Happy Birthday ~ 5 Years of Bazooka Crafts! + GotG *Give-Away*

I can't believe it been 5 years now since I started my very own DIY blog! So much has happened since then and I'm very proud that through all that change I was still able to take the time to keep this blog alive. Doing that with a full-time job is not always easy, but I somehow didn't lose my motivation after all this time.

Let's go on a time travel and back to the beginning of this blog:

My first blog banner was as diy as it can get! I cut out the letters from papers and magazine, glued them on a piece of graph paper and took a picture of it. Did a little of photo editing and slapped it on my blog, for 3 whole years!

My next banner was designed by my dear friend Sophie, you can check out her art on her Twitter account.

My last and final banner is also by Sophie and I really love it! It's definitely a huge step up from my first design and I love the way she made her first design even better to fit me and my blog's personality!

Let's get into the posts! In five years I have published 183 posts, that's an average of 36 posts a year... pretty impressive for a hobby blogger, I think. Check out some of my favorite and most popular posts:

~ The first ever post was our first Kitchen Buffet back in Munich. This was actually a pre-blog project that I took pictures of not knowing that I would publish them someday. It was really fun and our first big craft project in the apartment where my now husband and I lived together for the first time.
~ Not long after our first kitchen buffet I bought another one. Vintage furniture was really cheap to buy in Munich and I couldn't resist! This one was meant to show my love for the Walking Dead comics, as I decoupaged the doors with said comics.
I still have both of the Buffets, The first one's bottom is home to all of our kitchen appliances (top is in the basement) and the Walking Dead Buffet holds all of my craft supplies.

My first craft swap on Craftster was also Walking Dead related. Above you can see all the stuff I made for my swap partner. I also posted about the things I got.

Speaking of craft swaps, here's my second one:

It was a Harry Potter swap and I am very proud of the crafts I made. The ones I received in return were also not too shabby ;)

You might recognize these Galaxy Shoes from my blog banner, although I never wore them in real live as I made them for my then future husband.

The Death Star Clock is one of my most popular posts on the blog. Which makes it a pity that the picture I took for this post were pretty horrible. Oh well... the clock ended up at my future husbands workplace and never found its way home again. May the Force be with it!

Speaking of the future husband. This was his first and last post , which is sad, because it's called Part I, but there was never sequel...
        
~You know you're a hipster nerd when your love for Science Fiction is a plaid sweater. Still like to wear my Star Wars vs Star Trek sweater.
~ Definitely one of my Highlight in the past 5 years; The Hobbit - Desolation of Smaug Premiere! I was in the audience to watch all the Stars come down the red carpet and actually won a ticket for the premiere :D

Speaking of winning:

I won an upcycling contest with my Crochet VHS-Tape Clutch. Got to go to Hamburg for an Upcycling workshop, hotel and trainride included.

Oh yeah, there were some more workshops:

For example my first workshop at the Dawanda Snuggery. I had been following Lu from Luloveshandmade for a while ba then and always admired the workshops she looked after back then. We made cute nail art, the Mr & Mrs Krowns sign was made for my upcoming wedding.

And then there were the Long Nights of DIY:

I'm happy to say that I participated in every Long Night of DIY so far. The two first ones were at the Dawanda Snuggery in 2013 and 2014. The next one in 2015 was already much bigger than the first events and to top it all I had my very own DIY worksshop at the event in 2016.

There's been posts about the holidays:

During the 12 days of Halloween I really hit my blogging limits. The plan was to post every day for 12 days until Halloween... yeah, that's not quite what happened. I did make it to the 12th post though!

We have never had a traditional christmas tree. Instead we made our own tradition by making alternative Christmas trees. I really liked our Pixel Christmas Tree, which I made for our first Christmas at our own home. The TP Christmas Tree was a little smaller, perfect as a christmas center piece. Pssstt... it's made of toilet paper rolls!

Smooth transition to the iron throne (you know, cause tp.. porcelain throne... ah, nevermind)

~ Got to visit the Game of Thrones Exhibitin Berlin. Do you know a better way to celebrate your anniversary? Me neither! And it was totally worth it to see the husband in a suit on the Iron Throne.
~ I also visited the Harry Potter Studio Tourin London. What a wonderful place! I definitely want to go back someday.
I also made videos for both of these posts. Dabbled in video editing for a bit, but it's way too much work to do both, I'd rather choose blogging over videos.

And finally one of my favorite posts from last year: Sherlock Tea Bag Cookies
Made these for a viewing party of the victorian special episode, one of my faves!

Alright, if you made it to the end of this post there's a reward! I get to Give Away a bunch of Posters of the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Also, there will be one Grand Prize winner who will receive a Funko Baby Groot and a fake Cassette Player. Isn't that awesome? I might even throw in a couple of other Goodies.
There are 3 ways you can enter this Give Away:
1. Via Instagram - Follow the instructions on this Instagram Post
2. Via Facebook - Follow the instructions of the Pinned Post on my Facebook page
3. Via comment on this post! Follow my blog and let me know in the comments what kind of posts you would like to see in the (hopefully) next five years. Leave your email adress so I can get back to you in case you win!
Alright, that's it! Last day to enter is Saturday, the 13th of May. Winners will be announced on Sunday, the 14th of May! Anyone in Europe can enter.
Good Luck!
        

