Musik Monday - Jingle Bells (Bayern München)

It's almost 3 weeks after Christmas, but I couldn't resist sharing this gem.  I've posted English speakers singing in German in the past (The Beatles and Elvis), but not the other way around.  It's wonderful and sort of hilarious either way.  Regardless of language ability, sometimes accents are just hard to lose.  Someone once said that the accent you have speaking a foreign language is a special and unique thing that you shouldn't work to get rid of.  I tend to agree.  Plus, it makes for some fun videos.

Behold!  The Bayern München soccer team singing Jingle Bells!

Musik Monday - May You Always

It wouldn't be New Years for me without hearing the bit below.  It's not really music (though it uses Auld Lang Syne in the background), but I thought I'd use it anyway.  The man speaking is Harry Harrison, a radio DJ I grew up hearing daily.  He worked as a DJ from 1953 through 2005, most famously on WMCA, WABC, and WCBSFM.  He not only talked about the music, but also shared personal stories and became a friendly voice for many people.  The clip below was played every year around Christmas and New Year's Day after being recorded in 1965.  You can read the text here, but I'd recommend listening when you have a chance.  It's well wishes and hopes for everyone listening.  It's a small tradition for me that I hope all of you can enjoy.

Easy Ornaments 2: Crochet Snowflakes

Even though Christmas is over, it's still winter and there's still some need for last-minute presents.  I needed something fast but nice for my coworkers' stockings at work earlier this week.  I had ornaments in mind, but knew they'd already seen crocheted ice skates (something for a future post) and my go-to ornaments take a little too long.  This was Sunday evening and I needed them for Monday morning.  I'd seen snowflake ornaments and figured those couldn't take too long.  A few patterns later and I found one that was easy to follow and got me 13 snowflakes for work plus 3 larger ones for other people in just a few hours.

Coworker Snowflakes

I found the pattern at the Attic 24 blog (note it uses UK, not USA crochet terms) and altered it slightly for some of the snowflakes.  The star-like ones were the first 2 rounds as the pattern explains.  The other ones are Round 1 followed immediately by Round 3.  I wanted them all about the same size, but wanted some variation.  One is bigger because I used a larger hook by accident.  I also didn't stretch and set as the pattern suggested because I was short on time, but they still came out pretty good.  At the very least, it's clear what they're meant to be.

The pattern does not make them ornaments (it doesn't have the loop of string to hang them), but that wasn't a hard fix.  There are 2 options:
-Finish off as the pattern says, cut a piece of yarn a little longer than the loop size you want, and tie it to one of the points.
-Do not cut and finish off normally.  Instead, when the last stitch is complete, cut the yarn several inches from the last stitch.  Thread the yarn through the chains to one of the points.  Once it's through the chain at the point, tie the yarn to itself close to the point.
I like the 2nd option because it's all the same thread and it looks neater and more stable.

It's a really fun pattern, and is right around the beginner level.  You only need to know how to chain and single crochet.  Just remember that once the initial loop is formed, the first round is done in the loop as a whole, not the individual chains that make up the loop.
I'd definitely recommend this for anyone who has a basic grasp of crocheting, especially if they are strapped for time and have extra white yarn lying around.

Have fun and a belated Merry Christmas!

Musik Monday: Sesame Street, Santa Claus kommt Heute

Since Christmas is somehow only about a week away, it seemed appropriate to share something Christmasy for Musik Monday.  This is "Santa Claus kommt Heute", translated literally "Santa Claus comes today", better known as "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" done by the cast of Sesame Street (including some Muppet guests).

Even though Sesame Street did come to Germany as Sesamstraße in 1973, two years before this video was made in 1975, this is not an episode of Sesamstraße.  It is from an episode of Peter Alexander präsentiert Spezialitäten (Peter Alexander presents Specialties), a popular German variety show that aired on ZDF.  Peter Alexander was an Austrian entertainer who both acted and sang.  He eventually transitioned to TV in the 60's.  His variety show first aired in black and white from 1963-1966.  ZDF then picked it up in 1969, aired it in color, and continued with it through 1996.  It was an extremely popular show through its entire run.

This episode featured Peter Alexander traveling to America to visit Sesame Street for a Christmas special.  Though this clip only features the puppets singing, he joined them in singing and dancing.  I think my favorite parts are Bert's Santa outfit and Ernie's lederhosen.  

Look at how adorable they are!

