Going back to Cali..

I really cannot believe I have not blogged once this December until now. I have a really good reason though. We are moving back to San Diego in about 3 weeks! Jon will go to Korea for a year while me and the girls will live in our hometown then after that year who knows? Germany again? D.C. area? Who knows! It has been the worst move ever for us and soooooooo draining emotionally and $$ and about to be physically when they come pack up our 16 thousand pounds of fabric household goods:) Never ever move during Christmas. We got our orders the day after Christmas and have to be out of here by mid January. Nice huh?  It's a long story but to sum it up, we have been trying to get our orders since before October.

*below is our Christmas Cards from this year*

What have we been doing? Visiting friends back in Stuttgart, 

Kelly from my old work. She's one of the last from the original group of girls still working there.

Below is our friends from Stuttgart also. Jayery and Andreas. Jayery babysat Emily from about 1 month to about 3 years and Ava a little bit. And Andreas was Jons roommate in the Barracks before I arrived in Germany. We will miss them.

A lot of embroidery that I need to photograph. This was the perfect craft project to take outside and do while hanging out with my friends. We put my swing in the garage and sit there every single day at 2 with coffee. It's awesome and I will really really miss them.

one day of snow

Just a cute photo of the girls titled "the unsuspecting bathers".

Sewing little stuff to keep me busy while we waited for orders and our house was already half in boxes. The movers are supposed to do this but I'm a little anxious to get this done so I started boxing stuff at the end of October. 

Got this knitter for Emily but really I enjoy it more. It just makes these tubes but I'm so anxious and uptight lately that it's nice to do this while watching t.v.

Got this super cool wolf-eating-granny at Ikea

And Mendocino Feathers! I made 3 large ones and 3 small ones.  I have made other things but all the motivation has left me for now. I just want to get this move over. Not anxious to leave Germany and all we've known for the last 10 years but anxious to get on with my life and get Jon back from Korea. I want to blog again and sew and all that good stuff. I might show up again with stuff I've done over the last couple of months or you might not see me again till I'm in California!

Oktoberfest Wood Burned Table

Above is a typical German fest table. Or Oktoberfest table or beer fest table or just an awesome table!

They come in different lengths, widths and even with backs on the benches, they fold up and they are what you will find in the tents at Fests (and a Fest here is the equivalent to a Fair in the States). You'll also find them EVERYWHERE. At events, in back yards, at parties, etc. And one last thing, you can't buy them in the States or if you do then they are expensive (or so my sources tell me!). Like $300-500. Ours was $100.

Anyway, I had the idea to buy a wood burning kit and burn a Parrishplatz banner on ours. Actually I had the  idea and didn't even own the table yet so I bought the table, consulted the experts and now I have this super cool one-of-a-kind personalized German Fest table!! Kelly really helped a lot with this as I had never ever picked up a wood burning tool. She helped via email and then my friend and neighbor Yesenia who had never wood burned did the shading. Had she not helped it would not have looked as good as it does. The shading is exquisite, no? And totally makes it. I have plans to add an Edelweiss and more pretzels to the benches but that will have to wait. I finished this MONTHS ago but you know, life gets in the way of blogging sometimes. 

I used a beer and two pretzels because Jon loves German beer and I love pretzels. End of story. I found the images online and the banner was one I had from a scrap-booking kit. The font is Oktoberfest. I practiced on a wooden TV tray table 1st. After sanding off the finish which took forever.... Also, I sanded off the finish of the fest table and have yet to refinish that area.

Below is a beer tent at Oktoberfest in Munich with all the fest tables.

And below is a tent filled. 

Imagine a lot of smoke and stink and drunk people  and it's hot and as the night goes on people get on the tables and clothes come off and vomit happens and a good time is had by all. I did the tent once our 1st year here and then never again. That would have been my thing in my early 20's but in my early 30's ..not so much. Just not my thing and i had quit smoking about 2 years before that. Had I smoked I might have enjoyed other peoples smoke:) And really it's not a tent. They say "tent" but it's a building nowadays. Might be a temporary building but it's still not a tent. 

*I took the images without permission from a google search.

I realized I had not blogged in almost a month! The reason is.. we are moving back to AMERICA!! 

We have an idea where it might be and when (very very soon, hence the no blogging. I have been packing and throwing out and selling stuff) but I cannot say for sure and don't want to jinx it so I won't say. Lets just say it might be a warm place and I use to live there....:) 

Halloween 2013: How to Train your Dragon

*this "bunker" is in our town and there are one on each side of the road.*

Emily & Ava as Hiccup and Astrid of How to Train your Dragon.

These were so much fun to make and then photograph! Jon is my right hand man when I do these Halloween shoots with the girls. He helps me keep them in line other wise it's like herding cats.

I have made a separate page of what I used to make the costumes and some pictures of how, here. 

Bunny Baseball Shirt

ring ring, pretzel phone!

Not this bunny tee but the one below! This shirt is H&M.

Fabric is from Girl Charlie (both stripe and bunny) and shirt pattern is the Tee for Two from Figgy's.

I have since used my serger for knits and can't believe I hadn't been using it this whole time! See the hem? See the pucker in the back by the shoulders? blech. I think the puckers and mangled hem are a combination of my sewing machine and that the sleeves and body of the shirt are two different knits. Not one of my best creations but she loves it:) 

Paper Monster Window Silhouettes

Zombie hands and fun monsters. The inspiration for the monsters is from here. The Zombie hands are from the Silhouette Store and cut out using the Silhouette. The monsters are all cut by looking at the inspiration picture and hoping for the best (Yesenia helped me with 2 of them since I'm such a crap draw-er). I used big pieces of black construction paper and colored tissue paper.

Below is the back windows.

And what it looks like from inside when we actually get sunshine! Put together with tape:)

This is what it looks like below during the day.

Wood Halloween Silhouetes

*directions and template from Marthastewart.com*

My two friends and I borrowed a jigsaw from self-help and made some Halloween decorations! I have had this project saved for a couple of years now with the files already downloaded on my computer, just waiting for me to do it. The problem was...I had never used a jigsaw and didn't own one. My neighbor Yesenia suggested we borrow one from self-help (I love the military) uh, genius! We bought wood and paint at the local hardware store and got to it! It was really really easy. What I mean is, I watched Yesenia do half the witch and then I took over. It was much easier than I thought it would be. The hardest part is the tight curves and as you can see from the close up of the witch, it's a bit jaggedy. 

This project cost me: 

21 euro for wood

11.99 euro for paint.

So about 45 USD. 

(it will be more if you add supports or other stuff on the back. I didn't because this is our last Halloween in this house and I didn't want to commit the witch to only being able to pose her one way) 

The directions call for an 8x4 feet piece of wood for the witch and 4x4 feet for 3 cats. Do not buy two pieces! The 8x4 piece is big enough to do the witch and the three cats if you cut just right.

Cat #1 (he is slightly different than the one below)

Cat #2

And cat #3

Close up of the witch. I'm not sure what the wood is that we bought. It was perfect for this though. It was not solid wood and sort of frayed like torn cardboard on some of the edges. The directions call for 3/4" wood but this is about 1/4" thick. We used outdoor deck paint.

She is supposed to have hooks on the back of her hands to hold the broom and lantern but again I didn't want to commit her to only been one way. I might need to turn her the other way at the next house!

And here is Yesenia! She's posing for me. Yesenia is one of the coolest people I know. She is from New York and just moved here about 4 months ago. 

I only took these two pictures while they were being built. 

Next post will be the paper monsters and zombie hands silhouettes we made!!