Sweettooth Thursday I - Sunny Ville Golden Ginger

On Monday I went shopping with a friend. She wanted to buy presents to give to people in China, and I mainly wanted to accompany her for a chat.
Instead, I ended up discovering all these fantastic treats so that I almost ended up buying more than she did. Almost.
Now, I've read Candy Blog with huge enjoyment for the past 9 months, I've read the fun things about Japanese Candy that Anjali puts up on Giant Jeans Parlor, and finding these great candy treats has now given me the excuse to write my own candy reviews.
Let me explain first, this is going to be nothing like Cybele's reviews. I have no clue about wine, and my dedication to sweets isn't quite as high as hers (although I love to eat them, of course).
But nevertheless, I will do my best to give both objective info and my own opinion; and maybe I'll find something that's new to more "experienced" candy connoisseurs.*
___ ___ ___

For today, let me review this fantastic little can of goodness that I found in a rather newly opened store that combines coffee shop with sugary goodness and ALL the things a lover of cats could ever want. What a combination! I loved it. ;)


















These are simple ginger candies. I say simple since there's nothing in there but sugar, corn syrup and ginger root extract. No additives, no colouring, nothing. Excellent! That results in you getting just that: The perfect yummy taste of ginger, with a little sweetness. It's all there, the smell, the taste, the light burn on your tongue. I never had any sort of ginger sweet before, and I fell in love with these immediately. There's around 150g in one box, so I'll be happy for a long time to come yet. :)

The box says they are made in Indonesia, from Java Ginger. I have no clue about whether that denotes a special quality of ginger, if someone knows, please enlighten me. They are imported from there by a German company (Biffar), and as far as I found out, are only available in a select few countries in Europe. If they're imported to somewhere else by other importers, I didn't find out about that.
I tried looking for information about this candy on the internet, but the only page I can find is that of the import company. If anyone's interested in their page, go here. It has some info on ginger as well as other things. Funnily enough, this candy isn't listed on their page, probably because they don't produce it themselves.

Anyway, if you happen to find these somewhere, and have some liking (or love!) of ginger, do give these a try! And if you need any further encouragement to buy them, here's what it says on the packaging:

Its unique, natural flavour is soothing to the throat and makes you feel zesty pleasantly warm!

And who doesn't want to feel pleasantly warm in those autumn and winter months to come... ;)


* Yep, I had to look that one up...

Two packs of goodies off to the States

Well...looky what I got here:













Yep, that's right, these two packages were packed and sent today, and will soon be on their way towards the US. So, Lori and Babs, if one of these (I removed the address from the top one so you wouldn't know which) fantastic yellow packages arrives, it's from me!

Ah, I'm happy that I finally managed to send these, and a bit anxious about how they will be received. These are my first swap packages, after all. Fingers crossed on me having acceptably good taste. ;)

In other news, I enjoyed my holidays (pictures coming soon), helped a friend decide to cut her hair short for the first time in her adult life, helped another friend move apartments (she moved to the fourth floor...4 hours of lugging stuff up those stairs...my body complains but my mind thought it was great, I haven't really met this friend properly for years) and now have to start organzing my rooms so I can concentrate on my paper writing.*

Oh yeah, and I should both post my finished projects and something about writing...but that'll have to wait a bit longer.

* I've probably been saying this for the past two or three weeks, but that should be enough warm up time to finally get me to do it.

By the way...

I messed around with my template again and now have several link section! How cool is that?
Well, it was really easy to do (just the thing for my skill level, copy and paste, hehe), and it also allows me to have a permanent linky thing to my swap info AND it makes everything look so much more organised. Neat, eh? The things Ctrl+C/V can do for you. ;)

Lazy Saturday afternoon

Well, actually most of the afternoon was quite busy (I did some swap shopping, and it was humid and just hot enough to be bad, bleh), but I felt really lazy (and tired and half-blacked out), and I still feel very lazy and tired now, but I guess I will do some things.

