Moline

Summer in the City

The new habits are coming along nicely. We had a row of 3 Sundays writing letters and postcards and spend some time during the week thinking of who to write to and what to send. Postage is low here so one can send some goodies along. And this country is full of cute things - especially when it comes to stationary and everything concerning paper...

And we also managed to try out new recipes. Well, not exactly recipes but also some new ways of presenting food. I tried out the roughly cut zucchini as a side dish from my Pinterest

And we also had the tiny bite size caprese in between:

The pictures are from my Pinterest pinboard of yummy treats again. I keep on adding to these!

And after a lovg period of rain which I did not witness because I was in germany at that time the sun came back again and we are now in the middle of a hot summer with over 30 degrees. And although we are living in one of the megacities of the world we try and find some spaces to have a green surrounding. And that is easy here in Seoul with a lot of parks, temple gardens and green spaces and all the beautiful mountains around the city. 

Last week we were taken to Seoul Dream Forest. it is near where we live and easy to reach so we could theoretically go there on a daily basis. It is a wonderful plot of Green with a meandering little water stream floating through, a lake, waterfalls, deer , playgrounds, a huge forest and a piazza with water fountains where the children can have endless fun fighting with the water.

I am really tempted to take an extra set of clothes myself...

And yes, school started for the children and especially for Jakob who had his first day of school. I took a lot of pictures and we had a little party but I still have to sort some photos out and upload it later. I am already working on his school album because with the chird child I am more organized. I collected things during the last years for our other two children but just finished a few pages. And now I want to be more diligent from the beginning. So I prepared paper, ephemera and ordered divider sheets to complete/start the album - just wait and see...

My craftroom is full of stacks of precut paper -color coordinated of course and is waiting to be played with!

See you soon here in the middle of summer, at school or in my craftroom amongst the paper (painting walls in the house will be a pasttime for colder weather I think)

Yvonne

 

New habits

It is not the beginning of the year but summer might also be a good time to establish a new habit. In fact, come to think of it ANY time is a good time. I have to admit that I tried to install a new habit several times a year (for instance: drink more water!) but I failed. The only habits I tend to keep are: declutter your surfaces and shine your sink (thank you a lot fly lady and Aby!!!)

So off to new habits: Last week I was reminded by an email from Jessica that reminded me of sending more letters. And with letters I mean rel ones. Remeber snail mail? So on Saturday I announced to my family that Sunday would be our new day for letter writing. We sat down after tea and everybody wrote at least one letter or postcard. They don't have to be long and elaborated (that would be too much for the children). Sometimes a nice card or a sweet ephemera and some nice words will do the same. It is just a way of giving something very valuable: time. 

We tend to write a lot of emails, we twitter, send SMS's, comment on blogs. But remember how it feels to have not only bills in the mailbox but colorful envelopes and picture postcards? I love it! And I remeber all the wonderful postcards my uncle sent to my grandma when I was a child. He travelled the world and sent a postcard from all the places he has been. Sometimes he just sent "Greetings" and his name but my grandma who never travelled could have a piece of the world flying into her kitchen via a picture postcard. And when I was a child I set down on the floor with the box full of cards and sorted them by continent and country and decided where to go as an adult. And when I travelled as a student to Brazil to learn the language and to finally see the Corcovado my grandmother told me that this was my favourite postcard: the one from Rio and as a child I kept asking me and her: "How does uncle Hans find his way from the airport to the Corcovado without knowing the way and without speaking the language?" And you see: I did not travel a lot as a child then... My uncle died some months ago and so did my aunt. And now my cousin is trying to find the boxes with all the old postcards because my grandma gave it to him before she died so he could see where he has been during his business life.  And now I would love to see the postcards again I played with as a child and which had such an enormous impact on my way of seing the world!

Because I remebered this so vividly I started buying postcard for the children whenever we went to another city or country. I just wrote the date and with whom we have been there and what we roughly did. So they can see where they have been later in their life.

But now back to the new habit: We managed to write 14 postcards and letters this Sunday (the five of us - jakob only "dictating" his, of course). Wow! That was an outcome. And seeing this pile on the window sill to be posted makes them want to write again this Sunday:

The other habit is this: Try a new recipe every week! And again I started Sunday. I have so many yummy treats pinned on my Pinterest that I had to try some. And me, being a breakfast person tried out this: Bacon, egg and toast cups (by Martha, of course).

