So I saw this image below of a DIY earring display on Pinterest awhile ago and have wanted to try to make my own for a while.  My earring collection is poorly displayed in a pile in a flat jewelry box now and I end up wearing the same things over and over again just out of convenience.  

I convinced two of my friends here to make one with me, so we ventured out to Ikea for a cheap frame and the hardware store for the rest of the supplies.  

We bought window screen to mount within the frame, but the wood that the Ikea frames are made out of proved to be more difficult than I had expected.  It was so hard that it bent both tacks and screws, and ended up pretty much ruining the little bit of screen material I had.  

So plan B, I added hooks and now its a necklace holder.  I actually really like how it turned out, despite the fact that it doesn't hold as much as I had hoped.  

I finished a baby blanket for us recently.  I really like how it turned out.  The yarn is silky but keeps its form.  It was a smaller weight yarn than the pattern called for, so it was doubled up, but even so it turned out a little smaller than I expected.  I still like it and its functional though.  Next, hopefully pictures with her using it!

I posted a couple weeks ago about the headband making supplies I bought for Baby H.  I wanted to post some pictures on how they turned out.  I ended up having a ton more felt and elastic than I needed, so I went a bit overboard.  I still have a ton left too!  

It was fun and easy!  I would definitely recommend the tutorial I used for the felt flowers.

We've been a little boring lately, but I've enjoyed it.  Hopefully I've done a good job entertaining you on here anyways :)  

We were pretty steadily busy starting in November with the Canary Islands, then my brother visiting for 10 days, Christmas, my trip back to the US for 3 weeks, and then Berlin at the end of January.  Ever since though, we've been laying low and its been nice.  Jason and I have had very few stretches since we met almost 8 years ago where we're able to get into a routine.  We're not quite in one yet here, but there was a short time in Kuwait and Colorado where we did and maybe it'll happen soon here.  

It just feels good to occasionally have some down time where you get into a groove and allow yourself to mentally catch up with life.  We don't have much planned over the next 10 weeks as we wait for the little one to arrive, so I plan to enjoy it as much as I can.

Germany is very different from the US in so many ways, but not in the stark ways that Kuwait was.  You could have a completely ordinary day in Kuwait and it could involve the most random occurrences that made for entertaining posts.  Here its not quite that eventful, so I struggle sometimes to come up with unique things to share, so this tends to be more of a glimpse into our world vs. a lesson living in Germany.

This year is going to be a full one.  Starting with the baby, we'll have non-stop company from the end of April through mid-July.  Then we head to Italy with family towards the end of July.  At the beginning of September we'll head back to the States for a wedding and to see family and friends, and then it'll soon be Fall and the holidays again!  Not to mention we'll have a little mini-me strapped to our side throughout all this which will make it all the more interesting.  

Anyways, enough rambling.  I hope you enjoy my little day to day posts, as ordinary as they may be sometimes :)

Jason had a 4-day weekend this weekend.  All our friends here took off for various trips.  Maybe Jason and I are just boring, but we stayed in and relaxed and I got some stuff around the house done.  We've got a busy year a head of us, so the travel-itch isn't as strong in me lately.  

I finally hemmed some Ikea curtains that I bought months ago.  It took me forever because I only use my sewing machine every once in a while.  They're done though and it feels good!  

I also bought some supplies to make some kiddo headbands.  I've wanted to make a headband for our little bird since I found I was pregnant with her.  I just think they're cute if they're done right and had this How To from Shade & Lizzie pinned and ready.

I bought felt from Crafty Wool Felt and Foldover Elastic for the bands from Couture Craft Supply

I am constantly surprised by all the stuff you accumulate/need when preparing for a baby!  Its amazing really.  Among last week's internet item searches was a mobile.

When looking online, I couldn't find anything that quite fit what I was looking for.  The affordable ones were too cutesy and the cooler ones cost way too much because they're handmade.  So I decided to make my own.  

My mom and grandmother are both very creative and so I thought while I was visiting them, we could combine our powers and make something pretty cool.  

I love the way they turned out, but they took a lot of work, so I can understand why they're so expensive.  The effort was well worth it though because now we have a one-of-a-kind mobile that was made by three generations.

This is a little late, but I couldn't post these earlier before people received them.  For our close family, I decided to make ornaments this year instead of Christmas cards.  The idea sounded fun and easy in my head, but turned out to be harder than I thought.  
The post office here is always busy around the holidays, so to avoid being shunned by everyone else in line, I would only bring 5-6 ornaments to ship at a time.  This meant that I went to the post office and stood in line at least 6 different times to ship these little things, in addition to our other Christmas packages that had to go out.  

Also, salt dough isn't as easy to work with as I had envisioned!  It took me 3 batches before I deemed them acceptable to give out, and even then they weren't as perfect as I had hoped they would be.  

I hope all who got one though, liked them though and that they didn't look like a 5 yr old made them! :)

I found craft stuff to make a wreath this week!  I put ours in storage for some reason, so I was wreath-less :)

New faucet installed!