lu loves handmade

A tiny shop update.

2012-02-16T12:05:00.002+01:00

Hey guys, happy Thursday! :) I just wanted to inform you about a little shop update. Because the old boards I made in autumn were nearly sold out, I decided to make some new mini pinboards and listed them on DaWanda just yesterday. :) I hope you like them and I already have a feeling that I know which one will be everybody's favourite... :)
Enjoy your day! :)
Lu

A new sewing DIY: How to make an easy skirt.

2012-02-14T21:08:00.000+01:00

Hello eveyone! :) My friend Sarah gave me a gift card for Frau Tulpe as a birthday present and I bought fabric for this pretty skirt. :) I made it last weekend and here's the tutorial so that you can make such a skirt yourself. :) I love those simple skirts and I wear them with long shirts, under a dress and with tights and leggings. :)
It's pretty easy and you don't need much, only some elastic fabric which is enough for the size of your skirt, some paper for the pattern, a stretch needle for your sewing machine, the sewing machine itself and conventional sewing supplies.
Here's how it goes:
1. Take a skirt that perfectly fits you. This will help you to make a sewing pattern.
2. Vertically fold the skirt in half and put it onto some paper. Draw around the skirt for making a pattern. Don't forget to add the seam allowances.
3. + 4. The dashed lines indicate the actual size of the skirt, the normal line is the line of your actual pattern. The line where your skirt's middle fold has been now indicates the center fold of your pattern.
5. Now fold the fabric and place the pattern onto it. The center fold should be parallel to the selvage. Pin the pattern onto the fabric.
6. Cut out the fabric. Do this two times so that you have a front and a back piece.
7. These are the two pieces you've created from your pattern.
8. Pin the two pieces of fabric onto each other, right sides facing.
9. You now need a stretch needle for working with elastic fabric. It makes it easier to sew and helps the fabric to stay elastic.
10. + 11. Use a top stitch which is not too narrow and select a really narrow zig zag stitch.
12. Now sew the left and right sides onto each other. Leave a small seam allowance.
13. It should look like this.
14. Now select a normal zig zag stitch and use it to neaten the edges.
15. It should look like on the photo.
16. Next, fold down the top edge and pin it.
17. You can now topstitch the top edge.
18. Violà! :)
19. Finally, do the same with the lower edge and that's it! :)

Such an easy sewing project! :) I hope some of you will try this, too! :)

Feel free to post a link to your own skirt or ask me if you don't understand a point in this tutorial. :)

Sunday crafts.

2012-02-12T16:54:00.000+01:00

Happy Sunday! :) After we had breakfast in bed and went outside for a walk in the snow, I've been working all day to finish some custom orders and to work on some new DIY projects and items for my shop.
Here are a few pretty lavender pillows I sewed and just listed in on DaWanda. :)
Now I'm gonna keep on working and later in the evening to reward myself, Flo and I will cook and watch a few episodes 'Big Bang Theory'. :)
What are you doing this Sunday?
Lu :)

A day in Berlin.

2012-02-11T17:26:00.000+01:00

Hey, happy weekend!! :) Those of you who follow me on Facebook may have already read that I went on a Berlin shopping tour on Friday. :) It was a perfect way to spent the afternoon and I visited several shops. It was the first time that I visited Volksfaden, a totally new fabric store in Berlin-Schöneberg. They have lots of pretty fabric from American fabric designers like Michael Miller, Robert Kaufmann and Amy Butler and the shop owner is a lady from NYC. :) There I bought the new moustache fabric and the one with the pretty, floral pattern. Afterwards, I drove to Kreuzberg to go to a large vintage store. On my way there, I passed another second hand shop and spontaneously decided to go inside. Then it was love at first sight: I saw the prettiest vintage travel bag I've ever seen! :) It's condition is awesome, I simply love the color and it was a total bargain, I only had to pay 25€ for it and it looks sooooo good! A few seams have to be renewed, but that won't be a problem. :) I cleaned it yesterday evening and I'm soo in love with it. :) How do you like it? Can't wait for my next weekend trip to use it. :)
Afterwards, I went to colors, the huge second hand store in Berlin I wanted to visit. They have tons of vintage clothing. I tried on a few dresses and fell in love with these two ones. There were even a few more that I really liked, but they were too small for me, so I only bought these. Each cost 4€ and I love the floral patterns! :) They are both way too long, but I'll shorten them this weekend and I'm so much looking forward to spring so that I can wear them! :) I do not only love these dressed because they are pretty and I will hardly meet anybody with the same dress, but also because they have a history and because buying second hand includes a sustainable shopping behaviour, this feels good. :)

Finally, after having bought those dresses, I had a break at Milchschaum (= milk froth), a cute café in Berlin-Kreuzberg. They have delicious cakes and chai latte. <3
To end this day, I went to Frau Tulpe, one of my most favourite fabric stores ever. :) I could hardly decide which fabric to buy, but in the end, I chose some jersey fabric with white dots to make a stretch skirt, and I bought some pretty apple fabric. :)

I wish you a lovely weekend, I'm gonna spend mine at home, so much work to do, so many projects waiting for me. :) What are your plans?
Lu

New things in the shop.

2012-02-11T16:14:00.002+01:00

Yay, I added some new pillows to the shop! :)

The birthday lady.

2012-02-10T00:07:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone! :) Thank you again for all those lovely birthday wishes!! :) Although I haven't been throwing a big party this year (I normally throw a costume party and invite all of my friends, but they have just been here 4 weeks ago on New Year's Eve and unfortunately, they weren't able to visit us again, because my friends live in several different cities all over Germany, far away from Potsdam), I had such a beautiful day!
My mother has been staying with us for a few days and the night before my big day, she, Flo and I prepared some food and I made some birthday decor. :) I found the idea for the colorful accordion paper flowers on Pinterest and on the same site was an easy DIY for those cute party hats I immediately made. :)
We made my favourite chocolate cake (I'll share the recipe soon...) and I bought doughnuts and creampuffs. :)
Two of my girlfriends came over for afternoon coffee, I got some great presents and we ate a lot. :)
How do you like my decor? :)
I love tea parties, they are the perfect opportunity for using my pretty vintage dishes. :)
I wore my new asos dress, the color is awesome! <3
My friends who weren't here all sent me little packages (they know how I love unwrapping presents :)), the day was great and I felt special! <3
One of my best girlfriends sewed me a dress (it's sooo beautiful, I'm going to show it in an outfit post as soon as it is warm enough to wear it :)), another one made me a beachbag with a towel inside, using my favourite fabric, my mother gave me two wooden vintage chairs for our balcony, I got lots of organic seeds for the balcony, the cutest bird house, a DVD of one of my favourite bands, books, accessories, gift cards for different fabric stores (can't wait to pick out pretty fabric :)), a wooden vintage coat hook with a deer (my best friend sent it to me, I had it on my wishlist <3), kitchen crockery, handmade slippers, a DIY magazine and organic baked apple honey. <3
When I came to work two days later, my colleagues were waiting with a little surprise, how lovely!! :)
I think the best thing about this birthday was spending it with the two people I love most, my mum and my boyfriend. :) They anticipated all my wishes and made my day special. <3
Now I'm 25, a quarter of a century. Let's see what the next year will bring and if I'll be able to achieve my goals.
Thank you for reading and for always leaving comments! :)
Lu

My first patchwork project - a sewing tutorial.

2012-02-07T13:21:00.000+01:00

Hello eveyone, thank you for the lovely birthday wishes!! :) I'll share some photos soon. :)
Here's a tutorial for a patchwork book cover. I have a new sketchbook where I sort and keep inspiration and make sketches for future DIY projects. Since black is not my favourite color, I wanted the book to look friendly and colorful and here's how I sewed the cover. :) You only need a book, some fabric scraps which are big enough to cover the book, a larger piece of fabric which is a bit bigger than the book itself, a sewing machine and sewing supplies.

1. Take some paper and make a draft of the cover. Therefore, put the book onto the paper, draw its outline onto the paper and leave some margins and make it wider so that you can fold it around the book.
2. Cut out fabric scraps.
3. Sew the scraps next to each other.
4. It should now look like this, you should now have a huge piece of fabric which is slightly bigger and wider than your book.

5. This is how the left side looks.
6. Now you have to iron the back so that the seams are neat.
7. The back now looks like this.
8. That's the front.

9. Now cut out the other piece of fabric for the 'inside' (you won't see it later, but using a secong layer of fabric or some lining makes the cover look prettier) which is as big as your patchwork piece. Put the two layers onto each other, right sides facing.
10. Put the book onto the layers in order to find out where to sew and how wide the seam allowances have to be.
11. Draw the line where you want to sew, leave a small seam allowance and make sure to make it wider at the sides of the book so that you can fold it around.
12. Now sew the two layers onto each other and leave an opening at one side so that you can later turn the fabric inside out.

13. Here's the opening, just big enough to turn the fabric inside out.
14. Cut off the corners (but be careful not to cut into the seam).
15. Turn the fabric inside out.
16. Now iron the edges.

17. This is how it should be looking.
18. Close the opening with pins.
19. Top stitch around the whole book cover and close the opening.
20. Finally, fold around the sides, fitting them to the book and adjusting them to the book's size.

21. That's it! :) You can now put the book inside the cover.
22.-24. Hasn't the cover become pretty? :)

25.-28. I love my new book cover! :) Are you gonna try to make one yourself? :)

This is the date I love most about each year... :)

2012-02-05T06:00:00.000+01:00

Sources: the pretty cake and the beautiful floral image

Yayyyyyyy, while you are reading this, I'm probably busy with unwrapping presents, decorating my kitchen or eating tons of homemade cake, because today's my BIRTHDAY! :) Apart from Christmas, this is my favourite day of the year and each year I'm still as excited as I was when I was a little child... :) What do you most love about birthdays? :)
I hope your day is as great as mine,
happy Sunday,
Lu, the birthday girl :)

Wanna see who's the lucky winner? :)

2012-02-03T19:36:00.000+01:00

Yayyyy, congrats, Anzouya!!! :) I'm happy for you and appreciate that you always leave comments and give me feedback on what I do! :)
Have a look at my shop over on DaWanda and let me know which item / items you want to have for 25€ and send me an e-mail with the link to the products and with your adress, okay!? :)
And thank you to all the other 22 people who took part and left so many lovely comments! :) Thanks for reading this blog! :)
Happy weekend to all of you! :)
Lu

Let's see what the future will bring...

2012-02-02T21:09:00.001+01:00

The idea for this kind of list is by Hula Seventy.

Hey! Only a few days ago I posted the list of goals I wrote last year and these are my plans for the 26th year of my life. :) Because I'm going to turn 25 next weekend, I recently wrote this list (oh, how I love lists! :)) to make sure that I do not forget my most important goals. What is more, I love crossing things off my lists after I've done them. Are you as crazy for lists as I am? :)
Did you achieve all your goals last year? :)

Although I'm totally looking forward to my birthday, I'm not as excited as usual, because I normally throw a huge (costume) party each year with all of my friends. This year, all of them have already been here on New Year's Eve and cannot come to my birthday. :( It's somehow strange, because I normally have most of my beloved ones with me, but I think the day will even be good without having all of them around me. This year I'm throwing a tiny tea party with homemade cake and lots of kitschy dishes. :)

Lu

All those photos...

2012-02-01T18:58:00.000+01:00

Hey! :) It's time for sharing some of my beloved fake polaroid pictures I always take with my phone when I have it with me. Some of them have already been taken last year, but I didn't post them, because I hadn't uploaded them, yet.

Back in December, Anja and I went to a Beatsteaks concert in Berlin. It wasn't as perfect as the concert we visited last summer, but it was quite good. :)

Mogli got a new bow tie (if you're interested in having one, I'm selling those on DaWanda) and I took some photos of Potsdam, here you can see some houses in the Dutch quarter.

Some time ago I won two awesome pieces of fabric over on Liepsch. I love the one with the tiny hearts! :)

My beloved friend Hanna has been spending nearly one year in Berlin and we spent lots of time together. I miss her a lot when she's not here! We discovered a new passion for Turkish food and found a restaurant in Berlin with a perfect dish. <3

After we moved to our new apartment, I decorated everything and hung up my handmade love bunting. In December, I sewed many moustache brooches for the Trend Mafia market on which I had my own booth. Moreover, I've been selling soooo much during the time before Christmas that I was even able to buy a new laptop only from the income I earned from selling my handmade items! <3 Yess, I was soo proud of myself! :)

Flo and I had some fun trying on fake glasses at the mall and I won the most beautiful fabric bunting in a giveaway on herzekleid. <3

After Hanna gave me a moustache two finger ring for Christmas, I totally fell in love with these rings and bought another one which looks like a feather. I also wore my new, turquoise tights from asos my girlfriends gave me for Christmas. The color is awesome, but don't buy those, the quality is crap! What is more, I listed lots of items on Kleiderkreisel (= clothing circle, a German platform to exchange second hand clothes and accessories) and in exchange for a floral bag, I got this pretty mustard headband. It's handmade, it's perfect, I love it! :)

As always, Mogli has been the cutest dog on earth. :) Last week I made vegetarian mini pizza and as you could see in my previous post, I made lots of new rubber stamps. :)

Moreover, I prepared TONS of new sewing projects, I cut out fabric, ironed it and sorted eveything in order to sew the items. I bought a new notebookinto which I now write all my sewing ideas, make sketches and keep inspiring images. I just finished a page with inspiring images for my birthday, because I'm going to throw a mini-tea party. This morning, although it was incredibly cold, we had the perfect weather on our morning walk. Nevertheless, can't wait for spring and for using our new balcony! :)

That's it, just a few snapshots and a little look at my everyday life. :)

P.S.: Don't forget about my 400 followers giveaway, you can still enter it by Friday and win a 25€ shopping card for my online shop! :)

Crafting weekend: pretty handmade rubber stamps.

