A winner, fall deco and Athens

Hello dear friends and readers, I'm back from Athens since a week today but haven't found time for a new post yet. I catched a cold while coming home to Hamburg airport from the pleasingly warm Greek weather to a wet and windy very autumnal German weather in thin summer clothes and naked feet in sandals *Duh me*

Thank you for all your sweet comments on my 3 years blogiversary post! The overall favorite photo was the Venezian balcony, followed by the close up of the Doge's palace and the Venezian pink lanters/silhouette photo. I think that's perfect because those are my faves too! :) And without further ado I announce the winner now, chosen by a random number generator (P.S.: sorry dear Daisy and Tyra, but you were a bit too late, I closed comments at No. 56 this morning), congratulations to you Miss Mary:

Before I'll show you some photos of Athens, I thought you might be interested to see some photos of my current fall decoration. I like the cosy evenings inside while outside it's wet and windy, with candles lit giving my home a warm shine.

The photo above (click to enlarge) I shot just a few days ago, when I took out the plane tree balls which I picked of a plane tree ( European plane Platanus x hispanica Muenchh., you 'll find a close up pic of one here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:London_plane_flower.jpg ) in Athens and decorated them over my bird cage and around the white pumpkin. They are dry and quite hard and last for many years. I love using them for decorations, but they are ususally hanging far to high to reach them, so in Athens I had the luck to find a tree where they hung deep enough and I had my huge collegues help me pulling them down for me.

The pictures above I think reflects this cosy time of the year so well. I put dry artichocke heads in the two silver cups on my mantle and lit the tea lights in the glasses. I'd advice you to click on the pictures above and below to enlarge them and see all the details.

Anita's fabric birds are still hanging from the chandelier (and yes her lavender hearts on the mantle too lol) and birds are also everywhere in my decoration between the pumpkins. For me birds are always seasonable:

So the next photo is not from my home, but from a greek home in the old Plaka of Athens and doesn't it look very cosy too? And so classical!

I also like the old licor shop "Brettos" in the Plaka (= old city) of Athens where you can taste all the yummy stuff:

and the beautiful neo classical houses with the gorgeous scrolly iron balcony balustrades:

Oh and the beautiful statues like this one of the greek goddess Athena:

And I was so impressed by the old olive tree on the Acropolis next to the Erechteion Temple, of which a Myth says that it was planted by the goddess Athena (click photo to enlarge it):

Here is the story:

Athena and her uncle, the sea god Poseidon, competed for the affections of the Greeks, each providing one gift to the nation. Poseidon provided either a wonderful horse or a salt-water spring, but Athena provided the olive tree, giving shade, oil, and olives. The Greeks preferred her gift and named the city after her.

Well I have had a fabulous 4 days in Greece and a lot of more photos, but I'm not sure if you are interested in seeing them so I finish here, for today at least.

Enjoy the cosy autumn days!

Carola xox

Garden blues, vintage hat boxes, more soldered pendants and a give away!

In August I always get the garden blues, because knowing that the beauty of my little garden is going to be over soon makes me kind of blue, so today I like to share with you my dear readers and blogging friends some blue pictures of my August summer garden and seeing that most of you said that you like my mixed posts I'd also like to show you some vintage hat boxes I've recently got and my latest soldered charms and pendants, seen in the picture above as well as in the pictures at the end of this long post. I know it's a lot of pictures to load but if you refresh the site it loads faster, this is my experience and I promise you that you'll not be deceived! There'll also be a give away in this post for you!

The white pelargonia and the blue hydrangea are looking so fresh together:

Some late blooming pink poppies making a nice contrast to the blue glass ball as well as to the the blue watering can:

In the pictures below is deep blue Aconitum blooming in my big border:

And not to forget the beautiful light blue summer sky with fluffy white clouds over my little garden:

Now what is the red thing hidden behind my David Austin rose "Wenlock" ??

It is a beautiful vintage hat box from around 1920 and there even is an original vintage chapeau clac (Zylinder) hidden in the box!

And this is another gorgeous vintage hat box!

So how did I get those boxes? Well last weekend I told my mum about a gorgeous vintage hat box with a black chapeau clac which I had seen at the flea market but couldn't afford to buy, she went in the house and after a while came back with these gorgeous old boxes and gave them to me! She had them stored somewhere at her wardrobe. Woohooo! :D I'm such a happy bunny now! Thank you mum! After the garden photo shoot I've displayed them in my studio, close to my vintage mannequin. Click picture to enlarge and see more details!

Talking about my studio here is a shot of some things I've gathered for the soldered jewelry making which became my new passion of lately:

And here are my latest soldered charms and pendants, all two sided!

Did I mention to you that thanks to my dear blogging friend Ullabenulla I can now make these beautiful scalloped edges too? This is so much fun! Thank you so much Ulla! :D

Well and lastly I like to announce another give away drawing firstly because it's quite a while ago now that I did one and secondly because I like to thank you my dear blogging friends and readers for your friendship, inspirations and faithfulness for almost 2 years now! I started this blog in September 2005 and since then have made so many wonderful friends all over the world and I'm really thankful for this awesome blogging community that we are, it feels so good being a part of it! All you have to do is leave me a comment under this post and you're automatically in the drawing for one of my two sides pendants. I'll let you chose the one you like best! Good luck!!

Oh and I have another magazine swap to propose, I'm such an eye candy magazine addict (like most of you artful bloggers) and you US guys have so many gorgeous magazines that I see on your blogs and which I'd love to get like Artful Blogger, Somerset Home, The Foof-a-life and not to forget that Victoria magazine everyone is talking about and which is supposed to come out soon! So if someone of you would like to do a magazine swap with me I'd be really happy! I'll send you copies of our most beautiful German eye candy home & garden & craft magazines in return, or if you like I'll make you an art supply parcel with German crepe paper, Dresden borders and Victorian scraps. Just let me know what you'd prefer!

Have a happy and creative weekend everyone!

Hugs Carol(a) xox