14 loves {September 2014}

Welcome to the next in the series {14 loves} for 2014 based on the original concept by my beloved friend, Pam, back in January 2013. I enjoyed sharing my loves so much through the year that I decided I needed to continue through 2014. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you. You can find previous posts  {here}

I hope there's something in here to inspire you or maybe just make you smile.

So, a late, late, late posting for a chaotic September - four months late to be honest! But I did promise to get it up before the year was up so here it is! There wasn't much time for window shopping whether in real shops or virtual and certainly not much time for pinning or doing much of anything other than packing, schlepping, unpacking and fighting against the chaos. But there were a few highlights... let's see if I can manage 14!

one

One of the last mornings driving to work from our old home. The mist on the fields is one of the things I miss. Views like this make/made me happy.

two

I fell in love with this layout and this vellum paper as soon as I saw it on my Pinterest feed. I still love it and try as I might to track down this paper on this side of the ocean, it was not to be :-(

Dreaming with Chic - Shabby Chic Crafts

three

I started new lessons at an old, familiar, friendly building over in Dortmund and was happy to be welcomed back into the "fold" by lovely, new students.

four

There wasn't much time for scrapping or sharing over the late summer but the Scrapabilly September kit (now sold out unfortunately) featuring We R Memory Keepers Indian Summer papers was a joy to work with amongst the chaos. This is a favourite layout I made with the kit featuring one of my "stolen" Instagram photos of my darling niece.

five

The next photos show a bit of an evolution of the first few days of our move - I was so inspired by the new life we were beginning #newhomenewlife

First up, the keys to our new home. 

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What would, in time, become my scrapbook haven.

seven

The very first night. Candles, music, and just being there.

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There might even have been champagne involved!

nine

The new neighbourhood.

ten

Our view over the "park".

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The new city skyline.

twelve

I wish I could achieve something as stylish and calming as this pin. The colours are beautiful and the room would certainly make me happy. But there's nowhere for my scrap stash!

Pinterest source here

thirteen

Of course, there was a little shopping at Scrapabilly along the way, stocking up on the gold twine and doily vellum that is a must in my stash. I think I must have bought 6 rolls of this twine so far and as soon as the gold doilies start getting used up, I simply must buy more.

fourteen

And just because this pin spoke out to me. 

Pinterest source here

I’d love you to share your own {14 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below?

{14 loves} is a series that will feature on my blog each 14th of the month

14 loves {December 2014}

Welcome to the next in the series {14 loves} for 2014 based on the original concept by my beloved friend, Pam, back in January 2013. I enjoyed sharing my loves so much through the year that I decided I needed to continue through 2014. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you. You can find previous posts  {here}

I hope there's something in here to inspire you or maybe just make you smile.

Where does the time go? I seem to have missed December in the blink of an eye and the 14th with it! But here's my {14 loves} - better late than never!

one

My November birthday is usually pretty grey and even miserable sometimes. But 2014 brought beautiful blue skies and a gloriously sunny, mild, happy day.

two

Our Advent wreath featured the colour of the year - gold! What a surprise. 

 

three

We found the largest bunch of mistletoe I think I've ever had the pleasure of kissing under! A birthday kiss for a Christmas feeling.

four

A visit from my bestie over my birthday weekend brought a visit to one of my local favourites - Cologne Cathedral. Breathtaking every time I visit.

five

And just in time for said visit from said bestie, we finally sorted out my room and now I have a wonderful corner of our new home for time pottering around with paper and glitter.

six

After a mix up with my order from A Flair For Buttons (on my part, I must add!), I decided to order another set of 12. I thought they'd be great additions for my NYC mini-kit. Sweet Shelley also added in a set of JUST released buttons too for me. Look at all these sweet buttons. They will look so great on pages as soon as I get around to some creating.

seven

I was delighted to be invited to be part of the Scrapabilly Advent gift swap and decided to dust off the cameo for some eye catching title numbers for my bags! I love this glitter paper, I love the cameo, I love these number words. Love, love, love!

eight

A special birthday card picked out just for me from my MIL. Perfect.

nine

Look at all this Advent scrumminess. What do you get when you bring 7 crafty ladies tougher for the Scrapabilly Advent gift swap? 24 creative packages in perfectly matching on-trend colours! 

ten

I decided to jump on board to the Instagram photo list below created by the daughter of a very good friend. It was a lot of fun to get creative each day (some were a real challenge for me!) and take snippets of my life in December.

eleven

A St Nikolaus gift turned my car into Rudolph! Loved seeing that nose as I was driving around and all the funny looks I got.

twelve

My weekly trip to Scrapabilly adds bits to my stash each week!

thirteen

The Essen Christmas market was such a treat. I think it gets prettier each year. 

fourteen

A perfect birthday present from the very wonderful Sylvia from Scrapabilly. This collection had been on my list since I saw the sneaks way back. So happy to have it in my possession at last!

