What‘s next?

I guess, you cannot believe your eyes. Two new blog posts in a row. Whoa!!! I know it is quite a change from the past months, but I am back. Truly back and I am bursting of creative juices and I have so many things to tell you that I don’t know where to start.

Unfortunately I cannot show you any finished projects at the moment, because I haven’t had time to do any things-I-love-to-do in the past weeks – oh well, I know I am melodramatic, there were a few things but not nearly enough for my liking.

Anyway, but I have great plans:

·     Build a play kitchen for the little one as Christmas present (making the play kitchen will be my Christmas present to myself, I cannot wait to get the compass saw out of the basement)

·     Sew a ton of really cool scarfs for Christmas (I have a very cool pattern for a children scarf which I want to enlarge to make it adult size)

·    Bake a ton of cookies – seriously, I cannot wait to unpack my cookie cutters and this year I want to go beyond the tried-and-tested-and-much-loved  butter cookies.

·     Make wonderful relaxing bath salts and using them ;-)

·      Get my hair cut and coloured (there is a time when plucking your grey hairs isn’t a solution anymore and my time is NOW)

·      Have a lot of mulled wine at Christmas markets (after 4 years abstinence due to our stay in Australia and breastfeeding)

·      Finally sew a shift dress of the wonderful houndstooth fabric that has been lying around forever

But before I start with all of these projects, I try to get well and send my warmest wishes to the fabulous bloggers who meet in Berlin today. I don’t want to spread my germs otherwise I would be with you that is for sure. Have a great, inspiring afternoon! I know you will have anyway ;-)

The „Holländischer Stoffmarkt“ in Numbers

Numbers of fabric stalls: uncountable

Number of passionate sewers at the market: uncountable

Number of fabrics, I could have bought: 746

Amount of money, I spent (in Euro): 30

Number of beautiful fabrics, I bought: 5

Number of bags on my buggy: 3

Number of alleys full of fabrics: 3

Number of stalls with accessories: 2

Number of friends, I kept on losing: 2

Number of heavy rain showers: 2

Number of babies who wouldn’t leave their mama’s arm: 1 = mine ;-(

Number of numb arms after carrying her around for hours: 1 = my left one

Portions  of French fries I needed to keep on going: 1 with mayonnaise

Despite the numb arm, I am a very happy girl today! Now I can start thinking about what to make out of my new treasures. Happy days!

Fabric Shopping Spree

To all sewing addicts in and around Berlin, clear your calendars, cancel all dates and rob a bank – tomorrow is holländischerStoffmarkt in Potsdam.

Picture found here

I am already dreaming of a pram full of bags, mountains and mountains of new fabrics, overstuffed containers, and an immensely enlarged fabric stash... I haven’t been to holländischer Stoffmarkt before since I spend my sewing-addicted years down under, thus I am extremely excited and hope that my high expectations won’t be crashed tomorrow.

I hope to show you tons of new fabrics tomorrow evening.

Have a great Saturday, no matter what you are looking forward to!

Happy parents = happy baby: Going out

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.

* * *

Today’s post is all about making parents happy. What an unusual self-centred concept in the context of having kids, n’est pas? Extremely unusual, but extremely important as well, I think. Because if you are happy, your baby will be happy, too. I promise! The little one’s just know exactly how we feel and if we are all relaxed and bubbly and in a wonderful mood – they will be too.

So last Saturday my lovely husband and I went on a date – sans baby. My parents watched the little one and promised to call us whenever there was drama. I prefer being on call to having the constant feel, that there might be drama and no one tells you out of thoughtfulness. So the mobile was always within view. But still it was our evening. Our date.

First we had Thai food in one of our favourite restaurants Tajsu. We had a starter and a main. And we ate together – I mean, both at the same time. With both hands. No one needed to cut something ins small pieces for the little one, feed her, pick up her water bottle for the thousands time. We ate in peace. It was delightful!

Afterwards – since we still haven’t received an emergency call from the babysitters – we went on to have cocktail at sunset. We went to Solar, which is not just around the corner from our apartment but also the bar with the best view in town. It was perfect. The cocktails were beautiful and tasted simply amazing. We got a table directly at the window. And we watched the sun go down over our favourite city. And we talked. And talked. And talked. Uninterrupted. Not about babies. Not about organisational stuff. We had the best time ever.

