New year, new home

We’ve moved into our own place on New Years Day.  This might seem like a small feat for a furnished apartment after our last move of our entire house in only one day. However, that was with the help of friends and after a long and thorough preparation. Here in Brizzy, it was just the two of us, still unaccustomed to the local temperatures (and a bit intoxicated by the two glasses of champagne for breakfast to celebrate first the Dutch and then the Portugese New Year).

Furnished or not, the place needed some adjustment to suit our needs. The second bedroom had to make room for a work- (and play-)room. Fortunately, there’s a completely useless second bathroom (who wants to clean two?), which nicely holds the second bed. And yes, we did make (several) IKEA run(s). So we’re happy to announce we once more invited Ivar to our home, this time in good company with some new friends Markus, Tornlinden and Nilserik and the trusted Molger in the bedroom. And as a finishing touch, we once again have The Kiss by Klimt above the television.

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The force down under

Full house at Cinemaplex on South Bank this Sunday afternoon (opening weekend) for a viewing of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (3D). Good fun, however they keep the cinemas cooler than Hoth, so next time we’ll bring a Tauntaun and a light saber!

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Thanks Katherine and Joao :).

The emu has landed

Take 24 hours, ignore them thoroughly, and all of a sudden you find yourself down under. Easy peasy! Apparently, we flew via Singapore, since we have the pictures of the Koy Pond to prove it.

All kidding aside, our travels today and yesterday were reasonable comfortable and blissfully uneventful. We’ve arrived at our temporary location and will start looking for our own place first thing tomorrow morning. But first, we sleep.

Singapore Airport - Koy pond
Singapore Airport – Koy pond

Some originals, because..

And then I also made some originals tops with the same two patterns. Because Sunday. And also, because the fabric stash won’t come with to Brizzy, but completed tops might!

Cap sleeved top, blue Boat / portrait neck, butterflies

Upcycling baggy T-shirts

Finally built up the courage to try out different patterns to transform baggy shirts into fitted shirts. I used two patterns that I copied from shirts that fit me well, my purple boat neck shirt with unfinished seems and my red cap sleeve t-shirt with an orange rainbow print. This resulted in 4 upcycled shirts, of which I took some poorly focused photos for you to enjoy.

Kaleidoscoopdag 1996It’s a bit weird, and you move the print up a bit,  but you can transform a longsleeved T (Kaleidoscoopdag) into a boat neck shirt. Because the fabric is a bit stiffer then the original shirt, the boat neck looks more like a portrait collar. Also, the print used to be on the back, *grin*. Not unhappy with this test result.

Jaap’s baggy shirt (cat-eyed girl) could easily be converted into a cap sleeve shirt. I changed the neck a bit after I took this photo, to keep it from sagging. I love this print!
Cat-eyed girl

My own semi-baggy shirt from the Moth was too small at the arm scythe. So that one took some guesstimating and fiddling, but I got it to behave in the end. It was quite a bit of work though, so next time I buy a shirt that I’ll redo in my own size, I should definitely get the XXL size. Much more fabric to work with!
I Moth stories

The downsizing of Jaap’s running shirt was also a bit freeform, both to maintain the print on the back and because I’ll only wear this when I’m sweaty anyway. I reused the cut away parts from the sides into back-pockets to make it a proper cycling shirt. It has a distinct home-made look, but I’m looking forward to use it.
Thorax running shirt