Life at Insectopolis

On Friday I finally created my new calendar. Here are the files:

• Plain calendar in English: PlainEnglish_2012.pdf
  
• Plain calendar in German: PlainGerman_2012.pdf
  
• German calendar with German and Christian holidays: GermanWithHolidays_2012.pdf

For further information on how to get a calendar out of one of those files or if you want to know how you can build your own calendar see the following two articles:

• Tiny pocket calendar - Create a calendar with LaTeX
• Tiny pocket calendar - Print and sew your own calendar

I encountered new problems and did some modifications to my calendar, that I want to tell you about behind the cut...

My mom collected a lot of non- German euro coins over the last weeks and I've been sorting through them last Monday. This helped me to complete some of my collection, and I thought an update of last year's When was the last time you looked into your wallet? was overdue.

There are 75 non- German euro coins in my collection. France and Austria are completed. Belgium and Spain, too, although some of the coins aren't from the first year of their existence. You can see a detailed list behind the cut.

On Thursday evening we decided to go to the supermarket and get the groceries and stuff, that we might need over the weekend. When arriving at the supermarket at about 7:45 pm we were shocked by the amount of people that were still shopping. I was always wondering if it is profitable to open a supermarket til midnight on a day before a holiday but since this Thursday I know, that it is for sure profitable.

The first thing we did was getting rid of our used bottles. The line in front of the 4 machines was pretty long and instead of waiting, I decided to see if the bakery still had some food for me, cause they usually close at 8 pm. So I left the outbuilding where they sell all kind of drinks and turned to the right...

And there he was, with his small market stand, built up directly in front of the supermarket's doors. Reminding everyone how late Easter is this year, by selling it for about 5,- €/kg: delicious unmistakably white asparagus! And as last year, he added a few more asparagus, after I already paid him. And I only bought 500 g of it!

After getting something to eat, I went back to pick up my companion and confined the asparagus to the trunk. Then we went shopping in a busted supermarket. Well, at least the butcher and bakery inside of the supermarket were still open although they usually close at 8 pm.

But actually I don't want to tell you about grocery shopping. That's boring. I want to tell you what I did to the asparagus. Behind the cut, of course...

The Winter is finally officially over and Spring has started. While watching nature wake up I find myself missing something. There are no daisies growing in the closest areas around Insectopolis! Sometimes you find a single daisy in a garden, but even that is rare. So I was very happy when I came across this little group of daisies by accident about two weeks ago.

You can see more Spring pictures behind the cut...

In 2009, while searching something online I found a folding instruction for those beautiful bascetta stars. Meanwhile 4 are hanging around here and I created the fifth one exclusively for you...

This is the second part of my process to make my own tiny pocket calendar. The first part was the creation of my calendar with LaTeX. You can read the LaTeX part here: Create a calendar with LaTeX.

Everyone who doesn't have the knowledge to use LaTeX, can download one of the following PDFs. They have 2 slight mistakes in them, so just ignore the first and the last page of the documents:

• Plain calendar in English: PlainEnglish.pdf
• Plain calendar in German: PlainGerman.pdf
• German calendar with German and Christian holidays: GermanWithHolidays.pdf

If you don't want a calendar, you can use anything you want and still follow the part in which I explain how I sewed the pages together. Behind the cut, of course.

Concerning calendars I don't like the electronic stuff that comes with cell phones and other technical devices. I prefer real paper, cause it's faster to use and it keeps the brain working, when you need to remember an event instead of being reminded of it. This, and last Saturday's discussion about the disadvantages of a Moleskine calendar, caused me to make my own calendar.

On Sunday the first ideas started to dribble out of my mind and the most important characteristics of the pocket calendar were set. Not having much appointments one week per page is enough and such a calendar shouldn't be larger than DIN A6 paper. That much was easy. The problem that remained was the choice of the program that should be used. Not having done anything with LaTeX lately, it seemed to be a nice choice.

After convincing Google that I did not want to buy a calendar with half naked women dressed in latex, I could start, what I show you behind the cut...

