Why can’t we always meet under a cloud of mystery

Hello everyone
How’s your weekend going?
I’m busy working on my to-do-list which contains lots of cleaning and university-related stuff.

As the title and my last post suggested, we went to see Maxïmo Park in Frankfurt on Wednesday. They truly are my favourite band and even though the concert lasted for about an hour only, we had so much fun. (And the warm-up band were the Blood Red Shoes, really cool as well!) I made it to the fourth row and therefore was able to see Paul close-up performing. He’s such an entertainer and really professional (there were sound problems plus he said he had lost his voice this morning). Loved everything about it. So here’s a card I made (total and utter CASE of Kristina Werner’s recent autumn card) in order to thank them for this great concert. [I had trouble finding their postal address, so I don't know where to send it yet.]

Cardstock: SU!, PTI; Patterned Paper: BG Lemonade; Stickers: Cosmo Cricket; Other: Leaf Punch, Fiskars Scallop Sentiment Punch, 3D glue dots, Signo White Gel Pen.

Autumn is in full swing over here, lookit
Enjoy & have a nice Sunday!

P.S. That little innocent-looking creature “cleaned out” the fridge just one day after the cupboard incident. Oh boy.

Things I have learned today

About my dog:

- he knows how to open drawers and doors
- he knows where the food is
- when I come home, he does look guilty while I keep standing on the doorstep, totally stunned

- he likes toast and will happily eat a whole loaf plus a whole container of lard
- he dislikes white gummibears but will gulp down some other sweet stuff complete with its packaging
- he doesn’t care for the chewing bone on his blanket though
- stuff he rips open but does not eat: cake mix, flour, baking soda, salt, pasta
- he cannot relate his actions to later puking and/or diarrhea

- secretely he wants to be Taz (to quote Wikipedia: “Taz is constantly hungry and devours everything, animate or inanimate. His efforts to find more food are always a central plot device of his cartoons.”)

- you basically cannot leave him alone because you can never tell when he’s going to behave badly and it’s not a matter of how long you’re gone

- a long walk before leaving him alone will not increase the chances of him behaving
- he knows how to turn a good day into a bad one
- I can actually hate him. Not him personally though, just what he did.

Generally:

- a not correctly installed built-in fridge may prove advantageous
- luckily strained tomatoes come in sturdy packaging
- it’s always a good idea to empty the garbage before leaving the flat
- coming home is not always a happy moment
- painting your cupboards could be useless if you happen to have a dog
- experiences like these make you feel pretty much powerless

So we haven’t talked ever since I got home today. I’m not sure what to do the next time I have to leave him alone (tomorrow for two lectures)… I can’t tie him to the table, I can’t lock him into the bathroom, I most certainly can’t take him with me. Ah, great, I love stuff like that, don’t you just wish you were me… Any suggestions?

No card today, the food has gone away. Sorry.

posters can be bought at http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com

Jimmy was a local boy…

…but he’s seen much more than the change in the weather… *jumpityjump*

Ah well, the Rifles concert yesterday evening was way cool

Today I’m officially pooped out since we had our first Monday conference on the causes and effects of the economic/financial crisis. Complicated stuff, heavy on special vocab and this time each booth (two people) had to cope with the whole thing (1 1/2 hrs). The speaker was very fluent and it was quite interesting, but his sentences were kinda endless and very dense. Phew, at least I survived.

Anyhow, I hope I don’t get sick since on Wednesday Maximo Park will come to Frankfurt – today I took some time to listen to their relatively new album (Quicken the Heart) as a whole and I can’t express properly how happy their music makes me. They truly are my favourite band and I’m super grateful to get the opportunity to see them. Wheee!

To finish, meet some cards I made using Basic Greys Offbeat Collection Pack, some buttons and bobbin lace. Sentiments are Rubons respectively a stamp from SU. In the background there’s some Heather Bailey fabric. Some candy was harmed in the making of these pictures

Hope you like ‘em
I’m gonna lie around in my bed now and beg for not getting sick, puh-leez!!!!
See you around!