When we came home, there was no change of mood either. The little one was asleep. The grandparents read. We all celebrated with a glass of bubbly, what a wonderful evening it had been. And i promise you this evening will take us to quite a number of sleepless nights, teething and other baby-related dramas.

So, go for it! Enjoy yourself. Do something just for you. Your baby will thank you for being a bit ‘selfish’ once in a while!

A treat for mum - again!

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.

* * *

Although Mother’s Day is over, I still think that mums need a bit of pampering. And this is a fabulous treat that I got as a birthday present from my best friends:

picture found here

A professional foot bath at Fußbadcafe. With soft music, a cup of tea, a beautiful interior, flowers in the water, hot stones, a scrub, a massage and a wonderfully smoothening cream on top. You can also get nail polish in every colour you can think of. Half an hour of bliss! It really makes you feel relaxed, special and very, very beautiful! Ideally you can enjoy this treatment all by yourself, but if your little one throws a tantrum and doesn’t want to stay with the babysitter (like mine did ;-() you can also enjoy it with a little one on your lap.

The Best ‘Schnitzel’ in Town...

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... looked exactly like this and tasted absolutely wonderful. This Wiener Schnitzel is made of veal, not pork (then it would be called “Schnitzel Wiener Art”). It is incredibly thin. It is deliciously crisp. And it is so big that it covers your whole plate. It came with a yummy potato salad and a fresh cucumber salad.

I ♥ Schnitzel. And since I don’t really know the secret recipe of the best Wiener Schnitzel, I order it very often in restaurants. I had a number of really good Schnitzel in Berlin so far, but last night topped it all. The best ‘Schnitzel’ in town that is a secret I don’t want to hide from you. I had it at

Austria

This restaurant is almost a legend. I heard a lot of good things about it, but yesterday was actually the first time that I had dinner there. And it definitely wasn’t the last time! With 18.50 EUR the Schnitzel is quite expensive (at least for Berlin standards), but it was worth every penny. Plus you can take the leftovers home with you so that you’ll have a yummy “Schnitzel-Semmel” (Schnitzel sandwich the day after).

Apart from the famous Schnitzel they also have a small menu full of other delicious, authentic Austrian dishes and a large wine list with focus on Austrian wines.

Favourite dish: real ‘Wiener Schnitzel’ of course

Atmosphere: relaxed, a bit chalet-like, friendly staff, always busy (therefore a reservation makes sense!)

Address: Bergmannstraße 30 (at the corner of Heimstrasse), 10961 Berlin (don’t mix it up with the Felix Austria, which is just a few meters down the road, they serve great Austrian food too, but not the most amazing Wiener Schnitzel)

Reservation: 030 6944440

Open: daily from 6pm

Pleasant Surprise: baby changing table in the toilet

Micro-Makeover: Balcony – The Big Picture

Tata... today I am finally able to show you how my balcony looks after my micro-makeover. Just a short reminder – this is how it looked before...

... and now it looks like this:

Much better, isn’t it? I love it so much now that want to spend all my time outside, reading a book during the day, chatting and drinking a beer with my husband in the evening and doing a BBQ with friends on the weekend.

I am really surprised how much I even like the green balustrade now. In the beginning I had no idea what to do with it. Green is not my colour – neither in fashion nor in decoration. Since we live in a rented apartment with lots of similar balconies, however, painting the balustrade was not an option. I thought of covering it, but I also didn’t want to block the view. And then the whole dilemma was solved when I looked through my fabric stash and found this fabric which I have bought at IKEA years ago:

It was the solution to all my problems because it combines green and one of my favourite colours turquoise in such a beautiful way. So green-turquoise the colour scheme would be and the rest miraculously fell into place. I have so many turquoise pieces for decoration, which I all bought while we lived in Australia. So having these on my balcony doesn’t just look nice, for me they will also remind me of my ‘second hometown’ Melbourne all the time. They really add to my mid-city Berlin balcony a splash of Aussie lifestyle and interior design. Because since the climate is so pleasant in Australia, people put much more thought and effort in the planning, building, furnishing and decoration of their ‘outdoor spaces’ (auf Deutsch: Garten, Balkon, Terrasse, Loggia etc.). They make them stylish and most of all liveable. Well, most of them anyway. Of course doggy backyards full of rubbish exist as well ;-)

So that was the big picture of my new balcony. More on the details tomorrow.

