{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

10 blocks :: play along

that's what we did today, a wonderful game of moving bits and pieces around. i already had the stripes in place, but they still left some room to play with. as well as a few more colorful stripes i added. it just felt to white and a bit boring to be thea's quilt.
yes that's what she decided, the 10 block quilt will become hers.

the part i like best, at least for now, is the long pieced stripe in the lower 3rd. i had the idea two days ago, to add a bit something different and straight, but not plain.

as i was sewing the larger stripes onto each other, it turned out, that i wasn't very exact when i was piecing them, each single one. but that's fine with me. i never planned the quilt to be exactly one way, the way i work is rather organic and i just go along with what i have and think will work well.

the portugese wool

a while back, it's more like a long while back, i ordered wool in portugal. very special wool, as it is from the mirandesa sheep and i bought it from retrosaria. i just could not decide what i wanted to knit with it, and found the perfect project this week! a heart warmer, yes that's exactly what i'm knitting now.
it is a wonderful wool and despite the little specs of straw intertwined, or maybe even because of them, it's exactly what i want to hold in my hands. warm to hold onto in february. it's not really very cold anymore here in switzerland, the afternoons get warmer and a hat is not necessarily needed anymore...
you must be smiling, if you are one of my friends from boston! as it has been super cold over there. we have been following the weather very closely and cheered with every blizzard and snow storm warning. o how we would have loved to be there and enjoy that bounty of white goodness. of course it's not just all goodness anymore i can understand.

though that bike tunnel is just fabulous!

10blocks quilt

over the past couple days i have been sewing. lots of little scraps got made into 10 blocks and all the different white i could find around the house was added to it. lots of fun and yes it is exciting to make something of only what one can find in the house. i didn't buy any of the fabrics within the past year, those bits and pieces were all from this or that project. scraps, leftovers, handed to me by friends or cloths cut apart. there will be memories in this quilt and that is good so.

i'm not sure yet if i'm not going to add a few more pinkish stripes and bits, as it turns out, this will be a piece for thea. she needs a twin size cover as her big-lap size quilt is just not big enough anymore.
lets take it step by step, that's one thing i really like when quilting free of patterns. there is no wrong way to do it. creativity is the tape measure and everything is allowed, adding, cutting apart, putting it together in a different way maybe looks even better.

it's my play ground for this week!

the upcycled bottle

amos has been in need of a pencil case for a good long while. his dream case would have been a "freitag" cheyenne one, though that one would have cost him an arm and a leg...
so he was still carrying around his broken zippered fabric roll-case.
the situation happen while we were on vacation and bought some salad dressing (on usual days i never buy dressing....) and what to do with such a cute bottle... either bring it to the recycling bin or upcycle it! and that's what i ended up doing...

1. cut it
2. clean it well
3. punch a row of holes with a strong pin
4. cut a zipper in the correct length, fold in half and file in the "sled"
5. start sewing it to the bottle
6. sew it to the lid
7. finish it all off and fill in contents - all done -

and yes the boy was super happy with it, i kind of feel like i want to do some more of those, but am hesitant to just go out and buy pet bottles...
no i will not and just wait until the next time a small pet bottle is showing up in our house, i'm sure that moment will happen.... even as all of us are consciences shoppers.

{this moment}

 



A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

in the sun shine

it's still winter, though spring is already pressing hard. the sun is warm this afternoon and the chicken feel it too. they escaped through and over the fence... as the sun is warmer on that other side of the fence. i don't mind too much, they seem to know where they go. and yes i do understand each living being yearning for warmth and any bright warming ray of our sun!
so i also was sitting in front of the house, on our little bench and was taking all the brightness in. as we never really know if winter isn't coming back.

i do have to say, i'm a bit jealous of my boston friends, as they have had such wonderful big amounts of snow! our family has wonderful memories of a snow covered boston. side walks being  used to pull the sled and do cross country skiing. well i know it's not just fun and all nice and white, there are definitely big challenges going along with all the beauty.

never mind, spring will be here shortly. and i'm glad
the tomato seeds, which i collected last fall, i will be putting into soil this week. i'm eager for an early start this year, as tomatoes are really not put in early enough to flourish fully under my care. not so this year, that's at least the plan.

my favorits

a few more pics of last week...
just some snap shots which i really like. the top one is taken by joel. we hiked up to tschentenalp and enjoyed a perfect view, with a most interesting sky! it was breath taking and let me inhale each and every bit of sun there is. be still and just be
with the second pic, there was a bit of wrestling with the lady on it... of course as teenagers don't like to have their pictures taken. although this way, she agreed to it. and you know what, i really like it. her green helmet is so perfectly placed, thank you R.
and so the last one, it was my vacation knitting, a cowl with noro yarn and just so beautiful to work with. it will become a birthday present and i feel like wanting to keep it for myself. well, those are the best presents, at least that's what i'm telling myself!

