DIAL #1 - STRAWBERRIES AND QUIET TIME

Welcome to DIAL (call yourself smart, if you figure out this abbreviation) #1! After blogging here for more than 2 months, I feel this little blog of mine should become a bit more 'me'. I love to share my crafts but I think it gets really fun to read a blog when you feel connected with the blogger on a more personal level...

So I decided to create this new section called DIAL where I'll share what's happening right now in my (ever so exciting) life. So if you want to know how I roll ... come along!

It's strawberry time! Yeeeay! I've been out in the garden picking strawberries almost everyday. Sugared, with whipped cream, as jam .. ouuuh, so many ways to enjoy them! My dad made the best straberry jam this year. I'm on a stawberry diet these days - it substitutes for chocolate! 

Can you guess what this pink thing is? Dried paint. Yeah ... I should start by saying I haven't really gottten around to cleaning up my craft table.. guess there was some (quite a bit) paint left in of the glasses I use to mix paints. After soaking it in warm water, I pulled it all out in one go. 

Also I sorted my fabric and put it in neat piles. What an achievement. I was actually gonna reorganize my entire craft table. I was. I didn't take a photo of the mess I created but let me tell ya: it was epic and it took me three nights to clean it up again. I couldn't find the motivation to create a completely new workspace though. I'm a bit bummed about that ... At least I decluttered my craft supplies - the hoarder in me really comes out here. 

There can't be a personal blogpost without a blogger's face in it. So here are two pictures of my face. I think Afterlight is doing quite a bit for me. I'm having an almost-no make-up phase right now. Summer's on I guess. But also I gave up mascara for about 99% of the time right now. There are multiple make-up tools I consider myself being able to use. Not mascara. At the end of the day it is everywhere except on my lashes. Every single time.
Also can you tell I got a mosquito bite right under my eye in the second picture? No? Waaaah tricked you! Haha no, but editing is really quite amazing...

Lastly a photo of my cat Schmitti. I think he's a lot like me. His face just says too well what I think these days in school - get me out of here! I don't know, somehow I'm enjoying the last few weeks / days of school. Kinda like the last days of a year. Things are winding down a bit. Time to breath. 

Not much time though: I'll start working in just about one and half weeks and maaan this year has just rushed by!

Hope you're all doing well!
Lots of Love, Tabea ♥ 

5 WAYS TO SPICE UP YOUR JOURNAL PAGES

Hey you journal-loving people! Do you ever feel like your journal is a bit plain? I write on a daily basis and I reread my entries every so often. Lately i felt bored by how all the pages looked the same with the same handwriting over and over again. 

Sooo let's do something about it! I came up with five ways to spice up your daily journal. All these options are to be pre-made, so when you sit down at night you go right to writing and just add them whenever you feel like it.

Aren't these little arrows cute? I think they're pretty cool to highlight a passage in your writing or start an entry. As you can see I used paint swatches, so I'd have a gradient ( Ombré Arrows - we're so hipster around here...), cut and glued them together.  There are tons of ways to create these cuties: big to small triangles, light to darker shades... Get creative!

Looove these! No for real, I'm already dreading using them because I want to use them over and over! Might have to make more, woooh! I think the making is rather self-explanatory. Cut cardboard, write on a piece of white paper and glue that on there. I love the color it adds to a page though! So simple, so good!

Tags, tags, tags... I've wanted to buy a pack of these at the craft store forever. Well, how about homemaking them? They're literally a 3-minute project. Cut cardboard, glue a rectangle of paper / other cardboard on there, add the circle on the top and whole-punch it! You might also add some ribbon or lines to write on.

Did you realize there was something wrong until picture three? Haha, there are some things I ALWAYS do wrong at first try. Like mirror-writing. I got everything right ... except the 'a'. Gaaaw! Whatever, this is DIY at it's finest! 
Elsie started this series 'today is (insert adjective)' and I liked it so much, I though it'd be fun to label journal entries that way. The 'Today' an 'was' are seperated in case I just need a 'Today'. Maybe if I wanna say 'Today I won a million Dollars'. It could happen!

