10 Pleasures in May

1. Treasure Hunting. As I’m reading Treasure Island at the moment, the fever has caught me, too. I remember a time when my mother used to hide something small in the woods, like a marble, in the moss by the enchanted well…
2. The Old Botanical Garden. Not very far from our darling home it is a green retreat with lawns for combat training, trees for climbing, places for picnics and a scent-and-touch garden. Most of the time the lawns at the riverside are bursting with folks when the weather is good enough so I’ll be spending a certain part of my summer time rather in this early 19th century park.
3. Clean Bedding. There’s something special, nearly magical, about freshly changed bedding. To lie down in the cool linen, using your favourite bedding, to cuddle in and then sleep better than at any other time…
4. Sing with the Sirens. A song by Ahead to the Sea, a German folk punk band, that reminds me of pirates, Neverland, upcoming storm winds and nautically inspired tattoos.
5. Sari Fabrics. The sheer cotton, that luxurious silk, the trimming with metal treads and fragile patterns are quite fascinating. I earnestly think about sewing a dress (western pattern, the Burda magazine brought me a nice one last month) using a sari…
6. Justaucorps. I especially like those from Brotherhood of the Wolves. I still need one.
7. Rising Early. Well, most people seem to be alienated by this idea, but I rather like it. The knowledge that I’m the only person awake in the flat, that I’m not forced by pressure of time concerning my breakfast, that I’m able to finish a project, write a blog post or continue a painting before I leave for university is kind of uplifting to me.
8. Garden Cress. You know, the stuff that grows on the window sill and that is gone as soon as you sit down there ’cause it’s simply too tasty and well, there be vitamins, too… ahem.
9. Clearing Out. It’s just a great feeling to get rid of things that are bound to negative memories or that you simply don’t need anymore. Plus, it gives space for new stuff (especially in the closet). And spring is just the time for it.
10. Marble Cake. Every time I travel by train I’ve got to check the vending machines for those small packs of over-the-top sweet, laden-with-chemical-preservatives slices that are the best thing against hypoglycemia that I personally know. But finally, the marble cake my grandmother bakes is the best one I know. ^^

What I did during the last two Weeks

Remember that I told you about the lucky bag swap? The parcel arrived yesterday, only one day after I took it to the post office. SleepingTime, the recipient, liked it and so I think I’ve got the permission to finally post some pictures here.

The Lucky Bag itself.

I took stars as a theme, nautical ones, to be specific. Not only do I like this motif very much but also SleepingTime mentioned her love for stars of every kind and fashion in her swap profile.

Card and sweets.

I love to follow a certain continuity with colours, symbols and writings. The sweets are raspberry sherbert bonbons called chuckle pellets and match the red I used for the flowers and some of the content.

Buttons.

These were the first things I made for this swap when I was still very weak and bedbound. SleepingTime wrote that she liked stripes and the colours red and turquoise. We are a crafts forum after all, so I decided to draw needle and thread, too.

Bookmark.

The needle-and-thread theme again, this time with the same flowers as on the card and scissors. And stars, of course.

The bag was the “large” thing I made for the swap. Strangely the colour matches SleepingTime’s medieval dress nearly exactly, at least this is what she told me, and I didn’t even know about this dress!

I really like how the embroidery turned out. The yellow parts are three layers of different yarns each and the turquoise tendrils are not only striped with the lightest yellow bead yarn but also decked with glass beads.

The design is meant to be quite medieval inspired but I think I’ve inserted quite a lot of my own hedgefairy style.

I used the same thread for the bookmark, also with these glass beads sewn around. The embroidered stars are simple pentagrams with stitches at the crossings of the lines in a slightly darker yellow.

Finally, the last project for the lucky bag: A leather bracelet and matching earrings again with nautical stars, twines, flowers and read thread. I kept the pattern I made for the wristband so I will be able to make one of these for myself. The leather is quite thick and soft at the same time and was very easy to pyrography as soon as the soldering iron was hot enough.

I hope that SleepingTime will take pleasure in these things for a long time and am really glad that she likes them.

I should really post more about crafts here.

On Wednesday…

…I’ll be sleeping well again.

To-morrow I’ll have my first university exams at New Irish, grammar, philology, linguistics and Exchange of goods and ideas (a lecture) , and Old Irish will follow on Tuesday. Five exams on only one day will be quite mean, but grammar, linguistics and philology are combined to one test.

Tuesday evening will be pretty nice, and on Wednesday I’ll sleep. Long.

Aaargh. Wish me luck.

Beating Loneliness

Picture from weheartit.com.

There are moments in life when you feel completely left alone and worthless to others. This especially happens when you are sad or angry or, all in all, not in a good mood and doing badly. These are the moments in which you feel mistreated because the only person to comfort you wouldn’t even leave their momentarily doing-what-ever if they heard you crying and sniffing two open doors away. Or when in a discussion with people you normally consider your friends won’t accept your opinion and instead hit you on the back of your head just out of the blue just for having your own mind!

Every time when it seems to you that no one loves you, nobody cares for your feelings and thoughts, remember that you are indeed a precious person. Just be good to yourself. I’d…

• Have a tea. Nothing too exquisite or expensive, a simple herbal or fruit tea will do. Warming from the inside is really helpful in situations that feel like a lump of ice in your stomach.
• Take a bath. It’s the same thing, but from the outside. In such moments I prefer oils and salts instead of bubbles which can be quite cold when you touch them accidentally.
• Read something that makes you feel comfortable. Like Eloise or Brambly Hedge or your favourite Flower Fairy or even a Shakespeare sonnet, something small that makes you smile.
• Watch a feel-good movie. Tinkerbell for instance is about accepting oneself even if others do not so.
• Cuddle up. Take a nice big blanket (I’ve got a patchwork one from IKEA that’s huge) and your favourite teddy bear and just feel that you’re save and warm.
• Talk. I just had a telephone conversation with my mother who is quite objective when I’ve got quarrels but knows me and my quirks very well. Call your parents, your best friend or your sister, someone you know to always love you, and get everything off your chest.

My mother always says “Care for yourself and be your own best friend”.

She’s right.