December

Busy, crazy and fabulous december is here and I am sorry it took me so long to find time for this post.

I had to prepare the advent calendar for the children - we made the frame last year so I only had to find interesting little surprises (that were not all chocolate) to put into the red paper bags. Besides that there was a lot of snow shoveling going on, this week we've had 30 cm of fresh snow and it is still coming down strong, they are predicting another 30 cm over the weekend...

My instagram gallery shows the begining of snowy season, the view from my window is much whiter as I write this post. Tigrou the cat likes to play in the snow to a certain point (the snow now reaches up to his ears) but once his paws get cold he is happy to spend the next few hours sleeping by the fireplace. And there is nothing better than watching the snow outside while enjoying a cup of coffe by the cozy fire - it is very hard to find motivation for anything else...

 This week we started decorating the house, we put up our little Christmas tree and hung a simple branch on the wall which I then decorated with little metallic bird ornaments - I like the simple, clean look and we might keep it the whole year round, perhaps changing the ornaments each season.

Have a nice weekend!


December

Nori, besni in krasni december je tu in čas mi polzi skozi prste. Prejšnji konec tedna sem pripravljala adventni koledar za otroka - leseni okvir z mrežo smo naredili že lansko leto, letos je bilo samo treba najti dovolj zanimiva mala presenečenja (ki niso vsa čokoladna) za v papirnate škrniclje. Poleg tega skoraj vsak dan besno kidam sneg, ki ga je v zadnjem tednu zapadlo že 30 cm in še toliko ga bo menda preko tega vikenda... Moja instagram razglednica kaže šele začetke sneženja, zdajle je slika že precej boj bela. Mačku sneg sega do ušes in rad se igra v njem, a le dokler ga ne zazebe v tačke in potem gre oddremat eno rundo pred kamin.
Ta teden smo začeli z okraševanjem hiše, postavili smo malo smrečico in na steno obesili vejo, ki sem jo odrezala v bližnji giščavi še preden je zapadel sneg. Nanjo sem obesila kovinske ptičke in rezultat nam je vsem zelo všeč - morda vejo kar pustimo za stalno.

Imejte lep vikend!

Week in pictures

I am introducing a weekly post of selected Instagram pictures that sum up a week of inspiration, work, and fun behind Loddelina designs.
Sadly, I had to make my Instagram account private because it got spammed beyond control so unless you are following my feed you can no longer see the pictures (you are welcome to look for my account under @loddelina and send a request to follow).

First here are some images from week before last, spent in Slovenia, visiting my family, running some errands and sometimes walking my parents' dog Miško.

I spotted this old couple in Ljubljana one day - they were holding hands like newlyweds, exchanging a few words but mostly silently walking alongside, enjoying each other's company. And then there's Miško, enjoying his treat after a long walk. The woods around my parents' house are magical this time of year and even old churches look mysterious on dark and cloudy days.

Second set of pictures was taken back in France, where days are getting quite chilly and in the morning everyting is covered with a layer of frost  - I find this very charming excep when I have to scrape it off the windshield before driving my children to school. But frosty foggy mornings mean beautiful sunny afternoons so Tigger the cat spends as much time in the fresh air as possible - if not, he gets very bored in the evenings...

Have a nice Friday and the weekend head!

::   ::   ::  

Teden v slikah (skrajšana verzija, je že pozna ura...)

Tokrat nekaj slikovnih utrinkov iz moje Instagramove galerije - profil sem bila prisiljen zakleniti za javnost, ker so me do vratu zasuli s spamom. (Tako so slike trenutno dostopne le sledilcem, če pa želite to postati, me na Instagramu najdete pod @loddelina).

Prvi šopek slik je z mojega obiska Slovenije, drugi pa je nastal po vrnitvi v Francijo.

Želim en prijazen petek in lep vikend!

Winter impressions

The weather these days has been cold and windy, there is a promise of new snow in the air.

In spite of freezing temperatures, my parents' garden offers many interesting sights:

snowdrops waiting to open in the next sunny spell,

lifeless branches that will turn into a summer explosion of foliage,

frozen air bubbles in a water filled garden bucket

and my favourite, delicate lace on dried hortensia blossoms.

Sunday inspirations

New snow on juicy winter berries - a feast for hungry birds...

Happy Sunday!

Winter is here ...

... and the first snow on the last blossoms of autumn ...

... and warm, wooly slippers on my daughter's feet ...

