A few more Nutcracker pictures...

After 3 performances the cast was quite exhausted. I heard one little parrot say to her mother:" Mommy can we do this every night?" Something about that stage...I am glad we survived another year of late night practices and performances. We'll safe our energy and do it all over again - next year!
Our cast had 140 performers in it. Except for the sugar plum fairy and the cavalier they were all local kids. I feel so blessed that the Colorado Dance Theatre ( local non-profit organization) gives children the opportunity to do this each year. Unfortunately with the economy being so bad we had a much smaller audience this year. But as they say: "The show must go on!"

Pictures of Angels...

Each year I say it: No more Nutcracker. I will not do this again next year. The long late night practices, fighting with the costume and make-up, buns that just won't stay put...The next day the tears and the crying. Children that are too tired to go to school. But then I look at the cute pictures, the smiles and their excitement being on stage again. We'll probably do it again next year...

Here are some pictures from last night's dress rehearsal without make-up. Today we'll have the dress rehearsal with make-up. On Friday it is show time!

Winterimpressionen aus Colorado

Es schneit! Es schneit! Jetzt schon zum dritten mal. Zwischen Bestellungen bin ich nur noch am Schnee schaufeln. Hier sind ein paar Bilder vom ersten grossen Schnee hier. Die Bilder zeigen den Blick auf die Strasse vor unserem Haus.

Weisse Weihnacht - kein Problem in Colorado!

If you are wondering what I have been up to...

Happy December!

I just wanted to show some new pictures of my growing collection of Pocketdolls. I believe I have 42 different colors now. Some of them I will run out of soon. It makes me so sad to see a pretty fabric go. Do you ever get sad when you run out of a fabric and know you will never be able to find it again?.

I have this great rusty orange velour. The one after the bright orange/tangerine baby. Almost gone...And then there is the sweet moss green. I cannot find it anywhere. Please, if you know where to get it drop me a note!

I am addicted to fabric...Any others here? Feel free to 'fess up here! Is there a fabriholic anonymous group somewhere?

What a little advertising can do for you!

Oh my! My little shop was featured in a Storque article Friday a week ago.

http://www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/etsy-finds-a-team-6075/

The article was not about my shop. It did not mention me in particular. It really was about the many different kinds of etsy teams you can join on etsy. But the mention of my very cool team, the naturalkids team, was followed 4 pictures with shop links of items from various team members. One of them was a picture of my miniature Pocketdolls - the one shown below. Wow!

At first I could not figure out why I had so many views on newly listed items. To my shame I have to admit, I still have not set up google analytics which helps one track such things...I just don't have the time and energy to figure out these little technical details. Then I saw that my hearts had gone up by over 100 in two days. I had over 40 sales in 3 days.

So I went to the forums and asked. Some nice person pointed out the fact that my little dolls where featured in that article. Now I can only imagine what an article written by me could do for my shop...I will put this idea on my list for New Year's Resolutions: Propose article to etsy...

Got to run folks and play catch-up, make sure I get everything made and mailed out in a timely fashion. Luckily I have worked out a good system. I blogged about it last year around Christmas time when things got very busy over here.

Thank you Etsy for featuring my little dollies! I am very grateful this Thanksgiving that my sales in November were up and I can afford Christmas present for my family...

My Piece of The Wall/ translation

I was too tired yesterday to translate my post about the Fall of The Wall. I had just returned from a presentation about it at the University of Northern Colorado. I thought the presenters did a wonderful job. I was glad to see that so many people (around 100) came to attend the event. It demonstrates that many people here are still fascinated by these very important event that shaped my home country in such a significant way.

It was 20 years ago from yesterday. Oh my gosh! One feels really old thinking about being there life when it all happened. Where has all that time gone?


I was 21 years old, had just moved to Berlin to be a student at the Free University of Berlin. (one of the institutions of higher education on the Western side of the city!) Berlin was a city of students back then. Only few people wanted to live there. In fact so few that the government created an employee bonus, called the Berlinzulage, to encourage people to move to Berlin and work there.
It was the island of hope in the hostile communist East.

I was a student in the North American Studies program at the John-F. Kennedy Institute. Of all things - what irony!

I clearly remember the events of that night. In the early evening hours a good friend of mine called me on the phone. She said: "We must go to the Brandenburger Tor. All hell is breaking loose there. I heard on the radio that people are climbing up on The Wall."

It was a very cold November night when I left the house. I was wearing my thick winter jacket. But the closer we came to the Brandenburg Gate the thicker the masses of people became. There was an atmosphere of partying and laughter all around us. We ran into some friends who had brought hammers and chisels, prepared to take The Wall down tonight! People were lending each other a hand to climb up. Once up there there was a strange mixed feeling of fear and enthusiasm. As one stared down into the chasm of the deathstrip one wondered... There were soldiers, Eastern security personal, with weapons. Were they going to shoot at us? But people threw down gum, candy, cans of coke. It appeared that this strategy was working. No shots were fired. The guards were actually smiling. More and more people felt encouraged to use the tools they had brought along. Out came the chisels and hammers, and we started to take down The Wall that night!



In the picture you can see my little piece of history chiseled from that wall 20 years ago. Long long ago...

Mein Stueck Mauer/ My Piece of The Wall

Heute vor 20 Jahren fiel "Die Mauer". Man fuehlt sich ganz schoen alt wenn man life dabei war...Meine Guete 20 Jahre. Wo ist die Zeit geblieben?

Ich war damals gerade mal 21 Jahre alt, war aus dem WESTEN zum Studium nach Berlin gezogen. Berlin war damals eine Stadt voll von Studenten. Nur wenige Menschen wollten dort leben und arbeiten. So wenige, dass die Regierung den dort Beschaeftigten einen Bonus zahlte, die sogenannte Berlinzulage. Berlin, eine Insel im feindlichen komunistischen Osten.

Und ich lebte dort und studierte Amerikanistik. Ironie des Schicksals...

Ich werde nie vergessen, wie mich an jenem Abend vom 9.11.1989 eine Freudin anrief. "Komm schnell, wir muessen zum Brandenburger Tor! Da ist die Hoelle los. Ich habe im Radio gehoert, dass Leute auf die Mauer klettern".



Es war eine sehr kalte Nacht als ich das Haus verliess. Ich trug meine dicke Winterjacke. Aber je naeher wir dem Brandenburger Tor kamen, desto dicker wurden die Menschenmassen. Und in der Masse vergass man die Kaelte. Es war Partystimmung , alle lachten und freuten sich beim Erklimmen "Der Mauer". Wir trafen Bekannte, die Hammer und Meissel mitgebracht hatten. Es war schon sehr komisch. Die Mischung von Angst von der Mauer herunter in den Todesstreifen zu stuerzen, und seltsamem Enthusiasmus. Unten im Todesstreifen standen eine Menge unsicherer Sicherheitspolizisten, die nicht wussten wie sie reagieren sollten. Oben wir, die Wessies, die Kaugummi, Suesskram, und Cokedosen zu ihnen herunterwarfen. Diese Ueberredungsstrategie schien zu funktionieren. Kein Schuss fiel, und in dieser Nacht begannen wir mit dem Abriss "Der Mauer".

Auf dem Bild koennt Ihr mein Stueck Mauer sehen, welches ich in der Nacht persoenlich herausmeisselte. Mein kleines Stueck Geschichte. Lang, lang ist's her.