The first days in Singapore

So, on Wednesday afternoon we began our journey to Singapore - me, and the M´s. 

Tim had been there a few days earlier, and we skyped and wrote a lot, and I was excited seeing both him and Singapore alike. My two ladies gave me a gentle good bye, which made me happy and sad at the same time. I feel sorry they can´t come with us, although I know they´ll be in many good hands. And I liked how we seemed to bond more in the days before, when we knew we wouldn´t been seing each other for a while. It seemed like all three of us were our nicer selves. 

 I felt happy during the flight, and I like everything. I didn´t mind the crying babies, on the contrary - they made me appreciate how grown up and quiet my sons are :)

And I loved how they both fell asleep on my lap, and how sweet and cuddly they were. 

The flight took 12 hours, plus the two hour journey to the airport and one our from the airport to our appartement, and it was exhausting, but not as much as I´d feared - due to the time difference it was already evening in Singapore when we arrived, so it was okay to go to bed and finally stretch out - after a walk to get to know the area a little, of course.

So our neighbourhood (and pretty much all of Singapore) has a lot of amazing, huge, futuristic architecture, which makes you marvel at how many people are actually living here. Wow. Just wow!

The air is - at least to me - beautifully warm. I do love the heat, and when I left Germany, we had temperatures around the freezing point, and sheets of icy rain, so I greeted the warmth with open arms!

It does rain here, and a lot, too, but the rain is warm, and refreshing. I went swimming in the pool on the sixth storey of our building during the rain, and I adored seing the droplets of water resting a little on the surface before dissolving. So, so gorgeous!

Everytime I visited that pool so far, I was the only person in there. Really. Of all the many residents there, I seem to be the only one using it - and I got there often, and swim a lot. 

However... we walked around the premises, where we ha our first encounter with a Food Court. Yeah, I love food courts. And I´m sure I´ll write another, extended post about food in Singapore.

There´s a stall where you can get freshly made juice, in a mutitude of interesting flavours - rose petals and water chestnut and dragonfruit and bitter gourd and wheatgrass - and I´ve got a tough time deciding what to try first. Good thing is, we´ll be here so long I can try them all :)

And then we went to bed - did you ever see a "Pillow Menu" before? 

That´s one thing I found unusual :) The whole appartement is very nice, clean and luxurios, but not over the top or trashy, but in a well thougth-through, minimalist way. I love it. Every storage space here tucks away neatly, every surface is streamlined.

That´s the boys, working for school - we left Germany under the premises we´d be doing at least some work for school, and that´s okay. We spend around two hours every morning either working on their workbooks or writing about our experiences. We can hear birds outside, and they sound completely different to the birds in Europe.

So we´ve arrived. And yep, we did see a little more than our appartement so far, but that´s for the next post. Right now, I´m closing this computer, and we´ll see what we´ll discover today. 

See y´all. It´s nice to be back here.

So...

...it´s been a while. Like - really a while. The last "proper" post I wrote here is from 2014, and the break was completely intentional.

I spent those last years well and filled them with all I could get into them. I hitchhiked back home from Ireland. I went back to Uni and am currently in my second semester, pursuing a bachelor´s degree. I finally, at the old age of 35, took my drivers liscense, and I love love love driving a car! I began swimming, 1000 metres every week, no matter what, and it makes me incredibly happy. I taught myself soap making and sort of opend a pop-up soap store, which is so much fun! I became a clean, tidy and organized person, believe it or not :D I quit smoking, and I became vegan. The kids grew, a lot. Both girls are young women now, and the twins will have finished primary school in a couple of months.

I´m happy, and calm, and I´m constantly working on myself. Part of this is abstaining from blogging.

BUT.

We´re going on a big adventure soon - we´ll be living in Singapore for two months. And I´d like to write about it, so I will keep my memories.

I figured, this blog serves really well when it comes to keeping memories. I like reading my old posts. It´s like talking to my younger self. My pictures don´t get lost in the cloud. So when I commence blogging now, it´s mainly for myself. As a sort of diary. You are invited to read along, though. I tried facebook, in order to keep in touch with people, but I´m still not convinced. I like my own blog design a lot more, and I feel strange posting there. This here - this I´m okay with.

