From Bavaria, Christmas decorations…

Walking in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, they had so many beautiful Xmas scenes in the windows. Look at this one of the Angel orchestra, how clever.

Another nice touch, they decorate with small Christmas trees outside their homes. They have electric candles on the trees. In the old days, they actually used real lit candles.

Here you have stuffed bears in the windows. This was a Teddy Bear shop.

This was such a simple tree. I’ve always liked hearts, what a great idea! The red felt hearts stand out because of the light wood. I would do this.

This was interesting, so earthy the way they decorated their window with wood, etc. The cakes, I didn’t touch them, but they look like hardened sand, clay or concrete? 

I fell in love with their door stops. I haven’t seen these in America, but I don’t think we have as heavy doors as they have. Where we stayed, in a charming old home, they had different door stops on each door. This HOME was on ours, but there was a cat that I liked.

As I walked the neighborhood, I came across a sewing store. She had patterns of a reindeer door stop. Of course, I had to buy it and a pattern for a cute bear, I bought that too.

So, there you have it. Another quick visit around Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

I have to say, it did get me in the mood to decorate, make Christmas fun in a NEW way!

Have a great weekend!

Merry Christmas! 

International cleaning day, Spanish flamenco dresses and more…

IMG_1968Sometimes there just isn’t time to write, we’ve got to get other things done. I thought I’d give you a smile today. I’ve decided that TODAY is International Cleaning Day!

Who says cleaning is boring? Last year I had to move and with that means going through storage and making that “big” decision on what we keep and what we give away. What’s interesting with storage is that we forget what we have in there.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when I opened a box that had two small flamenco dresses inside. That brought back a nice memory. I had bought those dresses in Spain for my daughters with a fan and dangling earrings to match. This was when they were small, of course, and I used to dress them up.

IMG_0474Next I found a beautiful dress that my mother bought during her travels in Afghanistan/Pakistan area. She thinks it was a wedding dress that someone was selling. You can see how beautiful it is with the embroidery!

One more find, a polar bear! I couldn’t part with him, so as I washed the dresses I put him in the wash too. He came out super fluffy from the dryer!

As I am finishing this article, I think it would be GREAT to have a post on International traditional costumes from different countries. Each country is unique and beautiful!

Now… back to laundry!