14 Highlights of 2014

Yes, it's that time again! Time to look back at the year that ended and look forward to the year that's ahead. This year was the craziest year of my life to date. I can't even imagine what the next year will hold for us, but by now I'm ready for any twists and turns it may bring.

Today I wanted to take a step back and highlight 14 things/posts/memories from the year 2014. It's really difficult to choose because this year was very eventful, but then again, this makes the really golden moments stand out even more.

1. Our first trip to Cologne. I remember the excitement and the hope that I felt on that trip. I also remember how I finally felt that I was moving towards my goals and dreams. Little did I know what was waiting for me in the future. I didn't even blog about it, because I hadn't introduced you to Rein yet. Then, I finally did.

2. This was the year, when I was featured in Reloved magazine, and got a regular monthly feature in the Estonian fashion magazine Mood. Those were great milestones in my blogging, and I'm so proud of each and every feature I've had.

3. I started to sew more from scratch again, and I've been loving it. I just discovered Alexia on IG (just take a look), and after an hour (or more than I care to admit) of stalking I'm more motivated than ever to amp up my sewing next year. My favorite sewing projects include the coral pullover, my after midnight dress, and this pullover for Rein.

4. Amidst all the sewing I've done in the past few months, I've been missing refashioning. I'm sure I'll get back on that horse real soon. It's still one of my very favorite type of sewing. I loved this skirt into dress refashion, the zippered jacket for Mari Krõõt, and my very first men's refashion.

5. I started a new weekly feature called Words for the Week, and it stuck, which is not often the case with me. I love finding quotes that touch me somehow and share them with you so we can share that inspiration, motivation, or just that sense of having similar struggles. I've said this before, but blogging really is all about connection for me, so a weekly post where I can share what I'm feeling at the moment has been such a pleasure to write. I hope you've loved it, too.

6. I did quite a few style posts this year, but the highlight for me was to have Rein join me for some of them, I especially loved the one in Kadriorg. He's been so supportive of my blog (and every other idea or dream I have), and it's given me so much energy and inspiration.

7. Our second trip to Cologne for the entrance exams was definitely a whirlwind of emotions for me. Sadness because of my own fate, yet joy for Rein's success.

8. We graduated! I can now say without a doubt that going to that school was a journey that changed my life completely. It's where I really started to believe I could be a singer. It's where I met Rein. It's where my life got a restart. It was a hell of a ride, but one I'm glad I took.

9. Laulupidu aka the Song Celebration was certainly the biggest cultural highlight of my year. It was my first time in the audience instead of the stage, so a completely new, yet still elevating experience.

10. We got married! It's a wonderful feeling to be a family. Getting married and starting a family has always been a big dream of mine, and it was amazing to take the first steps toward that dream. The wedding was absolutely perfect - just what we had envisioned. You can find our engagement photos here, and all our wedding posts here.

11. And, of course, I can't leave out our little honeymoon in Pärnu. We're hoping to make a bigger trip this year, but this was more than enough for us after the wedding madness. And honestly, does it really matter where you are, as long as you can spend quality time together after becoming husband and wife? I think not.

12. I would say that moving to Germany was the biggest change this year, but that would be a little odd to say since we did get married as well. Although, truth be told, it was more of a challenge for sure. It's all still very fresh, and I'm trying to settle into the new surroundings. I have high hopes for me and Germany bonding in the new year though.

13. I made a lot of stuff and released a brand spanking new collection of accessories. It was something I'd thought about for a long time, and now I finally made it happen. I wouldn't call it a huge success, but I feeling rather positive about it. As a matter of fact, I already have a couple new clutch design swimming in my mind.

14. I wrote 158 blog posts this year (including this one), and one of my goals for the new year is to beat that. That's a lot of photos and words, and I'me really proud of myself that I continued even when things were crazy. I always come back to blogging, however hectic life gets. Because I love it. My favorite personal posts were this one, and this, and this of course.

