Hello from ....

Any fans in the land of the tastiest squid ever? Like, say, in Tokio?


I'm up for some fun!
All yours,
Fr.Mayer (the cat's home, in good old Germany)
See ya, squiddies!

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!

Art Wall in Progress or How Not to Kill Everyone Around

Good thing I need to go pick up my bike and ride to the hardware store. Otherwise I'd turn into a mass destruction weapon. Have you ever tried to create a nice little art wall? Say, looking like this?

Then you'd better go buy a couple of nerve cells because some of yours are going to die while you arrange those damn things on the floor, cut out templates, put them on the wall only to watch them fall off and look like a complete mess. I'm also not going to talk about the AGES it took me to finally pull these frames  + pictures together.
Anyway, this is what I completed today:

Step 1

Step 2.
Guess what't falling off the wall right now!
Ok, I think that if I really want to see it all done today, I'd better disappear. I blog too much anyways, right?

Guess who says Hi!

No, dear ghost readers, this blog is not dead. Its owner's life, however, has been quite busy! Three weeks in the States, wonderful, full of shopping and new impressions. No time for blogging! I'll write more about my list of must-sees in NYC and around later, promise!

Let's make it short. I went to a flea market (Golden Nugget around Princeton, NJ), I found a crate, I bought it. 

Please, ignore the laundry in the background. My crate and I (as well as the crate intruder) are both saying Hi!

Still yours,
Frau Mayer

Kitchen: The Best Of

No; I've just discovered this interesting competition and I'd love to take part although I'm not really a scandinavian blogger. Whatever!

And some more!

And more!


And because the dining room is basically a part of our kitchen, here we go again!

Want to see scary before pictures? Go here!

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? :)

Women in my life

Singing women, that is.
There are three of them, actually. All incredibly beautiful and blessed with voices that sound as if they weren't born on this planet.
I had the incredible pleasure of seeing Alela Diane in Berlin a while ago. I spent an hour on a beer crate because I can never see anything during concerts unless I climb somewhere (yes, I'm a garden gnome). Hearing Pirate's Gospel live just cracked me.

Marissa Nadler's songs are very much like her - very dark, impossible to approach, they're to be enojoyed from the distance. I remember that hearing her actually speak was totally weird.

And, finally, Keren Ann.
No matter if she sings in English or French (she does both), it's magical. If I was ever going to marry anyone (I'm not), I'd do it to her Right Now and Right Here.
And she's beautiful, too.

 

Source picture 1
Source picture 2
and picture 3