You’ve been with me a year to the day

Having a sore throat is a pretty good excuse to have maple walnuts ice cream, isn’t it?

Otherwise I’m doing good, looking forward to our mini-vacation at the end of the week for mom’s birthday. I’m still working on her gift, a mini envelope book for photos, so stay tuned for pictures!
Currently I’m building my schedule for the semester to come and also, I just booked evening classes, one for muscle relaxation and one for learning how to sew (yay!!!) and I’m really looking forward to that.

Do you know what day we have?
Um yes, today is World Translation Day, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about.

It’s Bucks anniversary!!! One year ago today we picked up the little fluffball (okay maybe rather big ball o’ fur… it’s totally unfair that he leaves hair everywhere and doesn’t have to clean it up – he should be vacuum cleaning the flat, not me!!). He brings happiness and hair joy to our lives. I am so grateful for having a friend like him and I can’t imagine my life without his wet little nose nudging my hand anymore. I’m sure those of you who have dogs as well can relate to those feelings.

I feel I’ll have to make a scrapbook page for this memorable date. (Actually I could make a whole book with all the cute pics I already got… well step by step!)

He looks really blurry on this smaller version, if you click on the picture you’ll see the photo without the blur.

Today as we were preparing lunch (oven-roasted fish with a variety of vegetables) I was reminded of sharing this great link with you:

I am sure there is an English equivalent somewhere out there in the world wide web, but for the benefit of those of you who happen to understand German, this site gives you the inspiration you need for cooking and baking delicious food. The huge variety of recipes (at the moment there are almost 113 thousand of them) is a big bonus AND – now comes the best part – the recipes are evaluated with up to 5 stars by the community members, depending on how much they liked the dish that was prepared on the basis of the recipe shown. So for example, if you have chicken left and coconut milk, you just type both terms into the search box and you get all the results, then you sort them by rating and soon you’ll know which ingredients, how much time and what you need to do for a delicious meal!

Every year, for example, I choose a different cake to make for Renés Birthday and so far I have done good with using Chefkoch.de.

Here are some of my favourite recipes I found thanks to this page: the yummy CINNAMON ROLL CAKE, the so-called Yogurt Bomb(e) or the very delicious Salmon-Spinach Lasagna. And by the way: the access to the recipes is free! Enjoy!

Now to some cards I made recently:

This is a tri-fold card on the basis of Ruth Hinds’ Birthday Card. I wanted a special card for Renés 25th and as the original card was already in masculine colours, it wasn’t hard for me to imagine my version of it. René said he really likes it, so: Thanks, Ruth!

For the outside I used the Squiggle Circle Border from Stampendous with Baby Blue Versacolor Pigment Ink, my 1 1/4″ circle punch and Soft Sky Double Stitched Ribbon with a staple.

For the second side I stamped Hero Arts “Graphic Dots” – again in Baby Blue ink – all over the paper and punched another 1 1/4″ circle.

When doing the final layer I realized that I don’t own a single birthday stamp
So I improvised, cutting out a template in order to imitate the cake from the “eat cake” SU set. I think it worked pretty well. On the right you can see the scallop circle I punched out as well as some Certainly Celery DSP and the circle from the Priceless set mounted on dimensionals. All of the words in this card are handwritten (I tried not to let my real handwriting shine through ;D).

The following picture isn’t nearly as nice as the card would deserve it, but I needed to take a pic to show it to you immediately!

Now before you say anything, I know that the sentiment is crooked. I still like it though. These adorable lantern stamps are from Inkadinkado and were not exactly a bargain, but totally worth it! I was inspired by this cushion (which sits on my bed, oh I love it so much!) by Impressionen Versand

I really have a “thing” for cushions. I don’t know why I am so attracted to them, I just can’t stop buying cushions – strange, huh?! If my boyfriend knew how much I already spent on cushions, he’d call me nuts. Seriously. But you know, that would come from a guy who spent a total 2.300 € on two bikes… Heehee!
Back to the card: I stamped my own patterned paper and adhered it to the back of the layer where I cut out some sections of the lanterns. Then I used some Old Olive Twill Ribbon and paper ribbon from Ikea for additional interest. Next time I will try to stamp the lanterns directly onto DSP, I’m excited to see how that will work – I’ll let you know!

Before I end and hop blogs until I can’t hold my eyes open anymore go to bed, I have to show you some more of my favourite blogs about paper crafting:

If you’re familiar with Papertrey, I am sure you’ll recognize this incredible woman. It’s

HEATHER NICHOLS

and her creations make me speechless, really! I visit her blog at least three times a day *grin* Take a look at her work – much better than me trying to explain how awesome she is!