Take my hand and close your pretty eyes

Just for the record: this is my 60th post
I’ve got lots to show you, so why don’t we get started…

I’ve received a lovely RAK from the ever-generous Vanessa, isn’t it gorgeous? And we don’t even know each other! Seriously, this is also a reason why I love crafting and blogland so much, because it connects people in such a beautiful way.
Anyway, thank you Vanessa!!

Next up I made a little card for the current Moxie Fab Challenge called “Not your Regular Ruffles”. Hope you like it

Yep, I’ve started making holiday cards – Thorstens comment: “You’re worse than Rewe*…” ^^ I hope that by starting now I’ll be finished when Christmas rolls around the corner

On Thursday some friends and I went to Stuttgart for the opening concert of the new Mando Diao tour. I don’t have the photos yet, but I can tell you that it was SPECTACULAR. The crowd was dancing and jumping and screaming and singing along, the band was fantastic – they played full throttle for over two hours, two encores and a great finale including a shower of glitter. (Everybody was kinda sweaty, so the stuff stuck to us immediately ^^) Natch, on Friday my voice was basically gone and I was super tired BUT it was totally worth it!
Yay for Mando

That’s it for now, catch you later!
*= a German supermarket

Colleagues! Non-flushing is terrorism!

This title was the subject of one of the spam-mails I got some weeks ago – I thought it was hilarious, so there you have it

Anyhow, I’m still visiting my mom (and I’m still sick), she had a great birthday and I managed to get the 24 layouts finished just in time. Stay tuned for pictures from the album, I’ll post them (one layout at a time) soon!

Here’s a list of random thoughts.

#1 – Some really enjoyable movies I watched recently: “Up” from Pixar (super hilarious, esp. if you’re a dog owner), “Benny & Joon” (from 1993 with a very young yet brilliant Johnny Depp) and “Me & Marley” (boy did I cry… is there anything sadder than a dying dog?!!).

#2 – My Google reader currently lists 431 unread articles. Apparently not being online for four days means loads of great stuff to read/see. {insert happy sigh}

#3 – I’m too sick to visit my cousin and her new baby. Dang. But I made her a video message (imagine a camera, lots of smiling and too much head wagging).

#4 – The semester starts in about a week and I have this kind of ambiguous feeling of looking forward to new challenges vs. being scared to death because of the expectations (of teachers, family, but probably of mostly myself).

#5 – I just bought my first-ever paper flowers (Generally not a big fan of Primas and such) – Sprites N° 3. We’ll see how we get along

#6 – My printer refuses printing. The very moment the new semester starts I will have to print stuff (speeches etc.). This means buying a new one. Grrrrr-eat… What is it about all those expensive electronic devices dying?

#7 – In my next post there will be pictures of the baby album I made, so for now just a card (above: with siblings). Enjoy!

ETA: The idea for these cards came from those beauties by Dawn McVey.

And the good news are…

a baby was born! A baby was born!
Last night my cousin delivered her baby! Yeah!!! I didn’t think I’d be as excited, but I am
So this is the card I made some months ago for exactly this moment:

This is a CASE from cards by Danni Reid that I can’t seem to find for the life of me…
I also made an album, which I have to show you later (I didn’t snap any pictures so far).

There’s also another reason why today is a good day (despite the fact that I’m sick…):

IT’S BUCK-DAY! YAY!

Yep, two years ago we got him from an Animal Shelter Organisation near Frankfurt. He is still the sweetest little stinker, very calm and loving. Sorry for getting all sappy on you, but he truly is the bestest dog I could’ve wished for. Love you, baby!

— Out.

There it is again – that lock of hair that won’t sit still

I woke up this morning to the delivery of this special parcel:

It might look really nice in photo, but rest assured that IRL it is super duper pretty!
It shows me once again how special receiving a handmade gift is

I’d like to thank the girls over at A Passion for Papertrey for the Papertrey Ink ATC swap, especially Stephanie who put all the time and effort in making the boxes and sending everything out! Thank you so much for making it happen, it was definitely lots of fun!

