Travel Blog Day #1: So many Airports..

Gary and I made a rather last-minute decision to travel to Germany for the 20th anniversary edition of the Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival. Gary almost had to cancel his DJ gig at DarkFlower on opening night, since we just didn't have the money to go. Five day before we were supposed to leave, the plane tickets dropped about $500 each, making it just possible for us to make it.

Wow. Do you know how stressful it is to pack/prepare for a surprise trip to Europe? It's hard! I take months to plan shit out usually. ;)

Anyway, here's our travel map:

Chicago, IL

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

British Airways Flight 296: Chicago to London.

Overnight flight, seven hours long. British Airways is amazing. They fed us twice, kept the bar cart moving along the entire flight and were so accommodating. Unfortunately I didn't get any sleep, but I did get to watch Harry Potter 7 and The Rite, followed by a few episodes of Frasier and Friends. They supplied us with toothbrushes and tiny little tubes of toothpaste. It was delightful.

I felt pretty safe on board because there was a young monk sitting nearby. I had asked Gary if he was a real Monk or a D&D type. We think he was real.

London, U.K.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Gary and I had a 6-hour layover in London. After an overnight flight and no sleep, sitting at the airport would have been Hell. We decided to get some train tickets and find out what we could see in the two hours allotted to us. The employee at the currency exchange was amazingly helpful. He exchanged exactly what we needed for the tickets and a little food, mapped out a lovely, perfectly-timed two-hour walking tour and sent us on our way. We began at Buckingham Palace, where the Queen is currently residing. I got a cute video of some horse-drawn carriages leaving the palace followed by a Rolls Royce. Gary swears he could see the Queen in the backseat, but all I got was a glare off the window. :(

Next was Big Ben, then Westminster Abbey, parliament, and the River Thames. I wish we had time to tour any of these, but I guess we'll just have to come back soon.

It smelled like pee in that phone booth. Like.. A lot.

Back to the airport, another plane. Two more hours to Berlin...

Berlin

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

I slept (poorly) most of the flight, luckily. Then we took a bus and two subway trains to get to Sandra's (fifth floor walk-up, ugh!!!) flat where we were greeted by Marin and Andrew who were kind enough to come over to let us in, since Sandra was stuck at work until later. We were greeted with friendly hugs and much excitement. Also cookies and iced tea. The shower felt so nice, and we went right to sleep. Finally, we got some REAL sleep, and still it was hard to wake up.

Thursday, June 09, 2011

In the morning, Sandra woke us up for coffee and breakfast before we left for the train station. We also surprised her with a big variety box of Clif bars that we assembled for her. She fell in love with them in CA and can't find them here. She was very happy. :D

To Be Continued..

Warming up

Yesterday, I felt motivated to do a little sewing. It's been a few weeks since my break from work and my first time using my new studio. So to ease myself back in before I REALLY get cracking on my new collection, I thought I'd make an apron. I've turned into quite the little domestic lately, and what better way to show it than by having a collection of aprons. At work a few weeks ago I found a vintage 1940s pattern for three styles of aprons.



I copied the pattern onto my own paper to keep for my very own. Anyway, I only had enough cute cherry fabric for the topless option :O which is exactly what I needed; something fast and easy. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. (Not that it's easy to mess up an apron.)









The taller waistband was the selling point for this pattern. I think I prefer the black bow better. Don't you?


I haven't really chosen a direction for this blog yet, so for the time being I'm just going to write about whatever I feel like. Lucky you!

Stay tuned.

My new Sewing studio

I recently moved into a new home with my boyfriend, Gary. It's a lovely three-bedroom flat, which allows me to have an entire room for myself. It took about two weeks to finally get all of my things moved, unpacked and organized. I have a lot of stuff. My friend Jessica drove from Madison to stay for two days to help me sort and decorate. I think it looks amazing. I almost don't want to use it for fear of messing it up!



I took these photos the night of our housewarming party, so the gifts are still on my cutting table. Haha, oops!



I noticed the cheap garment rack I bought from Target is not very stable. It doesn't fall over, but it leans into the door so I can't close it. A little annoying..



This storage wall was all Jessica's brilliant idea. Brought to you by the Home Depot.



At least two whole days were spent measuring, rolling and pricing my fabric. It was a COMPLETE mess before, but now I feel prepared to kickstart this little business of mine.



All that work made me a sleepy little panda.

Envy_