2012-01-29T17:06:00.000+01:00

Hello, happy Sunday! :) I hope you've been enjoying this afternoon! We went on a walk through the snow (yes, last night is has been snowing a bit...) and ate fresh cake Flo made yesterday. I also look tons of photos of the new stamps I made yesterday evening (and I also took new photos of the old ones). I haven't been making stamps for quite a while, but maybe some of those who have been reading my blog for quite a while remember my first tries to make some about two years ago (the posts are here, here and here :)).
In case you need a tutorial for how to make those extremely pretty rubber stamps, check out Gennine's blog, there you can find lots of helpful, easy and aesthetic tutorials! :)
Most designs were my own idea, but I found inspiration for the little arrows, the apple and the Chevron pattern on Pinterest on Claire's inspiring rubber stamp pinboard.

My absolute favourite one is the owl I carved into the rubber stamp, using my own owl design as a pattern. I have been storing this huge rubber inside my drawer for a few months, waiting for the perfect idea which design to use it for and yesterday I had the idea to use to owl and then to use the stamp for envelopes, gift cards and so own. :)
Which is your favourite stamp?
I've got sooo many ideas for new designs, I made lots of sketches and can't wait to buy some new rubbers. :)
Wish you a happy evening and don't forget to enter the 400 followers giveaway in order to win a gift card for my online shop! :)
Lu

Thank you for reading my blog!

2012-01-27T22:30:00.000+01:00

Dear readers, wow, I have (constantly) been wriiting this blog for about two years and today I got follower number 400! :) It's amazing, I feel so honoured that you regularly read (and sometimes comment on :)) my posts and I appreciate your feedback so much! :) I love being part of the blogger community. <3

To thank you and to show you my appreciation, I'm now hosting my 6th giveaway.
You can win a gift certificate of 25€ for my shop on DaWanda, which means that you can chose any item - or several different handmade items from my shop - which you want for a total of 25€. :)
The giveaway is not limited to German readers, you can take park no matter where you live.

The only things you have to do is to comment on this post why you should win, leaving you e-mail address so that I can contact you and you have to be a follower of my blog (if you aren't a follower, yet :)).

What is more, you can also leave additional comments, each comment is an extra chance to win:
- A link to a post on your own blog which is about this giveaway.
- Follow me on twitter and leave a comment with you twitter name.
- Like Luloveshandmade on Facebook and leave a comment with your Facebook name.
- Follow me on Pinterest and also leave a comment with your nickname.

The giveaway will be open until Friday, February 2, 6 p.m. (Central European Time). I will then randomly chose a winner. :)
Wish you good luck! <3
Lu

Sewing DIY.

2012-01-25T19:14:00.001+01:00

Dear readers! :) As I got to know, here a few readers who are interest in a tutorial for how to sew a zipper, so I decided to make a few illustrations to make clear how this works. :) Hopefully this will help you! :)

> Sew the fabric scraps onto the endings of the zipper. Each end of the zipper has to be between to layers of fabric and will thus be covered.

> Now iron the fabric scraps. The seam to attach them to the zipper is now hidden.

> Put the fabric right side up and pin the zipper face down onto it. Use a zipper foot for basting (therefore, use a straight stitch for sewing the zipper onto the fabric).

> Now you need to pin one piece of lining onto the front pieces (right sides together), the zipper is in between. Using a zipper foot, stitch the upper edges together. The dotted lines in the illustration indicate how it looks between the layers of fabric.

> The front piece of fabric is now turned inside out. Press the layers together and iron. Next, topstitch the upper edge of the front, attaching the fabric to the zipper.

> Do the same with the back and the back lining. After you are done with it, it should now look like on the illustration above.

> Now you only need to put the right sides of the outer fabric onto each other. Therefore, the zipper has to be open and you need to fold the pouch in half. Pin the sides and bottom edges together and stitch the two layers together. Don't forget to stitch back and forth over the zipper and on the ends in order to close your seam. Then use a zigzag stitch to sew the raw edges together.
Finally, do the same with the two layers of the lining. The lining's right sides have to face each other, then you can pin them together and sew the sides and the bottoms onto each other, leaving a small seam allowance. This time when sewing the layers onto each other, you need to leave out an opening so that you can turn the bag right side out after you've finished sewing. Later close that opening by hand, using a blind stitch.

In case you have any questions, just let me know, I hope this tutorial is useful for some of you! :)
Lu

Where you can also find me...

2012-01-24T21:04:00.000+01:00

Hello! :) Is anyone of you registered on Pinterest? In case you don't know that site, it's like a virtual pinboard where you can share inspiration and I really love it. :) To find me, either click on the photo above or on this link. :)

All those pretty things I'd like to have...

2012-01-24T00:20:00.000+01:00

Hello! :) Time for some web love, some things I'd loooove to have (I already posted a list before Christmas, but this list mainly consisted of cameras... :))! :)
Cause it's gonna be my birthday pretty soon, here are few things I really like! :) I have a wishlist on Pinterest and here are a few of those items I adore. <3

1. This perfume is awesome, I really, really love its fragrance, but's pretty expensive.
2. Masking tape is great, I'd love to have these colors for my notebook.
3. White headphones, I love white.
4. This ring is so beautiful, I found it on DaWanda.
5. Although I already have an alarm clock, this is the prettiest I've ever seen.
6. Anja bought me the most beautiful etagere for Christmas and this one would perfectly fit into my collection of pretty kitchenware.
7. Awesome coat hanger, right? :) I'd only paint it in a different color.
8. Wow, these tins are so pretty, the colors and the floral patterns...
9. The color of these headphones is awesome and I think I even love them more than the white one.
10. I found this cute bag on asos and I'd looove to own it. :)

Can't wait for my birthday! :) Apart from Christmas, this is the best day of the year. :) Can't wait to see what I will get and if it's nothing from this list, maybe I will buy one thing or another myself... :)

In love with vintage dishes.

2012-01-22T18:51:00.000+01:00

Hey online pals, did you have a nice weekend? ;) Today I went to the flea market in Berlin and found a pretty, floral plate. Here you can see some extremely beautiful dishes I bought last week when I discovered a new second hand store. Although I rarely need four different teapots, I couldn't resist buying them, because they are soooo pretty. Which one is your favourite? :) I cannot decide which one I love most. I already made a salad using my new, floral bowl and I can't wait for using the plates for decorating food. :)
Collecting vintage dishes has become one of my latest passions, it started when I tried to find some plates on the flea market last winter when I was searching for pretty vintage decor for my birthday party's dessert table. My aim is to sort out average dishes which do not fit my kitchen's style and I love the color contrast of white dishes with floral elements and my tuquoise kitchen table. :)
Do you have any collections? Well, I also collect fabric, but that's another story... :)
Wish you a lovely evening, I'm going to watch some more episodes of The Big Bang Theory. <3

Why I'm so excited today.

2012-01-22T09:50:00.000+01:00

Good morning, dear readers! :) Remember the bow tie I made for Mogli for Christmas? I'm sooo glad that I decided to list it on DaWanda, because there seem to be a lot of people who like it. :) A short time ago, I was really happy to see that they listed my product on one of their treasuries which aim to help people finding the perfect presents for their loved ones. Then, a few days ago, I got an email from DaWanda, telling me that my item was going to be in the next newsletter (a Valentine's Day special), and in case you don't receive the letter yourself, here it is:

When you click onto Mogli in the Newsletter, you are directed to a page where there a presents for people who already have everything and the cute bow tie is the first item. <3 I don't have to tell you how proud I am, right? :)

I'm now going to a brunch date (What's a better way for starting Sundays, huh? ;)), see you later! :)

2012-01-21T15:48:00.002+01:00

Dear readers, happy Saturday! Today lovely Heidi is featuring me in her blog love edition on her blog I'm With Leia. Go and say hello, she's from Denmark and has a pretty blog where she posts about her family life and her cute baby, she shows her awesome knitting skills or shares links to pretty items she finds on the Internet. We got to know each other through Indie Biz, just like I got to know some other awesome ladies!
I'm going to have a nap and then I'll keep on working on a few sewing projects. :)
Lu

My new pencil case.

2012-01-21T00:14:00.001+01:00

Hey, happy weekend! :) Here's a new item I've sewn for myself, a pretty pencil case made from vintage fabric. I saw this beautiful fabric on DaWanda when I was looking for Christmas presents and I simply had to buy it. Isn't it pretty? It's unique and I can be sure that I won't see anybody with the same pencil case. :) By the way, is there anybody who would like to see a tutorial for how to make such a pencil case or are there only people with advanced sewing skills among my readers? :)
Do you have any special plans for the weekend? This evening one of my girlfriends came by, I'm planning to sew a lot and I'll go to the flea market. <3
Wish you a lovely weekend!!
Lu

Guest post on Ms. Fisher Goes Handmade.

2012-01-20T09:09:00.000+01:00

Dear readers, lovely Sindy of Ms. Fisher goes Handmade has invited me to share a guest post for her birthday week on her blog. :) There you can see my camera case tutorial (for those who don't understand German, you can find the English version on my own blog) and lots of other lovely DIY ideas by other creative bloggers. Most posts are self-explanatory or you only need the photos to understand the tutorial, so it's no problem if you only speak English. :)
So visit Sindy's blog and make sure to say hello! :)
Thanks again for inviting me! :)

My favourite kind of fabric...

2012-01-18T23:03:00.000+01:00

Hey lovelies, how are you? :) Do you recognize this fabric? It's from IKEA (no, I'm not getting paid for promoting their fabric :D) and I LOVE it! It's so extremely beautiful (and inexpensive :)) and I cannot get enough of it.
Here are a few items I've sewn using this pretty fabric: A heart-shaped pillow for my bed, my new shopping bag, an embroidery hoop for my sewing supplies, a new make-up bag I just sewed a few days ago, a hot-water bottle cover for a friend of mine and a cute pouch. What is more, I also made a cherry stone pillow for my mother, some lavender bags as Christmas gifts, a look scarf and a few other things for my friends. I love this pattern and the colors so much!
Do you have a crush on a certain type of fabric? :)
Wish you a lovely evening! <3

2012-01-17T22:49:00.001+01:00

Wohoo, thinking of the awesome super gamepad pillow I made last summer, I've just handprinted and sewn those two new items for my shop. A pencil case for men (and for ladies, too ;)) who don't want to forget their beloved childhood gaming memories and a tote bag with another toy which most us know from the days when we were younger... :)

2012-01-15T17:39:00.000+01:00

Coat: asos

Treggings: H&M

Boots: bianco footwear

Hat, cuffs & scarf: H&M

Moustache ring: Christmas present from Hanna

Triangle ring: asos

Hello, happy Sunday! It's been a while since my last outfit post, but I wanted to share what I was wearing today! :)

I recently bought this awesome coat, I love the color so much (my friends say when I'm wearing it, I look like a tartlet or like candy :P), it's so bright and it's perfect for the dark and grey season!

Today Flo took these photos while we were out for a walk with Mogli, the weather was awesome.

I hope you were all having a lovely weekend! :)

2012-01-13T18:23:00.000+01:00

Hello! :) This is the list I made shortly after my birthday last year. Inspired by another blogger's idea to make a list of goals for the next year of one's life (instead of creating a list of good intentions for the new year on January 1), I wrote down those goals for the 25th year in my life. :)
Because I'm going to turn 25 in the beginning of February, I wanted to share this list again to show you which goals I achieved. :)
As you can see, I nearly did everything I wanted to do, there are only a few things missing. :)

1. Unfortunalety, I failed one course at university last summer semester, so I'll have to do it again. ;P
2. Woohoo, I sold much more than 100 items in my DaWanda shop!! :) Until now, a total of 267 items have been sold and there are still about 3 weeks left until my birthday, so this was a total success. :)
3. Yes, I visited Hanna!! :) Cause she has been living in Berlin for almost one year, this was pretty easy and we spent lots of precious time together.
4. I've been visiting Malin, too. ;) I went to see her two times this year, one time with Hanna and one time with Flo. :)
5. Wohooo, I got a DSLR for my last birthday, my mom bought it for me. <3
6. I've got even more than 300 blog followers, they are nearly 400. :) Thank you soooo much for reading my blog!!
7. Yes, I've sewn a skirt. Much better, I 've even sewn two of them. :)
8. No, I didn't sell my items at the Mauerpark, but hopefully I'll do this next summer. :)
9. Yeeeeees, this was one of the best things last year, we found the perfect flat for us!! :)
10. Ohh, I threw a theme party, it was perfect! :) On my last birthday I threw a costume party and there was even a competition for the best costume. :)
11. No, I didn't dye my hair, because I'm currently completely in love with my original hair color.
12. Oh my gosh, I saw the Foo Fighters last summer and it was beyond amazing!!! It was the third time I saw them live and it was completely overwhelming!
13. That's something I'm gonna do this year. :) But I painted lots of other smaller items of furniture white.
14. Haha, we were actually having a board game night in summer, but I forgot to make a hook. :) It was fun, we played Activity. :)
15. Well, I tried out lots of new recipes, but I didn't take photos of all of them and I didn't post the recipes online, I'm too lazy.
16. Oh yes, I sewed a shirt for my mother. :) One of the first pieces of clothing I ever sewed.
17. Mogli still doens't know how to perfectly behave when he's on his doggy leash. ;O)
18. I went on a short holiday with Flo during the winter holidays, it was my Christmas present and it was wonderful! <3
19. I'm really sad that Anja and I didn't menage to go to the Baltic Sea last summer - when we wanted to, either one of us had no time, or the weather was too bad. Hopefully this summer!
20. I had a few picnics, I love that!
21. I actually sewed myself a duffle bag, without using a pattern and with a pretty matryoshka fabric.
22. Flo and I went a lot by bike last summer and I sometimes went by bike to a lake with one if my girlfriends. In spring, Flo and I surrounded some lakes by bike and had a picnic, that was fun!
23. I even visited my grandparents, it was great seeing them!
24. Ohhh, I always miss my mother so much, but I saw her as often as possible! <3

Last year has been really awesome!! <3
Have you done any of those things on my list? :) Did you have any goals you accomplished?
I'm soon gonna show you the list of 25 things I wanna do before 26. :)
Lu

2012-01-12T00:19:00.000+01:00

Guess who's part of DaWanda's latest treasury list? :) Yes, it's Mogli! :) The lovely doggy bow tie I offer in my shop is included in the shopping list for Valentine's day, so make sure to check it out. :)
Eeeks, I'm always so proud of seeing one of my products being featured somewhere, I just saw it by chance when logging in onto DaWanda. :)

Thank you for the nice comments concerning the post which I wrote about my experiences last year, it's awesome that some of you felt encouraged by my words.
Thanks for stopping by! :)
Lu

2012-01-11T16:00:00.000+01:00

Wohoo, after being completely unproductive for a while, I've now sewn some new pouches and I tried out a new sewing pattern. How do you like this one?
It's available in my shop and I'm gonna sew a few more of these. :) Can't wait to prepare more products for spring. :)
Lu

2012-01-08T15:27:00.000+01:00

Although I’vealready started writing my blog a while earlier and opened my online shop aboutone and a half year ago, this past year has been my first successful year as anindie biz owner. Not only my sales have increased, but I also made a lot of newcontacts and learned a lot, either due to my own experiences, or by gettingadvice from other bloggers and by exchanging thoughts.

