Oktoberfest

October 23rd will be 9 years in Germany. 9 years!!!! 7 in Stuttgart, 1.5 in Schweinfurt and 6 months here. I still can't believe we live in Europe. What's even harder to believe is that we've never been to Oktoberfest In Munich. THE Oktoberfest. I never knew the difference until moving here so I'll explain it (if I get it wrong just pretend I know what I'm talking about). There are Fests through out the country and at different times of the year but this is THE fest. It's like County Fairs all over the states and one place having the biggest one (Texas?). Oktober fests and all the others over here are all like fairs in the states; games, rides, food, souvenirs but here they have these huge buildings they call tents (and at smaller fests they are in actual tents I'm sure) that are sponsored by beer companies. You go in there and drink and party and listen to live music, etc. (I'm sure I'm not explaining correctly but you get the gist, right?). The tents get so crowded and crazy and people dance on the tables and it's just crazy (I bet there are videos on youtube!). They get so crowded that you have to reserve tables ahead of time. I think this mostly applies to the evening though. We have been to many fests since living over here and even reserved a table in a tent with some friends and experienced a tent so I was ok not ever going to the official FEST. But Jon kept saying he wanted to go so we finally did it. We drove two hours then parked about 30 minutes outside of Munich and took a train right to the fest. It was awesome! So cool to actually be there. We did not go in a tent though because we have children.

This "pop-up" food/beer tent was so cool looking I had to take photo. These "tents" are made only for Oktoberfest. I wonder where they store them till next year?

The girls enjoying the train. They had to stand for the whole ride there. Because that's what kids find fun:)

The coolest Ferriswheel. Look at those cars! Boxes? what do you call those? So typically German and cool.  Like a gingerbread house.

The wait was long and it cost us 19 Euro to ride it but the view was amazing. I wanted to see just how big the fest is (and these two photos aren't all of it).

 Those big buildings are the beer tents.

I had to take a picture of Ava eating her favorite German food: Leberkäse mit brötchen. That girl can MURDER some Leberkäse!! I buy it at the butcher here and it's just a piece of meat (warm, sliced off the slab when you ask for it) on a roll (see better photo of it here). And the other photo is of a very very common scene and it was only noon when I took this photo: drunk men wandering around holding each other up wearing their lederhosen. It was only noon and I can't tell you how many guys we saw like this! And some girls too!

The train ride home.

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 All about Ava!

Ava had her 1st day of German Kindergarten . She LOVES it. Can't understand a word they speak but loooves it!

 Threw in these 3 photos for no other reason than just to show how stinkin' cute she is!

Shark hoodie from OldNavy but I really think this could be made yourself.

Miss Jenny

I am WAY behind on posting! I have lots of stuff to show....lets begin with this:

I was a pattern tester!!! How cool am I?? :) Venus from Suburbia Soup asked me to test a pattern (see above). Thank you Venus! The Miss Jenny Apron is available here in her shop.

Just cooking her family some dinner while getting a smoke in and an InTouch magazine. 

That's how all mom's roll:) 

 I had my neighbor Becca model it. It's too big for her (it was made for me) but I think it still looks cute on her. The pattern was easy to follow and quick to make up. 

This is a close up of the fabric I used for the skirt. It's The Ghastlies by Alexander Henry fabrics bought many years ago. 

Staples Engineer Prints

Have you seen these oversized prints you can get done from Staples (they are all over blogland, here's one example)? We have a huge playroom in the basement that needed something on the walls but the walls are concrete. These prints are perfect for that because I can just use that blue gummy stuff to hang it up. The paper is the weight of regular printed paper so not too heavy for the blue stuff but they can also tear easy. These are the 36"x48" size and $6.59 each. Super cheap should they rip. 

Here's a close up so you can see the quality. This is one of my most favorite pictures of the girls. I always wanted this photo big on my wall somewhere. It's there "album cover" should they ever start a band later in life they have to use this for there 1st cover. 

Here is the other print I had done. Not something I want my kids to do to other kids (make fun of them) but I do want to teach them humor. And this makes me giggle every time I read it. I want to order more posters! There is this one photo of me and my sister mooning the camera....hmm..

Below is one I had done for my niece, Bird. It's her and her friend. I thought she'd love it on her wall; I know I would have at  her age. Hers is only 18"x24" and $1.79. Sooo cheap! I've read that not all Staples will print big. I had this done and picked up at a Staples near my sister-in-law. I had originally ordered the other two for the playroom online to be sent to me but then I got a cancellation email saying they don't do prints this big online that I'd have to choose a place and pick it up from there so I just did the same store my sister-in-law picked this one up from and had her mail them to me. 

Zombie State

 What do you get when you combine an old shirt of mine and old shirt of Jon's?

This adorable shirt for Emily!! I LOVE Baseball tees!

 The Zombie shirt is an old Emily Strange tee I've had for about 11 years and is boxy and hideous on. Jon's shirt is one of those Unit shirts they hand out from his unit (we may have paid $5-10 for it...) Neither of them were getting worn, in fact Jon's tee was in the giveaway pile. The pattern for this shirt is Figgy's Tee for Two now discontinued I think but Oliver + S just came out with a pattern for one. The edges on this tee are supposed to be raw edge and messy. I love how it looks with the neck rolling up. I made the size 6/7, added 1 inch to the hem, used the hem from the original black shirt for the sleeves (see photo above) and cut the neck band down by 3/4" so it wasn't so chunky. I did not hem them bottom edge of the shirt and don't plan to. This pattern was so easy to follow and really easy to do. I have a stack of Emily Strange tees that were mine but now don't fit and I've been saving them for Emily so I may make more of these so she can wear them now...

Speaking of Zombies, who's seen The Walking Dead? We just finished both seasons and I'm obsessed! It may be because we watched both seasons in just a couple of nights so it's now all I can think about. 

1. Would I survive a Zombie attack? 

2. Standing next to my neighbor, I can't help but wonder would she "opt out" or fight on if we were attacked?

3. I look around my house constantly and think that we would have the best house if attacked. We have the German metal roll down shades that make your house fell like it's on lock-down and impenetrable to zombies. 

4. We have a huge basement with 3 rooms with locking doors. Perfect! One even has a sink and they all have outlets.

5. We have fields in front of us: perfect for seeing them coming.

6. Our town home is 3 stories high and then an attic with drop-down stairs. The attic has a window. 

Negatives:

1. we don't own guns

2. or a generator

3. We're in Germany and if we had to go in to town to get supplies, all the good stuff would  be gone and we'd be left with weird German food I've never heard of and wouldn't eat even if zombies were attacking! 

Happy Stacker

A while ago I finished a bunch of random projects and a couple of them were baby themed started when Ava was a baby. This ring stacker from Heather Bailey was one of them started in Stuttgart at least 4 years ago. I had made the bottom 3 rings and loved them (the fabric not the Frankenstein sewing!) but they were kind of hard. Or tedious. I don't know, just not a fun project that's for sure. It involves hand sewing the middle gusset (see rings separately below) of each ring. It's very frustrating and I did not enjoy it at all.  It's a tight space in there.

But when I decided to take it up again I had a new attitude. I finished them quickly and easily. I love the colors even though Jon doesn't:)  You see my hand sewing stitches on each inner gusset unfortunately and it's really bad on the stripped one with ric rac. You can see pencil marks on that one and it's twisted!

The butt butt. 

And below is the pattern cover.

*photo from the Heather Bailey website.