Happy Valentine’s Day

Love

Amore

Amour

Amor

That’s what I wish to all of you.

Not only for today, but forever.

Not only from your sweetheart, but from all family and friends around you.

Because ultimately:

All you need is love

Big Birthday Beach BBQ – not

Unfortunately even Australian summers are not predictably hot and sunny. My wonderful beach party plans fell through (im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes ins Wasser gefallen). When I woke up it rained and it didn’t stop for the next couple of hours. Since there is no point in sitting on wet sand with a strong southerly breeze making you shiver even more, I decided to postpone my party.

  

I am not that flexible with plans on my birthday – especially when it involves cancelling fun on the beach with my friends – I have to admit, but now that I am a year wiser... I managed to still have a wonderful day. Not too hard with the support of these wonderful things:

• Unpacking pressies full of books, beautiful maternity shirts, crafting material and a voucher for an original piece of Aboriginal art which I can pick myself.
• A wonderful lunch cooked by my love.
• Many calls, texts and emails from my Aussie friends.
• Some extensive necklace crafting in the afternoon.
• A lovely dinner for two, uhmm three.
• Lots of birthday calls, Facebook messages and emails from Germany. 
• One of my favourite movies on DVD – Ocean’s 13, funny, clever and exciting every time you see it

12 on the 12th

My favourite blog initiative ever.
On the 12th of each month, bloggers around the globe take 12 photos of their daily life and post them.
Not only great for getting to know other bloggers but also as a personal visual diary.
So please join the fun with Caro

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My breakfast doesn’t quite look like the serving suggestion on pack, but it still tastes good!

Driving across the city to do an interview at 8am is no fun. Thank God for the navigation system!

Back in the office – trying to get my thoughts on paper

Early lunch break – meat pies are my only weird pregnancy craving. Very yummy!!!

On the way back home – a quick glimpse of the Bay under heavy clouds.
You see the sun doesn’t always shine in Australian summers.

Stocking up on wine and beer for my party guests tomorrow – not for me this year ;-(

Fridge is filled up after a short grocery shopping trip – more than enough for the beach BBQ tomorrow

Oh no – my parcel from ebay was too big for our post box.
Now I have to wait until Monday to get the cutest baby clothes ever.

That is the nicest birthday card I ever got from a handbag company (uhmmm, I think it is also the first). Anyway, the text reads:

Celebrate that you are ...

... 1 year wiser

... 1 year more refined

... 1 year more worldly

... 1 year more elegant

... 1 year more stylish

... 1 year more glamorous!

How lovely is that? Even if it is printed and comes from a handbag company.

Looking at the pile of pressies which all arrived in time and from so far away really gets me into Birthday mode. I just have to sleep one more night...

Started to go through my old magazines to see whether I can rid of some of them...
Not very successful attempt to reduce clutter

Friday night – not much more going on other than reading in bed and eating lots of wonderful blueberries

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

25 weeks check

A visit at my obstetrician confirmed that everything is going well. My little girl is growing as fast as my belly does. I am gaining weight but at a slower rate than the little one – which is very good. Her heartbeat is still ridiculously fast – as it should be. She can hear us now, so we should talk to her. Read stories to her. Sing to her. What a great task!

I am so excited!

Double Happiness

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’.

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image from here

Do you know that the Chinese character for wedding consists of two ‘happiness’ characters? So literally translated wedding means ‘double happiness’ in Chinese.

I think that is so sweet, because for me that is the essence of each wedding and marriage. Or at least this should be the essence. Two people want to spend their life together, because together they are twice as happy as they would be on their own.

I always thought of ways to incorporate this character into my wedding decoration. Because of its wonderful meaning and its visual beauty. In the end I couldn’t come up with a great idea that had any connection to us as a couple. So I thought at least I can post this idea here and maybe inspire someone else ;-)

Preparing for Valentine's Day

The lovely Tiina over at Sparkling Ink has reminded me a couple of days ago that Valentine's Day is around the corner. Actually it is Sunday. THIS Sunday.

I think it is a wonderful thing to dedicate a whole day of celebrations to your love. To show that you care, still care, will always care immensely about him. So why do I always forget about this day until the very last minute?

... maybe because my birthday is the day before and in the week prior I am usually knee-deep in party preparations. And I always have a party ;-)

... maybe because Valentine's Day isn't such a big thing in Germany. Or maybe not yet - there seem to be more and more Valentine's products being launched each year. Most of them are hideous and totally defy the purpose of the day for me. I mean - no offence - but who wants cheap-tasting chocolate in the form of a rosebud? Seriously...

Anyway, Valentine's Day is not about presents for me anyway. It is about spending time with this special someone. Or write heart-warming notes and letters.

That is what I decided to do this year - write a love letter. Because my poor love hasn't received one from me in a long time. And he deserves it more than ever. I think living together, being married and expecting a child together shouldn't be excuses for not writing love letters.

So all I have to do is to pop over to my favourite stationary shop kikki.k and get those...

 



... and then sit down with a lovely cup of tea and write...

Happy Inspiration!

Oh Baby, it’s Monday! - Pressies for new mums

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.

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I just visited a friend who had her baby a couple of weeks ago. Her little one is adorable. And she is coping incredible well with the lack of sleep. And good, but...
...her house is still full of pink flowers and pink teddy bears. Which leads me to the question: Can I make a wish list of things I want after I have given birth? Or is that too demanding?

picture from here

I don’t want flowers. I know everybody loves flowers, but, I ... aehm although I don’t mind them,... I just find them pretty smelly sometimes and they just fade away too quickly.

picture from here

I also don’t want fake bouquets made of cloth nappies. I know them are useful, but just not particularly special – keeping in mind the special occasion.

picture from here

I don’t want chocolates. Well, I love chocolate, but just not the truffles type that you often get as a present.

picture from here

I don’t want diamond rings. Well, not those chunky ones anyway. I cannot imagine that you can caress your precious newborn with such a big bling on your finger.


What I really want is...

picture from here

... some oysters

picture from here

... a glass of champagne

picture from here

... a huge sushi platter

picture from here

...and Tiramisu!

All the things I love. All the things I crave for. All the things I wasn’t allowed to eat and drink during the pregnancy – for breastfeeding these are obviously okay.

So hopefully, my love reads this post and remembers it in 4,5 months ;-).