It's beginning to feel like Christmas....

When I returned back to Germany from my home trip in September, I was surprised to see the stores selling X'mas goodies already!!! I thought to myself "People, it is still a 100 days to Christmas!! What's the big hurry???"
   So, when last week, the lights were being put up in the market place and the trawlers were carrying X'mas trees around, I thought I need to keep up with the Germans :D
We have a lot of windows to do up, so I got some cuttings from pine trees and yes pinecones!!!! I just love pinecones!!  I have collected many during our walks in the forests. When I spotted these huge ones at the market, I knew I had to buy a few.  They are big, strong, sturdy and I will make something out of them for X'mas, maybe a wall hanging or so...

If you are to make a collection of artefacts from Germany, then Christmas figurines ought to be in your list. Remember our trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber which has a Christmas Museum and market. I did purchase a few things and now is the time to get them out and display.

A figurine, some pinecones, leaves and a few baubles.... the window is dressed up

I love this figurine which is also a t-light holder. She glows beautifully in the dark

How does this piece of art look?? It is incomplete, but I put it up. This is known as Fensterbilder in Germany, which means, Window Pictures. There are books available to guide you how to go about. I will do a posting on how to make a fensterbilder.
    I will have many more postings in the future on things to do for X'mas.

A Busy Bee....

This is going to be a hurried post. Summer is here with a bang! All the while the body was used to the near double digit temperature and all of a sudden it has shot to above 30 degrees. To make matters worse, German houses are not fitted with fans, which means we should buy one of our own. 

I thought I'd take advantage of the sunny weather and went on a washing spree. Jackets, shoes, bedsheets, name it, all day long the washing machine went a tumble and a tumble.

            Also I have been sprucing up the house here and there. My moments of sulking are over(over the home I left behind), and the feeling to do up our present home has finally arrived. As an expat, doing up a home can be pretty expensive. I have been trying best to do this with the resources available. Take a look at what I did to the bathroom today. And yes, we have very big windows in the bathroom here, which is quite funny, cause back home in India, the bathroom is the room which has the smallest windows.

German homes come with sills on the windows facing inside the house(as you can see the picture). Candles and flowers with lavender in a jewellery box did the trick. Did a surprise set up on the other sill. The kids have been missing the beaches back home very much. They loved this idea of mine.

      I have been inspired by Frau to do up our walls with knick knacks from our travels, paintings and photos. Here's what hubby walks in with to help me do up the walls.

Our own set of power tools!! This will be our project for the next two days. For now, I am one tired woman. Time to soak in the tub.......

Home Decor from Ikea!!

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!! We finally have our pillows!!! After sleeping pillowless for 5 months, we finally made a trip to Ikea not only to get pillows, but a whole lot of other home decor as well. If you're an expat and wanting to do up your house, then IKEA is the place, for cheap home decor!!! Personally I do not like the furniture, but I give a thumbs up to decor. For those who think as to why I am including costs in my post, it is to help fellow expats who read my blog to get a fair idea as to how much things cost and not to let the world know, how much we spent!!!!!!!!!!!

Pillows here are quite large, unlike what we use in India!!! I feel as though I am sleeping on a cushion though...Take a look...Each cost 7.99 euro without covers.

I have always loved small square glass vases. You can fill them with pot pourri, fresh flowers, water with a floating t-lite....anything that you can think of!!! I was thrilled to see rectangular glasses and bought 3, 1 large and 2 small Here's what I did with the large one...I filled it with different layers of coloured sand and placed two lucky bamboo in it.  The vase cost 4.99 euro and the bamboo stems 1,29 each. The smaller vases cost 1.99 euro each.

When it comes to Kitchen, there isn't much of a variety in cutlery regarding patterns and colours. I chose to be neutral and went with white!!! Also got placemats to add colour to my recipe blog...:)

The jute mat costs 1.99 euro, the green mat 1 euro, white bowl 2.99 and the cup and saucer 3.59 each!! The salad bowl below was a dirt cheap deal. It cost 1.79 euro and the best part, it fits in my dishwasher...:)

 I have never found big glass bottles in India for storage purpose in the kitchen, We generally use steel tins or have to make do with plastic, which I am not fond of. I was filled with delight to see these beautiful jars, only for 1.99 each and got a few of them to store flour, muesli, sugar etc etc...

You can place them as you wish. They are designed that way.

And finally, something what we had wanted to do back home in our apartment in bangalore, but never got to doing it. Create a photo gallery on a plain wall. We are finally getting it done here and to begin we purchased these photo frames which have to yet be hung on the wall. Sine these were picked up by hubby, am not aware of the costs!!!

That was my weekend, a happy shopping experience at IKEA!!!!! Hope you had a fun weekend too!!