MindLess Indulgence

10 Day challenge - Day 10

2012-02-10T17:05:00.001+01:00

One person you can trust

Myself. Sorry to say this but I'm the person most likely not letting me down. During group works (in school or in university, doesn't matter) you always have one person who doesn't work/is late/misses meetings. Even the boyfriend might forget something important, even my mum might leave something important at home.
So, I trust myself most. But I'm a trusting person, I believe most of the stuff you tell me, I think that nobody wants to do bad stuff to me. It's quite easy to trick me, but once someone hurt me, I decide to move back from the relationsship...

Week in review 6/2012

2012-02-10T13:44:00.000+01:00

Song...

Needs no more words... ^^

Book...

"Clockwork prince" by Cassandra Clare and "Harry Potter and the goblet of fire" by J.K. Rowling. While sometimes Clarissa Clare is a bit annoying to read, I like her Clockwork series better than the Mortal Instruments. It is obvious that the intended readers are about 7-10 years younger than me, but the plot is interesting. I have read worse "grown up" romance books!

Food...
Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesecake

Thoughts...
I'm going were the strange speaking people are, but I will rather enjoy this excursion!

Sewing...
Secret present number 1, 2 and 3. And I really need to get working on the WGT stuff!

Colour...

Vector Patterns by COLOURlovers

...of the week!

10 Day challenge - Day 9

2012-02-09T17:02:00.001+01:00

Two things you wish you could do.

Remember everything I read.
Help humanity to be better. Heal illnesses, feed the poor, make everyone happy (I know this is impossible, but one can dream, right?)

10 Day challenge - Day 8

2012-02-08T17:00:00.000+01:00

Three words you can’t go a day without using.

10 Day challenge - Day 7

2012-02-07T16:43:00.002+01:00

Four memories you won’t forget

Traveling in Burma/Myanmar. Beautiful country, precious buildings, nice people - but a very surpressive regiem. We were guarded by soldiers with machine guns all around the hotel; We never knew if they should keep dangers out or us fenced in... Our guides were always careful when talking about the gouvernment, but told us some inconvinient truths about being allowed to leave the country only once and killed tourists that traveled in the wrong regions. Makes me very happy about living in a secure and not-repressive country!
Handing in my Bachelor's thesis. I worked every waking hour during the last days because we had a blinded study and only got the results one week before deadline. Paisleystern and I worked really hard and were so stressed, but the releave after handing in was tenfold of my Master's thesis. I kind of wonder about my PhD, if it will be better or worse...
My first concert (Subway to Sally, somewhen 2001/2002-ish). I had no ticket but the concert was sold out when we arrived, so the mum who drove us gave me her ticket and stayed in the car. It was great, nice folks around me, the sound was good and the location was so crowded that during the concert the sweat condensed at the ceiling and rained down again. It was so much fun and for years, Subway to Sally was the best live band to me!
Meeting my boyfriend. My gay best friend introduced us after he was turned down (he still denies flirting with the boyfriend, but it was obvious). We danced the night away, and started kissing before I even knew his name. It was wonderful!

Picture guide to "secret" faric shop (german)

2012-02-06T16:59:00.006+01:00

Ich war nochmal da, damit ihr leichter hinfindet habe ich ein paar Bilder geschossen. Nochmal zur Erinnerung:

es gibt da Stoffe von Gerry Weber und Tochterfirmen, alles von Bekleidung über Polster, Vlieseline und Dekostoffe. Außerdem Kurzwaren.
es ist ungeheizt, im Moment also sehr kalt. Handschuhe, Mütze, warme Schuhe... - wir habe da Leute mit Wärmflaschen unter der Jacke gesehen!
nehmt ein Maßband mit, die Stoffe sind nicht unbedingt vermessen. Wenn der gute Mann euch Meterware abschneidet: Sein Tisch ist 1,2m lang, ihr bekommt also mehr als geordert!
Wir haben noch den Tipp bekommen, dass man den Stoff super in Ikea Taschen transportieren kann. Man bekommt zwar Tüten, aber ohne Henkel.
Öffnungszeiten sind Freitag 13.30-17 Uhr und Samstag 8.00-12.30 Uhr.

Die Adresse ist "Hiltruper Straße 22, 48167 Münster, Deutschland". Gebt es einfach ins Navi oder bei googlemaps ein, dann werdet ihr schonmal an den richtigen Ort geleitet...

Das hier ist der Punkt, wo ihr mit der Adresse landet. Ihr müsst auf den Parkplatz vom Rossmann

Hierlang, hinten zu den Parkplätzen hinter dem Rossmann!

Die Reihe ganz hinten meine ich!