So here aresome of the things I learned last year which has been a really special yearwith regard to the development of my little business.

1. Everything takes time, so be patient

Don’tbecome nervous when you don’t sell well in the beginning! Although it’s good tothink big and to have goals, don’t forget that everyone has to start small andeverything has to be developed and carefully thought over. Don’t expect to immediatelysell tons of items and to get lots of new blog followers, better be patient andmake small steps – everything good takes some time! You’ll see that the moreyou work on your products, the better they will become, the more you try out,the more interesting your style will be. When I started sewing (with a machine –I’ve already sewn by hand for some years) two years ago, my sewing skills werea total mess! :) The seams were not straight at all and I didn’t have any clueof my sewing machine’s functions. Untilnow, I haven’t visited any sewing lesson, I only taught sewing myself by tryingout everything I wanted to and I got useful advice from friends and since I have worked ina fabric store, I often witness my colleague’s sewing lessons while I’m sellingfabric and therefore, I get to know a lot of new sewing techniques, too. What Iwant to make clear with telling you this is that you should take it easy andaccept that you will need some patience in order to develop your skills andtalents and that it can take some time until you’re successful with what you’redoing, so don’t feel discouraged when you aren’t honored and admiredimmediately!

2. Go with trends you can identify with

Of course,one of the most important things when running an indie biz is finding your ownstyle and being unique, but nevertheless, I think it can still be interestingand worthwhile going with trends you like and can identify with. This way, youattract lots of new customers, you probably work on a project you usuallywouldn’t have worked on and maybe you can also increase your sales by includingitems which are part of a current trend – but only as long as you can identifywith the trend and feel comfortable with it, because it has to be authentic andfit your style and concept. As an example, I still love the latest moustachetrend and although I haven’t invented this trend myself, I decided to createsome products with a mouchtache and these items were in great demand and I solda lot. What is most important when going with trends is not to copy a product,but to use the trend for yourself and to get inspired.

3. Try out different techniques,working methods and materials

It’s alwaysgood to enlarge one’s personal horizon, also with regard to creativity andinspiration. If you try out different techniques, you will learn more and willsee that you have skills about which you haven’t known before. What is more,apart from discovering hidden talents, you can also get to know about workingmethods you haven’t thought they could fit your style and maybe this offerscompletely new perspectives for future products and the usage of new materials.This way, not only your personal horizon will enlarge, but also your range ofproducts will widen and this could make your brand more attractive to potentialcustomers.

4. Develop your own, unique style

Find outwhat you like, make drafts, sketches, always take notes of your ideas, thinkabout color schemes and carefully lookat other designer’s items and style in order to find out what you findappealing and what not. I think there are so many interesting and uniqueartists, bloggers, indie biz owners and so on and thus, it’s even moreimportant to be recognized, to have a style which is unique and which reflectsone’s own creativity and taste.

5. Become familiar with the legalaspects of running a small business

In order toavoid legal conflicts, it’s important to be weel-informed about the legalaspects of running a small business in the country you’re living in. Younormally have to register your business and depending on your businesses’income, you will have to pay certain taxes and have to do some office work andaccountancy to avoid legal conflicts.

6. Don’t be afraid to set new trendsyou believe in

When youtry out something new, you will probably see that you like a product younormally wouldn’t have thought of, but then, don’t be afraid to set a new trendand to introduce a new product others wouldn’t have expected from you. Do whatyou like, produce what feels good to you and always listen to your heart whenyou’re making decisions.

7. Find out which of your products aremost successful

In order tofind out which products are most appealing and successful, you can either simplyuse your online shop’s statistics, or you can sell at markets to see thecustomer’s reactions yourself. To successfully sell your handmade items, youshouldn’t be afraid to reproduce items that sell well and maybe think about howto further develop these items.

8. It is all about community, not aboutcompetition

Don’t seefellow indie biz owners as competition, but see them as parts of a hugecommunity everybody can learn from. To me, it’s really important to make newcontacts, to talk to other bloggers and indie biz owners and to exchangethoughts and experiences. What is more,guest blogging as only one form of communication is a really great form ofsupporting other creative people, to get to know each other and to learn moreabout different projects, style and techniques. Not to forget, it’s even morefun to get to know other bloggers in person. :)

9. Enlarge your creative horizon allthe time

Enlargingone’s own creative horizon all the time may sometimes seem a little bitdifficult, but nowadays it’s pretty simple to gain new knowledge (mostly forfree) nearly everywhere. Getting to know new things in not only reallyimportant in order to stay inspired, but also to develop new ideas and tofurther develop your skills, knowledge and style and to be creativelyfulfilled. I often browse the Internet, read a lot of inspiring blogs, andspend much time on Pinterest to get to know about latest trends and to discovernew possibilities. Moreover, because I’m working in a fabric store, I see theprettiest fabrics and patterns nearly every day and this extremely inspires meto work on a new sewing project. When I see pretty fabric, I automaticallythink about what I could do with it and I imagine the product I could turn thepiece of fabric into. :) Furthermore, another way to enlarge your creativehorizon is to wander through the city, to have a look at people, what they arewearing and to look at city art and visit different stores. I often go to artsupplies stores and when looking at all the different tools and materials, Iget tons of ideas concerning what to make with them. In addition, in the courseof the last few months, I bought several books with various sewing patterns andtherefore, I can widen my product’s range a lot. Finally, not to forget thatthere are millions of sewing tutorials and DIY ideas on the Internet, so it’sreally difficult not to learn something new. :)

10. Find ways to stay inspired

My ways tostay inspired are really similar to the methods of enlarging my horizon: Ispend a lot of time on the Internet to get to know the endless possibility of practicingcreativity and I read books and look at fabrics to get new ideas. What is more,I make lots of notes and sketches so that I don’t forget a good idea I oncehad. It’s completely normal to feel creatively burnt out from time to time, Ithen spend some days with doing nothing creative at all and then, aftercompletely switching off my desire for doing something productive, mycreativity comes back by itself. As an example, the second half of 2011 I’vebeen working really hard, I planned moving to a new home, I thought about theapartment’s interior and décor, I worked on Christmas presents, prepared myonline shop for Christmas trade and I even prepared for selling my items at amarket. The time just after Christmas, I felt as if somebody had sucked out allof my creativity, inspiration and motivation and after a few days of justhanging around and doing nothing productive at all, I felt the urgent desire tosew something and to be productive. What I want to make clear is that you needto listen you your heart and that you shouldn’t force yourself to be creative;find your personal ways to stay inspired, but don’t forget to reward yourself with a break! :)

As you cansee, I’ve learned a lot during the past few months and I hope that some of myexperiences and thoughts will help you! :) Feel free to let me know in thecomment section below what your most important experiences as a blogger orindie biz owner are. :)

Thank youfor reading,

2012-01-05T22:45:00.000+01:00

Wohooo, belated happy New Year! I wish you all the best for 2012, may all your dreams come true and may you have 12 inspiring and creative months! :) As I've already written, I spent my holidays with Flo and with our very best friends (<3 !!!), they all came the week after Christmas and stayed for severeal nights. Because we all live in different parts of Germany, we all do not see each other too often, but when we meet, this time is really special and we have already spent a lot of weekends like this together. <3
Although we have an apartment with only two rooms, we somehow managed to accommodate 6 overnight guests and we also had three other visitors (my beloved friends Hanna and Anja with her boyfriend) who came during daytime and for our New Year's Eve party. I love my friends so much, we had the most incredible time, we were cooking together, exchanged Christmas presents, talked a lot, listened to music, danced and we actually had two parties, one spontanious one the night before New Year's Eve, and New Year's Eve itself. :)
On December 31, we all dressed up, prepared LOTS of delicious, vegetarian food (salads, snacks and food for our awesome raclette that we use each year as a tradition), made two sorts of punch and decorated our living room. We put two tables together, used my vintage plates I bought at the flea market, Jenny and Malin cut out tons of golden circles for the table's decor and we hung up golden Christmas tree balls.
During the party, we were eleven people, ate a lot, listened to classical music during dinner, took many photos in our fancy outfits and later in the evening, we listened to trash music from the 90s and made Spice Girls inspired photos (can be seen below...). :)
On New Year's Day, we ate the leftovers, cleaned the apartment and had to say goodbye. :( Fortunalety, not all of our friends live too far away, but Flo and I were both incredibly sad on Sunday evening after they had left, because these days we spent together were so special! <3
So here a few photos of the party and of our pretty outfits. :)
Ho did you spend New Year's Eve?
Lu :)

2012-01-04T15:25:00.000+01:00

Hello! :) Happy (really!) belated Christmas! :) As you've seen, I've been away and I haven't been blogging for nearly two weeks now (can't remember the last time I've been absent from my blog for such a long time :)). It's not because I didn't want to blog and share thoughts and photos, but I've been enjoying the holiday time with my loved ones and it was wonderful!

Two days before Christmas, I've been spending one whole evening with wrapping presents and writing gift tags. Then, the day before Christmas, Flo and I bought the most beautiful Christmas tree. :) Since we just moved into our new apartment two months ago, we decided to spent Christmas eve at home to enjoy it here. :) On Christmas day, we both dressed up (I wore a red dress, red shoes and green tights) and Flo wore his new bow tie. We made the most delicious vegetarian Christmas dinner, ate a lot, unwrapped presents, watched Christmas movies and went to bed early. :)

As a Christmas present, Flo gave me a trip to an island in the North Sea and we had to get up early on December 25. I was soooo excited and happy about this awesome present!!! :) We spent there 4 really relaxing days with a lot of good food, walks on the beach and exploring the island. It was the best present he could have given me, because I had been longing for a short vacation so much and it was perfect to have some time away from the duties at home, especially after I had been working a lot before Christmas (I sold more than ever on DaWanda the weeks before Christmas and I was even able to buy a new laptop only from the money I've been earning by selling my handmade items during the weeks before Christmas, this made me feel sooo proud! :)).

We always dressed up before going out for dinner and really enjoyed the time.

The beach was so beautiful and although it was pretty cold and windy, it couldn't have been better. :)

Mogli loved our journey, too, because he loves going crazy on the beach. :) As you can see, he had lots of fun and enjoyed our walks. :)

Here he's looking a bit like a crocodile, isn't he? :)

After we drove back home after 4 magical days, all of our best friends came over the weekend to celebrate New Year's Eve with us. These few days were some of the best I had in 2011, because no important person was missing and all of our friends who live somewhere else in Germany were able to come. I'm soon gonna share a few photos of the party. :)

I hope you were all having amazing holidays with lots of precious family time with your loved ones!! :)
I'll be back with another post, soon!
Lu <3

2011-12-22T21:58:00.000+01:00

Dear readers, only two more nights until Christmas! :)
Make sure to check aus Steffi's lovely blog over at herzekleid, she's having a virtual Advent calender with lots of DIY posts and I'm happy she invited me to share a project. :) You can see it on her blog. :) It's a sewing tutorial for a heart which can either be used as Christmas decor or as pin cushion.
Wish you a lovely evening!
Lu

2011-12-18T13:54:00.002+01:00

Hello eveybody, happy 4th Advent! :) On the first weekend of December I sold my handmade things at the Trend Mafia in Berlin, a market for everything handmade. :)
I was having my own booth and I have been waiting to finally share some photos with you for so long! :)
I already went there last year after I had just started selling on DaWanda, but I wasn't really successful. This time, it was completely different! :) I was well prepared and my range of products has become pretty wide. I offer lots of items for daily use and my products have become better and better (such as my sewing skills have improved :)).
I'm so thankful for having the best friends in the world, because otherwise, this day would have been more stressful for me! Flo drove me to Berlin and helped me to carry all my items and my friends Hanna, Anja and Sarah came to visit me and to keep company with me. <3 Anja and her boyfriend brought me the cutest Dalmation balloon (which attracted lots of children :D) and Hanna has been staying with me nearly all day. <3
I was soooo nervous when I started decorating my booth and I wanted it to look perfect and to reflect my style, so I thought a lot about how to organize everything. I made all price tags by hand and I wanted my decor to be appealing. :) When the first customers came, I was full of adrenalin. :D
I got LOTS of compliments concerning my products, people got sparkling eyes when looking at my products and I was completely overwhelmed. :)
Each person who bought something got a little paper bag with handprinted Christmas ornaments, my business card and a little chocolate Santa. Lots of people took my business cards and I sold a total of 11 differend items for a total of 75€. I was so proud, because this time, I earned the money I had to spend for the booth's rent, for the gas for coming to Berlin and I even made some profit. What is more, the following days after the market, my statistics on DaWanda nearly exploded and I sold a lot more online. :)
It was such a great experience and I had soooo much fun seeing the people's reactions when looking at my booth and at my items. It's such a great feeling that people like what I do and admire what I have created myself with a lot of effort and love. <3 I'm really proud of myself and this Sunday has been one of the best days this year. :)
So here are lots of photos so that you can see how everything looked like! :)

Hanna and I have been taking photos all afternoon and she perfectly portrayed me and my booth. <3

I've already sold this cute owl pillow. I wrote all tags in German and English so that everybody was able to understand them.

