(Re)Discovering Crafting, Berganza and More

So it's been a tough couple of weeks because the Kita (pre-school) has been closed since the beginning of August. People who don't have small kids can't possibly know what it is like to have them full time. Not one iota of down time ever (and don't you dare try to take one because you'll just be asking for trouble!!) Baby burnout hardcore to say the least, plus an absolute respect for any parents who are doing this full time with no nannies, babysitters or pre-schools....

To give myself a break, I did get our fantastic Ami (American) babysitter to come for three hours this afternoon. What a fabulous time that was. I rode my bike through a virtual rainstorm but I didn't care. On Goltzstrasse in Schöneberg I wrote a bit in Cafe Savo (mentioned in my previous post) but mainly just cycled around. I (re)discovered the fantastic old school Bastelladen (craft store) Hobbyshop Wilhelm Rüther on the same street. Great stuff at great prices and a true Berliner charm, with middle-aged ladies with thick Berlin accents getting excited when you pay in cash because they get to use the antique cash register from (I would guess) the 1950s. Anyway, it inspired me to make some new things for Schaufenster for pretty much the first time this summer.

At home I poured myself a glass of wine and started crafting, with one of my YouTube playlists playing in the background. I hadn't listened to this particular playlist in a while and I made another great (re)discovery of one of my favorite classical singers, the Spanish Mezzo-Soprano Teresa Berganza singing several songs composed by Federico Garcia Lorca (yes, as in the famous poet. Apparently he also sometimes composed songs.) Truly beautiful. I thought I'd post them here because they just might change your mind about classical singing (assuming that, like most people, you don't particularly care for it....)

No, I have not moved to Iowa....

So there have been rumors circling around out there that I finally threw in the towel, packed my bags and moved Jasper and the girls and my good self over to Des Moines. Although the experience I had here in Berlin on the bus today (in a nutshell, rude people who were not at all helpful, rude busdriver, the usual smell, ya da ya da ya da, aka same old same old in this wicked city!) did make Des Moines sound attractive, the rumors are, nevertheless completely unfounded.

What I've really been doing is expanding my etsy shop Schaufenster a lot, even adding new sections like The Dollhouse Gallery Series and jewelry (dismantling my second shop after all because one is truly enough)


I've also lined up a lot of vintage goodies with more to come (let's just say my new, or rather old but re-kindled obsession is bakelite, bakelite, bakelite....)


Oh what fun it is to list on a cold November day. ;)

Trying out Art Fire

So I'm trying out Art Fire to see what it's all about. It's only been a few days and I only have one piece on there right now, but so far I find the layout easier than Etsy with some nice features like being able to link your shop to various other websits and blogs. Still, my heart lies more with etsy and I find it somehow "hipper" than Art Fire seems to be. Still, I'll give it a try for a while and see how it goes. Here is a link to the shop which should be expanding soon: Contessa