Tuesday 22 February 2011

This is completely embarrassing...

I've told you already that I'm a complete nerd, right? So I took the Star Trek personality test and it came up with this. I honestly don't know if getting Troy is better than being a redshirt or worse...


You are Deanna Troi
Deanna Troi
80%
An Expendable Character (Redshirt)
70%
Beverly Crusher
65%
Geordi LaForge
65%
James T. Kirk (Captain)
55%
Mr. Sulu
55%
Will Riker
55%
Spock
50%
Uhura
50%
Chekov
45%
Worf
45%
Jean-Luc Picard
40%
Leonard McCoy (Bones)
35%
Mr. Scott
35%
Data
31%
You are a caring and loving individual.
  You understand people's emotions and
you are able to comfort and counsel them.


Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

Monday 21 February 2011

Monday Makers: Art of Felt

Today I have the pleasure to introduce you to the lovely Daria of "Art of felting" who shares with us some wonderfully inspiring stories! Enjoy! And if you want to be featured here, please click HERE and read the post - it's easy!

Hello and welcome to my Monday Makers Series! Can you tell me a little bit about you?
Hello there,
my name is Daria and I am a mother to three adorable girls ages 2,4 and 6. The eldest, Shulamith, goes to a Waldorf school and the four year, Abigail, old goes to a Waldorf kindergarten. Jael, spends her day with me at home.
I was born in Belarus, and when I finished school I decided to study biology. as I graduated, I got a research job at a lab, but somehow felt it wasn't what I was meant to do. However I found that those years where well spent, as I use the knowledge I acquired in my studies everyday when making felted animals. I recommend for any artist who wants his or her art to appear lifelike to study the anatomy of those creatures, as the understanding shows through your work.


How did you start creating your beautiful felted works of art?
Art was always a big part of my life, even in my years at the lab, if I wasn't painting I was sculpting or working with clay to express my self in different artistic mediums.
I was introduced to the world of felting through the Waldorf community. The kindergarten did not allow store bought toys so I made her one, then another one. Next thing you know I was making all her friends toys too. Little by little it became not only a hobby, but also a business.

Where can I buy your creations?
http://www.etsy.com/shop/darialvovsky

Can you tell us a little bit more about your art?
I have two main themes in my work.
One is making of the felted animals which i love, and the other the Waldorf sculptures and tapestries. It all began in a hot Russian summer at my grandfathers home, It was the first time I had returned there after many many years and the strongest impression I had was that the garden of my childhood was gone. My memory did not resemble at the least what I saw in front of me. Not only did the garden appear much smaller, the colors where different. Even the air was not the right density, it felt as if i was standing in two worlds, the one in my memory and the one in reality. It was a parallel universe, a different continent. It felt like it was a low budget film trying, unsuccessfully to shoot a scene of my childhoods memory.
This got me thinking. My children are seeing different colors, smelling different smells then I had smelled as a child. I looked at the games they where given as presents. Regular games that can be bought at any store. Educational. Plastic. Instructive, Trying to set the children on their way of becoming whoever it was they where supposed to become, robbing them of their present, rushing them into the menacing future.
I literally felt the creeping of goosebumps all over me. I saw then the beauty in the whole Waldorf idea. The soft colors, the calm radiating from these toys. Those toys where like a good book, taking you hand in hand halfway through the world of imagination, instructing you to use your mind, and take the rest of the trip by yourself filling in the blanks, the back story. The faces.
I was hooked. That day was a turning point for me, and ever since I am part of the Waldorf world.

Do you want to offer a promo code/give away something to the blog readers? 
I would love to offer a promo code "Veelana" for %5 discount.

Thank you so much for taking the time  to answer all my questions!
I'm still looking for people to feature in this space - contact me here or on etsy if you're interested!

Vee

Sunday 20 February 2011

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments in time I want to preserve: Disney world 2010, part 4

This is it! the last part of our WDW vacation 2010 - and I'm so glad I finally took the time to write it all down! You can go and read the first three parts here:
Part 1 part 2 part 3 have fun reading this!

