Is it spring yet?

After what might be winter's final goodbye, and being in a mood which would be best described with "a little less *blah* than in the past weeks", I decided to get myself flowers. 
To be perfectly honest, I actually didn't decide it upfront, I just couldn't walk past them in the supermarket :) A bunch of orange-ish tulips and a bundle of yellow daffodils. 
Once I arranged them in my crystal vase, it looked like I'd have a proper Easter bouquet. I thought. Until I realized only the next day that the tulip blossoms were strangely inclined, while their leafs were ungracefully hanging from the stems. Oh well...

In an attempt to save the Easter decoration, I decided to cut the tulips and place them in a rather small jar that I foundat Rayher recently. And since the remaining daffodils seemed a little lost in the big vase, I cut them down as well, placing them in an empty compote glass. 

A contribution to the Friday Flowerday at Holunderbluetchen.

And since I won't have time to work on Easter eggs this year, this cute little wooden box will be filled with wooden balls instead :) I've done it using two shades of acrylic paint, cracking varnish and a motif of ivy on a napkin. In the end, it almost turns out to complete a set with my ivy tea box, which was never the plan :)

A little contribution to the March collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

challenges: 
- 4 crafty chicks: ATG
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- alphabet challengeblog: ATG but a card
- brown sugar: spring/Easter
- crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "old stash" (napkins)
- crafty gals corner: ATG
- creative inspirations: any occasion
- creative moments: ATG
- deep ocean: Easter/spring
- do-all kreatives: spring/Easter
- everybody art: spring
- fabnfunky: Easter
- fairytale challengeblog: Easter basket
- friendship challenge: Easter
- inspiration destination: ATG with optional twist "spring"
- love to craft: ATG 
- modsquad: spring
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrapping4fun: Easter
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG

Simple wristband

Has everyone done their Easter-related tasks already? 
Long story short told, as I don't really know where my time is disappearing, and I'm running behind on literally everything, I'll just dig into my stash for some of the things that are waiting to be shown. This time: a simple bracelet for mom. 
When I'm stuck with beads I can't use up no matter what, one thing is always going to work: memory wire. Whether it is threading a repeated pattern or a rather unorganized mix, memory wire seems to make everything wearable. Even those papillon beads (farfalle, or berry beads) that I once bought only to place them in the drawer for years.
Anyhow, I now decided to line them up in groups of three, each separated by a small white opaque rocaille, and just keep going until I run out of papillons. 

When all was done, the only thing I added was a small charm saying "hand work".

Matching the lace in our tablecloth - petrified lace detail from the Dragon Bridge. Just to make sure the post looks a little more "extensive" ;)

challenges: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "reuse/upcycle"
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty gals corner: ATG
- creative moments: ATG/feminine
- inspiration destination: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- pennys papertake: ATG
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- unicorn challengeblog: girly
- wortartwednesday: ATG

Little-things-storage

Another napkin decoupage project, this time one aiming to organize some of my "little things" - things I once decided to keep and still don't manage to throw away because they *might* be useful someday. And since these kind of acquirements will sooner or later cause chaos in one of your drawers, I decided to at least organize them in some small wooden boxes.  

When I ordered them online a while ages ago, I wasn't sure whether I'd like them or not, so I decided to order two and see whether they'd be useful to me. (Or maybe they didn't have more in stock and Icouldn't order more even if I wanted?) Anyway, since I've decorated them properly, I certainly wish I had more of them as they turned out to be perfect for my little things.

Upon painting, I decided to use sand paper to get rid of any uneven spots and splinters, which turned out to be quite a challenge around the numerous corners each box has. Once that was done, I searched through my stash for some fitting napkins: small motifs, preferably colourful but not too intense. In the end, I decided I'd take forget-me-nots for one box and lovely little birds for the other. Matching those two colour choices, the inside of one box would be light blue, while the other would be painted in a light peach shade.

What I especially liked about the boxes when I fisrst saw them was the sliding glass top, which closes well and allows me to see what I've put in each of the compartments. Too bad the boxes seem to have vanished from the online shop.

Box #2: same principle, other end of the colour scale.

All in all, the boxes measure about 17x13 cm - more than suitable for countless tiny things and leftovers that accumulate in your stash and need some kind of organizer. Also, they can  be piled up perfectly and stored together. The motifs are different on purpose, but I think this looks even better because it's not too much of the same thing. 
And since both are associated with spring, the storage even makes a nice Easter decoration on my shelf - no more hiding little things in the drawer!

