Ikea Hacking

So as you know living in Germany limits your resources for buying home goods, there is no Target, Restoration Hardware, or Pottery Barn and with the outrageous prices/euro to dollar ratio most non-chains are a little pricey. Well what is a girl to do...go to Ikea!

I am sure you have realized by now that almost all of our home accessories and furniture, except the stuff left from Grandma are from Ikea. It is a relatively inexpensive solution to most decorating needs. Sometimes it is not the cutest solution I have ever seen, which brings me to the point of this post. I have been making a few alterations and what I like to think of as improvements to my Ikea products. (For more inspiration of "Ikea Hacking" check out this website: http://www.ikeahackers.net/)

First off, our bedroom trash can. A simple white wicker basket that I got for about 5 Euros. It did the job, but it felt a little cheap because the wicker is semi-plasticy and shiny.

Before Ikea Basket

So I decided to add a little fabric (I bought a cheap fitted sheet in France that I have used on 3 baskets) and some ribbon that I got on sale when a fabric store was closing!

After

Here is where she sits. Not bad for a trash can.

Bedroom Corner....the Bedroom MakeOver is coming soon...just have to finish the pillow for the bed!

Next up are two cork boards that you have seen before in the Guest Room MakeOver. They were a cheap office solution for 4.99 each, but they lacked a little something.

Before Ikea Cork Board

To blend them in with the room I decided to paint the wooden frame green and add some fabric (that I also got when the fabric store was closing for 3 Euros a yard). To get a vibrant green I first primed the frame with white and then added a second coat of the green. I am pretty happy with the result.

Sorry for the poor lighting, I took these at night!

Once I got rolling with the "hacks" I couldn't stop myself. I picked up a cheap serving tray from Ikea last time I was there for 8 euros and decided that there was too much wood in our apartment already.

Wooden Ikea Tray Before

Solution: paint it and add fabric (are you seeing a pattern here?). I went with light grey since we had it leftover from the bathroom and added a striped fabric that blends the colors from our living room together. I still need to do a light sanding on it and glue the edges of the fabric down, but you get the idea. 

After

Thanks Doziers for the great cups, I use them all the time!

I am not sure the fourth "hack" really counts but I will share with you anyways. First I have to confess I am semi-obsessed with Pinterest and got this idea from there, so I am not taking credit. I was looking up fall decorations and came across a great wreath tutorial that looked semi easy so I gave it a try. I did not have any linen fabric (that is what the tutorial called for), but I did have some leftover Ikea curtain material. I decided I would try it first with material I had since it could turn out really ugly and I did not want to invest to much on a DIY project.

I started with a wire hanger and bent it into a ring (this was not as easy as you would think). Next I ripped my leftover white fabric into 3 inch strips (approximately) and started making the wreath. Basically no skill is required, all you do is punch the fabric onto the hanger making 3 inch folds back and forth. As I was going I started twisting the fabric in between folds and decided I liked the texture better along with needing less fabric to fill up the wire. After about 15 minutes my wreath was assembled and I added another scrap of material as a bow. Not the greatest thing I have ever made, but not bad for scraps!

FinIshed Wreath: sorry for the poor picture quality again (night time).

Well hope you enjoyed the Hacking and let me know if you come up with any of your own.

Put on your armor!

We put one of these pictures in our August update, but they are all so funny I had to add them to the blog. The past year we have had children's church during the sermon portion of the service and they just finished a three week study on "the armor of God." We had to get a little creative since church supplies is hard to find in Germany, but I think it turned out okay!

Here they are all dressed and ready. You can see the "Boots" would have been really effective!

The second one from the right is a girl...it may be hard to tell in all the gear.

They were very serious! 

I am not sure if Sebastian (far left) ever figured out what he was doing up there.

We got a little out of control when they started "battling" in their armor but no one was hurt.

Hope you like the pictures!

Green Eggs and I'm Hammered!

If you know Stephen very well, you are aware that he has friends from everywhere in every city and places he has never even lived....really it is truly a gift to be so like-able. So today you can meet one of his favorite people John McArthur, or as we call him Max! 

Max, a professional concert pianist, doctor, published author, professor, landscape architect, and all together renaissance man is one of Stephen's best friends. You may wonder how a farm boy from New York got to know a brilliant Jamaican pianist, it is not an everyday occurrence. Well in between Max playing concerts in China, France, Spain, South Korea....etc, etc, he was a professor at Stephen's alma mature, Nyack College. I am still not clear on how Stephen, the baseball playing history major came to meet the music professor, but needless to say he did and there are many a story to be told about escaping night security by jumping into poor Max's window at 1 am. I will let you ask Stephen details about that one. 

So now to the reason for this post. Max....or in author terms, John G. McArthur got a cookbook published....did I mention he is an amazing cook?! When Rob Piscatelli went home a while back he was fortunate enough to pick us up a copy. The cookbook (which is dedicated to Stephen...he smiled for an hour when he saw that) is a guide for beginners and could really be read as a comedy with all the creative titles and instructions. For example if you pick up a copy you will see "Piscatelli's Lopsided Meatballs" and many other hilarious titles including one with Stephen's name in it!

Okay, now to the point. In honor of Max getting his cookbook published we decided we should make some of the recipes. Stephen's recipe was too hard to find the ingredients in Germany so we settled for a few of his breakfast items: "Kosher French Toast? Oi!" and "Slap Me, These Eggs are Sliggin' Cheddar!" We decided that Stephen was in charge of the eggs and I would take the french toast challenge. We gathered the ingredients as close to the recipe as possible (why Germany doesn't have cheddar cheese is beyond me...but that is another post) and got to cookin'!

