Do you believe in love at first sight?

Well, I can tell you I even believe in love BEFORE first sight.

Even before my little princess was born I felt so much love for her, little did I know how much stronger this feeling would get once I gave birth.

Ellen Jane was born on January 21th and everytime I look at her, I'm afraid my heart will burst from too much love.

She will be 10 weeks tomorrow and is the cutest little thing. She brings so much joy to the whole family.
Right now she likes to sleep a lot and gives mommy a chance to get things done.
Unfortunately not so much sewing. I don't know how it is in your countries, but giving birth in Germany means a ton of paperwork! Yeah, we LOVE bureaucracy - not so much ;-)

So far my little girl doesn't own anything sewn by me. I couldn't finish her quilt in time. That makes me sad.

Oh, I remembered she does own something I made:

Though I made this for my little nephew and it's almost too small by now.

What I got done:

I fixed the zipper of the diaper bag I made for my sister almost 2 years ago. The wonderful occasion: She gave birth to her second son exacly 1 week after Ellie was born ;-)

I also made a little thank you gift for my midwife. She was so helpful and I was sad having to let her go. She has this fun baby scale that Ellie enjoyed a lot, but she always carried it in a paper or plastic bag and I thought she needs a proper case for it. And yes, I am finally using my embroidery machine!!!

The stitching can be translated as: "Flyweight/Featherweight" and "Bundle of joy". She loved it!

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post! It made me very happy to see someone is still out there reading my blog ;-)

Hopefully I can show you Ellie's quilt soon. I can definitely make a post about diaper bags. I sewed several by now and I think they are worth showing.

Have a great week!

Love, Sana

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

~ John Lennon

I came across that quote not that long ago and I am just starting to fully grasp its meaning.



Now, if I told you that I wrote that line one and a half years ago, you'd have to admit there is no denying it.

Unfortunately that smart man died 34 years ago a  few days before I was born. That effected my dad so much that he even considered naming me John if I had been a baby boy. Given that I was born in East Germany that would have been a very unusual name!

That quote has proven itself as true almost all of my life.
Want another example?

In May I took two weeks of from work. But instead of going on a long overdue vacation with my husband, I spent the first week preparing for one of my best friend's wedding as her Maid of Honor. The wedding was great! Hopefully I can show you my gift for the couple soon!
By the end of the second week my husband and I finally moved to a new appartment. Not bigger than my old one but so much nicer and cuter. We actually have daylight now and I have a little sewing room!!!
Little did we know that when we signed that contract I wasnt quite alone anymore ;-)
I found out 3 days before the move.

That photo was taken 3 weeks ago.

With about seven weeks to go, I'm very happy to have come so far! Contractions started as early as 24 weeks into the pregancy and resulted in my first ever stay in a hospital. The sofa became my best friend/worst enemy. Finishing the new appartment and sewing stagnated for a very long time.

Weirdly enough I feel the most energetic right now. I could even prepare and take part in a little X-mas bazar last week.

So, life is what happened
when I was planning on writing more posts.
when I was planning on sewing one wallet per day to sell in my shop.
when I was planning on living in that little new appartment for a while before having kids.

But life is GREAT!

34 years after John Lennon died I'm married to a wonderful American, English is almost like my second mother tongue (my husband informed me that you can only have one mother tongue, but I hope you know what I mean) and our child will not only grow up speaking two languages but it will also have an English name and no one will think it's weird!
IMAGINE that!!!

I've learned not to promise that I'll write soon again, but I can hope and try!
By the way, I wasn't totally gone. I read most of your posts daily on my cell phone through the blogger app but it makes it so inconvenient to leave comments.

Please excuse my mistakes today! It's dark, my screen is too bright and I have a pregnant brain ;-)
If I went back to spell check this post I might never press that submit button.

I'll try to go to sleep now. Finding a comfy position is not that easy anymore ;-)

I'd love to hear from you! I missed you!

xo, Sana

Hello, anybody still out there?

I know, I know, at that rate I will have written 3 posts by the end of this year ;-)
Thanks to everyone who has not given up on me!

I wasn't totally gone. I sewed, I tried following your blogs, I had a blast in Disneyworld (more on that later) and mostly I spent my time enjoying my hubby so close to me!

There are a lot of things I wanna write posts about, but for now, I just wanna say hi.

This wont be a pictureless post though. My mom and I went to a convention called Textile Art Berlin, yesterday. Lots of great quilts, other beautiful pieces of art made with many different materials and of course fabric to buy!!!

Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take any pictures. An exception was the Dutch section. From down the hall we heard people say: The Dutch are cool! They don't mind you taking pictures of their quilts! And so I did:

This is my favourite and I think my mom would love something like this above her sofa ;-)

I love rainbow colors and red, white and black art

This was made by a very talented man! A very sweet Dutch lady told me that there are 13000 people in the Dutch Quilt Guild but only 5 men!!!

We had a great time! After 5 hours we were exhausted, but those beauties came home with me:

And these finally came in the mail on Friday! Thanks so much January for organizing this great swap!

Low Volume - my contribution on the very left

I have a lot of plans and a lot of due bee blocks.

And in just a couple of days my little sister is gonna be a mommy!!! I am so super excited to become Tante Sandra (yes, the French and German word for aunt is the same). My sister caught the sewing/quilting bug and made the cutest little blanket under my super vision ;-) Here is a little teaser:

Ok, that was it for today.

Thanks for stopping by and reading.
I missed you all!

xo Sana

Happy New Year!

Hey ya'll! I'm still alive and I will try to prove it more often in 2013.
A crazy but good year came to an end yesterday and a great one is about to start. I just know it!

First of all, the biggest reason why I was so quiet:
I am NOT ALONE anymore!!!! Yay!
In August my husband and I changed plans and decided it might be the better solution for us if he moved here to Berlin. And that's what happened. Two weeks ago, 1 day after my birthday I got to pick up my greatest gift ever from the airport: my beloved husband!
Since then we were extremely busy getting the papers done and everything. He is now allowed to stay here and work!

Before he got here I spent a good bit of time making room in my smallish apartment! I do wanna move though a.s.a.p!

Earlier this last year I also decided to give up studying Geology. At that point it was making me rather sick than happy and it felt like the last huge obsticle between me and my husband. What can I say: I havent regretted it since. It felt like it was the long needed change in gears and after that so many puzzle pieces fell into place.

I went to a market in August and since then I've been selling my self-sewn items in my little online shop. I sold quite a bit before christmas and it makes me really happy. Getting a positive feedback from a happy customer is definitely much more satisfying than science!
 
One of my goals for 2013 is to get my little business going, but my biggest New Year's resolution is
TO BE HAPPY!
I definitely have reasons to be happy: my husband is here, I have a little business going and I am gonna be an AUNT! Woohoo!
My little sister announced on Christmas Eve she is gonna have a baby and we all know what that means, right?
Lot's of sewing ;-) Haha! Stay tuned for tons of baby things!

I hope you all are gonna have many reasons to be happy, too!
Love,
Sana

It's pretty cold here

so cover your Apples ;-)

I made my first iPad case. I used this tutorial over here mainly for measurements. Hopefully it fits, since I dont own an iPad to try it out.
This was my first commission by a total stranger. You would think I'd expect strangers to conatct me if I hand out my business cards but well, I didnt ;-) It was a total shock!

She also ordered these phone cases:

Just love that chocolate brown polka dot fabric in combination with just any bright color!

Speaking of chocolate, thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my last post! The last time I got so many comments I was giving away chocolate ;-)
If there was a question in your comment, I will get to it soon. Promise!

xo Sana