Frohe Weihnachten

Ich wünsche Euch besinnliche Weihnachtstage mit lieben Menschen, leuchtenden Kinderaugen, Lachen und leckerem Essen. Lasst Euch nicht zu sehr stressen und umarmt Eure Lieben besonders fest heute.

Eure Imke

mariasimoneidejhs

It's Christmas time in the city

Endlich Weihnachtsferien! Unsere Grosse hatte heute zum Abschluss einen Auftritt mit ihrem Schulchor auf der Strasse unter den Linden. Die Kinder haben toll gesungen. Es sah dort wunderschön aus. Alles weiß verschneit und die Baumallee von der Friedrichstrasse bis zum Hotel Adlon mit Lichtern geschmückt. Als das Konzert vorbei war, sind wir noch hoch bis zum grossen Tannenbaum vor dem Brandenburger Tor gelaufen. Sieht es dort nicht wunderschön aus? Wir konnten unsere Töchter gerade noch stoppen, die grossen roten Pakete, mit denen die Tanne dekoriert ist, auszupacken. Dann gab's noch einen Kaffee für die Eltern und einen Cookie für die Kinder bei Starbuck's und zum Abschluss ein saftiges Steak im Steakhaus. Herrlich! (Abgesehen von dem Gequengel der Kleinen wg. akuter Müdigkeit).

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Finally Christmas break. Our oldest topped off the year today with a concert of her school choir on the famous Strasse Unter den Linden (it's the Boulevard that leads up to the Brandenburg Gate). It looked soo beautiful there with the snow and illuminated trees. After the concert we walked up to the big Christmas tree in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Breathtaking! We could hardly stop our girls from unwrapping the big red packages the tree was decorated with. Then there was coffee for the grown-ups and a cookie for the little ones at Starbuck's. And then we finished the day with a nice dinner at the steak house. Lovely! (aside from  the whining little one - acute case of exhaustion).

Da stehen meine drei Schneeflocken. Die Kleine ganz groß auf ihrem Schlitten.

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There they are, my three snowflakes (the little one standing on her sled)

Brandenburger Tor

Hotel Adlon

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advent decor/ Adventsdeko

Here are some pretty alternatives to the classic red-green-gold advent decorations. I found them on Dawanda (German etsy-like webshop). Click on the pic to get directly to the shop. For non-advent celebraters: see my post for further explanation.

Ein paar schöne Ideen als Alternative zur klassischen rot-grün-gold Adventsdeko. Zum Nachmachen oder Kaufen. Klickt auf das Bild und ihr landet direkt bei den entsprechenden Dawanda-Shops.

My favorite are these black flower-pots. Thanks blaubeerhaus for the inspiration.

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Am besten gefallen mir diese schwarzen Blumentöpfe. Danke Blaubeerhaus für die Anregung.

mariasimoneidejhs

Frohe Weihnachten

With these cute Scandinavian Christmas decorations (most of them Maileg) 

from around my house 

I wish you 

Happy and Peaceful Holidays

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Our little town

We had a crafty afternoon yesterday and here is the result. 

I want to live in the last one.

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Advent mood

I have to share with you this very cute idea. In Germany we have the custom of an "Adventskranz" (Advent wreath) with four candles. We light one more candle every Advent (the 4 Sundays before Christmas day). This is a very cute and simple alternative, isn't it?

Happy Thanksgiving!

seen at Shabby Homestyles

mariasimoneidejhs

some winterly decorating

This morning I found a quiet moment to decorate our house a little festive. I will do more decorating next week. My daughter has her 7th birthday party here on Sunday with 14 girls and I don't want to have to many delicate treasures out in the open for that happening. 

I am soo jealous because in Germany it is snowing. I really miss the change of the seasons here in California sometimes. At least we are supposed to get some rain tomorrow - actually much needed rain.

Here you can see what I did. Oh and you can now access my flickr site from here. See the badge on the right. Not to forget my etsy store. 

I just love our white ceiling panels. When we rented this house two years ago we had them all painted white. Very unusual for a renter to invest that much in a house, I know. But we are German and in Germany it is very common to renovate your rental. Do you want to know how it looked, when we signed the lease? See below.

We went from this:

to this:

Aaaah - quiet a relieve, don't you think?

I also painted the curtain rods, the tile around the fire place and the brick below. Also I took the ugly amber colored lampshades off the chandelier. I wanted to replace the whole thing but we don't have room to store it. It's gigantic and very heavy.

That's how it looks today:

It is growing on me and I am surprised about how many compliments I have received for it already.

Now back to the sewing table...

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busy weekend

Finally I was able to cut out some time from my busy weekend to sew a couple of small items.

The first thing I made is this travel pillow for my mother's upcoming birthday. My parents love to travel and also my Mom loves browns and enjoys the softness of wool. I used a very soft almost velvetlike wool cloth and stitched in a modern design on the front.

Then I made some Gingham-felt hearts and keychains for my etsy store. 

I am planning on making more the coming weeks. But first I have to finish my advent calendar project: A German custom is to have Advent calendars for the 24 days before Christmas. You can now find chocolate calendars even here in the US. In our family it's tradition to give one small gift each of the 24 days leading to Christmas. 

Since I have two daughters this sums up to 48 gifts - meaning buy them, wrap them and somehow display them. This is why I started to sew little drawstring bags in order to skip the wrapping and display part for all times. Yesterday I managed to sew 12 bags. Only 36 to go... ;-)

I will show you as soon as I am done with the first calendar. 

Have a splendid week.

mariasimoneidejhs