Waiting to be used up... (Of course, sticking to the colour scheme of the boxes upon organizing the things from my stash was absolutely vital for my inner Monk.)

A little contribution to the March collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

challenges: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "reuse/upcycle"
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- gem of a challenge: Easter
- brown sugar: spring/Easter
- C.R.A.F.T.: animals
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty sentiments: Easter
- creative inspirations: any occasion
- creative moments: ATG
- do-all kreatives: spring/Easter
- bawion: Easter
- everybody art: ATG
- friendship challenge: Easter
- inspiration destination: ATG with optional twist "spring/pastel colour"
- kreativtanten: animals
- love to craft: ATG 
- moving along with the times: Easter
- my time to craft: Easter/spring
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrapping4fun: ATG with flowers (flower box)
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- ustvarjalni dotik: Easter (wooden boxes, matt decoupage varnish)
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG

And who knows, maybe we can even go from grey to colourful skies again sometime soon. 
Pretty, pretty please :)

A pot of summer

Better late than never, this is the last piece of my upcicled flower pots, which finally makes my pot collection - that I've already shown here and here - complete. As they're all same size and lined up on my drawer, I decided to go for the same style again. With the major colours already taken, the only logical thing was to go for a blue border this time. A blue flower pot? I decided to get inspired by the summer sea, combining the blue with shells that I've cut out from a napkin. 
After some layering and drying to make sure the simple clay pot was evenly covered in acrylic paint, it was time to apply the napkin decoupage. 
Probably not your typical association when thinking of a flower pot, but well...

A little contribution to the March collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

challenges: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "reuse/upcycle"
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- C.R.A.F.T.: animals (wasn't quite sure about that one, but Mr. Google says a shell is "part of the body of an animal" - guess it counts then?)
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- creative moments: ATG
- everybody art: ATG
- fabnfunky: ATG but square
- inspiration destination: ATG
- kreativtanten: animals
- love to craft: ATG 
- pennys papertake: ATG
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG

Give me a break

Needless to say I still had a couple of things to do for University once I returned from my not-Bielefeld trip. After a year of additional exams, lectures and practical sessions, my transition to the Bologna system was almost complete. The knowledge I gained? Aoutely zero. 
Except for the fact that I got to see the main difference to our "old system": of course the new average grades are high - it's almost a piece of cake to get exams done if the faculty provides you with answered exam questions that you only need to learn by heart.
In accordance to my new "care for myself" motto, however, I headed towards the sea as soon as my last task was done. I'm not sure where my sudden need for the endless blue came from, but the first real heatwave of the year seemed perfect for a pre-weekend time off in Piran.

Since I arrived by bus in the morning already, and my hostel room would only be availale after noon, I decided to just walk around in search of sunshine.

And there was plenty of it. Even though the conditions were not quite ideal, the views offered a sight of the Julian Alps...

... as well as Italian soil on the other side of the Adriatic sea.

And of course, the lovely sights of the city itself - whether from above, or inside its narrow streets.

With less luggage, exploring is even better...

... until one gets hungry and settles at the beach after a whole day of running around. The city itself might be small, but eventually, the exploring will take its toll.

Pure gold. 

New day, new plans: after a quick morning walk without my backpack, it was time to leave the hostel again, meaning I'd probably try to kill time somewhere in the old town until evening comes and it's time to head home. 
Lessons learned: of course, two days at the seaside are better than a one-day trip. And in the off-season, there might be no great difference in terms of price. However, I realized I'd need a little more that that to begin to relax.

Hi there!

Whether you're trying to cool off...

... or enjoying the heat - Piran has it all.

Since the sun soon became too hot to be anywhere near the beach, I decided to go as high up as possible and maybe get a breeze of fresh air on the belltower of the main church. 

And the more I wonder, the more it seems to me I don't feel quite comfortable on old tower stairs. Not in Piran particularly, rather in terms of a general finding. I'd climb them anyway though, for the sake of the views they offer. And the fresh breeze on a hot summer day.

What kind of strange bird are you anyway? I've proably never heard seagulls being as loud as when they're protecting their territory from an - artificial - intruder.

From too hot to bearable as the day goes towards evening.

Almost home. Until next time, lovely Piran. You turned out to be a lovely break again.