Zuhause in Germany

Road Trip 2014: On the Road Again

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 07:52:00 +0000

We've been on the road for a while now. Last year I had my first taste of Italy and was determined to return, so return we have. Here are a few snapshots from last year:

That's me waving: See you soon!

A Summer Wedding: Pt 3

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 13:53:00 +0000

At the reception flowers bloomed and laughter carried out over the water. The seating chart was a map: find your home and you'd find your table number. Pretty girls wore pretty dresses and boys wore boutonnieres. The wedding cake was made of donuts, because why not? Lights twinkled, the music played, and we all danced long into the summer night. Everybody agreed it was worth the trip.

See Part 1 and Part 2.

Kitsch Kitchen in Amsterdam

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 09:32:00 +0000

I had heard the rumors, seen the blog posts, scoured the website, but really nothing prepares you for the visual onslaught that is Kitsch Kitchen in the Jordaan neighborhood of Amsterdam. Pretty much everything I loved about this shop, my husband hated. Shocker. But we did find a few things we both liked. In any case, LOTS to see here! Most of it reminded me of stuff I used to see in Mexican border towns, but there were definitely more than a few other influences at work. Check it out:

Such a fun stop! I basically wanted one of everything you see, but there's just no way to justify the purchase of so much *stuff*, so I took pictures instead! Still, a part of me regrets not grabbing some of that black and white oilcloth -so many fun projects could be made with that, right?

I highly recommend stopping by Kitsch Kitchen if you ever head to Amsterdam. And if Amsterdam's not on your upcoming agenda, check out their website (with online shopping)!

A Summer Wedding: Pt 2

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 13:01:00 +0000

An elegant white dress and a big smile can make any bride lovely, and a smashing belt can spin some magic, but true beauty really does come from the heart. It shines through a smile, making skin glow and eyes sparkle. Even the most bashful of grooms can't hide an open heart on his wedding day -and it's a good thing, too!

See Part 1; stay tuned for Part 3!

Cats & Coffee in Amsterdam

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 07:29:00 +0000

This past spring we camped out at a cafe in Amsterdam for a while and were greeted by this fellow. He was the friendliest of cats, purring and cuddly, and looking to make a friend or two. The sunny window seat had beckoned to us both, so he hopped up next to me and settled in for a while.

Eventually he decided to take a snooze, and all our drink-fidgeting sent him in search of a quieter corner. It looks like he settled in just fine. There's something about that, right? Something simple and easy: Let's be friends, but I'll give you space when you need it. I think there's a lesson in that.

Here's to travels and cafes, cats and friendships.

A Summer Wedding: Pt. 1

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 13:16:00 +0000

Earlier this year an invitation arrived in the mail. It wasn't for just anybody's wedding, it for was for an extra special wedding, the kind you simply can't miss, no matter what corner of the globe you call home. And so people came...from everywhere.

The important part was the being there, so things were kept simple. A little white wooden church by the sea, summer blooms, friends pitching in to decorate, and just enough sparkle to set the day apart.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Waving Your Flag

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 13:49:00 +0000

Little people and little flags. I had a fun time visiting these two in the USA over July 4, the same day that Germany played an important World Cup game. There were two flags to wave and lots of reasons to cheer!

To the Flower Market

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 13:32:00 +0000

It’s Saturday, the main market day in town, and the day before your mother-in-law’s birthday. At 11am the hordes are out and the lines for the public elevators up the hill into the old city are long. A wait is better than 8 flights of stairs, and once at the top you make your way to the end of the hallway and out into the old city. Passing endless cafes, shoppers, university students, and day trippers from area villages, you make your way to the Markt, the heart of the Oberstadt.

Your goal is the flower market, nestled in the heart of the square under the looming façade of the old city hall. You’re looking for just the right flowers for your mother-in-law’s birthday, one of the traditional birthday gifts in Germany, so no pre-made bouquet will do; those are standard hostess gifts. A florist asks your price and then follows your waving hands, plucking blooms from tubs balanced on uneven cobblestones.

Once the parts of the puzzle have been selected, you follow the florist to their work table, the top of which is covered with tools of the trade while the lower shelf features a modest basket carrying a lunch sack and a thermos of coffee. You watch as the florist quickly assembles the bouquet before deftly binding it together with twine. Straggling stems are snipped and the bouquet is wrapped in paper. You pay with cash, thank the florist, and once again blend into the crowds.

