Random Saturday - Travelling books

In my post about "Little Nicholas" a few days ago, I said that my personal copies of the books had a story of their own.
Here it is.

The year is 1994 and it's two days before my birthday.
We three sisters happen to take the same train home after work and my oldest sister has my birthday gift in a bag which she just picked up from the book store on the way to the train station.
The commute from Bad Cannstatt is about 30 minutes. We talk, we laugh, we get off the train ... that's when my sister notices she has left the book bag on the train!
It's too late to hop back on, so there are only two things to do now, 1. go to the service center and try to have them contact someone, 2. hope that no passenger grabs the bag and decides these are nice books to have.

Losing or forgetting something on a train is a game of chance. Some people will give it to the conductor, so it ends up at the railway company's lost and found (and in an auction if no one claims it), but some go the "finders keepers" route or at least contemplate it (I've seen it myself), and some just ignore it.
The service clerk told my sister they would contact someone at the end of the line and have the train conductor check the train in case they hadn't already found the bag by themselves.
If the bag were there, they would then take it back on the next possible train and drop it off at the service center where my sister would be able to pick it up the next day.

Luck was on our side and my sister picked the bag up the next day.
To celebrate it, she drew a little picture in each book to tell the story.

From left to right - my sister A., yours truly, and my sister B.
There's a lot of detail, from A.'s braid to my long hair worn open
and B.'s bob, but also A.'s typical backpack, my shopper and
B.'s purse, and of course the book bag saying "Stehn", a book
store that doesn't exist anymore today.

What I love most about this picture are two things.
There is the company Hengstenberg which will be 150 years old
next year and produces vinegar, pickles, mustard, etc.
Nowadays there are only offices in that building, but it's still part
of the region's history.
Also, this is still one of the old trains. It's actually possible that we
did ride on one of them because the new double-decker trains
were only just introduced around that time.
Can you see us in the last window?

 

Oh no! We got off the train at home, but the bag is still on there!
Our shocked faces never fail to make me smile 🙃

Tell me without words how the books went back from Geislingen to
Göppingen. Did you notice the speed lines?

The service center of the Deutsche Bahn (which also doesn't exist
anymore because they lost the contract for this line some years ago
and because they expect everyone to be their own service people,
anyway) on the day before my birthday. You can tell from the
clock A. and I took our usual train at the time and oh what
a miracle, it was on time, too!

I think the drawings really make these books extra special. Do you think someone in the future will be holding them in their hands eventually, wondering what all of that was about ...

Sunday glimmers - Surprises

You may have heard the word "glimmer" before. Glimmers in psychology are the opposite of triggers, small moments of peace or joy sparking positive feelings. Those can be completely simple things that you might not even notice consciously, but noticing and appreciating them can help your mental health.

This week was my birthday.
You may remember my post the other day in which I vented about the piece I had wanted to make for myself as a special gift (saying it was a gift was my motivation to finally get on it) which went completely wrong. While having a very vague idea how I could not save the piece the way I imagined it, but try a different approach, that obviously didn't work out in time.

Then a surprise parcel arrived a few days early. I was completely clueless when I opened it, I had never heard of the shop and wondered what was going on.
The parcel contained a cat figurine, but no card, no nothing.
Could this be a mistake? No because the next day I got an email.
I met M. on Plurk (a social networking and microblogging service) many years ago. We live in different countries and have never met in person, but we never lost contact which I'm very happy about.
The email's title was "A feline spirit to celebrate 60" and I'd like to share these lines with you because I think they are absolutely wonderful:
"There are prettier cats, funnier ones, those with more history, and probably ones that better suit your style or your home. But what I like about this one is that it's precisely an anonymous cat - not representing a specific one but capable of representing them all: past cats, present cats, and future ones. It's like a spirit, a totem of cats, saying: "this home makes cats happy.""
Isn't that perfect?
And please ignore the voice from the background saying he would be even happier if he got more snacks.

On the birthday itself, I put the recycling bag into the hallway to take it down later and found a pretty box with a gift from my neighbors. What a nice surprise at 5 in the morning!