Das hier ist schon das Gebäude. Sieht unbewohnt aus, ich weiß!

Weiter an den Containern entlang...

An den Bahnschienen entlang um die Container herum...

Und da ist es!

Die Container sind schon voller Stoffe und Accessoirs

Teilweise Taft, teilweise Polsterstoffe

Einblick in die große Halle, in der ersten kosten alle Stoffe 2 Euro pro Meter, in der zweiten 3 Euro pro Meter

Stoffe über Stoffe

Bänder von Kunstleder über Pailetten bis Haken und Augen

Knöpfe und Metallteile wie Nieten oder Clips

Oops, was ist das? Hat sich da etwa Stoff in meine Tasche geschlichen? Je 2m Breitcord und Wollflausch


Und wo kommt der hier her? 2m Wollstoff, 6,5m dünne Baumwolle

Ich muss Retrograde Stoffkaufamnesie haben... 4 Konen Overlockgarn von Gütermann (je 2 Euro!!!), ein paar Knöpfe und 17 Blumen zum anstecken (3 hat meine Mama einbehalten)

Suchbegriffe: Stoffscheune Münster, Gerry Weber, Stoffoutlet

10 Day challenge - Day 6

2012-02-06T16:30:00.002+01:00

Five things you can’t live without

chocolate
books
music
friends and family
learning

Sunday cake - cheesecake recipe

2012-02-05T21:35:00.000+01:00

Today I had a funny helper with baking for "Sunday cake": Trisha from Mary Sew was visiting me! Together, we made a Dr. Cheesecake and a Minime cake for her to take home...

And since she requested the recipe, I asked my mum if I can write it down on my blog. She agreed, so here we go!

Cheesecake recipe

Make a dough from
180g flour
90g sugar
90g butter or margarine at room temperature
1 egg
1 package of vanilla sugar or vanilla pulp (the inner part of a vanilla bean)
1 tsp backing powder

Spread in a oiled backing form and pinch with a fork several times - this keeps the dough from rising to high!

Prepare the cheese mixture from
1kg Magerquark (you can mix creamcheese and yoghurt in equal parts if Magerquark is not available)
200g sugar -250g for original recipe
4 eggs
1 package of vanilla sugar or vanilla pulp (the inner part of a vanilla bean)
1 package of custard powder, either vanilla or plain flavour

100g butter for the original recipe

Mix ingredients together and pour over dough. Bake together for 60 minutes at 175°C.

I included the original recipe and the "lighter" version my mum makes. The taste is almost the same but the calories are much lower... If you want the change the flavour - how dare you eat any other cheesecake from now on?! ^^ - you can add cocoa to the dough. Or put some mandarines or peaches in the cheesemixture. Or add lemonpeel. So many delicious options...

10 Day challenge - Day 5

2012-02-05T17:36:00.000+01:00

Six songs that you’re addicted to.

10 Day challenge - Day 4

2012-02-04T17:16:00.003+01:00

Seven fears/phobias of yours

I'm afraid of heights. But only between 3 and 70m, so all heights that seriously hurt you but don't kill you. I'm okay if I have solid floor under me and a fixed rail.
I don't like free flying birds. I'm afraid they will land on my head and bite my ears (happened to me when I was a child)...
Skiing. I once saw a friend hitting a tree after loosing control while skiing. She broke her leg and I never skied again.
I can't stand people touching my neck. I'll hit you if you surprise me getting to close to my neck!
Loosing my mind/intelectual capacities. I like being a smartass, thankyouverymuch!
I can't stand cockroaches. I disected them and touched them while in university so I'm not really afraid, but I'm disgusted by their smell.
I can't stand if my feet are not covered by a blanket. In summer I need a blanket for my feet even if the rest of my body is not covered!

zombie saturday - Zombie animals

2012-02-04T16:40:00.000+01:00

This zombie animal is real: A snake with a parasite that eats the snake's brain and forces her corpse to move around:

Week in review 5/2012

2012-02-03T17:22:00.000+01:00

Song...

Going back into my babybat days and listening to HIM! I still think this is their best album (Greatest lovesongs Vol 666)...

Book...

"Harry Potter and the prisoner of Askaban" by J.K. Rowling. I'm getting slower, but I read alot on the internet (excuses!) and will finish this today when visiting my mum...

Food...
Rather boring. How comes we always buy stuff but then forget to prepare it?

Thoughts...
Groundhog day... but where is the camera?

Sewing...
Steampunk ensemble is done! And the hoop skirt for the bat WGT outfit just needs stronger steel which is already ordered...

Colour...

Vector Patterns by COLOURlovers

...of the week!