(Image by Marths Stewart Living)

It was delicious  and I will have to prepare it for guests. So you can make large quantities of bacon and eggs without standing in front of the pan and get rooked. There is even time to have a morning shower in between frying the bacon and taking the cups out of the oven: perfect I'd say!

I don't know what I will try out this week but I will keep you informed about the outcome!

And you? Are you already thinking to whom you could write a few lines or how happy you were last time you got some nice snail mail?

Hugs to you!

Yvonne

 

Ps: Talking about postcards: I just found a lovely postcard download on Kellie's blog 74 Lime Lane:

Isn't it just lovely? You can find the download here.

Yvonne

 

Projects

Can you believe it- I am crafty again! Do you remember the beginning of the year when I started "A page a day" . Wow, what a plan for somebody like me. I even made it to February and then it somehow drowned in daily life. Let's blame it on the moving that had to be prepared back then, ok.?

But I really did some work: I prepared a color scheme for each month, collected all the paper and ephemera and cut the pages and even assembled them. But I really did not make a page a day... I am still loving the idea and do not want to give up that easily! So I decided to keep the cutouts and the prepared color themes and just make a monthly album out of them and add some extras. I even prepared some scrap packs for the shop. My idea was to provide the same paper I used in my monthly projects for some craftiness to be purchased on Etsy. 

Be it as it is, you find me daily sitting in my new craftroom, going through my paper stash and prepare all these things. And that makes me so happy. Paper really is an old love of mine!

So here you can see some of the inspiration I gathered for the July theme: Red, White and Blue:

1. "Vivitar" and a nice camera bag from Korea, 2. my little version of a royal delight, 3. Blues, 4. White Lanterns, 5. Untitled, 6. Seoul, Jun 1965, 7. Blue Above, 8. red and blue, 9. Blue shade over red, 10.Untitled, 11. Valentine, 12. Untitled, 13. Hyehwa station, 14. Untitled, 15. Untitled, 16. red and blue symmetry, 17. Untitled, 18. Red, White and Blue, 19. IMG_5194, 20. snowy day

 

1. Old pic (just for reference), 2. .0559, 3. perfect for tea, 4. blue red in sketchpad, 5. Red White and Blue, 6. RED WHITE AND BLUE, 7. How much more red could this be?, 8. red | white | blue, 9. supplies, 10. beautiful security machin GB 2nd blue press cut stamp Queen Elizabeth stamp Great Britain England QEII Queen Elisabeth United Kingdom UK timbre Grande-Bretagne postage porto francobolli Elizabeth Gran Bretagna bollo sellos selo Gran Bretaña franco timbres, 11. red, white & blue, 12.Buttons, 13. handwriting tape, 14. Untitled, 15. Red spool, 16. Blue and white dishes, 17. Untitled, 18.kasa, 19. Savor Summer ~, 20. detail of marine theme

Maybe I am into the marine theme because of my recent travels to Northern Germany and Hamburg - one cannot escape these colors there.

I hope I can finished some pages and packages until next weekend to show you my progress! Be prepared! Have a great Wednesday wherever you may be!

Yvonne

 

 

Hello Yellow

Dear readers! We've been away for a while to settle down, have a vacation back to Germany and to our old house, visiting Istanbul because the children wanted to see the city the were born in, meeting friends and enjoying the Turkish food. 

I am happy some of you asked about us because you haven't heard from us for a while. We are still here and enjoying our new country. The heavy rainfalls did not affect us or any people connected to us so far and we are happy to have rented a very sturdy old brick house where heavy rain like the last one here seemingly can do no harm. 

The rain is continuing, but on a lighter basis. So we are enjoying our time at home, crafting again, playing board games, reading, writing letters and just spending time together as long as the school holiday will be over.

Today I would like to greet you with some Yellow I just posted here.

These pictures are part of one of my boards on Pinterest: Yellow Love. Needless to say I love Pintertest. It is addictive but a perfect way to gather all these things you don't want to forget and you may need for inspiration or for a quick cheering up. And I can sort by colour there - one of my favourite pasttimes... But although I love Pinterest I won't forget my first and old love: flickr.

During our holiday my old laptop broke down and a very young guy at the Apple store told me five years is too much for a powerbook the way I am using it. So no photo posting during our vacation (except from the phone) and no hours of lingering around with flickr-friends. And there is so much to share and to tell. That will have to wait for another day. I am slowly getting back on track here with a daily routine.

I am glad I am back at the computer again to share my love for colour be it via Pinterest of flickr like this beauty: 

I hope you are well and you are having a wonderful time of year ( be it winter or summer- wherever you are located) - I missed you!

Yvonne