 So that was my month. :-) What have you been loving this month?

I'm going to try to get my September list up on the blog before the end of the year (yes, I know that's just a few days!) and hope to be continuing my loves into 2015. 

I’d love you to share your own {14 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below? And why not join me in 2015 for a new series of {15 loves}. It would be great to have some company!

{14 loves} is a series that will feature on my blog each 14th of the month

14 loves {November 2014}

Welcome to the next in the series {14 loves} for 2014 based on the original concept by my beloved friend, Pam, back in January 2013. I enjoyed sharing my loves so much through the year that I decided I needed to continue through 2014. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you. You can find previous posts  {here}

I hope there's something in here to inspire you or maybe just make you smile.

Another busy month, another late posting. But I'm trying to keep up and that's the main thing. September's {14 loves} is still in the works. It WILL come before the end of the year I promise!

one

I saw this layout on Pinterest from Studio Calico (see here) and knew right away that I had to find the supplier for the gorgeous constellation paper. I tracked it down to Studio Tekturek in Poland and ordered the full collection pack as well as the matching flair buttons. The paper is glossy, thick paper so I'm not 100% sure how it will work with my style of scrapping but man, I love the designs! I had to navigate the shop in Polish but their customer service was great and they kindly communicated with me in English! I'll let you know how the collection works when I've cut into that precious paper. Oh yes, and it was SO reasonably priced too, even with the international postage.

Studio Tekturek One Way Ticket collection

two

This year marks 100 years since the start of WWI and a particularly moving Remembrance Day. It's not so easy for me to commemorate this memorial day living where I do, but my best friend sent me a whole set of photos of the incredible ceramic poppy installation at the Tower of London and my very good, blogging friend and fellow Master Forger, Lesley sent me a special anniversary poppy pin which I wore with pride. 

three

This pile of empty packing boxes were the LAST to be unpacked. I'm not saying there's not still a whole lot of chaos going on round here but there are no more boxes at least. 

four

This is the evening we "found" our new home under the debris. Makes me happy.

five

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and the Weihnachtsmarkt is a coming. It will be opening this week but the preparations of our (new) local market makes me happy each and every year. The Essen Weihnachtsmarkt has always been one of my favourites and I'm thrilled to be able to experience it up close this time around.

six

This pin from the Gossamer Blue team really inspires me. I think I need to make this layout. Isn't is a stunner?

Pinterest source here

seven

The red cups are back. Need I say more?

eight

I had to get my grubby little hands on these Pebbles candy cane beauties as soon as I saw them in the Scrapabilly shop! They are just delightful and can be found here.

nine

I have been monitoring the supply of these Studio Calico vellum sheets in the Scrapabilly shop since I discovered that I could use on them practically any layout I wanted. The last time I counted Sylvia still had five. Then last week, she was down to four! That was the sign for me that I had to buy all of them :-) I think they'll work really well with the Studio Tekturek papers, don't you?

ten

I love vellum pockets and was happy to have the chance to put one to good use to hold a handful of confetti on this wedding layout. I love it when a technique works over and over again. 

eleven

October was of course LOAD2014. This Scrap Happy member-only month of daily inspiration was fantastic as always! Leslie and Lynnette did a great job with 31 School Days based prompts and I followed most of them. In total, I managed 34 layouts in 31 days which was fabulous and filled me with creative fulfilment! My layout pile made me smile and of course, featured on my final layout of the month.

twelve

We have lights! It's taken a while to get around to the little jobs around the new flat, but in the last few days, we have light in all but one of the rooms. It really helps with these dark evenings.

thirteen

As part of LOAD1014, there was a special offer for A Flair for Buttons. I love this shop! Lots and lots of the most gorgeous buttons and you can even mix and match flair from different collections to make up your own selection. Of course, I couldn't possibly pass up on the whole NYC collection. It will go into my mini-kit that is currently under construction for when I finally get hold of my NYC photos off my back-up drive.

fourteen

Our new local café and ice-cream parlour (La Luna) serves delicious caffe latte with a teeny tiny ice-cream cone! Worth the extra pennies from time to time for a treat!

All in all, a pretty good month, don't you think? Full of inspiration and little bits and pieces to enjoy and bring a smile to my face. What have you been loving this month?

I’d love you to share your own {14 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below?

