I actually am very pleased today. I thought the Christmas break (=availability of Nick to watch Meli while I am shopping) was a good opportunity for me to look at some beads. And guess what, Paula is moving to a new location and is only open 2 more days in this spot, so she had a sale on all glass beads. Look at those pretties. I think I will make something for the next Stringing challenge - Night and Day. Just need to think about a nice concept ;-)
So with a baby, beading is not the easiest thing to do. You actually need some space, and time to get the stuff out. On the other hand, knitting works good. You can do one row, and then pick up your little girl (again) when she starts crying. So after I probably have 100 UFOs in my house, I managed to finish this one and I gave it to Meli for Christmas. And I am super-proud. I know it is not perfect, but it is made with love from me for her.
What would you think you see on this picture? Well it is wax on coffee beans and I have been trying this afternoon to separate these two. Why? There is a german tradition called advent. For this we have an advent wreath which usually consists out of a couple of branches from a pine tree wrapped into a ring, which holds 4 candles. Every sunday before Xmas, we light one candle and on Xmas eve we have all four lit. I made a special version of this thing this year. A tray filled with coffee beans and four candles. Picture will follow. Unfortunately the candles burned down and all the wax spilled, so I had some picking to do.... I could have just bought new coffee beans, but it was so much fun. I know I am crazy.
Snow somehow gets a different meaning when you have a baby and show it to her for the first time. It feels like seeing it for the first time yourself...
YEAH. I won the giveaway from
Lori Eurto's blog. I never won anything so far. And this is the most beautiful prize I can imagine. A ceramic pendant and bead set donated by
Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead. Thank you so much ladies - you both really made my day.
Oh boy, it has been so long since I made some jewelry. With the baby and all that home improvement, the fun part of making pretty things got a bit neglected. And it was a bit difficult to start again after such a long time - the inspiration block. Plus I made this necklace not for me, but for a mummy-friend, who I didn't know for very long. The given was the color (green is her favorite) and the fact that it should be solid - with my baby I havw hardly worn any jewelry yet. So I picked some resin beads in green and used 20g sterling wire. And even though it is quite simple, I really like it - so I might make it again for me. ;-)
This is the world's largest flower bouquet. Tuesday was my last working day before my maternity leave. On Monday we had a full meeting day with a dinner event - the whole management team was there about 40 people, since our CEO and some of the Corporate officers were in from Milwaukee. I was not sure if I should go, but decided in the end to show up and maybe leave early. It was only right before desert that I figured out the whole thing was actually a going away party for me. Oh my. Our finance VP and our CEO gave speeches for me (we have that habit). I was really caught by surprise. And then I needed to make a speech. People always tell me I am good at it, but I don't think so and also I really hate it. And especially when I am surprised and can't prepare. So I started babbling about the baby and that I will be back in January and how much I enjoyed working with all of them. My colleague said it was ok, but I felt really like hit by a truck. All in all it was a nice surprise though. And did I mention I love flowers?
This came in the mail the other day. It is a package we have to take to the hospital when I will give birth to my baby. It contains all the stuff to collect our cord blood. It will be frozen and saved for 30 years or so. In case the baby will get a disease, we can probably use the stem cells from it to help her. I discussed this with a lot of people, especially the pregnant ones around me. I am really surprised about how few people consider doing something like this. It is true that doctors are at the beginning of a long research path with it, and people are not sure for what it can be used. And if you want to keep it for yourself, it is not cheap either. For us it was not a question though - it is like a kind of insurance you take. You never know if you will need it, but if you don't have it and need it, you will regret. We took a combined option of saving and donating it. Means we pay for it and will keep it for ourselves. At the same time the data are put into a donation database and if somebody needs it, we can decide to give it to the person and will get all our money back. And if you don't want to do it, you can still donate it, otherwise the cord / blood is thrown away after the birth. And they say that there will be no impact on mom and baby, only that the cord is cut a bit earlier. But we will be fine with that if we can save somebody's life. Do you have any experience with it? Would you do it?
Here is what I have been busy with (and by the way, still will be busy with for the next few weeks). The carpet puzzle and everything related to it. This is just an example - wodden stairs that I need to paint around - so I had to cut pieces of felt to cover them, which took litterally a couple of hours. I put one layer of paint on yesterday, but could not motivate me to do the second one today. It's sunday and I need a break.
I have a couple more pictures from Greece and the animals we saw there. Here are just a few. This one is a dragonfly that sat down on our beach chair for about a half hour at least - he pretty much enjoyed sunbathing too.
This is a cicada we spotted one night. Don't get me wrong - I am pretty scared of all those guys that fly around in an "uncontrolled" way (that's how I call it when it is impossible to predict where they will sit next). But I really admire the strange beauty of those little ones.
Here is my new best friend - a nursing pillow I just bought. Although the nursing part is still two months away from now, this thing is releaving my backpain a lot. I would even recommend it if you are not pregnant. Tonight we will attend the second time of our birth prep class - where I will see my future best friends again - the other mum's to be that know nobody and nothing of this "new-baby-world" and that are as eager as me to find some new people to hang out with during the day - as work is no longer number 1 on our lists.
So I have spent some time those past days collecting topics for my blog, but not posting them. So today you will see a few new ones. This one is about the Christmas market on Roncalli-Place right in front of the Cologne cathedral. It is my favorite one, because the atmosphere is phenomenal. The little booths, all decorated, right in front of the beautiful church - that is just the perfect Christmas feeling. I bought a scarf, some beads, and we had very yummy flammkuchen - a sort of Pizza from Alsace (France, please forgive me). And then we went to my favorite booth, that I get stuck on every year. The Hair-Acrobacy booth. That's how they call it. There are 3 girls making your hair while selling these hair pins. Nick took a photo of me with Meli in the carrier while the lady did my hair. 
We also had some Hot Wine (just a little bit for Mummy) - and I couldn't resist to take a picture of those pretty Lebkuchen-hearts (not sure how you call them).
When we were about to leave, we met a group of teenagers carrying signs that said "free hugs". They actually ran into 4 older people, that were totally overwhelmed when the kids started hugging them. You could see the surprise and happiness in their eyes. It's Christmas.
Here is a challenge. What is this? You won't find out though..... We have a german tradition during the time before X-mas. It is called the adventscalendar. See this picture below. 
It is a "count-down-calendar" that helps us to wait for X-mas. This means that on every day in December, I get to open one of those little doors of this calendar, and behind each door I will find a piece of chocolate. Today's chocolate had the form of a little house - isn't this cute?
I think in spring I wrote about the little garden area that Nick made for me in the backyard. Well, I probably did not take as much care as I could have, however, something grew. We got those chilis, a zucchini and a number of mini-carots. Even though they were really small, they were very tasty.
In the meantime Knoedel is having another snack. She does not like to be pet, but loves to crawl under our blankets and dig and play tunnel system.
This is a cicada we spotted one night. Don't get me wrong - I am pretty scared of all those guys that fly around in an "uncontrolled" way (that's how I call it when it is impossible to predict where they will sit next). But I really admire the strange beauty of those little ones.
