Thursday 27 December 2012

Christmas packages

... arrived early this year. (That's what you get when you have Austrian friends!)
Just when I came back from Italy I discovered some packages on my desk, one of them filled with delicious presents!


Very nice surprise, but also a reminder that until then I had prepared nothing in return!

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 Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, 
yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns.
 
Tara Brach


Tuesday 25 December 2012

Finnish socks

Just a few days before I departed for Italy 3 weeks ago, I managed to finish my second pair of socks. And I was also clever enough to take them with me! Wisest decision ever!


Because you see, in north Italy it's very cold, and warm wool socks are exactly the thing you should have on your feet.

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 Things start out as hopes and end up as habits.
 
Lillian Hellman 
 
 
 

Sunday 9 December 2012

DSLR

Last August, after having a serious knee injury that had me constrained on a bed, semester exams coming up with 3 group projects to finish by myself and a lot of subjects to study and pass, I decided to buy myself an expensive birthday gift. One I had been longing for long.


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Everything that irritates us about others 
can lead us to an understanding about ourselves.

Carl Jung

 

Thursday 6 December 2012

How do you relax?

After a busy day (or just a very busy mind day) one of the ways I have to relax my mind and forget about almost everything is to lie in bed watch a movie and knit something interesting.



Doesn't always work, but most times. :)





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 Die Kunst ist eine Vermittlerin des Unaussprechlichen.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Tuesday 4 December 2012

A vest

Recently, while browsing at Ravelry, I stumbled upon a design called Americano. I really wanted to make one, but although I searched for the pattern, I couldn't get a copy since it is not distributed digitally.

So I did what I always do - make my own version.


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 When you meet someone better than yourself, 
turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. 
When you meet someone not as good as you are, 
look within and examine your own self.


Confucius


Friday 30 November 2012

Winning a Photo Contest and a new design

So this week has been eventful enough, I totally forgot to write about two very delightful news!


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Es ist nicht genug zu wissen - man muss auch anwenden. 
Es ist nicht genug zu wollen - man muss auch tun.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



The film version of the Road trip

For the road trip I had taken with me also one of my film cameras, the Asahi Pentax. I was also equipped with 3 films, 1 a friend lend me few months before (expired) and 2 new ones.

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 People often remark that I'm pretty lucky. 
Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance 
to sell yourself at the right moment. 
After that, you've got to have talent and know how to use it.
 
Frank Sinatra



Thursday 29 November 2012

Tuesday 27 November 2012

A weekend full of dancing

There is something that I haven't shared yet in this blog. Ever since I started working as a waitress at a local Latin bar, I became involved in the local latin community, and of course started dancing!

I won't bother you with stuff like how awesome dancing is. No. Instead I will be talking about the
2nd Patras Salsa Meeting that took place this weekend and how awesome that was.

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Great talent finds happiness in execution.
 
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Monday 26 November 2012

Repairing my Magsafe T connector

As I already have mentioned, the power cord of my laptop was cut because of too much use and twisting. I needed to fix it, because I need my laptop to work. (And have access to my previous work too)

So I searched for options:
a) buy a new adaptor
b) give it for repair
c) repair it myself

Guess what I chose.^^

Zitat des Tages

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The most exciting phrase to hear in science, 
the one that heralds new discoveries, 
is not Eureka! (I found it!) but rather,
 'hmm.... that's funny....'
 
Isaac Asimov 
 
 

351/365 - 355/365


Thursday 22 November 2012

The unexpected package

It's Monday morning and I wake up in a bad mood. You see, the previous night, while working on my laptop, the power cord that charges my computer got completely cut. Which meant an empty battery and no access to my work whatsoever. I was dreading the fact that now I had to spend time fixing it, instead of working on my projects.

But when I came down the stairs to have breakfast I encountered an envelope and a big red box on my dining seat. There was a big surprise that totally changed my mood for the rest of the day.


346/365 - 350/365

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 Ability is a poor man's wealth.
 
John Wooden


Saturday 10 November 2012

Der Shetlandpullover

How annoying is that you get to finish a pullover in time for chilly Autumn, but the weather decides to prolong summer for two more months?

This is the story of my first winter pullover.


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Being deeply learned and skilled, 
being well trained and using well spoken words: 
this is good luck.

Buddha



336/365 - 340/365

Sunday 4 November 2012

Two cool stories

Have you ever wondered how vegetables would look inside an MRI? Well, apparently someone did, and has set up a blog about it!


How would you react if you encountered this mysterious circle in the bottom of the ocean? 



Curiosity killed the cat, they say, but do you agree after seeing this?! 

Yoga socks

My favorite pair so far! The yoga socks I started almost a year ago and finished just last month.


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Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. 
These are the secrets of happiness and good health.
 
