Moline

Rearranging the kitchen shelves

Rearranging the kitchen shelves
Originally uploaded by moline (up again, enjoying autumn)

The play kitchen was the best present we ever gave to the children. they are playing with them all the time - I think also due to the fact that it has always been located at the heart of the home next to our kitchen. It was a play kitchen for Moritz when he turned three, then it was adjacent to a play table where they ate snacks and crafted. It had a cozy corner in our kitchen in Mexico and now turned into a sweet restaurant with view to the park.It also doubles as a crafting space and a meeting point with friends.  My husband built this kitchen after my plans back in Turkey and it has been rearranged after every moving to a new country with adding new fabric to the back, repainting it and adding new items. And I love how they changed the funtion - from kitchen to restaurant. We are trying to rearrange it according to season and age of the children. But what we did from the start: we never had plastic kitchenware. it was porcelain from the start and we now are having the 2nd set since the start of the kitchen 51/2 years ago. The children have been taught to take care and believe me - this was not easy and it was a drama when Moritz wanted to serve coffee and cake in the garden and came outside with a laden porcelain tray and stumbled. But now they are careful and I am happy we stayed with the "real stuff". So if you are thinking of giving a kitchen for Christmas: it is worth it if you put some love into it on the way.

And now, writing all this , I think I will do a little kitchen mini-album for the children with all the kitchen photos involved throughout the years. How wonderful that you always find an excuse to play with paper...

See you tommorrow when the house has been redecorated a bit for the upcoming season. I'll now head over to Moritz restaurant-kitchen for a coffee and some cherry cake

Last day of Fall - beginning of Winter

Fall in Istanbul
Originally uploaded by moline (up again, enjoying autumn)

Yesterday was the last Fall day for us. We had a final look at the fall decoration and said goodbye to the pumpkins and Orange. i am longing now for the shiny silvery December glitz that keep appearing on people's Flickr-streams. And the shop was updated with some late fall collages of my beloved Istanbul.
The sky is grey here in the northern hemisphere and I have to lift myself up with some candle light and sparkly ornaments.
And there will be cherry cake involved with a white powder sugar dusting to celebrate the first advent...

Getting crafty

So I really managed to open the shop again and add some crafty items. I decided to use my love fr colour to put together lucky parcels fo paper crafting. To make a series I decided to call the "twentysomethings" because the buyer will get at least 20 items to craft with. So the final number of items may vary. Maybe there will also be 30 somethings or so - we will see. 

 

  Paper makes me happy and it is a bliss to go into your own craftroom on a rainy day, rummage through your stock and creating piles of nice paper...
 

 

Books and colour

It's been long again since my last post. There was so much to reflect upon and so many new inputs and ideas. We've been to London for a few days and loved it. Again and again I can go there and this city amazes me. I so love the diversity and vibrancy. And then there was a lot of reading. I will be musing on this topic in another post. 

And there is also  this amazing online workshop Susannah is holding and I am taking part of. So I am taking pictures and do some writing and it is very intense and personal. There will be some bits and pieces to share from time to time. For example this: I love books and colour and when I saw this picture I had to try it and combine these two loves

 

It matches the season and I recently started really liking Orange. And what is more important: these seemingly randomly juxtaposed books in one colour say so much a bout me and evoke memories and stories. So I am enjoying the colour input and also at the same time writing down some thoughts and memories. That is so new and exiting and it made me staple some more books in different colours in our library. And they keep pleasing my eye and telling stories the way they are piled up. And like in the picture combining Mexico, children's rooms, Steven Greenblatt, Updike, Naipaul and Tolle now makes sense. They are pieces or me, my story and parts of my life. And this is exiting for me to re-see it that way.

On colour - again

You know I have this thing with colour combinations. I just cannot hang pictures and things on the wall without thinking of a colour scheme. I tried hard to do a multicoloured wall in my craftroom like the gorgeous ones I've seen on Flickr. But I just can't do it and gave up finally.  So I go on creating colour-combination walls in our house and this time it was a yellow one.

Luckily there are some walls in the house so I can chose different colours. I already have the green wall in the bathroom and the black and white and blue one in the entrance,  remember? The entrance is having a makeover as well - colourwise. It will be black and white and light blue again for the winter time but right now I need some orange there. I am still working so no pictures for now! 

And yes, I am officially an Unraveller now because I am taking part in Susannah Conway's Unravelling course. I am so so happy that I got a place this time! It will be an adventurous journey - for sure! 

Colours

Don't you just love these late summer colours? I could have flowers all over the house and most of the time I have. It just makes such a difference when your eyes can rest on them in every room. They make me smile and it is like putting little altars all over the house to bless the different corners.

