may day

everybody's in a holiday mood - this year's may day falls on a friday, a looong week-end, hooray ... and the weather's holding! i will be wearing my sunglasses, a passion i've had from a very early age, as this photo proves. and isn't my mum wearing a very cool dress indeed?!

happy week-end!

glorious

it's so warm and sunny, early summer in april. today i heard on the radio that people are hoping for rain - people with gardens i guess, and farmers. i get their point and they are probably right, but for now i just enjoy and soak up the sunshine while it lasts.

stop and eat

much of these past few weeks has been really busy, to a point where just sitting down for a meal seemed like an extravagant luxury. i've become quite an expert at fixing quick eats, which i don't really like - i'd much rather take my time to prepare food, at best for a meal with friends. but sometimes...

i loved to start my mornings with some sweet buttered bread with raisins and a milky coffee. for lunch it was sandwiches. and i tried a spring version of scrambled eggs - using the basil flavoured olive oil a friend brought me back from a trip to the south of france and adding a generous handful of fresh, cut or torn basil into the mix. nice.

now, today is tuesday - which means tuesday dinner with a group of friends, a little tradition that has grown over the last year or so. tonight it's my turn to cook and i'm still undecided what to choose... but i'm so looking forward to it!

fleamarket finds

been to the fleamarket on arkonaplatz today. it's warm and sunny, everybody seems to be out. now the clouds are drawing in, wouldn't be surprised if we had a proper thunderstorm tonight.

here are my finds of today: a very pale pink dress, which i'm not sure i'm brave enough to actually wear, and a little purse. and some old photographs that may or may not inspire me to write a story.

more about the fleamarket over on mostly berlin.

hope you are having a good week-end yourselves.

gymnastics

spring is in the air and i remembered this vintage book i had sitting on my shelves somewhere. when i finally found it i was so delighted with it - a shame these days so few publishers work with two-colour line illustrations, it just works so well.

sadly, i have to admit my personal fitness regime has so far been limited to lifting the book and turning the pages...

p.s.: the book is from 1973, a special edition issued by one of the oldest german women's magazines, 'brigitte'. long out of print but available on abebooks.

busy times

when there's so much to do i have to remind myself there are things that let me take a deep breath - like stopping in my tracks, bending down and giving the cat a tickle. or standing still for a moment, looking out of the window. i think we should make it our duty to glaze over at least once a day...

another thing that definitely lifts the spirit: these diptychs from 3191 miles apart.

mornings

do you ever have mornings when you put off getting ready, but what you're really putting off is the decision what to put on? so pathetic, i know. but it kind of makes sense today, since sadly it's gotten much colder. as i don't want to spend the next few days in bed due to an untimely spring cold or flu, i'll have to do some thinking. - i guess i'll settle for my hungarian blouse with jeans and boots. one of my favourite pieces ever. as you might have gathered, i'm not big at making swift decisions, but funnily, this changes when i'm buying vintage things. on fleamarkets, in charity shops - it's love at first sight or not, hit or miss, take it or leave it. you just can't ruminate on it and come back a week later. that does me some good. maybe i should treat more decisions in life like a fleamarket scenario - take it or leave it, hit or miss ... you get the picture.

oh, and something different altogether: i'm going to try this apple cake from orangette.

the old camera

my aunt gave me that old east german SLR from the 1970s - a praktica - and i so enjoy using it. will need more time to get to grips with film types as well as with choosing aperture and exposure time to get the effect i want. but i so enjoy this!

these are a couple of shots i took over easter, spending the weekend with friends and the week after with my sister and her family. i cannot remember having such a warm and intense april these past few years. i'm enjoying every single day. the cherry trees are snowing off their petals already, only some of them are still in bloom. in some places i have spotted lilac about to flower. everything seems so early this year. mind you, it was a long winter...

all sunny

went to the flea market on fehrbelliner platz today. such a completely different crowd to the flea markets on arkonaplatz or boxhagener platz. the sun was out again. found a great pair of vintage etienne aigner pumps in the softest burgundy leather, a leather key ring in the shape of the eiffeltower and a cute little baby blouse. not so bad...

greener each day

the trees are getting greener by the minute, it seems. it's been coldish for some days now but maybe that's just as well since i'm back at work and my desk is so full with rush jobs it's not true. still in a good mood, feeling inspired by those last few days of sunshine and good times with family and friends.

i may take my work to a café for a couple of hours this afternoon - it's saturday, after all, and the buzz at my favourite coffee place usually triggers some good ideas.

just listened to this little concert from blogothèque and thought you might enjoy it, too: final fantasy - concert à emporter. 

happy days

i had my sister and her family here for a few days. the weather was gorgeous, we went to the zoo, took the ferry across wannsee, had a picnic in the old orchard in kladow and met friends for a barbecue. what a great time we had!

here are a few things i particularly liked: the tiling and a stained glass window in the lions' house at the tierpark and the old red chairs on the ferry to kladow. and - the sun shining - i couldn't resist doing a lee friedlander (i wish...). never mind the toes.

happy easter

the sun's shining, people are walking past my window in t-shirts and sunglasses. another couple of days before i have to return to work. will so make the most of it.

yesterday

hello again. yesterday started off really quiet, with breakfast and some reading and my beloved scrap book that i got in december. it has 365 empty pages to fill, each one numbered, with no additional dates or text. what a great idea to keep it that simple. i tend to put in newspaper or magazine cut-outs, tickets etc., jot down notes or ideas. it's already bulging and it's only april... oh, i got it from magazine shop do you read me?! in berlin mitte, specialising in glossy magazines.

my reading at the moment is german writer christa wolf's 'ein tag im jahr' (a day in the year) for which she has chronicled her 27th september from 1960 up to 2000. i like the fact how much history is reflected in the everyday. also been flicking through a biography of gisèle freund by bettina de cosnac. 

at lunchtime i joined a friend to help her spring-clean her kitchen. and we meant business, emptying all cabinets and drawers, cleaning everything inside out, even behind the fridge and oven. ouch, i'm still aching. today, we're going to paint and put up the new wallpaper. easter sunday is going to be very calm and relaxing though (that's the idea at least)!

  

more photorealism

some more inspiration from the guggenheim show. enjoy!

monday

went to see the current show at deutsche guggenheim, "picturing america - photorealism in the 1970s". great show! here are some impressions.

home

have wanted to play around with that old camera for quite a while. i rather like the grainyness of the film.