I am done...

picture found here

... with work

... with heavy rain in the middle of summer

... with fast food

I am off to Italy for a week...

... for leisure and art

... for warm weather

... for lots of great food, wine and Spritz.

See you when I am back! Have a wonderful week!!!

Party Weekend Part II – A Fish Themed Baby Shower

Although it is not Party Friday, I still want to share the beautiful party that we have today. My friend A. is expecting her first baby in September and we throw her a baby shower today. As with N.’s twin baby shower a couple of weeks ago, we decided to make our own party rules and forget about cheesy games and nappy cakes. 

A fish themed baby shower – what the hell, you might ask. The simple reason is that my friend A. calls the little baby in her tummy Guppy. I think it is such a cute name. And it is perfect, because they do look like guppies on the first ultrasound pictures, don’t them? Anyway, the theme was guppies and once we got over the first ‘I-have-no-idea-what-to-do-with-guppies’, our creativity exploded.

Here are a few of the guppy things which we thought of, made or put together:

Presents: Onesies with guppies printed on them – I just bought the oh-so-practical kimono-style onesies, which you can easily put on and off the baby without having to pull them over their precious little heads (which all babies really hate!) and printed some guppy pictures which I found online onto them. I used T-Shirt transfer sheets which you just iron onto the onesies. And if you have ironed them properly (quite hot and with lots of pressure), the pictures survive a lot of washings.

A Bag full of Advice: Little notes of advice and little things that make life as a mum so much easier. Well there is no guppy on the bag, but giraffes are just so cute (remember my giraffe obsession) and we didn’t want to stick crazily to the guppy theme.

My little things were: gel breast cooling pads and pure lanolin cream, because those two things truly saved my nipples from bleeding and me from dreading breastfeeding.

My little notes of advice were: regarding baby language (Dunstan baby language ), about sound of hair dyer or vacuum cleaner being relaxing for little babies (or at least for my little one), about looking after yourself as well (because happy mum = happy baby) and about making as many photos as possible (because time flies and you never get around to do ‘proper’ photos and therefore you will be eternally grateful for all those happy snaps you have got).

Decorations: Shiny sequined guppies hung up on the walls with fishing tackle ;-))

Location: Since the weatheri is nice we celebrate at the garden of the mum-to-be’s parents. They have a beautiful pool so it was perfect for our ‘guppy party’ ;-)

I am off to some last minute decorations now. I hope to share some more pictures with you later on. Keep your fingers crossed that the thunderstorms wait until tonight!

Today was my first ‘real’ kids birthday. Meaning the first one that I organised. I threw a little backyard party for my goddaughter who turns 2 in a month and since her mum is expecting twins who are due around the same time, we thought we better prepone the kids’ party so that the little one can celebrate with her friends and her mum ;-)

The most important things I learned today were:

• you don’t need to prepare any games for 2-year-olds if you have a huge sandpit and see-saw in your backyard. That keeps them entertained for hours
• all young-parents want at a kids’ party is strong coffee – forget about beer and diet coke, those days are gone
• the birthday girl (or boy) always cries – no matter what you do. It is always too much attention. Too many other kids playing with her/ his new toys. It was like this when I was little and it hasn’t changed a bit.
• water balloons are not just small balloons – first they are impossible to inflate and then they are impossible to fasten with a knot
• at the end of a kids birthday you need a beer and the last piece of cherry cake. And that is what I am going to have now.

Hope you had a wonderful Saturday as well!

Busy Bee

Sorry, dearest readers that it is so quiet on this little blog of mine. I wish I could post more! And I wish I could post more interesting things than apologies. But I can’t!

I am soooo busy at the moment. Getting a huge international project up and running at work. Getting my little one to sleep twice a day and counting the days until she starts day care ;-) Getting all the preparations done for a 2-year-old-birthday-party and a guppy baby shower next weekend.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to complain. Half of the tasks are a pleasure and I have said ‘I’ll do it’ to all of them.

BUT

It is just a bit much at the moment and unfortunately a day still has only 24 hours. What a shame!

