[OOTD]: Treasure Trove

I have been collecting material for quite some time now but somehow I never got around to posting any of it - so this particular post is a multipurpose one, updating my OOTDs, flower blog an craft project blog all at once!

OOTD

I made this skirt a few weeks ago, using my favourite, very simple pencil skirt pattern which I have adjusted to my size. The cloth is very stiff (needs no ironing, yay!) and almost like canvas. As I love to wear stripes at the moment I thought I'd combine it with horizontal stripes in the same colour range, just for fun.

top: H&M; skirt: selfmade; shoes: my garden clogs

Roadside Bouquet

A week ago I picked the flowers for this bouquet from the roadside: gorgeous lupins [insert Monty Python joke here ...] and daisies. It didn't really last long but was quite stunning.

one day later

Treasure Trove

Looking through some of my stuff I found my tablet weaving box, full of old samples I made back in the days when I was re-enacting Viking and medieval crafts. Although only one of those samples is actually made from linen and therefore more "authentically" Viking than the others [the blue one], I loved finding them all again and will definitely need to get to grips with this craft once more.

Love, Qaroline

Bad Wolf.

I have finally finished the embroidery for my pillow case - just in time to hide a little something for this particular date:

The next paisley pattern will be white on red. Let's see if this is in some way prophetic regarding the impending casting decisions!

Love, Qaroline

Empire Bouquet

My Mom shares a birthday with Queen Victoria - and this is the bouquet I made her for her today. All the plants and flowers are from her garden and the vase is a [not very precious] family heirloom. I used lilac [Flieder], bleeding heart [Tränendes Herz], lungwort [Lungenkraut], lily of the valley [Maiglöckchen], garland spiraea [Brautspiere], rhododendron and columbines [Akelei] and was especially enchanted with finding out the various English names for the bleeding heart: "Dutchman's trousers", "lady in a bath", "Venus's car" and "lyre flower" - love them!

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend, Qaroline

Garden party @ Fatty Fashion Fun Challenge

Hat: Oxfam; cardigan: Ulla Popken; dress: selfmade

I am a bit late for this month's Fatty Fashion Fun Challenge "Garden Party" but really wanted to participate [can't resist an invitation to any garden, really] - and what a brilliant opportunity to show off my latest sowing project!

I haven't found ANY beautiful cotton summer dresses for fat people in a long while and decided that it was definitely time to make my own. I found this inexpensive printed cotton in our local haberdashery and I love love love it! [Big ice-cream fan, too.]

And as you're already here, why don't you join me on a small tour through the garden?

pond with Japanese maple and floating apple blossoms.

mobile radish/strawberry/salad unit in a basket - on wheels!

lawn covered in lady's smock.

icelandic poppies, salads, baby aubergines, herbs and tomatoes.

love the smell of lilac.

any excuse to wear a hat.

Roadtrip: Gütersloh Botanical Gardens

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Gütersloh Botanical Gardens, just a half hour's drive away and stunningly beautiful. I wasn't aware of the fact that Olafur Eliasson designed a "scent tunnel" for this particular garden!

Olafur Eliasson's "scent tunnel"

I love that this quite small garden is so much more formal than the botanical gardens I have visited before, divided into lots of garden rooms with different themes - especially the lavender garden, although not yet in bloom, was amazing - I will definitely come back again! [There is also a very nice café in one of the greenhouses, well worth a visit!]

Lavender Garden

cherry tree avenue

Perfect Start Bouquet

I'm back from my short blog sabbatical - and now that so many beautiful blooms are out I can start again with my bouquet blog. These gorgeous yellow tulips are one of my favourite varieties; the blue vase is handmade [by my Mom] and I guess it is something about the colour combination that always makes me smile.

just a few days later

Thanks to the mild weather our camellia is covered in whitish-pink blossoms - in all the last years frosty nights destroyed almost all of the buds and this is the first year the camellia is able to fulfill her full potential - such a shame that the blossoms have no fragrance!

