The One with the Holiday Memory for Patience Brewster

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Hallo! Today I was inspired by Patience Brewster, an artist and illustrator of books, greeting cards, and a designer of Christmas ornaments and gifts, to share my favorite holiday memory. I love a good story and sharing them and scrapbooking them :)

This is a picture from Christmas season 2012.

Chris, Fox, Jane, and I flew from Los Angeles to be with my family in Seattle. My parents own a little cabin in the woods close to Leavenworth. I've always loved Leavenworth - it's built to look just like a Bavarian village. And-what-do-you-know, we now live IN BAVARIA! I just know that when we leave Germany and we visit Leavenworth, my heart is going to ache to be back in Germany. Anyway, if you know anything about Germany, you'll know their Christmas markets are wunderbar. So in an effort to be as Bavarian as possible, Leavenworth imitates the holiday season and Christmas spirit to the nines. And it is glorious. The twinkling lights. The soft and soothing sounds of holiday music. The fresh and powdery white snow. Oh my! We spent an afternoon in Leavenworth and soaked in the merriment. I will forever remember that Christmas season at home. Complete with watching an episode of X-Files on Christmas Eve :)

PS - This is my 1999th blog post. Do you know what that means? Tomorrow is EPIC GIVEAWAY DAY!!!

The One with the DIY Paper Ornament

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

I have a li'l step-by-step tutorial to share today showing how to make this paper ornament!

First, gather your supplies: some festive patterned papers, a 3" square punch, scissors, adhesive, and holiday-themed stickers.

Punch (12) 3" squares from your favorite patterned papers.

Place adhesive along one edge.

Fold opposite corners together to create a cone.

Finished cone!

Start an assembly line to smooth the process and place adhesive on all the squares.

Fold 12 cones.

Make a circle of scrap paper.

Adhere the cones to the circle.

Embellish the center with stickers and die cuts and glue a string to the back for hanging.

Now you have a cute, super-easy-to-make, only-took-10-minutes, ornament that could double as a neighbor gift!

Merry (almost!) Christmas!

The One with the Mr. UPS Man

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Every month my Mr. UPS Man drops off my Studio Calico kit between noon and 1pm (or, 1300 as they say here!) so this month I was prepared with my camera to snap his photo for a fun #mysckitishere instagrammable pic. When he rung the bell Jane answered the door and as he was handing over my kit I asked if I could take his picture with it because I was so excited for my box to be here. I only took one photo because I didn't want to seem weirder than I already was haha - but luckily one photo was all I needed. His face is perfection. I LOVE how he smiled and held the box like a prop and everything! Day made!

Ransom fact: of the 1,057 photos I've posted on Instagram, THIS is the picture that has received the most "likes". More than any layout, any destination, any family photo. Why?? So funny!

The One with Sintra, Portugal

Sunday, November 16, 2014

I'm kind of bitter about this whole day - if that's not an enticing introduction, I don't know what is :)

On Monday, since virtually everything is closed in Lisbon, we took Rick Steves' advice and headed out for a day trip to Sintra (SEEN-trah). I was so super duper excited to see the Pena Palace up close and in person (not my photo).

To get there... first we took the metro a couple of stops to Rossio.

Then we walked to the Rossio train station - the circa-1900 facade of Rossio Station is Neo-Manueline.

A train leaves for Sintra every 20 minutes. The innards remind me of King's Cross in London.

We hopped on the train and found a spot to sit.

What do you do when there's nothing to do? Take silly selfies of course!

The train ride was 40 minutes and we got a small glimpse of the Moorish Castle ruins up and above the train when we got off.

On the short walk from the train to the bus I saw lots of enticing tilework.

Theeeeen we hopped on a bus for about a half hour that took us nearly to the top.

The drive on the bus was CRAZY scary. Roads that narrow just should not be driven on. AND, by the time we got off, it was pouring rain, super foggy, cold, damp, and pretty much miserable. We couldn't see a thing as far as views or even the castle in all its glory.

But let's back up. Sintra - just 15 miles northwest of Lisbon, was the summer escape of Portugal's kings. Those with money and a desire to be close to royalty built their palaces amid luxuriant gardens in the same neighborhood. Lord Byron called this bundle of royal fancies and aristocratic dreams a "glorious Eden." For centuries Portugal's aristocracy considered Sintra the perfect place to escape from Lisbon, and now tourists do too. It's a mix of natural and man-made beauty: fantasy castles set amid exotic tropical plants, lush green valleys, and craggy hilltops with hazy views of the Atlantic and Lisbon (though, we wouldn't know, we could barely see three feet in front of us because of the fog and rain.... grrrrr). Here are some pictures from the internet of what we were SUPPOSED to see.

Rather than wait for yet another bus to take us directly up to the castle, we just walked. All-in-all it took about 3 hours from when we left the apartment to when we finally reached our end destination of Pena Palace.

This is what we could see. Yes, pretty cool, I'll admit.

But this is what we were supposed to see.

And this is what we saw. SCAFFOLDING! AHHHHH!

This is what we were supposed to see.

And this is what we saw.

Chris argues that the fog gave it a mysterious look and all that. But I wanted what I had seen on the internet. It's Europe though - I have to accept that the weather is unpredictable and sights are always under construction because they're so flippin' old.

The magical Pena Palace sits on a hilltop high above Sintra, above Moorish Castle ruins (which we couldn't see. Have I said that yet? :). In the 19th century Portugal had a very romantic prince - German-born Prince Ferdinand. A contemporary and cousin on Bavaria's "Mad" King Ludwig (of Neuschwanstein and Linderhof and Herrencheimsee fame), Ferdinand was also a cousin of England's Prince Albert (Queen Victoria's husband). Flamboyant Ferdinand hired a German architect to built a fantasy castle, mixing elements of German and Portuguese style. He ended up with a crazy Neo-fortified casserole of Gothic towers, Renaissance domes, Moorish minarets, Manueline carving, Disney playfulness, and a tile toilet for his wife.

The palace, built in the mid to late 1800s is so well-preserved that it feels as if it's the day after the royal family fled Portugal in 1910 (during a popular revolt that eventually made way for today's modern republic). This gives the place a charming intimacy rarely seen in palaces.

Even though outside was miserable as all get-out - inside was warm and dry and we got to walk through room after room of fanciness.

Jane saw these bathtubs and said, "I wanna take a bath!"

I loved the textured ceilings.

Built-in church.

Whatdoyouknow - tiled rooms :)

Cloister.

Queen's bedroom. Or maybe the King's. I can't remember. But it's nice!

Wood furniture beyond the valley of cool.

Decorative chandelier.

My favorite room - cuz it's PINK!

Ceiling highlights.

The kitchen.

We were pretty hungry at this point so we got some snacks from the palace cafe. And no we did not eat outside.

The rain was relentless. There was SO MUCH MORE we could go and do and ~~see~~ but the kids were miserable stuck in the covered up stroller and I was mad A) because it's impossible to hold an umbrella and a camera and a screaming child with only two arms and B) we spent a good chunka change to fly all the way to Portugal and I was upset the day didn't go according to plan. So I gave up and we all made the loooooong trek back to the apartment where we spent the rest of the day holed up.
If we ever go back... I want to walk around the lush Pena Palace Park (not my pic).