So. So I´m back, at least for the next two months. You´ll hear from me :)

Come on over...

... if you understand some german you are invited to check out Ronnie´s and my newest hobby site:

 

seifenimperium.blogspot.com

So very fall...

We went kite-flying yesterday. I´ve always loved that, and felt like it was the pure embodiment of fall - fall, and ultimate freedom, though now that I´m writing this, it does feels weired to see that in a kite - that´s never free, but always captured with it´s line... 

However, I enjoy kite flying, and now my twins do, too. 

This weekend, they got infected by the joyous feeling of wind getting caught in the kite, carrying it up, and feeling the power to hold something that´s so far up in the sky. They´ve asked me to go again as soon as possible, and I´ll be happy to oblige. 

Can you see my spot in this picture? :)

I didn`t take it too often, though - my spot - I was busy running around between the kites. As I said, I love kite flying. 

More very fall things we did this week? 

Finding natural forts in the hedges along the bike trail...

...going to the farmer´s market, with it´s noises and smells and the turkish vendor that sells a whole big box of figs for 3 Euros only, and where there´s an instant companionship among the buyers - unsurprisingly, cosidered the close physical proximity of them :)


What about picking apples?


We can apply a nice check! to that, as well - our good friends invited us again this year to help them pick some from their big apple tree.

 
This year´s harvest was a lot smaller than last years, but I´ve got my jars ready to cook some apple sauce tomorrow, and the dehydrator is running right now :)

 

 

We kickstarted the first of our Halloween preparations for this year - yay!

And my maybe favourite thing this weekend - which I liked even more than the kite flying! - was our backyard campfire. 

 

 

Tim spontaniously came up with the idea - getting some wood and making a fire - and it was so awesome!

I so enjoyed sitting around the fire, roasting bread and potatoes and eggplants, and we sat until it was pitchdark...

... and we read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the light of Eva´s mobile phone torch app and looked into the embers and coals. Very, very sweet. 

Music: 

For this pos, this song :)

a) because Joe Purdy does make some nice music, 

b) because this song was featured in an episode of "Lost" that Tim and I are currently watching and

c) because it contains a ukulele, and there is no happier instrument. 

 

And with this, we´re gliding into our school break for fall - see you!

Goat cheese, grains and pumpkins

 

So - today is a national holiday in Germany, to celebrate the union after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and that means - everyone´s on the road, enjoying the free day and going on various kinds of trips and excursions. 

We had splendid weather, so off we went!

First, we visited a pumpkin farm. Like, for real. Yep, that´s how cliché we are - but we liked it :)

As you can see, the twins were over the moon for the very tiny baby pumpkins, and spent their pocket money on a really small pumpkin they now use to decorate their toy castle. 

 

They also liked the really big ones - this one was - behold! - Europe´s biggest pumpkin! At least that´s what they said :)

Our next stop was a mill. 

A private, small, very green mill, in a very remote area surrounded by fields. 

We were allowed to have a peak inside, where the miller explained how everything worked, and we dipped our fingers into the fresh flour. 

Next stop: The goat farm, with the cheese manufactury.

Hooray for feeding goats!

May I also point out the stellar-fashionista combination Ronja is wearing here? Note: Dress from the flea market, combined with a hat she crocheted all by herself the night before.

Feeding the goats rocks, especially when one gets cool shoe covers. Later, we even got full-body covers:

And then we got to see how the cheese was being made:

Of course we were allowed to try it, too. And I questioned the lady about how to make some at home, so you can expect some cheese-themed project in the future.

 Ronja and I had this on our mind for a while - I mean, it´s only the next logical step, following our own honey, eggs and all sorts of juice, sirup and jam, all though we will not - mark my words - NOT - get a goat for our garden. We won´t. But cheese - we can try to make some. It didn´t sound too complicated.


I do admit Eva had a tough time.

