Moline

Quirky shops, April weather and another sick child

Hello again from Seoul in ever changing April mood. The weather is unpredictable and is changing from summery warm to rainy and cold and back. But that's April, right, so no complaints about that. We had that before with me going on about the weather and that did not help much! 

Instead I can share again my love for all these shops and stalls I can find here around our appartment house.  We are living in a high rise right now until the ship with our container arrives and we can move into our house. I never lived in a high rise before and I love the view, especially at nighttime with all the city lights!

The streets are lined with lanterns in preparation of Buddha's birthday on the 10th of may. There will be also a huge lantern festival. I cannot wait to see this. Last time I saw the procession for Buddha's birthday I was in Sri Lanka on my honeymoon and it was magical to see all these lights and lanterns and the beautifully dressed people.

To the shops: In this area, where a lot of art galleries are located you find a lot of shops selling paper, brushes and ink and stamps to make art. I have always been a fan of these red stamps and I think now is the time to look out for one for each of us, being in this surrounding.

I can already imagine the letters to be sent and the scrapbooking pages and diary pages to be altered wiith a stamp like this. The hard part will be to chose the size and style...

Aren"t these beauties just amazing? 

And these brushes - I could go to this shop every day. (And I do, because it is at the corner of our house and George is always sniffing the wooden pencils, remember?)

And then the sick child: Pauline is fine now and Moritz had ear ache for two days and today there was liquid running out of his ear. So we went to see the doctor nearby and found out that is was not only a flue but a severe ear infection plus tonsillitis. So antibiotics and bed rest for a few days. And everybody who knows our son knows that NOT moving is the worst for him. But the good of it: Another experience to grow and get to know the city. The doctor was so nice and we felt in good hands. 

For me it means less ramblings around town and time to start some Easter crafts. pauline is so keen on making origami rabbits that I bought a batch of paper so she can start. And I will work dilligently on my little monthly diary I have been neglecting during the move! 

Wishing you a wonderful day and take care!

Yvonne

 

 

Good morning Seoul

Good morning Seoul, here we are!

The benefits of having a dog to walk every morning is -next to the improvement of your health- the possibility of endlessly roaming the neighbourhood. And if you have a Basset Hound like ours you are mostly standing and watching whilst he is sniffling around his new territory. And because you are a slow walker then, more a promeneur, you see more!

For example when he takes you to the stalls where they are selling wooden pencils loking like cut little christmas trees

the place where we are staying in our temporary appartment is in the middle of Seoul, called Insadong. This area is famous for their art galleries and food stalls. it is a walkable neighbourhood and I love it in the morning when the streets are deserted. That changes a lot over the day and during rush hour (I mean pedestrian rush hour in this case) you cannot pass with a dog on your leash easily. 

I also love it at nighttime, when the food vendors are out on the street in their little tents and also the numerous fortune tellers in tents lining the streets. I will try and take some pictures at nighttime. it is such a special atmosphere!

1. Gallery in Insadong, 2. Insadong, 3. Insadong Cafe, 4. Insadong Side Street, 5. Insadong - "lovebirds", 6. Insadong Brushes, 7. Insadong Jongi, 8. Insadong, 9. Birdies

On the second day we explored our neighborhood where we chose to live for the next couple of years. It is a 15 to 20 minutes drive from where we are now up into the hillier part of Seoul. You would not think being in Seoul after all seing the winding streets, lush gardens and parks if it were not for the glimpse through the trees and over the hills to the incredible skyline of this magacity!

The children refused to eat anything Asian that day. But in a city like this - like in any megalopolis - this is no problem at all. Pizza, handmade was the wish and we found one of these cool little places where they focus just on the essentials: Handmade Pizza, freshly brewed coffe, nothing else. The quality was so good and what is better that sharing a super thin fresh pizza with loved ones...

And you can bet I liked the place with its concrete, wood and metal finishings in its reduced design!

Because of our super long dog and our three blonde children, we are often looked at and approached to get into contact. beeing born in Istanbul and having been brought up in Istanbul and Mexico City this poses no problem for all of us. We are used to getting into contact easily and also think it is normal, that people touch each other or stroking children's hair. That was a thing most of our visitors had to get used to in Istanbul - people connect and are very affective and caring and the Germans normally do not want their children be touched by foreigners. 