For that day, I expected a cat food parcel and thanks to an email from the postal service obviously also one from the drugstore which puzzled me as I hadn't ordered anything from there.
Quite early in the morning the bell rang which completely confused me because it was way too early for the mailman ... and had she said "flowers" through the intercom?
Flowers indeed, sent a by a good friend! Look at that!

The next surprise came in form of my sister who brought me something from the oldest café in town. I didn't think of taking a picture there, sorry. All I could think "my precioussss" and eat the cake.

When the announced parcels arrived, I knew again what the drugstore parcel had been about. At least three months ago, I had checked a box for the giveaway of a test box with four products while I was on the drugstore website. I had completely forgotten about it as I never win anything, anyway!
What a coincidence that it arrived that day.

Also this week a print arrived that I ordered because it's perfect for me, but I will show you that one in another post.

Now you may say, well, it was your birthday, you must have expected something.
I didn't really. My birthday is not a big thing to me, no celebration, no party, so it was really not just the gifts themselves although I loved them of course, but the surprises that made it extra special and knowing someone thought of me (well, not the drugstore of course).

And who knows, maybe I will be able to finish that gift to myself after all. Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday! or Friday the 13th

Happy Birthday to me! Or not?
This is not something I usually do, congratulate myself, I mean, but I will reach the big 60 soon and that seemed like a good occasion to make something for myself in time.
It's not a medal for making it that far ... although years ago I did make a "medal" for a colleague for her 40th work anniversary (I'm close to that one myself, ugh). Just as a joke of course, we gave her something nice, too.

No, of course I wanted something beautiful and something that was yelling my name.
There was something I had been planning for years now, but I didn't know if my fingers were up for it. Wire wrapping has become so hard for me, but I really wanted this.

I had written until here and then this happened today.

After several days with a lot of breaks - and a lot of whining - the piece was ready to be oxidized. I took it to the kitchen and then there was that sound. The lampwork shark I wanted to use with the octopus had been tangled in the tentacles - the irony because that had been the plan - without my noticing it (both my own fault) and it had fallen to the ground.

Couldn't it have fallen three steps earlier in the hallway with the PVC floor which would have given it a better chance? Well, it didn't. I glued the two pieces I could find back on as best I could, but one part is missing. Now I'm heartbroken because I can't get another shark like it.

I had been saving that shark for myself for years.
It won't get thrown away, but I don't know if I will be able to make something with it. It will definitely not work with the octopus. I don't even know if I want to finish that now and also didn't feel like taking a picture of the octopus WIP or the broken shark 😭

I just needed to vent.

The big 5-0 and a sale!

It's true. I am 50 today. 
And I want to celebrate with all of you. It's a little difficult because I only own five chairs not counting the armchair, the computer chair and the odd red metal one.
I'm not so sure about the cake, either. Baking is not my strong suit because I don't do it often. Or maybe I don't do it often because it's not my strong suit?
I can't invite you to a garden party because our garden is not very big. Pity. My potato salad really isn't that bad.

So what to do? How about a sale in both of my shops?
Today you can save 30% on all ready to ship items over $10 in my Zibbet or 10 € in my DaWanda shop. There is something for everyone!
Just use the coupon code 50BIRTHDAY.

No worries, I won't send a slice of cake along ;-) Have fun browsing!

P.S. The reason for the look on my face is not the big 5-0, by the way. I never trusted cameras ...

I'm getting older .... and you can profit from it!

Next week will be my 46th birthday. As you can see I'm not shy about saying that as long as you assure me I look like 26. Like on my wedding day when I wore the huge glasses that were modern then :-P Ah, the good old ... no, wait, that DOES make me sound old, eh? ;-)

I thought I'd celebrate into my birthday and I want you to be able and celebrate with me - so I put all my shops into sales mode. That's right. 20 % off all my items until my birthday.

Maybe that way my birthday will make another birthday child happy, too?

Check out my shops on ArtFire, Zibbet and DaWanda and have fun browsing!