Well, you read correctly. When others are buying their last Christmas presents, we have to think about a few Birthday presents. With 3 birthdays coming up in the beginning of January and a friend ones a few days before Christmas, we are really busy thinking about presents. One of those birthdays was easy. For another one I came up with an idea when visiting said person. The other two were more difficult. One was covered with a spontaneous idea, but that one before Christmas was a bit harder, because I didn't know what that person was crafting currently... So I just decided to ask and the conversation was close to this:

Me: "Btw, what do you want for your birthday?"
He: "Good question. Everything is too expensive for one person. And I don't really know."
Me: "I could make a cake."
He: "That'd be great."

Ok. He got his cake. And given to the place where he was celebrating his birthday the decoration for the cake was obvious.

The decoration was all almond paste, powdered sugar and food coloring. Completely edible.

Today is the first day since Christmas, that I have some time to finally show you the pictures of our second Christmas baking session.

Unfortunately my camera was still lying on my desk at home, when I stood in front of the first dough in my mom's kitchen. My mom doesn't live in Insectopolis, so I had to use my cell phone to make pictures. The contrast of them looks pretty strange, but I think they are better than no pictures. And as always you can see them behind the cut...

While a few ravens, a few pigeons, a brown squirrel, a red squirrel, a chaffinch(?) and two titmice were trying to find something to eat under the snow outside, we spend a cold Sunday afternoon in my mom's kitchen making Christmas cookies.

The most important cookies for sure were the domino dice. Last year's Domino dice war asked for a revenge. We didn't win, nor lose the fight. "Stalemate!", as a Chess player would say. And although the domino dice consumed most of our time, we still had a few hours in between the steps to make some vanilla crescents, some coconut macaroons and a cake.

You find more pictures and the recipes, that we used, behind the cut.

Some time ago a local discounter offered decorative glass objects, that everyone could paint herself. I decided for a vase and a wall clock. The vase isn't really extraordinary and so I only want to introduce the clock to you.

Read everything behind the cut.

In Summer my mom had a coupon for a free vuvuzela from a local furniture store. Well, those vuvuzelas weren't available anymore at the first day that coupon was valid. More so, those guys said, that they won't get more of them. Well, they had them again a few weeks later, when I already bought one somewhere else.

But now back to the day, when I tried to get that vuvuzela. We went to have breakfast there afterwards and when we left the store they just started to fill a big basket with free piggy banks. This gave me the chance to repair my mistake from last time. Cause in February, I left the plastic plug inside of the piggy, when I put it into the oven. You can read about it here: My new XXXL piggy bank.

A few days ago, I finally had an idea of how the piggy bank should look like. Take a look at it behind the cut.

I had a small wooden casket lying around in my desk drawer. It got its first painting, while I was a child. I painted some flowers on a white background. Many years ago I decided that I don't like it anymore and repainted the casket. Back then it got a red bottom part and a yellow top part. Over the years that casket got some scratches and the paint started to get some cracks. So I decided that it needs a new appearance again.

This time I tested a new method called décopatch. And I decided to give the bottom part an antique look. Read how I did this after the cut...

On Friday I was sitting in front of a new PC waiting for him to finish the installation of a pre-installed Windows 7. He was doing everything on his own. Although this is very comfortable, it really sucks, not to know, what he's actually doing, cause 'devices are being installed' in white letters on a black background isn't very meaningful.

Let me tell you this: If that PC would have been mine, I would have been banging my head on the desk in front of me during the installation. But given the fact, that a standard installation is basically suitable for this owner I did compensate the lack of control and work with food. I was hungry after all.

After the installation of the operating system, the activation and the first update process the fun could begin with the installations of Firefox, AntiVir and Thunderbird. Firefox and AntiVir didn't cause any trouble at all and AntiVir was even updating the virus definition files without any complains. But after the cut you can read how Thunderbird turned into MockingBird...

When I discovered the napkin technique a several years back, I started one of my first projects by beautifying an unused terracotta colored plastic flower pot. The result was very pleasant and my windowsill didn't look boring anymore. I still use napkin technique on my flower pots with mixed results. But it's always more beautiful than a boring pot.

It's even cheaper by the way. Instead of putting a pot with holes into another (mostly very expensive) pot without holes, you can just buy a cheap pot with holes and a plate to put them on. Well, that is if you have the other needed materials. But even then the material lasts for so many pots, that it'll still be cheaper.

After collecting some experience over the last years, I thought it would be fun to show you the creation of one of my flower pots behind the cut.