The trees are in!

What is Vivian looking at? She's rather suspicious about those green things that have just moved in here!


Oh, those ones?

Mmmh, let me see!

They're not so bad after all! It's winter here  - and most Germans are celebrating the first advent Sunday (which I'm not - stuck to my desk, heaps of work all around me).
This is what Frau Mayer indulges in right now - ordering things via the Internet because she doesn't really leave the house (well, we don't count those trips to work and back). I envy those of you with loads of free time on your hands a lot and can't wait for the holidays to come.
By then, you'll have created beautiful decorations, baked bunches of cookies and I'll have graded ten written exams, so those of my non-existent readers who think that teachers lead a relaxed lifestyle can come along and I'll suffocate them all by myself! Mmmh, what a terrible load of self-pity in a harmless post about trees.

Have a relaxed Sunday, those of you who can!

Wishlists....

The only thing I'm wishing for right now is freedom... However, you can't really purchase that so let's get down to all thing material. There's a fabulous giveaway going on right now and I'd be stupid not to take part!

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.
 
1. What is your holiday wish for your family?
More free time, better organizing skills. These two only work together, I guess.

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?
A peaceful, plentiful breakfast, I guess. Yeah, and sleeping in.
3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? 
A completely decadent convertible. A black VW Eos, preferrably. 
4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?
By sleeping in, obviosuly. You can't spend anything when you're asleep.
5. What games did you play with your family growing up?
None. But I do enjoy Scrabble now that I'm all grown up.
6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?
None as well. It's time to make my own traditions. From now on, I shall get a new convertible every Xmas!
7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?
Thailand, obviously. Nothing beats massage 5 times a day!
8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? 
Yoga! 
More Yoga! 
And a bit of dancing, too.  

Yohoo, let's hope it works out!

Pinterest + too much work

Thanks, dear Yvonne, for making me addicted. Right now I'm ignoring a large pile of philosophy exams in order to pin more fabric for my little pillow project on my Wishlist board. How productive!

Whatever... I guess it'll make me correct even faster now that I'm feeling happy!

I'm actually really proud of myself as I've recently managed to hit the gym more than once a week (this week it's been almost 5 hours of sports plus sauna where I met another teacher, of course :), keep my place relatively clean and spend some quality bionadebourgoisie time with one sweet guy who happens to live just around the corner from my room. Yeah, and watch a great deal of House MD! I'm in the middle of the sixth season and actually scared of what happens when I'm done.

As for this weekend - now I know another cool location to have breakfast/coffee at - Meilenstein, Lister Meile (it's right in the beginning). That superdeal page surely rules - we got our breakfast for under 15 Euros for both! And I'm so looking forward to having that cool wellness treatment together with my party animal friend Ina in a couple of weeks.

And this, by the way, is my next crafty project! Thanks again, dear Yvonne, you're the best!

A friendly hug from Fr. Mayer to all of you (now, that doesn't happen to often!)
Fr. Müller says Hi as well - she's happy that her son has finally found a wonderful new owner. Annika, I'm happy for you both and look forward to some good Button news! 

Weekend news

It's Sunday again and as it's been ages since my last post, here are those long-hoped-for updates.
I'm feeling endlessly inspired right now. Might have something to do with all the recent travels, beautiful things and wonderful people I came across...

Yvonne who lives in a magazine-ripe house (what would you say about this?) visited me yesterday, so I could show her around the List, Nordstadt and Herrenhausen districts (yes, Coffee and Carrots and Esplanade visits were obligatory but we also made it to a bunch of other nice places including a massive indoor fleamarket right where noone would expect it to be!)

Yvonne could easily earn her living being a personal shopper, she has such an eye for all the beautiful (and non-ripoff!) things out there and so many immediate ideas what one could do with those finds that I just kept my ears open and soaked it all in :) She's so easy-going and warm I'm happy we had a chance to meet!



If you're not Moline's fan yet, dear non-existent visitors, you have to go and become one right away.
Meanwhile, there are some visuals for you here as well (although I definitely can't keep up with Yvonne's colorful goodness of a home).
Remember my cabinet dilemma? It's been solved. Bought, delivered, cleaned, filled.
Die Wohngeschwister is the place to go. I also purchased a beautiful metal Morocco-style coffee table and got a massive discount which covered delivery costs for the cabinet.


And here's his majesty (filled with rather non-satisfying Ikea mag holders - I also took time to organise my mag collection).


The living room looks much more complete now.

If you look closer, you'll see that someone had tried painting that door (and failed completely). The phones, the router and several kilometres of cables are hidden in the basket. There's still a lot to be done but I noticed I really enjoy passing through the living room now.

We saw mushillions of mushrooms yesterday. Take any store, fancy or not, they'll be there, looking right at you! Now this really makes Fr.Mayer happy.

There are lots of hearts, too. I guess I'll need to buy a bunch for the Xmas presents this year.

And here's a whole bunch of thanks to Margret, the author of these beautiful light-blue curtains. I'm happy, happy, happy!



Thanks, dear Yvonne, hope we'll meet again soon - I can learn so much from you!