The puppets were originally voiced by their American voice actors and the sound was later dubbed to German.  This episode was #1 in 1975.  It had were 38 million German viewers and more in other German-speaking countries.  I honestly was never a Sesame Street fan (my favorite was Grover...I think that says a lot about how I felt about the show), but this I enjoy! I should thank my mom for sharing this with me in the first place :)

German-American Spotlight: Thomas Nast

Thomas Nast is at the top of my list of heroes.  However, when I share that with most people, they give me a blank look then politely smile and nod as if I'm not crazy for admiring a man most have never heard of.  What's really crazy though, is how unknown he is considering how much he influenced the American culture.

This topic usually comes up at Christmastime for me when there's talk about Santa Claus.  Today alone, I've probably replied to at least 10 people who insisted that the image of Santa Claus we use was a creation of Coca Cola.  As much as I try to avoid soda, I love Coca Cola (especially mixed with Fanta...if you've never had spezi, you haven't lived).  They suspended brand advertising to donate money to the Phillippines after the typhoon hit in November 2013.  They have a good product and do some great things.

However, Coca Cola did not create Santa Claus.  Thomas Nast did.  And he did a whole lot more than provide us with the image of Santa Claus we all know today.

Thomas Nast's self portrait

A very geeky Christmas

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I've got an amazing boyfriend.  We decided to not spend much on gifts this year and he still found me the perfect present.  He got me the Planet Express shirt (Futurama) from thinkgeek.com!!  First of all, favorite show.  Secondly, one of my favorite websites.  Thirdly, I've been wanting this shirt since I first saw it years ago, but they never had it available.  Amazing.

I took a picture with my Halloween craft, Nibbler.  I was Leela for Halloween and needed a Nibbler with me to complete the costume.  Thinkgeek has the most adorable Nibbler stuffed animal, but they were out of stock and I needed something that week, so I decided to make my own.  After a failed attempt, I saw a craft kit for a big spider and bought some white, black, yellow, red, and peach felt.  Lots of cutting and scraps later, I ended up with something I was super proud of.  I'll post more of my Leela costume another time.  Until then, enjoy my awesome Christmas present with my awesome homemade Nibbler:

I kind of forgot the whole backwards text in the mirror thing

Simple Scarves

The lack of posting is due to school keeping me a lot busier this semester than expected.  I'm sure there will be a few huge breaks in time between posts.  Apologies in advance.

This post has a great scarf pattern at the bottom to show how sorry I am :)

Anyway, I realized that I needed to get something for my boyfriend's family for Christmas.  This was a lot closer to the holidays than I'm willing to admit.  I'm pretty proud of what I gave his brother's family: A Where's-Waldo-esque book but with the Characters from the Cars movies for his nephew, booties and a little headband I crocheted for his niece (I wish I had taken pictures, I was so proud of how they came out...and that they fit her), and for his brother and sister-in-law a precious moments figure of a little blonde boy next to a box of tools screwdriver in hand working on a snowman with a John Deere hat on - it was such a spitting image of their son that I couldn't resist.

I made the reindeer ornament in another post for his aunt...then realized I had nothing for his sister and brother-in-law!  I didn't find anything in stores and time was running out.  Then I thought, "duh, you taught yourself to crochet.  Use that craft little brain of yours!"

So I did.  I made 2 scarves using the same stitching pattern.  They came out (thankfully) looking pretty different though.

Pictures and pattern below:

Laid out next to each other.  I made them pretty long since nobody in his family is short I knew I could.

Easy Ornaments 1: Reindeer

Christmas is right around the corner.  Actually, at my parent's house, it's tomorrow.  We follow a lot of German traditions for holidays (as does most of America actually without even realizing it), including going to church in the evening, opening presents, and having our main Christmas celebrations all on Christmas Eve.  I've got a lot of last minute shopping to get done today, so I'll save all the German Christmas tradition stories until later when I have time.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a rather simple craft that pretty much anyone can make for a small amount of money and a little bit of effort: Reindeer ornaments.  The great thing about these is that they come out looking a lot more "effortful" than would be expected considering their cost and simplicity.  They're made of clothespins and embroidery floss!  I came across the pattern on one of those free leaflets at Michael's crafts years ago and loved it. (I tried finding it on their website, but it's not there).  So, what follows is my pattern from memory, inspired from that leaflet.

*Feel free to make this as a gift, for yourself, or to sell, but please do not sell my pattern or copy it without linking here*