Projects to Keep Busy

We've been in Germany for almost 7 weeks now and finally have Internet in our apartment!  This means that I can check my e-mail more regularly, listen to WaYfm online, and update the blog more often!  It's very nice to not have to walk half an hour to McDonald's just to use the computer, but can rather check things whenever I feel like it.

Since I'm not taking the walks to McDonald's anymore, I have to have things to keep me busy while Brian is at work.  I don't have a job here, so I spend most of my days at home doing things around here.  I spend quite a bit of time cleaning because the apartment is much bigger than any place we've lived and has hard wood floors that show all sorts of dirt.  Besides cleaning, I'm working on some other hobbies that I've been doing for a while and trying some new things.  Here's some pictures of what we've been up to.

This is a new checkbook cover for my mom.  

She has one just like it, but it's starting to fall apart, so I made her a new one.

A bookmark I made.  It's not quite finished because I have to figure out how to do french knots without having them fall out!  I have a few more of these types of bookmarks to work on.

This is Brian's project.  In the blue bin is our compost bin.  The dead plants and leaves are to put in it once they dry out.  The bin is pretty full now, so hopefully we will have some dirt soon.  We're hoping this will give us dirt so that we don't have to buy any and take it home on our bikes.

We've got some plants growing on our balcony.  They not very high-maintenance, so it's not a very busy project.  These are yellow beans.

These are the beginning of some flowers...they're much bigger now.

This is lettuce.

More yellow beans.

My most recent project - carrot cake.  Brian wanted to bring something to work for his birthday, so I suggested a cake.  When I went through the cookbook, Brian picked out the carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  I had never made a carrot cake before, so it was definitely a process!  We had to figure out what all the ingredients were in German and then find them in the grocery store (nothing is where you would expect it here!).  I then had to convert things from standard to metric measurements because my recipe was in standard and my ingredients were in metric.  Grating 3 cups of carrots is not fun either!

Here's the finished product with cream cheese frosting and marzipan carrots on top.  

I hope it tastes good for the guys at work tomorrow!

I've got to finish another bookmark and then Brian would like some knitted mittens.  I've never done that before, so I think it will be a bit of a process to do because I have to go buy yarn and needles here.

Watch for more projects because I've got lots of them!