siamese pants.

From Anna Marie Horner's book Handmade Beginnings, these are the Quick Change Trousers..

You can click on the photo for a close-up of the cute mushrooms and birds.

This is what they look like right after being turned, they are reversible and attached at the waist first, the other side is obviously cars.

I lurve them :) I also love the Handmade Beginnings Flickr.

Things to do....

...Other than sit on the internet! But alas, here I am.

I went to a traveling Dutch fabric market today! I forgot my camera, but just as well, I had a  huge handful of sleepy baby, a runny nose (the both of us) and a large bag stuffed with newly loved fabric-stuffs. It was wonderful fun topped with pizza :)

I've been very inspired lately by the internet, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite blogs, in no particular order:

Sew Liberated (Montessori adorable)

Made

Living Simply (Hi Lisanne!)

Anna Maria Horner (I'm loving her book)

Schaufensterbabe (an American in Berlin)

Hazelnuts

Hand Made Mommy (her name is Kari!)

An Apple A Day (NH love)

Clean (Hippy Love)

Oh Baby O (Her name is also Carrie! Are you detecting a trend?)


There are many, many more but I'll leave you with that ;}
Enjoy!

Something new and different.

I'm growing out my really real natural hair color for the first time in over 15 years. Are you ready for this world?

.... it's a lot grayer than I remember!!

zzz...Schlaf...zzzz...

Finally! FINALLY!  The baby's room is finished!



























Thank you to several people:
Chris, for drilling holes until you see them in your sleep.
Zak, for making that cool farm crate shelf.
Meagan, for helping me haul that dresser home!
Katie, for shipping me the HUGE mosquito net (that we actually use because we don't have screens and the flies can be very bad.)
And to anyone who gave or made us the bits and pieces to put it all together~ I love it so much and know Johnny will too as he grows up!



Because I made such a big deal of it before he was born, here's a run-down of the room:

Purchased new- carpet ($35), shelf (5 Euro), paint ($20), flying duck (15 Euros), curtains (9 Euros), name license plate ($12?), sheep blanket (10 Euros).
Purchased handmade- horseshoe rack ($25), standing duck (13 Euros), car toys (6 Euro), dino puppet (30 Euros) chenille rabbit ($25).
Purchased used- mosquito net ($5), crib ($100), Bambi riding toy ($6).

Everything else we either already had, was gifted to us, we found or made! That brings the grand total to about $350.00 over a span of 18 months! That includes his clothing as well, which is all second hand or gifts. A bed set alone goes for about that!

So, quite proud really :) The one thing that's missing from these photos it his crib quilt that Katie made, buy I assure you it fits in nicely!

Spielen!

Okay, remember the before? I hope so, since it was posted all of two hours ago ;)

Here is the after!

                       

Complete with hanging toy organizer,

monogrammed book sling,

and a short shelf for short people~

Kudos to Chris's mom for bringing that rocking horse all the way here in her suitcase! ;D

This old (crappy, German) house.

After five yeas of living in our estimated 600 year old house, I'm SO fed up! So unorganized, so falling apart, so... undone (the house, not me...). But we only have two years left and I can't bear the thought of moving the whole family right now. I'd love some huge barn house nearer to the river, with more than one kitchen so the compound (our self-proclaimed center of fun) would have room to grow. Maybe an old gasthause? An indefinite stay in Germany would warrant such a find, but for now I need to just bite the bullet and make this place as bearable as possible. After all, there are many fine points to living here including nearly an acre of yard and two (two!) garages. Also, a creepy cellar that is fun to take weary guests into.

I was on a roll with the improvements until J decided naps were overrated. We might be back on schedule but I'm not holding my breath. You'd think I may have done these 'improvements' in the four years before we had a rugrat underfoot most of the day...

Anyway. First on the list was my old Kühlschrank. I bought it last spring and have been meaning to repaint it.



I'm fascinated with chalkboard paint but all our walls are covered in nasty textured wallpaper so it's out of the question, for the most part. Repainting the front of the fridge with it allows a place for Johnny to be creative a little later on, and a place for me to jot down quick notes when I can't find a pen (which is always). Plus it's cool looking. ;)



Then there were the canisters my grandma gave me, which never held what the label proclaimed on the outside... A little printable iron-on paper, some fabric and thread and they were good to go! I also purchased two more from Etsy, just to add storage space to the counter top.





Next, we tackle the play corner, here's a little preview (eep!)



Bet you can't wait to see what I do with that mess!

Back to the grind.

We are no longer on vacation, obviously. I have just been avoiding the internet at almost all costs, including at the cost of my beloved blog.
We had an amazing, relaxing, productive trip to the US, and are finally re-settled back here in Germany.
Time OFF the internet has been spent home-improving and 'staycationing' around these parts. We even visited a castle and hiked two hours in the wrong direction looking for a waterfall one day. You know, good old family connecting activities :)

This is the castle, Burg Eltz:



And this is Johnny on Weekly Ice Cream Night #2, eating Banane Sorbet in Bernkastle:



Let me tell ya... Summer in Europe sure is rough!

We're getting close to his first birthday! Only a little over two months. No decision yet on whether we'll throw a real party or not, we may wait until he's older and understands more before we start that, is that bad?

I have a lot to write about and many, many pictures to share, but I also have some things to sew and laundry to do before J wakes up from his nap. Love you all very much!!

...on vacation!

Fun with baby!