{14 loves} is a series that will feature on my blog each 14th of the month

14 loves {October 2014}

Welcome to the next in the series {14 loves} for 2014 based on the original concept by my beloved friend, Pam, back in January 2013. I enjoyed sharing my loves so much through the year that I decided I needed to continue through 2014. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you. You can find previous posts  {here}

I hope there's something in here to inspire you or maybe just make you smile.

Ok, so I missed a month. Well, not really missed a month as in the month steamrollered over me and I was pretty incapable of anything except packing and schlepping boxes, and camping out at the new place. That month will be filled in as I do try to select things that I have been loving from the 14th to the 14th. So the photos are there.... just not organised into a post.... yet.

So here's 14th September to 14th October! It's a more experience based list this month as there's not been much time for shopping or window shopping online.

one

Yes! It's really autumn now and I love it! Slightly wild, windy, wet weather swirling all those beautiful leaves around just make me happy.

two

Our new life in the city has really begun. Our balcony has a great view over the are designated as the "park" and I love watching the low autumn sun setting. Just behind that building you can see? Ikea! I can walk to Ikea which might prove a problem if the need for Swedish meatballs gets too much!

three

A lot of the advantages of our new home are focussed on the fact that everything is right there on our doorstep. Including plenty of good places to eat. One of our faves is Cha Cha which serves Thai food and a super green chicken curry which we can now get on foot "to go". Another danger point for our diet but delicious all the same!

four

And yet more food right round the corner is the American diner Star Diner. A great burger was had at the end of a long, physically tiring day and hit just the right point. We got to sit in the School Bus outside and I thought that was a lot of fun! (Are you seeing the food theme here??)

five

A Pinterest find, I need to find the time to have a go at scrap lifting this beautiful layout.

MonaLisa for Studio Calico

six

September brought a trip to the UK to celebrate some special birthdays. My baby sister and my baby, baby brother both had celebrations within the same week and we were thrilled to get the whole family in one photo. 

seven

And a visit to my granny who is amazing at nearly 93. She wowed us with perfect memories of times 70 years ago as well as engagement in current news topics. Of course, she was delighted to see her favourite German!

eight

This etsy find from Mei Origami was something I'd found some time ago and was happy to order it and find that it was even better than I thought it would be. The quality was amazing and she chose a wonderful book to use, called Angels, complete with pink inside cover paper. It was absolutely perfect and Mei's customer service was fabulous. I'll be ordering something from her again. Make sure you check her out for a special occasion - well worth it!

nine

I managed to fit a lot in to a very short time and caught up with everyone I'd planned to and more which is always satisfying. A highlight was catching up with a good friend who works for the Bournville Estate - established by George Cadbury all those years ago. And of course, you KNOW that I just can't resist that Cadbury chocolate - I bring it back with me in huge quantities as they don't sell it here! Anyway, she was kind enough to take me to the holy grail of chocolate, the staff Cadbury shop! As a child, I was always so envious of my friends whose parents worked there and they were able to visit the shop and always had vast quantitates of scrummy brown gold at home! I was literally a child in a sweet shop and am now struggling not to scoff it all at once!

ten

Many, many selfies with various goofy children were taken. This little one is growing way too fast and it's hard to believe she's almost two!

eleven

And while I was there, I received this wonderfully thoughtful care package from fellow Master Forger and LOADster, Lesley. What a lovely surprise and it was so kind of her to think of me. Very much needed at a time when I was feeling a little low. I wasn't able to make the journey north to meet her and Jemma but I've promised to make the time next time I'm over!

twelve

Round here we are ever so slightly addicted to hummus at the moment, having found that we both adore it and it can be made up in a matter of minutes. Not sure how delighted people are that we meet the following day, but garlic's healthy, right?!? So this recipe originally found on Pinterest piqued my interest straight away. I can feel roasted garlic in my near future!

Roasted garlic hummus from CookingClassy.com

thirteen

Over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, we have a Counterfeit Queen controlling things this month! Queen Laura is proving to be a very benevolent monarch and chose a wonderful kit to counterfeit (see my reveal post here)! Two of her challenge posts are already up (here and here) and there's one more to come. Why not come over and join us for this fun month? My October kit, Discover, has already produced 9 wonderful LOAD layouts and I've loved using this combination of products. A simply wonderful kit. 

fourteen

We left our sweet baby apple tree behind in our last home but managed to harvest the grand total of 5 apples before we left! They were delicious and the few extras nabbed by the local birds were probably delicious too.

I’d love you to share your own {14 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below?

{14 loves} is a series that will feature on my blog each 14th of the month