~*~*~ HaPpY nEw yEaR 2007 ~*~*~

I'm wishing all my readers and blogging friends from all over the world a very happy and peaceful new year 2007! xox

Presents, decorations and winterly crafts

Think I've already told you about my love for danish design, like these Christmas baubles from *House Doctor* that I've bought last month and have decorated for Christmas on a boxwood (from my garden) garland in my living room down stairs:

I had further bought these silver Christmas baubles from *Greengate*, which I also love a lot, a few weeks before Christmas from the enchanting website *Nostalgie im Kinderzimmer*:

They are now decorated in my new beautiful glass dome with glass cake stand underneath (both also from *House Doctor*) which my parents have got me for Christmas :D

I've also got this gorgeous lantern in the picture below (House Doctor again ha ha, this Doctor can decorate my home anytime lol) Thank you mum and dad *hugs to you*, I must have been a very good girl this year ;-)

Then my dear daughter has fulfilled another wish of mine and that was this "white drawer" from *Impressionen* with the delightful glass knob, which has wholes in one side, each decorated with a key whole embellishment from the outside. You can put your fave fiber/thread rolls in the drawer and then pull them through the wholes, isn't that a great organising idea? I love it!

The *Crabtree & Evelyn* goodies in the drawer I've got send by my dear friend Anja from London (if you ever need beautiful and natural photos of yourself or your family members and you are from the London area, I can only recommend you to visit her website http://www.anjaking.com/ and contact her, she is a terrific photographer!), she just knows how much I like C & E :D

Well, enough of my presents and back to crafting. Having this week off work I finally got around to make a snowman like the ones I saw in the latest *Homecompanion magazine* (thanks again dear Anna for sending it to me and all the lovely goodies coming along too!) and just recently on Pam's blog too. I so like his glittery look:


He fit's in perfectly whith the turquoise tea light glass (another gift from my daugter, the enchanting turquoise porcelain bird which I've got of a bird swap from Cerri , the lovely box from my friend Nature Girl and the stocking collage I had made for Christmas decoration earlier this year:

Btw the pink CD ornament on the left is a craft made by my daughter in honor for her favorite band "Good Charlotte".

Our Christmas tree and some German traditions

Hello dear blogging friends, neighbors and readers,
I hope that you are all spending a joyful Christmas time with your families and friends!

Because in Germany we don't put our Christmas tree up before the day before Christmas Eve (I guess that you know that we are using real fir trees which are bred/nursed on tree farms, especially for becoming Christmas trees and if you buy and put it up too early in the warm house it would lose it's needles before the season is over) I couldn't show you any photos of our tree so far, but since two days the little one is up (my cottage is too small for a big tree and I have to bring it upstairs in our loft room, cause I have no space for a tree in our actually living room downstairs, no problem though seeing in winter we're spending most of the time, especially the long evenings upstairs anyway where the comfy couches, the tv, the pc and my studio corner are situated) and we're enjoying it's festive sight now:

The picture above is taken at night with the real candles lit (another German tradition is using real candles!) and below in daylight only with the few electrical lamps I have installed and the top star lit:

I did not find the time to show you some festive craftings I had finished during the last 2 weeks before Christmas and because Blogger is very generous to me today, concerning the upload of photos, I'd like to post them too. As you can see I loved playing with old music sheet papers and old german scrap pictures, because they bring me in the right Christmas mood. Click on the pictures to enlarge them and see more details:

(see Maria, I've used your gorgeous tiny pink heart for the collage above)

The next one is made out of a CD:

The paper wreath below actually is a paper Advent calendar which I have bought years ago, but I think it is still very pretty:

My daugther and I traditionally spend Christmas Eve (it's when Santa brings the presents in Germany) at my parents house (sometimes like this year also with one of my sisters and her husband joining us, so we have been 6 people for the Christmas Eve dinner and the "Bescherung" which is the German word for the "handing out of presents"). My mum is always organising it all and she is creating such a wonderful warm and festive atmosphere that my daughter would not want to spend Christmas Eve anywhere else. And oh my people I've got some wonderful Christmas presents which I'm going to show you in the next days, or so! Today we are going to have Christmas dinner at my other sisters house with my parents coming over and we are celebrating with my nieces etc. and we'll be 10 persons, so we need a big table. Everyone is bringing some yummy food so that my little sis is not having to do all the work alone.

We'll that's ist for today, again I'm wishing all of my blogging friends and readers from all over the world a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays! xox

MERRY X-MAS!

Sammy and me are wishing you all a very merry Christmas !

Here are some recent impressions of our home and garden in festive mood!

Christmas ornament swap etc.

Hello dear readers,
sorry that it has been a while since my last post, but there is so much to do at the moment that I can hardly find enough time to blog. I hope you've all had a cozy 3rd of Advent! Here is a picture from my living room down stairs whith 3 candles lit on the Advent wreath which is hanging from the ceiling, taken for you yesterday:

I've decided to show you the Christmas ornaments I've got so far, from my swap, today. There are still two missing, but I'm also looking forward to get some later, so don't worry Margarita and ZuZu!

The red and green felted basket-heart is a Norwegian ornament send by Britt Arnhild and I like it very much hanging on the faux fir garland which I have attached at the hand rail of our stairs:

This festive red star is a design by Daisy Lupin from England and is also hanging on the faux fir garland now, I think these two ornamets fit together very well, dont you think?