One of these things is informing my current three swap partners that, hey, I guess I've got all of your things! Yes, for all three of you! Like I said, I just really needed this one trip to get all the rest done. Well, maybe some thing small is missing yet, I have to check, but basically, I've got it all and will fall to packing it up nicely soon.

Ahh, how good does that feel, hm?
Very good I tell you.

What else will I do? Well, I guess I will continue working on the paper-mache bowls that I started on Wednesday evening when a friend of mine visited. They're in their bare, newspapery form right now, so today I will clothe them in pretty white and when that layer has dried (tomorrow?) I will see whether I will decorare them any further or leave them as they are.
And once I'm happy with the lot I'll post some nice pictures of how it went. :)

I'll also finish up some things I left lying around...necklaces without proper closures (I have clasps now!), stuff like that. And I will start clearing up the dining table, since I'm going away on my 4-5 days "holidays" soonish (holidays in quotation marks since I'm hoping that going away from my messy room here at home will help me get back to studying, which has been waiting far too long --- once again a stressful September for me; geez, when will I finally learn?).

And then I'll watch Sleepy Hollow, which I've never seen before...definite hole in my movie education... :D

Woohoo!

Guess what? Lori's package is as good as finished. I think I'll add a few treats yet, but the main things are all there, nicely packaged and pretty much ready to go. Now all I need is a box. :P

Swap Update

Ok, for the three people who I've already arranged swaps with and exchanged some emails, here's how things are going:

Swap no.1 - the Surprise Swap - is almost finished, which is great! I have something to make yet, and then it will all be nicely packaged and will await sending. Ooh, I have some nice things in there, but I can't tell yet, since it's of course secret. But I like it and I hope Lori will do so as well.

Swap no.2 - oh, the shame, I haven't really bought anything yet for this one! But I know where to go, and will do so on Saturday. It's probably because I'm sort of loath to go into bookstores...all those books are far too tempting! I'll just have to march straight through to the section I need, and be strong. ;)
No worries Babs, I will get everything together! I just need the one shopping trip. :)

Swap no.3 is going quite well, I have about half of the things I guess. Fortunate that I could get the things from a shop just 5 mins away. Yeh, what luck to live close to a fabric store! I actually bought such nice things, I wonder why I never found these kinds of fabric before...probably because I was looking for the wrong things, see my post on my fabric collection. But things are changing. I really hope the recipient (knwoozy) will enjoy the patterns and buttons I picked out for her.

As for other swaps, there's two people I have yet to get back to (seems like they popped up overnight - I'm still a bit struck by how many people my post is attracting!) and two I'm in contact with and one I'm waiting to get back to me. So many! I'll have to find a way to get that sorted out, since I really want to swap with everyone! I'll just have to do it some time in autumn, like October, and I'm not used to planning things for that far away (at least not exciting things like this). Would love to do all the swaps at once but it's just not possible.

Next update once I've sent the first package (unless anything exciting happens in the meantime, of course).

Catching up: My fabric collection, and some more beads

During the weekend, I also took some pictures of my so far fabric collection (which is not representative of my entire taste, I just bought them for the reasons below) and of some of my bead collection (not all of them). Oh, and some trims (there aren't many :P).

First, the fabric:













These are my Blues. So far I mainly bought simple, one-colour stretchy fabric so I could try and sew the simplest of things out of it. For example, I managed to make a skirt out of the top fabric which turned out nice enough to wear out to my sister's last-year-of-school dance (I also made a top with that fabric and black).
And as you might guess, yes, I do like velvet. Not for wearing (I used to have some trousers in dark blue velvet like 10 years back), but it's so soft and pretty. I'll probably use the rest for cushions or something - something easy though, because it is really hard to sew.














Now these are, yep, right, my Blacks. Now black I do wear a lot, but I've never made anything to wear from these (except the top mentioned above). These fabrics here I mainly bought and never did anything with them. The two bottom ones are a thick stretchy something which I once thought I could make a skirt out of (maybe I will yet), and the other is something nice and fleecy...maybe another cushion? (Yep, I love soft things and I love cushions, and if its cushions with soft fabrics, I love it even more!)