Okay so picture-wise this isn't number 5 'cause you've seen the exclamation-mark before. Actually you've seen it in another post before but I felt this needed to be an extra point. I think everyone should have one of these exclamation-mark stamps at hand. Sometimes you just need to make a bold statement. Also a question-mark or a dot would be fun, too, wouldn't it?

I talked about how most of these papercrafts can be used without other craft supplies at hand. Therefore I used a rather simple technique:

How smart is this, please? You can store them away as long as you want and when you crave a color-pop you remove the non-sticky part of the tape and bang: there's your sticker! 

This is what I imagine those tools to be used like. I'm so thrilled to use them overthe next weeks!
Hope you enjoyed today's post just as much as I did! I'm off now to decorate my page about this beautiful sunny day!

Lots of Love, Tabea ♥

IT'S PINK - I WANT IT!

Didn't this bookcover just get you within a second? Ohhh how I love my BUST DIY Guide to Life! And because today was such a rainy, gray day (rhyming like no other...) and all I wanted to do was to cuddle up under a blanket, I grabbed this precious little thing to brighten up my afternoon a bit.

I bought the BUST Guide last January as a late Christmas gift to myself after having hovered over it literally every time I'd walk into Barnes & Nobles for weeks. I fell for the book the day I discovered the craft section at the store (reminder: I was there as an exchange student so I didn't know there was such a section at the store). I discovered there was a magazine to this book and so I bought my first BUST issue. It didn't take a day for me get through it and start longing for the book real badly...

BUST is sort of a feminist magazine but not quite so 'Hear me roar, I'm a feminist!' (nothing against that type of (maga)zine). I guess I would describe BUST as an indie magazine for creative girls - and man I've been looking for that for ages! So in the book the BUST team has collected all kinds of DIYs, recipes, tipps on style, sewing and life from former magazines issues.

Okay enough chatting, here's a peek inside!

This' the season to be sewing lalala-la-laaa! Haha, there's some great advise for sewing beginners like me in there. First they explain how a sewing mashine works, simple stitches and stuff. Later on one learns how to reshape sweaters, hem and sew skirts and pants and also how to make fascinators and jewelry! Homemade fashion here we come!

There's a hair and beauty section and I'm especially a fan of these curls, how darling are they? I'm debating on cuting my hair .. mmmh.

In this section you'll also find some snazzy tutorials on how to create the Amy Winehouse Beehive and the Twiggy eye make-up. But since beauty isn't all about hair and make-up you can find tipps on how treat scratches, insect bites and PMS etc. I find that very helpful and it also promotes the whole 'beauty comes from the inside'-thing. Like that!

Talking about the inside ... It's called a Guide to life - so there has to be food! Gooood food! As you can see the recipes look flipping delicious, but you know what? There's even a tutorial on how to make a pinata! Ahu! We love pinatas!

The lower picture is from my favorite part of the book. When I first read it, I just felt so encouraged. Finally there was someone out who'd talk excatly about the things I think about future-wise. Travelling alone and articles related to independent businesses and part-time working ... I was in wonderland!  The chapter is called 'Moving & shaking' and it'll give you all the tools you need to move&shake it as an independent lady! Makes me excited to move out and pursue my goals and dreams!

Lastly - tell me how cute is this? There are lots of cute little doodles all over the book which along with the other photos make it really fun and visual.

Hope I could infect you a bit with the BUST bug - 'cause being a BUST-girl is cooool!

Lots of Love, Tabea

PATIENCE OH PATIENCE...

Hello there! Today I want to talk to you guys about a topics that's been on my mind for quite some time now... Patience. 

My mom always tells me to never say 'I'm so impatient' at a job interview when they ask me about my weaknesses. Well I won't but ... I AM impatient at times. We all are, I think. It's probably sort of a thing for this generation to be impatient. Did you know that on average people my age get nervous or angry when a web pages takes more than 11 seconds to load? How crazy is that? 

