Home Heart.

I'm SO HOMESICK! I think it's the summer that does it, it happens every year. But this year it feels a little harder to be away from our family, and the mountains, than usual. (I stole some photos from my sister to drive the point home, Thanks Love!)








"One of the world's most exquisite settings of lake and mountain scenery awaits you when you visit the villages and backroads of Meredith, New Hampshire. Shorefront towns of Weirs Beach, Center Harbor, Moultonborough, Holderness and Sandwich join with Meredith to welcome you to a unique world of old-fashioned charm, friendly surroundings, and unsurpassed natural beauty. Endless lake and mountain vistas are accented with fun family attractions, special events, historic sites, outdoor adventures and unique shops -- in addition to friendly restaurants and a wide variety of comfortable accommodations.

Spring fills the air with the perfume of lilacs and honeysuckle. In the lazy days of summer, Lake Winnipesaukee's crystal clear waters mirror luscious blue sky and lush lakeshore greenery. In autumn, the vibrant crimson of maples and golden yellows of birches is unforgettable. During winter, Meredith becomes a wonderland, with easy access to ice fishing and miles of open area for cross country skiers and snowmobiles. No matter what time of year you visit, you're sure to discover the sights, sounds and fragrances which make the Lake Winnipesaukee and the surrounding Lakes Region unique. We welcome you!" (quoted from Meredith Area Chamber of Commerce)

Plus there's these:

And a lot of these:

Even this couldn't keep me away! ;D

My favorite part of all this is that I can share it with our son someday, hopefully every summer like I experienced it when I was growing up!

Quiet time.

Don't mind me, I'm having a slow week. I'll be back soon.

xoxo!

Birds and Art.

I have to go cook some yummy plum stuffs, but I wanted to post this real quick because I'm so happy with the past few days~

This is Fritz (I think I'm remembering his name right) he's an awesomely curious African Grey.


He is resident of a new friend's house, who holds weekly art classes. In an effort to make more friends and be a little less anti-social I went to my first one Thursday.


The lesson was painting with black and white to get an idea of shadows, lines, ect. Paint is my most favorite thing ever....


We picked an old picture, I picked Clara Bow since I was recently reading about her and seh was on the brain.


Then we pasted the picture to a canvase and painted over it, using the original as a guide. I never thought to do that before and it was kind of a nice exercise in layering and patience, haha..


Here's another Clara- this is done by Sherri (our host and art teacher) for a trade we did. It's a portrait of my great grandma Clara Love for my mom. Isn't is so lovely?!

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Yesterday Brenda and I met Cora and H. in Maastricht for a Lush-fix. There wasn't much new going on around there, but we did stumble on these sidewalk drawings!

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Last night I was searching for mobiles to hang over the baby's bed on Etsy. I love Etsy, as I've said before, but just have a hard time spending money on things that I could make myself (unless it's a friend making them, then I'll happily hand over an armload of cash!) and so I spent time instead making this today:


Chris and I cut a branch out of the curly bush out back and I sewed and stuffed all the leaves, apples, flowers and the little bird from scraps of fabric rescued from the sewing room.


Then everything was attached with a needle and brown thread. I added some teal ribbon and it was set!


I decided on apples because it goes with the theme (getting warmer?) and because red is one of the only colors tiny babies can see. I really wanted something really pretty and stimulating at the same time.


I really like unfinished edges lately!

Happy Saturday!

Mmmmmm....

I want this right nooooowww! <3

The Almost Weekend Blogger.

It's hot. And I'm officially no longer a Florida girl (was I ever?)... 84* is hot, don't argue with the pregnant lady!
Maybe it's not that it's hot, only that it hasn't rained in... well, I can't remember, and that is very, very strange for Germany. A little twilight zone-y if you ask me. If you ask my rain bucket, she's just sad. And bath-water warm. Usually filled to overflowing with crisp, clean, cool rainwater, she is now showing some wicked rain barrel cleavage. Not to mention the mosquitoes and grass clippings (?) swimming in her midst.


But, the heat is making for some extraordinary sunsets! Or is it that the sun is actually out long enough to catch the tail end of it?

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Okay, so I have a confession to make.

We have a plum tree. Or rather, we've had a plum tree for four years, and I, somehow, never noticed it. I can't explain. I can't even use the same argument I have for Chris when he asks why the front of the oven hasn't been wiped down in, oh I don't know, six months.
"But hun, when I sit in the kitchen I don't notice the stove because the trees and flowers and clouds and birds outside the window are all so pretty and distracting!" (I'm pretty sure this same argument was used when I didn't do my school work in kindergarten).
No. This tree IS outside, and in all it's bright purple and green glory I can see it from all the way across our almost acre-long yard. I guess all I can say is that the grass literally gets mowed twice a year and this year it just happens to be short enough at this time for me to notice the fully fruiting tree. Don't judge, I plan on making up for it in the next few weeks with whatever plum recipe/jam/preservation technique I can come up with!
Christmas night may even be spent sitting around the fire sipping warm spiced plum rum :)



I've always known these apples were here, although they are technically in the yard next door. There are at least 15 trees and most are almost ready to harvest:


On my wanders around the yard today, learning anything new I can, I noticed that the morning glories bloom all day:


And I've always noticed this bush, just never got around to taking a photo of it. I have no idea what it is but I love the curly branches (they look really gnarly in the winter!) They remind me of hundreds of little scraggly dragons, or something equally as random:

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At least in this heat I can sit at my table and sew a few projects with the fan blasting on me.
I received a new book in the mail the other day called The Handmade Home, and I think the first thing I'll tackle out of it is a 'rag bag' for the kitchen.