Anyway, I’ll be back as soon as I am back in control of my life – as much as you can be in control anyway ;-)

Happy Thursday to all of you!

Swapping Sunday

Today my friend C. Invited me and a couple of her other friends to a swapping party. I have heart about swapping parties during my time in Australia, but I have actually never been to a swapping party before. For all of you who haven’t been to one either, I am going to explain it quickly. It goes like this:

You take some clothes which you don’t want to wear anymore to the party... meet a lot of other fashion-crazy girls with their pre-loved clothes... try on what they brought... hand out what you sorted out... and in the best case you come home with a lot of ‘new’ clothes that you love and got rid of a lot of clothes which you don’t love anymore.... and you have paid nothing – nada – niente.

That’s the theory I thought and to be honest I wasn’t really convinced of this concept... what if all the  other girls wear tiny sizes, what if they only bring rubbish, what if no one wants my ‘dead articles’...

... but...

... in reality it was wonderful! I had a fun time (we had cake and bubbly before we got started on the fashion business), I met some really nice girls (friends of friends), I got great fashion advice (Why don’t you try this small belt with the grey dress?), we laughed a lot (about fashion and other things), we could try things on in the living room (as opposed to a tiny smelly change room)...

... and I swapped

a) a skirt which never really fitted me (what was I thinking buying a skirt this skinny?)

b)a blouse which was way too middle-class for me for

and c) a black tunic with quillings which made me look pregnant forever

for

picture found here

1) a dress that looks like the one that Angelina Jolie wore in The Tourist

2) a pair of very sophisticated black linen trousers

and

3) a white V-neck pullover.

I still cannot believe my luck. And surprisingly all other girls were equally happy with their swaps. Sure, there were some things that no one looked good in (what a relief, it is the dress/ shirt/... not me) and some things that were just hideous (this green just looks like something for a ranger), but we had a good laugh and that is what fashion should be to me – fun.

So I am a convert now. I love swapping parties and will organise one myself soon. Because how on earth should I get rid of this ranger-green jacket otherwise ;-)

Hurray – the lake house is ours!

We have done it! We have bought our first house and our first piece of land. Today we signed the contract for our tiny little lake house.

We are excited! We are over the moon! We are bursting of creative energy.

The house is wonderful. The garden is amazing. And there is room for many, many micro-makeovers. So I promise you, you will see a lot of our tiny lake house on this little blog. I hope you don’t mind!

Happy days!

A Bavarian wedding – decorations

Yummy place cards for the girls...

... and for the boys.

found here

Or simple but oh so beautiful self-made place cards...

found here

Tutorial - Colourful Eye Candy

I cannot believe it - yesterday I found this wonderful picture of a cocktail umbrella lantern that left me (and Christiane ;-)) thinking how to make one ourselves.

And today I found a how to video on Etsy. That is really just-in-time delivery ;-)

Here it is:

Just for you, Christiane ;-) I am sure it will also work perfectly with your old Sisal lamp shade.
From now on I will save all my cocktail umbrellas from sundaes, cocktails and the likes as well and make one myself. I hope I can finish this project this year, since I am not a great consumer of cocktails and sundaes ;-)

Eye Colourful Candy

picture found here

A Bavarian wedding – Decision about my outfit made

On Wednesdays I share everything wedding with you: tips, projects, organisation, photos, faux-pas, fun things and golden rules I ‘learned’ from my own wedding. I feel I need to give something back to the fabulous blog community who helped me stay sane and enjoy every second of my ‘big day’.

* * *

Alright the little poll is officially closed. The decision is made. I am going to wear...

... Dirndl No 1 at my best friends’ wedding.

I know there were also very good reasons to wear Dirndl No 2, but the argumentation for Dirndl No 1 was just a bit more convincing to me. Plus it was a clear winner in terms of numbers, but that wasn’t the only reason why I decided to go with it.

