Art Wall Results (for real!)

Let's start this post with a compliment. Sometimes my significant other really is the most patient person in the world. Kind of an angel, actually. For instance, he managed not to kill me yesterday while I was running around the FF, screaming: "I want to have it done!!!!!!!!!! I want it to be over!" in the most unpleasant manner.

He also helped me to turn this

into this

Never mind the empty frame. It's going to disappear as soon as certain someone finally tells me if I can produce my own little city collage - cause I'm dreaming of having one in blues and yellows right there in the middle of my shiny new art wall *wink*

While at it, I also moved some furniture and immediately came up with approximately 235 new ideas for the corner (that will frustrate me for a loong time because I still need to take care of the chaos in the living room). I also did a fair bit of decluttering and intend to indulge in many more hours of this rewarding activity.

The art on my incredibly beautiful, tastefully arranged and professionally hung art wall was kindly provided by Geninne, Eva Juliet, Tali also known as TushTush, Lucille Prache, a vintage mag found at a Bangkok market and the mighty Cavallini.
Loads of love to my signifacant other! I'm honestly surprised somebody actually reads this neglected blog - there'll be a big design overhaul soon to celebrate the fact that I posted twice within a week :)
Stay tuned!
Your Fr. Mayer
UPD There'll be a little city collage up on that wall very soon. Thank you, my dear interior guru!

Corners - one (or two) at a time.

It's been a while since we moved into FF (fantastic flat) and slowly but surely I have developed a better understanding of the place. There are so many advantages (endless storage, all the space, cozy little kitchen that doesn't allow any cluttering) but also a couple of smaller problems that need to be tackled (like painting ALL the doors - minus one - as well as the door and window frames. Great thing to do in summer!).

One of the best things that have happened lately is my giving up the priority list. I was acting like "Oh, no, I can't buy any artwork before I've figured out how and where I'm going to hang it". Now I'm just happily putting things into little corners and watching it all come together.

I'm also trying to navigate away from that matchy-matchy, color-coordinated style I used to be such a fan of. Places really do look much more interesting if you don't stick to a million of rules.

Living next to the wonderful gardens, I make myself (yes, you've read it right, I do have to make myself because there are always so many important things than need to be done this very second) go on little walks and bring back brunches that end up in lovely bottles in various corners of FF. Right here you can see a tiny bit of the bathroom that I'm really too ashamed of right now to be able to show more. Well, OK, just another tiny piece.

I've basically just thrown some of my favorite treasures and non-treasures on it: bottles from Morocco, a too-magical-to-be-described perfume from Anthropologie that I treated myself to and wear almost daily and a couple of branches from the said gardens.
That'll be all the corners for today. I'll leave you here with the last picture and a little question - can you guess what happened to the blue wallpaper? :)

A frame a day....

I'll tell you a secret. I now have a private guru. I won't tell you this guru's name  - just quote the action-causing-guru-words.
A frame a day. Just a frame. Not more.
I started following these wise words quite a while ago. This is how my living-room floor looked this weekend.

Spot the cat!

I finally made myself carve out some time to play with my scrapbooking treasures (long live October Afternoon - thanks, dear guru!)  - that's what the results look like:

As you can see, I'm quite into hearts right now. Now, let's hope that this qise strategy will keep working as it has already helped me finally measure practically everything I wanted to have framed, order a bunch of mats, quite many frames and do some spray painting in the basement. It also brought me one step further in the middle of Fantastic Flat as I've finally decided what should happen to the chaos corner of the living room. And yes, imagine this, there've been some changes on the other side of FF - right where someone very very messy resides - and this makes me very happy!
See you all, dear non-exis, soon, hopefully with more results! Keep it in mind - a frame (or whatever you like it to be) a day...

Kleinigkeiten + Martha Stewart Living for sale!

Hello there, my dearest non-existing lurking friends.
What's new here? Well, Frau Mayer has decided to treat herself better in 2011 (who hasn't?!). Means: do more for the body (yes, I do go to the gym on a regular basis and have actually managed to do so at least twice a week, every week!) and for the soul. The latter means: organize. Finish projects. For instance, two weeks ago I sat down and made this:
 

These ones were so much fun to make:

And here's my source of inspiration. Too bad I didn't come up with this idea myself, provided my severe map fetish!

Now, the trees are all gone. So are the mushrooms. And so is pre-Xmas stress at work. I'm really enjoying January which is virtually corrections-free.

Sometimes it's Kleinigkeiten (little things) that make one happy! 
There'll be even more pictures of frames, art walls and such as soon as my newly ordered frames and mats arrive. I'm so proud of myself because I finally took several hours to sit down, measure everything and spend a couple of hundred on my art-wall-to-be. I was really tired of empty walls and my favorite prints lying on the floor. More updates soon!

Now, I'm also happy to announce that I have a bunch of Martha Stewart Living mags for sale.

Dec 09, Jan, March, Apr, May, June, July 10. I can add two more to this bunch, however, I forgot Feb 10 in NJ (where we spent the holidays) and there's another summer edition, June or July 08, as far as I remember, somewhere in my basement (which still needs some re-organizing).
25 Euros for this bunch - I live in Germany and would be happy to send within the country for a flat rate of 4 Euros (insured).  If you're in Europe, drop me a line and I'll update you on shipping costs.
Now, back to work, back to work!

Same month, different post!