Sunday was kind of a nice day and so I pulled the family out for some pictures right before Chris was due at work. He was a good sport as usual and Johnny was in a good mood as well :)
A few months back Katie sent us some adorable baby clothes and one outfit was this blue Fifties getup. I had to get it on him before he outgrew it- those outfits sure did not have convenience in mind, it's difficult to get all those buttons done on a squirmy 7 1/2 month old!








Tricia did a beautiful job helping with the pictures! Xo!

So I DID remember my camera....

....And therefore I can share with you my favorite photo of the week:

A really bad, no good, terrible day.

Just in case you were wondering, it really is all sunshine and rainbows around here most of the time. Not literally, as sunshine and rainbows in the sky are both rare here lately, but figuratively as the household goes about it's business. We have fun and keep our chins up and make each other laugh quite often.
Then there was Saturday.
For me anyway, it was a really bad day. I think everyone else patiently tiptoed around me- except for the baby, who cried 2/3 of the day for no apparent reason- and waited it out. I used to buy Hershey Kisses, listen to Pink Floyd and take a few naps on days like that... But baby.... Baby didn't want to nap, baby didn't want to eat, baby didn't want to be put down, baby didn't want to be held. And we've had days like that, just not mixed with my foul mood and nagging feeling of despair, so they have never felt so, so bad. Add to it at least three isolated incidences of stupidity, nothing to wear on a hot day and a sick dog and it really did seem to top the charts.

All of this tho was suddenly nothing when I got home and found that a friend had died. Diana had stomach cancer and had been fighting hard for over a year. She had the support of so many people and never-ending love from her husband and two dog babies.
She was an incredibly talented lady, winning awards for jewelry contests and making her way into magazines. If you know me and I have given you jewelry, it was probably made by her.

I'll be wearing the bracelet she made me for a long time to come.



You will be missed sweet lady.

A week in a photo.

A few blogs that I love sum up their weeks on Fridays with one photo that says it all. I love this tradition and think its fitting to do the same here.
Just not this week, haha... Maybe Sunday instead of Friday? That is, if I remember my camera this weekend!

This week we fought over food everyday. Our little "good eater" is on strike. He MUST have pureed food and he MUST feed it to himself. I'm finding a happy medium with really squishy solids, like polenta and gnocchi. Veggies are out the door and fruit is iffy at best. Why would I think it would be that easy? Silly Mama.


I dare say he had fun feeding himself almost exclusively.



Yesterday was a dear friend's birthday and he husband asked us to make owl related gifts, here's mine:



And, since she is the cupcake queen herself, I went all out and made some pretty extravagant cupcakes (for me anyway!) to go along with the required Indian Food Birthday Dinner. I even learned to decorate them with a frosting bag!



We love us some Brenda, and she loves her some cupcakes!

On a side note, the swallows that I enjoy watching swoop the yard each summer have taken up residence under our eves! We can sit on the porch upstairs and they come right up, hardly noticing us.



How lovely!!

Trip to the U.S. part never.

I'm sure you've heard that I dropped my Macbook. I damaged some photo files, mostly from the New Hampshire branch of our trip home. So, Procrastination wins out this time and they won't be posted on here :( But, we are going home again in less than three weeks so let the repeat photo-taking commence!

Tricia has super great timing and purchased a Macbook Pro the day before I took mine in to get looked at. I will be adopting it and loving it like my own for a little while. *Ahem* Better than my own.

I love you all in the States but I almost don't want to leave and miss the summer we might have here! Ah well, summer in New Hampshire will make up for it!! <3

And so on.

A few things, quick-like.
Johnny is officially 7 months old... He's more interested and more interesting everyday. This is my favorite picture of him at the moment, fiddling with my lens cap:


He's seriously curious about everything around him, especially if it has our interest, like the camera and the phone. He's looking like such a little man and is also finally fitting into his car seat we got while in the States.


And yes, it's still cold enough for that hat! Boo! Stupid non-spring-who-thinks-it's-winter. But check out those yard sale boots :) How New England of him, no?

For the kids clothing week post I promised, we have a throw-back, a screen print that Katie and I worked on a few years back on a shirt he finally fits into (thank you Katie!):


Never thought the day would come that I'd actually have my own little Fat Patch baby! :) And don't yell at me about him chewing on safety pins- it's good to let babies play with tiny everyday things to improve their dexterity and he was closely supervised ;p

So kids clothing item #2 is a pair of jeans. The most expensive baby jeans ever. I bought a pair for myself from Nordstrom's and they were way too big. I washed them before I thought about returning them and so just decided to put them to good use anyway. Dark wash, giant pockets, lots of butt room- perfect! And the sweater was a puff-sleeved girls sweater that I altered for a boy. The shirt is from Target (even I can't resist buffalo plaid!) sized 12 months! Eep! So big!


And #3, some lightweight overalls with lots of room to grow:


They are made from the same fabric that I made a jumper for myself out of.
Both pairs of pants were made too big on purpose, and then sewn down to size so I can take them out later when he is bigger/taller. You know, all depression era-like and stuff.

The jumper is from a pattern by the amazingly talented Meg over at Sew Liberated. This one has no sleeves because that allotted fabric when into the overalls, but it works great over any shirt.


I'm not pregnant, it's just a roomy tunic ;p

I have a terrible habit of dressing us in matching colors or patterns- not on purpose, Tricia suggested that maybe it's just whatever mood I'm in each day, but I'll have to be careful not to walk out of the house with us in our ACTUAL matching outfits!

So that's all for now. Johnny and I are both sick and I'm trying to get as much sleep as possible when I can. Tricia is finally getting over it and hopefully Chris doesn't get it because one baby is enough to take care of! Hehehe...