By now you’ve run into multiple friends, coworkers, and even some students you teach. You’ve watched café owners begin preparations for tonight’s World Cup game. Germany will play and the cafes will fill to overflowing, especially those who set up big screen televisions both indoors and out (most of them!). You contemplate coming back again in the evening, debating between your comfortable sofa and the camaraderie in the city streets.

Lines for the elevators back down the hill deter you, leading you to take a little-known stairwell further down the hillside. It’s one the monks used in centuries prior, and one cats and drunks frequent today. The stairwell takes you under the wall surrounding Germany’s oldest Protestant university, down the hillside, and to the modern street where you’ve parked your car. The flowers need water, so you make your way home, the venture deemed a success.

What are you up to this weekend?

Color Rush: Tulips

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Fri, 23 May 2014 15:23:00 +0000

I found myself switching out the down comforter late the other night because, hello, summer weather has suddenly shown up! And while it's fun to get excited about the warmer weather, I'm already missing the sublimeness that was this year's spring. Good thing I can relive it a bit by flipping through pictures from our trip to the Netherlands last month. Oh tulips (and Keukenhof), I love you!

Book Club: The Luminaries

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 13 May 2014 15:58:00 +0000

It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.

So reads the blurb on the back of Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries. The story was incredible, definitely deserving of the Man Booker Prize it won. It was also unbelievably long and complex. This lead to several things:

1) I was in perpetual awe that this behemoth was written by the youngest author to be awarded the Man Booker, 28 year-old Eleanor Catton (though it did take her 5 years to write...so maybe that's even more awe-inducing?!). It's size made it unwieldly to read in bed and almost embarrassing to read in public, thanks to it's similarity in size to trashy romance novels (however, The Luminaries is much bigger at 832 pages). I took the paperback version with me on a few trips and, without fail, every person who saw me reading did a double-take.

2) Everybody in my book club is known for being able to plow through books, but not this one. We all needed to push back our discussion date! The author really did an amazing job of telling the story in a kind of 19th century language. Sometimes the prose was so dense I felt like I was bushwhacking through a jungle, other times it was simply the length that was bogging me down. Either way, this book is not beach reading material.

3) The complexity of this book's structure blew me away again and again and again. Wow. The shape of a piece of writing is something that fascinates me, and this novel was a true piece of art with regards to structure. The story is so intricate that it can be confusing until you hit a point where certain things fall into place enough to motivate you to keep reading to see how the next pieces of the puzzle will come together.

Catton used star charts from the late 1860's to create her framework, saying in an interview in The Lumiere Reader, "I chose each star chart deliberately, with a view to how I could use it, and I relaxed my hold wherever I needed to. I painted myself into a corner a great many times, and was often stuck for weeks, frustrated, staring at the pattern...". She was dedicated to her framework, and it shows.

That said, the complexity of it all made for a fun book club discussion. It also presented ample ideas for setting the table that night: smuggled gold dust, a fortune from the Aurora mine, the green of the pounamu, and the setting of a sham seance.

If you like reading through puzzles, then this might be a book for you. The length of the book definitely makes it more of a commitment, but then again, commitment often has its rewards.

Have you read The Luminaries, or is it on your to-read list? What are you reading now?

Dutch Wheels

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:13:00 +0000

Last week's jaunt to the Netherlands brought us face to face with one of the world's most bike-oriented cultures. So it seemed fitting to share some of the fun on Earth Day.

Have you ever balanced a load on the front of a bike? I have a noticeably harder time when my front basket is filled, so I can't even imagine steering with the large plastic milk-type crates (filled!) that most Dutch bikes seem to feature, let alone maneuvering with one of the cargo bikes!

Also impressive were the numbers of child seats I would see on any given bike. Children could not only ride on the back of the bike, but also up front by the handlebars. Fathers and mothers would go whizzing by with babies and toddlers perched just behind the handlebars. And no, helmets were a rare sight on anybody...

What I do appreciate, though, is the fact that nearly every bike shows a bit of personality. Things like a teen's neon cargo crate, a red polka-dotted bell or a brightly painted luggage rack on an otherwise black bike, or -most fun- bikes featuring fun, brightly patterned oilcloth bike bags. I wish I could've justified getting a set for myself! Also popular were strings of plastic flowers woven around the handlebars. A little too kitschy for my taste, but totally fun nonetheless. And frankly, we could all use a little more fun, right?

Seeing all the cyclists in the Netherlands reminded me of how little I've been riding my own bike lately. I need to get out there more often! Any of you regularly ride a bike? Do you pimp your bike in any way? I have practical red bike bags on my otherwise black bike. Sort of something, but not as fun as I'd want. Maybe I need to do a little crafting to get me motivated (b/c the hill we live on is less than motivating, ha!).

