Sometimes you just have to have new pillows..

..and why not create them yourself? Now that I have my own sewing machine and we finally became friends, I think of all the things I could sow . All my life, my mom tried to teach me how to sow, and it went well, until she left me alone and I got immediately stuck and could not get it to work. Maybe I didn't try hard enough but it was just always so frustrating that I stopped. Now, that I'm in the States and my mom is too far away to help me fix whatever needs to be shortened, or changed, I just wanted to try again. Bj, my American mom gave me her old sewing machine for Christmas, gave me a lesson, and helped me getting started. Also I got stuck ones, it is going pretty well now. I ordered nice fabric from Jo-Ann's, and started off with some hold-backs with Velcro for our new curtains. They look pretty cute and it was easy enough to not give up after the first sowing project!

My next project was to sew matching pillows with zippers to easily change them out. Have you ever looked for zippers? I went everywhere. Jo-Ann’s is not really that convenient located to our house, so I went to Michaels, Anna’s Linens, Sears, Macy’s and Wal-Mart, my friend to Hobby Lobby, but not a chance to find red zippers in 14”. Totally frustrated I went back to Jo-Ann’s and got me some nice red zippers in the right length. I already love that store! Finally at home, I cut the fabric to 30” x 15” and sowed the zippers on each of the long side.

It started out to be a little difficult, but I figured it out and have already several differnt colors and sizes of pretty nice looking new pillows.

Of course there are more to come in the next couple of days! :)

Super Bowl Party

We are invited to a friends house this afternoon to watch the Super Bowl. So I was thinking about what to bring. I saw on http://www.bakerella.com/ these cute football pralines and thought after I got my KitchenAid on Wednesday I could bake something and decorate as little footballs. What is easier than Sugar Cookies to try out the new mixer? Since they had to be cooled down in the fridge for 2-3 hours, I just made some Peanut Butter cookies in the meantime. This morning I melted some chocolate and peanut butter morsels and put the chocolate mix over the football shaped cookies (thanks to my friend Heather for the football shaped cookie cutter) after having tons of chocolate mix left I decided on putting some on the peanut butter cookies as well.

When dry I put icing on the cookies and here you go! Pretty easy and the right theme for tonight! :)

  

                           

Our first DIY project

After getting settled for some time and buying furniture for rooms we’ve never had before, there it was.. our first DIY project.

There was no back splash in the kitchen! 

  

To be honest, I thought I would take about one Saturday afternoon to put some tiles on the wall. It looks so easy on all the HGTV shows. Stupid me..

So last Saturday we went to Lowe's and picked out some tiles. While talking to an assistant about what is needed besides tiles and adhesive, and maybe some grout, our cart got stocked up with products. I had no clue that it was necessary to rip out the existing dry wall since the adhesive or grout will destroy the wall - so we bought backer board as well.

Once at home we started to pull out tiny pieces of dry wall, using a hammer, a saw, our hands...

It was harder and more time consuming than I thought it would ever be. We were already exhausted half way through.      


                 

 Brian started to measure and saw the different sizes for the backer board while I started to glue on tiles.

He had to go out of town on a business trip and left me alone with a half way finished project.


                 

I had to go back to Lowe’s several times to get tiles cut, get more grout and worked on the back splash every day after work. My deadline to finish was Thursday night before Brian got home – and luckily I made it happen!  

Also it is not sealed yet and needs tiny touch up work, I’m really proud that our first DIY home project did not end up in a disaster.

Now that it is Friday, and I have not a project set up for this weekend, I’m getting a little restless. I’m already thinking about what to do next… finish the basement? Extend the deck? Build some furniture? There is so much in my head, I just don’t know where to start! So stay tuned!

Welcome to my Life!

I'm a 32 year old girl from a tiny town near Frankfurt, Germany. I lived there all my life until 2005 when I decided I have to break out and do something totally crazy. Without speaking any English, I applied for an internship in Atlanta. The first couple of weeks were awful and I was about to turn around and go home again. My landlords, whom I call my American parents, decided for me that it would be best to go to an English school, so that we could TALK with each other, not only stare! :) While at work I mostly spoke German with the other interns, it was a German trade show company, so it wasn't really hard to speak German and avoid English. After a couple of weeks in school, being around colleagues and starting to make friends I was getting better in communicating and learned a lot about myself. I had an amazing time in Atlanta, met incredible people who I do not want to miss in my life anymore. One of them is Brian, who is an amazing guy. We started to hang out almost everyday and became really good friends. After 10 months my internship ended and I had to go back home to Germany. It was really hard to get settled again after this time abroad. But I got a really cool job and was glad to be back with my family and friends. I still went back and forth to Atlanta for every vacation I had. I couldn't stay away. While there I was hanging out with Brian all the time and stayed in touch with my former colleagues. In 2008 I won the green card lottery. I had a telephone interview with the boss of the German company, quit my job, packed up my life in boxes and moved to Atlanta about 8 weeks later. The move was very hurtful, leaving all my family and friends behind was the hardest thing I have ever done. The good thing was, that I was not a stranger to the city and knew alot of people who included me directly in their life's. I'm thankful to know so many great people. About 10 months later my friend Brian came back from a year in London and about 3 days later we couldn't be without each other anymore. After 6 months we moved in together and just bought a beautiful new house in the suburbs of Atlanta. 



I love DIY projects, there is nothing more I would like to do but craft. I wanna try everything and anything. I LOVE crafting, also most projects won’t turn out as I would love them to. Now that we own a house, I was waiting for our first DIY project to come along. The house was built in 2007, nobody ever lived in there, it was the model home and everything is pretty much new. But still there has to be something to build, remodel, arrange..