Enjoy your evening!

I ♥ spring

Det is meen Berlin (typical Berlin!)

Sign at an alternative bar

Translation: no Beck’s beer, no Cafe Latte, no bullshit and on top of that self-service

Spanish Tapas Feast

I could live on starters. Italian Antipasti. American Fingerfood. Spanish Tapas. You name it. I think it is because you can share them. You can try many different dishes – and don’t have to choose only. Because you can eat for hours. Because they go so well with a nice glass of wine. Because they are so easy to prepare. Because you can make them for 2 or 20 people.

Yesterday I made a little tapas feast for my lovely husband and I. And oh it was soooo good.

We had green olives filled with lemon, almonds and sweet pepper, capers, sardines in vinegar, tortilla (potato omelette with onions), plums in bacon (eaten so fast I couldn’t even take a picture ;-)) manchego cheese and jamon (Spanish gammon). Then a nice Spanish Rioja and some white bread - ¡ya está!

Unfortunately there were only the two of us, so I couldn’t have more tapas variety. Because although they are just little things, they do fill you up.

I have to give most credit for the success of the feast to a wonderful Spanish supermarket I discovered on Friday, however. The cooking itself was a minor effort with the amazing ingredients I got there: Spanische Quelle

After shopping all I had to do is:

* heat the tortilla
* fry the plums
* cut the cheese
* arrange everything on little plates and in little bowls
* open the bottle of wine

... and then: ¡Buen provecho!

Creative Shopping Heaven Berlin

After discovering their fabulous website last night and discovering that their shop is just 20min away, my daily midday walk ended by chance at

I spend a wonderful hour in this relatively small shop, because despite its small size it houses an amazing range of beautiful-beautiful things. Amazing children toys. Wonderful home decorations. Breathtaking stationary. And of course I couldn’t resist. I am very proud of myself, however, keeping my limited spending budget in mind that I just bought these

found here

Aren’t they a real sensible, economic purchase? Imagine how many different things you can make with them. I will never have to purchase a postcard anymore in my life. From now on I will make my own. Little pieces of art, personal and worth-to-keep, instead of overpriced, badly printed pictures of the Louvre, Bavarian castles or the London Eye. That’s a bargain, isn’t it?

While chatting with Nicole, one of the two lovely founders founders of schoener.waers.wenns.schoener.waer (it would be more beautiful if it was more beautiful), she told me that right across the street, at Moritzplatz, an amazing craft department store will open soon. A Modulor department store to be precise. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. For all of you who haven’t been to the Modulor store in Berlin before. This is the creative shopping heaven. They have specialised in materials of all kind. I think it is the best-known secret for all architects, model railway builders, artists and creative people of all kind. Their only disadvantage was that the hop itself was pretty small and you really had to dig to find all the amazing things. And now they are opening a multi-story department store this year. Huraay! I knew this part of Kreuzberg was up and coming. Well, just now I am sure ;-)

And for all of you who don’t live in Berlin, please don’t cry. Modulor has a great online shop as well.

Fabric Shopping Spree

Today I had a wonderful fabric shopping spree. I met with Catherine from Cat-und-Kascha at the market on Maybach Ufer. Besides wonderful fresh food, you can also buy there incredibly affordable fabrics. Catherine and I found out that we do not only share a passion for sewing, retro fashion and the colour red, but that we also have very similar fabric shopping behaviour: browse, strike whenever we see something beautiful and then buy a couple of metres, so that we have enough fabric no matter what we are going to make out of it (dress, skirt,...).And since I didn’t have anything on my shopping list – en contraire, I didn’t need anything at all – I found wonderful things:

bright pink lining fabric

beautiful ribbons

and wonderful thick jersey (grey with pink and turquoise graphic flowers), which was a perfect gift for my sewing-addicted friend N., who is expecting twins and doesn’t know whether they will be boys or girls or a boy and a girl.