Fabric Collage Banner: Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 04:00:00 +0000

"Der Herr is auferstanden!"

"Er ist wahrhaftig auferstanden!"

"The Lord is risen!"

"He is risen indeed!"

Frohe Ostern! // Happy Easter!

The Transfer Process (TAP and creativity)

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 06:00:00 +0000

I've been working on a project with a friend that is multi-layered and will end up as a kind of workshop. It involves concept design, project development, and personal reflection. It also involves material preparation, so I've been playing around with Lesley Riley's TAP (Transfer Artist Paper), a paper you can (inkjet) print, draw, or paint on, and then iron onto a variety of surfaces. I've been using it to print text and images and then iron them onto fabric, which is probably its most common use. It really is good stuff, but then again, I've never tried any other brand.

If you've never used TAP, then here are my top two tips:

1) Cut your image from the transfer sheet as close to the edge of the image as possible, shaving the edges as close as you dare. This prevents a clear polymer 'outline' of your image from adhering to your final surface.

2) You can't over-iron TAP, so when in doubt, just keep on ironing. Just don't scorch your surface in the meantime! That word 'joy' up there took me less than 30 seconds, FYI.

But prepping fabric with TAP images has only helped create part of the project materials. A second transfer process will be needed in order to finish the project, and still another to use/share the project. The second transfer process is all about tangibly expressing a personal experience in a collage format using the supplies on hand. I think the physical expression of an abstract concept is the hardest transfer to make, especially for those who may have limited experience with collage. In fact, I think this is the hardest part about creating anything...getting to the point where your creation matches your vision, and/or knowing when to let the creating process eclipse the vision you initially had.

The final transfer process isn't so much about the creator as it is about the person who may ultimately look at the creation. What is their experience like? Or even, how important is the viewer's experience to the creator? Perhaps that should be answered first! Sometimes I look at artwork and see a very clear message, other times I'm totally flabbergasted. I think my favorite experiences are where I see multiple possibilities; even better are the times when I get to talk to the creators about their creation. Many deliberately choose to only partially transfer their ideas into clear messages so as to create an opportunity for dialogue. And dialogue is actually a goal for these finished projects, so perhaps if that idea-to-project transfer isn't as complete as it could be, dialogue could still be inspired.

So yes, the wheels have been turning lately! I have a million ideas on other ways to use this TAP stuff, but those will have to wait until this workshop is behind me!

I'm curious, have you ever used TAP? If so, how have you used it? And if you create things, what's your idea-to-project transfer process like? I definitely like clear messages when it comes to my work, but my art...not so much. Are you more of a 'give a clear message' kind of creator, or something else?

Fantasy Urlaub

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 06:00:00 +0000

What is it about magazines that we still buy them? I mean, despite the amazingness of the internet there is still something about flipping through the pages. In addition to the dragon fruit, I also recently picked up the April issue of Schöner Wohnen. It wasn't until I got home and flipped it open, that my eye caught the corner of a picture and I instantly knew where it was, and not just because I'd seen it once before. No, by following a blog I had actually watched this space get designed, built, and decorated over the years.

Peacock Pavilions is in Morocco, specifically Marrakesh. In addition to hosting private travelers, this space is also rented out to creative retreats (painters, bloggers, etc.). The stencils used by the Royal Design Studio team (literally everywhere in this place; see the stair risers, below) just blow my mind! The architecture and collection of furniture aren't too shabby, either.

It's places like this that end up on my fantasy Urlaub (lit. 'vacation') list. What's on your fantasy vacation list?

The Dragon's Fruit

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 11:08:00 +0000

The big news in our town is that a new grocery store opened this week. This says so much, right? So of course I had to join the masses to see what it looked like, but I waited until a day after opening because I'm cool like that...not at all. I ran into one of my book club friends and we simultaneously geeked out over the increased cheese selection (guess what book club is really all about). I then proceeded to buy things I don't need simply because selection! everything looks pretty! opening week sales! all the Germans are smiling! (I kid, sort of) and did I mention selection?

Anyhow, so I had to bring home a dragon fruit because selection! and it was the first time I'd seen one since forever. My best and only memory of eating dragon fruit was years ago in Guatamala. I was on a business trip of sorts and was flat out exhausted. It was pouring rain and we were sweating under our raincoats, meaning misery multiplied. Somebody spotted what looked like a hot dog cart piled with bright pink dragon fruit. So we decide to buy some and the guy cuts them open for us and I'm just amazed because this was the first time I'd actually seen a dragon fruit, much less seen what one looked like inside. And folks, it was b.r.i.g.h.t., like neon bright! And somehow just looking at these things and marveling that we were eating something this color made us supremely HAPPY. They also tasted amazing.