... and more snow to come.

Spring is coming... but not just yet.

Spring is coming, says this sign in a flower shop near my home. They offer a bouquet of 10 tulips for only 1.95 Euros (how could I resist, I bought one of the pale pink on far left).

But half an hour later, on my way through town, I captured this wintry sight by the water.

Oh, well, it would be a bit too much to expect winter to leave just when it's starting to have fun...

Ghost of a bicycle

Inspite of the frosty weather there are still some keen cyclists braving the cold every day (my husband included).

This picture was taken a few days ago in front of our house. The bicycle of our neighbour (the house has nine appartments) had left a print in the morning frost - it has been since erased by some fresh snow but the true cyclists don't realy notice it. The only problem, according to my husband, is unfreezing the lock every morning with a cigarette lighter...

And here is a charming treasury from brownbagvintage that warmed up my day - thank you, Michelle, for the feature!

Tulips

Picture: leapinggazelle

Yesterday, while grocery shopping before yet another bank holiday (you have to love Bavaria, from all the German regions they probably have the most public holidays), I bought myself my first bouquet of flowers in the new year.

As soon as I walked in the shop, I noticed that Christmas chocolates and glittering holiday decorations have disappeared from the most prominent shelves at the entrance - instead there were big buckets on the floor, filled with delicious bouquets of tulips in all colours of the rainbow! I love tulips and I don't remember seeing them in shops this early in winter. They were like a ray of sunshine on a cold and icy Tuesday so I came home with a bunch of 10 mauve tulips (costing less than 3 euros).

My day Monday

Sunny winter morning

clockwise from top left: madebysam, AuthenticFiction, MuddyRiverPhotos,

poppycat

A lot of European Street team members have a regular Monday post called Monday mood board, where ther feature items from fellow EST members that inspire them at the start of a new week.

I have long been admiring those little 2x2 miniature "moods" and one of my New Year's resolutions was to also start making regular Monday posts, featuring shops from all over the Etsy world - it seems a fun way to start each week and it gives poor Monday, a day with a bad reputation, something to look forward to...

Snowy Saturday

Last night brought us a thin layer of snow (hardly two cm, half an inch) which made everything look so clean and calm. Except for the poor black coat that somebody hung out to air in our backyard and then forgot about. It looked so sad and abandoned it the shiny snow...

Weeks before Christmas are usually very busy and filled with all sorts of celebrations. On Thursday I had a meeting at my son's Kindergarten, a weekly workshop for mothers for whom German is a second language. Apart from myself and a Russian mother, all the others ladies are Turkish.

Each week one of us brings some home baked goodies to enjoy with our coffee but this week, being our last date before the New year, the Turkish ladies organized a real feast (they called it breakfast but it was more like lunch and dinner all rolled into one). In a few minutes the small table in the meeting room was covered with tupperware pots in all shapes and sizes, full of yummy dishes: peppers and aubergines filled with rice, vegetables on toast, little croissants with vegetable filling, potato salad, goat cheese and olives, not to mention the cheese cake and sweet almond slices we had for dessert!

Friday was the day I met with my other group of mothers, my friends since we came to Augsburg 3 years ago. A good opportunity to show off my new Peskycatdesigns messenger bag! I love my new bag, so practical and elegant at the same time!

And I haven't even showed you what a cute package I've received from Fallon, the creative force behind Etsy's shop Olive. I've won her 50's Birdcage Pillow in a recent giveaway and I just love the little sticker with mini clothespin she's put on top of the parcel!

A windy day

Yesterday's windy day reminded me of my dog Žuža, a lovely Bernese Mountain Dog lady, who is no longer with us. Being a dog with thick winter coat she used to love going out on a cold, windy and slightly damp day, when she would sit up straight on the top of a small hill behind the house, lift her nose to the wind and happily sniff the far away smells it brought with it.

For Žuža, sniffing the lamp posts and house corners was like reading the printed edition of a local newspaper - one gets fed up with the same stories being written over and over again. But raising her nose against the wind was like connecting to internet - she could get a quick sniff of what was going on miles and miles away, but only for a brief time, which made the news so much more interesting.

I miss my dog, she passed away just a few days after my son was born so my children never had a chance to meet her. Since the babies came there wasn't much time or opportunity for a hairy addition to our family - but I've been a dog and cat person all my life so as soon as the children are big enough to understand the basic dos and don'ts of the animal kingdom, we will try to introduce a pet into their lives...