I told you about the thunderstorm that had struck into our internet aerial (talk to me if you have any problems finding the right terms for any electrical devises - I'm a pro.). Our Wifi had broken down for a few days and I had to use my mobile internet ... which is sorta slow. Well while I wasn't finding it too hard to wait for a page to load for a few seconds, some of my friends actually went kinda crazy about it. Some even switched phone with other friends whose internet hadn't been slowed down by the phone company yet... 

Got me thinking... what are we waiting for so eagerly when we surf the web with limited speed? Why are we getting mad at our phones (and yepp I caught myself doing that) when we're just waiting for our Facebook feed to load? I've talked about the whole phone issue before here, but I just found it weird that something we think is so indispensable in our life actually brings out such bad traits and makes us unhappy, you know?

There's another issue though that's been on my mind connected to this. How much patience do we need to have with people? Is there a magic limit of how many chances you can give a person before it's time to leave? And is it possible to change a person or is trying this just a waste of time? Questions over questions. Sorry friends I don't have an answer and but wanted to throw this out there... Does anyone have the ultimate answer?
Personally I'm not very patient with people unless we're really close which isn't that often. But taken the case it is, I tend to hold on to people for a long time. Obviously I get mad, I want to leave, I know that I derserve better. But for some reason I always pick myself up and stay with the person. Does anyone feel the same as I do?
Okay ... as long as we are waiting for our relationship coach / most patience experienced person: Here's the first photo of my face ever in a blogpost. I love this blue dress from Topshop! I wore it to a Jazz concert given by the Blue Lake Jazz ensemble from Michigan, USA. The little girl on the right was super duper cute and I think her face (even from the side you can see her impressed stare) says what we all thought of this concert. It was beautiful. And I think it's really admirable how much patience these young musicians put into playing their instruments! Had to make that connection haha!

 Lots of Love, Tabea ♥

FABRIC COVERED PHOTO ALBUM

She's back! Woohoo! The reason why I was gone is rather simple - a lightning bold struck into one of the local aerials which is responsible for our internet. I've never seen lighting that bright and I guess neither did the aerial. So we were cut off the world wide web for a few days - thank god for mobile internet, but a blog post just wasn't possible to upload! 

Well today I'm back and ready to share the progress i made with my photo album. 

So this is how my embroidery project turned out - I love it! The colors are nice and bright and really scream: Summer's here! Looking at the back part of it you can see that I didn't suture the left-over thread. I'm not entirely sure whether this is the best way to do it, but I wanted to avoid any bumps the knots might have caused.

Now we're coming to the main part: How to cover an album with fabric...

You start by mixing equal parts of glue and water and spread that mixture over the front or back of the photo album. Try to get especially the borders and corner and don't use to much of it - you don't want to get your fabric all soaked, do you?

The next step was nicer to show on the middle part where the binding is. You've already put the glue in place and now you'll just flap the fabric over and gently smoothen it out with your hand. Do this until the entire outer part of the album is covered with fabric and watch out for any creases close to the binding part. Glide over them with your fingers so the fabric really sticks to the book in all places - otherwise you'll get ugly air bubbles underneath it.

Okay good job so far! Now we're coming to the tricky part. You cut off all four corners of your fabric so it'll be easier to fold later. You also make a straight cut where the round binding part starts. 

Self-explanatory, isn't it? Haha this photo just screamed for handwriting! It's simple. Put glue onto the edges of the book and fold the fabric over. You might have to fight a bit with the corners depending on how much fabric you have to fold over. My advise: Put glue on those bad boys until they stay in place! You are the boss here!

Lastly...

Covering the binding... This might get a bit violent. I'm kidding! It's all good and easy! Two steps: 1) Put glue onto the fabric flap 2) Bend the book boards to the back and the whole between the cover and the binding thingy wil expand. Now push the fabric flap in there! See the scissors I placed so nicely in the background? I USED THEM FOR THIS! Don't know why I sream when I say this but yeah .. I'll advice you to use anything long and flat like a ruler.

