Bern Excursion

Closer to Home

As an intermezzo to the Baltics pictures, here are some from an excursion Kat and I took today to see Switzerland's capital city, Bern. We went by train, then walked around the Old Town and to the Bear garden and along the river.

A series of fountains grace the streets of the Old Town

The clock tower

Lots of architectural details

The other side

The streets are lined with arcades, and all those cellar doors go down to trendy shops.

Saints Peter and Paul church

Rathaus (Town Hall)

Across from the Rathaus

Cast bronze doors of the life of Christ, on a church that used to be a fortress.

This one was the fortress

Berns' trademark bear garden....

... now expanded to include a riverside enclosure for the two bears.

The path along the Aare river

The view toward the Münster

Where we were headed

An Alice cake

The museum we visited

Original church figures, preserved

woven cane

The Münster

The reason this baby is unhappy.....

... is this Fresser

But the flowers are pretty

Such was Bern today.

Three Finished Projects

Yay! I finished some projects this week. :)

First of all, the dino hat and diaper cover for my work friend's baby...

I got the pattern for the main part here, but of course I'm me... *sigh* ...and I just COULDN'T make it exactly like that and had to tweak it to suit my fancy and cover up mistakes, lol!

So, I had a Pinspiration from this photo... and worked up something kind of like it for the dino plates, because I liked the rounder look...

...and then I attatched the plates on the hat too far back and had to make another little one for the front. If anyone would like the patterns I did for the plates, please let me know, and I'll write them down! :)

For the ties, I doubled lengths of matching yarn through the spaces between the last stitches at the bottoms of the ear flaps, braided them, and tied them off with overhand knots.


Second up, I finished the heart pillow I was working on for my cousin's wedding present! I have a ton of pictures, as I snapped them at almost all the stages as I worked on it, but I think it would be kind of overwhelming for this post right now, haha. So, if you want the step-by-step-ish pics (and/or the pattern I am almost satisfied with now, and just have to edit so it reads normally instead of with all my funny abbreviations, notations, and things in the wrong spots lol), again, please let me know! :D

(Guess where I found the pattern for the little one-round heart applique? Ya, it was Pinterest. Right here. Lol)


And lastly, I finished the head I was drawing. Used color pencil for most of it, but the pen I used for her eyelashes decided to be a brat, and now I really don't like how wonky and crooked her left (to your right) eye looks! :( Haha. The drawing actually looks better in the photograph than on the page, which is kind of cool, I guess. :D (But, it still looks nothing like the photo I used as a reference. Grr.)

Fall is in the air, so I'm excited to potentially have even a little more crafting time in the coming weeks! Do you get more time to craft when the weather gets colder, or are you booked pretty much straight through the year?

Silk Roses

For Sometime, Perhaps

Kat thought it might come in handy, for some special occasion, to know how to make silk roses.

So we made a couple of practice ones. My silk yardage was almost gone, so they were quite short, but she knows the process for future reference. 

We investigated the idea of adding stamping to the silk for some pattern in the roses.

First: stamp

Second: fold in half, sew a running stitch along raw edges, gathering and winding and tacking every few inches

Two color stamping

Mine: very open and not full, but flowery

Kat's: tighter and more rose-like, with ideas for future tries.

More Baltics 4

Baltic Versailles

This palace, obviously modelled on the French version, was the home of ruling counts, then various invaders. It is now a worth-visiting museum, without the horrendous lines and crowds.

Gate to the courtyard.

The stables and carriage houses

The inner courtyard to the palace

As one enters......

.... and puts on little slippers to keep the wood floors unscuffed....

.....then goes up the grand staircase.....

...into the grand rooms....

....with lots of gold and plasterwork....

(the marble is beautiful paintwork)

.....one marvels at the nice copy so far away from the original (but still closer than St. Petersburg)

Pictures from here will continue.

Blessed Sunday to all.

More Baltics 3

Miscellaneous

Here are some pictures of interesting things from a Lithuanian castle and open air museum.

A large platter made from coins and medals. 

A very large cup made from coins and medals

These are the coins and medals.

A Russian enamelled cup

More Russian enamelled wares

Lithuanian country houses

A snazzy carriage

A tiny outbuilding with pretty details

A country house interior (Open Air Museum). The thing on wheels with a hole is a baby walker.

Many old and current in-use houses had thatched roofs.

Front porch and foot cleaners

Those beds were for two adult people, head to feet......

That log was a pantry. Note the handmade scooters for children, on the floor. This farmer had six, we were told. The basket is made from birch bark.

Bark baskets

A small windmill

ALL the horses we saw were staked out, even when there were fences, which was not common. There was much  un-used land, with no crops, no livestock, no buildings.

We saw many mill stones, some huge, just lying along roadways.

Hand tools

The richer peoples' home, the Jewish family

A door hinge and something inexplicable

The poorer peoples' kitchen

Kitchen cook stove and oven

These countries are still recovering from Communist rule. They are trying to recover their culture and rebuild and attract investment and visitors. We are glad for their efforts.