No Sooner

Gee!  No sooner did me and the boys get here to Germany.............we receive official word that my husband's unit is closing its doors come October 2012.

Gee!  No sooner will our household goods arrive in a couple of weeks and we are going to have to pack it up again for another move.

Gee! and because our household goods are not here yet I just couldn't go on with life without a sewing machine.

Sooooo WHALLA:

Yippee!!!  Boy oh boy was I a happy camper.  I was so deprived of operating a sewing maching I spent the next day after the purchase sewing and sewing.

I visited a little cute fabric store in town several weeks ago and I just choked at the price for fabric here.  So my love for recycling kicked in.  Guess what I attacked?  Okay here is the story.  We are from Guam.  Hot, tropical humid weather year around.  With regards to bed linen, well, we are pretty much a fitted sheet pillow cased light blanket fam bam.  We don't favor the flat sheet that comes when you purchase a bed linen set.  So I attacked all flat sheets I had in this big ol apartment. 

Now I know I am out of "season" but the Halloween bug is within me and I am working diligently on a witch and wizard set.

Aren't they gorgeous?

And because I'm such a "waste not what not" type of artist I certainly had a blast creating this little creature:

It's a Bat Pug.  OMG it is so real.  Now don't be alarmed my pug loving audience.  This critter was inspired by this gal:

Yep - Shady.  Once upon a time she got into one of the boys' cheeseburger and had a drop of ketchup on her puggy mouth.

So Bat Pug does not suck blood, it lurks the home for ketchup.

Okay I shall now return back to PUG HALLOW for more Halloweeny pug creatures and what nots.

In the meantime I leave you with this pic of MA-kytah bathing in the scarce rays of the sun.

PUG HUGS TO ALL!!

The Cuisine Was Spectacular

When I arrived in Germany I admit that I had to get used to wearing heavy clothing.  Layers of clothing at that.  The temperature was in the low 20's.  During our couples retreat we were exposed to below 0 degree temperatures and that in and of itself was an experience.  On our tour of the castle adventure I mentioned that we attended mass in a non-heated church.  I shared this with my sister Lorraine and she couldn't have said it better......"your faith in God made you warm."  SIGHING my sister certainly worded it on the dot.

After Mass we went across the street to a little cafe called "Burkhof" where it is a "sin" to not have a warm donut.  OMG it was warm and yummy - I just have to share a photo of our snack before we dove in.

It was indeed warm.

Ed is not much of a donut man but he was hungry for warmth ha ha ha

Moving on

I shared our hike up the mountain to see King Ludwig's castle and climbing and descending 184 steps in the castle.  That was enough to burn off the donuts we ate that morning and fire up an appetite.

We decided to have a full fledge German "warm" meal at the

I began with a warm bowl of

SCHWARZWURZELRAHM SUPPE MIT INGWER



TRANSLATION:  Black Salsify Sour With Ginger

 And Ed had a nice tall glass of King Ludwig Weissbier.

Main Course for me was:

BAYRISCHER SCHWEINEKRUSTENBRATEN IN KONIG LUDWIG DUNKELBIER SOBE



TRANSLATION:  Bavarian Pork Roast with Crackling in King Ludwig Darkkeer Sauce, Red Cabbage and Potato Dumpling..................ohhhh yummy.

Ed's Main Course was:

FILET STEAKWOM ALLGAUER RIND MIT ROSMARIN PFEFFEUSOBE, KARTOFFELTALEUN UND GRUNE BOHNEN

TRANSLATION:  Fillet Steak of Allgau Beef with Rosemary Peppersauce, Potatoes, and Green Beans

The Before and After shots speaks for itself with regards to how tasty this warm meal was.

The retreat ended yesterday.  The bus was somber as we entered Baumholder...........back to the rat race we go.  I'm eager to pick up my needle, thread, and paint brushes again.

So until next time Blog Buddies I leave you with this pic of me and the waitress who served us in Bavaria.

PUG HUGS TO ALL!!



Couples Retreat Part II

This is Part II to yesterday's blog about our trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen for the Couples Retreat.  Our second day there was a free day and we took a day tour to Neuschwanstein Castle in southwest Bavaria.  The castle was commissioned by King Ludwig II.  It was intended for the personal usage of the King; however it was never completed.  King Ludwig only stayed in the castle for 172 days and then he died.  It was opened to the public shortly after his death since 1886.