Click to view day fourteen album
Dec. 5th: Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo!
We had the most delicious breakfast at Wolfgang Puck Express and spent the morning in Downtown Disney. We did some shopping, the kids wanted to go to Disney Quest one more time and we played our favourite video games.
We went back for a mid afternoon nap (most of us - chris went to the parks again), and when we wanted to go out for the night again, something really cool happened.
Our hotel had this gigantic Christmas tree in the lobby. Every evening one kid got to light the tree with a magic wand - and today Dorian was picked! (that only works if you define "picked" as: "mom went there early to ask them if they could pick him and got on the hotel staffs nerves until they did")
Dorian got very, very nervous. He told me that he didn't know if he could do it...
He did very well! We yelled "Bibbity-bobbity-boo" as he was told and the lights went on. Very cool!
We ended up not going out anymore, just played at the arcade for a bit.
 

click to view day fifteen album
Dec. 6th: Pizza Planet, here we come! 
Dorian really wanted to do the Jedi training again before we left Disney World, so we headed to the Disney Studios. We got in an hour early  because they had the extra magic hour that day and I headed right to the Jedi training area with Dorian, while Chris and Lilith got us fast passes for the Midway Mania (Toy Story) ride. We just had time to see clubhouse Disney again and I tried to get onto the rock n roller coaster but it was closed. Dorian did  a great job with the Jedi training! To celebrate, we went to Pizza Planet for lunch and I finally got some salads! I love having a salad with my meals, I had Idea how much I missed it!
We went back to the hotel for a nap and headed back out in the evening - and while everyone was sleeping I had a quick dip at blizzard beach. Sliding is soooo much fun!
The magic kingdom was next on our list and we got to see space mountain with the lights on, I think they had to fix something - very cool! and we saw "Wishes" again which was just as awesome as last time.


Interlude: Strollers
Just in case anyone is wondering why there is no stroller in any of our pictures - we didn't have one. We did originally plan to buy a cheap stroller for our vacation, but we didn't find what we where looking for right away and did our first day in the Hollywood Studios without one and it worked great! Our kids are used to riding on mom and dads shoulders and we never had to deal with stroller parking.
I have to say that I never once missed the stroller, but there where plenty of times where I was really happy that I didn't have to deal with one, especially when we were in a crowd...


Click to view day sixteen album
Dec. 7th: We need a break! 
After having a late night, we just stayed in bed for a while. Chris went out early in the morning and we planned to meet up for lunch at Wolfgang Puck express again. The food was delicious and Dorian got to go to Disney Quest with his dad one last time. I had time to pack in the afternoon when I was back at the hotel with Lilith and  I had plans to head out right after glee again that night for one last shopping trip.
Chris brought Dorian back to the hotel and headed out again to Epcot. I planned to put the kids to bed before glee started, but it didn't work that way - Dorian was asleep after his head hit the pillow, but Lilith refused to cooperate. We ended up watching "glee" together - and she fell asleep about three seconds after the episode was over...
I used the rest of our snack credits to buy candy at Goofy's candy shoppe and had dinner at "Earl of sandwich" - and the best ice tea lemonade EVER...


Click to view day seventeen album
Dec. 8th: going home  
We spent the last day of our vacation in the magic Kingdom, doing all of our favourite rides one last time (or three times in the case of Dorian and the Peter Pan ride) and went on a ridiculous spending spree at the main street bakery with our last meal credits. We got three pastries for each credit and I think we had about 12 or 15 credits left - yes, we had a whole suitcase full of food on our way home. The cinnamon buns are sooooo awesome...
Dorian ate a whole ice cream sandwich - two gigantic freshly baked cookies with about two inch of vanilla ice cream in between - and I think he only got hungry after we were back home about a day later...
Our flight back to Frankfurt was uneventful but cramped - they where looking for volunteers that would take the plane on the next day. We volunteered (800$ cash per ticket, a nice hotel room and an additional day of vacation are pretty strong pro arguments), but we ended up on that flight anyway...
We couldn't get onto our plane in Frankfurt as we planned becausebecause they were backed up for days.
Going home by train had its advantages - the airline transported our bags :-)


That's it! There will be an epilogue post next week with some stuff I forgot to mention or that just didn't fit anywhere, but you made it to the end ouf our vacation! Thank you so much for reading all of this - the last couple of days were pretty hard to do, I waited a tad too long...

Saturday 19 February 2011

Silent saturday




15 day "five a day" challenge

I've been extremely bad with blogging regularly for a couple of weeks now, so in a desperate attempt to change that, I decided to jump on the 15-DAY 5 CHALLENGE - Bandwagon. I ran across this HERE. My goal is to post something every day - it's going to be a post like this unless I post something else.  Enjoy!