This day was simply awesome! :) Here you can see Flo and me chatting. He's the best, he totally supports me and helps me to achieve my goals whenever I need him. <3

Although I've been selling lots of mugs on DaWanda, at the Trend Mafia they have only been admired, but not a single person bought any of them.

I had bought this pretty, white etagere to display my brooches. I love white plastic items (it's even made from recycled plastic :)) and I can also use it to decorate cupcakes. Moreover, I used some enamel bowls to display other items.

Flo and Hanna have been keeping company with me. :)

I like this photo so much!

Do you see the Dalmatian? :) The 'lu loves handmade' banner is made of paperboard, I made it last minute two days before the market while Anja and I were watching O.C. California on DVD, because I didn't have any banner.

I love those mugs! :) I know, I haven't invented this trend, but they are so much fun. :)

Here's again the wall behind my booth. I was happy that I could hang up my bags to display them so that everybody could see them. :)

Wow, lots of photos, but I hope that you were able to get a good impression of what this day has been like. :) I definitely wanna do this again next year, although it includes a lot of work and time for preparations. :)

Has any of you been selling at such a market? :)

Wish you a lovely Sunday and enjoy the last week before Christmas! As you can see, today's the first day in December I'm not sharing a Christmas post, but my Blog Party is nearly over. I wanna share one or two remaining posts the following week and then I'm gonna post a summary of all Christmassy DIY posts so that my new readers (Hello, welcome here!!! ;)) will get an overview. :)

Thank you for reading,
Lu <3

2011-12-17T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hello, everyone!My name is Allie, and I run a little blog called Of All The Nonsense. I'm quite honored andexcited to be a part of Lu's Christmas Blog Party. Today I'm goingto show you how to make a quick and adorable holiday wall hanging!

For this project you will need:

-An embroidery hoop. [I chose an oval-shaped hoop, but you couldchoose any one you like.]

-Fabric for the background.

-Three triangles cut from mismatched fabrics. [Mine were between 1.5and 2 inches in height.]

-A sheet of sticky-backed felt.

-Embroidery floss in the colors of your choice.

-Scissors.

-An embroidery needle.

1. Beforeyou place your fabric in your hoop, trace around the inside of your hoopon the back of your sticky-backed felt. I forgot to dothat beforehand and had to take my fabric out!

Onceyou've finished with the felt, place your background fabric inyour embroidery hoop, and line up your triangles wherever you would likethem. I used a couple of pins in each to help hold them in place.

2. Usingembroidery floss in the color of your choice for each triangle, stitcharound each one. I used a simple running stitch.

3. Onceyou've stitched all around of your triangles, stitch a small trunk to thebottom of each one. I chose not to fill my in, but you could fillyours in if you like, using a satin stitch or something similar.

4. AfterI finished with the tree trunks, I thought it would look cute to stitch asmall star to the top of the middle tree. To do this, Ibasically just made small single stitches in the shape of an asterisk. You could even stitch a star to the top of each tree, if you like!

5. Nowit's time to finish off your wall hanging. I finished it by trimming myfabric closely to the back of my hoop. I know that there are bettermethods of finishing off embroidery hoop pieces, but this has generally workedwell for me in the past. [If you know of any other methods, please feelfree to share!] Do make sure you pull your fabric tight beforetrimming! After you've trimmed your fabric, remove the waxbacking off of your felt, and lay it sticky-side down in the back of your hoop,covering your stitches.

6. Andthere you have it - a super easy and adorable wall-hanging, that you could evenleave up all winter! I love this project because there are so manydifferent designs you could do. If you make one of your own, I hopeyou'll share photos!

Thank you so much for having me, Lu! It's been such a joy!

Happy holidays!

xo, Allie

***

Oh, it's so pretty! :) I'm so thankful for all the lovely ideas all of you have been sending me. :)

Thank you so much for participating, Allie! :)

Lu <3

2011-12-16T08:00:00.000+01:00

Today's guest blogger is one of my beloved girlfriends, Anja, who writes a blog called aentschie and who sews the cutest toast iphone cases in the world. <3

***

I have been making twogingerbread houses and my loved ones Lu and Sylvio got something to nibble. :)
Such a delicious house canbe made easily:

You need:

- Gingerbreaddough for the house

-Lotsof sweets for decoration

- Icingsugar

You have to use yourfavourite gingerbread or cookie dough and then you have to cut out the parts ofthe house (front, back, two pieces for the sides and two pieces for the roof).

Bake the dough according tothe recipe, let it cool down and buy lots of sweets and icing sugar.

Sticking together thepieces of the house is a bit tricky. It works best with melted sugar (caramel).Be really careful, because it’s extremely hot and you can get a burn blister.:(

When everything sticks together and you’ve tested the house’s sturdiness, you can get started withdecorating your house (and because then you later don’t see how leaning it is;)). Use icing sugar and liquid (just like you want it, you can either usewater, or juice; I prefer lemon juice (white) or cherry juice (red)) to mix theicing. The icing has to be really thick so that it sticks well and does notdrip. An injection bag works best for applying the icing to the house (you canalso use a freezer bag with a little hole in one corner!). Finally, decoratethe house with sweets to your heart’s content! :)

The houses look sodelicious!
I don’t like recipes andindications of quantities that much, but in case you have any questionconcerning any detail, feel free to ask me. :)
So just try it out, such ahouse is an awesome present idea!
I wish you a lovelypre-Christmas period!
*aentschie

***

Doesn't that looks cute?
Thank you for sharing, sweetheart! <3
Lu

2011-12-15T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hello! This is Ashley from under those neon lights, the best blog to ever exist in the entire history of theworld... the world ;)

I hate Xmas and refer to it as Xmas becauseI hate it so much!

BUT I do LOVE to make and decorate things,so of course I love to wrap presents!

Here is a little idea to make a present alittle extra special and handmade!

You will need:

Scissors

Embroidery Thread

A needle

Buttons

Felt

Ribbon

And a teeny little puff of polyfil

First:

You need to cut out a gingerbread man shape.

You can trace a cookie cutter or make yourown shape. You can even make a gingerbread kitty or a gingerbread houseor a gingerbread owl or a gingerbread... you get the idea.

Make sure you have two identical pieces offelt.

Second:

Decorate!

Give him eyes, some frosting, shoes,buttons, maybe a beard or mustache.... but NO SMILES!!! Because of coursewe hate xmas! ;)

Third:

Sew him up!

Make sure you leave room to attach a littleribbon and to fill him with a little bit of polyfil. You want him to lookwell fed, not fat, so don't overdo it!

And lastly,

attach him to a present with a ribbon, bow,or yarn!

The best part about this little guy is that therecipient can use him to decorate their tree next year!

***

Yay, so cute, thank you for sharing this, Ashley! :) Lu

2011-12-14T19:33:00.000+01:00

Hey, are you in mood for the holidays? :) I thought Mogli might look pretty with a little bow tie for Christmas (isn't he the cutest? :)) and this is why I sewed him this one. It is made from red cord and I used a velcro to close the collar. The fabric is really soft and thus, the collar is extremely comfortable and doesn't bother him.
I think it's soooo pretty and that is why I also listed it on DaWanda. Yay, I immediately sold one after listing the item! :)
What do you think? :)
Wish you a nice day and come back tomorrow for the next guest post for my Christmas blog party! :)
Lu <3

2011-12-14T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hey Lu loves handmade readers, it'sStefanie from Squeaky Swing. I want to share with you my very easy Christmasgarland.

I was inspired by a sweet photo on this blogand thought it would be a cute idea for decorating my home for Christmas. I'mnot sure how the original was made, but I decided to make my own garland withfelt letters. So here are the instructions:

Supplies:

- white felt (about 15x15cm x 2 for eachletter)

- cotton wool to fill the letters

- glittery stones (from the arts and craftsshop) and glue

- a big needle

- thread

- nylon thread

1. Print out the letters in any font youlike (I made them really big: two letters on one sheet), put them on the feltand cut out each letter twice, front and back. M, R and S only have to beprinted once.

2./3. Sew the front and back of each lettertogether, leaving a little space open to fill them. Then close the hole tofinish one letter. Repeat this with every letter.

4. Take the nylon thread to stitch theletters together.

5. Finally glue little glittery stones ontoevery second letter to give it the final touch.

I hope you like it!

Merry Christmas, Stefanie

***

Dear Stefanie, thank you for sharing, this is so pretty! :)

2011-12-13T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hi, I am Stephie fromRoboti liebt. Wonderful Lu asked me to join her Christmas blog party. I decidedto do a little tutorial on how to make an easy - peasy - last - minute giftwith reusable stencils. I chose to beautify some dish towels with them, like theone you can see below.

You need:
- a motif (I would suggest some easy ones - like the ones I used)
- an old sheet protector
- an edding
- a cutter knife
- some fabric paint
- a sponge (I used a special sort of brush, but a sponge will do, too)
- a dishtowel

1. Choose a motif.
2. Place the motif in the sheet protector and calk it with the edding.
3. Cut the motif (be sure to leave enough space around it).
4. Cut along the lines with the cutter knife.

5. The stencil shouldlook like this.
6. Place the kitchen towel on some paper.
7+8. Dip the sponge in the fabric colour and start "stamping".

Ready!

(Shh - to fix the paint, please follow the instructions of the paintspackaging)

Dearest greets
Stephie

***

Oh, this is wonderful, so easy and so pretty! Thank you for sharing, Stephanie! :)

2011-12-12T12:49:00.000+01:00

Yay, 15% discount on all Christmas items like stockings and present bags in my DaWanda shop. :)

2011-12-12T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone, thanks Lufor letting me contribute to your Xmas blog party.

I'm Heidi, I have the blog Imwithleia - I blog from Copenhagen with a focus on my love for handmade things. I'm sharing with you a recipefor Candied Almonds. It's a classic Scandinavian Xmas treat - nice and sosimple. The perfect little gift.

You need:

200 g Almonds
175g Powder sugar
2 tablespoons grounded cinnamon
10 cl water

Wash and dry the almonds, 10 minutes in the oven on 175 C
Mix powder sugar and cinnamon
Add it with the almonds and the water to a hot pan. Remember to stir all thetime. Continue to the sugar has melted and it smells a bit burned. Cool down onsome baking paper. Break a part. Enjoy

***

Eeeeks, thanks for sharing, it sounds soo delicious! :) Lu

2011-12-11T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hi there everybody! I’m very honored to be invited as a guest author here on„luloveshandmade“ today. I normally post over at “Fee ist mein Name” which means “Fee is my name” and that’s true, because…well… Fee is my name !I brought with me a little DIY combined with a yummy recipe:Nonalcoholic punch jelly. I made these glasses as little presents formy family and friends and everybody loved them. They can even be usedfor storage when the jelly is all gone. So, here we go…

First, I did the craftingpart. I took a bunch of little jam glasses and spray painted thelids gold. Take care that your spray paint is suitable for metalundergrounds. I let mine dry for about 24 hours before taking thenext step: Gluing some decoration onto them. I chose cinnamon sticks,dried orange slices and star anise. First, I tried hot glue, but itdissolved the spray paint, so I switched to universal adhesive, whichworked out fine. Let the lids dry for another 24 hours before usingthem.

For the jelly you need: 1litre red grape juice, ½ litre apple juice, 1 big orange, 2 cinnamonsticks, 6 cloves and 1kg jam sugar 2:1. Take a big pot and pour thejuice in. Squash the orange und pour its juice into the pot as well.I use a tea filter to pour it through, to make sure that no pieces offruit make it into the pot. Then take a second tea filter, put thecinnamon and the gloves in it, close it with a piece of thread andput it inside of the juice. Bring to boil and let it simmer for about30 minutes. Remove the spices and let the punch cool down.Afterwards add the jam sugar, bring to boil again (with constantstirring) and let cook at a rapid boil for one minute. If you wannatest if it’s gelatinizing properly, take a cold plate and put a fewdrops of your jelly on it. Hold the plate upright and if the jellystarts thickening fast and sticks to the plate you can pour it fromthe pot into your prepared jam glasses. Close the lids quickly, butbe careful not to damage your decoration. The jelly should be coldand ready for consumption after a few hours.

A similar recipe wasmy first attempt of making jelly (or jam) a few years ago, when I hadjust moved out from home. So if you never made some before as well:Try it. It’s so easy !

ThanksLu for having me today and everbody else: Have fun cooking andcrafting!

***

Dear Fee, thanks for sharing this pretty idea! ;)

2011-12-10T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hello there!

I'm elycia from the blog ♥elycia. I am a vintage loving cat lady living in a cute house on a quiet street with my husband and our two sweet kitties.Today I am happy to be here to share a little decor DIY with you. This year Ivan and I decorated an adorable white tree with purple and blue ornaments to match our living room. After the tree was all decorated I got the idea to make some "balls of yarn" to add to it. Here is what I did!

For these yarn ball decorations you will need some styrofoam balls (any size you like) and some yarn in colours that will look nice with your tree and other ornaments.

Start wrapping yarn around your styrofoam ball. It doesn't have to look perfect right away. Make sure you change the direction that you are wrapping every so often the way I did.

Once you can no longer see your styrofoam ball and you are happy with the pattern you have made with your yarn, cut the yarn and leave a longish tail.

Secure your yarn by weaving the end under a few of your wrapped pieces.

I used my yarn tail to make the hanger for my ornament. Just make a loop large enough to fit over the branches of your tree. Then tie a little knot and secure by weaving once more through your wrapped yarn.

Next I weaved the end down to the bottom of the ball and trimmed it so that there was a little tail hanging. You could also trim the tail completely so that there is none hanging down if you prefer.