This is what I call action! As I'm slowly recovering from severe jetlag, I'm trying to find some time for too-long-procrastinated-over things, too.
Like creating an art wall (and this is a HUGE project. Honestly, I'm scared of it). Or buying fabric for a million of cushions I'd like to have. Or decluttering the bathroom. Or selling things in the basement that are taking up space. Or getting a new washing machine (yes, it has to be Miele. I surrender).
Or maybe saying a big thank you to someone who introduced me to soft trees!
Now, I had the most amazing time in Lüneburg, browsing place like this:


And thinking of getting some fluffy trees myself - which I didn't because right after Christmas we packed our things and went to face the blizzards - pobably the most stupid time to fly to the states. Ever. 

And crafting, of course. I actually stuffed a whole little forest!

This time I even got to play in Yvonne's beautiful studio. And entertain Pauline a bit (which was fun, too).

Now I need to survive January (too many days that will be spent at work, too little free time), loose some weight, finish that art wall, get myself another play date and stay inspired.


All pictures courtesy of Yvonne. Tree on!

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.

Progress report

It's been a while. Too hot to work, to be honest. Well, there's still something I'd love to show you, my dear non-existent readers.
Where shall we start?

What have we here? It's definitely blue...

But what can it be?

Oh! What soft lines... and more blue!

Oh yes! It's a cupboard!

It took me several weeks and many many hours of work to get this far. As you can see, there's still a couple of things to do - but I am already totally happy with the results. I've wallpapered the back wall and also the insides - more close ups to come!

More news from the dining room - my latest supermegaüberdeal from eBay. I paid an exact amount of 33 euros for 4 of these beautiful chairs. They're to become white, of course - and I'd love some advice on new fabric.

What was in the background again? My new shelves in the niche!

Well, there are more blue pics coming soon - let me know what you think, dear non-exis! Meanwhile, I'm gonna mix a mojito or  two...

The chaos is blue

My countdown number: 6. My mood: better. My kitchen cupboard: partly blue.

I'll be posting shocking pictures today. The flat's been cleaned but the relatively clean condition didn't last too long. My painting equipment and all kinds of instruments are everywhere.

Here's the proof. I guess some people would never dare to post such non-photoshopped ugliness - but Frau Mayer is a really brave woman. Check it out!

So far I'm love how it's turning out. Will probably need 10000 more hours to finish it - the blackanddeckering process is very time-consuming.

Front view

Here's another side of the dining room with the table I purchased at the local Depot store for under 150 Euros (they were getting rid of the furniture and I guess they still are)


May I introduce? The smallest kitchen in the world. I totally love how it turned out - and there's more to come. I'm going to have a long open shelf installed above the entire worktop (it's 2,65 m long! Imagine me trying to fit this thing into my tiny car).

The stove is supposed to be white - according to IKEA - but it's actually more on the creamy side and it fits the fridge so perfectly I could cry :) I know, it sounds a bit matchy-matchy but there'll be a light blue shelf and a bunch of yellow and blue accents!


Found that guy at the flea market a couple of weeks ago for 20 Euros. It looks like an owner of a Shabby Roses of France or Sweet Patina Chic blog would kill for it, lol :) I'm replacing the knobs and letting him reside by my bed :) Need I say I spent about an hour in a bath tub, trying to get rid of all the dirt + spider webs + don't really wanna know what.


My beloved mirror (another 20 Euros at eBay) and a yet-to-be-unpacked-and-presented chandelier. Haven't decided where it's going yet, might have something to do with another bunch of auctions I'm constantly watching.


Remember the good old tea box? Still looking for a set of wheels + a partner for it. Don't be shocked seeing the sofa in the background, it'll be kicked out the second our new one enters the place. See the floor? It's really hard to believe I'm actually living together with these floors. I'm feeling like I'll have to get a big cowhide for them....

Here Frau Müller the Cat is inspecting a part of my bed. She's so tiny in this enormous flat, my poor thing!
Well, the sun is shinig outside and I'm going on a big Pax hunt  - wish me luck, dear non-exis!

Bastelattacke

Basteln = arts n crafts, dear non-exis.
This is what I did today. The flat's dirty like hell, there's stuff and half-packed boxes everywhere - and in the middle of it all Frau Mayer was compensating what she's been missing so much.

I made a bunch of cards and some bookmarks. I also attempted a secret project for my friend's newborn but wasn't too pleased so there'll be no picture. Not yet cause I'm not giving up!

So what do you need to create something like this?

A bunch of paint chips (I have a stunning collection and always want MORE - there's no better and cheaper material than paint chips. To be honest, they're free!), a Martha Stewart craft punch, scissors and some glue + really lovely scrapbooking paper. 

That's pretty much it - and this is what came out! I played around with colors and patterns. Frau Müller the cat was bothering me ALL the time, trying to steal things, play with ribbon etc. There was a lot of displeased meowing :)

 

Making cards or a bit of marthastewarism

Do you know what marthastewarism is? Of course you don't cause
a) it's a VERY rare disease
and
b) you don't exist, he he.

Here's the answer, though: it's what happens to everyone who wants to posses more than one Martha Stewart craft punch. Yeah, I should spend my money in a smarter way but, to be honest, I haven't shopped for clothes for ages, so I guess I can allow myself a couple of used mags, tea boxes and deliriously lovely craft punches.
So what do I need them for? Let's see...

That thingy in the background is my X-mas present, an ultimate Swiss cheese lamp.

The possibilities are, indeed, endless...

Some matching envelopes to go with the cards. Bought these ones in Thailand and totally regret not having bought MORE!

Has anyone said X-mas was over? But winter isn't which pretty much legitimates my making christmassy cards...