We are very fortunate to live in the middle of this old little town and we can walk to the market twice a week to soak in all these colours

And believe it or not: There are still strawberries in My friend Gele's garden and I can sit and watch Jakob harvesting them whilst I am having a tea and a treat (or two)

You see, I am feeling better now and what is important: I am resting more. So I will be having enough energy and muse for a new project that will start tomorrow (more tomorrow then...) and the upcoming changes I will be revealing to you over the following weeks. Stay with me on this new journey!

Dottie Angel

Dottie Angel
Originally uploaded by moline (resting again)

There are many reasons why this woman can be an inspiration - here are mine:
- she makes lovely vintage looking teatowels with linen, doilies and embroidered squirrels on it (as if that was not reason enough to really like her!)
- she has an airstream trailer in her garden
- he named "her" Gladys
- she is the proud owner of a light blue pick-up-truck and it really is a 68 Ford!
- she named him Winston

- even her sewing machine has a name: Miss Ethel

- her use of Orla Kiely patterns

- she has padded hangers in her closet (fabric padded and crocheted ones)

- she makes me look at hanging laundry in a different way with her garland-like washing line in her garden
- the way she travels with her old suitcase and tote
- that her used dog and the new one "Olive" are pampered with lovely granny square blankets (even dogs should be brought up in style!)
- the lampshade-teatowels and cushions she made (reminded me that I also once was into lamps 
- the patchwork covered shelves (why did I not have this idea? I just always use plain fabric and seldom mix them when covering up shelves...)
- her love for the English countryside
- her love for granny sqares and crocheting and knitting and doilies

I think I could go on for a while but I want to leave also a bit of thinking to you so I can go o and read her blog

See you soon!

Still working on the bigger picture

Granny squares
Originally uploaded by moline (up again)

This is part of a mum(s) and me- project we started a while ago. My mum and me started these granny squares a while ago. She was crocheting with my wool, 100 km away and we exchanged wool and grannies from time to time. I now have to finish this all up, add some white bordering and a few more squares. And of course Pauline is helping in this mum(s) and me-project and is already waiting for the first cushion of this series to adorn her sofa (or maybe a potholder for the kitchen?)
These squares make me happy: looking at them and producing them - just try it out - it is so easy!

The remains of the day

The remains of the day
Originally uploaded by moline (up again)

Lately I added some more colour to liven up our daily routines. I never was a Yellow person except having had a sunny yellow dining room in our old appartment in Constance. but then I thought there was some Yellow missing here in our house, namely right in the middle of it.
There were health issues and they are still going on and see: no Yellow in the middle! readers who have heard of Feng Shui must have heard it before. I am practising it normally and it is so incredible how I seem to have forgotten about this yellow health issue in the middle of everything.
So then I looked for some pretty papers and artwork and it was easy to find some to brighten up our wall in a former dark hall area with nearly no light. I've been eyeing the Paris print from Irene Suchocki for a while now and got it for my Birthday (told my parents, I needed it as well as the Katie Daisy print on the right side!!!)
Now I am greeted every day by a cheering up wall whenever I pass (and that is VERY often!). And at night when we had our tea in the upstairs bedroom and in between brushing teeth and putting away the tea tray (the ttp://www.flylady.net/Fly lady style - thank you!!!), I stop and look and I am just happy then...

Summery

Summery
Originally uploaded by moline (up again)

Back again after a long break. We were away in July visiting the in-laws at Lake Constance, seeing friends and attending a wedding.
The time away from blogging was twofold: I enjoyed being away and out of reach and I missed the contacts.
So there are a lot of plans and projects on my table right now: Fall is approaching and I have to prepare some kits for the shop (AND re-open it!), All the photographs from our trip will have to be sorted and edited and some will go into a handmade album I made beforehand from the wonderful Studio Callico paper kit. this was a wise decision to start a subscription with the monthly kits because the paper and ephemera choices they have are just so inspiring for me right now.
And then there are so many plans about mini-albums. Last year I started photographing my feet in shoes from above because I somehow liked the idea to have reminders of my shoes for years to come. So why not start a mini-book? Said, done! (I'll share the progress. this book really has been on my table since I bought it a long time ago and the only reason why I did not make one of these little books was that I honestly could not decide with what to start because the ideas were racing through my mind).
And yes - summery! It still is and I love wearing open shoes with no socks and all these dresses, this is not so normal here in this country up North so maybe we should move somewhere warmer where we all can walk barefoot the whole day - the children would love that, for sure.
I will keep that in mind but for now I have to start organizing my summer memories! So long!