Ode to Bavaria

My ode to Bavaria is a big giant Bretzel (as they call it in German). I LOVE pretzels but who doesn't? And over here they are delicious. So different than American pretzels. And Germans make all kinds of versions: sticks, croissants, rolls, etc. All out of pretzel. The pretzel symbol is one of my favorite things here. You see it everywhere. At Oktoberfest it was on earrings, phone charms, necklaces (which I had to get me one!) and so many other things. I had been looking for a unique something to put on my front door when one day we passed a Bavarian shop full of Bavarian things and they had huge giant pretzels in the window hanging by the easily recognizable Bavaria/Oktoberfest ribbon (see here). I had to have them! The shop owner said they were not for sale but I could have the baker two doors down make them for me. So I did and at only 4 euro each! And now a few days later of them drying out and me shellacking the crap out of them with spray varnish, they are ready to hang! I just need to get some blue and white check ribbon and I'm set. I had two made just in case one breaks or doesn't preserve well.

The chalk board banner has been up since before Christmas (posted about it here). And a couple of weeks ago I decided to make it look nicer by printing out parrishplatz and some stars on printer paper, taping it to the banner and shading it in with regular chalk. Then I took off the template and filled it in with a Chalk pen. It's still looks really messy and not curved and just overall bad but so much better than me free-handing it! I will continue to perfect it but it's ok for right now. I do hate the seem in the middle of the banner but I don't know yet how to make projects bigger than 12".

I love it!

Woodland Wreath (paper)

I have spent entirely too  many hours at my desk watching my Silhouette Cameo cut out all these woodland critters and then gluing them together. Too many! But I think it's so cute so therefore worth it.  My machine cut ALL of this out. Every single animal, bird and flower etc. that you see above is available to be downloaded for .99 cents each (50cents if on sale). That is one reason I love this machine. With other cutting machines you have to buy cartridges that have several designs on them and you may not want all of them and they are expensive. When I bought this machine it came with a gift certificate so you can download stuff and start right away.

See the Gnome? He's 6 different colors. That means I have to run paper through the machine in 6 different colors. But I've learned how to do several colors in one run through. Kind of hard to explain but it is easy to use. I was REALLY worried I wouldn't be smart enough to figure this machine out after reading some reviews but right out of the box and with some 12x12 sparkly card stock from Joann's I made a Merry Christmas banner within probably 30 minutes. It was mostly just getting used to the program and figuring out buttons, etc. I also got the Designer program (for 40% off thank you very much!) when I bought the machine so I can make my own designs instead of buying them from the Silhouette online store.

The hedgehog is my favorite. He is 3 layers of card stock.

There's a fox, frog, deer, snail, skunk, owl(s), bird(s), raccoon, squirrel, acorn and I love the tree stump at the top next to the raccoon. It's all glued to a thick cardboard circle.

And here it is on my door. I also made the paper welcome banner on the Silhouette. Jon asked when the party was. It does look party-ish...but he's not invited because he thinks he's funny.

Last week was one of Emily's friends Birthdays. Since her birthday always falls during Fasching week she asks that you come to her party dressed up ( I don't know if I posted last years party). I got both these costumes at a German store. Ava's is a "Bavarian German Beer Girl Fancy Dress Costume" and Emily's is an "ill-fitting fairy costume":). I hate that they both had to wear shirts under the dresses but it has been anywhere from 11-25 degrees here.