Place on your tree! If you kept a hanging tail you can play with it and wrap it around your branches a little bit.These yarn ball decorations are super easy to make and I love the way they look hanging on my tree! All of my balls are the same size but I think it would also look super adorable if you used a few different sized styrofoam balls.I would love to see if you make some yarn ball ornaments for your tree! Pop by my blog and leave me a link if you do!♥elycia

***

Thank you so much for sharing, I'm happy you took part in my blog party! :)
Lu

2011-12-09T23:27:00.001+01:00

Yessss, I love DaWanda sooo much! I just bought this vintage dress for less than 4€ and I love the pattern and the colors! As you can see, it was way too long, so I shortened it and I think it fits quite well. :) What I love most about clothes with a colorful pattern is that you can combine them with tights and leggings in every color which you can find in the dress. <3
By the way, hello to all my new readers!! :) Hope you enjoy my blog party, there are some other nice projects to come. :) Some of you may have found my blog via Stef's beautiful blog magnoliaelectric, because today she has posted her delicious punch recipe in German and has written a short text about my blog, sooo lovely! <3
If you're new here, read something about me to get to know what my blog is about. :)
Wish you a lovely weekend! :)
Lu

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000+01:00

Here's a great tutorial by my lovely friend Malin, she writes the blog normalean and she makes music as Mary Jane Insane. <3

***

Hellodear readers!

I amvery happy that Lu invited me to her “Bloc Party“ for the 2^ndtime to share another tutorial I created on my own.

Since itbecame autumn and finally winter, I started drinking even more teathan I usually do (even in the hottest summer I drink much tea, forit is very healthy!). So this DIY shows you how you can create yourown winter tea you can give away or to drink on your own :)

Suppliesneeded:

- loosewinter tea

- big teafilters

- teaspoon

- yarn inred and green, particularly cotton

- paperand pen for your patterns

- a scale

- a sewing machine or a normal needle to sew by hand

I'lllater tell you how to make the right mixture, but now I'll show youhow to sew Christmassy tea bags.

1. Draw some patterns for your bags in Christmassy shapes. I used a heart, a star, a moon and a bell. You can use whatever you like most, but it also depends on the tea you use. If you use very fine tea, you can use every shape (like the Christmas tree I also drew, but didn't sew), but if you're gonna use tea which has for example big dry fruits in it like apple slices, you might choose a bigger and not angled shape, like the star for exemple. Before you produce a high number of tea bags, be sure the size is big enough (5-8 g of tea should fit in).

2. + 2.2 Cut out your shapes and pin them onto the tea filter, cut them out with a sewing allowance of approximately 3-5mm.

3. Leave an opening for later filling in the tea.

3.1 Now sew with your sewing machine (fine needle plus stitch lenght of 2), leave 3-4 cm open for easy filling (I chose red yarn, for I like the colour of red and green most for Christmas time, but of course you can use whatever you like).

4. Fill in the tea and scale the filling.

5. Now close the opening with your sewing machine.

6. Sew a thread of double length to the upper middle of your selfmade tea bag to use it properly and maybe to hang it up on your christmas tree. ;)

The tea mixture:

Now Icome to the tea mixture. In fact, I went to a tea shop and got some advice of a salesgirl there. I wanted tohave some tea with apples (but not too sour and fresh), almonds,cinnamon (of course!), and some other winter/Christmas flavours Iadore :) Sadly, you can't really mix yourself a tea, for these shopshave so many finished mixes so you don't really need to mix them onyour own or you are not allowed to. Sometimes at some Christmasfairs or in pharmacies, you can get loose tea which isn't alreadymixed.

I usedthe mixtures: „Gebrannte Mandel“ (rosted almond) and „WinterApfel“ (winter apple) which have the following ingredients:

Applepieces, almond pieces, beetroot pieces, hibiscus blossoms, rose hipparings, currants, cinnamon pieces, vanilla pieces and finally,calendula blossoms.

Now youcan boil your tea and after the brewing time of 5 to 10 minutes, youcan enjoy it with some cookies and a book. :) Have a great wintertime!!!

***

Awww, Sweetie, thanks for preparing this great tutorial! <3

2011-12-08T08:00:00.000+01:00

Source of the mug graphic: creaturecomforts

Hello, this is Stef from magnoliaelectric - I am 23 years old and from Austria, Europe - a student with a heart full of things I love(photography, books, DIY, travelling, cooking). I have the honour of writing aguest post for the blogging christmas party and have decided to share the recipefor the most delicious beverage in winter - besides hot chocolate and tea - withyou - homemade (hot) punch.

You need:
1 cup of water
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup fruit tea
7 whole cloves
2-3 cinnamon sticks
2 cups fresh orangejuice
1/2 cup rum
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup honey

Now: Combine water, sugar, tea, rum, honey, cloves and the cinnamon sticksin a large pot. bring it to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Boilfor 2 to 4 minutes. Remove whole spices, if desired. Stir in the orangejuiceand the fresh lemon juice. Serve hot. (For about 8 to 10 servings)

To include diy as well, Ithought of serving the hot punch in self-made bowls. You just need to hollowout an apple which can "stand" on its own. make sure you don't damagethe paring. Put some lemonjuice on the seam so it doesn't turn brown soquickly. Then, pour in the hot punch and serve it - I used fairy lights,carnations, oranges and cinnamon sticks for decoration.

You shoulddrink the punch rather quickly, because the apple will become leaky after sometime.

I wish you an unforgettable christmas andhappy cooking!

Lots of love, Stef.

***

Awwww, so delicous! :) Can't wait to try this!

Love, Lu

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hi there! My name is Mirij from Liepsch - a blog where I write about DIY, my sewed stuff and my kids and life.
I'm thrilled to guestblog here on luloveshandmade and hope you enjoy my little tutorial!

Only 13 days left for Christmasand you are still wondering which presents you can gift?
Don't worry, there are plenty of ideas what to gift without even spending adime.

Some friends and family are so far away that you can and will send themonly a nice letter.
That's why I want to share a quick tutorial with you for doing your own Christmas-,stars- and snow-inspired stationary.

You need:
- baking paper, the white one (comes recyled as well)
- sewing machine
- yarn (of course)
- (optional) star punch
- old envelope

I love, love, love, baking paper so much, because it can be used for so manythings. The white looks really winterly and snowy to me and it is not only used herefor sewing patterns and baking, but also for crafting laterns, punching out stars, for decorating and so much more.

Let's start:

Take one sheet of baking paper (I got paper which has already been cut) and red yarn and gocreative on the paper. We really had a lot of fun to pull the paper through mysewing machine. My oldest child (almost 3 years) helped me with it and was glad tofinally sew something himself. It's always nice if you can involve the kids in a crafting project.

Now take the paper andcreate the envelope.

Therefore, you need to carefully rip apart an old envelope. This should not be toodifficult, considering the huge amount of unwanted mail we all receive each day.:(
You can choose between the smaller ones or the bigger ones like in thistutorial.
This is then the model/pattern for your own envelope.

Transfer the outline onyour baking paper and then cut it out.

Glue the edges togetherand, if you want to, pimp the back with another cutted backing paper star.

For the front I used aself-adhesive paper label and sewed around it before sticking it onto theenvelope.

For the letter itself, just use plainbacking paper and write with a pencil. It looks clean, but also a littleromantic - perfect for christmas.

I'm also planning to use this sewed baking paper for all the presentwrapping which I recommend to try out as well. What is more, it's so much cheaper thanbuying present paper and perfect if you also forgot to do so. ;)

I really love my envelopes and wrapping paper and hope you like it, too!

Have a nice Christmas time everyone!

Mirij

***

Thank you for sharing, this is such a pretty and easy idea! :)

2011-12-06T22:11:00.001+01:00

Dear readers, happy St. Nicholas' Day! :) I love the Christmas season and I love this day! I woke up early and was so excited to see what's in my stocking, Flo got me a season of one of my favourite series. :) And as you can see on the photo above, Mogli got a little bone this morning. :)
Here you can see a part of the stocking I made for my mother, our mistletoe we hung up above our living room door, the Advent candles I gave to my mother and some rasped, organic chocolate which can be used for being scattered on hot chocolate or milk. <3
This day has been perfect, we had a great brunch and I sold lots of items on DaWanda. This is so much fun! <3
Wish you a lovely night!
Lu

2011-12-06T08:41:00.001+01:00

Yay, only today there's 12% discount on all items in my shop, so if you still need any Christmas presents, here's your chance to buy them! :) It's only in my German shop on DaWanda, but if you're from a foreign country and like an item, I'd love to translate the article description for you and I can also ship internationally if there are any requests.
Wish you a lovely St. Nicholas' day!! <3

2011-12-06T08:00:00.000+01:00

Dear readers, today lovely Sammy of The Cookie Button shows you a pretty knitting DIY project! :)

***

I would like tointroduce to you all my Christmas over sized knitted wristband where it willbring out the Lady Gaga in all of us! I hope this will inspire all of you toget knitting during this festive season and get you in the Christmas mood :)

You will need: A ball ofchunky wool, size 9 knitting needles, thread, needle, yarn needle, scissors andnot forgetting that sweet little bell!

Step 1: Cast on sixstitches with your yarn (there will be tutorials online if you are unsure howto do this).

Step 2: Knit as manyrows as you like the the basic knit stitch. Measure it around your wrist everyso often and stop when you think it fits perfectly. Then cast on another 6stitches to make your bow but make this one slightly smaller than your previousknitted bit.

Step 3: Using your yarnneed stitch together the wristband itself. Get your bow part and wrap some ofthe wool around the middle so it will start to look like a bow. Then stitchthis onto the wristband so it is nice and tight. Then the fun bit begins whenyou can stitch your bell on with your needle.

Finished! Put yourwristband on and admire your work! Mission complete!

Thank you once again Lu for asking me to be part of your Christmas blog party,it is always a bundle of fun :)

***

Thank you for sharing this pretty tutorial, Sammy! <3

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hi, there! My name is Amy and I blog over at amyistheparty. I live in a cute vintage Midtown apartment in Sacramento, CA. My style could be described as vintage modern (a little bit vintage, a little bit modern). A self-proclaimed dork and hostess with the mostess, I spend my free time decorating, searching for vintage treasures, exploring new places, making and designing jewelry and websites, and drinking an absurd amount of coffee.

I am honored that Lu asked me to be a part of her holiday blog party. The holidays are my absolute favorite time of year!

I got the pink marshmallow idea from a department store display. It is pretty inexpensive to make - especially if you already have some of the materials lying around. Ready?

You'll need:
A collection of glass jars - I used apothecary jars but you could use mayo, pickle and jam jars and I bet it would look just as cute.
Pink marshmallows - I found these in my local discount grocery store. The large ones are strawberry flavored. The mini ones are peppermint.
Cake topper decorations, mini toys, mini trees, etc.

Instructions:
The most challenging part of this project is finding cake toppers and toys that will look good in your jars. I already had the deer and small silver trees in my stash (originally purchased from bakeitpretty). I couldn't find bottlebrush trees like I wanted so I purchased a couple of model trees (like for train sets) and I covered them in white glue and super-fine silver glitter.

A shop on etsy sells cute trees - or you might try your hand at dying your own (tutorial on craftyminx). There are tons of cute cupcake topper shops on Etsy too. This one sells trees, reindeers, and some adorable elves.

Fill the jars about 1/3 full with pink marshmallows. Stick each of your cake toppers into a marshmallow to insure it stays in place. Replace the lids on the jars once you have created a mini wonderland in each one. Arrange them all together for a magical display!

I hope you enjoyed my project idea and will come visit me at amy is the party. A big thank you to Lu for having me. Happy holidays!

***

Dear Amy, thank you for sharing this pretty tutorial! :) xo Lu

2011-12-04T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody! I’m Jennifer from wolkengleich. Some of you might know me from Lu’s last blog party. This time, I want to show you how to craft a lovely Christmas wreath. Currently, I’m totally in love with knitted accessories and decoration, so I decided to make one by myself. I really like this cozy look.

I hope the pictures are self-explanatory and you feel inspired to knit and craft. You also can omit the candle and hang-up the wreath on a wall or a window. I think it would look great!

I wish you a lovely Christmas season,

Jennifer

***

Thank you for sharing this pretty tutorial, Jenny! :)
Wish you all a nice 2nd Advent! While you are reading this, I'm standing at my booth at the Trend Mafia in Berlin, hopefully selling some handmade things. :) Wish me luck!
xo Lu

2011-12-03T20:39:00.001+01:00

Dear readers, as I've already posted, tomorrow, on Sunday, I'll be having my own booth at the Trend Mafia designer market in Berlin! :) Among about 60 other vendors, I'll be selling my handmade things. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I've been there last year and this time, I'll try it again. :)
During the last days I've been completely busy with preparing everything. I sewed tons of new pouches, I oganized all my items, made price tags by hand, designed and printed new flyers and prepared every single detail. I'm a bit worried, because the weather forecast is so bad and it is to be feared that many people will rather stay at home than to go out for visiting a market. :(
I'm sooo ecxited, let's see if I'll be able to get some sleep tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it will be a successful day, can't wait to tell you everything and to share some photos. :)
In case you live in Berlin and don't have any plans this Sunday, come and visit me at my booth, I'll be happy to see some nice people! :) The location is called Hackesches Quartier and is next to the station Hackescher Markt. The market is open from 1-7 p.m and I'll be sitting at booth number 10 in the back. :) More information can be found on the organizer's page.
Wish you a lovely weekend, make sure to come back later, there'll be another Christmas post on my blog! :)
Lu

2011-12-03T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hi, I amTrisha from MarySew and I am delighted to share my favorite recipe for bakedapples with you. It is super easy, takesabout 5 minutes to prepare and it’s totally animal friendly! :D

You’ll need (for 2 servings):

· 2 Apples

· 50-75g Marzipan

· 3tbsp Jam (I used homemade strawberry jam)

· Ahand full of raisins

· Vanilla

Preheatyour oven to 200°C. With a spoon carefully remove the apple core and seeds, makesure you leave the bottom in.