10 Day challenge - Day 3

2012-02-03T16:31:00.001+01:00

Eight things that annoy you.

Mistakes in movies
Stupidity!!!
Wrong grammar
Sexism/ not treating everyone equally
Mario Barth (german comedian who always jokes about stupid women/his girlfriend)
bad tasting chocolate
being lazy (especially me being lazy)
BF always leaving his dirty socks on the floor in the living room

I used to be a steampunker, then I took an arrow in the knee

2012-02-02T17:14:00.000+01:00

I only recieved the pattern in january, but secretly I already started working on the pattern! So I proudly present to you my version of Simplicity 2172:

The whole outfit - obviously I didn't make the corset-ty thing

Button close up - the have an atom model (Bohr, for the interested) and say "Travel through space and time"

Closeup of shoulder ruffle detail and the neck ruffle - I really like the look of the ruffled plissè

The pretty insides of the jacket - beige lining, my label and a hook to hang it. Lining was not intended, so I made the pattern up myself

Skirt alone. I'm still thinking about adding a lace border between the two fabrics...

I used black tafeta I got for 2 Euros per meter, light beige polyester lining I got in a surprise package (ebay auction, I think I payed 10 Euros including shipping for 5 kg lining fabric!), some buttons I bought years ago (2009, some things need a resting period before I get to them ^^) and a fabric I'm pretty sure was intended to work as a sunblind... The lace is the leftover from the bustle skirt I made for WGT last year.
I have no idea when to wear it, but it looks pretty good and I will probably find an occasion. As the pieces are separates, I will wear the skirt more often. It was already worn out for a trip to the Matrix at the end of January!

10 Day challenge- Day 2

2012-02-02T17:07:00.002+01:00

Nine things you do everyday.

Getting up in the morning, with the first ring of the alarm clock. BF sleeps approximately 20-30 minutes longer.
Feed Killer&Spike.
Brush my teeth.
Put on some mascara (somedays more makeup, but this is what I wear every day)
check my mails
check my reader for all the blogs I read
read something
Eat a piece of chocolate (good days = 1 piece, bad day = more ^^)
Wash my face with Aleppo soap

10 Day challenge - day 1

2012-02-01T16:47:00.002+01:00

10 facts about yourself:

I love animals. I'm really happy to have pets at home (my two gerbils killer and spike), but one day I'd love to have cats again!
Recently, I found my first white hair. No, it's not grey, it is truely white! It still resides at my eyebrow, because I don't want to pluck my first sign of wisdom and age! ^^
Although I have the same resolutions every year, I fail every year in getting a better person in the way I planned. I still like me, but I could be better...
I like sewing, but I rarely wear my pieces in normal life. I wear my gothic/party clothes a lot, but somehow I end up wearing H&M, Zara and co.
I love wrapping gifts. I put a lot of effort even in "Schrottwichtelgeschenke" (white elephant for unwanted gifts) with nice paper and bows!
While I was utterly chaotic asa child, I now get annoyed by stuff lying around. I still am a lot messier than many friends, but I clean up my floor (and the living room!) at least once a week.
I take good care of my pets, but I'm horrible at taking care for plants. I sometimes forget to water them for weeks. I have some survivors - plants that withstand my care for several years now- but basil and chive usually die within weeks.
I'm really happy that I have a job I love most of the time. Of course I get annoyed by boring tasks, I don't like working on weekends even if the conference I attend is interesting, but all in all I love what I do and enjoy studying biology for my PhD!
I own and read a lot of books. By a lot I mean ~40-50 books a year. I read in the train, in bed, while waiting, if the book is interesting enough I read while walking! Thank god I never run into anything with my nose hidden in a novel!
My fingernails are always dirty. No matter what I do or how often I wash my hands, I can clean them whenever I take a look at them. I inherited this trait from my mum, who constantly looks at my nails and asks if I recently robbed a grave... ;)

Monthly theme post -rings

2012-02-01T16:12:00.023+01:00

Recently, I stumbled upon a very interesting blog and said blog has a monthly topic which invites its readers to write about: I will participate in this month's theme post about rings.
Currently I've been getting more in touch with my dark side again - sorry daddy. It might be quite obvious from the stuff I sewed (and planned for WGT, the Mecca for all German goths), but it's much slower/low key in real life. I still have red hair instead of black, but those who know me have seen me with pink, purple, teal... Red is a compromise with work and play.

Even during my darkest days, I was never quite keen on jewelry. I do wear earrings, but only since 4-5 years. I almost never wear necklaces because I don't like feeling restricted around my neck. Rings are really pretty - I do have some of them at home in my precious box - but when wearing latex gloves for work prove to be problematic.