She felt too old and too awesome to be included in such childish activities, which I guess is okay - and she did hold herself quite gracious, given the circumstances she´s a teenager who´s not in the slightest interested in her family´s agricultural adventures and was yet being dragged along by us. And I was able to cheer her up with some cookies from time to time.

And speaking of food:

Freshly baked bread, goat cheese, butter, homemade fig jam, homemade plum juice and home made honey - oh, and peppermint tea fresh from the garden - that´s paradise :)

As for today´s music:


This was our sing-along tune in the car today. I love this song. I absolutetly adore it. The original is awesome, too, but I´m posting this cover because I really like how the two boys harmonize. But what´s best are the lyrics - oh, they are so fun :)

Enjoy your weekend, everybody!

Blue sun printing

This is one of those projects I saw on pinterest and wanted to try ever since - you need paper that is sensitive to light, and sunshine, and then you get some magical results. Basically, working with it is a mixture of art and a really neat science experiment, so, what´s not to like?

I had little trouble finding the paper in Germany - much less than I expected - searching for solar-papier on amazon go me quick and very affordable results.

The paper came, delivered in dark plastic:

It is not super sensitive - you don´t need complete dark to work with it. I had my kids find the stuff they wanted to place on it before, so it wouldn´t have to be exposed too long, but you don´t have to hurry placing the leaves or toys or whatever you take on the paper - if you do it inside.

We worked in the kitchen, placing the sheets of paper on a frame we used instead of a tray, so we could carry them out to the balcony into the sunlight.

I think my favourite is Miro´s playmobil artwork:

When you start, the paper is all blue, but after some minutes out in the sun, it turns completely white - except, of course, for the parts covered with stuff.  One trouble though is wind - leaves or lace are swiftly blown away, so you get no proper print. I´ve read about covering the paper with glass, but I didn´t have one at hand, so... we just tried shielding our paper from wind the best we could.

Sometimes more, sometimes less succesfull.

As soon as your paper is completely white, you can rinse it in clear cold water.

The image will first dissolve, and later, when it´s dry, reappear. Really cool :)

Right now, these prints are still hanging from our ceiling, looking awesome, but I could totally see fragments of them used on greeting cards or in mixed media art pieces. And we´ve still got some paper left :)

Music:

5 Seconds Of Summer -- She Looks So Perfect - MyVideo

If you haven´t seen this perfect video, do yourself the favour of watching it, at least to the point when the clothes start raining - it will make you happy for the rest of the day :)

Easy cozy hooded sweaters

 

I´ve been making these sweaters now for I don´t know how long - it´s always the same, basic pattern, and you can change it however you want to - leave the sleeves to make a vest, make it longer and slightly slimmer to create a dress for a girl, applicate all you want... I really love it. 

So, since I lost the pattern, I picked an old sweater from Mehmet, folded it, and roughly traced around it for the seam allowance. It was late and dark, but it looked like this: 

After I´d cut it from fabric, it looked like this, and I went to bed happily: 

Usually, I take fleece, but this time I found some fleece-lined thick, rich jersey fabric, with a surface smooth enough to allow me to iron-on the shark print.

So the next morning, I lined the pocket with bias tape (so it doesn´t fringe):
 
If you add the pocket before you assemble the whole thing, that makes it much easier.

And then you proceed the way you like it - since I made sleeves consisting of two parts each, I first attached the front sleeves to the front, then the back sleeves to the back, and then assembled the two sides, sewing down from the shoulder to the wrist, and from the other side of the wrist, via the armpit, down to the bottom. (I hope that makes sense.)

I added some elastic in the hood, attached the hood,

 

and had my sons pose for me:


 Yeah, hemming the sleeves too would certainly make sense.

They are wearing them right now, though - it suddenly turned quite cold over here, and they´re having swimming class today :)

Music for the day:

As much as I´m tempted to go with that "Sweater Weather" song, I´m more in the mood for some smooth JM :) If you don´t just listen, but watch the video, you get to see a nice guitar being built, too!