Now not every type of dragon fruit is bright pink on the inside, in fact, most are white with black seeds. I have a feeling that's what I'll find this time around. But after reading up on them, it looks like I need to wait a bit for mine to ripen. Apparently all the lovely green bits are supposed to get brown and gross before the inside is at it's best. I think we can find a nice metaphor for life there, or ?

As much as I had fun playing with my new camera to get these pictures, I wanted some kind of accompanying text, and this week's prompt of 'writer' was just the motivation I needed to get me into gear. Writing is something I enjoy, and something I want to continue to explore, much like photography. I think that while a picture can often say so much, sometimes there's more to the story than meets the eye.

Have you ever had dragon fruit? Is writing a 'thing' for you? Anybody else geek out over new grocery stores? (j/k on the last one, actually, no really, I want to know!)

Smartphones, I'm just not that into you.

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Spring has arrived and along with the first blooms has come my first DSLR camera. Anybody else upgrade their camera lately? This camera has been a long time coming, like a really long time. Towards the end of the story the box was held up for me in front of a Skype camera on Christmas Day, but it took still another 3 months until I could hold it with my own hands.

And boy did it feel good to have a camera big enough to really hold on to! To say I was excited would be an understatement. I'd been told that you're ready for a better camera when you've really maxed out your current camera; this was so true for me. Part of the reason my blogging went down last year is because my creativity levels tanked. I was feeling so limited camera-wise; I knew the photos I wanted to take, but wasn't able to take them with my point-and-shoot.

However, a good camera doesn't automatically take good photos. I have to keep reminding myself of this, despite having taken an intro class and reading a great little book. The new camera has a lot of bells and whistles that I'm just not used to yet. It's sort of like my mobile phone situation. I don't have a smartphone -am I the last person in the western world with a dumb phone?! The end result just hasn't impressed me enough to justify the means (mainly price). I had my first smartphone -a newish iPhone- when I was in the US last month, so I got to be a cool kid for two weeks. But I was nonplussed; it was too bulky for me, required seemingly constant charging, had an annoying keyboard, and I was too busy to take the time to figure out all it could do for me, never mind the radiation levels of an iPhone. So smartphones, I'm just not that into you.

New camera? Yes, you are worth it. I'm happy to take the time to get used to you. You will make me want to go outside more, help sharpen my brain as I get creative, increase my knowledge as I learn about the science of how to take better photos, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And new 50mm 1.4 lens? I think we're going to get along just fine as well. You've already helped dark German days seem so much brighter.

What about you? Do you enjoy photography? What are your favorite places for learning new tips and tricks? Any favorite online photography classes you've enjoyed?

PS: Special thanks to Tracey and Tina for their thoughts and encouragement on the camera upgrade. Both take lovely photos, check them out!

Arrival

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:41:00 +0000

A little quote hanging on my office wall.

I'm so happy to be in the throes of spring! Everything feels fresh and ready for new adventures. We didn't have much of a spring last year, and this year's was delayed for me as I traveled back to the US for a couple of weeks. It was still so cold there (think big winter coat-cold!) that it was almost like going back in time. Of course this meant that coming back to Germany was especially nice; winter was sloughed off. I'm looking forward to some new projects and (hopefully) being around here a little more often.

What are you looking forward to this spring?

Snippets

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 10:23:00 +0000

Adorable office supplies from Present & Correct

Just a few snippets of reading that might interest you this weekend:

1. Animoto lets you send a video card using your own photos. I made a Valentine for my nieces this way.

2. The shape and structure of writing is a topic that fascinates me. Here's a visual on personal essay structures.

3. On resisting the selfie culture.

4. One of the worst commercials ever is being discussed.

5. LOLmyThesis.com

6. A low-tech method to stay happy + productive.

7. Overcoming creative blocks (really good).

Have a great weekend!

Lock and Key

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 10:37:00 +0000

How are you with campy movies? Last weekend we had a friend visiting from the US, a friend who speaks great German, and we were talking about campy German movies of the Til Schweiger ilk. These movies are usually equal parts funny, awkward, and inappropriate. We were watching a trailer and a line stuck out to me: "Liebe ist nichts für Feiglinge" (lit. 'love is not for cowards'). And it struck me just how true that statement is.