Mix the marzipan with the jam, vanilla and raisinin a bowl. If you like you can also add cinnamon. It makes it more Christmas-y,I know, but I don’t like cinnamon at all.
Fill the apples with the mixture, putthem in a small baking dish and bake for aprox. 25 minutes.
Serve hot!We added dairy free vanilla yogurt, it was a delight. You can also use soyvanilla sauce or just icing sugar.

Enjoy, havean epic nom ^^.

***

Dear Trisha, thanks so much for sharing, this sounds delicious! :)
Dear readers, make sure to check out her blog, she sews amazing clothing for herself and sometimes provides you with great tutorials! :)
Lu

2011-12-02T08:00:00.000+01:00

Eeeeks, hello! :) Here's the second part of my Christmas blog party, a sewing project by me. :) I'm so happy about all the lovely guest bloggers participating this month and I'm glad about all the awesome feedback Steffi got for her post yesterday, thanks for commenting! :)
So here's a tutorial for a Christmas stocking, in good time for St. Nicholas' Day next Tuesday.
You need: Some fabric, a short piece of bias tape, a sewing machine and sewing accessories.

1. First, make yourself a draft for a stocking and then use it for cutting out fabric. You need 4 pieces of fabric of the same size, two with a pattern for the outside stocking, two plain pieces for the inner stocking which will later be rolled up.
2. Pin the two pieces of the patterned fabric and the two pieces of the plain fabric onto each other, the 'good' sides which are later supposed to be on the outside have to face each other.
3.+4. Next, sew the pieces onto each other (1cm / 0,39" seam allowance), leaving out an opening at the top.

5. Then, cut out little pieces of fabric out of the seam allowances at the round parts of your stocking. This way, the stocking looks prettier and there's enough space for the fabric after you've turned the stocking's inside to the outside.
6. Put the two stockings - the patterned and the plain one - into each other, the 'good' sides facing each other.
7. Pin the two layers of fabric together at the top edge.
8. Sew the two stockings together at the top edge, leaving out a small opening to turn the two stockings inside out. I left this opening at the 'back' where there will later be the bias tape to hang up the stocking.

9.+10.+11. Here you can see the opening I left out.
12. Pulling them through the small opening, turn the two stockings which you've sewn together inside out.

13. That's how it should now look like! :)
14. There's the opening through which I've pulled the stockings.
15. Now put the plain stocking into the patterned stocking. This way, you have two layers and don't see the seams.
16. Iron the top edges, this will make it easier to close the opening.

17.+18. Close the opening with pins and then close it with your sewing machine. Use a thread matching the colors of your stocking! :)

19. Yay, it already looks like a stocking! You're almost done! :)
20. Now roll up the top of the stocking, turning the top part of the inner stocking to the outside. This way, your stocking looks more appealing and there's a color contrast. :)

21. Now, pin a piece of bias tape to the back's top edge.
22. Sew it onto the stocking.
23. This is how it should look like! <3
24. Yay, that's it, you're done! Here's the pretty stocking! :)

Feel free to share a link if you try this yourself, can't wait to see your colorful stockings! :)
In case you want me to provide this tutorial for a Christmassy guest post on your blog, just let me know and write me an email. :)
Wish you a lovely Christmas time, I'm looking forward to posting all the other pretty holiday projects during the next days.
Lu <3

2011-12-01T23:16:00.001+01:00

Mmmhhh, so tasty! :) I love sleeping in and having a good breakfast! :) Currently one of my favourite parts of breakfast is this delicious fruit salad with banana, apple, pea, kiwi, orange, nuts, dried and chopped figs and raisins. <3

2011-12-01T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone, I'm Steffi fromherzekleid. I'm happy to share a little tutorial here on Lu's wonderful blog.So if you'd like to, you can make this colorful felt-star-garland with me.

You'll need: Felt in differentcolours, sewing thread, cotton batting, thick cotton thread, needle.

First you need to cut out a lot of felt stars. I used a cookie cutter to make apaper template and then cut out the stars.

Now make pairs of two stars of the same colour. Put a little bit of batting onone star.

Pin the two stars together and sew. You can sew by hand or with your sewingmachine, which I did because it's much faster. :-) Still, as the pieces are nottoo big, this would also be a nice hand sewing project, I think.

When you've finished sewing together all your stars decide in which order youwant to have them on your garland.

Start with the outermost star and pull your needle with the cotton threadthrough it as shown on the photo.

To prevent the star from gettingout of place, make one knot (or two knots) ateach end of the star to secure it.

Continue with the next star and repeat it until your garland is finished!

Enjoy!

***

Thank you so much for sharing this pretty project, Steffi! :)

2011-11-29T20:40:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! :) As you can see, I'll be hosting a Christmas blog party this year, similar to the summer blog party I hosted last summer.
Starting on December 1, some awesome guest bloggers and I will share lots of DIY projects, either recipes, sewing tutorials, Christmas and winter decor ideas, or craft DIYs. :)
Can't wait! :)

2011-11-28T22:36:00.001+01:00

Although the best things about Christmas are spending time with the ones I love, walking through the snow (in case the is some :)) and decorating the Christmas tree, I also love getting and unwrapping Christmas presents (well, who doesn't? :)).
I know that some of the things I'm going to get this year have already been bought or made by 'Santa', but nevertheless, here's the first part of my wishlist. :) And since my birthday is in February (awwww, only two more months! :)), I can use my wishlist for both, Christmas and my birthday. :)
As you can see, this first wishlist mainly consists of cameras and white items, but I LOVE lomography cameras (I already own a Holga, an actionsampler and a fisheye camera) and I love white. :)
So here's the list of things I'm wishing for, either for Christmas, my birthday, or some other day in the future. <3
1. I once saw this camera on A Beautiful Mess and I immediately knew that I wanted to have such a camera myself, cause it makes cat sounds... :)
2. The only headphones I own are really, really old, my father used them when he was younger. They are from Sony and are of a really good quality, but after many years of usage, they aren't that pretty anymore. Those white headphones from WESC are the best! :)
3. How cool is this? I want a tape dispenser which looks like a cassette!
4. I found this awesome dress just this evening while browsing the Internet and I LOVE it! As most of you already know, I like pink a lot and I think this dress will perfectly match my hair color. :) What a great dress, I'm in love! :) I think I won't be able to wait and maybe I'll get it myself soon. <3
5. Such a beautiful and interesting camera! Not only because it's white, but also because it has a really wide angle and you can take fabulous photos with it.
6. A Diana camera has been on my wishlist for quite a while and I think I prefer this plain, white one to all the other, colored versions, either as Diana Mini, or as Diana F+ with a flash. Can't wait to own and to use this camera one day. <3

Less than 4 weeks until Christmas!!! I'm already counting the days! <3
Lu

2011-11-28T16:53:00.000+01:00

Hey there, it’sStefanie from Squeaky Swing. I’m really excited to be a guest on Luloves handmade! I want to share with you two very easy crochetprojects to improve any object you want to use as a present or justfor your own pleasure. I made three tiny bows to make my new pencilcase cuter and a butterfly to pin it onto my skirt. I hope you like it!

Supplies needed:

- Yarn (any colour)

- Pencil case

- Crochet hook (2.0or bigger depending on your yarn)

- Sewing thread

- Needle

Instructions:

1. Chain 5, join tothe beginning chain with a slipstitch to get a ring

2. Chain 4, treblecrochet into the centre five times

3. Chain 4,slipstitch back down into the centre ring

4. Now you’ve gotone half of the bow and the only thing you need to do now is the samething again!

5. Break off youryarn.

6. Take anothercolour (or the same) and chain about 10 (approx. 5cm)

7. Wrap this chainaround the bow and tie it with a knot.

8. Now you can sewyour bow to the pencil case and make as many more as you like!

***

Supplies needed:

- Crochet hook (2.0or bigger depending on your yarn)

- Yarn (any colour)

- Safety pin

- Needle

3 Videos here:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

All I changed up wasthe antennas. I made them a little shorter and tied a knot on top.

And finally Iattached the safety pin and pinned it to my skirt! DONE!

***

Dear Stefanie, thanks for sharing and for being a guest on my blog! :)
Dear readers, hopefully you like her tutorial and you'll visit her blog and say hello! :)
Love, Lu

2011-11-25T22:22:00.001+01:00

Here's a quick home decor idea I made last week. I found this idea somewhere on the Internet a few weeks ago, similar to those book page paper hearts on Pinterest. :) This is such an easy idea and looks sooo pretty. :) How do you like it? You just need to cut out paper hearts from old book pages, then put a few onto each other and stitch them together (I used my sewing machine). Then, enfold the layers and that's it. :)
Lu

Tiny shop update.

2011-11-25T21:57:00.001+01:00

Yesss, a little shop update! :) On DaWanda there's a Christmas special where you can save 12% in some categories each day. :) Today you can save 12% in the Home & Living and Christmas & Occassions categories, so feel free to visit my shop.
Moreover, as I'm going to sell my stuff at the Trend Mafia next weekend, I decided so sew some more pillow cases for children, I also listed those on DaWanda. :)
Have a lovely weekend!

Guest post on Squeaky Swing.

2011-11-22T14:17:00.001+01:00

Hey! :) Lovely Stefanie of Squeaky Swing hasinvited me to prepare a guest post for her blog and of course I happilyaccepted this invitation. :) Since she writes her posts in German, I alsoprepared my guest post in German, but for those who only understand English,here’s another version for you on my own blog. So if you’re from Germany, go and check out her blog and say hello, she’s totally appealing andhas lots of cute DIY ideas. :) Fortunately, lots of her projects can beunderstood without reading the text, so it might also be interesting forinternational readers! :)

With this tutorial, I wanna show you how to sewa simple poncho, all you need are a chunky, cosy, square piece of fabric (Ichose fabric which consists of 70% wool and 30% polyester), 1m x 1m (3,28 feetx 3,28 feet / 1,09 yard x 1,09 yard), a sewing machine and sewing equipmentlike a measuring tape, pins and scissors. :)

Let’s go! Therefore, put the piece of fabriconto the floor or onto a large table, cut out a square (Step 1) and use a zig zagstitch (Step 2&3) to hem the edges to prevent unraveling of the fabric. Next, turn all 4 edges to theback of the fabric and pin those with pins (Step 4).

Now you have to stitch the edges onto the pieceof fabric to make them look neat (Step 5). Then, put the fabric onto thefloor and fold it to the shape of a triangle (Step 6). Next, cut a hole intothe middle which is later going to be the neckline where you put your headthrough (Step 7). It is up to you whether you want to have a round or a squareneckline. :) Don’t make the hole too big; better adjust it to your head’s sizestep by step. Then, the edges of the neckline have to be turned to the back ofthe fabric and have to be stitched onto it to fix it. Therefore, the edges haveto be pinned onto the fabric (Step 8).

Now you can stitch up your neckline’s edges(Step 9). Afterwards, put the poncho as a triangle onto the floor or onto atable to fix the ‘sleeves’ so that the poncho stays in its place while wearingit. :) Therefore, you can put in on and pin those points where you want toattach the front and the back onto each other (Step 10 and also shown on the photo below on the left bottom corner). When I sewed myponcho, this was at a distance of about 30cm /11,8” from the edge which islater supposed to be on my shoulders, but this depends on your total size (Step11). After you’ve symmetrically pinned those two parts of the poncho, you canfix them with a short seam (Step 12). Later, this is going to be the part ofyour poncho which is under the arms and prevents the poncho from slipping.

Have fun while you are sewing and feel free toask me if there are any questions! :)

I’m glad Stefanie asked me to prepare somethingfor a guests post, so don’t forget to visit her blog and to say hello! :)

Love, Lu

2011-11-21T11:59:00.001+01:00

Dear blog readers, I'm soooo proud of myself, because yesterday I sold item number 200 on DaWanda! <3 In February, when I turned 24, I wrote a list of goals (inspired by Elsie's list on a beautiful mess) and wanted to sell 100 itmes before I turn 25 next year. Ha, I've already achieved this goal way earlier and I sold even twice as much. :) It's so great to see that people like my products and it's so much fun seeing that my sales are slowly increasing. :) Moreover, another goal on my list was to get 300 blog followers by next February and I think it won't take long until this is achieved. :) Guess what? :) You can be looking forward to another giveaway on my blog quite soon...
Wish you a great Monday and thanks for reading my blog and for always leaving such lovely and motivational comments. :)
Lu

2011-11-20T01:34:00.001+01:00

Hi! :) As you can see, it's beginning to look like Christmas! :) I sewed lots of stockings and present bags and listed them on DaWanda and one of my customers liked them so much that she ordered 15 of them. :) I've been sewing all Friday evening to finish them and they turned out so pretty. :) As you can see, there are still lots of others in my shop, so hopefully somebody will buy them, too. :)
Have you already decorated you home? I'm gonna do that by the end of the following week. This year, I don't want to decorate my home too early, because last year, I had already begun decorating in the middle of November and in the end, my super-duper Christmas mood began to fade away a little. :)
Tomorrow I've got a brunch date with one of my girldfriends and we'll make some Christmas decor. Now I can't wait for Christmas to come!

2011-11-18T17:24:00.001+01:00

Hey, happy Friday! :) Any plans for the weekend? I've been preparing these pretty jars for Advent candles and maybe one of you wants to make those, too, because it's only one week left until the first Sunday in Advent. :)

All you need are a hot-glue gun, 4 empty jars, 4 tea lights, fabric leftovers, ribbons and paper scraps.

Cut out fabric and paper according to the sizes of the jars and attach them to the jars with hot glue. Do the same with the ribbons. Then, cut out numbers and glue them onto the jars, too. :) That's it. So easy and all you need are supplies you may have at home anyway.
Wish you a nice weekend!
Lu

Save the date: Trend Mafia design market.