What were some of your personal highlights of 2014?

Happy New Year's Eve! And I'll see you next year :)

xo. Hanna

Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas, friends! I hope you're having a wonderful holiday with all your loved ones by your side. We've had 2 Christmases already, and still 2 ahead, so we are really surrounded by love this year. We wish you and yours much love and joy!

Love,
Hanna & Rein

Words for the Week // No.21

Life is made of little things, isn't it? Like the warmth of the fire, baking gingerbread, white Christmas (it's snowing like crazy as I type this), and meals with family. That's what it's all about. We can talk about all the big goals we want to accomplish, and those are really important as well, but when it comes to living a fulfilling life, the little things matter just as much as the big ones.

This is shaping up to be a perfect Christmas, and although it's been a rough couple of weeks, I'm feeling happy and content.

What are the little things that matter to you most?

xo. Hanna

Knitted striped scrap yarn blanket (with instructions and tips)

The moment I saw Elise's beautiful knitted blankets I knew I wanted to make something similar. Then, going through my yarn stash before the big move, I knew I had to downsize. As I was sorting, I noticed I had a lot of neutral-colored half-finished skeins left over form other projects. A lot of black, white, tan, brown, and some grey. And then it hit me - why not use up those left-overs to knit a blanket? I loved the idea! It had all the elements I love most - a simple pattern, because knitting for me is more of a meditative craft, it uses up left-overs, which is always a huge plus in my book, and it goes perfectly with the design I had envisioned for our future living room in Leverkusen.

I actually started knitting this at 1 a.m. in the morning one night I couldn't fall asleep. I was tossing and turning, and then decided to just start with the pile of yarn on my floor. I knitted until about 3 in the morning. I continued to knit throughout my last 2 weeks in Estonia and I finished on the car ride to Leverkusen. It's the first thing I made for our new home.

It's been almost a month now and we're both in love with the blanket. It's just the right size, super cozy and warm (I had a lot of wool fibers in that stash). It's the perfect stash-buster project.

 Here are the instructions in case you got an itch to try it yourself:

Supplies:

• A lot of yarn - I used the ones left-over from different projects so they varied in size, gauge and fiber content. I have no idea about how much yarn I used up, but I would guess you need at least 15-20 skeins (50g each). The finished thing weighs about 1kg.
• 7mm circle needles (that would be a size 11 in the US system)
• a crochet hook to hide the ends when you're done
• scissors

To make the yarn an even gauge all the way through, I almost always knitted with multiple strands of yarn at the same time. So I would simply gather as many ends of the same color as was needed to get the equivalent of a yarn that was meant to be knit with 7mm needles. Oftentimes it was 2 or 3 strands, but there were a couple of really thin yarns, and then I went with 4 strands. If you have one yarn as an example, you can easily feel the correct thickness in your hands. By the 3rd stripe you won't even think about it anymore.

First, I took my first color and cast on 120 stitches. Then I knit back and forth in knit stitch until I finished one of the skeins I was knitting with. This was my plan all the way through. Each stripe was as long as it's smallest skein, but not more than 10 rows. I used circular needles because straight ones would never fit this amount of stitches, and I actually love using circular needles more than straight ones. You just have to turn the piece after each row, just like with straight needles.

I knit the whole thing simply in knit stitch, and alternated between the colors pretty randomly. I took the color I fancied next. I did however take into account how much of each color I had. I had the most black, so I made more black stripes than the other colors, meaning they were also closer together to each other than some of the other colors. Similarly, I had only a little of grey, so I had to knit a lot between grey stripes.

Since I didn't know how big of a blanket I would get with the yarn I had, I simply kept on knitting until I had only black and brown color, which meant I couldn't alternate the color anymore, so I finished the blanket.

The finished measurements are about 130x130cm, but it stretches to a little bit more.

