Crochet Boulevard as a place for you to play while the cat's away :)

That's it for now. Thanks for all the good wishes you've already left at some previous posts! Take care and be good, and see you soon in k-town (or somewhere else at 5 o'clock *gg*),

xxx

PS: I'll leave this notice as a sticky post at the top of this blog.

Beyond the Square: Motif # 58

Motif # 58

Category: Triangles

Progress: 53 of 100+

Notes:
A triangle gone wild: this one features lots of front post dc's, the last round is worked with reverse sc's. Interesting look!

Links: 

Beyond the Square: Challenge 2012

News and Participants

Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Beyond the Square: Motif # 6

Motif # 6

Category: Circles

Progress: 52 of 100+

Notes:
This one is made with double treble crochet stitches (dtr), i.e. with yarn over three times. This stitch is explained in almost any crochet book I've ever seen, and I always wondered what to use this huge stitch for. Now I know :)

Links: 

Beyond the Square: Challenge 2012

News and Participants

Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Another Gift for Another Girl

Happy Sunday!

In my last post I've showed you the gifts I've made for John's Mom and his sister, and I've made another little gift this week-end:

One of our trainees, Simone, will finish her apprenticeship and leave the company while we're away, so I made her a little farewell-gift. This is a very small stone, embellished with a butterfly (you can find the pattern for the butterfly at marie's making). Simone knows that I'm making this stones, and last year she brought me some little rocks from her vacation, so I thought this would be a nice gift.

John also asked me to get a cup for her, because he broke the handle of Simone's coffee-cup just a few weeks ago. So yesterday I've bought a really cool one: it says "goodbye kitty" and it's got a hello-kitty-style comic-cat on it, wearing a dynamite belt. I especially love the drop of sweat on the cat's forehead :) Simone's got a cool sense of humor, so I think this is the perfect farewell-gift for her!

And after preparing those gifts the last days, I received another gift myself this week-end: Craftgirl78 has passed One Lovely Blog Award on to me. Thank you so much! I'm feeling really lucky and honored to be on your list!

Since I've already blogged about the Sunshine Awards last week-end, answered the questions and passed the award on to some other great blogs, please allow me to skip this part for now - I'll come back to this when I'm back from vacation!

Have a great day everyone,

 

Gifts for the Girls

Thank God it's Friday!! :)

Another working week has gone by, Germany has won the quarter-final match against Greece just a few minutes ago, and is now in the semi-finals of the Euro Cup. Our next match will either be against England or Italy, so in any case it'll be a tough battle. The match will be on Thursday night, which is really a pity, because right then we'll be sitting in the plane from Amsterdam to Detroit, and I don't think that they have live television on board. Maybe I'll wear my fanshirt during the flight, that's the least I can do for our boys :)

It's really not long until our vacations now, but don't worry, this isn't the farewell-post yet. What I wanted to show you today are the gifts I've made for John's Mom and his sister:

Some weeks ago, I've asked for your opinion whether I should make little crochet gifts for them or not, and most of you said I should. I think/hope that they'll appreciate the handmade gift, even if they're not much into crochet (which I'm not sure about, maybe they'll love it?)

So, here's what I made for John's Mom:

I've made two of those little potholder dresses that I had already made for my Mom on Mother's Day. Here are a few more pictures (I've discovered a new software, PhotoScape, and I love making those gorgeous mosaics with just a few clicks):

The crucial thing about these dresses is to pick the right button :)

For John's sister I've made a crochet covered stone:

I don't think that she's the type to collect handmade potholders or dishcloths, so I've picked this decorative item. I still think that crochet stones are quite unusual and unique, and you don't have to be a crochet maniac to love those stones.

I wanted this stone to be one of my best stones ever and so I've put a lot of time and effort in it, doing and re-doing the closing net lots of time until I liked the result. For the center motif I've used the starburst hotpad pattern, which I had already used for one of my stones before. It takes some time to make it and to weave in all those ends (it's made of five separate pieces that have to be joined), but I think it's worth the effort. I've attached the tiniest little flower button to the middle and really love how it turned out!

I'll let you know how the girls liked the gifts!

There are still a few more motifs for the Challenge that I want to post before I leave, and maybe some of you would like to join us on our vacation, so I will post the link to our travel diary next time.

Have a great week-end everybody!