Ingredients, sans Cheddar!

Stephen insisted we play Bob Marley in honor of Max while we cooked.

Excuse the outfit...it was early! War Eagle!!

Finished product with a side of bacon...we are so healthy!

It was delicious, thanks Max!

So there you have it, the tale of two hungry Americans in Germany without cheddar that still made some pretty good eggs with help from the one and only Max McArthur! And if you want to check out his music here is a link to his myspace page: John McArthur. Check it out!

MGMT Remix

Stephen and I have this song by MGMT on a random playlist and every time it comes on we can't stop singing. Just wanted to start your weekend off right with a remix! The little kids (no pun intended) in the front are hilarious! 

And if you are in the mood for another video, watch the Katy Perry "Fireworks" cover by the choir. The little girl that sings gave me goose bumps. Enjoy!

"George"......is that you?

Sorry for the absence, August was a busy month for us here in Germany. I had a three week vacation from language school so I tried to squeeze in as many little events as possible. I did a couple projects at home that I will put in the blog soon, we had some baseball games as usual, a few lunch guests, and the best part: our first family vacation to Lake Como, Italy (also known as George Clooney's summer home).

Lake Como is about a four hour drive from us that winds through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and every tunnel ever built....not really but kind of! I think we spent more time in tunnels than in the open air. It was my first experience with the The St. Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland. It is the third longest road tunnel in the world stretching 16.4 kilometers or in American terms, 10.5 miles. It took a long 25 minutes to drive through, but we made it to the other side safely. Praise God!

Imagine 25 minutes of nothing but this....glad that is over!

After a stressful drive through every tunnel and some of the smallest Italien roads I have ever seen, we reached our destination: Domaso, Italy. It is a small town in the north west corner of Lake Como and is the capital for Wind Surfing. We stayed in a camping site along the lake and rented a small bungalow for three nights. It turned out to be pretty nice and just enough room for us. 

Looks just like George's House, right?!?

The best part was that it was close to the water and who can beat that view?

In the afternoon we were able to rent a small power boat to ride around the lake and take in the sights. This was by far Stephen's favorite part of the trip...can you tell by the look on his face? 

It was a lot of fun riding with the wind in your face and soaking in the sunshine. I thought for sure this would be our chance to see you know who....George! 

Every big boat we saw we presumed George was probably on it; and I think we saw about 15 houses he "probably lives in!!" To no avail we did not see him while on the boat but we did enjoy the ride.

But don't worry, all hope was not lost for finding George....we took a day trip to another popular city on the lake, Bellagio. We opted for a ferry ride rather than risking our lives on the tiny Italian roads and safely arrived after an hour and a half. The ferry was fun to sit and look at all the port cities....we even saw what was probably "Goerge's Grandma's house".....I mean there was an old lady on the balcony, it had to be her right?

We walked around the streets and ate some pizza for lunch...we didn't want to be too full when George invited us to his villa for hors d'oeuvres. 

And yet even though we saved room, George did not call us! So we settled for a ferry ride home and a relaxing afternoon on the beach.

And to finish the night we played cards and kept all the over 65 crowd up laughing in our tiny bungalow. It was better than hanging out with George any day!

When we got home I was messing around on the computer and saw this:

The recently single actor (George) hosted a group of friends – including pals Cindy Crawford, her husband Rande Gerber, as well as his The Ides of March costars Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood – at his Lake Como, Italy, villa over the weekend. 

Hahahah!! It should have been us! Hope you all had a nice summer break!

Cultural Differences 002: Holidays

You may not know this being an American and all....I was pretty surprised myself to find it out, but Americans take the least amount of vacation days a year. 

When I first came to Germany I was always confused because about twice a month in the summer there was a federal holiday.....which us Americans (Stephen, Rob, Alex, and I) never took. People were constantly off from work and they never knew the reason.....they would say, "it is some religious holiday I think." I started to wonder if they were making up these holidays. Not to mention that Germans are also required to receive a minimum of 6 weeks....let me say that again...a MINIMUM of 6 weeks vacation a year! I know...shocking!

In America I would say it is normal to get 2 weeks vacation a year and if you have been with the company for a while up to 4 weeks, but no one actually uses all their vacation....am I right? I can't imagine a couple taking off 3 weeks at a time to travel around leave their job behind. Here in Germany if you do not take at least 3 weeks at one time you are not getting a real break. It is common for families to take off the entire month of August and many factories even shut down for months at a time. 

Here is a list of the Federal Holidays and they really take all of these:

Versus the American Federal Hoildays:  (although your business is free to make you work)

Alright, I just wanted to give you another cultural differences and let you know that August is not a good time to travel in Europe...be ready to fight the Germans for a hotel room!

Parking Lot Party!

July 6th was an important day here in Neuenburg...Claudine turned 26! She usually is against any kind of celebration but we talked her into a party this year and had a nice dinner in the "parking lot"! She wanted her grandmother to be able to attend so the only place that was big enough without stairs was the gravel parking lot in all it's beauty!

I made guacamole dip upon Claudine's request and must say it has become quite the hit here in Germany! I use a recipe from the Eastwood Cookbook (thank you Amylynne Blake) and just sub in whatever we have left in the refrigerator. It is a simple recipe that calls for avocado, onion, lime juice, sour cream, salsa, garlic, tomatoes, salt and pepper, and worcestershire sauce. Does anyone have a different recipe for guacamole dip?

Opening presents!

Andrea and Steffi

Janos!

yours truly...not sure why Stephen looks half asleep!?

Well there you have it...the parking lot party! Happy Birthday Claudine and thanks for having us!