Picturesque Month ~ 07'16

~ Cherry-Pickin' fun at my dad's place.
~ Blogging in the sun. It was too warm though, so I made myself a sun sail.
~ I was finally blogging about the Harry Potter inspired baby gift I made for a colleague.

~ We want to make it a tradition to visit a castle for every anniversary. Our second wedding anniversay was spent at the castle hotel Ziesar, a ten minute walk from the actual castle.
~ Our canopy bed at the hotel had a mirror on the ceiling. We didn't know it was that kind of a hotel ;)
~ Castle tower selfie. It was 10€ to go up... no thanks.
           
~ Sushi Goodness!
~ More homegrown fruit & veggies. Can't wait to have a garden myself!
~ Used a lot of crafting-glue for my latest DIY: My new Adventure Time phone case!

~ We went on a day trip to Szeczin in Poland aka Wodka Heaven! Only bought two bottles though ;)
~ Super cute streetart at the haven to the baltic sea. Sea bear <3
~ Szeczin is a really pretty seaport with lots of beautiful buildings and tiny alleyways. Definitely worth a daytrip, as it's only a 2 hour drive from Berlin.

~ Friends of mine started their own Podcast Flimmerfeen this year where they talk about tv series from the 80s and 90s. They already talked about a couple of cool series in the past months and when they asked which series they should talk about next I said: The X-Files! And then they invited me to come on to the podcast to talk about The X-Files with them.
~Obviously I said YES! <-- It's in German, check it out!
~ I was so inspired by the episode that I began with a DIY to show my love of The X-Files. Hoping to post that this weekend.

~ Stand up Paddling! It's a lot of fun, but each time I do it I loose my sunglasses. Lost my second pair already...
~ Fleamarket Time! It's been a while since my last (and first) fleamarket experience and I've collected a lot of material, mostly clothes, to sell in this time.
~ We were 4 girls this time at the Prinzessinnengarten, an urban gardening facility. It was a gorgeous venue, but way too hot of a day. I think that's why we didn't sell all too well and I gave the majority of my leftovers away for free. Good thing I wasn't in it for the money.

~ Worked on my X-Files DIY some more.
~ The husband and I went to an adult night at the LEGO Discovery Center in Berlin. Lotsa fun! See that giant Hagrid? Amazing brickwork.
~ MMMmmmMMM LEGO cupcakes.

~ Visited our dearest Claudi from Pixel Trash 3000 who moved in with her boyfriend Maxi from The Final Stage Show. They moved near Osnabrück, which is a really cute city in western Germany (5 hour busride...). Too bad they got infected with the Pokemon Go virus ;)
~ Beautiful building next to the local castle, which is also the town university.
~ Pope is Gangster!

Adventure Time's Beemo DIY Phone Case

My old phone case was pretty fucked up not even a year after I got it, so I went on the search for a new case. Nothing really cought my eye and I couldn't find the same one again, so I decided to take it apart and make a new phone case! Easier said than done. It took me three weeks to finish this project. Mostly because of the tons of hand stitching and waiting for glue to dry, but also because I took loads of breaks during our staycation this summer.

So this is what I started out with:


I took off the actual phone case to use for my new case as this was pretty sturdy itself. Then I used the cover to trace a stencil.

Then I took the cover apart to see how it is aligned inside and to recover the magnets for the closing mechanism (which didn't quite work out the way I imagined).

I used the stencil to cut out two big felt pieces for the cover and two cardboard pieces to glue in between the felt to strengthen the cover. I also cut out Beemos face and all the colourful buttons and Letters that make up Beemos outside. I also cut out a pocket with batteries and speakers for the inside.


Time to glue it all together! I definitely wanted to stitch on all the details, but I figured that glueing it all in place first wouldn't hurt.

The stitching along took me more than a week alone, also waiting for the glue to dry... But it was definitely worth it. I love the way the stitching turned out (you can click on the pictures to get a detailed look).

This is what the front looks like from behind.

I also stitched on some "wiring" on the inside above the "battery pocket".

The outside cover and the pocket needed to get lined with interfacing to make sure the stitching is set and nothing get stuck in the pocket. Then I attached the pocket to the inside cover.

I made the mistake of cutting out the same size for the inside and the outside cover, so when I tried it on with the case inside the outer felt was way too small and the inside bunched up. So I had to make the hard decision to cut the outside cover into three pieces. And believe me, it was a really hard decision... so much work for such a small piece of felt! But I did it. And it worked out!

Now I just needed to glue the cardboard and magnets into place. Like I said, the magnets didn't really work out. The inside felt was too thick for the magnets to connect and close the cover. So after the glue had set I had to carefully tear both sides where the magnets resided apart again and used a push button instead. A little more crude than a magnet seal, but a lot more efficient.

So after all of that of course I had to stitch all around the cover as well to get a finished look for my beautiful new Beemo phone case.
Check it out:





And here's the comparison to the "role model":





        
I really love the way it turned out! I've been using it for a couple of weeks now. The felt is pilling a little bit, but I can just pick it off if it bothers me too much. I just hope clumsy old me doesn't get it dirty somehow, because I don't think it'll be easy to wash. Here's hoping!
Now I've always a friend with me <3