Back from Far Far Away

I've been rather quite the last month, and that nothing to do with the stressful time before Christmas, but rather with the fact that I escaped from that stressful time by taking a vacation a long way from home. It might not been my farthest vacation destination (that honour goes to New Zealand), but getting there took quite some time, as you actually can't fly there, but have to take a ship.
I still flew a long time, first to Buenos Aires, then further South to El Calafata in Patagonia, and then a little further South again to Ushuaia (the Southern most city in the world), to get on a ship (the Midnatsol) to cross the Drake Passage and finally reach my destination: Antarctica.
We saw icebergs

And Penguins

And whales

And has an alround fantastic time.

Boxy Bags and Books

I made two box bags (well, one is more of a pencilcase really, but the basic pattern is the same)
First bag is for holding my meds when I'm traveling. I used mostly white scraps and added a red cross in the last step. There is also a red cross on the other side of the bag. The starting fabric size is two times 20 x 20cm

The same pattern, but starting with 23 x 13cm gets this bag. Perfect size for pencils and other writing paraphenelia.

Next year's journal is covered in fabric. I saw a project like this on pinterest some time ago and put it on my 'have to make is one day' list. Finally, that day has come.

I made that travel journal for an upcoming trip. I used maps from an atlas I bought second hand to cover two pieces of cardboard.

The binding is a so-called accordion binding with six signatures (foldes stacks of paper). The advantage of this binding is that I still have room to add stuff to the book. The hinges and the closure is made with fake leather, which I did sew to the covers by hand.

Seriously, this is my favorite book binding project so far.