... interesting graffiti

Saw this graffiti on the side of a small cafe in my village today ...
definitely wasn't expecting this ...

Love the bystanders ... and the fry referee ...

Is graffiti art where you live ...or is it just an annoyance?
Holly 

Happy Halloween and Fall !

Been away a lot time ... computer crashed and still haven't been able to recover the data and once my DH deployed, I've been busy cleaning and purging.   Made a LOT of progress!   

Today I spent 6 hours in the attic, boxing up loose items, labeling all the boxes, setting other things aside to donate or discard and organizing the boxes so you can just look and see what is in each box without having to move boxes around --- everything is in neat rows, easy to access and you can stand in the cleared center and can easily see what is in each and every box.  Should have taken a photo of the cluster before I started... oh well.  

But- all the purging has kept me busy and occupied while the days have gotten cold, gray and cloudy.  Have to admit, Autumn and Spring are my two favorite seasons due to the colors...  check out the leaves I can see most every day!

 Since it's colorful outside ... added some color to the inside of my home.  Found these soup cans in a local store last year - 

Think using them to display dried pods on our table works well.  

Do you do anything special to celebrate the change of seasons?

Hoping to hear from you -
Holly

Fantabulous! Check out the T-shirt quilt I had made!!

 

Quite a few years ago ~ while purging our excess out ~

I got rid of a bunch of T-shirts we had acquired from various

duty stations, explorations

(we love to explore the areas we are assigned)

and Scouting activities.

 

Of course, not long after the T's went away ~

a friend mentioned making a T-shirt quilt with her son's T's.

 

Slap the forehead and moan why didn't I know about this??

Would have been a great way to use all those T's I hadn't wanted

to get rid of .... but they had just been taking up space in our home.

 

Well, Life goes on ~~ 

now when we are out and about, I pick up T's for a quilt .... someday.

 

Last fall, I decide there are enough T's to have one made ~

(I know me, if I do it~ it will sit incomplete and never get done)

.... so I start searching the Web.

Looked at lots of websites over the next few months ...

 

and FINALLY found a quilt I adored on Pinterest !!!

 

Back-tracked the quilt to the company who made it ~

"Too Cool Quilts" in Michigan.

They were a bit more pricey than  other companies I looked at,

but the website was so detailed on the entire process

(something  others skimped on) ~

that I bit the bullet and ordered a quilt for my son.

 

 

Sent the T-'s in and waited ....

It came back and was absolutely FANTABULOUS!!