Well I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial - I'm really sorry I don't have more pictures of the album itself ... the light and I were just not having it today.

To make you curious (muhaha!) - here's another picture of me working on the last decorative part of the album. So hope to see you again for more DIY album action!

By the way did you spot my creative way of spelling summer? SUMMME. I'm a pro, I know...

Lots of Love, Tabea ♥

LAKE SUMMERS

Did you ever love anything so much you could just run in circles and scream out of happiness? I hope so for you! Right now I could be doing the 'hands over my head' and yelling 'I LOVE THIS' all the time! Summer is so great! Today I had the chance to hang out at a lake / canyon close by with some pretty sweet people. Isn't this what we're waiting for since like january? 

Lying on my back with the sun on my belly I thought about summers that have been gone by over the years. My favorite summer memories were all made around lakes. Last year I spent this amazing day down in Canal Park, Duluth MN with one of my friends. We had Caribou's Coffee, walked along the beach and sat on rocks for hours to talk. Go visit if you ever get the chance - and I'm not just saying this 'cause Duluth is my second home, it's just so fun there!

Also I remember the many days I spent paddling around the water close to the beaches of different lakes around my region - I couldn't swim until  I was about eight, so ya.. I was easy to watch as a kid I guess. Always tried to stay out of trouble and life threatening situations hehe! Living on the edge was never my thing .. except living on the edge of the water. Ha. Ha. Sorry...

Oh and one of my very, very favorite memories from about three years ago (say whaaat?!): My parents and I spent a week in southern France at a lake called 'St. de la Croix' I think. Sooo Saint of the cross? Mhhh.. anyway it was pure magic down there. I have never seen water so turqouise! Beau-ti-ful! Take a trip to France at least once in your life - it's truly a blessed spot of land.

Well this was my post for today. I'm sorry but the thouht of eating watermelon and getting tan while reading a good book out in the sun is just really promising right now. Just to keep you updated, I have been crafting over the last days so there are more fun posts coming your way! Stay tuned friends!

Does anyone else have favorite summer or lake memories? I'd love to hear!

Lots of Love, Tabea ♥

HOMEMADE ALBUM COVER - PART I

Remember my Summer To Do List? One of the points on there was to create a summer journal... Well the 'journal' turned into more of an album. I have never filled an actual photo album myself the traditionell way - like in the old days, when my mom had to go and have someone develop her film rolls. I thought it would be fun to try it though and also I feel I'm gonna have a blast looking at this during the cold winter months. 

Because I always thought that store-bought albums look either boring or plain out cheap, I wanted to give my album a make-over. While working I realized this is sort of a longer process - upps, overestimated my fast-embroidery-skills! 

So today, I'll share my first steps to a homemade photo album cover. Enjoy!

Using tailor's chalk I marked the size of  my album on a piece of fabric that could fit around it comfortably. Well, I actually had to use two pieces of fabric, because one would not have been enough - it's fine, gotta work with what you got! Secondly, I put a white sheet of paper on my album and marked out the space I wanted to fill my embroidered type later.

I wrote and sketched out the words for the front on the paper, turned it over and traced along the outlines so I'd have a reversed picture. I taped it to my album with the reversed side up - still in the place where I'd originally wanted it. 

I covered the sheet with my fabric - right side down. Now I have the side of fabric facing me that'll later be unseen, as well as my reversed type underneath it. I traced the letters one more time through the fabric with pink tailor's chalk. Finally I could get to fun part - working with my embroidery hoop. Don't you think embroidery hoops are the most fun thing ever? They're wood and feel smooth and round ... Pretty snazzy ...

Well getting to the point - grab your thread and get stitching!

One by one the letters will appear as you follow your traced outline. I've mentioned the word 'embroidery' like two thousand time in this post already - so just more time: Embroidery is awesome and such a relaxing task! 

Be thrilled for my process on this project!

Lots of Love, Tabea ♥