During the bus ride to the castle we passed by a huge event in the King Ludwig's honor.  It was a cross country ski race.

The road was ever so winding but oh so wintery white.

And then we saw the castle from a distance.

We got our tickets and our group was tour #458 @ 12:50 p.m.

Now.......I was tempted to take the carriage ride up to the castle but I thought "How can I experience Bavaria if I don't engage with its nature"

So off on the trail we went.  Little did I know that it was going to be below 0 temperatures and the walk was going to be 25 minutes up the side of the mountain.  The castle looked like it was an arm's distance away.

Yep I am smiling here but I was literally pushing myself to get up that mountain.

Sweet Sweet Mercy I was so happy to see the castle.  Oh yeah.

Okay - my hood fell off because I was kind of warm and then found that during the tour of the castle we needed to climb 186 steps.  WHOAHHHHHHHH

Aren't these wonderful photos?  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos of the inside.

Ohhhhhhhhh what a shot huh?

Okay here is the front side.  Yep I shared a shot of the carriage at the beginning of this blog and it was a sight for my sore feet ha ha ha.

We opted to ride the carriage down the mountain.

The sequence of this part of the tour is kind of backwards but yeah we posed at the carriage sign after the ride.

My next blog will about the yummy yummy meals we ate on this tour.

PUG HUGS TO ALL

Couples Retreat

We are just about to wrap up a couples retreat here in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.  What a wonderful experience for both Ed and I.

The retreat was sponsored by Ed's unit and we had to attend married couples sessions where we were exposed to young couples.  In fact we were the couple who was married the longest.  But the whole point of the session was being reunited with our soldiers after their year long deployment.  No matter how long a couple has been married - we all were going through the same thing and that was having our spouses back in our lives again.  

Anyway the sessions were good and we had the opportunity to take some tours.  We went to tour a castle and made some stops along the way like the wood carving shop

and a beautiful church of which were on time to attend mass.

There was no heat in the church and when I was going to dip into the Holy Water to make the sign of the cross the water was frozen solid.

The priest said mass in German and although we didn't understand what he was saying we knew what to do based on his action and the action of the altar servers.  When mass began there was noone attending mass.  Our tour group enters just to see the inside.  But we stayed for mass.  When it came time for communion we headed to the aisle to go receive communion but we were not sure if Father was going to give communion so we waited and when he realized that we knew it was time for communion he sent the alter server to get the chalice of hosts.  I was the first one and Father asked if I was Roman Catholic and I said yes.  He gave me communion.  Needless to say by the time we had reached that part of mass I was near freezing despite my being bundled up.  I was shaking when I gave Euros in the box.

After the mass services eveybody came in to take photos.  These shots were taken by Ed:

THE ALTAR

THE CEILING

 THE SIDES

THE PIPE ORGAN

What a wonderful experience attending mass said in German and being in such a beautiful church.

Tomorrow I'll blog about the castle tour and all the Bavarian cuisine we savored.

PUG HUGS TO ALL

Totally Hand Sewn

You may have read that I am getting really really frustrated not having my sewing machine and to ease the frustration I let my hands do the sewing.  It takes a little longer to get the pieces sewn together but the satisfaction to create is Oh So Wonderful.

Here is what I have been creating this week.

Not sure what I want to name this creation.  It is just a pug I see brewing in my head.  Isn't the color combination so together.

Since living in Germany I have gotten into the habit of recycling:  cans, paper, cardboard, glass bottles.  It's a must to recycle here.  Remember back in Guam how I recycled dryer sheets?  Well here the dryer sheets pile up fast because unlike Guam we do not hang clothes outside.  I love how the paint is absorbed by the sheets on the pug faces of the dolls 

All them beads I bought in Hong Kong - are one its way so in the meantime I used 3D paint to line the pug face.

 Group Dry  Group Dry

As the details dry I start another set of dolls using dryer sheets using an old magazine to cut my pattern.

Eyeballs, hind legs, and legs

 That's all that's happening on the Table Folks.  Until next time I leave you this pic of what made my day today.  Chatting with relatives around the world.  Sis in Kwajelein, Niece in Oregon, Sis in Alaska and to the right..........me in Germany.

PUG HUGS TO ALL!!