Celebrating neighbourhood

Last Saturday we had some special guests at home, our neighbours and my favourite radio station Funkhaus Europa.  That radio station plays music from all over the world, covering global and local issues concerning migration and culture. 

It all began with me, listening to that radio station one morning last week hearing them looking for the most international house in the area. Without much thinking about it I wrote an email telling them about how we live in this rented house with six apartment with seven nations under the same roof. There is us, a Ugandan-German family, a Romanian-Iranian couple, a Turkish family, a Russian couple, some Germans about to move in and a family from Peru living on the top floor. The Funkhaus Europa Team somehow liked what I told them. Unfortunatly for them I hadn't given them my number, just an adress and they tried to contact me with all means, email, Facebook etc. But by then I had decided it all was a rather bad idea, I hadn't even talked to my neighbours about it and they would  maybe not want to give an interview anyway. Well, that reporter did not give up and showed up unannounced at my doorstep on Friday. He was very, very friendly and so happy with what he found I agreed to join in the adventure. 

Together we talked to our neighbours and invited everyone for the next morning into our apartment where the broadcasting would be happening. The turkish served us coffee as soon as they opend the door and invited us to their sons wedding the following weekend but because of that wedding they would not be able to join the show, some neighbours were not home but the Russian lady and the guy from Peru came downstairs the next day.

Shanli, the reporter to do the interviews showed up an hour before with croissants and we all sat and got to know eachother a lot better than we had before. It was so, so nice and Shanlis questions made it even more interesting. (So far we had only known eachother briefly through lending tools or an egg, saying good morning while passing by. ) Now we found out, how all of us (except me) had simular experiences coming to Germany without speaking the language, struggeling with offices and work. The guy from Peru, Edwin, and Nathan found out they both love football, chess and chinese food, a new friendship has started.

Of course Aaron enjoyed our guests as much as we did, he served "tea" and even said "Hello" when Shanli talked to him with the microphone...

They gave us a Bocce game as a present for the whole house to play together and t-shirts but most of all they made us talk to each other, feel more connected and enjoy our community. Thank you so much Funkhaus Europa! 

You can find some more pictures taken by Shanli on the Funkhaus Europa website here.

Photo taken by Shanli Anwar, Funkhaus Europa

Honoring our bellies - Weekending

Things are getting back to normal around here. We are back in Cologne, Aaron is alive and kicking as usual, only I am still fighting a cold still but our energy levels are definatly reloaded. Just about in time to do some last baby preparation activities.
When I was very pregnant with Aaron my friends daughter painted a wonderful dragon on my belly so we wanted to keep up that painting tradition and came back together for it again today. Only today we had a few more participants.

I absolutly adore the coloring pencils we used this time. They are Aarons normal pencils he uses to draw with a lot on paper. Giving them a little water turns them into water colors though. Size and shape are perfect for little (and big) hands, they never break and last forever. Genius, really! ( And I am not getting any money for saying this ;-) ) For belly painting you just dip the top in water and off you go! Just wipe it off with a wet cloth any time from the skin and if any color got into our clothes just give them a normal wash. No mess what so ever!

I hope you recognize the beautiful butterfly on my belly. Aaron got a fire brigade because he loves the "tutatata" as he calles the blue light hooter nowadays. My friends daughter wanted a flower herself and her brother (and my godson) asked for a monster truck... I tell you we had a very busy and funny sunday afternoon. How has been your weekend?

Joing Amanda from "the habit of being" for weekending

A Full Basket - Weekending

Today I am joing Amanda from "the habit of being" for weekending

A full weekend is coming to its ends right now, boy in bed, man on the couch, me at the computer. A weekend I will remember, a full basket.

It all started with a wonderful package in the mail, from Barbara of 60°Nord. Inside a special little lavender filled pillow, made from the same fabric she used for the ring pillow for her own wedding! So, so special and sweet! I will treasure this gift Barbara, thank you so much! (I noticed the pillow shows the wrong way in the picture but it was too dark now to take a new one. The letter "G" for Gesche is embroidered!)