I have been working on a lot of new crafting projects recently - this is my current one: this freestyle embroidery is meant to be turned into a pillow case [some day soon, hopefully]. I am working with pure white cotton yarn on rough dark-blue linen and because I don't have to count threads or follow any kind of pattern it is actually quite relaxing.

freestyle paisley pattern - very individual shapes ;-)

Wishing you all a wonderful month of May -

Love, Qaroline

OOTD: Say hello to spring @ Fatty Fashion Fun Challenge

wooly cap/Wollmütze: selfmade/selbstgestrickt; cardigan: selfmade/selbstgestrickt; jumper/Pulli: H&M; top: H&M; skirt/Rock: H&M; leg warmers/Stulpen: selfmade/selbstgestrickt; boots/Stiefel: Bluntstones

Yeah, I know. I would have loved to take my pictures for this spring-related post in a sun-drenched garden full of crocus flowers and snow drops - but at the moment Spring 2013 looks like this, and at least the sun is shining! 

A few days ago I finished knitting this cardigan - one of my first posts on this blog was about me combing the dark brown wool for this particular crafting project in August [!]. Making all this wool has been a bit of a hassle and I lost heart throughout the project but now it is finally finished. The pattern for the cream coloured stripe is from a 1980's book and subtly retro and the whole thing is incredibly warm and comfy. 

I brought some snowdrops into the house to celebrate this rather weird kind of Spring - wish you all a fabulous week!

Love, Qaroline 

---

Ja, ich weiß. Ich hätte die Bilder für diesen so ausdrücklich frühlingshaften Post ja auch gern in einem sonnendurchfluteten Garten gemacht, der vor Krokussen und Schneeglöckchen nur so platzt, aber im Augenblick sieht Frühling 2013 noch so aus - aber wenigstens scheint die Sonne!

Vor ein paar Tagen habe ich endlich, endlich, endlich diese Strickjacke fertiggestrickt - einer der ersten Posts [im August!] auf diesem Blog handelte vom Wollekämmen für dieses Projekt. Die Massen an Wolle herzustellen war ziemlich anstrengend und mitten drin hatte ich dann auch überhaupt keine Lust mehr, aber jetzt ist es geschafft! Das Muster für den hellen Streifen stammt aus einem Strickbuch aus den 1980n und ist dementsprechend ein klitzekleines Bisschen retro ...

Und ich habe dann doch einfach ein paar Schneeglöckchen in die Vase gestellt, um den Frühling bei mir zu haben - ich wünsche Euch allen eine wundervolle Woche -

Love, Qaroline

Fat Bitch Assignments #3 & #4

I have been really negligent of the fat bitch assignments in the past few weeks - maybe because I tried to finish/start so many crafting projects! I have had a few ideas for the assignments but didn't really find the energy to create something blog-worthy - nevertheless I want to at least share some thoughts about the Ecourse challenges.

Assignment #3: Challenge yourself to wear something that you might have felt weary about in the past. Break up your routine with something different and you might open yourself up to some radical new styles!

Over the last two years I have tried to challenge myself a lot. In the past I would never have worn short(ish) dresses, bare the wobbly part of my arms or anything that would have shown the outline of my big big belly. A lot of the clothes I have worn in my recent outfit posts have put me out of my comfort zone but it has been a very worthwhile experience. With every new style I feel like becoming a bit freer, less inhibited in my choice of clothes.

double chin,  big belly: yeah!

Discussion #3: Do you have some fatshion tips to share? Please do!

Go to thrift stores, start making your own clothes (even if it is just a knitted hat or scarf or a brooch you made yourself), don't just focus on clothes in your "actual" size,  interfere with the clothes you buy to fit your body (taking them in, letting them out, add applications etc.), be bold and unapologetic.

Assignment #4: Create a tribute to a fat body. Your fat body or somebody else's. Make a papier mache figure, draw a silhouette photograph your rolls, curate a collection of images of bodies similar to yours, etc. 

This is just an idea: I would love to collect historic pictures of fat women wearing historical fashions, especially fabulous Edwardian and 1920s flapper styles.

Discussion #4: How has seeing fat bodies in the media affected you? Like Adele, Gabourey Sidibe, Aidy Bryant from SNL, Beth Ditto, Melissa McCarthy, etc. Do you gravitate towards fat positive music, TV and movies?

I have certainly noticed that fat bodies have become more visible during the last years. German popular culture is immensely fat-phobic and almost all fat-positive things like movies or music tend to originate in the USA or Great Britain. Some music and some movies I love are definitely fat positive but I can't say that I go out of my way to find them - and I would really like to read more fat positive novels or children's books! Still, looking at the growing number of fat positive German blogs and link ups like the Fatty Fashion Fun Challenge the fat acceptance movement has definitely arrived here even though most newspapers, (online) magazines and TV programmes still don't have a clue.