This pretty face belongs to another amazing paper crafter:

DAWN McVEY.

She is a part of the Papertrey Design Team as well and if you’ve seen her work, you’ll know why! Many of her cards are so adorable they make me want to sit down and recreate something similar immediately, she is so inspiring!

Anyway, that was all for today, I hope you’re having a great week!

The Wild Buck

This picture was taken just one day after we got him, cute ay?

This is my dog. Well, our dog.
Referring to Thorstens entry about his dog here are some facts about Buck, the white wolf.

Name: Buck (his code name is Jesús – Spanish pronunciation with hard ch [CHeesuus]) – he already had this name when we got him, so we guess he’s named after Al Bundys dog. During the holidays we like to call him Buckolomäus (that would be Buckolomew in English) or sometimes Buckinator etc. He’s got lots of names (just like God, harhar).

Origin: He’s from an animal shelter in Madrid, Spain. We got him through an animal welfare organisation near Frankfurt/Main. So basically, by taking one of these dogs home, you do TWO good deeds: Giving an animal a new home, where it is loved and taken care of AND giving the organisation the opportunity to rescue another animal! Personally, I can only say that even though it changed my life quite a lot, I didn’t regret this decision a single day. I know I’m getting all corny here, but he is such a kind and grateful dog, I love him to pieces.

Age: He was born on July 7th in 2006, so now he’s about 2 years old. We got him at the beginning of October last year, we’re to celebrate the “anniversary” soon

Favourites: When it comes to food, there ain’t nothing he doesn’t try to eat… He likes everything apart from vegetables and bananas, esp. old macaroni directly out of the bin or anything really mouldy and disgusting from composts. Also: horse droppings… Ugh!
His girlfriend is a Rhodesian Ridgeback called Lina (see picture), but you know, Buck he’s a hot Latin Lover, he’s got a girl in every port.

Interests: Buck has oodles of hobbies, first of all there’s hunting. He once sat in a thorny bush with a wild sow. He already killed 15 voles in the vineyards (that’s where we walk him most of the time). So to all the rabbits, deers… and also cats: Watch Out!
Of course he hates cats. He always tries to hunt and eat them. When they don’t run away but instead come closer, his face gets a totally amazed expression and he starts to back off

Another thing he likes to do:

He also likes to bite the bum of people who think that only pure-breds are good dogs. While we’re at it: He’s a mix of Husky, Canadian Shepherd + ?. I think there is a share of Podenco in him (pink nose, huge ears…), but we’ll never know!

Staring is another hobby Buck pursues with passion. Especially at night, he stops all the time – to stare. The white wolf stares into the dark of the night as if there was something to stare at. Which is not the case. Which drives me nuts! I’m easily scared, esp. in the dark. Someday I’ll get a heart attack because there actually WAS something.

He loves snow and sand (anything he’ll sink into):

The only thing I don’t like is that we don’t have a picture of him when he was small. He must have been so damn cute! Actually, he was given away to the shelter because of “not being cute enough anymore”. Go figure!!! I mean, just lookit:

I think he’s the most adorable dog.

Also: He likes to travel.

At the moment he is snuggled up in his blanket in the living room while we’re getting ready for a heap o’ sleep. (I just googled this collocation and was pleasantly surprised to see that it exists, hee hee and I thought you’d laugh at me for having made something up that sounds silly.)

Anyways, hope you have a good night!

Random stuff

So here are just some things I wanted to fit in an entry but have not a lot to do with each other, so it would’ve been difficult to connect them.

[1] Saturday we went shopping (yay!) for some clothes for René and I didn’t buy anything (ha!) but at the very end I ventured into a beauty store and bought my FIRST EVER BENEFIT Make Up.
Yes, you read that correctly. Until only 3 days ago I used to be a BENEFIT VIRGIN. There you have it.
I’ve always wanted to try out their products since I read quite a lot of good things about them over at Hey Dollface, but of course they’re not for a student’s budget. So anyway, I didn’t really know what to buy so I chose the “realness of concealness” kit. That way I get to try several products at once, which is great if you’re not sure if and how well they work on you.

[2] Now what I wanted to share with you as well is a link to the blog of a friend, it’s FILMABEND by Thorsten and is only for those of you who understand German – sorry! He used to write movie reviews, so on his blog you’ll find exactly that plus some personal stuff etc. What I’ve read so far was exactly what I thought of the movies as well and I am really impressed with his observation skills. So go and check out his site!

