Boats and lights and biscuits

I finished off my set of boat coasters!

Really happy with how they turned out, although the thread wasn't finished off as well as I would have liked. It is dark brown on dark brown, so at least it's not too obvious.

I headed into town yesterday evening to pick up some mirin and have a look in the hobby section of the large Migros in Brunau. I noticed on my way to the station that there were signs up for a Christmas market on the weekend of 1-2 December (coincidentally when our guests are here), and that the local Civil Defense had put up the municipal Christmas tree.

I headed into the main station (there's a small Korean restaurant and food shop nearby that sells Japanese ingredients as well) and found that the city Christmas lights were up on Bahnhofstrasse. I do like them.

The lights at the large Sihlcity shopping centre were slightly less subtle.

After checking out the crafting supplies - and other things that I could repurpose - I headed towards David's office for a coffee, passing the rather odd castle near the business park that was festively floodlit.

We did some paperwork and tidying up on Saturday, and had a friend around to watch Iron Sky. I tried making the soft pumpkin cookie recipe that Austa sent me, using a freshly baked pumpkin with lebkuchen spice mix and some chopped dried apple instead of nuts. They needed a little more than 15 minutes to cook, but they were amazing! Nearly all gone already, and I think I know what I'll be doing with the other pumpkin too. ^_^

For the person who has everything...

... I bet they don't have a fluffy cockroach.

Make and do

I didn't just do things over the weekend - I made things! Well, almost. I had some finishing off to do tonight, but I've done the washbag kit I bought in John Lewis in London oh so long ago, and have finished off two of the six coasters from the kit I bought in Japan even longer ago.

The finished washbag, with a ribbon and button closure.

 It's even lined - something I was always convinced would be far more difficult than it actually was (and yes, the lining coming up over the top is a design feature, not just me).

One of the boat coasters, ingeniously made from two square pieces of fabric. So ingenious I've been afraid of the instructions for about two years. 

The pattern calls for beads hung off the ends, but I liked the idea of buttoning up the sides instead. And I just bought loads of buttons the last time I was in Dublin. 

The finishing touches waiting to go on the remaining four boats, some other evening.

So, overall very happy with myself. I'm learning what the sewing machine can and can't do, and getting used to guiding the fabric. I have a few other things I'm looking forward to trying out, including interfacing. It's a brave new world.

Sushi and cake

I finally managed to catch up with Mr Yamaguchi last week - we met up at the Japanese bakery in Sood-Oberleimbach, Hiro Takahashi. Where we had - sushi! It was absolutely delicious, hand made by the chef himself.

I gave Mr Yamaguchi my origami paper. I have too much craft stuff. I decided to concentrate on the other stuff - jewellery and fabric - and leave the paper to the expert. We had a great chat and found out what the other was doing, and we got an invite to their new place outside Bern.

I also mentioned that it was David's birthday the next day, and before I knew what was going on, Mr Yamaguchi had arranged for Hiro Takahashi to put together an amazing strawberry mousse cake! I failed to pay for it. I will get my revenge somehow!

David bought the cake into work and people loved it, so I hope it brings more business to the bakery!

Bear

A warm welcome to the newest inhabitant of my desk - a spirit bear from the Grand Canyon.

He's officially a fetish bear, but I learned the other definition of that word first, so I'll stick with spirit bear.

That makes three bears, a frog, a sea slug and a nautilus. The joys of having a large desk.