And these are my few colourful things. Some nice violet fleecy stuff which I will use as backing for my long longed for patchwork blanket, a petrol one that I once wanted made into a suit, but I probably don't have enough and don't wear suits a lot anyway. Maybe I can get a small dress out of it, but I probably won't be making that myself. Then there's some pretty colourful velvet, and some shiny brocade that I wanted to make into a skirt, but will probably make into something else now. The last bit of shiny stuff is what was left from an evening dress my grandma had made for me (for *my* last-year-of-school dance :D).














My measly collection of trims. Pityful, isn't it. :P














And here's the whole lot with a bit of felt I found as well. It's really not much, and I'm currently beating myself up for letting my mum get rid of her stash only two or three weeks ago. But then, I didn't know this strange conversion to the crafty side of life would happen. Severe case of bad timing, really. :-/

And now to the beads:













Sooo, this little box I bought in London, in something fittingly called The Bead Shop. If you're in London, go there, it's a small shop, but beads are small things, and there's loads of them in there. You can even order more!
I think this looks like a small jewellery box, so pretty. I have to get more of these plastic organizers, they're the best thing for beads, I think.














And here, finally, the three bead mixes I bought on Friday and Saturday. Btw, the white one isn't just white, I just poured all of the white ones on top. There's actually mainly browns and bronze in there, very nice ones, too. :)














And here's what our dining table looked like on Saturday afternoon! It actually looks worse right now... :D

Catching Up: Crafting days last weekend

Right, I've neglected the writing in favour of the shopping. :P
But here, I'm back.
I decided to go ahead with my keyring idea and made my little test beads into...yep, keyrings.













I quite like them. No idea yet what to do with 4 keyrings but I'm sure I'll find a way to use them well. :)

I also made a bracelet on Sunday, and a matching necklace (with additional, Monday-bought beads) on Monday.













I took a picture with some of the bead mix in it so everyone can admire how truly pretty they are. They're wooden, too. I love them so much, I guess I'll have to get the two or three sizes that I haven't bought yet as well sometime. ;)
As you can see, these two are yet missing some device to close them, have to look for some good solution next (either I buy some sort of claps or try to do something with the beads themselves).

I also fiddled around with some other stuff, but nothing that's finished yet...

Ideas

I will collect some ideas here of things I am going to make, since I just had a nice idea but 1) don't have the necessary materials right now and 2) want to get on with reading this book for a bit.

Ok:

1) Another rabbit, but with the pale brown linen-y fabric I have.
2) Yet another rabbit, in black and white, for my sis.
3) A grey felt bracelet with sakura stitching.
4) The grey felt bag I am reserving for a swap that I'm hoping for.
5) A square bag that will stand on its own and could hold jewellery or maybe crafting items (if the latter, I could make more of them!)
6) Paper-mache bowls in pretty whites (after being reminded of the joy of paper-mache by the kids section of a recently bought craft magazine*)
7) Some nice felt books marks, using some of my new beads and old jewellery items
8) Big project: I will finally give the small drawer-cabinet I got from my grandma ages ago the makeover it deserves.
9) After reading about the Wardrobe Refashion Challenge** I decided that, while not yet giving up shopping (there's some simple things I need yet), I will finally take things I haven't worn for a long while (or never :P) and give them a new lease of life in some way. (And I will also fix the things that have not been worn just because I was too lazy to fix them :P).***

Will update this regularly.
As regularly as ideas come, that is. ;)

*Yeah, who would have guessed I would get into buying these things...
**http://www.wardroberefashion.blogspot.com/
***Hooray for big motivational boost! These have been waiting forever!

Beads

I love beads. I don't know since when. What I love most is to buy a bag full of mixed beads, and then to sort them while thinking up ways to use the weird and wonderful things I find therein.
Yesterday I went shopping and brought back two selections of beads: A green mix and a blue mix. There were quite a few gems in there, and simple but highly useful stuff as well. I started putting a few combinations together that I thought looked nice.














I might make those into keyrings or bookmarks, or I'll just keep the picture as a reminder and use them in a completely different way. Currently I'm for keeping them like this though.