[3] Over to some of the cards I made recently:

This is the “Crazy Dog” by Inkadinkado and the sentiment is the “Posie greetings” from Stampendous. The River Rock DSP and the River Rock double stitched ribbon are complimented by a Bo Bunny Brad (Chocolate collection). The combination of the brad and the ribbon was inspired by a card that I can’t seem to find now. If it was your card, please stand up (if you’re slim shady, you may keep your seat).p>

There we got a card clearly inspired by the Stampin’ Up Celebrate Notecard which I loved the second I laid eyes on it. Clean and fresh – just how I like it. Ingredients include the Priceless Flower Stamp (SU) and dotted ribbon from Making Memories.

What I got inspired from to make this card were the window cards by Joanna Wassens – she does some great stuff, make sure to check her blog! To create this, I used the “Paper Salon Tailored Tins Smitten Alphabet” – the sentiment is stamped in Certainly Celery on special cardstock with shimmering fibers inside, that’s where the shadows come from (the “asterisk” is actually the tiny flower from the SU Priceless Set). What you see through the circular windows is a very wide dotted chocolate coloured ribbon, so if you opened the card you’d see the whole strip of ribbon.

Now here’s a card I needed to make, the original is just soooooo cute! And it’s so incredibly easy to make!!! I wrote the sentiment with a white gel pen on the arrow I “eyeballed”. The ribbon is from “Spice it up”, everything else is from my local craft store.

So that is all from the card front for today, hope you enjoyed it!

[4] Here’s a bit of information for you, if – like me – you’re located in Germany and searching for scrapbooking/ rubberstamping/ cardmaking supplies:
In order to help you, I’ll tell you where I bought my stuff so far:

The first (big!) order I got from the USA was from Krafty At Krafts and I can totally recommend it. They have lots of different brands in stock, amongst them some my favourites like Stampendous, American Crafts, Inkadinkado…

A second order (bigger!) I got just recently from Addicted To Rubberstamps . The quality of the products is impeccable, unfortunately they declared the stuff just as they were so I had to go to the customs office and “buy” my package from them (they charge the tax rate depending the kind of products), but still it was very nice to work with them and they shipped sooo fast!

Of course I also ordered stuff on eBay (especially Stamin’ Up!) and I can recommend it, although ordering from many different American & Australian retailers is not a bargain if you’re thinking of all the additional shipping costs. Yet still you just don’t get all the great stuff here, so eBay has become a good friend of mine ever since I started to stamp.

Soon (not this month though – I decided to go on a shopping diet – so no crafting supplies until October!) I’m going to place an order at Papertrey Ink. Their stuff is too cute to be true! I love their style and I’m looking forward to the new releases for winter.

Another online store that is going to get a big order is Two Peas in a Bucket. At the moment they have quite a large SALE section, where everyone can find reduced items to his or her her taste.

Where do you shop for crafting supplies? I’d be happy about some more tips!

So, thanks for stopping by, I’m off to buy a new printer cartridge (for the cute Nancy Kubo designs!). See yas!

Blog-hopping deluxe

I’m a girl that’s not so easy to please (that sentence will get me a nod from René ). I’m very picky when it comes to layouts, cards and all that stuff. Well, everyone of us has their own style and likes/dislikes.

Now I’m going to recommend some of the blogs I read frequently at the moment:

First of all:

FOREVER AMBER

This is my favourite blog, written by the same incredibly talented woman who is the author of The Fashion Police.net. She lives in Scotland (very rainy) with her husband (very funny) and her dog (very scary ).
I love her stories and the hilarious stuff – she writes oh so well! (I have to admit, I sent her a handmade Christmas Card last year just because I love her stuff so much… Does that make me a geek?)

A great blog for my new hobby is

KRISTINA WERNERs BLOG

She’s only 4 years older than me and I admire her! She designs for several companies and her work is really inspiring. Her blog is a constant source of eye candy and her handwriting is to die for – seriously! I’m picky as I told you, but Kristinas style is just so… so…
I guess WOW describes it best

Another must-see blog is

“CAPTURE THE MOMENT” by Nichole Heady

She’s a Designer & the Co-owner of Papertrey Ink, one of my favourite companies where I’m going to place an order in the very near future (hello gorgeous stamps, hello tasty colours, helloooo cute ribbon!!! [hello empty bank account!]). Anyhow, her blog contains awesome creations and I love her often very clean and crisp layouts. Go and have a look!

Now last but not least I’d like to mention

ANDREA WALFORD

She is an extremely successful Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator from Canada and I find her blog so inspiring! Be sure to check out her wonderful creations

So, as much as I love Germany (wouldn´t want to live in the States even if you paid me for it, sorry – although… scratch that! If you paid me, I totally would – I’m young and need the money), I am sooo jealous of all the ladies that live there since they get to do classes, parties, conventions… and all that stuff. Let me tell you, I envy you guys!