15-DAY 5 CHALLENGE
5 basic facts about you

5 not-so-basic facts about you

5 ways you break the ice

5 signs that you’re into someone

5 signs that you’re NOT into someone

5 things you do when you’re bored

5 things that make you hyper

5 things you’re known for

5 things you want to do

5 things you’ll never do

5 good things about you

5 bad things about you

5 ways to make you cry

5 ways to win your heart

5 things you need to say


I'm married with children :-)
I'm currently trying to get my etsy shop noticed
I'm now officially a grown up Hobbit - I'm 33 years old
I love books, boardgames and Music
I'm a stay at home mom right now

Thats that from me right now - feel free to do the challenge yourself! If you do, drop me a link, please, I will link you up. This should be a fun way to get to know eachother!

Vee

PS: I finally have a new doll at my store - I have no idea why it took me so long...

Monday 7 February 2011

Monday Makers: BabyfishDesigns

As part of my new Monday Makers Series I had the pleasure to interview Gina from BabyfishDesigns, who makes, among other things, extremely cute and sweet waldorf doll zip up hoodies. She lets us take a little peak into her exhausting day and even has a coupon for you, if you read all the way to the end!

Vee: Hello there! Its great that you found the time for this interview! Can you tell me a bit about you?
Hi! My name is Gina and I'm a SAHM of three littles with another one joining us in late April. My hubs and I have been married for 7 years and we have so much fun together! I've been selling OOAK clothing at BFD's for probably 7 or 8 months now and it's been an amazing and incredible ride! I make OOAK upcycled kids and doll clothing, and hope to start offering adult pieces soon as well. I LOVE all my amazing customers and getting to know them and their children (and dolls! lol) has been so much fun.

I want to see more! Where can I buy your creations?
My etsy shop: www.babyfishdesigns.etsy.com, but you can also see all my work, including customs on my facebook page, www.facebook.com/babyfishdesigns

What does your day look like?
Well, since I have such small children (my oldest is only 4) and we homeschool I don't have as much sewing time as a lot of other shop owners but I make do! :) I generally try to get up around 5:30 and read my Bible, catch up on shipping and facebook and convos and then if I have something I'm behind on I try to get it done before everyone else gets up around 7. Then breakfast and getting the hubs off to work at 8. From 8 to 8:45 the kids have free time and I try to do some cleaning then from 8:45 to 9 they have to clean up any of their stuff and get dressed and we start school at 9. We usually do some sort of craft or painting or something around 10:30 or 11 and then my husband comes home for lunch at 12. In the afternoons the kids all lay down for naps and this is when I do most of my sewing. I try to save the evenings to spend time with Tim (my husband) but if I'm behind or have a deadline I do sometimes sew some more after the kids are in bed, or sometimes even after Tim goes to bed! Phew! Anyone want some more coffee?!?! LOL!!!

Do you have any tips for other artisans/crafters? 

My biggest tip would be to only do it if you LOVE it, and MOST importantly, make sure you still have time to make art/creations simply for the joy of it...just for yourself or you'll get burned out.

Do you do custom work? 
I love customs! In fact the majority of my work is custom orders. I just wanted to encourage people to look through my albums on Facebook or my sold items on etsy. I frequently don't have enough time to keep my shop stocked with RTG items. Also I LOVE doing customs with YOUR old shirts. There are few things quite as special as seeing your little one in a cute outfit made from your old clothes.

Do you want to offer a promo code/give away something to the blog readers? 
They can use the code veelana10 for 10% off any RTG item, or I'll give a $7 discount for any custom orders using your shirts (the discount is usually $5.)
 

Thank you so much for answering  so many Questions! 
If you love her Doll clothing but don't have a waldorf doll to put them on, check out my etsy shop and find the right one for yourself and your kids. Feel free to contact me for any custom work, too!

Sunday 6 February 2011

Sunday Scrapbook: Moments in time I want to preserve: Disneyworld 2010, part 3

hey there,
This is the three part of our Walt Disney World vacation, and there are going to be four parts, and then maybe a post with some of the things that didn't really fit anywhere else. You can go back and read part one and part two. This weeks post covers the first four days of December and a praise to Disney's guest relations and lost and found services. Enjoy!

