Zimt und Zucker

Sunday was so relaxing… we spent the day in a little café called “Zimt und Zucker” in downtown Stuttgart which in English roughly translates to “Cinnamon and Sugar.” With hearts on the window, and an interior filled with whimsical cuckoo clocks, comfy sofas, little gnomes and a kind attentive staff the café achieves an edgy modern look yet still makes you feel as if you are sitting at your grandmas. This to me equals a comfy fun place to hang out with friends and work on my current DIY projects the lace shawl cold mountain and my embroidered new years clutch.

And the food! So great! We had lavender punsch, homemade bagels with rucola pesto and the best waffles which live up to the café’s name of cinnamon and sugar. One of the best parts of the café is their gluten-free, lactose-free and vegan options. A definitive plus for a girl who is not supposed to eat gluten but is constantly doing it anyways!

If you are in downtown Stuttgart and looking for a fun place to knit, stitch and  enjoy a afternoon with friends make sure you visit this the Zimt und Zucker café!

P.S. The lovely iphone pictures are courtesy of Sydney!

Valentines Blog Hop Winner!

Good morning everyone…I wanted to let you know that the winner of the blog hop bingo card giveaway from Pretty Little Studio is Candace, from http://scrappin2littleprincesses.blogspot.com/. Congrats Candace!

I also want to say thank you to everyone that visited the blog or joined as a follower last week. It is great to meet new people with similar interests and was a great start to my week!

Happy Vday Blog Hop + Giveaway!

I have a fun project to share with you today…

And a blog hop + giveaway!

Presenting…Druuummm Rolll!!

If you stopped here after visiting Leanne Allinson’s blog then your next stop is over at Jen Chapin’s! Of course you can always visit the girls in any order using the handy list below

Leanne Allinson

Jennifer Chapin

Elise Lindsey

Celine LeGuay

Robyn Schaub

Irit Shalom

Keri Babbitt

Have you seen the cute Valentine’s Day items in the Pretty Little Studio…(P.S. all valentines day items are 14% off today only!) shop? I went a little crazy with them to create a special mini-album for each of my sisters to show them how much I love them this year!

The first mini-album is for big-sister Mimi…

 

And there are four more for the little sisters featuring fun family photos, washi tape, doilies and of course Pretty Little Studio goodies.

To see each mini-album in all of it’s glorious detail check them out at my twopeasinabucket gallery!

http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/user_profile/508695/

Are you inspired to create your own mini-album? Leave a comment for a chance to win a set of Pretty Little Studio Valentine 3x4 Bingo cards…I really wish I had these little cards for the mini-albums I created!

And if you like these projects, remember to become a follower using the sidebar link. I will be leaving the Pretty Little Studio Design Team to pursue my next adventure at the end of this month, so becoming a follower means you will stay current with all my future Pretty Little Studio projects!

It Has Been A Long Sick Week!

So sorry to be so quiet this week! I have had the worst cold ever this week. I think it has something to to due with a horrible flight out of Vienna...Actually I know it had something to due with a horrible flight in Vienna! 

But no worries! I am on the mend and have a big surprise and smile for tomorrow...the picture below is me and Mr. C. (I can feel my mom smacking me for not saying “Mr. C. and I” haha) practicing my smile...come on... a girl deserves a little "sick" humor when she isn't feeling well..right? 

One Little Word: Enjoy

Sorry for no travel post this week. Life has been overcome with work it seems. Which leads me to a quote, a quote that reminds me of the One Little Word Mr. C. and I have chosen to live our live by this year, Enjoy.

I keep repeating this quote through my head on long days of work…because I truly enjoy my work…and even though it is taking a lot of time lately I still feel that I am keeping a good balance in my life. So on days when I am tired and maybe my good attitude is failing I think on this quote…and this picture of Mr. C. and I at a work function last week…living out our one little word and the true meaning of this quote.

Looking at this picture would your first assumption be that one of us is working in the photo??

Nightsongs for Grandma Rita

 

Nightsongs, before blocking…

Grandma Rita is turning ninety-five years old this year…and since we have moved overseas I miss knowing that we can stop by to say hello whenever we want. It also makes it harder to let her know that we love her by not being their to give hugs or comfort her if she is ill. For her birthday gift I really wanted to let her how much she means to us and decided to make her a knitted lace shawl.

