Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde

I might have mentioned it before: I'm a big fan of all art that comes under the label of  "Pre-Raphaelite" or the Arts and Craft movement (if you now think "what?!?!" then please click here :-)).
When I heard about the huge Pre-Raphaelites exhibition in the Tate Britain I knew I simply had to go (despite the high admission prices).

What shall I say - it was extremely busy and the air was stuffy. But apart from that simply amazing!
So many works on display from a large number of artists and ranging from sketches to large scale embroidery..
Sheer beauty that fascinates instantly...but as soon as you start reading up a bit and investigating the background it becomes more and more compelling, every piece a testimonial of a Victorian "Sex & Drugs and Rock' n' Roll" culture.

The exhibition is on until the 13th January 2013 so you still have a bit of time to have a look for yourself.
I ended up buying the catalogue and will work my way through it now...

Freitags-Füller 20

In einigen Wochen ist Tiger's Beinchen hoffentlich wieder einigermassen verheilt. Der arme hatte sich letzten Samstag das linke Hinterbein gebrochen und wurde am Dienstag operiert. Nun hat er eine Schraube im Knochen und wir sind um 2000£ erleichtert worden.

Das Nieten-Fieber hat mich nun auch erfasst.

Ich möchte mal wissen wie es sich anfühlt, bekifft zu sein. Bin ja neugierig und offen fuer (fast) alles aber gleichzeitig auch ein schrecklicher Angsthase und vor allem besorgt wenn es um Kontrollverlust geht.

Zu fast allem ausser Fruechtetee kann ich sagen: mein Lieblingstee!

Wenn ich nach rechts schaue dann denke ich mir, dass die Fenster mal geputzt werden koennten...koennten aber nicht muessen.

"Wo immer du bist" - klingt fuer mich nach einem Cecelia Ahern oder Nicholas Sparks Buchtitel.

Was das Wochenende angeht, heute Abend freue ich mich auf das Puppentheater auf einem Boot in Richmond, morgen habe ich zum allerersten Mal in meinem Leben einen eigenen Flohmarkt Stand betreiben, geplant und Sonntag möchte ich vielleicht irgendwas besichtigen oder einfach nur aufraeumen, bloggen und uns auf unseren Urlaub vorbereiten!

in love with Løv

As we probably all have experienced now is that blogging can be a very expensive hobby.
Someone sees something particularly nice or unique, blogs about it and whoooosh - we need to have it too.
That's what happened to me (again) after I read about the lovely organic (French?) teas from Løv Organic 
on Ina's Blog.

So what did I do? I went to London...browsed through John Lewis and the Selfridges Food Hall and after being a bit disappointed about the little choice they provided I decided on the Ginger and Lemon one.
Isn't the tin lovely and stylish in a typically Scandinavian way?  Haven't tried the tea yet but will do so tomorrow...the joys of blogging.
With 9£ not exactly a bargain but "never regreat anything that made you smile"...:-)

In Bruges

On our way from England to Germany we did not only stop at the Belgian coast for a bit (and to eat eclairs), no, we stayed one night in the absolutely adorable city of Bruges as well.
Great old architecture, interesting and cosy small roads and the most amazing collectin of chocolate shops I have ever seen. Could have eaten it all...after some sweets, some truffles and a huge portion of fries with mayo I gave up though. Another time I will try harder...cause I will definitely return to all this loveliness!

Glossybox 9/2012

And already another month has come and another Glossybox has arrived. This time in blue, all dressed up for the Oktoberfest in Munich with some blue and white Bavarian nail stickers as an extra. The pointless glossy-mag was missing...yeah! But apart from that I'm seriously underwhelmed...again.

• C:EHKO High Shine Shampoo (another "Ok-product"...)
• Ducray Icytane milde Waschcreme (well, never heard of it...doesn't wow me)
• Getraud Gruber Kosmetik Hand Emulsion (might be a good product but has the name has such little sex appeal that I'm not really excited about it)
• Glossybox Lipstick in Glossy Pink (nice lipstick, nice colour, made by Kryolan, but: it arrived broken ;-( )
• OPI Nail Lacquer  (and another one*jawn. At least I don't own the colour "Don't pretzel my button" yet so that's good)

The MaxFactor make-up is STILL missing, other boxes looked promising but I'm not happy about mine. The name of the nail colour fits into the Oktoberfest theme but nothing else does - what is the point of a themed box then?! Will use up my Glossydots soon and end this misery...

easyvoyage

Das Team von der Reiseplattform www.easyvoyage.de hat mich kontaktiert und mir angeboten meinen Blog in ihrer Grossbritannien-Sektion zu listen.
Ich fuehle mich geehrt (gerade wenn ich mir meine neuen "Nachbarn" dort so anschaue). angespornt noch viel ueber die Merkwuerdigkeiten der Insel zu berichten und freue mich auf hoffentlich den ein oder anderen neuen Leser und Interesse eurerseits euch mal auf easyvoyage umzuschauen :-)

grow baby grow

Ok, today was all cold and wet so it is bad timing really that I'm doing a post on gardening now but what can you do...maybe you find this inspiring and keep it in mind for the coming gardening season.
I'm talking about the English habit of growing vegetables out of so-called grow bags. It basically means buying a bag of compost, slicing holes in them and putting seeds in them directly. So easy, so efficient - just never seen it anywhere in Germany before.