Anyway. I was sitting at the table doing my stuff, when my mum came home. She saw those highly minimalistic combination thingies and went like this: "What are you doing there? Ohhh! Those look great! - - - Make me a necklace!" She then hurried to the drawer where she keeps her pretty jewellery things and brought out the one pictured below.














"Something like this, just in blue!" she said. And wondered aloud why she paid so much for her necklace, when I enlightened her that it was made out of glass beads and other nice stuff, while all I had at hand were plastic beads.

Well. Today I went shopping again (specifically for craft stuff, I blame the lousy weather, my current mood, and the vibe I caught from some swappers). I bought a white/bronze bead mix, some shiny metal-ish ones, and lots and lots of other stuff. Then I sat down and put together the following thing.














I say it turned out quite nice, if a bit shorter than the red one. I wonder how my mum will dig the plastic bead look, but hey, if she can and wants to wear it, there she goes! She'll be back home tomorrow, I'll keep you posted about her reaction. :)

Meanwhile, what do my kind readers (if I do have any) think?

Update: Well, my parents just came home, and my mum's kinda sick. She walked past the decoratively placed necklace several times, but then she did notice it! "Wow! Great! - - Is that for me?" I told her, well, of course, who else? "I thought you could make it for Christmas or something!" And then she immediately figured out the best way to wear it.
Ha, she wanted it for Christmas! Didn't reckon with my "I gotta do *something*" mood of yesterday. ;)

London

Ah, London! How I miss thee! How I wanted to visit again, and soon!
But now - flights cancelled, high alarm rating and goodbye to hand luggage?
Our reunion will have to wait. :(

I think this is one of the nastiest things about terrorists - they don't have to actually blow anything up to terrorise. Even if attacks are just a possibility, people are scared enough. Economy takes a tour downwards. Little me isn't able to go to London.*

So, dear London, it will have to wait! But soon, quite soon, I will be roaming your streets again, cursing the fact that this time round I WILL be just a tourist again, and not one of your many international students. I WILL just stay for a few days again, instead of a few months. But I WILL come back. And come back. And come back again.

Ooh, how I do miss it! Even with gray skies and rain falling today. It's just not the same!

*I know I could go by train, or by car, or on bike or foot, but, well, that would take AGES (and not just the last two options).

What kind of yarn are you?

Honestly, from all the silly quizzes I've done on the internet, this is probably the oddest (yes, the one that told me that I was a collection of pencil shavings is Nothing against this one).
I mean, what kind of yarn I am? What sort of idea is that? What will be next? What sort of button are you? What sort of piece of string are you? What sort of driftwood-piece-washed-on-forlorn-Irish-beaches are you?*
What the really good thing about this quiz is though, that despite its ridiculous premises (I love to play with cats, but cats have never loved playing with me enough to make me identify with a ball of yarn, thanks) it's surprisingly accurate. I don't mean the "revered" bit, but the rest, sort of. I am kind of traditional in this ever-moving-ever-faster world of ours, I guess, and I can be quite harsh (I guess that means sarcasm and such, and I'm evilly good at that sometimes), and I do look and act very often like I can't accomplish a thing and then make my way through with what can only be called pure bloodymindedness. (At least I'd like to call it that. It may just appear pure weirdness to others.)
So, anyone else want to take this truly exciting test and tell me what kind of yarn they are? It could offer insights into your personality that your therapist could buy three new beach homes with!

Question for next time: Do therapists actually live in beach homes? What about Central European ones? Discuss.

*Yeah I'm tired and just made that one up.

PS: I hid my "yarn" results in my footer, because my Blogger skills don't go further than trying to post code into areas that look likely to suffer the least damage, and seeing whether that works. So far it has.
*phew*

Gimme Your Stuff!

26/2/2008: IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Sadly I am still taking a break, since I finally moved into my own apartment and need to see how things go moneywise. But if all goes well, I should finally be getting back to it!
I'll post new information once I can swap again.
Thanks for your interest everyone, I'll be back for sure!