There was school out time in Seongbuk-do and so Pauline and Jakob immediately got into contact with some local school girls. We all tried to pronounce each others names but unfortunately we are not that far into the language to master this! I have to go to university to take a language course soon!!!

Sunday was time for the nearby Samcheong-dong: old traditional houses mixed with super new galleries and shops and cafes in concrete and fancy design. it is a great mix and so different to any other place I've been.

What I like most is that all these areas are walkable. Nothing new for Europeand but it might be new for some Americans who sometimes do everything by car and do not have a life on the sidewalk in some places. 

I was not in a photo taking mood so I uploaded a mosaic from Flickr and immediately recognized the mood of it: it was like the pictures i uploaded into mosaics before I moved here and I cannot believe the NOW and THEN of it! I AM actually here and it is all very exiting!

1. 차마시는뜰 Cha Masineun Tteul / Seoul, Korea, 2. seoul, 3. Untitled, 4. surrealism, 5. {January 24} coffee shop, 6. Panini & Coffee, 7. jamkodae means sleep-talking in korean., 8. *, 9. *, 10. Samcheong Dong Area, 11. Samcheong Dong Area, 12. Samcheong Dong Area, 13. bread & jam, 14. Paper Lanterns, 15. On the hillside in Bukchon Village, Seoul, 16. 단풍, 17. Untitled, 18. 牆, 19. FIS Samcheong-dong, 20. samcheong-dong, 21. samcheong-dong, 22. samcheong-dong, 23. Samcheong-dong, 24. FIS Samcheong, 25. -

Don't you just love the mix and match of old and new, modern and traditional? I do!

New beginnings

Hello there! 

Here we are now - in Seoul - at last! And what a way to go! We had so much to do back in Germany and luck clearly wasnt on our side. But we managed and now we are here, exhausted but happy!

Over the last weeks in Germany I started repainting the house to have a nice welcome when we are coming back for some time during summer. I took some things that were hidden in the basement upstairs and had some colour alterations on the wall. Not that I did not have anything else to do but as a born procrastinator I had to put something in between to not make me deal with the essential stuff...

Whe I went to see the vet for a routine vaccination I was told that George might need an operation. And so it went: He had to get rid of his manliness and stones in the bladder. Being and old guy this was not so much a surprise but it wasn't quite the right moment I thought... So we had the operation done and then I had to deal with a very stubborn Basset hound, who wanted to get rid of his after-op-swimsuit and his bandages the whole day. He made me take him to the vet every other day to change the bandages and have the stitches stapled again and again! 

To top this Pauline hasn't got rid of an ear infection since January and the doctor feared the long flight might worsen her pain ... So she had an ear operation scheduled for the next day and once she was there they also corrected her lower tongue attachement... Oh my!

But both our patients recovered very well and we could proceed the day to day routing, only interrupted by a truckload full of gravel to change the garden and make it easier to maintain during our stay in Seoul. 

Of course I did not have to do this myself but the dirt and the organization were on my part...

But we enjoyed a lovely coffe and cake afternoon outside with a fully recovered daughter and dog and some guest who said farewell to our family.

On Tuesday we finally headed towards Hamburg to catch the flight to Frankfurt and then Seoul.

We had some delay but reached Seoul a day later. 

And there is so much to see and explore now. I will take you with me on this trip. I will show you some pictures of our new environment this evening.

Take care and enjoy your week end!

Yvonne

 

Partying in weird times

As I already told you, in spite of all the terrible news over the days in Japan we are trying to maintain the natural flow of days here with the children. So we are having Birthday parties and this one was a special one. Moritz turned 10. I mean 10, that may sound strange for people having toddlers or grown-ups at home but for me this is really a number. Our eldest turned 10 and time ran so fast.  I am sounding like an old aunt saying this but that is how I feel (not the old aunt thing but the time-running thing). I see the years just running by when i am looking at our children. Although Markus and me are also getting visibly older I don"t feel it. I just see it in the children. Like I am staying like I was when I gave birth to them and they are just moving on. 

So a swimming party we had at the local swimming hall with entertainment for a while to play water games and building a floss to survive the artificial waves in the pool. Of course I made a cake. In a hurry and not perfect but I loved the idea of a gigantic swimming pool with these ball dividers and a funny swimmer.

After a few hours with 10 children in the pool I was done and now wall was painted that day - believe me!