We have tried it with potatoes (not directly in the bought bag but in plastic bags nevertheless) and it worked amazingly well, just doesn't look very nice.
Anyway, a great way to do some easy and mess-free gardening that should work on smaller balconies as well.
Tell me, have you ever tried it? Have you ever seen this outside the UK?

Weiberkram

Die liebe Manu hat mit ihrem Blog "Ist Weibsvolk anwesend?!" 2-jaehriges Jubilaeum und nimmt dies zum Anlass eine Blogparade zu veranstalten.
Thema ist "Weiberkram"...dazu hatte ich gleich eine ganze Menge an Ideen.

Ein Blick ins Badezimmer hat mich dann jedoch ueberzeugt!

(...uebrigens sind das fast alles die Schaumbaeder meines Mannes...also fast schon ein ironischer Beitrag zum Thema Weiberkram?!?)

Freitags-Füller 19

Ist denn tatsächlich schon mehr als der halbe September rum?

Ich habe ein Rezept für einen gedeckten Apfelkuchen gefunden, und gestern hab ich es nachgebacken - mal gespannt wie er geworden ist.

Am 6. November 2012 habe ich noch nichts konkret geplant, werde in Wiesbaden sein.

Wenn ich die Massen an grellen orangenen Kunstkürbissen und Plastikblättern sehe, dann hab ich es nicht so mit der Herbstdekoration.

Socken an den Füßen gab es nun seit Monaten nicht aber zumindest die letzten Abende daheim hab ich nachgegeben.

Hmm...wie könnte der Titel meines Lebens lauten. "Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin"?

Was das Wochenende angeht, heute Abend freue ich mich auf entspannen, fertig packen und Vorhänge nähen, morgen habe ich meinen routinierten Mainz Trip geplant inkl. Mittagessen beim Thai...und abends flieg ich gen London und Sonntag möchte ich geistig erstmal in England ankommen und mal schauen was wir so machen!

Liebster Award

The lovely Miu has given me the "Liebster Award".

I feel honoured and send a big thank you over to her.
As I´m aware that many bloggers are not into the whole award thing I won´t pass it on, but: As I can be quite egocentric I will still tell you 11 things about me followed by answering Miu´s 11 questions.

In order to avoid the dreadful "I" at the beginning of each sentence I listed 11 things that I´m quite keen on.

I like...

•  my feet
•  white lilies
•  Jaques Brel
•  marzipan
•  wandering through London on my own, without a map
•  to become a godmum one day
•  making a good bargain
•  the smell of Lush shops
•  chai tea
•  watching ballet warm-ups & rehearsals
•  pixie crops

1. What's your favourite song at the moment?
The "title" song from the musical Rebecca which I saw on saturday in Stuttgart.

2. Would you like to change something about your body?
I´m a big girl and, no, it´s not just heavy bones. 
I´m wobbly, I´m pale, my hair is as straight and thin as anything and the first wrinkles make their appearance on my forehead. So, yeah, of course it would be quite pleasing to be changed into Sophie Dahl or Christina Hendricks . 
But on the other side, I don´t really give a shit. I´m happy, have a husband and friends, I´m fit enough to walk 20km without any problems and can still find clothes which I like. It´s not something I think about a lot really.

3. Which country would you like to visit?
I wouldn´t rule out any country and I´m sure it all can be amazing and, at least, teach you new things. But countries that simply attract me for no obvious reason? Russia, India, Easter Island (aka Chile), Finland 

4. Who would you take with you to a desert island?
As my direct family consists of exactly 2 people it would be my husband and my dad...and Tiger the cat of course.


5. What's your facourite scent?
apart from various perfumes...autumn leaves in the sun, cinnamon, dill, basil, lavender, olives, forest, steam trains

6. What is your favourite season?
spring and autumn...precisely, the first day in winter when the air smells of spring and the first hints of autumn in a summer breeze. I started to deeply hate winter!

7. A product you would not like to live without?
Of course you don´t wanna hear anything like oxygen or water now so...hmm...clothes...a wi-fi box...a laptop...tooth paste...impossible to reduce it down to one item.

8. What language would you like to learn?
perfect French...fluent Finnish...Dutch, Russian, Italian, Irish Gaelic

9. Do you have an idol?
not really an idol but people I admire are the Queen and Christoph Schlingensief - what a mix ;-)


10. Do you play an instrument?
the recorder...a bit poor really. But I own an out-of-tune piano!


11. If you could change one thing in the world - what would it be?
a cure for every disease

the museum of love

Last friday my husband and I had the opportunity and honour to shoot another good friend´s wedding which took place in a charming little museum...it was great fun and a very relaxed, sunny day.
Good to have a chance to get to grips with the new camera before what seems to be THE year to get married (at least it looks like that when I have a look into my 2013 calendar...).
There is still a lot of room for improvement but I´m working on it...and I absolutely love working on it so keep the wedding invitations coming in :-)