Once it was done, I hid the yarn ends with a crochet hook, and made 4 tassels from the yarn ends to embellish the corners. My knit tip here: hold on to all the small bits of yarn that might be left over while knitting. You might need them later. I think the tassels are a nice touch to add to the blanket.

This just might be my favorite knitting project ever made. Right after the cardigan I knitted for my Mom many years back. Plus, it was so therapeutic. This is just the type of project to make when you want to knit something, but don't want to worry about following the pattern sheet all the time. It got me in the mood to knit something else. I might go for a sweater next just because I lack them. Funny thing is, I have all my needles in Leverkusen, and all my yarn in Estonia.

If you have any questions about this project, let me know in the comments.

xo. Hanna

Last-minute handmade Christmas cards

I'm so late with all my Christmas preparations this year. Well, actually, when I think about it I'm always late with my Christmas preparations. This year, I decided last minute to send out some Christmas cards, plus I always love to add a handmade card to any gifts I give out, so I sat down yesterday evening, gathered all my card supplies (which I fortunately left here in Estonia), and got to work.

For the first set of cards, I used some Christmas-themed patterned paper I had, glued a piece of that to the blank card. Then, I sewed a piece of plastic over that paper, leaving the top open, and poured some star confetti into the pocket, then sewed the top shut. Last, just trimmed the edges of the plastic around the seams. I love this card, because it's like playing with a snowball - you can make a snowstorm or some shooting stars by tilting it.

For the second set of cards, I used some patterned paper as the background again, but this time I added a holiday wish using wire. First, I wrote the word on paper without lifting the pencil in the size I wanted the wire word to be, and then used that as a template to write the words with a crafting wire. It's actually way easier than I had thought. I think it's all about using a soft wire, which can be easily manipulated. I sewed them onto the card by hand, just a stitch in 4 places to secure it.

And, then I made some gift tags from the left-overs. I'm sort of obsessed with using every little scrap I have left, whether it's paper or fabric. I keep everything that I think can be used in a future project. It's a curse and a blessing - on the one hand, I always have something I can make last minute cards/gifts from, but on the other hand, I simply have too much stuff I'm not sure I'll ever use.

I hope you got some ideas for your own last minute card making. Now I'm off to make my room a livable place before hubby gets here.

xo. Hanna

Cardboard Magazine Folder Restyle

Hey, guys! You know the feeling of excitement when you first start decorating a new apartment or house? Man, all the possibilities! It's like staring at a blank canvas before starting to paint. Not that I've ever done that, I don't have a clue about painting. The point is, you can choose whatever you like. But, ay, there's the rub, ha? Every tiny decision suddenly becomes this big thing. Do we leave the colors white or repaint? If we paint, what color? Oh, that opens up another Bandora's box. Then there's furniture to pick out, curtains, throw pillows, wall art. Too. Many. Possibilities.

And what do I do? I choose black and white. Every. Single. Time. It's become my biggest obsession lately. Black and white pictures. Black and white (and gold) decor. Black and white outfits (wanna guess what colors I'm wearing at the moment?). So, there's no need to act all surprised when I tell you I restyled some white cardboard files with black watercolor. Apparently it's genetic, because my Mom just told me my Dad used to me obsessed with black and white when he was my age. Wanted to do our whole house in black and white (you go, Dad!).

 Despite my mild worry about this new obsession, I love how these magazine folders turned out. Way better than expected. At first I thought about doing gold polka dots on all of them, but then I channeled my inner Elsie Larson, and just went with black watercolor and a different simple pattern for each. And, I'm so glad I did. I like how there's variety in patterns, but how the color scheme binds them together. Plus, of course I had to add a touch of gold.

Here's my process in case you want to repeat:

 1. I started with the IKEA Flyt magazine files (my first IKEA hack!). They are super cheap, so right up our alley, and they are just the perfect white canvas I needed. Also, really easy to paint on. For the paint I just bought some black watercolor. I wanted to buy a cheap kids watercolor set, but then I found these colors that you can buy one by one, and I bought just the one, because I honestly don't know when I'll be using watercolors again, so buying a whole lot seemed unnecessary.

