Hamburg Park Graffiti.

Every city has a story to tell. We can read the story in history books, hear it from the residents or see it on the streets. Hamburg is no different. I enjoy looking about me as I walk along and I often notice interesting details.

Graffiti is something that continually interests me. I'm not really into the big tags and scribbly stuff, but there is a type of graffiti that draws me in. Last year I got pulled into a 'secret code' in the centre of the Hamburg. Last week I was walking through my nearest park and I saw this 'craft/art' graffiti!

Leaf stenciled graffiti!

I'm not sure if the Hamburg park authorities will appreciate this graffiti, it will probably be a pain to clean up. But I like it. Especially the colour choice! I'm going to go back and see if they are still there later this week.

Spray painted leaf

PS. Are you into buying handmade? Yes? Then you should check out the amazing stuff in the Etsy Stock Take. If you sell your craft on Etsy, please come and join in :)

Hello Winter Clothes Colour Blocking.

Polo neck: La redoute. Scarf: eBay. Leather skirt: F.Kids

So, it's official, I have unpacked my winter wardrobe and my summer lovelies are all snuggled away until the temperatures rise again next year.

I'm quite good at wearing colour through the winter, I can't bear all over black and I find happiness in the pop of colours. What I am not so good at, but would like to explore more is wearing patterns and prints. Here I am trying out a stripy scarf. Stripes seem a good place to start with patterns! Not too loud and rather classic. I am liking them layered up on the turquoise.

How do you wear patterns? Are you as excited as me to have a 'new' wardrobe when the season changes? 



PS. Are you into buying handmade? Yes? Then you should check out the amazing stuff in the Etsy Stock Take. If you sell your craft on Etsy, please come and join in :)

Parcel from Marmee.

A parcel came recently from my mum in the South of England. Among other things was a plastic wallet containing the leaves above. What a lovely thing to find in the post! What do you post to your family and friends?

How to: Handmade Hand and Lip Cream.

For a long time I have wanted to make homemade hand cream. Then a couple of weeks ago I started thinking about this again (cold winter weather was threatening to ruin my hands).

I am so sick of commercial creams, I either don't like the smell, or the texture or my skin doesn't agree with them because I have eczema on my hands. So I decided it was about time to do something about it!

I live in Germany and the most convenient way to get beeswax (a main ingredient) was to shop online with Kosmetikmacherei. 

Kosmetikmacherei Review:

I would recommend the site as it is easy to use. You choose the item you want, put it in your cart and complete check out with your name and contact details (all in German, no English I'm afraid). They email you an invoice, which you pay with a bank transfer to Austria (although I admit I was hoping to use PayPal).

Then a couple of days later a box arrives in the post - exciting!

Research began:

While waiting for my package I did some research. I found a great list of recipes online and a very informative blog post by A Sonoma Garden.

After some musing and adapting and converting, here's the recipe I came up with:

Basic recipe: 1 part beeswax to 3 parts oil.

 I'm planning on using olive oil this time, but maybe other oils would also work well, like coconut oil for example. I might also add some aloe vera gel and essential oils for added goodness.

I decided to use an egg cup for the measuring as it was far simpler than working out the American Cup equivalents in grams! That way anyone that reads this blog can make cream without any measuring headaches. 

What I did:

This batch = 2 egg cups of beeswax to 6 egg cups of olive oil.

I put the beeswax and olive oil into a big glass jar and put this in a saucepan of water (that came half way up the sides of my jar). I heated this on a medium/low heat until all the beeswax had melted, giving it a couple of good mixes with a fork.

 When completely melted I poured the mixture into little jars which I had sterilised.

 I then left these to cool to room temperature. Oh, they looked so sweet and almost professional! However at this point I wanted to add a splash of aloe vera gel and lavender oil to my cream. So I gave them a good stir to incorporate the new ingredients. 