Yesterday I read this Atlantic article about a Marriage 101 course one of America's top research universities offers (yes, really). Its focus wasn't on how to find the right partner, but rather on communication skills and knowing yourself and what you bring to a relationship, with the premise that this will significantly help your relationships. And again I thought, so true.

Until you are brave enough to know yourself, including your limitations, I don't think you can bring too much to a relationship. Granted, this can take some time, but you also have to be strong enough to keep caring for the other person, despite their weaknesses; the closer you get to a person, the easier it is to see their flaws. Love really isn't for cowards.

Last summer we found ourselves in Verona, Italy. There in the fabled Capulet courtyard you can find scores of tourists (and probably a few pickpockets) surrounded by statements of love. Most of these are consumerist trappings made in China, but there are also the heartfelt notes and letters written or posted on the walls, or jammed into crevices. In a variety of languages some declared their love, some begged for it, and some grieved it. An iron gate is covered by engraved padlocks, keyless now that the love they represent has been proclaimed everlasting. Strong.

There is nothing factual about this symbolic setting, and apparently the walls are cleared regularly for maintenance, but there is an odd inspiration hanging in the air. This place is a memorial to love and there's something strong about that, despite the tacky trinket shops and camera-toting tourists (myself included). But really I think the strongest part, the part that meant the most to me, was being there with my husband and just looking through all the pink and the plastic and the tourism to see what was true love.

True love isn't for cowards, and yet it is for the weak. In many ways it's like a three-legged race: it takes some getting used to, and sometimes there are tumbles, but you're in it together. It's also a garden that takes tending, a spot to be treasured and cared for. And in this way I find it transcends the relationship typified on Valentine's Day and in Giulietta's Verona courtyard.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

These words, which are so often read at weddings, were actually written to a mixed group of people reminding them to care for each other -to love each other- despite their differences. I find them convicting. It's not easy to love like this, but it's easy to wish to be loved like this. And yes, some people are easier to love, some less so. But today I'm asking myself -and maybe you, too- not who do I love, but how do I love?

(this post was outlined & drafted, but not completed, in five minutes for this writing challenge)

Pink Treats to Eat

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 09:47:00 +0000

1 / 2 / 3

Virtual food consumption in the form of a digital blog post. Caution: Excellent photography and easy recipes may lead to actual calorie consumption. I'm tempted to try the homemade Kit-Kat bars or one of the red velvet confections: a no-bake cheesecake or the sandwich cookies. Which would you choose?

Valentine's Day is barely celebrated here in Germany, but we usually do something small. This year I'm entertaining the idea of making a sweet treat and then sharing the results with our neighbors to help keep the calorie count down in our own home.

What about you? Is Valentine's Day celebrated in your area? How do you celebrate the day?

Reading Writing & Writing Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 12:33:00 +0000

Image source

Reading writing is pretty common in this house. There's a book club, stacks of student assignments (especially now at the end of the semester, hello!), journal articles to edit, blogs to read, and so on. But writing writing...that's something else. I want to write, but I don't have time. Nobody has time for anything, right? We're all busy. But I guess it's time for this teacher to take some of her own instruction, namely "Everybody's busy and nobody has any time, I know, but everybody has priorities. Your writing needs to be high on your priority list."

I also give my students a list of file formatting requirements which are, if I'm honest, pretty obnoxious for them, no matter that they make my life infinitely easier. After listing the requirements I further annoy them with the statement, "They say it takes 30 days to form a habit. We have a semester. Let's make it a good one!" I'm rolling my own eyes at this statement...I am definitely annoying!

But there's truth in that. Writing takes discipline, and disciplines have to be a priority. And sometimes you also need a little accountability and structure to get the ball rolling. I've recently joined a small writing group to help hold me accountable to my writing goals. One of these goals is to post here at least once weekly. This forces me to show up and write something. Bam. I did it.

::STOP::

I also decided to attempt a five-minute writing challenge this week and the timer literally went off after I typed "I did it." Love that. Also, the writing prompt for this week was 'writing'. Kind of perfect timing on both counts!

Anybody else a fan of writing writing? Or are you more of a reading writing sort of person? What things do you do to help you form a new habit and/or hold you accountable?

I can't really say

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 14:59:00 +0000

llustration by the talented Allan Deas for Lufthansa's recent promotional. Paris and Hong Kong were my favorites illustrations, but I couldn't find out who did the Hong Kong one.