Like most goths, I only wear silver/silver toned jewelry. Most of you probably experienced green discolouration of ring and/or skin after wearing cheaper rings. This results from water in minerals in your sweat interacting with cheaper metals in your rings. Mixing in cheaper metals is necessary as silver alone is actually rather weak and soft and will be scratched and deformed by wear.
If you wear latex gloves for an extended period of time (and it's not a good idea not to wear them or take them off during experiments), you create a wonderful wet and warm climate around your rings which increases staining a lot. Therefore I often have to test rings before wearing them to work or try to get rid of the stains after wearing them. In doubt I just get rid of them, so my collection is small.

You can imagine how annoying this is, which means more often than not that I won't wear any rings during the 5-6 days a week I'm working. I try to integrate rings into my party outfits more, but this takes a conscious effort from my part. I was really good last week where I wore 3 rings - silver with mother of pearl, silver with hematite and an old engagement ring from my granny.

Some of the rings I have represent a memory - like the engagement ring above- or an experience. This ring with tiny sapphires was bought when I was traveling to Thailand with my father. Whenever I wear it, it revokes pictures from the trip in my mind.

Other rings are linked to people: This rings looks faded since a childhood friend sunk it into his aquarium and refused to hand it back to me for the whole weekend! This cleaned the aluminium ring from the dark colour in between the pattern.

One ring will always remind me of how naive I can be: I have this "ring of o" which I bought during my babybat days when I was around 14-15 years old. I still remember that the seller was quite nice and interested in my personal life, asking a lot of questions. Little did I know about the meaning of this ring, which is why I don't wear it any longer...

Do you have rings with a meaning? Or do you wear them for fashion only?

Fabric balance sheet

2012-01-31T16:44:00.000+01:00

Natron - sewing godess and Co-founder of my favourite sewing page- started a nifty feature where we should use the last day of the month to talk about incoming and outgoing fabrics. Well, this month's numbers don't look that good for me:

Incoming:

1 yard black brocade
1 yard white hole fabric
4m black heavy cotton
4m black thin polycotton
1m black velvet
2m thin shiny poly-whatever
2m pinstripe wool stretch

total damage: ~15m fabric

Outgoing (only counting finished projects):

1.5m black and pink stripey cotton (gay pirate bloomers)
1.5m silver plissé (steampunk skirt)
2m black tafeta (steampunk skirt)
5m flower cotton (hoop skirt, needs stronger steel but otherwise done)

to the rescue: ~10m fabric

15m - 10m = 5 m fabric added to my stash this month

Like Natron, I will add a graph to my sidebar...

I'm not addicted, I'm not addicted, I'm not....

2012-01-30T17:16:00.001+01:00

Since Neisella already posted her haul and mentioned I also bought some stuff, I can as well show it here on my blog. The shop we went to was some kind of secret shopping tip. They don't do any advertising, the adress is handed mouth to mouth (or on the internet, if you know the right people like me! ^^). It is a den behind Rossman in Münster Wolbeck (Hiltruper Str. 22, 48167 Münster, Germany) filled to the brim with fabric and notions. Fabrics are 2-3 Euros per m or coupon, if you buy more you get rebates. I highly recommend going there but:

it is not heated, so wear gloves (maybe without fingertips to feel the fabrics) and warm shoes
you might need a measuring tape to make sure your coupon is enough for a garment
bring some bags, the only offer ones without handle
and don't be surprised by the look of the den. In the beginiing I thought we were wrong...

Total damage was only 24 Euros, so I actually don't feel that bad about going shopping for more black fabrics!

PVC piping, Gütermann thread for 1 Euro per roll, invisible zips and buttons

Button close up - 10 of the white ones, 6 of the small glittery ones and 12 (wanted 10, wasn't able to count) black ones

from left to right - heavy black stretch stuff for BF's WGT outfit, some shiny thin polystuff and velvet

Pinstripe with wool content and stretch, medium weight polycotton stretch

Tagged by Paisleystern (german only)

2012-01-29T22:13:00.001+01:00

Paisleystern fragt und ich antworte:

1) Stadtkind oder Landei?
Definitiv Stadtkind. Nie wieder aufs Land, wenn es sich irgendwie vermeiden lässt!

2) Elektische oder Handzahnbürste?
Handzahnbürste, weil mein Zahnfleisch und mein Gaumen unendlich kitzlig sind.

3) Hunde- oder Katzenmensch?
Katzenmensch. Hunde sind laut und riechen streng (bei Katzen nur das Katzenklo. Das aber dafür um so mehr! ^^)...

