embarrassed

I stand corrected by - ahem - not by my German, but an American friend (thank you, Amber), who kindly informed me, that what I named the Reichstag was in fact the Brandenburger Tor.

Ooops.

My house is dusty and will stay dusty for a week longer than anticipated. The company that delivered the wood messed up and we ran short. But well, we have not gotten the oil finish yet either, a product from Germany, that seems to be sold out all over the US at this point, so what the...

At the same time normal life somehow goes on and Fiona's fieldtrip brought us yesterday to Wagner Farm in Corrales. Don't we all love pumpkin pictures?

There is some knitting happening, too, almost finished fingerless gloves from handspun 2-ply yarn. I just need to weave in the ends.

A new project was started from bulky 2-ply handspun, a buttersoft blend of kid mohair and romney, to become a sleeveless vest in a design that I have been breeding over for quite a while now: long, just one huge button for closure at the neckline, the details will be developed as I go.

Sewing machine and ironing board found a current home in the low dust kitchen area and I was able to finally finish the birthday gift for my friend Mitchi in Maryland, this zippered pouch: vintage fabric, hand emboidered initials on linen, dark green velvet lining.

Doris, who will be taking off for Germany today, got a private lesson on sewing zippered pouches and surprised me yesterday with this lovelyness:

Thank you, Doris, and bye-bye 'til next year!

curious?

Right now our family is dealing with a lot of dirt and dust, but it's all for a good cause.

As most of the tiles and carpet on our first floor have finally gone bye-bye, things are beginning to take shape after as little as 4 days, that the great crew of Marek & Co has been working here.


Take a look:

Rifted and quartered oak to be oiled. It will be perfect!

favorite Friday

Once a year in October Albuquerque belongs to the balloonies.

For one week in the mornings we get to enjoy the view of the city with the sky filled with plenty of beautiful colorful balloons, high count of this year being close to 50 at a time - according to Fiona.

This is just the 3rd October that we have lived in Albuquerque, and I believe we are on the way to develop a new family tradition.

On Balloon Fiesta Friday we get up as early as 5.30am, leave the house without breakfast (ouch), take the shuttle bus from Hoffmanntown Church to the Balloon Fiesta Park, get a breakfast burrito (me)/funnelcake (Lewis)/cinnamon roll (Fiona)/snack from everyone else (my friend Doris, who is visiting from Germany right now) and watch the rise-and-shine of the special shape balloons.

It is a spectacular sight!

As to be expected I was thrilled to see some German balloons.

One of them had the shape of what was possibly the Reichstag in Berlin and was promoting a famous beer brand.

There was also a balloon shaped like what we call a "Bembel", a pitcher traditionally used to serve applewine in Frankfurt/Hessen, which is really close to where I was born and raised, yeah.

However, I must admit, that I find it odd, that Germany was represented by nothing but alcohol sponsored balloons. Germany may be famous for good beer and whatever other alcoholic beverages, but there is so much more, that makes Germany special.

Trust me.

lost words

(The guy was wearing a cowboy hat and he could spin, too!)

What a day

This was my day and it was good!

Thank you all for remembering, for calling, singing and emailing!

party time

Just this weekend we finally had the very girlie girls party.



After Fiona's favorite strawberry cake eight screaming girls got to hop in the pool to get rid of some of that energy (if you know what I mean).



However the main event was printing like Lotta. I had sewn drawstring bags for everyone as goodie/goodie bag and we cut potatoes to stamp on the blank part of the bag.




The results were great!

A good party!

yum and yuck

Let's start with the yuck, shall we?

One of the first things people will tell you about New Mexico is that we have some weird bugs around here and boy, I'm telling you, that we do!

Check out this thing which we spotted one night in the garden. It was huge, about 4 in (12 cm, my German friends!). Some research in Lewis' library, turned out it was a whipscorpion. While looking extremely gross, it is not poisonous. Good.

Be happy in the yard, but - poisonous or not - please do.not.ever.again.breed around my house!

And do not ever again let your baby sneek around in my kitchen in the morning. Especially not before breakfast! Next time I might just squish it to mush.

This time I had mercy. There you go, little gross guy!

Today I found this cardigan in Lewis' closet. It is very dear to me for several reasons. It was one of the early things that I knitted for him, and it was made from my own handspun yarn. For the very first time I had found prepared roving and this whole world of the wonderful American fiber community with its many resources had just let me peek in for the first time. I believe I even spun this with my first spinning wheel, purchased sometime early 80s, that I had brought with me from Germany after I got married!

While I look at the yarn and the knitted piece and think it looks yummy, there are critters, that feel the same way... They dared to choose this wonderful little cardigan as lunch/dinner/breakfast. Boohoo.

I'm still debating what I should do with it. It is washed. Nuke any leftover bugs in the Antarctica/freezer? Take about a hundred more pictures and toss it? Cut off the buttons as my mom reminded me? Unravel and reuse what's reusable? Not sure yet. For now it is resting on the sofa.

Time for real yum, and don't think about mashed whipscorpions any more, will ya'?!

Inspired by my friend Ulrike I recently made new sourdough and after failing several times (which results in bread with huge airbubbles and just not the right sour flavor) it seems that I finally got it right.

This is every single bit as good as it looks.

It is the reason why Fiona and me can't wait for breakfast these days. She calls it "Mamabread".

Lewis however complains and wants store bought bread. I tell him, that this is as good as it gets: all natural, whole rye, whole wheat, sourdough starter (again rye flour and water and the right kind of bacteria), sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, salt and water, that's all.

I tell him, what makes it truly the best is that it is made with love!

I say, eat it!

Yum.