Julia Child



331/365 - 335/365



Monday 29 October 2012

Inspiration, ideas, tutorials

I haven't posted in some time inspirational pages I have found in the internet and I intend to do so now, even in bulk. :P

First some random stuff, like How to make a Celtic heart knot still have to learn this!, How to make Henna tattoos at home, Making Pom Poms in bulk, a Pixie tutu, Indian Shisha embroidery, and a free pattern for French cuisine embroidery.

I was mesmerised when I found out about arm knitting, which definitely must require strength. But it's totally awesome, yes?



Lingua Franca

Random fact finding of the day:
The original Lingua Franca was a mixed language composed mostly (80%) of Italian with a broad vocabulary drawn from Turkish, French, Greek, Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish. It was in use throughout the eastern Mediterranean as the language of commerce and diplomacy in and around the Renaissance era. At that time, Italian speakers dominated seaborne commerce in the port cities of the Ottoman empire. Franca was the Italian word for Frankish. Its usage in the term lingua franca originated from its meaning in Arabic and Greek, dating from before the Crusades and during the Middle Ages, whereby all Western Europeans were called "Franks" or Faranji in Arabic and Phrankoi in Greek during the times of the late Eastern Roman Empire.[3] The term lingua franca is first recorded in English in 1678.[4]

Wikipedia

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 The secret of health for both mind and body 
is not to mourn for the past, 
not to worry about the future, 
not to anticipate the future, 
but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.
 
Buddha



326/365 - 330/365

Saturday 27 October 2012

Bandana Cowl

Well here is a disappointment I haven't seen in a while.

I did this cowl 3 times, but still managed to make a mistake. Of course by the third time I had no will to try and fix the problem. So I just left it like that. And hope that someday I will finally make it again.


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The most basic and powerful way to connect 
to another person is to listen. Just listen. 
Perhaps the most important thing 
we ever give each other is our attention.... 
A loving silence often has far more power 
to heal and to connect 
than the most well-intentioned words.
 
Rachel Naomi Remen



321/365 - 325/365

Tuesday 23 October 2012

The Road Trip - Norway pt. 2

Day 8 and we started with a van in a ditch. Unfortunately while trying to get the cars closer to the road, our 9-seat van fell into a ditch. After 2 or 3 hours of trying almost everything to get the car out, we managed to get a fellow Norwegian farmer to pull the van out with his traktor. This small misfortune made us fall behind on schedule, so we concluded that we should drive the rest of the day without stops, so that we would reach Trondheim in time.

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They say that time changes things, 
but you actually have to change them yourself.
 
Andy Warhol



316/365 - 320/365


Tuesday 16 October 2012

Two more free patterns!

Autumn is here, the time for hats!
I revisited older designs I had made in previous years and the result, two easy and quick patterns!

The first one is Rose, a crochet slouchy hat (one of my personal favorites)


and the second one, Die Ohren der Katze, a simple and quirky hat for everyday.


You can find both on Raverly or in this page: http://uberdentraum.blogspot.gr/p/free-patterns.html

Also, I recently got positive feedback on my very first design, Water Drops. I was very happy to know that people enjoyed making those earrings. ^^  And even took the initiative to use the motif to use something more! Cool!

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 Time and tide wait for no man. 
A pompous and self-satisfied proverb, and was true for a billion years; 
but in our day of electric wires and water-ballast we turn it around: 
Man waits not for time nor tide.
 
Mark Twain



311/365 - 315/365

Reading In a Digital Age

SUDDENLY IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO IMAGINE a world in which many interactions formerly dependent on print on paper happen screen to screen. It’s no stretch, no exercise in futurism. You can pretty much extrapolate from the habits and behaviors of kids in their teens and 20s, who navigate their lives with little or no recourse to paper. In class they sit with their laptops open on the table in front of them. I pretend they are taking course-related notes, but would not be surprised to find out they are writing to friends, working on papers for other courses, or just trolling their favorite sites while they listen. Whenever there is a question about anything—a date, a publication, the meaning of a word—they give me the answer before I’ve finished my sentence. From where they stand, Wenders’s library users already have a sepia coloration. I know that I present book information to them with a slight defensiveness; I wrap my pronouncements in a preemptive irony. I could not bear to be earnest about the things that matter to me and find them received with that tolerant bemusement I spoke of, that leeway we extend to the beliefs and passions of our elders.

By Sven Birkerts

Saturday 29 September 2012

The Wings Shawlette

Ever since I joined Ravelry there is one that constantly catches my eye: shawls. And I don't know if that is because I haven't made one yet or because everybody is making shawls, many of them!

So I decided to give it a try. I had a skein of yarn that I didn't know where/how to use, and wanted to improvise (again). So the wings shawlette was born.


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Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
 
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