Chritmas In Germany

Hi everyone! Finally after 30 odd hours I made it back to Germany and have been reunited with my darling Axel. It´s kind of weird seeing him after 5 months. You go from kind of being single to being part of a couple in a flash. Very strange for the brain to get around but lovely for the heart!

Anyhow after a nice long sleep in Axel and I went to Öberhause for some Christmas shopping and lucky for me there was this great Christmas market next to the shopping centre. I remember going to a Christmas market in Berlin when I first came to Germany in 1999. I was worried I was going to miss out because I was coming so close to Christmas time and most close just before Christmas.

Here is a photo of some yummy potato fritters we had with apple sauce and the famous Gluwein! It tasted even better than I remember it. Hmmmmm Gluwein.... I also got to have this yummy cheesy potato pizza thing and some cooked mushrooms with herb sauce and fried onions, what an awesome dinner!

There was also some winter fun to be had with this snow slide set up and another section for kids to ride snow mobiles. We decided we will wait till we get to Berlin to have a go.

Anyhow today Axel and I have the honour of decorating the Christmas trees and then we are off for dinner in Xanten with his family, the dinner will be our engagement dinner and so it´s going to be quite a special event.

So if I don´t add another post before Christmas I will take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and a wonderful new year. May you all be blessed and surrounded by loved ones and good health.

Gingerbread Men

More gingerbread men madness! It's a great way to spend a wet Saturday afternoon, especially when you have babysitting duties!

Eliona adding a lovely blue icing suit to her gingerbread man!

And here are some of our decorated men! They not only look good they taste good too. Yes the kids' dinner was spoilt, I am a bad babysitter!

You're Invited!

Ok I know the wedding is like a million years away but you can't give me a design project and not expect me to jump to it and spend all my free time fussing over it. So having said that 16 months to go and I've pretty much finalised the design for our wedding invites. I'm now in the process of designing the Save the Date cards and RSVP cards which will just utilise the same design elements but different sizes and compositions.

For those of you in blogland here is a sneak peek at the invite.

It's not a very fancy invite, i.e no frills and ribbons etc but I have tried a few different types of paper and this one is printed on a lovely 250gms textured white card. I tried to print on some of that lovely metallic paper in an ivory colour but the ink didn't stick. I will see if I can get some that is printer friendly because ultimately that's what I would like them printed on, just to make them a bit 'weddingy' and a bit of shimmer did no one any harm! Even though I've been designing them Axel has been part of the process and it's his choice to use blue in our wedding. So I am not being a bridzilla in any sense. He also agreed on all the other elements so is just as happy as I am with the results. I just have to wait until he comes in February to show him the different papers and then he can choose which one we will use.

November and December Swap Blocks

I can't believe it's been just over a year when I first joined the block swap. It's been a great experience making very different blocks for 12 different ladies around the world. I've seen this block swap as a great way to experiment with colours and new block designs. As you can see below I've even had a go at a log cabin style block! I've also used my 'blanket' stitch on my machine for one of the other blocks which was the first time I ever did any applique.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the women who have participated in the swap and who have sent me the most wonderful blocks ever! I am thinking about putting all the blocks together to make a small quilt that I can either hang or drape over the couch. I will be in Germany for most of next year and without a sewing machine so I must remember to let the administrator know that I won't be swapping next year. I'm quite sad about that, it has been lots of fun.

It's Starting to Taste a Lot Like Christmas!

Well there is only a week and a half of this term and we are making the most of it by packing in as many Christmas activities as possible. This week we've already started on the Christmas baking and turned out a batch of yummy gingerbread men and Christmas cookies. The kid's had a great time putting their 'play dough' skills to good use and I let my creative side get the better of me and four tubes of writing icing. In the afternoon we also settled down with a Christmas D.V.D 'Elf' which the kids thought was a hoot!

Both the biscuits and gingerbread men turned out so well that I'm now thinking I should make some myself for gifts. I used the gingerbread man cutter and gingerbread recipe I received as part of a swap package last year. Makes me wish I was part of a Christmas swap this year!

Anyhow I hope you are all well and enjoying the lead up to the holidays, baking your own gingerbread men and other Chrissy delights!

Update on the wedding planning... the dress has been ordered! I'd love to blog about it but I know my fiance reads this blog so I'm afraid I can't mention it here as I'd be giving it away and I want it to be a surprise on the day.