Category — decoration

It’s the time of year again where the stores offer loads of fine things that enhance your balcony or terrace. And since we’re having a 100 square meter (340 square feet) terrace on our roof I checked out the internet to find some new exciting things that we could add.

I stumbled over these amazing and luxurious chairs and this colorful couch the other day. They circular white couch (1) and the flower chair (3) were both designed by Patricia Urquiola for B&B Italia. The colorful sofa “Cancun” (2) reminds me of my trip to Brazil. In my pousada they had such a couch outside with a terrific ocean view. I’d love to have this one! The little rattan seat (4) is adorable, too. It’s an affordable lounge chair that looks pretty on small balconies as well. Both the sofa and the chair are from Maisons du monde that offers a large variety of contemporary furniture and interior decoration.

A little less expensive but highly decorative is the range of solar lights that IKEA is just offering. The good thing about these lights is that they don’t need batteries but have solar cells that keep the energy to keep the lights shining for 20.000 hours. That’s pretty good. Here are some examples of what they sell right now. My favorites are the garlands (1). If we had a garden I would put some of them in a tree. That’ll be great. I imagine the tubes (2) on a nice roofed patio and for our terrace I will get 3 – 5 of the bulbs (3) and group them in one corner.

What we already did this spring was planting some herbs that already spread an heavenly smell. Martin bought us 3 little trees – a fig – a wine – a lavender – which he grouped together with the herbs. For us plants are the nicest way to decorate the huge terrace. Fortunately we have space to keep them during the winter.

Once we’re done with our terrace I will post more pictures. What we need now is a little bit of sunshine and warmth (and sometimes a bit of rain, too) to make these plants grow and then we’re ready for summer! CAN’T WAIT!!

I did it again. It’s so much fun my head is full of ideas now.
This one is for a sweet couple in my agency who brought me a pack of Sharpie’s recently from the US and as they didn’t want to see my money I made them an egg. They love Las Vegas and so that’s the theme done in an old-school tattoo style. Hope they will like it!
Mark and Shy! This is for you! Thanx a lot!!

I had this idea yesterday. I haven’t painted one egg since kindergarten but today I landed on the Sharpie’s homepage and when you can use Sharpie’s to paint on Chuck’s well… you can get freaky on an egg as well. Easter is coming faster than I thought so all I needed was a pack of white eggs as the pens were already there (ordered them from all over the states as in Germany they’re nowhere to find).

Easy task I thought but I was not aware that eggs get stamped before they hit the stores so I had the problem how to get rid of those pink numbers. Tipp Ex works. Works perfectly fine. But looks bad. Really bad. Don’t do it. My fabulous new colleague Annette had the idea to use a nail file and YES that is much better. I took a picture of the result but as there was nothing to see anymore… you get the hint.

I decided to have a theme. “Tattoo Eggs” As I’m turning 30 this year a new tattoo is due so I painted the eggs with potential designs. First I blew them out which was a real mess but it provided dinner as well. Then drew on them with a pencil.

Right after this picture here the egg fell down. If you consider to do something similar I recommend you let the eggs dry for a day so that the rest of the slimy inside isn’t all over your hands. First: it makes the egg slippery which isn’t the best factor to work with. Second: it’s sticky, your hands will get dirty from it and the mess will be all over your working area and now try to use an eraser on an empty egg….

This is how they got finished – I just used a black Sharpie for the outlines and colored the rest in whatever color came to my hand. That’s all the magic. And I like them a lot! They will make a super easter decoration arranged in a bowl.

I’ve made 3 traditional tattoo themes: Happy Easter with cherries, a diamond and a star. 2 swallows facing with a star underneath and a sacred heart.

Here we have a koi fish and a swirl with some cherry blossoms representing japanese tattoo style. Here I’ve found out that Sharpie’s don’t mix with water because I thought of making a more watercolor -ish design but unfortunately that doesn’t work. For the swirls on the koi egg I used a Copic marker with a paint brush tip which worked pretty nice with a bit of water.

And here we have a sugar skull which actually looks like an egg head which wasn’t meant to be but as it was the first egg I’ve painted I wasn’t aware of the bowing (and here you can still see traces of the pencil)

That was the first round of painting eggs. I plan one more session using something different. Don’t know yet. Wouldn’t have thought it could be so much fun. Before this year easter was all about eating chocolate and loads of lamb. But my creative juices are flowing now and I will not stop them :-)

Are you making easter deco yourself? What are you up to? Is anyone having an idea for a nice wreath? I’d love to see your suggestions.

Yesterday my parents had their 36th wedding anniversary while M. and I had our first girlfriend-boyfriend anniversary :-)

That lead me to make something special for him – magnets for the fridge that will show him how happy we are.

Tadaaaa :-)

I never cared much about the advent season before. But now I have 120 square meters to decorate and a hubby to make happy. :-)

So this year we have scented vanilla candles in each room and since yesterday a christmas countdown in the dining room, too. 24 envelopes with fotos and little motivational quotes on the back which I stamped on (each single letter!). The red envelopes have silver number stickers from Depot, the envelopes are from ebay. Like laundry they were hung up on a red and white ribbon across the wall. What bothers me is that I didn’t have enough wooden clothes pins so I had to take 5 black plastik ones (this comes from not planning your project properly… nothing new to me…). Strolling around the stores I found two very nice details to add. It’s a little felt christmas tree with small bells and a little red ball with his name on it. That’s cute.

that's what is inside the red envelopes - foto with quote

The dining room table is the place where he has breakfast each morning and needed some decoration as well. So now he has a great view over the Taunus, the christmas calendar and this:

And the christmas “wreath” came out like this:

I wrapped the candles with a “Merry Christmas” ribbon at the bottom. Onto the wood-frame I added little and big silver bells that give a lovely tone everytime you move the wood, spices as cinnamon rolls and star anise for a great smell, dried orange and red paper apples. It touches every sense and makes our home cozy and warm. (ok.. the costers are just funny anyway :-)

Always remember – A good home must be made, not bought. (Joyce Maynard)