 2. Then, I played around with the patterns on a scrap piece of paper. I tried to find patterns that would be easy to draw (cause I suck at drawing), and easy to repeat. Something I could easily repeat during the whole process.
I settled on different formations of single brush-strokes. Shorter and longer ones, at different angles, and I had to do one with dots as well.

 3. When I had my patterns selected, the only thing to do was to paint. When I was done with one side, I let it dry, and painted the other ones in the mean time, then came back to the other side of the first one. Rinse. Repeat. Let dry. Fold. All done.

I also added some gold tags which I made by painting regular white sticker tags gold with a marker.

All of my Burdas almost fit in the 5 folders, but I think I need to make one more set. These would make great storage for our sheet music and documents as well.

My little sewing corner is coming together nicely. Now, all I need is a couple of shelves to put all my crafting tools on and pretty storage for those as well. I'm sure I can figure something out. It will probably involve some recycled packaging and a gold and a black marker. Really, gold and black AGAIN? Well, what can I say...

xo. Hanna

Around Nordrhein-Westfalen // Wuppertal's Weihnachtsmarkt

Wuppertal is the second city we visited in our attempt to get to all corners of our home region Nordrhein-Westfalen. You can read about our trip to Bonn here.

Thus far, our trips have been short day trips. It's December already, and although the weather is significantly warmer than in Estonia, it's still a little bit too chilly to walk around town for more than 3 hours. Unless there's Glühwein of course. Which we had, of course.

We've been to three Christmas markets in the are - in Leverkusen, in Cologne (the one at the Dom) and Wuppertal, and I have to say I like the smaller ones more. The one in Cologne was so crowded, we were in an out in 30 minutes, and we didn't enjoy it. A friend of ours told us that there a better one in Cologne, but I guess we'll get to it next year. I hope visiting  a Weihnachtsmarkt becomes a family tradition.

We didn't get around to wondering around the streets of Wuppertal, but we did take a ride on the suspension monorail (Schwebebahn). That was so cool!

I hope we get to visit again in the spring-time. I'd love to see more of this city with a rad-sounding name (Woop-woop-woop-woopertaal).

Cheers to mondays, my friends!

xo. Hanna

P.S! My shop will be on holiday vacation mode starting tomorrow, until the 8th of January. Since we're flying back to Estonia for the holidays, I won't be able to send out orders.

5 Things I've learned // On goal setting

Remember the 30 days 30 goals challenge I began in October? Well, you might be wondering what happened to it. I know, I know, I was supposed to write the conclusion weeks ago, but alas, here we are, at the beginning of December.

Truth be told, I completed about half of my 30 goals. That would constitute a failed challenge, right? Well, so I thought at first, but the I started thinking. Whenever you learn something about yourself in the process of a challenge, it's always a win. So, here are 5 things I learned during the 30 days 30 goals challenge:

1) Long To-Do lists stress me out. The moment I compiled that list of 30 things I felt over-whelmed. I knew it was going to be hassle, and I already didn't want to do it. I hoped that the challenge would motivate me to work harder to cross things off, but no. Note to self: make to-do lists that are short and sweet, 10 items tops. Keep different category lists separately, because seeing them all together will freak you out.

2) Defining a manageable and well-defined goal is the key to success. One thing I noticed was that I crossed off most of the smaller, more manageable tasks that required a very specific action. Like, have shoes repaired, or take old clothes to H&M. Other tasks, like pack all kitchen items, or pack all clothing were left undone, because they depended on other circumstances I wasn't clear on at the moment, and were too blurry for me to take concrete action on.

3) When I don't need to do it, no list will make me. There were items on that list that I could've easily complete, but I still didn't because I was always out of time, and they just didn't seem that important. They were not things I needed to do, more things I thought I had to do.

