Just a reminder...

Visit Amanda's Blog today to enter in the NaturalKids Team's wonderful Winter Giveaway. I will be sending the winner one of my little snowflake babies. They are so sweet and won't make your hands colds at all. Promise!

Have a great weekend!

REALLY BIG Giveaway on Soulemama!

Don't miss this one! 17 members of the Natural Kids Team on Etsy have done it again. We have come together once more to make someone very happy.

We are giving away 17 most adorable items to ONE lucky winner. All are perfect items for stocking stuffers or hannuka gifts maybe...

But hold your horses. It's not until 11/23/2013! I just wanted to give you the Thumbs-up. Visit Amanda Soule's blog on that day!

Here is a picture of all the cool stuff the winner will get:

Are you totally wowed? I certainly am.

Pink Blanket Doll

I finished this sweet Waldorf style blanket doll this morning. Looks like many people are still looking for small gifts for little ones this Christmas. I don't think this one will sit too long around my Etsyshop.

Looks like the German Elf will have to get busy over here and make some more...

Thinking about Food Matters

I have been thinking a lot about food lately. This time of year I miss a lot of the special foods from Germany. But then again, I think it's just well I can't have them. German Christmas treats aren't exactly healthy. Still, I can't help but feel I ate much healthier food when I lived in the Vaterland.

Needless to say, I was a bit shocked when I came back from my trip to Germany this summer, and hopped on the scales. REALLY. I had gained 8 pounds in less than two weeks? That's crazy. Is there something wrong with my memory? Or was it just that everybody fed me sweets and cakes when I came to visit because they missed me so much?

I have worked really hard since June to get rid of the extra pounds. When I need a break from sewing I go to the gym. I try to go a minimum of 3 times a week. I am proud to say I can withstand an hour of torture on the elliptical machine these days. Don't even feel winded afterwords. Still, I have not been able to shed all the extra pounds. I hover around the same weight. And it's driving me nuts. What is it with your body not cooperating any more once you hit 40? What happened to the good times? I can't even have a glass of wine any more without waking up the next morning with a bad headache.

So I went to the library to check out some books on nutrition and dieting. It's not that I am overweight. People who know me laugh at me when I say I need to lose weight. Why you? You are skinny. That is nuts. I just don't like the lack of energy. I don't enjoy feeling tired all the time.

Why not try a new approach? I stumbled upon Mark Bittman's book Food Matters and I have decided that it's perfect for me. It expresses a lot of the thoughts and emotions I have had around food and eating. From the day I moved to the US I have struggled to adjust to the different diet. I guess what I miss mostly from home is bread. In Germany it was one of my main food staples. You know, the daily bread thing goes a long way when you are a poor student in Berlin. But here? If I want to buy a decent loaf of bread I have to drive 50 miles and spend oodles of money. I highly recommend the Prussian Rye at Whole Foods Market! It comes closest to what people eat in Germany.

The first couple of years I tried to bake my own bread. Unfortunately it didn't go so well. I found high altitude baking in Colorado very challenging. I finally gave up and resigned myself to the stuff they call bread in the grocery stores here. It has about 5 million ingredients, including sugar and preservatives. Even the supposedly "healthy" overpriced loaves are full of sugar and sweeteners.

But like I said, I am tired of feeling tired, and I am ready to try Mark Bittman's approach. I want to cut out as many highly processed foods, white sugar, and as much meat as I can. Maybe I'll  even give baking my own bread another try. Just hope hubby won't suggest burning it in the woodstove again. That's what happened to that last German-style sourdough bread I baked years ago.

Confessions of a Fabriholic...

I have been pretty good all year. I bought very few yards of fabric. I am afraid to lose customers because my shop is full of the same old same old stuff. So if you are one of those folks who is getting bored of late with my fabric offerings here is a new fabric design I just added to my stash.

I swear it was on my watch list for months on EBay. This weekend I finally broke down and bought it. I feel a bit guilty. But you know the fabric monster needs to fed once in a while....

Tell me I was right to break down. It just couldn't be helped. I had to buy it...

It's so lovely and pink, and everything a girl could possibly want in a fabric!

New Mermaid Doll

After working on a number of little merbabies it was time to create another big Mermaid girl. Mermaids have always fascinated me. Maybe because I am such a terrible swimmer.

It's a wonder I survived my childhood. My parents would just drop us 5 girls at the pool and say:" Have fun!" My mom didn't know how to swim. She worked all the time and didn't own a bathing suit. My dad had a skin condition that prevented him from going to a public pool. I have no happy memories of my parents playing with us in the water and keeping me safe. I never had swim lessons. I guess my parents figured my older sisters would take care of us or the lifeguard would safe us if need be. So I pretty much grew up terrified of water.

To this day I envy people who are good swimmers and move in the water like fish - or like a mermaid.

Gingerbread anyone?

Here she is: my first Gingerbread Girl of the season. She is even sweeter in real life! Wish I had some Lebkuchen to eat right now. Looking at her dress makes me hungry.

 

I bet you, they have Lebkuchen for sale in every grocery store in Germany right now. If I want some these days, I have to order it from a specialty store over the internet. We used to order a box from Schmidt's Lebkuchen every year. But it is quite pricey and  a couple of times I was disappointed with the quality. It just didn't taste as fresh as I remembered it from my childhood. Or is it just my imagination? Whenever my parents felt flush and could afford it they ordered the Festtagstruhe. My sisters and I would fight over the chocolate covered Elisenkuchen and the Dominosteine (little chocolate covered cubes made from layers of cake, marcipan, and jelly).

I feel myself breaking down. I may just have to order a box...


In Germany you can buy the cheap imitation of Schmidt's Lebkuchen at every store. No need to spend $100. Oh well, on the bright side - this is how I have been able to maintain my girlish figure. If I lived in Germany I'd be a big Frau, no doubt. I'd eat Schokolade and Lebkuchen all day. Here I just don't care that much about sweets...