Now look closely and I’ll show you a magic trick…
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Heehee

I wanted to link up all the girls who participated in the swap (or at least those who have a blog as well), here they are (fltr):

Stephanie
Shaz
Ann
Aimes
Hanne
Vicki
Kate
Emma
Basteltinchen
Bekka
Dawn
Sue

Today I lost some hair and 50 bucks (ouch) and this is the result:

BTW I can’t quite show you how it looked before b/c nobody has ever seen that (most of the time I wear a ponytail). So of course you can’t compare, but if you like you can tell me what you think anyway
See you around!

Die Jahreszeit der klammen Finger

… ist angebrochen.

The weather gets cooler, I get sick, my favourite blogger Amber is whining again - gotta be autumn now, don’t you think?

Some random notes:

1. I need a new haircut.

2. I’m typing this from my new acer aspire, because my old laptop couldn’t be restored. This was super expensive and so I can’t buy any food until… summer next year. (Just kidding – winter next year is more likely…)

3. I already finished 10 layouts for The Album.

4. I still need to find an album to put them in though. Any recommendations?

5. I am really excited to see what Stampin’ Up! will have in their new catty that comes out the 1st of October.

6. The election of the German government will take place on the 27th and if you don’t know who to vote for I’d highly recommend the Wahl-O-Mat.

7. In case you don’t want to vote, please take a look at the following video featuring the very intelligent Ulrich Wickert (if you happen to understand any German).

7. If you don’t understand any German, you could watch the election-related video I posted some time ago featuring the wonderful Craig Ferguson instead.

8. Meet todays card:

The sentiment was written with a black SU marker by yours truly But it’s copied from the “French Script” font that I adore.

Gotta go to sleep now, have a good night!

ETA: The vid was found by the genius that is Thorsten. Thank you for telling me off, Mr. Perfect…

Broken

This weekend my mom was here and on Saturday evening we wanted to watch a DVD. Precisely 10 minutes later my laptop died. Rest In Peace, poor little TravelMate.

This week I will send him to the repair unit and maybe he he’ll come back to me with a new hard drive and new will to live. But maybe he doesn’t – in which case, things are going to be even more expensive.

So I can’t show you any card at the moment, instead I’ll show you a skirt I love.

And some underpants

Both items are from a Portland based designer that I sincerely love.
And they love you back

If you click on the logo you’ll get to their store, but they also have a stylish blog. At the moment there’s a giveaway but I wanted to tell you about them anyway, so this is the perfect opportunity.

Enjoy and hopefully I’ll see you soon.

Je ne regrette rien

Hello there!
How’ve you been?

I’ve been pretty productive the last days (only craft-wise, haha) and made my first five 12×12 scrapbook pages. They’re loaded with pictures from our vacation in South Africa and I am planning on making a whole album for my mom’s birthday. (I don’t think she’ll read this and in case she does, she already guessed that anyway ) Anyway, of course I can’t show them to you yet, but I promise to take pictures and post them at the beginning of October.

On Thursday I went to see “Religulous” with my friend Carola, I highly recommend it!
It’s very provocative of course, but sadly also very true. About Bill Mahers opinions expressed in the movie I have to say: If you know me, you’ll agree that there’s no need to preach to the converted (no pun intended) It’s very funny, I almost spit on the people in front of me several times So if it’s airing in a movie theater near you, go watch it!

Oooh look at these!
Are they from a secret admirer?
From a neighbourhood guy who has a crush on me?

Nope, they’re from my Mom She wanted to cheer me up and seriously, there aren’t many colours that I’d consider cheerier than this bright orange – isn’t she the best? *smooch*

Well, that’s about what I wanted to write to you, my pretend audience.
To finish off here’s a little card I made:

BTW this is not a stamp. I drew that with a white gel pen
Have a great week!