Click to view day ten album
Dec. 1st: Wishes
December 1st found us at  Disney Downtown in the morning - we got most of our shopping done at World of Disney (I got a very cool hat!) and we went to Wolfgang Puck Express for lunch - they took our dining credits :-) It was so nice to eat off real plates again and to use cutlery that wasn't made of plastic.
The kids (and of course, us) played for a couple of hours at Disney Quest and went back to the hotel for a nap. We actually had plans for the night for once...
We made it to the magic Kingdom with a bit of time to spare before the Parade - we looked at the character houses in Toontown and Dorian took his first ride on a roller coaster, Goofy's barnstormer.  We found a great spot in front of the castle for the Electrical Parade, next to THE sweetest gay couple I've ever seen. One of the guys used to work at WDW and we got talking - he was at the lost children department and told us a bit about the inner workings.
The kids were completely mesmerised by the parade and I loved it, too - just the music got a bit annoying after the tenth repetition...
We saw the "Wishes" firework at 8 pm and this is by far the best firework I've seen in my life. I love the way this is set to music, just perfect.


Click to view day eleven album
Dec. 2nd: Some thing's missing 
Let me say this up front: I'm not very proud of my reaction, 'kay? And I used to think that I keep my head in an emergency...
The day started off nice enough - we made it in time to the magic kingdom to get in early with the extra magic hour. Only when we got to the entrance I noticed that my wallet was gone. I knew I'd had it when we where at the hotel because I used my key card to pay for breakfast, so there was no chance that I had accidentally left it in our room. I started panicking, Chris went back to check if I'd lost it on the way to the bus and I got in line at the guest relations counter - I knew that I'd have to cancel my credit card if the wallet didn't show up right away.
Chris went into the park with Dorian and we agreed on a meeting point.
After that, I pretty much went to pieces. I started crying, and everyone in the queue was so nice to me! One lady even gave me 20$ so I could enjoy the rest of my vacation. I didn't want to take it, but she just stuffed it in Lilith's pocket.
Guest relations helped me sort out the credit card and key card mess and got me a day pass for WDW so I could go in and join my husband and son. We had a nice enough time at the magic Kingdom - we finally had that pineapple float everybody is talking about - and went back to the hotel for a nap. We headed out pretty late to go to Epcot in the evening to see the illuminations. It was really impressive, but the Wishes are still my favourite firework. The sidewalk and fountain lightart in Epcot is stunning. I've never seen anything like that...


Interlude: Guest relations and Lost and Found at WDW
If you  can't live without the experience of having your wallet stolen, do it at WDW ;-) The guy at Guest relations went out of his way to help me cancel my credit card and ATM card, he even called my austrian bank to do so.
My wallet was found the next day (minus credit card and room key) - I'm so glad that I didn't have to retake my drivers licence!
As nice as everybody was, I still don't recommend it :-)



Click to view day twelve album
Dec. 3rd: Animal Kingdom
The kids had been so great the last  couple of days and everything had worked so well that we ignored the feeling that it was time for another rest day. That was not the smartest plan...
The kids where pretty grumpy for most of the day, but we managed OK after a while. The Safari was great and the kids loved seing the animals - the jungle trail was pretty impressive, too! 
We had the most fattening breakfast EVER in animal Kingdom. The muffin and chocolate shake where so rich, we shared them four ways and the kids didn't want to eat the chocolate lolipop that came with it afterwards...
We had fun banging the drums, we went to the lion king show where we learned that giraffes go "baaaa" like sheep and I got to ride the Expedition Everest coaster while Chris went to see the Nemo show with the kids. We ended up on the playground, where the kids finally started having fun - and I had a chance to go see the bugs life show inside the tree of life.
I love the look of Animal Kingdom - theres such an incredible amount of detail! The kids didn't really dig that park too much, but there wasn't so much for them to do.

I went back to Epcot after the kids were in bed. I skipped the Illuminations this time, got some chinese food and went on Mission Space six times in a row. So Much FUN!


Click to view day thirteen album
Dec. 4th: Pause and unwind
After a somewhat stressful day at Animal Kingdom the day before, Chris took off by himself to the Hollywood studios and Blizzard Beach. We met for lunch at the earl of sandwitch and I went to the JoAnn store a bit later where I spent the 20$ the nice lady gave to me :-) I would probably have spent 100$ or more if I'd had them...
I got a great set of pretty tissue paper that I want to use for my window stars and a box of mini candy canes :-)
I really wanted to make it in time for the christmas tree lighting at the hotel, but we ended up being a couple of minutes late.


So much for the third part of our Florida adventure - the next part will be up next sunday!