I chose the lace pattern for two reasons. One, I wanted a shawl so that whenever she uses it she is wrapped up in hugs, and the happy wishes and prayers I knitted into each stitch. Let me just say that knitting happy thoughts into each stitch was really hard when I had to spend five hours ripping out a section! Mr. C. laughed hard at my attempts to crack jokes and stay positive when he knew that I wanted to complain!

I cut the deadline of mailing it so closely that I had to take the finished photographs in the my work office!

The second reason I chose a lace shawl pattern was because I wanted the pattern to be hard an complicated. The more complicated, the longer it would take me to make and how can you prove love but with time?

The reward for the time and effort? A happy grandma, calling to say how much she loved it! I wish I was there to see her wearing it in person.

Come back later this week to find out details on the pattern, where you can find it for free and tips on choosing patterns and yarn for lace projects…

Have a wonderful day!

Smash Books?

As promised I gave a peak into my smash book while on-site traveling here in Bratislava Slovakia, you can see the post here. You can see my other Slovakia posts here. I realized that while some readers can talk about Smash books and understand each of their products some of you may be a little confused at the term “Smash Book” so get ready to be schooled!!

Smash books are a fun spiral bound notebooks and you can “smash almost anything into a smash book, in fact that is the whole idea. Tickets, receipts, photos and musings from the day. This video from K&Company:

Some people just don’t get the idea of a Smash book, why not just use a note book? Why is this product so popular? I think it is popular for two reasons. The first is that we like to buy things, and we like things to be cute, fun and easy. Why use a plain notebook and colored pencils when I could buy a fun Smash book? Two, I think that the idea of smash book is very liberating. If you are a scrapbooker who reads about color placement, balancing a layout, yada yada yada…then there is something exciting about literally taking anything and “smashing it” (I always visualize a giant hand doing this) without concern for anything but recording the memory.

It took me a little while to get excited about the Smash book…it wasn’t until I was in the States to visit my family and I bought the Smash book for reason number one that was mentioned above…in fact I went a little crazy!

Which is why…I spent last week sitting in cafés, the hotel and a street corner in Slovakia collecting items, taking instax pictures and smashing!

By the have you checked out the new Paperclipping video on the new Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Winter 2012 release? Baby, weddings and 8.5x11 Smash books are some of the fun items on display.

Check it out!

Hope you have a “smashing” day! I love saying this…so corny…

Empress Sisi Museum

Hi friends and readers! I am taking the train to Vienna today for a day of fun cake and museums. I will be the crazy girl in the city who decided to try and navigate the city with no map as an adventures...Let's see if I still think it is an adventure when I check back with you all tomorrow!

International SMASH: Slovakia

This week has been pretty stressful. Working, playing, working more and hanging out with Mr. C. But no matter what happens good or bad I want to make sure I record it!!

Memory keeping on the road can be really difficult. We have a tendency to want to bring all of our supplies and if we don’t have something, can be over critical of our results. Often when I travel I have 3 different journal systems that I choose from depending on the trip type. You can read about these systems in my December Daily post on site in Lithuania here.

This week, for my Slovakia trip I decided to only bring the following:
    1. My International Smash folio, Bon Voyage Travel Journal + pen

    2. Three mini smash journal spot books

    3. Scissors + washi tape

    4. My instax and a few Studio Calico kraft butterfly stickers

Bringing limited supplies helps you to think more creatively…reach outside of the box and STRETCH your imagination.

For example on this Opera night page I used paper I bought at a little art store in downtown Bratislava and…yep…the hotel sewing kit!

Two minutes later after a little cutting, a few stitches and a couple laughs with Mr. C. I have a fabulous journaling block that only cost me about .10 cent euro and was made with completely found local items.

Another thing that can help you to be creative when traveling is to remember the importance of a pen. If you look below you can see that this page with the butterfly’s is a little boring and the items look disconnected.

A few minutes of sitting on the train or relaxing in the hotel room can create this…journaling captured in a series of doodles representing butterfly flight paths.

Don’t you love the instax photo on the above page? Accidental shot!

I hope you enjoyed this quick little look into my International Smash book and tips on travel journaling!

P.S. Wishing a very Happy Birthday to Mimi today!! You can read all about her birthday here.