2011-11-16T19:58:00.000+01:00

Hello! :) In Berlin there's a design market called Trend Mafia which regularly takes place on weekends and at which people sell handmade items. I went there last year and it was the first time I've been selling my products at a market. I was not very successful and only sold a few items, but it was a good experience and I had just started selling my handmade products on DaWanda a fews weeks before that date. The market at which I had my first own booth was last year in September, more than one year ago. :) In the meantime, I have nearly sold 200 items on DaWanda and I thought it was time to try it again! :) I applied for one of the many dates in December (during the Christmas season, the market takes place every Saturday and Sunday) and this time, they immediately accepted my application. :))

I'll be having my own booth at the Trend Mafia on December 4, 2011, from 1-7 pm. This time, it takes place at a really central place, namely in the Hakesches Quartier at the S-train station Hackescher Markt. (Wow, it sounds really weird inserting German proper names into English sentences... :P).
If you're from Berlin and want to visit me, I'll be happy to see you, so save the date and come over to say hello and let me know that you're one of my blog's readers, I'd love to meet you in person. :)

There'll be lots of vendors who sell handmade items like clothes, Christmas decor or accessories. Can't wait, I'm already preparing my table's decor and I'm thinking about which products I will take there and of which I have to make some more. :)
I'm sooooo much looking forward to this date! :)

Here are some photos of me and my booth last year, and after December 4, I'll share some more of my second attempt of selling my items at a market. :)

Lu

2011-11-13T18:54:00.001+01:00

Hello! :) I've been waiting for sharing these photos for so long, so here you can finally see my new room! <3 It's a combination of craftroom, sewing corner, bedroom and workspace and I love that I have everything in one room that I need. :) In our old apartment, we had three rooms, one for Flo, which we also used as livingroom, one for me, which I also used as sewing room, and a seperate bedroom. Now, we only have 2 rooms, but they are much bigger and I think it is extremely practical to have everything in one place. The sewing corner is the heart of my new room and it's (apart from the bed) the place where I spend most of the time I'm at home. I love my new sewing table and that it is big enough to cut fabric and to make sketches without having to use my normal desk.

Mogli loves his new home, too! :) He has two dog pillows, one next to me sewing table and one next to Flo's couch in his room.

What I love most is that there's so much light in here, I've got one window and a huge balcony door. I left the walls white and decided not to paint them and this way, my room is even brighter. I've got lots of colorful pieces of furniture and decor details, so I think this is enough color. :)

Here's my favourite chair, it has a cord cover and it's soooo cosy! The matryoshka pillow is to die for, isn't it? :) It was a handmade birthday gift from my beloved friend Anja. <3 Remember the post in which I mentioned the awesome little shelves made from crates? Here's the crate that I painted, I'm now using it to display my lomography cameras. :) The pennants are handmade, too, they were one of my first sewing projects last year.

Here's my desk where I do all the blogging, studying and chatting. <3 I'm so glad that I do not have to use it for both studying and sewing anymore!

Do you remember the pretty embroidery hoop to store sewing tools? I made it after I had seen this fabulous idea on pinterest. The spice rack is from DaWanda and I use it for storing textile colors. On the right photo, you can see the little IKEA table I painted turquoise and my sewing corner from another perspective. :)

Here's the bed, it's so comfortable and I love our bedding's colors. :) We bought the two bedside lights at IKEA and the bunting is handmade.

For the bunting, I used normal fabric and ironed the letters onto it.

After I had taken all those photos last week, I hung up even more photos. :) On the right photo there's the shelf in which I store all my handmade items which are listed on DaWanda, they are becoming more nearly every day. :) I even own an easel which Flo has given me for Christmas a few years ago, but I haven't been painting for quite a long time.

Have you spotted my typewriter? My mother gave it to me last year and I love it. <3

So how do you like my new room? Do you have a seperate sewing room oder craft room? What's your favourite place at home? :)

Wish you a lovely Sunday!
Lu

Pinboard DIY.

2011-11-11T23:44:00.001+01:00

<Hey! :) I haven't been sharing a DIY project for a while, so here's something you can make yourself if you want to. :) Last Wednesday, Flo and I went to IKEA and I saw those cork coasters and wondered what I could use them for. I bought a few of them and then I decided to turn them into tiny pinboards and cover them with fabric. ;)
You only need a cork coaster, a piece of fabric, a piece of felt, a stapler, a hot-glue gun a (handmade) bow and a ribbon. As you can see, those are all supplies which most of you crafty people have at home anyway. :)
First, put the coaster onto the back side of the fabric, tauten the fabric and use the stapler to fix it onto the coaster. Next, attach a ribbon the same way. Then, disperse the hot glue all over the back side of the coaster and put the felt onto it so that you don't see the staples anymore.
Finally, glue the bow onto the top of the pinboard and that's it! :) You can now pin everything to this little board you want. :) I hung mine next to your kitchen stove, because I wanna use it for pinning recipes onto it while we are cooking. :)

Wish you a lovely weekend, tomorrow I'll be back with another post. <3

Bastelwunder / Crafting Wonder.

2011-11-08T20:15:00.000+01:00

Dear readers, today's a lucky day! :) I've been selling some items on DaWanda and then I received an e-mail that me and my blog got the title 'Bastelwunder' (= 'Crafting Wonder')! :) There's a German site which collects links to inspirational blogs and aims to provide a great collection of sites which are worth reading and have to do with crafting and DIY.

A few weeks ago, Jenny mentioned on her blog wolkengleich that she was honoured to be a crafting wonder. I read the cute article they wrote about her and then I saw that one can apply for receiving that lovely title. After writing them an e-mail or after being proposed for receiving the title by somebody else, someone then has a look at your blog and if it meets their criteria, you can call yourself a crafting wonder and they introduce the blog and write a short article about it. :)

I felt so flattered when reading the short review of my blog!! :) It's in German and Lena, who is the author of the article, wrote about my creative projects and says that the style in which I'm writing my blog is appealing. :) She gives examples of some of my projects and says that my blog makes the crafter's heart beat faster. <3 Awww, while reading this, I was nearly melting. :)

If you're able to understand German and wanna read the article yourself, you can either click here or on the photo above. :)

That made my day, thanks! :)

2011-11-08T00:55:00.000+01:00

Hello! :) Here's the first part of my home tour, I've been looking forward to sharing some photos for quite a while and today, after we had cleaned the apartment, I finally took some photos. :) As most of you already know from previous entries, we've been moving to a new apartment and here I wanna show you our new kitchen. :) The room is a mixture of IKEA, flea market furniture, DaWanda and antique furniture. I love the color scheme, I chose red, white and turquoise. All the pretty apple kitchen textiles are handmade, I bought the pretty fabric at Frau Tulpe. <3
Here you can see my handmade oven gloves and the apron I will hopefully wear soon when I've got some time for baking. :) I love the kitchen cabinet so much, I found it on DaWanda a while ago. It's from the 50s and it was a real bargain! I bought it for only 100€ and since it was cream, I painted it white myself. :) I love a bright home and I love white furniture. The cabinet's colorful buttons are so pretty, aren't they? I love evey single detail in our new home. :)
The bunting is also handmade and I painted the IKEA table a few weeks ago. Do you see the beautiful shabby chic etagere? I found it on DaWanda, too, and bought it in a pretty shop where I had already purchased some other smaller items of furnite before. Moreover, the batten on which I hung the oven gloves are from the same shop, too. :) The white chairs are from an antique dealer, my mother bought them for us in our first summer here in Potsdam and I really love them. :)
I'm so glad that this room has turned out so pretty, because I totally like sitting in the kitchen, having visitors and cooking delicious meals. It has always been one of my favourite places at home and it still is. <3
So how do you like our new kitchen? :) What is your favourite detail? :)
Wish you a good night,
Lu <3

2011-11-06T13:58:00.000+01:00

Hello, happy Sunday! :) I've been working on lots of stuff for Christmas and here are some of the beautiful stockings I made. I just listed them on DaWanda. <3 Have you already been making something for the holiday season? :) Which stocking is your favourite? :)

2011-11-04T21:49:00.000+01:00

Dress: Okenka Vintage

Bow belt: H&M

Skirt: H&M

Leggins: dm

Hey, good evening! :) I haven't been sharing a 'What I Wore' post for quite a long time, so here's what I've been wearing today. I bought this awesome dress on DaWanda, it's handmade and it's vintage. It was extremely long and unshapely, so I shortened and altered it and now I think it's perfect. <3
By the way, did you recognize how bright my new room is? :) Can't wait to share a little home tour, but there are still some details to be finished and I will not share more photos until everything's perfect like I want it to be! <3
After a long evening of sewing and delicious food I'm now going to relax and watch some episodes of Gilmore Girls. :)
Lu

2011-11-04T17:37:00.000+01:00

Hello! :) I've been sewing a lot and here are some of the cute pouches I recently made. You can buy them on DaWanda. :) Aren't they pretty? :)
This evening I'm doing nothing less than sewing, sewing and sewing! :) As you've already seen in my last blog post (by the way, thank you all for the lovely comments!! :)), I started sewing Christmas decor and this afternoon I finished another stocking and some tiny bags. Now I'll keep on working on some more of them and I'll share photos soon. Hopefully you are having a nice Friday evening, too! :)
Lu

2011-11-02T22:14:00.000+01:00

Heyyy! :) How are you? As most of you have already read, I've been moving to a new apartment and we nearly finished everything. :) I still have to decorate some places and the walls are looking empty, but that's not urgent. I enjoy seeing how every single detail in our new home looks like and I spent a lot of time in my new sewing corner, my new favourite place at home. <3 In our old apartment, I had a quite tiny room and used one desk for sewing and crafting as well as for studying and surfing on the Internet, so that wasn't really comfortable. Now, as you can see on the photos, I've got plenty of space and I enjoy this soooo much! :) I took the photo above last Sunday when I spent the first evening in my new room, I watched a Foo Fighters DVD and sewed all evening. :) The two other photos below were taken just a few minutes ago. As you can see, I finished a few pretty, new pouches which I'm going to list in my shop as soon as possible and the best thing I did today is that I already started sewing stockings for the Christmas season!!! <3 I've got plenty of ideas and after writing this post I will go on cutting and ironing fabric for lots of holiday projects. :))) Are you in a mood for the Christmas season, yet? :)
Love, Lu

2011-10-31T15:00:00.001+01:00

Hello! :) Here's a sewing project I finished a few weeks ago, I sewed this awesome Gameboy pillow for a friend of mine as a birthday present. :) I didn't know what to make for him and since I wanted something which is an object of daily use as well as something personal, I made this pillow, because he loves video games. :) I think it turned out great, so how do you like it? :) Such a pillow can now also be bought on DaWanda, so in case you need a Christmas present for your boyfriend, you can order it here. :)

2011-10-30T15:57:00.000+01:00

Hello, happy Sunday! :) Yesssss, after some strenuous weeks of preparations, we finally moved! :) Here are a few first impressions, I'll share better photos in a few days... :) As you can see, fall has come and the leaves have turned yellow and Mogli enjoyed cuddling with his blanket. :) A few days ago, my mother had an awesome surprise for me, she gave me the most beautiful sleigh as a present!! <3 She ordered it from Bavaria and it's sooo pretty. Only some days earlier, friends of us gave us their old sleigh, too, so now we have two and I can't wait for the first snow to come!! :)

I organized some of my favourite bags and I received this pretty vintage etagiere which I ordered from a really lovely shop on DaWanda where I had already ordered something before. Then, last Friday, we spent our first night in the new apartment and on the right photo you can see how it looked like when I went out for a walk with Mogli in the first morning. :)
Then, our friends came and this is how it looks like when the girls are 'helping'. :D Haha, no, they actually helped me to prepare dinner for us and the hungry boys who were carrying all the heavy stuff. In the afternoon, after everything was done, we had dinner and rewarded them with the little present bags I prepared a few weeks ago. :) On the last photo you can see our breakfast table this morning, I was preparing lots of food while the boys were still sleeping. Do you see my pretty vintage plates from the flea market? :) We had a fresh fruit salad, a cake, hard boiled eggs and many other delicious things to perfectly start the day. :)
Our breakfast was great and Flo and I were so thankful for all the nice people who helped us. :) Do you recognize my handprinted Mr. Mouctache mug? :)
Finally, everything (apart from decor and little details) is done. :) Here are my new sewing corner, my cozy cord chair by the window and our new kitchen with my pretty, turquoise table. :)
Wish you a lovely Sunday, I'm gonna use my new sewing table for the first time and I'll share some more photos soon. :)
Lu <3

2011-10-23T10:43:00.001+02:00

Happy Sunday! :) For those who are relatively new to my blog (Hello, I'm glad you read my posts! :)), here's a list of past DIY projects I posted some time ago. I know that Sunday is a day when many of you sit at home and craft or sew (Apart from going to the flea market, that's one of my favourite ways to spend Sundays, too :)), and that's why I thought I could share a list of tutorials I once made and maybe there's somebody who wants to try one of those projects. :)

1. This is an easy sewing project perfect for beginners and I posted it only a short time ago. The tutorial shows you how to make a simpe heart-shaped pillow, either as a gift for the special one you love, or to beautify your bedroom. :)
2. During my first blog party which I hosted past summer, I shared a project for how to make little cupcake pincushions.
3. Making those cute, little felt owl brooches was one of the first DIY projects I ever shared on my blog. :)
4. Here's a sewing tutorial for a camera case. If you want to read the German version, you can click here. :)
5. This project has also been developed last summer during my first blog party, I shared how to print tote bags with natural stamps.
6. Finally, this was a colorful present I made for my mother: a canvas embellished with felt clouds and rain drops.