After our successful shopping spree, Catherine and I dried our children (it was pouring with rain all the time and still we kept on moving from one stall to the next) and had a wonderful lunch. And chatted, chatted and chatted. Although we have just met once before. Amazing what interesting people you can meet through blogging. And if you are lucky, they live right around the corner ;-) I am looking forward to our next meeting, Catherine!

Ode to Berlin

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.

* * *

The last Fernweh-Wanderlust post of the year is a little different. Because at the moment I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than home. Anywhere else than Berlin. So here is an ode to my Berlin


Little Big Berlin from pilpop on Vimeo.

So while I am happy to be here at home, I promise you that there will be lots of new travel inspiration next year. Because there are just too many amazing places in the world.

Hope you are happy where you are at the moment as well!

Little Craft Market

A friend of mine is an artist (by profession and passion) and tomorrow there is the rare opportunity to see her pieces of art, because she is taking part in this lovely little craft market:

picture and more information found here
Where Koch-Atelier Gudrun Schmidtke, Planufer 91, 10967 Berlin

When tomorrow Sunday, November 21th 2010, from 11am to 6pm

With what art, ceramics, jewellery, food goodies, pillows, books and flowers plus home-made cookies and mulled wine

I’ll be there tomorrow to do some Christmas shopping and support the creative ladies. And I am sure there will be lots of inspiration in the air. I hope to see you there.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

21 years after the Wall came down...

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... I am so grateful that it cannot keep Andi and me apart anymore.

... I am so happy that my beloved Berlin isn’t a divided city anymore.

... I only live 50 meters from where it stood.

... I love to divide my time between the former East and the former West Berlin.

... I am glad that our daughter will only know it from history class and stories.

Festival of Lights

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Yesterday the Festival of Lights started here in Berlin. Until October 24th buildings across Berlin are in illuminated in all colours of the rainbow. Every night! Plus there are amazing fireworks as well. Isn’t that a wonderful start into the dark winter season?

Last minute culture

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We have been to an amazing exhibition today. In one of my favourite museums – the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin. In my opinion the exhibitions there are always excellent and it is neither too big (exhausting) nor too small (disappointing).

Teotihuacan is a pyramid city in Mexico which dates back more than 2000 years. I have been there 10 years ago and am still fascinated by the fact that they still find new artefacts today although they have been searching for centuries. A truly mysterious place with a unique atmosphere and full of amazing objects which you can see in the exhibition: Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake, Tlaloc, the god of rain ... and many more.

So, go there and have a look yourself if you can. But you have to be quick. Unfortunately tomorrow is the last day of the exhibition. Hence last minute culture...

Friday Football

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Soccer actually rather than football. The German national team plays against Turkey tonight. In the city with the biggest Turkish community outside of Turkey – Berlin. And I reckon I now live in the street with the biggest Turkish soccer fans in Berlin. Which means: a chorus of horns since noon, red flags on half of the balconies, black-red-gold on the other half, a big party no matter who wins and a lot of very disappointed fans (dito) and fireworks (triple yipee!).

Happy Friday!

Finally back...

Lovely readers – if I still have any. I am so SORRY! I have been away from this little blog much longer than I planned and hoped. But the past few weeks and the move back to Germany have been busier than anticipated. Oh well! From now on, there will be more news on this poor neglected blog, because...

... it is done: We have put all our belongings in Australia into 3 suitcases and a shipping container. We have flown to Germany with our little girl. We have spent a lot of time with our families and friends. We have found a beautiful new apartment in the centre of Berlin. We have spent a lot of time at various administrative offices and hardware stores.

... well, it is almost done: We have still some organisational stuff to organise. We still have to spend a lot of time in hardware stores and IKEA. We still want to spend more time with our family and friends. We still have to move into our apartment. We still have to unpack our shipping container.

BUT

We are back home.

Hello and goodbye – Shopping