Photoshopping the afternoon away...

I took this picture of Lily at the playground the other day - she decided to explore a small wooden hut in the middle of the sand box and I was just fast enough to switch on my camera before she peeped out the little house's window.

There was no time for adjusting the settings, composition, focus, like with most children's photographs and automatic functions on my camera gave the picture dull, bluish hues. On top of that the sun beam that came through the door of the hut made a bright distracting pach on the wall behind Lily's head.

This "Ha!" moment was too precious for me to waste so I spent an hour or so behind the computer today trying to clone stamp the patch away - at the end I converted the picture to black and white to get rid of the strange colours and cropped it a bit. All I have to do now is find the right frame...

New Ada city tote

I've just listed another Ada tote bag, my shop's best selling design (a nice way of saying 'my only sold item so far').

This time I have added an aubergine purple trim on top and a creamy coloured zig-zag trim on the bottom of the black patch. The three vintage buttons are a bit different as well, with one in cream and old gold and another in purple (or is it plum, I never know) with a small flower in the middle.

Bring on the cold weather!

The last post from the Etsy stalker curators Beatrice and Violet brings this amazing collection of neck warmers, scarfs and cowls - just in time for me as the weather turned cold and rainy over the weekend.

I love the little pink mini scarf - so simple and cute (even if one doesn't like pink one can imagine themselves wearing it in another colour).

I've always regretted not knowing how to knit - these great designs make me want to start learning it straight away...

My chillout zone

The thing I love most about living in Germany is biergartens. These simple Bavarian restaurants that offer drinks and food around lunch hour and in the evening, always include a garden, where, thanks to new gas heaters, one can eat well into the cold season.

My favourite Augsburg biergarten is Kolperhütte, just 10 minutes away from our house, a nice stroll through the park along the bicycle path, no cars or motocycles, only dog walkers and mothers with strollers. The biergarten opens around noon, just in time for me to stop for a latte machiatto after Lily has finally fallen asleep in her pram. I like to sit in one of their striped lounge chairs and slowly sip my coffee while I read some magazines (OK, they are glossy gossip magazines, but I like to put my brain on standby every once in a while...).

Sometimes, when I don't feel like cooking on a Saturday and the weather is too nice to stay inside, we take the whole family to eat at the biergarten - during the summer they had live music playing every afternoon, in football (soccer) season they switch on the big screen TV and beer bills go sky-high...