last week

this lets you peek into our last weeks winter vacation at adelboden. we had a wonderful everyday sun and super snow week. skiing was a dream, even i went for two days, after telling everyone that i will not ski this year. two days was perfect, not just the weather and the snow but i was in such good and fun company, it could not have been better. thank you r and thank you to all my kids!
as you might have noticed, joel broke his arm, right there at the wrist, on tuesday afternoon. and  you can't really see this, but he also still shows a blue green eye and a few more scratches on his forehead. over all he seems to heal well, we know more on wednesday when the specialist will have a good look.

lots of reading, and even that was done on the balcony of our chalet. sitting, sipping a cup of tea and enjoying a treat. i read through two books and was hiking on two days. one day i went for a run and really it could not have been more pretty along the brook toward "unter dem birg" and all under a thick wonderful white blanket. we already decided, we will be back next year!

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

fighting the foodwaste

i found a new source for vegetables and fruit. and it's mostly organic, the restessbar...
it's a fridge in the city, where local grocery stores are donating "old" vegetables and fruit as well as bread. i didn't know until just recently that this group exists. and all the produce is free of charge. of course it's not the super nice and beautiful looking produce anymore, that the average person expects to buy in the local grocery store. its ripe and ready to be devoured produce. the quality is still good and with this "redistribution" we can fight the food waste in our western/northern society!

the fruit and vegetables are collected by volunteers. they ride with the bike and trailer in to the different destinations in the city and bring everything to the "restessbar" fridge.
and since i requested the numbers for the padlock, i can go and see what's there. yes not just see but also take what ever i need from what's there.

today there was broccoli, coli flower, oranges, tangerines, lemons, limes, cucumbers, persimmons, bananas, and eggplants. well you one can easily imagine, we had a vegetable casserole for dinner and some roasted eggplant for lunch tomorrow, yum!

project :: longborad

here we are, the project has gotten off ground very well. elias and his colleague have been planning and researching. of course lots of little you tube movies had to be seen....
and then last week they ordered the wood at the lumber yard and also bought the glue. joel had time on saturday to help them, to make a form and get the gluing going. it was lots of fun to watch them, of course, even the sight, when they came home with the bike and trailer bringing the wood and glue home, was cool, as their eyes were expressing lots of excitement.
when all was clamped and it looked good, i raised the question of the temperature....
well non of the guys were thinking of this one. but luckily we were just in the ok range of +8 celsius which was fine. they decided to give the drying process just a lot more time, over night and an additional 1/2 day.
i will follow the process for the coming weeks and certainly show you at some point a few more pics.

the pink :: cinnamon rolls

we have a little flower shop in the neighborhood and the girls of the family love to stroll over there on friday afternoons. so we got a fresh anemone to put on our kitchen table. it's white and a bit bleak outdoors, so we have to have a bit color looking at us and cheering us on.

the kids are on winter brake and we enjoy this. it's white outside and still not too cold to go for a stroll or a bit of sledding. though this first week, the girls are taking swimming lessons and they love it. i'm not a big pool girl, but feel like if they go i will go with them and swim each morning for 30 minutes. it's not too hard and after the first few laps, i'm just swimming...

amos for his part is baking and cooking quiet a bit. it happened, that he wanted to try something new and there are still memories of cinnamon rolls, which we all liked back in boston. there is really nothing so sweet and rich to be bought in switzerland. never mind, amos set his mind on the "quick and dirty chocolate espresso cinnamon rolls". he did tweak the recipe in a way, that the kids will all like them and left the espresso out.

yummy and yes i'm proud of my big baker!

as white as snow :: sunday

it was sunday and we woke up to a wonderful white world.
as i couldn't bring myself to go for a run early in the day, i went later on. the sun was not out anymore and it was snowing and windy. why didn't i go early! never mind, it was still fun to go out and enjoy the white world.
but we all enjoyed breakfast in the kitchen, i can say, sunbathing, it was awesome and so good. sitting around the kitchen table with the whole family a some friends and enjoying a fresh slice of sweet bread. home made jam and delicious honey, i could go on, as i was just soaking up all of it.
getting ready for church and we often do struggle not get on each others nerves, when everyone needed to quickly use the bathroom and the girls don't know which coat to wear and what ever else. but yesterday was nothing of that kind, but plain good spirit and enjoying to go out there to the unplowed streets, walk up to the church and enjoy the singing and reading and listening.

to God be the Glory!

photos by joel