Frogged Designs

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The new address is:

http://frogged-designs.blogspot.com/

 

 

Come on over to my new corner of the world wide web! 

Hand Stitching: Card

LA just posted a cute hand stitching tutorial and I decided to make a quick card using my own handwriting :)

I have to admit that this was pretty much the first hand stitching project I did in... years? I can't remember the last time I hand stitched but it's so much fun and truly addictive ;)

I'm really glad I stole some of my mom's embroidery floss and took it here - a major advantage of stitching is that you don't need many supplies!

Anyways, some quick tips when hand stitching on paper:

- get a cup of hot tea/coffee and listen to music while embroidering

- don't pierce the wholes too close to each other, otherwise the paper will tear and you'll have gaps in your motif

- follow this tutorial for the start & ending. It really helps and you won't end up with big bulks of knots on the back!

- straight lines are generally easier than curves and loops ;)

Residence

The residence I live in is mainly for first year students and exchange students. A major disadvantage is that there aren't kitchens, so there's a mandatory meal plan. And dining hall food is nothing you wanna eat for eight months in a row. Also, many students in my res are only 18 and 19 is the legal drinking age in Canada. As a result, most of the students hang around on the floor drinking instead of going out. Having to deal with noise, drunk people and dirty washrooms isn't much fun.

On the positive side, our dorms are generally spacious with big windows and the surroundings are nice.

In the residence I live in, all houses are named after indigenous people in Canada. The house I live in is called Shu :)

If you take a close look, you'll find some nature around the residences. I love walking by the same tree every day and noticing how fast the leaves' color changes :)

There are thousands of super cute squirrels on campus but they seem to be really shy - hopefully I'll get a good shot of one of them this fall :)

Although our Residential Advisor is super nice and puts up artsy signs all over our floor, I can't help but notice the cold light in our hallway whenever I step out of my bright and colorful room.

autumn minibook: first pages

After the 30 Days of Lists project I really missed journaling regularly. I was really happy when my autumn 2011 minibook arrived so I had an excuse to have a messy desk and lots of papers, washi tape rolls and glitter spread all over my room :)

Here are all the pages I made so far:

Apple Festival

Today I went to the annual Apple Festival at the UBC Botanical Gardens. We had so much fun seeing all the different variations of apples grown in BC, taking pictures at the 'pumpkin patch', eating delicious apple pie, drinking apple cider and wandering around, looking at stalls.

I found this beautiful and soft hand spun and dyed yarn and couldn't resist - it's 100% Alpaca and it's soooo gorgeous! The lady who sold the yarn also sold the cutest hand knitted muffin hats I've ever seen <3

I'm thinking about using the yarn to either knit a hat or a cowl or fingerless mittens? Decisions, decisions... for now it's sitting on my desk and I feel the urge to pick it up and cuddle it every five minutes. Alpaca yarn is addictive...

It's a good day

Today was a good day. It started very early with an early morning yoga class and afterwards a delicious (and rather healthy) breakfast at my favorite Starbucks store. It's been bright and sunny all day so I took a walk, collected leaves to dry and snapped some dreamy fall photos. I skyped with my mom and realized how great my life here in Canada is and that it feels like home already. I checked my mailbox and found this:

The autumn minibook I ordered from Elise arrived - I didn't expect it to arrive until next week! Also, I got the grade for my economics midterm and it's much better than expected. My friend Katja got a package from Germany that contained lots of tea, gingerbread, bread, etc. and she's willing to share it with me <3

And I ate lots of fruits today - I miss fresh food so so much! Is there anything more delicious than a fresh, ripe pomegranate? I started watching a new tv series today - 'New Girl' and it's hilarious. You should give it a try :) I'm gonna watch another episode now and make a couple of pages for my autumn minibook <3 Oh and I started a new shawl yesterday - I love working with soft yarns!

Hope you had a great day, too!

It's A Cowl!

pattern: Burberry Inspired Cowl by Julianne Smith

yarn used: Garnstudio Drops Andes color 519, almost two skeins

Needles: 7mm

my ravelry project page

When I was in Victoria last weekend I went to the Beehive Wool Shop and couldn't resist buying the drops Andes yarn. It is bulky and soft so I figured I could whip up a quick poject with it. When I bought it I didn't have a specific project in mind but I had to buy it anyway.