I also can't ignore the refreshing food that's eaten on a hot summer afternoon (with some tart plums thrown in of course):


And the great company who lounges about my house with me all day. Although they snore an awful lot!

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I was playing with iPhoto and made one of the plum pictures look like this:


Is there anyone who can turn this into a greeting card for me?? ;D

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Monday I start prenatal yoga in Trier, and tonight I call and enroll in a distance learning Dressmaking and Design course (thanks for the idea and encouragement Michelle!). I'm hoping maybe once I'm finished with it I can then teach some real sewing classes on the base (I could do that now but the class could not be called "How to sew quickly and efficiently" but more likely "How to sew like you learned this from an ADHD Pack Rat who can't even find her scissors").


Peace.

Another not so lazy weekend!

Fun weekend! Brenda, Ally, Zak and I all went to Vianden, Luxembourg for a tattoo convention. The first thing I saw was this:


It's funny because back before we knew the gender of the baby my dad nicknamed it "Rocket" and then I eventually named him Johnny. We decided that he's going to be a super cool kid with the name Johnny Rocket- and here it's proven! Haha!

If you're excited to see a bunch of tattoo photos don't get your hopes up :( I apparently don't pay much attention to others tattooing these days, not enough to remember to take pictures anyway!

But I did notice these well worn Tibetan prayer flags hanging over a (friend's) friend's booth.


And a nice view of the restored castle that overlooks the town:


And a couple be-a-utiful vintage motorcycles:



And a sweeeeet Buick Special, in my all-time favorite color too!


We saw some old friends and made some new ones. Saw some incredible tattoo work and made plans for future work for ourselves :)
I even made a deal with a *great* artist- he owes me a tattoo, but since I'm thoroughly knocked up he'll make me a painting for Johnny's room instead! I'm excited about this for several reasons; his paintings are so creative and kind of rare these days. He uses found objects a lot and lots of kid-like style, I'm really looking forward to seeing what he comes up with. I'm also looking forward to passing it along to Baby J. as he moves on through the years!

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That was yesterday. Today I laid on the couch until noon, but then I hopped up and finally did a thing or two for the babe's room. It was H-O-T today! But it was so nice to spend time in the sun!

Let me reiterate how much I love bulk trash days! Some things look *so* bad, like this stool did (the cushion was disgusting!) but are so sturdily built underneath the grime.


Once it was stripped, painted and reupholstered it definitely made the point that it will do the job I was hoping it would :)


And this I actually picked up at a 'flomarkt' which happened to simply be a barn full of old crap. I thought it would be good to hang over the changing table to hold baskets of diapers, powder, ointment, ect..


The chrome got polished up with some steal wool and the wood got a fresh coat of paint and it actually came out better than I was expecting... Luckie liked it! haha!


Now to tackle this beast:


Zak cut a new shelf for the inside of it and Brenda gave me a key from her key collection because it was locked when we hauled it off the side of the road (unfortunately we didn't find any interesting treasure inside!). Chris and I put the first coat of paint on it tonight, I'll post pictures once it's done of course...


Now for a good long shower to wash off the sweat, sun and sandpaper dust! I'm happy to have gotten things done but I'm beat!

Foooood.

I crave mushy beans almost all the time now (of the Mexican pinto variety mostly- like the whole can I ate the other night for dinner) and so I can't wait to try this recipe:

Real Louisiana Red Beans and Rice

(Photo via the FatFree Vegan Kitchen)

The Generosity of Others <3

These aren't spectacular photos, they are just to give you an idea of how amazing all the people in our life are!

So far we've bought only two major things for the babe. A car seat (a Maxi-Cosi on the German economy) and a crib/toddler bed/head board, which was sold to us for an *unbelievable* deal by a lovely lady I met while working at the coffee shop:


So many other things have simply been given to us, like three Boppy pillows and an armload of handmade blankets:


Enough Burt's Bees to take us into the next lifetime:


Toys, bags and boxes of toys, a majority of which will go into a large rubbermaid box in the attic for future Birthdays and Christmases:


A Combi compact stroller:


Endless receiving blankets and towels:


Diapers!! I did buy some of these, but they were also a great deal sold to us by another base mum, more were given to us and the rest will be traded for :)


Clothing! All the way up to 3T! These will also be stored in the attic for future needs:



And last but not least, a much loved rocking chair was passed onto us this week:


It was stained by hand years back while our friend was pregnant and she finally wanted to find a new home for it. I've been looking for one high and low at antique stores, Möbel (furniture) stores, on-line, in the BX's and haven't found anything I thought worth purchasing. I was so excited when she asked me if I needed one! I love that it was loved and used and now I can continue that :)

I think some of this is about how I don't like saying no to things, especially when people want to pass along anything useful (as I'm writing this the Today show is doing a piece on hoarding and being a pack-rat!) but I'm setting limits for myself so that it doesn't get out of control. I'm going through all toys and being as selective as I can, the rest will be donated to the church or orphanage, and the plastic bin will be gone through before anything is purchased in the future. The clothing won't be kept unless it's 3T and under, since we'll be moving when he's just turning 3 and we will purge stuff at that point anyway (that's the pattern: move=purge).

I had kind of a rough day/week and so I needed to sit and focus on what good people can do for one another. Thank you for letting me share with you the kindness of our friends and acquaintances- and some total strangers!

We are very rich indeed.

;-)