4) I stink at time management. You see, I think I'm Wonderwoman. Yes, I believe I can accomplish a weeks worth of tasks in one day. And then I get all grumpy and self-accusing when it doesn't happen. All I have to say to myself is to just chill and give myself a break once in a while. Burning myself out is not going to help anyone.

5) It's all about setting goals that inspire. The list I compiled was full of things I dreaded. Packing all my things, sorting things out that needed sorting, getting all the work-stuff done before the move, cleaning, organizing and so on. Yuck! There was not one inspiring goal on that list. No make a blog business plan, or get nails done every week, or eat a healthy meal every day. Nothing that would motivate me to get going. It was all chores. I love goal setting, but I truly failed this time.

This challenge taught me a lot, so I guess it was still worth it. Did anyone else participate? If yes, how did yo do? Or, have you ever taken on a similar challenge?

I'm definitely going to do some challenges now and again. I'm not going to promise it'll be one each month, but we'll see what the new year has in store.

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

xo. Hanna

DIY Gift Tags/Stickers (and free printable tags)

Today is a two times first for me. I'm going to share my first ever video tutorial and my first ever printable with you guys. Like I wrote in my handmade gifts post, it's really easy to create you own stickers at home, and today I'm going to show just how to do that. This tutorial also doubles as "how to make your own printable gift tags". So, it's a 2 in 1. 

I first came to this idea, when I was brainstorming packaging ideas for my shop. I really wanted to make a custom "Thank you!" sticker, but I didn't want to invest a lot of money into it. Also, I wanted to control the quantity myself, so I wouldn't have to order hundreds, or run out with a small batch. So, I came up with the solution of creating the stickers in Photoshop and printing them on self-adhesive office paper. I love the result!

This is the font I used in the tutorial. And, you can order the self-adhesive paper (which I referred to as sticker paper) right here: in Europe, in USA. It's also available as self-adhesive photo paper (in Europe, in USA), if you'd like to make photo stickers at home.  

Also, you can download the gift tags I created in the tutorial as a little gift FROM: Me TO: You (see what I did there). I made an English version (download) and an Estonian version (download). Just click on the link to download. Since I don't have a home printer here in Leverkusen, I could't try these out myself, so let me know if there are any problems with printing them.

I hope you like the printable, and the tutorial! I'm definitely going to be sticking some tags on the gifts I wrap this year.

xo. Hanna

A Workshop I did and some Shop news

Hey, guys! Today I thought I'd share some of the gorgeous creations my students made in a workshop I taught at the beginning of October. I would've shared sooner, but I had somehow misplaced the photos, and only found them again now.

The workshop was held in Tartu, the university town in Estonia, and the students were all part of a great Estonian organization called Naiskodukaitse. The organization gathers women, who want to participate in protecting our homeland. One of my friends is part of it, and she's the one who organized the event.

I, for one, had lots of fun teaching the ladies how to make their own unique upcycled flower brooch. Some even managed to make matching earrings. How rad is that? And, I hope everyone left with a sense of accomplishment and a good mood.

Update from my friend: The organization is called Women`s voluntary defence organization in English. And we were superglad that Hanna came to teach us. There are a lot of women who are doing different handicraft projects and this upcycling project Hanna taught was a nice addition to our skills. We are hoping to make some more upcycled brooches and earrings for a charity lottery in the summer. Thank you once again, Hanna, it was a fun night and you should deifinitely do some more teaching!

I was re-affirmed once again, that I truly love teaching. I had never considered teaching as a profession I'd love, but this year has proved me wrong.

I'd love to teach more similar workshops, so if you know a place in the Leverkusen or Cologne area that offers workshops, please let me know, so I can reach out. Or, if you and your girlfriends would love to get together and craft, just send me an e-mail (here's the contact), and we'll make it happen.

Oh, and one last bit of news. I'm now offering gift certificates in my Etsy shop. So, if you've been on the fence about getting a loved one something from the shop because you couldn't choose, you could give a gift card instead.

xo. Hanna