Barbara just moved to Sweden with her husband so she sent this postcard from Stockholm that you see in the background.

All of Saturday was spent with good friends of ours (Aarons godfather and his wife) who had invited us for a special day-off. We had a lovely afternoon at their place. Aaron loves his godfather, because he owns a rather scary pink bunny that can dance and sing a rock'n'roll song when you press its foot. Each time again a special highlight. Thank god we are not allowed to take it home...

In the evening we went for a wonderful Afghanish dinner, very yummy!

Oh, yes, it is cherry season! Kirschenzeit! My season. And finally, this weekend there was this bright yellow thing in the sky again people told me it is called sun. I had almost forgotten... 

So after helping a friend of ours shifting in the morning (some helped more, some less) we spent the rest  of Sunday in the park, refueling on Vitamin D and summer feeling in general.

Last but not least I want to announce the winner of my small give-away from last week:

Congratulations Enim Sou! :-)

(I will contact you for your adress)

Weekending in the rain

Today I am joing Amanda from "the habit of being" for weekending

Somewhere I read today is the 15th of July. I had to read it twice and still can't believe it. It is raining and raining and raining and the temperatures stay around 15°C/ 60°F. So coats, wellies and the like are in daily use. Aaron has not complained about it yet, he doesn't mind if he plays in a puddle or a pool. So I guess I am the only one being unflexible here...

I adjusted by starting to crochet. Little blossoms agains the disaster in my little outside garden (even the mint has drowned!) Finally I know how to use up all my bits and pieces of handspun yarn. Both yarns are made from the fibre I dyed at the workshop the other weekend (yellow with onion skin, red with madder). If you like I can send you a handfull, just let me know in the comment which color you'd like or if you want a mix of both. (I will choose a winner randomly if more of you are interested ;-) )

One of the blossoms I used for another project of this rainy weekend, the birthday crown of my friends daughter Lola (the one you see playing with Aaron in the first picture) Aarons crown is also in the making, his birthday is coming up end of August... My idea is, to keep the crowns rather simple this year and add a little extra detail to it each birthday so by the time they are grown up they have a fully decorated crown with lots of memories of every single birthday. That should be a lovely family tradition I hope.

Besides the usual playground outing we did a little extra trip yesterday and went for a visit to Cologne Airport. A great activity on rainy days! Some half hour train ride, long indoor corridors to run in freely, lots of cafés and a terrace to watch the planes landing and starting. I can really recommend this outing!

I already mentioned the playground visits, but did you ever see a playground with kids paintings pinned to the trees? Isn't that a wonderful thing! How generous and creative, just what I needed to complete this wet but somehow perfect weekend.

I hope your weekend was less rainy and equally fun! I would love to hear about it!

Glimpses

The last weekend only lasted from Sunday to Monday but somehow it felt so much longer. I guess that is how you know it was a really good one. Despite all the rain we spent a good time of it outside in the woods, splashing through paddles and muddy places. Unfortunatly I have not discovered yet, how to take good pictures in the woods. They all get blurry. Just imagine a small boy jumping into a paddle here:

Inbetween rain showers I managed to go treasure hunting at a flea market and of course I can't spare you with some pictures of my favourite pickings:

Some lovely vintage towels. So many ways to use them I will still take some time to decide...

A vintage clutch which I might use to carry small projects.

This fantastic old whiskey box.

A beautiful childrensbook telling the story of a japanese cherrytree that stopped blossoming during war and how the people cared for it so it would blossom again. A very sweet story.

I also found a few meters of light blue crocheted lace. Some of it has been brought to use immediatly:

Aaron tried to help a little...

There was also another birthday to deal with. It was celebrated with a special breakfast and a looong, kid-free afternoon with old girlfriends and young(er) sisters. I was showered with lovely thoughtful gifts, such as a foot massage, a soon to come afghanish dinner out, the fanstastic new book "Reinvention" by Maya, flowers and this very friendly garden gnome torch made from 100% beeswax by handicapped people in a Camphill Community. Isn't he cute?

I hope you all had a good start into this week, wishing you a lovely one!