Although November and the first part of December are going to be rather busy, I can already sense the holidays and look forward to our holiday destination, one of my most cherished ever.

See you all, dear non-existent friends, later (hopefully earlier than in a month!)

First image: Moline.

Happy place

Yesterday I curled on the sofa with a glass of wine and a large amount of House M.D. to enjoy... (the longer I live in this flat, the more of a Happy Place it becomes to me). What a perfect final chord to the relaxation phase of my holidays: a week in Istanbul, meeting old and making new friends (Yvonne, I'm so glad we met!), dancing all night long, a bit of mushroom-y and crafty shopping, being at home and enjoying it, I simply don't want it all to end!

Oh yeah, and I shopped for furniture, too!


A new addition to my Happy Place! My lovely Ikea table moved to another study (around the corner :) and this is what I chose for my room - however, it arrived slightly damaged, so it'll have to be replaced in about six weeks. I also got myself those wonderful map stickers for the mag holders in the shelves to add a bit of color to the room, they fit very nicely, methinks!



This huge Ikea box is full of thrifted frames, prints, paper and such. Some of the new additions don't even fit in there any more - and there's another, even bigger box, in the living room. How many times have I promised myself I'd take care of those art walls? Now I'm posting this embarassing picture... Let's see how long it takes till those art walls are set!



Yesterday I went and got myself some X-massy mushrooms and hearts plus a couple of things I've been wanting for a while but never came to purchasing (smaller frames, mappy wrapping paper to frame).
It's strange how happy mushrooms can make you!
The tea tray is new as well and no, it doesn't come from Turkey, this one is from Madame Stolz.

And speaking of Turkey

Blue skies, holidays, a wonderful city, what else to add?

Well, corrections, I'm coming! See you not-so-soon, dear non-existant readers :)

Cabinet dilemma: Help needed!

Now there's a sofa, some lovely curtains, a chest of drawers, a beautiful Moroccan rug I keep getting questions about, a fake fireplace that needs fixing and a rather basic Ikea Besta shelf.

I realised I'm not going to live with this shelf forever. I need a cabinet. A big, loving, preferrably white glass cabinet.
I've recently been to one of my favourite cities and discovered this beauty there:

Costs: 970 Euros (including shipping. This cabinet is by Nordal which suggests very high quality - and it does look great, otherwise I'd never looked it up after a quick glance at the store. A shop in Hannover told me it's gonna cost about 1400 euros so I'm rather surprised by the price I found.

Then I've searched some more and found this:                                                                                                                            

Costs: 880 Euros plus around 6 weeks waiting time. It's Car Möbel, obviously. 

Costs: 1009 Euros. To me, it looks just like the previous one - except for the fact it's rather shabby. Or, it's been made shabby. Impressionen.

Now, what does Octopus say?

Well, the price is kind of nice.  It's 580 including shipping. This one would  even fit beside the door and wouldn't have to be placed near the fireplace which would leave less place for other crazy ideas like a chinese cabinet. Now, I'm totally clueless.

What to do? I'm sure that my non-existent readers will help!

Kitchen + Dining Room Tour with a hint of before/after

Hey, dear non-exis (slowly I start thinking there's actually someone out there, especially after two of my humble pictures have been featured by the interior guru and big autumn lover Holly ).

Today you're all up to a kitchen tour. No excuses accepted.
Remember  this?

And this?

Well, there have been some changes.

A bit of cheerful blue goes a loooooooooong way. Our cleaning lady has recently said she was looking forward to every Friday when she could spend a couple of hours in our place :) 


Ib Laursen lamps I've been hunting for ages. Well, now they're in and we just need to paint the ugly stripe left from the previous, very hospital-like lamp (not in the picture in order not to hurt your aestethical feelings :)


I'm in love with our Non-Smeg's colour. It matches the stove perfectly :)

The kitchen is always so full of light!

And blue mugs, of course. And tea. As the autumn comes closer (and colourful leaves are turning in the air :)
I tend to increase my tea consumption by litres!

Now, let's move on to the dining room.

Here's some personal thanks to Margret, my boyfriend's mum. She's sewn ALL the curtains in our place (and that's a LOT!) and I just can't thank her enough! Margret, a big hug for you! Besser hätte es keiner machen können.


Still need to fill those niche shelves. We went to the flea market as sellers last week and got rid of so much ugly stuff! I'm very confident that one feels happier if he's surrounded by the things he loves.




As usual, Frau Müller says Hi in a rather suspicious way. She turned 3 last week! Congratulations, Vivi, you're the loveliest cat in the universe. We're so happy to have you! (Well, now this blog is a REAL Katzenblog!)
So long,
Fr. Mayer

A glimpse of the living room + a practical bonus

I guess I'll never manage to post regularly and tell long, emotional stories about the leaves landing on my balcony. Whatever. Here's a couple of (too dark) shots from my living room. This sofa makes me and everybody else living here totally happy. It's also a constant source of anxiety (Spots! Jumpy cats!), though.



I need a million of frames. The living room is still not cosy enough...