Wish you a happy Sunday, I'll be going to the new apartment to go on arranging the rooms and to build up furniture. :)

2011-10-20T22:44:00.000+02:00

Hi! :) Here are a few new snapshots I've been taking during the last few days. My mother bought us pretty flowers for our new balcony, I wore my new vintage dress and two of the cutest pins I made at work and I finished painting my extremely pretty kitchen cupboard. :) Of course I'll show better before - after photos after everything's done. :)

Moreover, the new semester has started and I could use my pretty, new owl pencil case. I know, I already own lots of those cases and handmade pouches, but it was so cute, I couln't resist buying it. :) One day, I bought my mother fresh flowers and we had quiche for lunch.

Here I asked my mother to take a photo of my outfit, but she isn't used to my mobile phone and so she cut off my head. :D This is my lovely, new vintage dress from Olenka Vintage. <3 I took the last photo just a few hours ago, my new room starts looking like it's mine!! :) I love it, here you can see my future sewing table and my comfy cord chair just next to the window. :)
Can't wait to finish everything and to finally live there and I'm soooo endlessly thankful for my mother helping us with everything. <3

2011-10-18T22:08:00.000+02:00

Hello! :) Wanna see some awesome sources of inspiration I found on Pinterest? :)

1. I really love this bright kitchen shelf, the colorful details are so pretty and I like the bunting.
2. I've recently seen lots of DIY tutorials like this for how to make a pretty Peter Pan collar and I definitely wanna make one myself.
3. Which pretty shoes! I must make cute clips for my shoes to make them look as pretty as the ones on the photo. :)
4. This is such a beautiful home decor idea, I'll try that as soon as the new apartment is finished, this will add lots of color to plain corners in each room. :)
5. Some months ago I fell in love with floral vintage plates, I started to collect some and I totally fell in love with those especially pretty ones on that photo. <3
6. Great idea for a photo display using a wooden picture frame.
7. Awwww, I'm usually not a big fan of candles (to me they are just dust catchers, I only use them during the Christmas season), but this is such a cute idea! Wanna make those one day as little gifts and this way, I have a good excuse for vintage teacup shopping at the flea market. :)

8. This is an awesome idea, isn't it? I have way too many scarves and other accessories and I love this way of using an old ladder to organize those things.
9. I've recently been thinking of making bow ties for Flo and Mogli for Christmas and this one looks extremely nice.
10. Oh my gosh, this is incredibly beautiful! <3 I've been seeing those old enamel sieves everywhere on the flea market and the person who had this pretty idea of using it as a flower pot definitely inspired me to make such a thing for my new balcony. :)
So, what's your favourite? :)

My life in fake polaroid pictures: We are moving! :)

2011-10-17T00:25:00.000+02:00

Hello, happy Sunday! :) Did you have a nice weekend? I had a few busy days, so much to do! :) I ordered some Vintage dresses and shortened them, I worked a lot (as you can see, at the fabric store where I'm working we made tons of pins and buttons for the upcoming Christmas season :)) and I prepared some things for the new apartment.

I also sewed some pretty fabric bags which I'm using as gift bags for the people who are coming here to help us and are even accepting a long journey to come here. <3 On Friday, Mogli and I had a loveley afternoon in the wood and afterwards, we snuggled a bit. :) On the right photo you can see some of the smaller items of furniture which I've bought and painted and the beautiful kitchen textiles I've sewn; an apron, oven gloves, potholders, dish towels and a pretty bunting (can't wait to hang it up in the new kitchen... :)).

On Friday evening Flo and I had a mediterranean omelette for dinner. On Saturday, the handing over of our new apartment finally took place and here you can see my beautiful new room and our kitchen with the old paint (I painted it white yesterday). I'm so much in love with this new home and although I'm awfully tired while I'm writing this post, I enjoyed the last two days which I've spent with cleaning, painting and rearranging things. One of the best things is that my mother is here to help us! :))

Awwwww, this is our first photo in the new apartment, I love it! :) How do you like my new kitchen cupboard? I bought it from a furniture restorer, it's from the 1950s and it was a real bargain!! :) This evening I've been painting it white, can't wait to share photos. Finally, we improvised our first dinner in the new apartment, fresh and healthy.
Ok, it's time for bed now, I'm sooooo tired and I think I'll fall asleep immediately! :)
Wish you all a good night,
thanks for reading! :)
Lu

Another one of those pretty woolly hats.

2011-10-14T17:07:00.001+02:00

Hey, happy Friday! :) I just wanted to share some photos of a woolly hat I recently made. Remember the pretty woolly hats I crocheted last year? :) A few weeks ago a customer bought a yellow one and she liked it so much that she asked for another customized woolly hat in brown, so I made this one. :) If you still need one yourself for the cold season, check out my latest hat shop update. :) Any special plans for the weekend? We're going to start renovating the new apartment and I'm sooooo excited, can't wait. :) Moreover, my mum is coming to visit us, I'm so happy! :)
Wish you a lovely weekend, I'll spend the rest of the day with preparations for our relocation. <3

Lu loves fashion: I fell in love with Vintage, part 1.

2011-10-13T10:59:00.000+02:00

Good morning everybody! :) Eeeeeeeks, I'm so excited, cause it's only so little time left until we are moving!! :) I've been so busy with organizing, planning, packing and dreaming about our new home. :) In the meantime, while I've been doing lots of online shopping for the new apartment, I found an awesome shop on DaWanda, OLENKA Vintage, and there I bought three amazing Vintage dresses. Their condition is awesome and they look so pretty, I only had to shorten them a bit. :) Here's the first one, I'll show the others soon and I hope to find some time for an outfit post during the next week. :)
Lu :)

Shop update: accessories for fall and 15% off. :)

2011-10-11T19:43:00.000+02:00

Hi! :) These are a few new accessories I listed on DaWanda about one week ago, I think they are perfect for autumn. :) The leaves are attached to hairclips and the toadstool is a brooch. :)
Moreover, this week there's a special on DaWanda with -15% in all participating shops where you haven't purchased anything before, so this is a great chance to get to know my shop. :)
Lu

My life in fake polaroid pictures - flea market edition.

2011-10-10T12:23:00.000+02:00

Hey! :) Yesterday I spent the day doing one of my favourite things on Sundays: going to the flea market in Berlin. <3 As usual, I love looking at all those interesting treasures and I love wondering about who has once owned them. I saw pretty furniture, old typrewriters and pretty, colorful coat hangers.

Here are a few snapshots of my outfit, I didn't take a photo of the entire body, so you have to put them together by yourself. :) I'm happy that it was cold enough so that I could wear one of my handmade scarves. :)

Ohh, these old roller skates are awesome, aren't they? :)

I love the turqouise clock! And here are my flea market finds: I bought the most beautiful floral necklace (It's not vintage, it's a new one), a hoop which I wanna use for a mobile and I found a type case which I was looking for. I'm going to paint it white and then I will hang it on the wall and use it for storage. :)
Did you have a nice Sunday, too? :)

And I'm still crafting and sewing...

2011-10-08T20:28:00.000+02:00

Hey, happy Saturday and hello to my new followers! :) How's your week been so far?
Apart from the projects I've already posted on my blog (and apart from working, of course :)), I went to IKEA, sewed a lot and prepared even more things for the new apartment (I know, I'm barely talking about anything else at the moment, but that won't change untill the beginning of November... :)).
When we went to IKEA, I bougt a huuuge sewing and cutting table (can't wait for the day when I do not have to cut large pieces of fabric on my floor anymore), shelves and some other stuff.
Moreover, I made those cute felt pinwheels for the window seats of our new apartment's kitchen and this weekend I'm working on kitchen textiles (I'm sewing matching potholders, oven gloves, an apron and kitchen towels, using extremely pretty fabric with red apples. <3
What have you been doing? :)
Lu :)

Home decor for my sewing corner.

2011-10-06T22:35:00.000+02:00

Heyy! :) I recently found an awesome DIY idea on Pinterest and then I decided to make such a pretty fabric frame myself. One just needs an embroidery hook and some nice fabric. :) Pinterest is such a great source of inspiration, I'm always so impressed what kind of amazing ideas some people have and so I was impressed by this idea. It turned out so pretty, can't wait to hang it above my sewing table in the new apartment... :)

Moustache mania.

2011-10-06T10:45:00.000+02:00

Good morning! :) Here are a few new items I sewed last weekend and apart from the green pillow which I made for Flo you can find all of them on DaWanda. I love the moustache trend so much and I think that these bags and pillows have turned out especially pretty. :)
What have you been creating lately? :)
Lu

Preparations for the new apartment...

2011-10-03T21:08:00.000+02:00

Hello, my dearest readers! :) I already told you a few days ago in this post that I bought a crate and inspired by the idea of using old wine crates as a shelf, I decided to get one for our new apartment. :) I went to an enoteca in Berlin where I bought the pretty, wooden crate for 2,50€. I know, it already looks great without paint, but I rather like it white, so I painted it. I will either hang it above my sewing table or above my desk and use it for little decor items or for pens, brushes, etc. What do you think? :)
Moreover, as you can see in the next photo, I've been shopping for other things for my new home, too. :) I found these pretty coat hooks and the tiny spice rack on DaWanda in a pretty vintage shop and I love them. :) I won't use the rack for spices (Flo doesn't like the color as much as I do and he probably wouldn't be excited about pink shelves in our kitchen :D), but instead, I will use it for my sewing corner. <3
I hope you had a lovely weekend, I've been relaxing and crafting a lot and I started watching Gilmore Girls again. <33 Lu :)

Handmade birthday present.

2011-10-02T12:18:00.001+02:00

Good morning, happy Sunday! :) Just wanted to share a photo of the hot water bottle cover I recently made. My lovely friend Sarah is celebrating her birthday today and I made it as a present for her. :)
I think handmade presents are the best! :)
Wish you a nice Sunday, I'll be spending the day with sewing, studying and taking photos. :)
Love, Lu

Handmade home decor by normalean.

2011-10-01T19:40:00.000+02:00

Hello, lovelies! My friend Malin is a custom tailor and she has made me those amazing handmade birds a few days ago. :) Aren't they more than pretty? Can't wait for seeing them in our new apartment! :)

Mogli, my love.

2011-09-29T14:22:00.000+02:00

Awww, my little doggy baby has grown so fast and I still love him so much! <3
Before we decided for getting a dog, we have been thinking about it for more than one year. Then, we regularly visited the local pet shelter and took several dogs for a walk to see how it feels like spending time with a dog and to get used to the new kind of responsibility. After we had decided that we wanted to have a dog, we were searching for a good dog breeder and found a wonderful woman who raises her dogs with a lot of love and has lots of experience and knowledge. We visited her and then decided to wait for the next litter. Then, we first saw Mogli when he was 4 weeks old and this was the day we have chosen him to live with us. We fetched him when he was 8 weeks old. Now, more than 4 years have passed and we can't image living without him. It's so crazy how people give their hearts to animals and include them in their lives, right? :)

This is how he's sometimes sitting in his dog basket. :D Like a little sailor on his boat. ;D

Isn't he cute? :) When he's looking at me with his blue eyes, it's so heart-warming! :)
Do you have any pets? :) I grew up in the countryside, having cats, chicken, a turkey, geese, lots of ducks and 3 goats. It was wonderful to spend my childhood having animals at home, but I really missed this when I moved out after school and then Flo and I started thinking about having a dog and this was definitely the best decision. <3

What inspires me.

2011-09-27T23:42:00.000+02:00

Hello! :) Here's a new list of things I love and which inspire me. I'm still busy with planning lots of details for our new apartment; I'm painting old furniture, preparing decor, I'm making little presents for the lovely friends who are going to help us and I'm making birthday presents for some friends. :) Much to do. :)
So here are the pretty things I found on the Internet:
1. I love those paper lanterns so much, this is such a good idea and adds colors to every white room. I've already bought tissue paper in three different colors and then I will decorate our paper lanterns as soon as we have moved. :)
2. This is a great idea, isn't it? This lovely fabric wrapping project makes coat hangers look prettier.
3. Although I have already found a way to store my jewelry, I like this idea for a jewelry organizer
a lot. Maybe I will make one like this, too, I have lots of jewelry to store. :)
4. When I created my account on Pinterest, I found this awesome idea for using crates as tiny shelf. Until yesterday I wasn't able to find crates in a good condition, but then I got the advice to go to a certain enoteca in Berlin where they sell these crates for 2.50€. I was so happy and I bought one, although I had to carry it home on the train all the way home. I'm currently painting it white and I intend to use it in my new room, either above my desk, or above my sewing table. :)
5. I'm in love with the colors, the light and the atmosphere in this bright and pretty bedroom. <3
6. Awwww, those paper garlands are too pretty to be true! Yesterday I bought a hole-puncher with a huuuuge hole so that I do not have to cut out every circle by myself. Can't wait to make tons of pretty paper garlands in all different colors to decorate the whole apartment. :)

Shop Update: Hot Water Bottle Cover.

2011-09-27T11:34:00.001+02:00

Hello! ;) This new hot water bottle cover can now be found on DaWanda. :)

Pretty fabric bunting for the bedroom.

2011-09-25T10:40:00.000+02:00

Happy Sunday!!! :) Here's one of my latest projects, a pretty bunting for our bedroom. :) Since we are going to move soon, I wanted to give the bedroom a fresh look and wanted to prepare some things which I can then use to decorate our new home. We have lots of bedclothes in all shades of blue and yellow, so I thought that the colors of the bunting would be pefect. How do you like it? :) I'm currently preparing things for the new apartment nearly every day, I'm painting furniture, ordering things, preparing home decor and I'm looking for home inspiration on Pinterest. Today we are going to get our new kitchen cabinet from the 50s which I bought from a furninute conservator a week ago. I will have to refresh the paint, but apart from this, it's in pretty good condition and I love the old look so much! :) Can't wait to share before / after photos after we have moved. :)
Do you have any special plans for today? Apart from collecting the kitchen cabinet from its seller, I will finish a birthday present for a friend of mine who is going to celebrate her birthday next weekend and I will paint a little shelf I bought a few days ago. <3
Love, Lu

Shop Update: New pouches.

2011-09-22T23:15:00.000+02:00

Hey! :) I added some new pouches to my German shop. :) What have you been doing? :)