Back to the shores

Inbetween a lot of football (the Euro-Cup has started), some knitting (sneaker socks for birthday on Tuesday- check!), popcorn and cake we sneaked in some lunch at the river. And I think we found our new favourite spot, very lonely, green, enough driftwood to keep our fire going all summer and a sandy beach with soft waters for Aaron to play in. Now you know were you can find us this summer.

I don't know why I even bothered to bring toys for Aaron (for playing in the sand I thought) when there are rocks to throw in the water. What a boy needs... At one point he was standing up to his shirt in the water but Mama had brought enough clothes and shoes. But energy was at a low point so Papa had to help out for the long way home. We were not too sad though, the Italy - Spain match was coming up and the little boy was sleeping neat and tight by the time it started ;-)

Joining Amanda for Weekending today, such a delight!

Some rainy Sunday - Ein verregneter Sonntag

We woke up to rain. Not just some rain, it came pouring down. And it wasn't going to stop. Our initial plans of spending the day outside in a park at a circus festival were drained. 

Es regnete in Strömen als wir heute Morgen das erste Mal aus dem Fenster schauten und nun, viele Stunden später, tut es das immer noch. Das Gauklerfest in einem Park, zu dem wir eigentlich hatten gehen wollen fiel leider ins Wasser.  

Instead there was some indoor football (not much longer of that, his kicking is getting stronger by the day), knitting and singing. Finally I also found time to try my new cutter, dear what a difference it makes to my old, blunt sciccors. And I wrote that poem onto a cup with a very fine porcelain marker. Somehow I like it.

Stattdessen wurde Wohnzimmer-Fussball gespielt (allerdings nicht mehr lange, seine Schüsse werden langsam ziemlich kräftig), gestrickt und gesungen. Ich habe auch endlich die Zeit gefunden, meinen neuen Rollschneider (hab gerade keine Ahnung wie das Ding offiziell heißt) auszuprobieren. Was für ein Unterschied zu meiner alten stumpfen Schere. Und dann habe ich noch das Gedicht mit einem sehr feinen Porzellan-Marker auf eine Tasse geschrieben. Irgendwie gefällt mir das.

Then I found out that Lori is back from Namibia and we spend a long time watching lots of breathtaking pictures on her blog. Welcome back dear Lori! So good to hear from you again and take part in your beautiful adventures. Aaron was very exhited about your pictures too :-)

Sunday of Plenty

Some days just feel so much larger than others, larger as in so much more stuff fits into that day than into an average one. I really don't know how that happens. If it all depends on the way you start your day? Possibly starting the day with freshly bakes scones helps? What do you think?

A walk after breakfast with some brought in lilacs (?) might also do the trick...

A day like that certainly needs a lot of yarn, yummy colors, maybe some dyeing even, no harm in that!

Definately giving some extra special moment to your enlarged day will be having a good chat with your Papa under a blanket without Mama to see you. Papa needs lots and lots of soccer on telly on a day like that and some running during Aarons nap time.

Mama needs this:

Yes! Enjoying my new spinning wheel, at the balcony, so much! With a cute little boy discovering his toes showing out of his new summer shoes, how weird...

And anyway, sunday living at the balcony, never to be underestimated! Ooops, there's been a road accident... (no hurt feelings here, we have done the chalk drawings way earlier, I don' think he even recognized that stickmann, so it just looks a bit evil in the picture).

Some late spring seeding of Physalis... (late, since I forgot the seeds in the freezer. Because on the package it said to give them two weeks of frost, it might have been a few more, I hope they survived...)

Of course a day like that needs good, fresh food. We had some asparagus-potato salat with chives, olive oil and a little salt. Sooooo yummy!

Knitting? Sure there has been a wee bit of that too. (Never mind my toe nails need some up doing...)

But even a day full of plenty like that comes to an end. Too bad I can't take my wheel to bed with me, so here it is once more. I am so in love :-)

How has been your weekend? I hope to see you over at Amandas for Weekending!

Edit: happyly joing in Woolly Wednesday this month too.