The first ornament which has arrived here was this gorgeous white dove king ornament sent by Maria from Finland, I felt like it was custom-made especially for me, seeing it has a little silver "C" in it's beak and because Maria knows just how much I love birds:

Here is another, closer picture of Maria's bird ornament: http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/8248/mariasdove2ad2.jpg

Then I've got this very cute paper angel designed by Ulla from California and it was wrapped in the beautiful vintage paper in the background:

Click here http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/6277/ullaschristmasornamentdl7.jpg to see the bigger version of the photo of Ulla's ornament!

Then last week I've got a most delicious tiny parcel of Sandy from California with this absolutely enchanting vintage girl ornament and some other delightful goodies which Sandy has kindly added:

But this is not all which I've got send by generous blogging friends last week, on Thursday I've got a parcel, sent by Niki from England whith a beautiful living magazine, two stunning vintage glass ornaments ( so sorry, but blogger wont show anymore pictures today) and a selfmade Christmas card with an enchanting tiny patchwork stocking:

And also an envelope of Anita contending a pretty self made Christmas card and a delightful red stocking which she has kindly sewn for me:



Well I hope the clicking on the pics to enlarge will work today!

A big thank you to all the dear bloggers (Britt, Hilary, Maria, Ulla, Sandy, Margarita and ZuZu) which have participated in my second self hosted swap. It was a great experience and a pleasure to swap with all of you! I will always treasure all the beautiful and special handmade ornaments you've created! I hope we can repeat this soon!

Also thanks a lot to my dear private swap partners and bloggers Niki and Anna and a special thank you to Anita for the surprise parcel of course! It is so wonderful to find such gorgeous stuff in the mail every week instead of the usual invoices and advertisements! xox

P.S.:

Oops Monique I'm so sorry that I forgot to post about your Christmas ornament! It's because it's hanging on the hazelnut branch together with some of my cones already for so long now! Here is a picture:

http://img278.imageshack.us/my.php?image=curledhazelnutbranchdecqr3.jpg

The white fabric cone in the middle of the picture is embroidered with white pearls like little stars which you can't see on this pic was sewn and sent by Monique from the Netherlands for our Christmas Ornament swap! Thanks a lot dear Monique and excuse me please for forgetting your lovely ornament, I blame the pre Christmas stress!

Cottage Dreams

Here are the promised photos of our friends little brick cottage, which is only for family guests, where we have spend the last weekend. Already the entry looks very welcoming:

This fabric heart is hanging on the rose chamber door where I 've slept and had beautiful dreams:

This is a photo of the cosy living room:

The other side of the living room:

My bed in the rose chamber:

This is what I was looking at when lying in the bed above. The small rose dream collage was made by me last year:

Lunaria anua (Silberblatt) in a rusty cone, so beautiful and natural, hanging from the living room wall in the brick cottage:

This is a picture of one of the living room windows in the main cottage:

Click on the pictures to enlarge them for more details!

Btw I'm experiencing big problems with beta blogger lately, which means that I cannot comment on any beta blogger blogs, like the blogs of Sigrun (Al), Lis, Niki, Debbie etc.. I just want you all to know that I have been there, trying hard to leave comments, every day, but it is just not working for me *sobs*

Back from the little trip

to our friends country cottage and it was a marvellous weekend! I took lot's of photos to share with you, if you are interested to see them, inside the cottage and the smaller guest cottage and also in the garden and from our crafts, not sure where to start, hm let's see how about our crafts?

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/5877/wirepaperconesug7.jpg

These fabulous wire-paper cones (hopefully the enlarging the photo by clicking on it'll work today) made by our dear friend were hung from a flower drier in the kitchen living room as a welcome present when we arrived, one for each of us and they were filled with yummy selfmade quinces bread (it's a special soft sweet made out of quinces and so delicious)

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9262/wirepapercones2ay0.jpg

The table was set and each of us got a place sign made out of wire and the bark of a plane tree found by our friend here in Bremen on her last visit, with our names written on, doesn't it look great?

This is a part of what I have produced while there, 4 big two sided paper stars (2 in light blue and 2 in light green) and those little wood blocks with NOEL written on 4 sides of each block:

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/888/noelcq9.jpg

Here is more of what everyone made, displayed on our friends antique chest of drawers, we also made the wreath and ornaments which are hanging from the porcelain knobs. The papier mâché snowman was made by our friend and a most welcome present for my mum.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/3301/3timesnoelqa1.jpg

See how fantastic the paper stars look when hangin in our friends kitchen door window frames?

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/6233/starviewct7.jpg

I was very lucky to get lot's of beautiful presents while there, my favourite one is this antique tailor's dummy :D

It had a welcoming sign around the neck and was waiting for me in our gorgeous little guest cottage (pictures of the cottage in one of my next posts if you like to see them). I'm so in love with my new old mannequin *sigh*! Alas I forgot one part of it in my sis' car last night so I cannot put it together right now *sniff* duh me!

Btw I've got lots of lovely comments and several e-mails from some of you dear bloggers, friends and readers while away, thank you so much and please bear with me, I'm going to respond as soon as possible and I'm also looking forward to catch up with your blogs! :D

P.S.: The clicking to enlarge doesn't work, so I have inserted the links to the photos and you can see the bigger version when you click on the links! I always love to see pictures as big as possible in order to see all the details and I presume you might do too, right?