As some of you suggest I will pimp up my good old Dirndl No 1 with:

A white, slightly transparent, maybe lacy apron...

picture found here

... and a white dirndl blouse

picture found here

Thank you so much for your help in making up my mind. For all the wonderful suggestions. I am in your debt so please let me know if I can do something for you – help you make a fashion decision, bake you a cake, send you a postcard... anything!!!

Ruby Eye Candy

picture found here

My Favourite Dollhouse – To Go

Every Monday I will post something related to babies: inspiration, craft projects, baby news, and discoveries I have made in this new and exciting world for me. I hope you come along on that rollercoaster ride with me.

* * *

I love dollhouses! I think they were my favourite toys when I was little. I had a huge wooden one that my dad made for us. Plus my sister and I constantly created new ones. Made out of cardboard, paper, glue and lots of imagination. We always added new things, decorated and redecorated, made new pieces of furniture... Truly work in process and I think as soon as all seemed finish the fun of playing with it was over as well.

Why I bother you with these old childhood stories of mine? Because I found a wonderful playhouse made by the MoMA which reminds me so much of our old cardboard dollhouses. Although it is definitely more beautiful and more stylish than the shoeboxes we had.

picture found here

video to see what you can do it here

Isn’t it lovely? I would like to order it straight away. But perhaps I should give a shoebox another try first. I have this postcard which I could use as lawn for the balcony and maybe I can make a little deck chair out of some wooden sticks and a rubber band...

Oh I love toys that set your creativity on fire!

OMG

aka Oh my God - please wish us luck. This little house is made for us. Now we just have to get it. I am so excited!!!!

Haus am See

We are off to the countryside today looking for a house at a lake (Haus am See) where we can spend our weekends soon. We love to live in the middle of the city, but sometimes herbs on the balcony are just not enough.

Thus we have been searching the web for a little holiday home an hour or an hour-and-a-half away from Berlin. I am sure we are not the only city dwellers who dream of a hideaway in the country, but we were positively surprised that there is quite a lot on offer and it is still relatively affordable. We just wanted to do a little research at the moment and take our time in finding something that suits our dreams and budget perfectly...

... but then we saw this gem and made an appointment with the estate agent straight away:

So maybe this will be our new getaway?

Please keep your fingers crossed that it is as nice in reality as the photos suggest. I’ll keep you updated.

Beautiful Birmingham

At the beginning of each month I want to show you places where I’d rather be at that very moment. As you know I am constantly either travelling or dreaming of travelling and I want to share my favourite bars, restaurants, hotels, cities and countries around the world with you. And I am looking for your recommendations for my next trips.

* * *

I know beautiful might not be the first word that comes to mind when you think about Birmingham. Nevertheless I found it surprisingly beautiful when I had to go there for a number of business trips. What I really like about is that it is so unpretentious, yet there have beautiful architecture, beautiful restaurants, a beautiful pedestrian area which is perfect for shopping, beautiful coffee shops and this beautiful hotel (although the website is horrible!)

The Hotel du Vin itself, however, is a classic design hotel. Simple and sophisticated, a historical house with all the modern luxuries you can think off. It is also a perfect example for the fact that little things can make all the difference:

How nice is it to have a range of really nice glossy magazines in the room? And not only the standard hotel  brochures or the advertising folders of the city you stay in.

And how sweet is this little reminder which invites you to take the lovely shower product home with you? Come-on everybody does that. And they don’t cost the earth, do they?

And how yummy is this sweet and savoury assortment of snacks above the mini bar? Yes they are expensive, but so are the standard Mars bars which you usually find in the mini bar. And they are just for emergencies in the middle of the night anyway ;-)

Don't you wanna go there straight away?

Where: Hotel du Vin & Bistro Birmingham,  Church Street, Birmingham B3 2NR, UK

Phone: (0044)0121 200 0600 , email: info.birmingham@hotelduvin.com

 Highlight: all those little nice things that make your stay just special

More photos, information and ideas:  Hotel du VinBirmingham, Bullring Shopping Centre – it is more than a shopping centre, it is modern architecture at its best