To finish off for today I will let you see a bit of our new house in Seoul. It has a lot of light and open spaces and I love that it also has a view towards the city. it will look perfect at nighttime with all the lights. And the kitchen is great with so much workspace and the adjacent dining room. because kitchen and dining area are always the herat of the home where things are eaten, talked over, homework is made and we are having endless talks just sitting there after meals or after breaffasts on the week ends. I am so much looking forward to putting all our belongings into the rooms and take over the space to make it our new home!

have a wonderful week end! You will find me here on a ladder, painting some walls!

Yvonne

 

So much on my plate

The movers came, packed up nearly 90% of our house withing 4 days and gone was the massive container heading towards Seoul for our next adventure. I was so happy when they finally arrived to pack the things because that meant progress and one step more in the direction I've been looking for months now: EAST! 

We were left with an emptied up house or you could even call it a massively decluttered house if you wish. That was a strange but good feeling. For the first time during our travels around the world we are keeping a home base. My challenge now is to make it homey and cozy so we can come back for vacations and family and friend-reunions. And you know how I love remodeling spaces!

It is all a bit calmer now here and I am trying to figure out how to live in this space another way.

There is so much space and I am now taking out things from the basement and the garden to add it to the vast spaces left.

And of course I cannot resist painting some walls in new colours. this is partly because they need it and partly therapeutic. I've been worrying about Japan a lot. I was always so interested in this beautiful country and now was even drawn closer to it after entering the doll world, the Japanese crafting scene, the wonderful magazines and all the great people I met on Flickr. And then there was this catastrophe that seems to get bigger every day. And involved is not only a country I have feelings for but also part of our future: Seoul is so close and therefore also our moving plans come into focus again in a different angle.

As you can see in the map, Fukushima may be miles away from Germany, but it is close to Seoul where my husband now is working and looking for houses for our family... This is all so sad and I can only pray and hope that this atomic catastrophy will come to an end so Japan can start anew and rebuild itself.

As for our family: we put our flights on hold and we are waiting now for the situation to clear . To not go mad about all this there still is daily life: children have to be waken up, lunchboxes packed, children to be driven to sports events, attending music lessons, seing friends, doctr's visits and the like. We are talking about Japan and what happens at the moment. Even more so because Pauline took up Japanese at school this semester voluntarily (She said: "Mummy, with us you never know - maybe one day we will be even moving to Japan and then I will be prepared") and her teacher is coming from the region now destroyed by the Tsunami...

But I have to maintain normality and so I am preparing another Birthday: Moritz will be turning 10 on Sunday and we will be having a small party at the local swimming pool for him and his friends. 

1. pool party, 2. m, 3. Goggles, 4. university club swimmers, 5. Black Forest Cake, 6. Cuba Gallery: VW Van, 7. Swimming Pool, 8. 999, 9. Swimming pool, 10. O, 11. Bunting, 12. Swimming Pool, 13. R, 14.Pool, 15. Pool Water, 16. alice, 17. letter I, 18. The Pool, 19. pool, 20. T, 21. Swimming Pool, 22.Scrabble Letter Z, 23. 10, 24. England v. Portugal 7/1/06

See, occupied and hoping the best! We are keeping Japan in our thoughts and I am amazed what people have been doing in the Flickr communities these days. You can click onto the links for the pictures and find your way through charity events, raffles and the like. This is another thing I so love about Flickr: The fast reaction and how people are working together and act quickly to help and be there!

1. ARt FOr JAPan, 2. Dolly Community for Japan!, 3. "the other side of the world" getting closer, 4. A Radiation detector in Tokyo #quake #Japan #radiation, 5. help {japan}, 6. Japan !, 7. Japan-2011, 8.Charity Events For Japan, 9. Untitled, 10. ♥, 11. japan, we love you, 12. Japan quake, 13. Japan Needs Your Help (Donate Now!), 14. Japan Kisenuma, 15. Japan Quake 24x36, 16. one in a thousand

Hope to greet you soon with better news! 

 

 

 

Partying again

Poor Pauline always has her Birthday when there are school holidays in Germany. So we mostly celebrate a long time after the original date. 

She wanted to host a mad hatter tea party from Alice in wonderland because last year we read the book twice and loved it. We also watched the Disney film (the old version) and she was disappointed because the characters weren't as she imagined and she missed so many scenes and lines from the book. Again proof that it is mostly disappointed because the film adaptions do not reach the expectations you have when read the book.

No need to mention how much fun we had to prepare everything. We decided one could have a tea party more often - mad or not.  We put all the tiny treats in little eggcups and mismatched china to get the look. 

