Peter Pan Collars

I am obsessed with peter pan collars! Like really literally obsessed. I could wear some kind of peter pan collar any day everyday. Of course I don't, since that would be a bit uncreative and well boring. But that won't stop me from gathering as many different types as possible.

Initially I had set my mind to making them myself, and I actually did do a few, but I was really dreading to do the cotton ones. I had the templates and all but it just seemed like so much work! Fortunately my good friends in China sell many types of collars on Ebay for a fraction of what you'd pay for it here. So I bought two: a cotton one and a metallic chain-like one. And while I was at it I also bought another arabesque-ish metal collar necklace. Not really a collar and certainly no peter pan one, but cute none the less. Ooh! I almost forget, I had also bought this gold metallic one at Primark. I think it was about €5 which is acceptable, but in most shops they start around €10.

The first ones I made are of course crochet. I made one in blue and one in cream. I used the cheapest yarn ever and faux pearl buttons I had left from an other project. I LOVE them! If you want to have a go yourself, check out the patterns here and here. I also made a leather one, which is more of a necklace than a collar. I used some leather scraps I had lying around so it's not necessarily a color I would buy, but hey you work with what you've got. Here's how I did it. The last one I did was made of felt using the Honestly... wtf tutorial. It is super easy! I used that iron-on-stuff that sticks fabrics together when heated, but you can also use a long ribbon, pull it through completely and tie.

I bought them, but like I said, you can find many tutorials on how to create your own cotton collar, like here, here and here. And doing a metal chain-like collar necklace is not hard either, check out here and here.

Now of you go and DIY!

Fully Certified!

So proud to finally say: I'm a fully certified TEFL teacher!!!
After months and months of dragging myself through the course, extending one, two and maybe, maybe even three times, I am finally done. Yippee!

Don't get me wrong the course is really interesting and I learned a lot, but I had a hard time finding the time for it. I, of course, had to do the 140 hour programme, 'cause you know, why take the easy way out if you can do it the hard way. Juggling school and two jobs with the course was quite a challenge.
I really enjoyed the weekend course and our teacher Alison was the best! But I learned the most from the grammar awareness course. I've been speaking English for most of my life now, but my grammar was quite rusty. I was just passively using language and now I have once more learned why I use certain patterns, what functions they have and what they're called. Kudos to me :)

So what's next now? Not sure really. Still need to finish my masters at uni, but sometime next year I hope to be one of those lucky people living their dream in a foreign country...

Happy Birthday to my baby girl!

Today is the first ever birthday of my baby niece! So happy to have celebrated this joyful day with family and friends. My sis' had the party at this farm like location. It was super cute and very child friendly, which was very necessary cause the place overflowed with kids ;)

The party was rainbow themed and my sis' and her love had made the banner their selves. They also had  colored cups with treats for the kids as a thank you gift. And of course yummie birthday cake!

I was in charge of the birthday cake and let me tell you, making a fluffy vegan cake is very very very hard! Sure you can do fruitcakes or tarts, but an actual cake is a BIG problem. 

I tried many many many different recipes. They all failed but one. And then a few days before the big day, while I was testbaking, that one failed me as well. So you can imagine my frustration and despair. At one point I was close to tears 8{

I suspected my oven to be part of the problem so I tried the recipe again at my sis' and fortunately it worked.

But I wasn't completely convinced yet. I browsed the web again and came across this recipe by Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. Everyone seemed lyrical about their recipes, so I immediately ordered their cute little book and got to baking. 

It was their vanilla cupcake recipe that I used to bake the birthday girls cake. It was soft and moist and not too dense. Now I'm not going to pretend that it's just as good as a regular-egg-cake, but it's as close I could get. In the end we did a mini vegan cake for the birthday girl and a regular-egg-cake for the guests.

Yesterday I was busy baking all day, breaking a sweat over their rainbow theme. I'm so happy things worked out and the cake was yumm. Before I knew it it was finished!

Wow children's parties are super noisy! But so fun. I am exhausted though. Of of to bed now.