This is not really the living room - I just wanted to show off my door. And the wallpaper (it was one extreme experience, standing on the ladder, trying to get the stripes straight. Those ceilings are 3,80 high!)
This is not a pretty picture. However, this piece of furniture makes me extremely happy. It's three meters wide and holds just about everything that needs to be tucked away. And - for the first time in my life I have a decent closet. Everything fits! Bliss...

Blog chaos

I completely destroyed my old blog design. Just didn't want it to be 'shabby' any more.
Hope one day I'll have a lovely header and all those thingies every decent blogger gotta have. Not now...

My study: a little tour

I guess I'm ready to show a glimpse of my study. There's still so much to be done but if I wait until I'm finished there'll be no updates here for centuries. So, let's get started, dear non-exis.



Ikea + some DIY, I painted this cubby shelf white and covered Ikea pinboard with striped wallpaper. There are some washing pins on the wall holding my favourite postcards and the blue lamp by Lisbeth Dahl is a total highlight of the room. the pictures on top of the cubby shelf will go soon - you can't see but right behind me there's a huge plastic box full of frames and pictures in urgent need of framing. 15 more frames :) - and my art wall is ready to be set up. I'm also planning a massive Etsy splurge, so let's hope Euro becomes stronger.



Talking about the power of white paint. I painted wooden mag holders from IKEA and covered the files on the bottom shelf with a map (1 Euro, flea market) - as well as the little box on the top shelf. I'm a huge fan of paint chips, so I used those to make my mag holders look a bit more colorful.



A little bonus - what I see from my window every day. Usually, there are some squirells sitting on that roof and making Ms. Müller agressive.


A bonus bonus - the garden. No wonder Ms. Müller wants to go for a walk on the balcony all the time.


I'll see you all non-exis later. Due to a rather gloomy weather I can't show more but there'll be updates, I promise :)

Ideas to steal from the current House Doctor catalog and a weak vital sign from Fr. Mayer

Who doesn't love some House Doctor? Well, their catalog is a constant source on inspiration. And pinecones. And mushrooms. You know, I'm a total sucker for a mushroom, so if you want to attract a bunch of drooling Frau Mayers, just place a mushroom in your product and wait. Well, let's see what's in this one...

• Long candles, tied together with a bow. 
• Europallets on castors, covered with glass (go for it?) 
• Simple candles in a glass with beautiful labels/papers on them
• Pinecone garlands (totally easy! Gotta make one!) and pinecone wreaths (not easy at all. Need one anyway)
• Mushroom baubles (again! Gotta have my load of custom-made mushrooms soon :) 

A while ago I purchased a fireplace. A fake fireplace. Basically, it's just a frame. If the Ebay God agrees to be nice to me, I might even receive it soon. I'm prepared to trade it for my flu which is the second flu this month which makes me kind of sad because the weather's so good and we've been planning an active fleamarket (Us! Loading the car with all the .... and selling it for a bunch of money) for ages. I'm so sick of being sick but at least I have a couple of minutes to look at beautifully arranged pinecones and mushrooms now. And clean up the mess in my room. And order those frames. And prepare for the good times when I can go back to work and function normally, without being hit by some sly little virus.
Images: House Doctor

A perfect flat....

Just found this lovely article + a bunch of funny comments. Each of them describes Fantastic Flat.

Good to know!

Do you remember?

Do you recognize this piece of furniture? I invested several days of my life into making it blue and perfect - and now it's a blue dream came true. Everything's labeled, placed in themed boxes etc. Heaven!

Here's the left part of the cupboard which I like.

And the right one I'm not sure about. Please let me what you think (although I know none of you exists).




More impressions from my dining room. If you remember this picture, you'll certainly like this one! The blue picture has finally joined the party. Still have two more wallpaper scraps, lalala!

Please allow me repeat myself. A before picture.

And an after. It took me SO much time to finish all four of the chairs and the truth is that they're actually still not completely finished.

I have to reveal something. I have a tin fetish. Here's the proof. Watch out for more tins coming soon!



























Let's have a little sneak peek into my room. Got this beauty while passing a pharmacy. Saw an "everything for sale" sign. Stopped. Went in. Fell in love. Bargained. Bought. It's perfect for storing all my school stuff + there's place for crafty stuff, too.

The pictures are waiting to become a part of an art wall. The cubby shelf used to host CDs. I painted it white and haven't put too much effort into filling the cubbies yet. Recycling is everything.

Also, as a little extra to this quick update, I really need to vent some fury. You see, I love reading Neon. It's my favorite German mag. It's witty and seem to reflect on my lifestyle perfectly. But today they just went too far. "Especially the creative people seem to be shockingly similar when it comes to decorating. Mix old and new. Put a designer chair in front of an antique cupboard. Place an Apple computer in your flat."
I really wonder what their problem is. Is one supposed to live Ikea-only? Designer-only? Domäne (HATE!) only? Personally I think that old furniture brings life into flats. So does new when chosen right. I also do not think that my apartment looks like a typical shabby chic one. It does look like a mix of old new though. You know why? Because it IS a mix of old and new and it's SO not like any given flat of a "typical creative person". Grrr! Let me know what you think even if you don't exist. See you soon!

Bonus: Frau Müller saying Hi from the new sofa.