We also decorated bunny biscuits and played the inevitable flamingo crocket. How great that my friend Gele found this flamingo in a dollar store!

A project the children loved was making their own cakes and cupcakes from scrapbooking papers.

 
The moment I saw the tutorial on Tara Anderson's blog I knew I had to give it a try. So they were cutting and glueing and made the most fabulous cakes we later all displayed like in a patisserie:

They left the party with their decorated bunny biscuits, homemade paper cakes and they all got a bag full of Alice pictures, Ephemera and scrapbooking supplies to make their own little Alice booklet at home together with their photographs from the party.

We will hold a party like this again in the garden when we moved to Seoul and have settled in. And then I won't hang the dolly size china from our chandelier but the real one from a tree in the garden! It was so delightful for me to do all this (yes,  lot of stress, too and bitching around from my side as well...) that I even made my own Alice in wonderland board on Pinterest. 

We are now all recovering from the sweets shock here and are preparing for the movers who will be starting on MONDAY! Can you believe it? It is already time to pack!

See you soon and have a wonderful week!
Yvonne 

 

Surrounded by colour

I simply could not resist putting together two more mosaics in the February colours. One is pale and soft and the other one more vibrant and connected to Seoul.

Please see my favorites  for links. I think I deleted them again accidently

1. Untitled, 2. Welcome home Clementina!, 3. spring, pink, 4. Pink Cherry Blossoms, 5. soi6, 6. hanging out, 7. 193, 8. Lanterns, 9. Oriental Spring, 10. J&Love, 11. Lanterns at 해동 용궁사, 12. the wall, 13.Yellow, 14. Tangerines, 15. Pink Rabbit, 16. darling pola, 17. coffee in orange, 18. Pony Brown 2011 Diaries Arriving Soon, 19. yellow, 20. Korean Rubber Stamp Insadong Neighborhood, Seoul, 21. Korea postage stamp: bird and pink sky, 22. Bridges of Seoul, 23. Analog red, 24. magnolias, 25. Wonderment

And as promised I compiled some paper for the shop so you can use these same things I used for your own little booklet or for cards or ATC's or tags. The fun of these journals is not only the writing and finishing but also the gathering together of things. Playing with paper is one of my favorite pastimes, really!

So if you are feeling crafty and need some paper, please go ahead. I will also make some little tag books these days and compilations in the February colors.

Some of you asked me about the move. Well, the plan is to have the movers over the second week of March to take all the thing to Seoul we want to keep. I will stay here in Germany for 4 weeks more until the middle of April and sort out the remains in the house and make it fresh and nice looking for further visits. We are leaving some of the furniture and will be happy campers whenever we are heading Germany within the next years. People who know me how I love to improvise and I cannot wait for the furniture to be gone to make a nest here for us in a few rooms with a vacation-feeling and with not so many things. That will be a great challenge for me and I will take you with me there through all the highs and lows.

My husband is house hunting at the moment and we hope to find something nice for us for the next years to come. And whilst the ship will bring our belongings to Asia we will stay here until the Easter break and then head over to Seoul, right when the flowers are in bloom and the city turns Pink in so many parts.

I am saying Good Bye for today here with another mosaic to show you how March will look like: Mainly White with some hints of Pistachio or Mint...

 

See you on Monday!

Yvonne

 

 

The February colour challenge

As promised I am showing you the inspiration for my February A-page-d-day-journal. It will be totally different. More girly and fresh and spring-awaiting. Whilst writing in my January journal I already made a colour test on one of the pages: 

And this is the mosaic I made with Flickr-photos: 

1. ~ Happy weekend, 2. Today Felt, 3. what is to be is up to me, 4. 02 | 15 | 2011, 5. breakfast at leopolds, 6. {M}, 7. shelf, 8. may 11/31 - on Explore ♥, 9. Untitled, 10. Untitled, 11. birthday pie, 12. i love fleas, 13. Sewing Kit Gift, 14. Licca, 15. Untitled, 16. September, 17. Roses, 18. peek at upcoming online workshop fashion styles recorded, 19. Untitled, 20. Singer Print., 21. snowing, 22. pretend i'm there..., 23. Anna Williams, 24. Saturday Morning Muse, 25. Pink Marshmallow, 26. urban vintage, 27. number the tea cups, 28. Mini Eggs, 29. fox sparrow, 30. Luxemburgerli

I gathered paper and ephemera and put it all in little baskets and made a nice heap of paper. I chose the colours of the pages first and then trimmed them, punched the holes for the rings and added the dates.  Before writing on them I already embellished some to make it more easier to fill the space with words. I first dreaded finding words and writing something on the blank pages. but when there is already something glued to it or the pages is divided by paper scraps it is much easier. I am not writing a novel but only jotting down some daily rummagings, isn't it? 

