Brandenburg Gate and The Wall

Yesterday after a lazy get up we headed off for Chas to see the Brandenburg Gate.


Very impressive and as you can see, sunny (but cold).

From there we went to the Christmas Market at Opernpalais and ate our way around it. Pomme Frites, Reibukuchen and Dresden Handbrot.



This market had an ice rink and a Ferris Wheel


And lovely stalls


And donkeys (I am sure Pedro was a Patricia, as I am sure he was pregnant)



Then it was a train ride to the Wall where I was impressed by the worlds largest open air mural collection - the East Side Gallery.











And annoyed by how people had found fit to graffiti some of it, especially this one which I found fitting, meaningful and well thought out.


As you can see it goes on and on



And even when it ends there is some leading to the river Spree


As you can see by this last picture it was getting dusk and we made our way to the train and headed back for our tour of the markets by bus.

Unfortunately the bus windows just caused too much reflection. How I wished I could have shown you the beautiful lights down so many streets that we drove through. Here are a couple of shots when we got off the bus.



I'll leave you with a wave from Santa.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Artful Times Challenge 19

I feel as if I am meeting myself coming backwards.  Why do I always try to cram so much into a little space.  I am behind with my "C"cards, not wrapped hardly any "C" gifts, and not a clue about what I am doing regarding "C" meals.  And to crown it all I am not at home!  Mind you I am enjoying myself - if you want to see why pop back to see where I am and what I am doing.

Anyway, less wittering on this scheduled post and a bit more about the challenge on Artful Times.

For this challenge I decided to do a "Recipe" and it is

Blue
A female (can be head or body)
Silver
Ribbon

This is mine:

A much used favourite stamp, some blue H2o's to colour the image, gossamer ribbon with silver sparkle on and some Stickles on the stars surrounding her.

I thought this was a kind of favourite combination for a lot of people (blue and silver) for "C" time so, if you have a card (or them all as I have) still to do, you could use it for the challenge by sticking to the recipe.

Pop along to Von's blog and see what she has done.  Will leave it there but just in case I don't see you on here again before - "Happy Christmas".

Snow, Snow, snow

That is what the pilot said to us when we finally boarded our plane for Berlin an hour late. The hold up had been because Berlin had had "snow, snow, snow" but he promised us he would go "as fast as I can" with our journey to the capital. We arrived only forty minutes late.

Because it was dark by then we took a taxi and were we glad we did, it was rush hour so the bus would have taken ages to get through all the traffic and there were police all over the place, blue lights everywhere.

We were delighted with our hotel (Berlin Berlin)' which had a huge reindeer in the impressive foyer. Up to our room and look at the welcome we got







The pastries were welcome although we had had a lovely packed lunch on the flight, and the Clementines were delicious.

On then to see what delights the Christmas Markets held for us. Oh it was cold, quite icy on the face as we went in search of the nearest one. Still not sure which Market we visited but it had lots of stands selling food and drink so we had the obligatory Bratwurst - and a Gluhwein quickly followed. Strange but we didn't feel the cold on the way back.



The Gluhwein was nowhere near as expensive as in Manchester, at only €2.50 per mug and €3.50 "Mit Rhum".




Here's Chas in front of the biggest popcorn cones I have ever seen.







Sorry, the photos did not look so dark when I downloaded them.

Then it was back to the hotel for a welcome cuppa and bed. Zzzzzzz!

Two Posts Today

Just realised that the closing time for the Mouse Trap challenge over on Out of a Hat Creations is almost upon us so I have been quickly decorating one of my mousetraps (thanks Sam) to be in this fun challenge.

Here is my Steampunk Mouse Trap - well what did you expect me to do?

Here is the top so you can see it better - I  hope that bulb stays on this time.

At last I bought the Rivet embossing folder - and now I have used it to cover the mouse trap with.  Used Gold Mirror card and then went over it with some alcohol inks to make it a better colour (and then proceeded to almost cover it (doh!) Blonde moment).  Under the "trap" bit I have attached a small book of Post It Notes with a cover I made for it.  This was stamped with cogs and then (again) covered with lettering.  Think the rest is self explanatory, image stamped and cut out, Tim ephemera attached, cord made to hang it up with and that is it.  Now got something like 6 hours to get it in - will do it right away.