A-ha! Yes, this is another one of the reasons why I finally managed to set up my new blog.
Finding out about this fantastic idea was one of those typical internet follow-interesting-looking-links thingies (the chain goes somewhat like Friends in forum-NaNoWriMo-Candyblog-Giant Jeans Parlour-Gimme Your Stuff).
So, here I am, sitting at my computer in dear old Austria, which abounds in things that I don't find highly interesting but others well might, so IF there is anyone interested in funky Austrian stuff, here I am.

I can send practically anything that will fit into a carryable (for me) package. For example:
- Chocolate and sweets (we have a more or less local chocolate manufaturer who does VERY interesting things with his choclate fillings, for example)
- Fantastic tourist t-shirts with witty prints like "There are no kangaroos in Austria", and other touristy stuff
- Craft items, from fabrics to buttons to wool to glass beads
- Magazines, books, newspapers
- possibly clothing items like socks and t-shirts
- stationery
- cosmetics stuff (who knows, maybe there are Americans out there who crave glittery nail polish?)
- whatever else people think they could possibly want from Austria; you name it, I try to find it!

What would I like to get in return? Gee, I guess it depends on where you're from. I'd love anything Australian and Japanese because those are countries I would love to visit but never have yet, and they're sooo far away. I'd also like American sweets, because I read about them so much and can only get very few of them here.
I also love pretty fabrics, t-shirts, interesting (not necessarily expensive) necklaces or bracelets (I used to love rings but I don't really like wearing them anymore), magazines, books, basically anything to read or at least with pretty pictures to look at, and well...
Basically, whatever I receive* will feel like Christmas anyway, because I love getting packages and letters. So, I guess the best thing to do if you would like to swap with me would be to tell me what you want and what you would like to send and wait for my excited "Yay!" answer.

I'm also absolutely up for surprise swaps, but will give no guarantee as to your satisfaction with my choices. ;)

To contact me, please leave a comment and/or email me at swapwithfel (at) gmail.com

Oh, and I should probably add, despite the current rather stark look of this blog, I am neither a goth nor depressed nor a teen; I just like the way it looks very simple and clean this way. I might change the colours in a while, but for now, bear with me.


*With the possible exemption of live spiders, dead kittens, and other gruesome stuff like that.

UPDATE (29/12/06): During October and November I received many many new requests, and I'm still at work trying to organize them. Of course, I'm still open to new requests, but it will simply take a while until I get around to them. Just to let you know, so you won't think I have forgotten or anything if you don't hear from me for a while!

About the title

The title of this blog actually isn't the one I'd had in mind before I started it.
What I had in mind was calling it Sasa (for Support A Struggling Artist), after an idea a friend of mine had...which I'm not going to explain now, because I didn't get that name, right?*
But when I found out the wonderful title of Sasa was already gone, the current name popped into my head. It's one of those things I came up with a few years ago (around 4 now...shocking how time moves on) and which, oddly enough, fits perfectly with what I want to do here (ie put some of the things that buzz around my head out in the open).
So, there you are. Buzzing Head it is.

What's even odder than this word suddenly fitting in here so nicely, is that my NaNoWriMo name is LittleBee. Seems like some sort of cosmic connection... :P


*Which might not be that bad actually, since calling myself an artist would be, uh, ever so slightly presumptious.

What this is about

Well, basically I wanted a place where I could write, and post writings. Then I also wanted a place to write about writing, and what followed was wanting a place where I could post about all kinds of things: taking photographs, and maybe painting and drawing if I ever get on with that, and all other kinds of crafty stuff I sometimes do (though not much of it lately, to my regret).
The final thought so far is something like this: To write reviews (of all kinds of things, I first though books I read, films I watched and such, but then again, I could also review all kinds of other stuff...food, funny things I bought etc), to post other stuff I write (when I do so), to post photographs, and then a little bit about how my life moves along.
As should be apparent, I have no clear concept whatsoever. But as long as I write *something*, I'm sure something good will come out of it, and it will evolve into some kind of useful direction.