So I recently read this article about the death of blogs, talking about things I'd had a sneaky suspicion about anyhow, but now they seemed more official because somebody with a bigger readership wrote about them. I'm sure the topics of 'validation' and 'self-worth' could have a field day with that statement, but I digress.

I was then led to this article talking about the stream of digital information and how we are (or aren't) processing it. And as somebody who's been blogging since 2007, well, it made perfect sense to me. This is probably the main reason why Google said farewell to Reader. Except that I also came to the conclusion that regardless of what's going on out in the interwebs or whether world governments are reading my emails, I still like the idea of blogs, both reading them and writing one.

So I'm here.

Showing up.

Just doing my thing at my speed (which, as the semester draws to a close, means anything not work-related is going pretty slow). Showing up here again is a bit like waking up from a kind of hibernation. I think Allison and Kelly might be feeling the same way.

I can't really say where this will go, but it'll go. Just slow. And random, probably.

PS- Like the new dark gray post titles and links? Carrie's been rocking her awesome customer service skills. Have I mentioned how speedy this lady is?

Read: A Town Like Alice

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 07:00:00 +0000

A book that is as much about economic development as it is about war and romance is something of a novelty. That it was a page-turner was an added bonus. I recently read Nevile Shute's 'A Town Like Alice' for my book club and found myself pleasantly surprised. The social and economic development aspect of the story is pretty significant and, aside from any Barbara Kingsolver books, a topic that's not typically found in my usual fiction reading.

As I read through the fairly long book I found myself thinking that the epic nature of the story would really lend itself nicely to a miniseries. An internet search quickly informed me that Australian television had indeed made it into a miniseries back in the 1980's (and you can watch it all online here). Though some of the story was significantly changed -and here I have to interrupt wondering as to WHY must this happen? Especially with a miniseries where they have more time than the average movie length?! I digress...

In any case, I realized I had to do a post on the book/miniseries simply because they had the most darling curtains in the film. Yes, really. See the blue polka dots up there? I love it! Perhaps it's a large dotted swiss? Maybe just a regular decorator's fabric? I don't know, but I love it. I also love those three birds on the wall, which remind me of these pretty porcelain birds you can find over in Dunja's shop.

The story takes place in the jungles of Malaysia, downtown London, and in the rural Australian Outback. It really is epic in the true sense of the word. More bonus points in the film version for the lovely 1950's costumes and the stockman's standards: hat and duster (J.Peterman anybody?).

What about you? Read anything good lately? I'm currently wading through a German history book that is less fun than was promised, but I'm determined to get through it! What should be my reward for getting through it?

Pardon the dust...

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 10:39:00 +0000

Instead of resolving to do something, why not just go ahead and DO it? Or at least make some real steps towards getting something done (because doing something sometimes takes some doing)?

I'm throwing out the lists this year, although they've had their place in my past. 2014 is about grabbing the bull by the horns and getting stuff done. I think another aspect will be recognizing when to do something that's 'good enough' and not spending forever agonizing over unnecessary details. Major on the majors, minor on the minors.

One major thing I've been wanting to do is revamp this blog's design. For like ever. In November I won some free design work and agonized over what I wanted this space to look like. I had lists of ideas and couldn't make a decision (anybody else like this?). So it didn't get done.

Then I decided to just pull the trigger on Jan 2. Is it perfect? No. I'm going to live in this skin for a bit before deciding where to make some tweaks. But it's good enough for now. And you know what? Sometimes 'good enough' is enough to propel you along into the space where you can actually make decisions about the fine points.

The especially nice thing about this 'good enough' design is that it's actually quite good. Props to Carrie over at Carrie Loves design studio, who, funnily enough, I paid to revamp my first (now defunct) blog ever back in 2007. Since she's been in the biz for so long, you know she knows her stuff. You should check out her website and Etsy shop. She's got a good eye for design and is awesome about speedy communication.

Last summer we drove through the Alps and explored northeastern Italy. The photo above is what we saw at the start of our journey. Sometimes we weren't sure if our car was up to the task, but it ended up doing marvelously. Sounds a little like me and this blog, ahem. What about you? Anybody still here? What are you DOING in 2014?

Super Fast Food: Chicken and Pine Nut Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 11:07:00 +0000

We recently tried this recipe...and loved it. Loved it as in we both agreed it needs to be part of our regular meal rotation. That kind of love. Cheap, fast, easy, fresh, different, but with no weird stuff. We need more food like this in our life, maybe you need something like this in yours? Chicken with pine nut sauce: Give it a try and tell me what you think!

*Picture from Stone Soup*