Picturesque Month ~ 11'&12'16

November was pretty uneventful, so here's November and December in one post.

~ The Berlin Planetarium reopened after renovations and we went to see the music show Queen Heaven, a multimedial lasershow created by Brian May in 2001. Really weird show, but the planetarium is definitely worth a visit!
~ Let's do Yoga! Started with the 30 days of Yoga with Adriene, haven't quite finished yet...
~ I went to my first ever sewing class hosted by the lovely Anne from Partywoods. We made a raglan style sweater from scratch, including constructing the pattern. Blogpost coming soon!

~ Hosted my second ever workshop just a few weeks after my first one at Dawanda's Long Night of DIY. Since we had so many melting beads left over I asked if I could do a round two at the Snuggery. The night did not start well though. I left work early so I could prepare the Snuggery, but Obama crossed my plans by paralyzing the public transport during his Berlin visit. It took me 1 1/2 hours instead one 1/2 an hour which made me late for my own workshop. But I wasn't the only one who got obstructed by traffic, pretty much everyone else was late as well and due to a flu epidemic we ended up with only 9 people including me and Annika from Dawanda, but it was really nice and cozy this way. The exact opposite of my previous workshop!
I ended up making a Batman style picture frame. And my friend Minh from Studio S3nnobara made this cute Pixelbird which is going to be one side of a handbag actually.
~ Thanksgiving! Each year we celebrate with a feast to feed an army ;) It was only the two of us this year, so we had lots of leftovers for the next days.

~ Got to see Drangsal again. He is definitely one of my top artists of 2016! Too bad the show was pretty short. If I had paid for the ticket I would have been a little dissapointed. 4/5 Bazooka Points
~ On the same night I attended the 7 year birthday bash of the Snowhite music label. I actually started my music biz career with Snowhite 7 years ago, I was their first intern!
~ The first time I saw Royal Republic live was at an acoustic showcase at work, so this concert was a whole other world. They rocked pretty hard! 5/5 Bazooka Points for a definitely must see live performance.

~ Drunken fun at our annual office christmas party! It was themed Spacestation X-Mas and I got to take out my handsewn Star Wars skirt again.
~ More work fun at the movie premiere for the Winnetou tv trilogy. We distributed the soundtrack to the films, so we got invited to mingle with the cast and crew and some german f-list celebrities to watch the first movie on the big screen.

~ Went to the re-opening of Colours Second Hand store, which is now a Pick'n'Weight Vintag store. They have a massive selction of vintage clothing in the front which is set with insane Kilo prices, but they also have a set price section in the back which also has a ton of vintage items at a reasonable price. I found two pieces of clothing that day, a silk blouse and a dress in the "low end" section, which is 1€ a piece. Score!
~ Won a package of adhesive nails and screws in Luloveshandmade's Give Away, she also added some of her awesome handlettering prints <3~ Speaking of winning stuff. I also took part in Kathastrophal's DIYyoucloset Give Away with my Star Wars Skirt and won a fabric package and an online sewing class from Makerist.

~ Time for homemade christmas presents! I teamed up with Anne from Partywoods to make our very own Ginger beer as a present for our husbands. It turned out delicious, maybe I'll write up a post for that later!
~ Spa Day with the Ladies <3 We went to the thermal spring spa in Bad Belzig and spent half a day soaking in hot pools and sweating in the sauna. A perfect start to the holidays!

~ Merry Christmas! Our alternative christmas tree this year was a chain of lights tree. I only made half a tree which reflected in the balcony window. Our other alternative tree's include the TP Christmas tree and this Pixel Christmas tree.
~ We tried out my homemade Ginger beer on Christmas Eve. Together with some vodka and limes it made a perfect Moscow Mule!

~ Christmas time is boardgame time! We tried out the Starship Catan game I thrifted a while ago. It was pretty fun! Had the "fireplace" running all Christmas long, it gives such a nice atmosphere.
~ Waiting for the family to arrive. Everyone came to visit us this year, so we ended up not leaving the house for three days :D
~ On of my favorite presents from the husband: a cassette tape player and usb converter. Had to test it out immeadiately and converted some of my vintage The little Vampire audio book tapes. Now I can listen to them anywhere!

~ We went on a Minication to Nottingham between Christmas and New Years. Check out this beautiful room provided by our Airbnb host.

~ Visited Batman's home on this sunny, but chilly December day. Wollaton Hall was filmed as Wayne Manor in The Dark Knight Rises. The husband likes to sneak into my selfies!
~When in Nottingham, you have to visit Robin Hood!

~ Went to the beautiful Church Rock Cemetary for a walk among the graves. I have never seen so many gravestones in one place!
~ You gotta have some fish and chips when you're in Britain! I had them in the oldest pub of England, Ye olde Trip to Jerusalem.
~ They have a "Cursed Galleon" above the bar, which is supposed to have killed anyone who touched it! Scary, it was sitting right behind me the whole time...

~ Spent our last morning before flying back to Berlin at the local Kitty Cafe. I love cats so much, even though I'm allergic. Took an allergy pill right before we went inside and spent a lovely time petting some cute cats and drinking tea.
We got home on New Years Eve which we spent watching the Big Fat Quiz of the Year, just the two of us. I hope you all had a lovely New Years celebration and here's to a fantastic year 2017!