The same evening I browsed through my favorite projects on ravelry and came across a pattern for a cowl. As it's getting colder here and I couldn't bring many clothes and accessories from Germany I had a good excuse to make one :)

The cowl turned out to be pretty big and warm. I love it! It took me two evenings to knit it; the cowl itself was a quick knit but stitching it together took hours (at least it felt like hours); I used the kitchener stitch as suggested in the pattern. It was my first time using it  and I used an instructoral video (thank you for being patient and re-playing the video 20x for me, youtube!). It didn't turn out to be perfect but I probably just need a little more practice. This cowl would also make a perfect christmas gift! As soon as I buy some more wool I'll knit another one for a friend :)

I have one skein left so I'm thinking about making a matching hat or fingerless gloves? Have you finished any knitting projects lately?

Christmas Gift Inspiration

One of the many reasons why I love fall is that I love looking for cute Christmas gift ideas and when is a better time to start planning christmas gifts than in fall, when the days get shorter and you spend more evenings with a cup of hot tea on your couch chair?

One of my favorite resources for finding Christmas gift ideas is ravelry. There are thousands of projects you can browse through and print out the pattern right away and get started! I've decided to share some projects that would make great chirtsmas gifts on here :)

I've been in love with the Stockholm Scarf by KnittedBliss for a looong time. As soon as I find the perfect yarn for it I'll knit one (or maybe a couple more and give them away for christmas.)

The Quick Cable Slouch hat by Azure seems like a cute christmas gift for friends; one can never have enough hats and this one looks so cute!

The Fresco Basket Whip Cowl by Laura Patterson is adorable and I'm sure most of my friends would love to get one :)

Bella's Mittens by Marielle Henault are probably the fastest mittens I've ever knitted. You can easily finish one mitten in one evening. Also, they are super warm and the cables make them unique yet versatile enough to wear them every day :D You can get the pattern on Marielle's blog.

I also love the Milanese Lace Topper by Tante Ehm and think it would make a great present :)

Did you start your christmas gift production yet? Am I the only one who gets excited about Christmas already?

Victoria!

On Saturday I went to BC's capital with my friends Angela and Katja.

We had to leave our residence ar 5:30 to catch an early bus to the ferry. The ferry ride was nice and clam though there were many people considering that it left at 8am. Watching the sunrise from the ferry was pretty sweet though and totally worth getting up early.

There were a couple of touristy photos taken (come on, who can resist a big, fluffy moose?!). We basically just walked around and explored the hundreds of cute little boutiques, restaurants and cafés. We had lunch at a really cute café and bakery called Willie's. It's the oldest bakery in BC(according to their homepage) and it's sooo lovely!

They mainly use local and organic ingredients, serve the best hot chocolate I've had for a looong time and the staff is super friendly. Not to mention the cute blackboards, the fireplace on the patio and the all the cute details. 

The cakes and tartes they serve are delicious. They taste lke homemade :D

Victoria in general looks very European with lots of old buldings and cute signs everywhere.

We also walked through chinatown which was pretty big compared to the one in Vancouver!

Of course we also did some shopping. Did I mention that the Canadians interpret dollar stores quite differently? This sign pretty much sums everything up you need to know about Canadian prices. Everything in BC is ridiciously overpriced. We went to two thrift stores - a huuuge value village and a Salvation Army store. I got some cute old sewing patterns, craft supplies and a banana hanger :)

On the bus ride back to the ferry we saw a pumpkin patch! I'd love to go to one, but unfortunately I seem to be the only one who gets excited about hayrides, corn mazes and pumpkin picking. Okay, I admit that pumpkin + dorm = :( because you can't cook, carve, decorate here but I still imagine having fun at a pumpkin patch :)

Wreck Beach

My friend Katja and I went to Wreck Beach to capture the sunset. We've been planning to go there for quite a while but today was the first day that wasn't cloudy. We grabbed our cameras and headed down there. It's really nice to have a beach on campus that's only a ten minute walk away.

Unfortunately, there are 374 stairs between the lovely beach and the street. The stairs really wear me down everytime I go there. But I guess it's a good exercise.

We weren't the only ones who came to watch the sunset. This cute sea gull stayed there for about 5 minutes and enjoyed the view. Adorable!

There are always people at Wrack Beach so it's really hard to get a shot without people in it. But I really liked the texture of the drift wood!

Also, the drift wood is perfect for taking interesting shoe pictures.

And a silly portrait I took of Katja :)

And I started to teach her how my camera works so she can take pictures of me from time to time. Hopefully there won't be many awkward self-portraits in the future anymore.

I hope you had a great weekend and happy thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers! I'll edit some photos I took in Victoria and blog about our adventures in BC's capital tomorrow :)