Do pop by the girls from Out of a Hat and see what lovely goodies they and their followers have been up to.  In the meantime I will hang this somewhere in my room.

WOYWW 183

First of all, Welcome to my new followers, lovely to have you on board and what a lot of blogging I have done since last week.  Not a lot of crafting but plenty to blog about.  Hopefully will amend that and get some crafting done over the holiday period.  Then there is the excitement of CHA to look forward to.  Watch this space.

Well, if you go back a few blog entries you will see that on Friday/Saturday I made my very first "C" card.  Had to do one for Vicky Stampers as we do a 'one' swap at Christmas and have made a couple more, just the same since.  My desk is full of cut out Poinsettia's all waiting for the magic glitter to be added.  These will be done in the next few evenings and then the whole card assembled.  Bit of an assembly line but the only way I will cope this year.

Here's one, only slightly different, for my friend who loves lilac.  (There are two sprigs of holly on here but you can hardly see them on this photograph.)  All dies available from Oyster Stamps.

I much prefer the white one here.

At Vicky Stampers on Saturday I made this lovely table decoration with Donna - unfinished of course - so just to prove to Ann B I can finish things and to show Donna here it is:

Rightio folks, off now to see what delectable sights other crafters have on their blogs via Miss Julia Dunnit - just click on her name, show your desk in a post and link yourself up to Mr Linky.  Forgive me if I don't get around to you this week as I am off to snowy climes - Annual Christmas Market trip calls - will make up for it another time.

Today my son is 47 years old (makes me real ancient) so though he never looks at my blog "Happy Birthday Andy, Love You So Much"

More from Manchester

As promised, but almost a day late, here are some more pictures from the Art Gallery.  I nearly missed this first one but luckily Paul pointed it out to me.  Sorry the photo is a bit blurred but I had to zoom in on it and I think I had a bit of camera shake - it was very high up.

Can you see the spines of the classic type books on the top side of him whilst the pages have been cut (sculpted?) to give the face etc. Fantastic!

This is full of 'rooms' with different activities going on inside each. Here's a close up

This might not be your cup of tea, a bird hanging outside the picture but wait ... look at the cuts on the bird.

This is strategically placed on the stairs

Made from magazines

I'll leave you with this shoe which I think was made by a young person and was a winner in the category for that age.  Think it is good enough to be designed in leather and worn by some of the stars?

Hope you have enjoyed!  Lots more to see.

Now take yourself off to Manchester.

Runs until the 27th January - well worth a visit

And it is free!

An ATC

Couldn't show you my ATC that I made for Vicky Stampers yesterday as they have to be kept under wraps until they get there.  Nothing special about mine - here it is:

A Crafty Individuals image, coloured with pencils and some birds done twice and decoupaged to give depth.

Now, on Thursday I went to the Manchester Christmas Market with my friend Paul.  This quite often falls the other way round as I have not yet been to Germany to see the Christmas Market there.  Remember, we go every year to somewhere, usually Germany, and this year we chose Berlin.

Back to Manchester - here are some photos:

 Paul with his Hot Chocolate and me (boozy) with my Gluwein.

Notice the big shadow of Chas taking the photo.

Here's the Bratwurst stand
Love that big griddle

Hadn't realised that was all I took in the market - too sunny look how the sun washed us out in the photograph.  Maybe I should move on to the exhibition in the Art Gallery.

The First Cut is fantastic.  It is in Manchester Art Gallery and you should see it if at all possible.  It is on until the 27th January so still plenty of time.  My other half is not interested that much in "art" but he was fascinated.  I am sure paper crafters will find this inspiring and awesome.  Here's a taster:

this is what greets you

A forest of giant leaves all gently moving around in the breeze.  This proved the perfect place for a class of young children who rang amongst them and sat underneath as the leaves turned above them.

Across the room you see this tree with its magazine/newspaper leaves

but just before it you become fascinated with this life-sized bike

made from magazines

see that black design on the wall

It fills the whole wall

Right I am going to leave you with that taster - maybe some more temptations tomorrow but you have to see it to really believe what you are seeing.