This is where things started to look less than professional! I will have to try a new batch soon and see if I can get around this. I am wondering why the advice was to add extra ingredients once the cream is room temperature. Maybe I can mix them in to the melted liquid and let it solidify without any stirring? Or is heating the essential oils bad, maybe changing their properties or making them lose their strength?

Results:

I ended up with 5 almost full 50g jars. 

The cream is quite solid, but you can easily get a nice amount on your finger and it melts into the skin like a dream. A minute or so later it is completely absorbed and doesn't leave a greasy feeling. I am rather proud of them and will be gifting them to unsuspecting family members to see what they think. Yay!

Updates:

• Down to Earth has been making hand cream too!
• And so has A Thrifty Household. 
• How to sterilise the glass jars. 
• I tried making the cream again with some improvements...

PS. Are you into buying handmade? Yes? Then you should check out the amazing stuff in the Etsy Stock Take. If you sell your craft on Etsy, please come and join in :)

New Vintage Cape

Are capes still in?

I hope so because I'm finally getting round to wearing mine!

This was my fist BIG knit (ie. not a scarf!).

I chose to knit a cape because there would be no sleeves to fight with. I love it particularly because I knit it from a vintage pattern - it's the one on the left below.

Even better, I was able to find the actual suggested bouclé vintage yarn in a very nice lady's stash in Ravelry. How great is that?! So I'm snuggling a cape that was super trendy 50 years ago in wool produced 50 years ago. 

So is my cape new or vintage?

Ravelry project details.

Oh, and for the pros and cons of cape wearing, this is a must read! 

 For more vintage stuff you might like:

• Vintage Leather Colour Blocking 
• Vintage and Yarn Shopping 
• Vintage Car Photo Project

Radicchio rose.

Just a quickie today. I couldn't resist snapping this little rose that appeared while I was chopping up some radicchio for a risotto. Lovely.

On my needles.

Socks for my hubby. The second pair I have attempted. And so far much more successful than the first pair! A nice tight rib on the cuff. I've just turned the heel, which is deeply satisfying.
Oh, and I got the confidence to work on socks here, a great video tutorial.

Details on ravelry. 
 What are you working on?

Updates:

1. One sock finished.
2. One down, one to go.
3. One and a half...
4. Then they were a pair.

Last Golden Leaves, First Jack Frost.

Amalfi in Hamburg.

So, autumn is ebbing away. The hot flash of burning leaves in which red squirrels dance has come to the end and now our kitchen window presents us with bare bones which only spring will revive. The days have become short and very grey.

I am sad that I did not take the time to photograph the hot oranges and reds of the autumn leaves, yet somehow I thought they would hang around longer. I should have been warned by Mr C's observation, 'it's a spectacle of death'.


I do have one photo from this short autumn which haunts me, the above. We took this right at the beginning of autumn on a truly sunny, but very windy day. It's Blankenese, the Amalfi of Hamburg, as we stagger back up the hill to our waiting chariot (car). The light had gone, but I loved seeing the far off rain advancing over the Elbe. And it was an exciting race against time to get home and snug before it caught us.

A happy 'grey' moment. Who'd have thought?

Making Winter: Strawberries

I'm enjoying following along with Silverpebble and Thriftyhousehold while they 'make winter'. I think it's a good idea to share positive vibes as the winter thing can be quite an issue. Especially for us as we have transplanted ourselves from sunny Swiss winters to cloudy Hamburg ones.

I'm not sure if this counts as a winter photo, but a couple of days ago I found these! Winter Strawberries! (well, autumn technically...)

They made me smile and I was so happy that I decided to carry my camera with me at all times. Hurrah!

Style Diary.

Just another image that I pinched off someone's blog somewhere on the internet some months ago. (I've been digging around. I couldn't find the blog, but with the help of tineye found the original image here) I was looking for inspiration for a capsule wardrobe that was needed for 6 weeks in London.

I really like the combination and the something 70's about it, yet super modern too.

Anyway, if this is from your fashion blog tell me and I'll gladly link to you. Boy, I do need to keep track of where I take these images from...