So every evening I sit down and write something or make a small scrapbook page. Some days it is so easy because you have some scraps from the day, receipts, postcards, letters, children's scribblings etc. And if there is still time left I add some extra pages or continue embellishng the following days. 

To share something of this fulfilling and liberating process I will put some goodies in the shop for you to make your own little pages or just to use the colours I am using for your little projects.  There will be a shop update tomorrow and I'll show you a bit of the work-in-progress and the paper mess in my studio.

I leave you here to have some homemade chili and garlic bread with the children and a sleepover guest of our son whilst dear husband is house hunting in freezing cold Seoul. This leaves me home alone without him but also with the opportunity of nighttime crafting  (not to mention the nice task of decluttering and organizing cupboards and corners of our house for the move...)

Have a wonderful Sunday and see you soon!

Yvonne

A page a day

Inspired by Hope's little December Daily book I started gathering paper for my own little journal. I thought about some daily scrapbooking - a mix of diary, calendar and scrapbook.  I've been loving paper since I was a child and unfortunately I don't come to play with it that often. Time for a change! The idea was to play with different paper every month so I chose colour themes for each month of the year. In january I was drawn to the colours in Ali Edward's December Daily,  the little booklet Hope made and the wonderful paper of Jenni Bowlin. 

1. Domherre, 2. December Daily - #reverb10 Journal, 3. december-daily-#reverb10-hybrid journal day 9, 4. Korea Post, 5. happy new year, 6. sneak peek of new digital kit , 7. more foundation pages, 8. Male bullie, 9. recueil alpha p1, 10. December Daily #reverb10 Hybrid Journal Getting Big Close Up, 11.lovely pages, 12. December Daily - #reverb10 Journal Day Pages, 13. 1882lettres 1, 14. day 8- making stuff, 15. Bullfinch, 16. December Daily - #reverb10 Journal Day Pages, 17. Untitled, 18. new blog banner, for when i return :o), 19. advent calendar, 20. red lanterns, raised

Rummaging through my paper collection was so much fun and I loved recording something on these pretty papers every evening. It is such a nice daily get away and a great plus is that you can try out different techniques and combinations daily. Finally all the ephemera collecting, paper sorting and inspiration-file-making had a creative outlet and ended not only into one scrapbooking page a month or some tag making.

Looking at this pile of paper - one finished month - makes me happy. And I know there will be journals to come as the february issue is halfway done in a totally different colour concept.

I show you some page layouts here: 

Are you journaling or scrapbooking or the like? I know some of you do. I try to record some things of our life in a raondom way. This is the most intensive thing I started over the last years. I will keep this up for the fun of it. Even the children got somehow infected by this. They are now having their own painted crate with scraps of paper in it, ephemera, alphabets and personal scraps of paper and are compiling their own little journal. They don't do it on a daily basis but they at least write or glue or cut something from time to time. 

My idea is to build a little journal working station in our next house where we are having our little crates or suitcases at hand and can journal whenever we can spare some time.

The other things we are recording are paper scraps in a jar with children's saying, a moleskin calendar with children's scribblings, random recordings of their days, paper scraps, notes receipts and my gratitude journal next to my bad and the jar with lovely paper scraps containing my wishes into the universe... I'll try and introduce them all to you. 

The paper and colour concept of this month had ma made some little gatherings for the shop: scraps of paper and ephemera to start your own little journal or just for scrapbooking or tag making. I will be updating the shop this week end. 

I am leaving you here wishing you a wonderful week end!

Yvonne

 

 

 

 

Thank you all!

Some weeks ago Christine from the Etsy blog approached me if it would be ok with me to feature our home in the weekly column. I was so pleased when she did now and absolutely happy now how she did it. I love the things she has chosen and I am extremely flattered by all the nice comments (and so many - wow).

We love our home and I am glad some of you like it, too and are seeing how much life and passion and love there is within the walls (even if knocked down...)

Thank you all!