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 

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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.

OOTD: Thrifty Monday

coat/Jacke: thrifted/secondhand; cardigan: thrifted/secondhand; dress/Kleid: Gudrun Sjöden [gift/geschenkt]; leggings: Ulla Popken; long warmers/lange Stulpen: selfmade/selbstgestrickt; shoes/Schuhe: Clarks

I haven't been posting much outfits lately as I am (almost) getting bored with winter now and am out of winter outfit ideas - but then I remembered that my new coat hasn't featured in any of the recent posts yet! It's from my local charity shop and is a perfect fit for 20 Euros - looking at the pictures I took just now in the garden I noticed that, apart from leggings and shoes, everything I wear is either thrifted, a gift or selfmade!

The blue dress from Gudrun Sjöden, a label I adore but can't usually afford (and the clothes officially don't come in my size) is a gift from my bestie who cleared out her clothes cupboard a while back - it's really stretchy and comfortable to wear even if it's a size 20. This reinforces my newfound believe in experimenting with different sizes in the best possible way.


Love, Qaroline

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In der letzten Zeit habe ich kaum Outfits gepostet, wahrscheinlich weil ich jetzt langsam echt mal auf den Schnee verzichten könnte und mir kaum noch neue Winterkombis einfallen - aber dann merkte ich, dass meine neue Jacke noch in gar keinem der letzten Posts vertreten war! Es ist aus meinem örtlichen Secondhandladen und für 20 Euro ein echter Glücksfund - als ich die Fotos ansah, die ich vorhin im Garten aufgenommen habe, fiel mir auf, dass, abgesehen von Leggings und Schuhen, alles was ich heute trage entweder secondhand, geschenkt oder selbstgemacht ist - ein total sparsames Outfit!

Das blaue Kleid von Gudrun Sjöden (ein Label das mir unglaublich gut gefällt, das ich mir grundsätzlich aber nicht leisten kann und die Kleider gibt es auch nicht in meiner offiziellen Größe) ist ein Geschenk von meiner besten Freundin, die vor ein paar Wochen ihren Kleiderschrank ausgemistet hat - es ist von einer wundervollen Qualität und sehr bequem zu tragen, auch in Größe 46. Für mich verstärkt das den Glauben an meine neugefundene Experimentierfreude mit Größen auf die allerschönste Weise.

Love, Qaroline

glasses/Brille: eyes+more

The Book That Turned Me Into a Reader

What a great idea to create a link up book club! As soon as I saw this on Stephanie's blog Bassability I knew I had to link up - I have wanted to blog more about books in the last few weeks and I knew I had to join in!

The question for this week's No Stress Book Club post is: 

What book turned you into a reader?

I grew up with next to no television (ours had three channels and we were only allowed to watch about an hour of children's programmes a day) and reading took its place. My parents read aloud to my brother and myself and one of the books I loved so much that I couldn't stop looking at them and that really made me want to read was "Malwine in der Badewanne" ("The Mysterious Tadpole") by Steven Kellogg. This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of a boy who gets a special birthday present from an uncle who visited Scotland: a tadpole that keeps on growing until it gets even bigger than the bathtub. The German title "Malwine in der Badewanne" means "Malwine [the name of the tadpole] in the Bathtub" and I remember that even the title sounded weird and magical to me.

I am sure that I owe some of my passionate interest in books to this early reading experience and maybe my later fascination with the more unusual kind of fantasy literature has to do with the fact that Malwine is a very sweet kind of monster ...