Sent all the rest of the T's in

~~~ yup!  With all my picking up

one here, one there

as we wandered the world ...

I had enough T's to make SIX quilts

 

~~though one was a "Hard Rock Café" theme

and I had to supplement with T's from Ebay.

 

DS LOVED it!! 

 

"Too Cool Quilts" outlines many of the T-shirt designs with the stitching which holds the quilt together ~

so you can enjoy the both sides of the quilt!

 

Love my Grinch (from the story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas") with all of the toys bagged and piled into his sleigh as he prepares to leave Whoville.

 

The quilts turned out fantastic! 

Am on the hunt for more T's to have more made ... someday.

Holly

 

 

 

 

 

Caught by a cat ?! ?!

We cat-sat for our neighbor recently ...

it was nice having a cat in the house again ...



it's been a year since our Siamese passed away ...

Harley is only about 4 months old ...

he likes to play ... A LOT !!!

Wandered into the bathroom, half asleep ... nightlight on ...

only to see a pair of yellow, glowing eyeballs staring from the sink ... 

... kitty laughter fills the room ...

Could you live down being laughed at by a cat?? 

I can't .... (sigh) ....

Holly

gotta love it!!

A friend sent me this on Thanksgiving... just had to share 

(okay... didn't HAVE to ... but I'm going to anyhow)

Don't know who the creator is so I can give him/her credit for this ... 

he/she has a great sense of humor and imagination!

Smiles!!   Enjoy your day ~  Holly

 

Cool hair!!

St Wendel hosted a magician's fest recently ...

lots of magicians circling the church ...

some good, some not so good ...

This gentleman and his partner were fantastic!!

Could have watched the two of them all day long ...

Holly

Pelicans are pink??

DH and I recently visited the zoo in Cologne, Germany (we often visit zoos in our travels ... makes a nice break, we can wander around looking at how other cities put together displays, see some really cool animal shows or see animals we might not otherwise see) .... 

I have seen pelicans lots of times while I was in the military ... 

but I don't think I have ever seen a pink pelican ... love the feather crest he has going down the back of his head ...

What is your favorite animal to see ... anywhere, zoo, in the wild ... your choice.  

Holly

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends around the world!

May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes & gravy have nary a lump,
May your yams be delicious, may your pies take the prize,
May you remember your blessings and hopes that the rolls will rise.
Wishing you a joyful time with your families this Thanksgiving.
*********Happy Thanksgiving! *********

Holly

Wandering the paths

We've been going out most mornings for walks ... we take a slightly different route each time we go out.  Lots of paths ... if we chose, we could wander our way all over Germany and most of Europe ... starting from the paths by our front door.






A really BIG snail DH found on our walk ... probably six inches long!!
I thought the patterning on the head and neck was pretty cool looking.

Holly

I'm back ... what's new in my life

Seems like I'm making a hobby of disappearing for long periods ... I realized that I was spending way too much time on the Internet and neglecting my life, home and family.  Pinterest (love it ... but ....) especially was a source of hours of mindless wandering ... tracing one idea after another. 

Went nearly cold turkey ... only was on the Internet to take care of our finances and limited Emails.  Amazing how much time I had to invest in my home and family.  Didn't stop using the computer ... just the Web. 

Was able to organize masses of digital photographs which were buried in the hidden recesses of my computer ... no one could enjoy them, they were stashed away.  Gathered them all together ... sorted by month, then event, deleted the duplicates and the "fuzzies" ... next step is to create a photo book (I'm going to do it by year) and have the book printed.  Still tagging and naming some of the photos ... but I've gotten rid of SO many that were just there.  Such a feeling of relief!!

As you may remember - DH and I moved last year up to Germany.  Our home here is quite a bit smaller than our one in Sicily (still miss Sicily ... it's become a second home) ... so I've been purging out a lot of belongings.  Still have more than I want ... but making progress.   Have run into a problem with lack of storage pieces .... gotta have some place to store the extra blankets, jackets, cushions for the patio furniture ... so have to figure out how to resolve that.  Not a lot of room to put the storage units ... but I really do need to figure out how to store what is only used seasonally or irregularly. 

We're still exploring our new area ... lots to see.  DH and I have gotten into the habit of walking most mornings ... lots of walking paths in our village.   Am also been experimenting more in the kitchen ... lots of good food ... some failures. Weather has been changeable ... lots of drizzle, some rain, a bit of sun ... getting cooler ... the leaves are starting to change colors.

Shall we explore Holly Berry's World?

Holly

Thanksgiving - bless us one and all

Some of the men carving the turkey as seen from outside -

The fourth Thursday in November is the American holiday of Thanksgiving ....oddly placed on the calendar to serve as a celebration of the harvest and to give thanks for the blessings of the year.  

To me, the Canadian date for Thanksgiving, the second Monday in October, is more aptly placed on the calendar.  Never the mind.




 Today DH and I celebrated Thanksgiving with a feast with our neighbors and other friends.  It was good to share a wonderful meal and remember all we have been blessed with - family, friends, life ...

Wishing you and yours all the best -

 Holly

Yesterday ...

the colorful leaves are gone ... and ice crystals are the norm.    Have even had a few light snow flurries .. 


One of our neighbors has two puppies, Leo and Lilly, who just don't know what to make of the falling snowflakes.  They dance and bark and chase the flakes .... quite fun to see.

how the road looked at lunchtime .... yup, the weather is changing ....

A month ago ....

everywhere you look, 
     colorful trees and plants ....

Finally back .... made a snowman

Bet you all thought I had fallen off the end of the earth .... sometimes, so did I.  Still trying to go through boxes from the move, have gotten most of them dealt with (or tossed ... or given away ...). 

The rooms in our German home mostly flow together ... so I don't want to put a lot of decorations up (plus I REALLY REALLY don't like putting Christmas decorations up before the American holiday of Thanksgiving held on the fourth Thursday of November ... I LIKE being able to enjoy each holiday in its turn).  

For right now ... this is my only decoration ... what do you think?

Holly

Farewell Fall!

It's the beginning of December and time to put away my autumn table linens. 
Now that school is over for this term ... time to catch up on other things ... been way too long.


Close up of the embroidery of the coverpiece ... I found this one at a wonderful little shop in Bertchesgaden, Germany ten or fifteen years ago while on holiday. 

spices at the market

Perfect timing ... I need to re-stock my kitchen for holiday baking!

Catnaps

Spent part of last weekend at a friend's home ... caught Lola (momma cat) snoozing while her kittens were elsewhere.  

It REALLY does exist!

Homer Simpson's legendary beer really does exist ...

a fine German brew (so I am told).

The Catanian puppet

DH and I saw this last weekend while at a local festival.  The puppet is known as "Il Catanese" and represents a citizen from Catania, Sicily,  The elephant is the symbol of the city and is a reminder of Hannabal crossing the Alps with his elephants.  The puppet is about two and a half feet tall from shoe soles to top of the feathers. 

As seen at Berlin (Tegal) airport

Just thought this was nifty to see inside the terminal ...