4) Herd oder Lieferdienst?
Herd. Ich backe und koche gerne! Achnee, wer hätte es bei "Sunday cake" vermutet?!

5) Rapunzel oder Meckie der Igel?
Als Buch lieber Mecki (ich hatte alle 7 Bücher bis auf den Mond!), als Frisur lieber Rapunzel.

6) Terra-X oder Die Ludolfs?
Terra-X.

7) Fleisch oder Gemüse?
Gemüse ist mein Fleisch! ;)

8) Schokolade oder Erdbeer?
Schokolade, keine Frage. Erdbeeren gehen nur 2-3 Monate im Sommer richtig gut, wenn sie reif und am besten frisch vom Feld sind. Schoki hab ich heute einer Qualitätskontrolle unterzogen und sie hat wie immer bestanden...

9) Livekonzert oder Mitschnitt auf DVD?
Live, weil ich nie die Geduld habe mir DVDs ganz an zu sehen.

10) Disko oder Festival?
Oh, schwierig. Disko besuche ich öfter, Festival ist wegen der Atmosphäre besser. Aber Festival ist auch anstrengender, weswegen Disko dann vielleicht auf Dauer doch besser ist. Am liebsten beides!

11) Kettenbrief oder Spam?
Spam, da hab ich einen guten Filter gegen.

Sunday cake - brownie cake

2012-01-29T15:43:00.001+01:00

Actually, more like a brownie prepared in a cake tin and baked maybe one minute too long...

This nasty little bugger contains about 120g chocolate and 50g butter (whole cake, not this piece though). Not very diet friendly, right? But I made good use of the leftover filling for my maccarones which had a second life in this wonderful yummi cake. It would be even better had I not let it stay a minute too long in the oven. But it is still very good!

Zombie saturday - Liquid supply for survival

2012-01-28T17:01:00.000+01:00

Week in review 4/2012

2012-01-27T17:00:00.000+01:00

Song...

Got to know this from a member of my RPG: "Tetris title" by Powerglove. A speedmetal band playing old videogame intros? Loving it!

Book...

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J.K. Rowling and "Drachenfeuer" (Dragon's fire)by Wolfgang Hohlbein. You can not read too many Hohlbein's in a row because of the similarities, but once in while they are pretty nice!

Food...
Fishcurry. Monkfish, zucchini, scallions, green curry paste and coconut milk. Easy, yummi, will be cooked again!

Thoughts...
Just because you have a bad temper dosen't neccessarily mean I keep calm all the time!

Sewing...
Steampunk ensemble (still working on it... But I'm mostly done!)

Colour...

Vector Patterns by COLOURlovers

...of the week!

Sunday cake - lemon muffins again!

2012-01-22T14:57:00.000+01:00

- this post was sceduled to be posted last sunday when I was out and about, but somehow blogger decided against it. Sorry I didn't notice until now!-

During my meetups with my RPG group I told them about my habit to bake every weekend. Of course they were more than willing to try anything yummi I would bring! So this saturday I made a batch of lemon muffins.

To my defence for preparing the same old recipe again and again - they are really tasty, my boyfriend doesn't feel left out because he likes them as well and I thought something like this would be perfect for handing out.

Zombie saturday - Working at the car wash

2012-01-21T16:50:00.001+01:00

MindLess Indulgence

10 Day challenge - Day 10

One person you can trust

So, I trust myself most. But I'm a trusting person, I believe most of the stuff you tell me, I think that nobody wants to do bad stuff to me. It's quite easy to trick me, but once someone hurt me, I decide to move back from the relationsship...

Week in review 6/2012

10 Day challenge - Day 9

Two things you wish you could do.

Remember everything I read.

Help humanity to be better. Heal illnesses, feed the poor, make everyone happy (I know this is impossible, but one can dream, right?)

10 Day challenge - Day 8

Three words you can’t go a day without using.

I

But

No

10 Day challenge - Day 7

Picture guide to "secret" faric shop (german)

10 Day challenge - Day 6

Sunday cake - cheesecake recipe

10 Day challenge - Day 5

10 Day challenge - Day 4

zombie saturday - Zombie animals

Week in review 5/2012

10 Day challenge - Day 3

I used to be a steampunker, then I took an arrow in the knee

10 Day challenge- Day 2

10 Day challenge - day 1

Monthly theme post -rings

Fabric balance sheet

I'm not addicted, I'm not addicted, I'm not....

Tagged by Paisleystern (german only)

Sunday cake - brownie cake

Zombie saturday - Liquid supply for survival

Week in review 4/2012

Sunday cake - lemon muffins again!

Zombie saturday - Working at the car wash